Why are monkeys called monkeys?

Answer 1

Well, lets see if this helps.

COMMON NAME: Monkey

SCIENTIFIC WORD: Catrol Vancliechin

LATIN: Simianus

ALBANIAN: Majmun

BELARUSIAN: Малпа

BULGARIAN: Маймуна

CATALAN: Mono

FRENCH: Singe

GERMAN: Affe

RUSSIAN: Обезьяна

...Guess we'll never know. :(

Answer 2

The word 'Monkey' is very interesting etymologically, although unusually there is no definite answer.

Some sources state "of unknown origin," but the majority consider monkey to be a Middle Low German loanword.

OED Online says this:

The immediate etymon of monkey perhaps or presumably is MLG * moneke. The unrecorded appellative can be inferred from the name of a character in the MLG version of Reynard the Fox called Moneke whose name denotes 'monkey' because his father was Martin the Ape.

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century spellings such as strongly suggest a different and in addition simpler solution. In particular Shakespeare's examples provide evidence for the finding that monkey is a vernacular diminutive formation made up of the root monk and the hypocoristic suffix EModE -ie ~(e)y. Its semantic motivation is based on the appearance of certain small or medium sized tailed primates. Especially as capuchin monkeys which belong to the family of Cebidae look, as their name implies, like little (Capuchin) friars.
The word "monkey" probably comes from an old fable called "Reynard the Fox," which was published in 1580. In the fable, the son of a character named Martin the Ape is Moneke.

Answer 3

Well, what are human babies called? Infants, since monkeys and apes are our "cousins" they share some of the same names that we do, for example, their young are called infants.