"Hello All
I believe star fish should be called sea stars.  Echinoderms are not
fish.
Jordan Star"

Well.....

I read a while back that"starfish" is a linguistic holdover from the
days when taxonomy wasn't up to snuff and everything from the ocean was
called a fish. Even crabs were crabfish. It's more a quaint common name
than a scientific inaccuracy.

Miss Ethel of Tarpum Bay calls Cassis flammea a "crane conch". I call
it it a "flame helmet". Some folks call it a "princess helmet". The
crane conch thing confused me until last year in Exuma. I was walking
along the beach chatting with a Bahamian lad of about nine. He pointed
out a bird that he called a crane. I thought, he's wrong, that's not a
crane, that's an egret. Technically speaking, it believe it was Egretta
thula. No birder me, I had to look up the scientific name.  I think of
the bird as a snowy egret. Even with shells, the common name comes to
mind and I have to translate in my head to the scientific name.

We have scientific species names for precise communication.They are a
very useful tool. I love precision in communication, but I wouldn't
dismiss the common names too quickly. They are worth saving and
cataloging and comparing. The information we get from the common names
tells us more about ourselves, our cultures, our languages and our
histories. Not to mention our politics. We assume our term is the
"right" one. Dominant culture imposes its language. Is the insistence
on scientific language, even in casual conversation, perhaps scientific
imperialism? Eh?

Ellen