who came up with the names for everything.....who got to pick what a tree was called ...ect.?

Answer 1

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;

A name is a label for a thing, person, place, product (as in a brand name) and even an idea or concept, normally used to distinguish one from another. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name
Taxonomy (from Greek verb τασσεῖν or tassein = "to classify" and νόμος or nomos = law, science, cf "economy") was once only the science of classifying living organisms (alpha taxonomy), but later the word was applied in a wider sense, and may also refer to either a classification of things, or the principles underlying the classification. Almost anything, animate objects, inanimate objects, places, and events, may be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy

Answer 2

Well, as you're asking in English, I'll assume you mean all English words. Words come from a variety of sources and over time, they change and become new words. English comes from a family of languages called the Indo-European languages. All European-based languages (as well as mid-east and indian) come from ONE language, cleverly called Indo-European, and over time, as cultures and ideas changed, the dialects began to change more drastically (kind of like how british English and American English are similar, and we can still understand eachother, but it's not exactly the same)

As these dialects changed further, they became languages of their own (these would be such as the Italic branch (Latin and other languages in that area), the Ancient Greek Branch, the Ancient Slavic branch, and such. And as these evolved, you began to see the basic realm of languages we see today (French , German, Spanish, Old English, etc.) However, these were still older forms than what are spoken today. And as these finally evolved into today's words, we get Modern English.

Now, that doesn't answer your question in full. No one really got to pick. Many seem to agree that our languages today developed out of baby-talk and simply became more advanced as time grew on. SO... I'll give an example here:

Tree comes from Old English Treow, which comes from Old Norse tre, which comes from Greek drys, which comes from Sanskrit daru (which actually meant wood). Now Daru most probably came from an Indo-European root, which probably meant something similar. And from there it was probably baby talk.

Answer 3

You are asking the question in English, so we can start there !
If you compare " real " english that you would study in school with writings by the " English Masters" like Shakespeare, then, look at today's english, you are only speaking 15% English.
You might grab some toast for breakfast, and head for the garage to get your car, and go to Starbucks for coffee, and so starts a day where GARAGE, and TOAST are French words that did not exist, and COFFEE, etc. and you would find that words came from all over the world, that you use in " ENGLISH " everyday. In essence, the " ENGLISH " you speak has been stolen from words around the world. There are lots of really funny examples of words that are used, and where they came from.
When James Cook the explorer asked his Austrailian native interpreter what the name was for that large jumping animal, the interpreter answered, in Australian, " I DONT KNOW ", and Cook wrote it down in his log book " KAN -GA - ROO " which is what we call it today. When the early explorers in North America asked the Indian guide what the name of the place was, he replied " this is my village", and the name still remains - " CA-Na-DA".
On the other hand, when the modern scientists were going around the world naming everything and putting them in classes of living things, they used fancy latin or greek words to give everything a new name. They would just write down " big yellow flying thing" in latin or greek, and it would sound really special ! ! Today in medicine, the words for something can be in Latin or in Greek, so that " nose / mouth throat" specialists might be called Pharno/rhino/larngologists, which is roughly the same thing, just in another dead language for special effect. If you look at other cultures, there are words for 'important' things, like 30 words for snow in Eskimo or Russian,
but in Eskimo, "Counting numbers" go to 2. You have No dogs,
one dog, two dogs, two dogs plus one, two dogs plus two, etc.
and that's it. No word for three of four, or one hundred or one thousand - who caught one thousand whales? or had one thousand igloos? But snow - there, you have many many different types, each with a special word.
Words evolve or are created as needed. Only scientists and such invent new words using a scheme, such a chemical names, today, while, on the internet, new words like BLOG appear almost by accident, and are imported to everyday speech around the world.
Alexander Graham Bell needed an introductory greeting on the telephone, which in its early day was scratchy and poor quality. He wanted a word that would carry well, and be heard clearly.
He studied cries used for shouting over long distances, say in the Swiss Alps, and by sailors shouting their position on sailing ships in dense fog. His tests showed that the shout " Al- looo " by sailors to locate nearby ships passing by, was one of the clearest, so he made up the word " HELLO", which you probably used, without knowing where it came from.
If you look at the ETYmology of words, you will find out fascinating information on the Connotation ( everyday common meaning ) and the DENOtation ( the dictionary meaning ). The history of everyday words is really neat stuff....
Sometimes though, words will have originations that
" Kangaroo ", and no one else knows either.

have fun

Answer 4

Georgia Schmidt named everything.

You don't remember her, but she played "Aunt Agatha" on several episodes of "Bewitched." She would cast these ditzy, contradictory spells that would take the rest of the episode to straighten out, and she couldn't remember what she'd done.

Georgia named everything using her own scatterbrained system, and that's why no one understands what some one else is trying to say.

Answer 5

nobody knows the exact answer to that and most likely nobody will never know.

look for philology. this is the science that studies linguistic.
it will help you understand from where the words come from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philology

also, you can read Guns, Germs and Steel from Jared Diamond.

it won't answer your question directly but there is one or two chapters about languages.

http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs_and_Steel

Answer 6

its one of the those great mysteries of life.