Coccinellidae tropical countries. The name "coccinellids" is derived from the Latin word "coccineus" meaning "scarlet". The name "ladybird" originated in Britain where the insects became known as "Our Lady's bird" or the Lady beetle. Mary (Our Lady) was often depicted wearing a red cloak in early paintings, and the spots of the seven-spot ladybird (the most common in Europe) were said to symbolise her seven joys and seven sorrows. In the United States, the name was adapted to "ladybug". Common names in some other European languages have the same association, for example, the German name "Marienkäfer" translates to Marybeetle. Coccinellids are
Common name not always English. For example, "Dikkop" is the centuries-old South African vernacular name for their two local species: "Burhinus capensis" is the Cape dikkop (or "gewone dikkop", not to mention the presumably much older Zulu name "umBangaqhwa"); "Burhinus vermiculatus" is the "water dikkop". The thick joints in question are not even, in fact, the birds’ knees, but the intertarsal joints—in lay terms the ankles. Furthermore, not all species in the genus have “thick knees”, so the thickness of the "knees" of some species is not of clearly descriptive significance. The family Burhinidae has members that have various common names even