Derived from an old diminutive of MARTIN. MAXWELL Scottish. From a place name meaning Mack's stream, from the name Mack, a short form of the Scandinavian name MAGNUS, combined with Old English wella stream ...
For the ray-finned fish known as common dolphin, see Mahi-mahi. The common dolphin is the name given to two species (and possibly a third) of dolphin making up the genus Delphinus. Prior to the mid-1990s, most taxonomists only recognised one species in this genus, the common dolphin Delphinus delphis.
What is the scientific classification for dolphins? The scientific order of marine mammals known as Cetacea (see-tay-she-uh) includes dolphins, porpoises, and whales. Dolphins belong to the scientific family known as Delphinidae (del-fin-uh-dee). The bottlenose dolphin belongs to the genus Tursiops (ter-see-ops). It's unclear how many species of Tursiops there are (maybe just one), but any bottlenose around Key Largo is a Tursiops truncatus (trunk-kah-tuhs).