Re: Why are whales called whales? Who came up with this name for whales & why?

Whales are called "whales" because the ancestry of the word comes from the 
Old English term "hwæl". Sounds similar. Hence today's pronounciation 
of "whale".

Still, marine scientists don't refer to whales as whales when discussing 
them scientifically. They have scientific names (latin names) for 
classifyinig each whale species.

Whales belong to the Order Cetacea, which stems from the latin "Cetus". 
They are then divided int 3 sub-orders: 

(1) Archaeoceti (extinct)
(2) Mysticeti - which are baleen whales and include the gray, right, 
rorqual, humpback and blue whales 
(3) Odontoceti - which are toothed whales and include the sperm, bottle-
nosed, beaked, killer, beluga, and pilot whales (as well as dolphins, 
porpoises, and narwhals). 

Whales are then divided into Family, and then Genus and species.

Easier to keep track of them all this way, rather than just "whales".

Hope this helps

cheers

Alastair