"Northern gannet" has been designated as the official common name for the species by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). It is also known as the North Atlantic gannet. "Gannet" is derived from Old English "ganot", meaning "strong or masculine", which is ultimately from the same Old Germanic root as "gander". "Soland goose" and similar old names for the northern gannet such as "solan" or "solan goose" derive from a hypothetical Scottish Gaelic "sulan", itself borrowed from the Old Norse "sula". The literal meaning is "cleft stick", referring to the appearance of the conspicuous crossed black wing tips on a perched northern gannet. Old regional names such as Norfolk's "herring gant" or Yorkshire's "mackerel gant" refer to typical fish prey. Lincolnshire's "gaunt", although derived from the same Germanic root, usually applies to the great crested grebe, but the English writer Richard Hakluyt used the term in 1600 to refer to the gannet, "a great White foule". Young birds have been called "spotted booby" or "parliament goose", the former term referring to their plumage. The feeding habits of the gannet have led to its name being used as slang for a gluttonous person, a usage first recorded in 1929.