I'm not certain of the history of this, but it is my impression that "starfish" is a more colloquial term, used in everyday language by some people because "fish" implies "something that lives in water". This is similar to the practice of referring to molluscs, crustaceans, etc. as "shellfish". It is technically incorrect, however, because "fish" should refer to a kind of finfish, which are vertebrates (sharks, rays, bony fishes, and jawless fishes) and are not closely related to sea stars, crustaceans, etc. So in the scientific literature "sea star" should be used, not "starfish". I suspect in older texts or in guidebooks for the general public more colloquial terms were/are used more often, so you might sometimes see "starfish" used there. Afraid I can't say when and by whom this was officially initiated, though...

I'll add that this may not have been starting by a single person or publication, though. It could have been a more gradual shift in terminology that took place over several years

I grew up with 'starfish' and still think 'starfish'. Good thing I won't live forever.

Chamundeeswari:

I suspect that both the names are formally used in the modern scientific literature. For variety of names used for various Echinoderms you need to have a look at this link:

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/raven6b/graphics/raven06b/other/raven06_47.pdf

Best

Syed

Thank you Brady for sharing your purport towards my question. The shift happened gradually since last 5 decades. In the Science, we use many confusing colloquial terms for many groups including jellyfish instead sea jelly. If anyone knows this history please share with me. 

Thank you.

In the English language the term 'sea jelly' sounds a bit absurd as it conjures up the image of a blob of jelly floating in the sea (at least it does for me). Jelly is often a sort of adjective rather than a noun (other than jelly, or jello in the US, that one eats). Certainly illustrates the confusing and sometimes bizarre nature of colloquial terms.

Thank you Tim for providing me interesting answer. 

Thanks but some uniqueness should be there in the science

According to Google, "starfish" gets 22.3 million hits, "sea star" only 4.8 million even including variants like "seastar".

If this means anything, starfish is far more popular than sea star on the Internet.

Chamundeswari:

These are not formal binomial nomenclature names governed by codes but are informal names deeply entrenched in scientific literature since long. You need to get used to it.

Best

Syed

English is not my mother tongue and I may be wrong here. But my understanding is that the term starfish is used by some popular texts and the lay public. Scientists prefer the term sea star. We don't like the "fish" in starfish. You might want to ask Chris Mah about this.

Sabine:

Do you like Sea-Cucumber, Sea-Lily etc.? The list is unlimited.

Best

Syed

 Syed: not particularly. I've seen people who were extremely confused when they learnt that a sea cucumber is an animal. They thought it was safe to eat for a vegetarian. There are no good alternatives but to starfish there is one in sea star. So why not use that. Cheers, Sabine

Sabine:

Thanks Sabine for your prompt response but trust me I love Sea-Horse!!

Cheers.

Best

Syed

Hi,

In my opinion, both would be correct since they are colloquial. If you want to further refer to a specific case, you will finally need to indicate the genus species, description year and author.  Otherwise you also have brunches of colloquial names as brittlestars, bat stars, Sunflower seastars.....

In short, I would not worry about this, Everything depends on how well you describe the case.

Thank you all.. I wish to use the term "sea star" instead of starfish. Initially, Naturalist & Scientist clubbed species from different phyla under one phylum, later experts from the specific field started categorizing them into appropriate phyla. We also following the changes in the science when it is proved as right. likewise, the term starfish also named wrongly perhaps why this term should not replaced by proper term. Because this kind of terminology gives confusion while writing papers. As a budding researcher I wanted to use the right term in science if anybody knows tell me which name is proper & I should adhere. 

I think Dr. Chris Mah can answer this.

Thank you all

Chamundeeswari:

No one would or can tell you which name to use. You need to exercise your own discretion as both the names are colloquial and equally absurd but has been in use for a long time in scientific literature and by common Man. 

Best

Syed

Thank you Syed sir but let me keep the question be in the open forum for future suggestions.

Trying to trace scientifically a change in common names is probably a fruitless endeavor, since common names are not governed by scientific principles, and it is rare for scientific publications to attempt to introduce and establish a "correct" common name for a large taxon.

However, it seems to me that the term  "sea star" has steadily become more common over the last 50 years. My guess (and it is only a guess) would be that this particular change in modern times may have started in the western US, and spread from there.

It seems to have been part of an overall trend to try to make the common names of invertebrates (in cases where common names exist) a little more accurate than they were before. However I would say the term "sea star" is still not universally accepted by the whole English-speaking population of the world, although I would guess it is probably preferred by many scientists, especially younger ones.

I have seen the same type of fine-tuning in accuracy and clarity applied to some common names of intertidal shelled mollusks, such that "slipper limpets" are now called "slipper snails", and so on.

 Thanks Dr. Susan

Dear Chamu,

Starfish is a classic common name widely used. Its been in practice for ages and widely used in scientific literature. It is not difficult to adopt a common name for a species which is very recently in practice. But again it is one's own preference. There is no hard and fast rule to my understanding. Tracking when the name "Sea Star" was introduced may be a never ending effort and may not yield anything. There are more taxonomic issues to resolve than this. Good luck! with your research on Echinoderm taxonomy.

I agree with Dr. Susan's views.  

Best Regards,

M. Nithyanandan

Thank you sir. Of course, as you said many issues should  be resolved in taxonomy. As a young researcher in my field, personally I felt that why there is a confusion when beginning write-up (star with sea star or starfish?). 

My new questions are that When this kind of change will come?

Who will be responsible for making such kind of resolution?

Why should I not consider this tiny doubt as one of the issue among other existing issues in science?

Thank you...

Dear all. My guess is that both vernacular names are old (starfish and sea star). In the past, the maritime community knowing about asteroids consisted of fishermen and sailors who were travelers and used to have contact with people speaking other languages. They may have exchanged names and translated them into other languages. Now, most of them can communicate in English with each other. Interestingly, several other European languages have a name that is a literal translation of "sea star" but equivalents for starfish may be rare or absent in those languages. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=123776. Perhaps people had differing concepts of fish.

Best wishes, Bert

Not sure about he origins but starfish has become the usual name in the UK and I think sea star is the usual American name. As they're both vernacular, names it shouldn't matter much but apparent changes may be from recent attempts to formalise 'English' names in the way that scientific names are formalised.

I agree that either common name would do but there seems to be a preference these days (mine too) for sea star (= etoile de mer). If only because they are obviously not fish, even to a layman. Other members of the Echinodermata (some commercial sea cucumbers) also have fish in their common name ( 9andfish, Stonefish, Teatfish) ...... the second name (as two words) applied also to the venomous Stone fish.

While the common name sea star is more a more accurate term, starfish is quite valid ....... after all lobsters and scallops are not fish either but they are both shellfish.

Dear Chamu, common names are not under the control of science. The public will use the names it is most accustomed to and finds useful. The great achievement of Linné was to find a way to assign a globally unique scientific name to each species. He realized that local names were causing confusion and thus he came up with the Latinized binominal nomenclature that we still use today. Scientific nomenclature is what you should concern yourself with. Any scientific publication should mention the scientific names of the species. If you want to also include a common name you are free to choose which one. We should know the most used common names in english and in our local language to communicate with the public.

 Thanks Dr. Sabine.

This blog post has some dates on when starfish and seastar were first used: http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/starfish-or-sea-star-asteroid-5th.html.

Neither name makes any particular scientific sense (they aren’t flaming balls of gas in the sky), but most common names don’t. If you say “starfish” you do run the risk of being corrected, but if that happens, ask the correcter to define “fish” :)

I bet Dr. John Lawrence in Florida knows exactly when it was changed!