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Carls name
Linnaeus was born as Carl Linnaeus. The latinized surname was taken on by his father when he (the father) went to university. On the title pages of many of Carls works, which were all in Latin, we find his name as Carolus Linnaeus (or a conjugation if the name is not in nominative case). Only in 1761, when Linnaeus was ennobled, he changed his name into "Von Linné" which, apart from showing he was a noble man now, sounded more Swedish. One may of course refer to him as to Von Linné, like we also refer to Kelvin when we mean the person who for the biggest part of his life was known as William Thomson. It is also correct to refer to him as to Linnaeus as this was his real surname and certainly the name he bore when the vast majority of his works was issued. But calling him just "Linné" is erroneous. It is often done by people who think "Linné" was his real name and "Linnaeus" a latinized form thereof, but wrongly so.
For verification, see for example the short biography in the introduction by W.T. Stearn to the 1953 Ray Society facsimile edition of the first edition of Species Plantarum.
Wikiklaas (talk) 21:33, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That is really useful W, thanks. I hope the article is OK now as regards his name?Granitethighs 22:44, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
