I agree with Gert - almost. I believe Hinnites is actually derived from the masculine Latin noun "hinnus", meaning mule. The suffix "-ites" added to a noun root means "having the nature of", or more loosely translated, "resembling". Therefore, Hinnites literally means "having the nature of a mule", or "resembling a mule". Just what Defrance had in mind when he named this genus in 1821 is not clear. Perhaps it was a reference to the animal's "stubborn refusal to move" when trying to get it loose from the substrate on which it grows. Or perhaps "mule" was used to indicate something large and bulky, the way "dog" was used to indicate something very common and ordinary. Curiously, Wood actually named this genus Hinnus - mule, but he was too late. Defrance had named it Hinnites five years earlier. Odd though, that each of them though this mollusk was in some way "mule-like". Paul M.