How to Name a Whale

Oct. 24, 2006 — -- For the last 15 years, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has chosen the names for its beluga whales in its Oceanarium from Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit, or the native people of Arctic and Subarctic Canada.

Because its adult belugas came from the western Hudson Bay, the aquarium decided to pick their names from the Inuit language. A large beluga population migrates to the bay around Churchill, Manitoba -- the polar bear capital of the world -- in the summer.

For the most recent addition to Shedd's beluga whale family, the Marine Mammals staff has developed a list of Inuktitut words that might best describe the rapidly growing, curious female calf.

But remember, you can suggest any name you like.

Although Inuktitut is one language, it comprises many dialects from Newfoundland on the east to the Yukon on the west. The language has different names and dialects in Greenland, Alaska and arctic Russia. It is a member of the Eskimo-Aleut language family and is spoken by about 30,000 Inuit in Canada.

In 1991, in time for the opening of the Oceanarium in April, Shedd held a naming contest for its first two beluga whales. The contest was open to Chicago and Churchill schoolchildren who were asked to submit a name in the Inuit language along with a 75-word essay explaining why the name was appropriate. One winner was selected from both cities.

Then a 6th-grader in Oak Lawn, Ill., Andrea Ward entered the name "Puiji"(poo-EE-jee). The word, which means "those who show their noses," was appropriate "because the mammals surface to breathe, unlike fishes," she wrote. She received a $1,000 scholarship and an Oceanarium field trip for her class.