A Polar Bear Cub Named for the Manitoba Town Where He Was Found

Assiniboine Park Zoo says it has settled on a name for its new polar bear cub after a record-setting number of votes, and the winning idea is not clever so much as honest: the name is an homage to where the cub was found, Churchill, Manitoba.

Naming contests are usually pleasant filler, and this one is genuinely small news. But there is something satisfying about the outcome. Zoos name animals constantly, and the names are often whimsical or chosen for whoever wrote the biggest cheque. Here the ballot landed on the one option that keeps the animal's origin attached to him — a reminder that he was not born in a habitat but picked up somewhere, and that somewhere has a name.