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You're referring to what is known as the elephant's "Linnean binomial". This is not actually its "Latin name", which is simply elephas. Instead, it's a name bestowed and used by scientists according to a system devised in the 1700's by the Swedish biologist Carl von Linné (Carolus Linnaeus in Latin). In this system, every species can be identified by the name of its genus (the group of closely-related species to which it belongs) and the name of its species within that genus. The genus name is always capitalized, and the species name never is. Genus and species names are often derived from Latin, but not always; for example, the famous fossil Lucy belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis, which is actually from three languages:

  • australo- is from the Latin for "southern"
  • pithecus is from the Greek for "ape"
  • afar is from the Afar language of northeast Africa
  • -ensis is a Latin suffix meaning "belonging to a place"

There are three species of elephant: the African Bush Elephant Loxodonta africana, the African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis, and the Asian Elephant Elephas maximus.

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