Revised 15 Nov. 2025
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Brosme Oken 1817 tautonymous with Gadus brosme Ascanius 1772

Brosme brosme (Ascanius 1772) vernacular name for this species among Danish fishermen of the 18th century

Lota Oken 1817 tautonymous with Gadus lota Linnaeus 1758

Lota lota (Linnaeus 1758) Spanish (lota), Portuguese (lota do rio) and French (lote, lotte) vernaculars for this species, modified from the Italian vernacular bota, derived from the Latin barba (beard) or barbatus (bearded), referring to its single chin whisker, eventually forming the English vernacular burbot

Lota lota lacustris (Walbaum 1792) Latin for of or belonging to a lake (lacustrine), based on Thomas Pennant’s statement (1784) that it occurs in the “northerly lakes” of the Hudson Bay region, Canada (which in turn was taken nearly verbatim from a 1773 paper by John Reinhold Forster)

Molva Lesueur 1819 presumably tautonymous with Gadus molva Linnaeus 1758 (Lesueur did not explicitly link the genus to this species)

Molva dypterygia (Pennant 1784) dy-, from dýo (δύο), two or double; pterygius, from pterúgion (πτερύγιον), diminutive of pterýx (πτέρυξ), wing or fin, referring to its two dorsal fins, the first one short and the second one long (~2/3 of body length)

Molva macrophthalma (Rafinesque 1810) large-eyed, from makrós (μακρός), long or large, and ophthalmós (ὀφθαλμός), eye, described as having “big eyes protruding outwards [i.e., globular]” (translation)

Molva molva (Linnaeus 1758) etymology uncertain, said by Cuvier (1817) to be from molua, a corruption of morrhua, Neo-Latin for codfish, first applied to this species by Charleton (Onomasticon zoicon, 1668)