Dolphins Give Each Other Individual Names and Respond Only to Their Own

Bottlenose dolphins are among the only known animals — possibly only humans, dolphins, and a few species of parrot — that address each other by individual names.

Each dolphin develops a "signature whistle" within the first year of life. This whistle uniquely identifies the individual. Other dolphins learn it. When they want to get a specific dolphin's attention, they imitate its signature whistle — exactly the way humans call out a name.

The Stunning Experiment

In 2013, researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland recorded signature whistles, then played the recording back to wild dolphins. Dolphins responded only when their own signature was played back, ignoring the others. This is functional name-recognition, the same way you would respond to your name being called in a crowd.

Beyond Names

• Dolphins teach their offspring their personal whistles, and the names of family members
• Mother dolphins repeatedly whistle their own signature to their newborns, helping them learn
• Dolphins of different species can develop bilingual repertoires when raised together
• Captive dolphins have been documented inventing names for new objects added to their tank

What This Means

If dolphins can identify individuals across thousands of meters of ocean by name and refer to absent individuals by name, they likely possess a form of symbolic communication previously thought unique to humans. Some researchers argue dolphin "language" should be classified as a true language — though it is not the same as human language and remains poorly understood.