Atlantic salmon from the Latin "salmo", meaning salmon, and "salar", meaning leaper, according to M. Barton, but more likely meaning "resident of salt water" . Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879) translates "salar" as a kind of trout from its use in the "Idylls" of the poet Ausonius (4th century CE). Later, the differently coloured smolts were found to be the same species. Other names used to reference Atlantic salmon are: bay salmon, black salmon, caplin-scull salmon, Sebago salmon, silver salmon, fiddler, or outside salmon. At different points in their maturation and life cycle, they are known as parr,
Atlantic salmon smolt, grilse, grilt, kelt, slink, and spring salmon. Atlantic salmon that do not journey to sea are known as landlocked salmon or ouananiche. Atlantic salmon are the largest species in their genus, "Salmo". After two years at sea, the fish average in length and in weight. But specimens that spend four or more winters feeding at sea can be much larger. An Atlantic salmon netted in 1960 in Scotland, in the estuary of the river Hope, weighed , the heaviest recorded in all available literature. Another netted in 1925 in Norway measured in length, the longest Atlantic salmon on record.