indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Meaning & History
This name comes from a small genus of birds in the grouse subfamily, whose genus name is Lagopus. The name is derived from Scottish Gaelic tàrmachan, which is of unknown origin, and the Pt- spelling was adopted as early as the 1680s through a mistaken Greek construction, which may be based on the Greek word pteron meaning "wing."