NAMES: Isn’t Waddle a great name for a penguin? The Lincoln Park Zoo put it up to the public what the name of the cute little baby penguin would be. And Waddle wasn’t chosen for its way of walking. It was named after Tom Waddle, a famous wide receiver for the Chicago Bears.

The man Waddle is now a sports analyst and radio host.

The chick Waddle is an African penguin being raised by experienced foster parents Liam and Maria. Biological parents are Cecil and Rosie.

The Milwaukee County Zoo has some adorably named critters, too. The grizzly bears are Ronnie, Bozeman, Chinook and Brian.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel featured a story on the naming of the zoo animals in 2024.

“Trish Khan, the Milwaukee County Zoo’s curator of primates and small mammals, has worked at the zoo for more than 30 years, and in that time, methods for naming animals have changed.

“‘It used to be a hard, fast rule that whoever found the baby in the morning got naming rights,’ Khan said, laughing. ‘That’s why a lot of older animals have names like Tommy (an orangutan at the zoo) because the person who found them named them after themselves and got bragging rights.'”

The story continued, “Khan said it’s also been popular over the years to name animals according to a theme. There are Baja Blast and Baja Splash, two Baja blue rock lizards named after popular sodas. And Khan recalls mongooses named after the Golden Girls.”

Names now are changing to ones of significance.

“For example, the zoo’s spider monkeys — Hue Hue, Chimal and Momos — were all named after cities in Guatemala.”