Crayfish and crawfish are the same animal. Another alternative name of the creature is crawdad. The usage of each word depends on the region of the world you are in. Residents of the Gulf Coast in the US tend to say crawfish, whereas people from the northeastern part of the States usually use crayfish. The less common crawdad is used in some states on the West Coast of the United States. Other alternative names for crayfish within the US and around the globe include mudbugs, crawdaddies, yabbies, kouras, and freshwater lobsters.
On the Google Ngram Viewer’s database of published books, crayfish is most commonly used, followed by crawfish and then the more colloquial crawdad. Globally, the most formally accepted variant of the word seems to be crayfish. Hence, if you are writing a formal paper and unsure whether to use crayfish, crawfish, or crawdad, the safest bet is to go with crayfish.
Below is a Google Ngram Viewer search including the less common names of crayfish: mudbug, crawdaddy, yabby, koura, freshwater lobster, and spiny lobsters. You can see that crayfish and crawfish are significantly more commonly used than their counterparts.
Outside the US
Outside of the United States, crayfish is more commonly used than its variants in other English speaking nations like the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Australians also have their own local way of calling these crustacean creatures “yabbies” or “kouras” which are actually specific types of crayfish. Crayfish are also mistakenly called rock lobsters or spiny lobsters in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Locals from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand also tend to say prawn for both shrimp and prawn, while Americans make a distinction between the two. Because the world of seafood is so broad, it is only natural that different countries call the same species or genus by different names.
Another notable difference between American and British English is that Americans say lamb while British people tend to say mutton. Technically, there is a difference between the two terms: lambs refer to meat from a sheep that is less than one year old, and mutton is meat from a sheep that is two to three years old. However, Americans say “lamb” while British locals use “mutton” to describe any type of meat from a sheep.
Why all the different names?
Language is like a living, breathing creature. It changes and adapts with time. People from different regions with different dialects or accents use different spellings, pronunciations, and even words to describe the same noun. If two regions speak the same language, typically, the farther apart they are physically, the more different their dialects or accents are. But with globalization, people are becoming more open and aware of diverse ways of speaking, making communication around the globe more effective and open-minded.
Engram also aims to bridge the gaps between nations around the globe by optimizing communication in English, which is the lingua franca of the modern world. Engram’s AI proofreader helps non-native speakers improve their English writing by correcting grammatical errors and suggestion natural expressions used by native speakers.
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References:
Walt Hickey
BBC News
Shundalyn Allen
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