Thanks for that intriguing post, Neil. I'll bet that just about everyone who participates in this list knows that Linnaeus is a Latin form name based on the the word for linden tree. But Neil, your post has added a new dimension to this story for me because from what you have told us, it must have been a common practice for Swedish people of education to Latinize their names. So in a sense, what Linnaeus did with plant names was largely an extension of what some Swedish people were already doing with their family names. And I noticed something else interesting: you gave the Latinized family name in two forms: a feminine form and a masculine form. I'm familiar with this practice in other modern languages such as Polish; would that have been the usual practice among Swedish families with Latinized names in the eighteenth century? In other words would Elizabeth have been introduced to friends in a formal setting as Elizabeth Moraea and her father-in-law introduced as Johan Moraeus? In the modern world those names would sort differently - ha ha! Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ <http://www.jimmckenney.com/> BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ <http://www.pvcnargs.org/> Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/ <http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/>