In late 2007, Greenpeace held a competition to name one of the humpback whales it was tracking in the South Pacific Ocean.
After gathering over 11,000 name suggestions from people across the globe, the organization narrowed the field down to 30 contenders:
- Aiko
- Amal
- Anahi
- Atticus
- Aurora
- Babu
- Bumi
- Cian
- Echo
- Gana
- Humphrey
- Jacques
- Kaimana
- Kigai
- Libertad
- Madiba
- Malaya
- Manami
- Mira
- Mister Splashy Pants
- Moya
- Nurani
- Paikea
- Paz
- Sedna
- Shanti
- Suzuki
- Talei
- Veikko
- Yarrindi
When the polls opened, the rule was one vote per person. But things didn’t go as planned.
An anonymous voter in Arizona disabled cookies on his/her computer and was able to cast thousands of votes for Mister Splashy Pants early on.
This attracted the attention of various websites (Digg, Reddit, BoingBoing, Fark, etc.) which led to even more votes for Mister Splashy Pants.
Mister Splashy Pants ended up winning by a landslide, with over 78% of the vote. In second place was Humphrey, with less than 3%.
So let’s play a game — let’s pretend Greenpeace had taken “Mister Splashy Pants” out of the running mid-competition. Out of the 29 remaining names, which one would you have voted for?
P.S. Here’s another memorable name chosen via online poll: Boaty McBoatface.
Sources:
- Mister Splashy Pants – Wikipedia
- Mister Splashy Pants the whale – you named him, now save him – Greenpeace
Image: Mr. Splashy Pants by Alexis Ohanian under CC BY 3.0 US.
[Latest update: Aug. 2023]
A humpback whale named Humphrey is just perfect
My thought exactly.