Is anyone else a bit thrown by latin names?

[CruCru]

I always feel a bit of a prat when I talk about Oculus Nicompoopus and someone says "Oh, you mean Dog Breath?".

I love it, it's one of the few moments when my Classics degree comes in handy

Yes, I think Latin would actually have been useful.

Does your arboretum attract turdus turdus? (Or should that be turdi turdi?)

Oh God. Yes that sort of thing.

It takes me ages to learn the proper scientific name instead of accidentally saying a disease or a character from Harry Potter, but I usually get there in the end (although I still have an Albus Dumbledore in my front garden).

The most interesting thing is that lots of Latin names aren't.

They are Greek.

I love plant names.

I love plant names, too, and have been swayed by the RHS view that using Latin (Greek) names reduces confusion and ambiguity.

Lots of latin/greek names are really obvious - anything Lutea is yellow, anything Flore Pleno is lots of petals (sounds like plenty of flowers so easy to remember). Once you get a few of those under your belt you can sound very very knowledgeable while actually knowing very little (like me).

I'm much happier using Latin names too. The same common names can be used for different plants, and some plants have a whole string of alternative common names depending on which part of the country you're in. Latin names are also nicely descriptive as a pp mentioned. I didn't do Latin at school either.