How Many Animals Did Adam Name?

Melody asked,

“How many animals did Adam name?”

Great question, Melody!

Genesis 2:20 says,

“The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.”

What kinds of animals do we read about in this verse? Livestock (or cattle), birds, and beasts of the field. In this verse, we see that Adam did not name every animal God had created. For example, it does not say that Adam named any sea creatures or insects.

Also, Adam named the animals by kind. There wouldn’t have been Chihuahuas and Great Danes and wolves and poodles yet—just the canine kind. If the kinds that God created correspond to the animal families we know today, as many creation scientists believe, then Adam probably named a couple hundred animal kinds. This task wasn’t too difficult for Adam, whom God created with the intellect and skills to care for creation.

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