This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cetaceans, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.CetaceansWikipedia:WikiProject CetaceansTemplate:WikiProject CetaceansCetaceans articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Japan, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Japan-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project, participate in relevant discussions, and see lists of open tasks. Current time in Japan: 23:54, August 15, 2024 (JST, Reiwa 6) (Refresh)JapanWikipedia:WikiProject JapanTemplate:WikiProject JapanJapan-related articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Canada, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Canada on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CanadaWikipedia:WikiProject CanadaTemplate:WikiProject CanadaCanada-related articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is part of WikiProject Cascadia, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to Cascadia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.CascadiaWikipedia:WikiProject CascadiaTemplate:WikiProject CascadiaCascadia articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject AfricaTemplate:WikiProject AfricaAfrica articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Norway, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Norway on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.NorwayWikipedia:WikiProject NorwayTemplate:WikiProject NorwayNorway articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arctic, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Arctic on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ArcticWikipedia:WikiProject ArcticTemplate:WikiProject ArcticArctic articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mammals, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of mammal-related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MammalsWikipedia:WikiProject MammalsTemplate:WikiProject Mammalsmammal articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Marine life, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Marine lifeWikipedia:WikiProject Marine lifeTemplate:WikiProject Marine lifeMarine life articles
This page has archives. Sections older than 100 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 4 sections are present.
Idea: change the page title to "orca"
"Killer whale" is a misleading name, as it provides a negative connotation, making people believe that orcas can kill people, but the fact is that wild orcas have never fatally harmed humans. Instead, the entire page should be renamed to "Orca", a more neutral name that doesn't carry any negative meanings. This has another layer of benefit that "orca" is the scientific name of this animal, while "killer whale" is just a colloquial name. There are already precedents for this, for instance, the page for the plant commonly called "corn" is instead named maize. Windywendi (talk) 17:22, 1 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. The title "Killer whale" is very misleading. Honestly, I wasn't familiar with the term "killer whale" until I came across this article, so I have a hard time believing this is the "common name" of the animal. I doubt "killer whale" is anymore common than "orca". The article should be titled either "orca" or "orca whale" which are the more accurate names. Maestro2016 (talk) 22:33, 18 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Agree that the article's title should be changed to Orca, Killer Whale is misleading. A discussion seven years ago is ancient history / no longer relevant. Ilenart626 (talk) 20:55, 15 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Except that this same discussion is brought up constantly over and over and over again and again and again because WP:ICANTHEARTHAT. Furthermore, it's hilarious watching well-meaning editors constantly petition, beg and angrily demanded that the article be renamed over the mistaken assumption that the animal either was named for an alleged habit of killing and eating humans, or that the name is malicious blood libel that will make people falsely assume the animals kill and eat humans, even though the name these petitioners want the article renamed as either refers to the Roman Hell God, Orcus, or the Ancient Greek progenitor of all sea monsters, Phorcys, or a Welsh word meaning "monster." So much less offensive than "man-eating whale/dolphin."--Mr Fink (talk) 00:48, 16 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
From the section about relationships with humans whaling on killer whales is completely missing. At least in Japan killer whales were (and perhaps are) hunted for meat and oil. I just read a paper written by a linguist on the matter of killer whale names. He apparently believes that whaling on killer whale was economicaly important in the Middle ages, at least in the region of Northern sea and Northern atlantic. I'm very far from being convinced in reliability of this work, but I belive that the matter should be elucidated. Эйхер (talk) 21:25, 8 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
In this section we're missing some info. Sea world did say in '16 to stop breading. But in '17 orca Morgan, owned by seaworld, got pregnant despite agreements not to use her for breeding and seaworlds own promise 46.244.6.119 (talk) 14:07, 13 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The request to rename this article to Orca has been carried out.
If the page title has consensus, be sure to close this discussion using {{subst:RM top|'''page moved'''.}} and {{subst:RM bottom}} and remove the {{Requested move/dated|…}} tag, or replace it with the {{subst:Requested move/end|…}} tag.
Support (mostly copied from my comment above) Since the last time it this was discussed was 7 years ago, it looks like common usage has changed. Looking at the Google Ngrams for "Orcas" and "Killer Whales", Orcas have continued to overtake Killer Whales in the past few years (the Ngrams for the singular "Orca" vs "Killer Whale" has always been a blowout, but that is skewed by use of the scientific name Orcinus orca). Similarly, a google news search for orcas -"killer whales" returns 1 million results, while "killer whales" -orcas only returns 42,800. Google Trends shows that orca has dominated killer whale over the last 10 years, and does so in all english-speaking parts of the world.
Support Interesting! The most compelling arguments in previous discussions were that Killer whale remains the common name. The evidence from Ahecht demonstrates that with recent trends in usage the proposed title is the common one.--Yaksar(let's chat)23:34, 25 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support - As an additional point, I made a few Google queries and found that orca is outpacing killer whale in use by major U.S. newspapers by significant margins. The New York Times has a narrow 1,890–1,410 split in favor of orca, but The Seattle Times favors orca by a 3,670–530 margin. Other papers from regions with significant regular populations are more like the latter. SounderBruce02:41, 26 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support - Language changes over time. The WP:COMMONNAME has pretty clearly changed, and rather rapidly too-- within just a few years! When I was a kid, killer whale was definitely the term. Now, not so much. We need to follow the change. Fieari (talk) 07:44, 26 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral here is the abhorent suggestion, it negates resorting to uncitable ngrams, individual opinions, style guides, and clickbait titles on what "is the common name"?: Orcinus orca, known as orca or killer whale, is a carnivorous marine mammal. Distinguished by its large size from other delphinids (dolphins), the species … ~ cygnis insignis14:37, 26 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
