Why Baby Animals Have Adorable Diminutive Names

Linguist Patrick Foote of Name Explain talked about why diminutive names such as “puppy”, “kitten”, and “piglet” are given to baby animals, noting how their visible cuteness touched an unconscious need to keep them safe.

This cuteness we see in baby animals is probably an evolutionary thing. Babies of all species need protecting at a young age and having them look adorable make us even more driven to make sure nothing bad happens to them.

Foote goes through the linguistic origins of these names. For example, the word for “puppy” originated from the old French word for “toy”, because a baby dog resembled a toy or perhaps a puppet.

Puppy is believed to have its origins in the French word of poe which means doll or toy and is also where we get the word of puppet from too. Initially this word was just applied to smaller dogs. Specifically the kind of women were known for carrying around as fashion accessories. Over time, however, it shifted to mean small dogs in general and then specifically baby dogs.