What Should Chicagoans Name Shedd’s Baby Beluga?

LEUCAS:

In the next week, Americans will make the most consequential choice of our recent history. Forget Nov. 5, forget the upcoming Illinois primaries and forget picking classes for next semester.

No, far from it. The defining point of our national moment will all come down to the members of Shedd Aquarium and their choice of what to name the aquarium’s newest resident — a beluga whale born in July.

The whale is the first one born to the Shedd’s pod since 2020, according to Block Club Chicago, and after six months of letting the newborn build “blubber and fat reserves,” the aquarium has elected to choose the baby beluga’s name via vote. Members will be given the chance to vote between four names — Campbell, Kincaid, Leucas and Opus — through Feb. 27.

None of the options are unworkable, per se, and all have significance. But even if the pursuit of a perfect name is a bit of a white whale, only one of the options deserves the Shedd’s seal of approval — Leucas.

Campbell and Kincaid, while fitting for the crew of “Moby Dick,” are strange choices for a 21st-century whale. Kincaid in particular sounds more like a turn-of-the-century urchin than Chicago’s baby beluga. Campbell would be better suited for a Warhol sketch displayed up the road at the Art Institute.

These two names are drawn from beluga habitats in Anchorage, Alaska. Even so, reducing the new whale to his family’s place of origin makes little sense — especially considering more than 40% of Chicagoans, like Shedd’s belugas, moved here from elsewhere. Why single him out for a geographic label?

It would be doubly strange for this beluga — a born-and-bred Chicagoan raised in sight of Soldier Field — to be named after a location in a different U.S. city. Were “Lower Wacker” and “Streeterville” not available?

The other side would have Chicago’s aquatic enthusiasts pick the last option — Opus. While Opus is a solid name for an admittedly solid animal, the reasoning behind the choice is a bit spotty.

Picking Opus — meaning a musical composition — would be naming the baby after his father, Beethoven, a noted absentee parent, according to Shedd’s news release. To name the calf after a parent who’s played no role in his life would be a mistake — and an insult to his mother, Naya.

That leaves one final choice, Leucas, derived from the beluga’s scientific name, Delphinapterus Leucas. Not only is there a strong cetacean connection, but the name is a modern one, fit for Chicago’s modern whale. It may be a silly pun, but it’s the one name that goes swimmingly with what seems to be Shedd’s plan to capture the baby mammal magic of Moo Deng with its naming scheme.

Make the right choice for the belugas. Vote Leucas.

OPUS:

Amidst President Donald Trump’s recent barrage of executive orders naming or renaming seemingly everything in sight, opportunities to democratically select something’s name are suddenly few and far between. 

But Chicagoans have a rare opportunity to assert their rights and display their acumen— in the form of a baby beluga. 

Shedd Aquarium welcomed a baby beluga into the world July 24 — the institution’s first in over four years, according to Block Club Chicago. 

The aquarium is letting its members vote for the newborn’s name through Feb. 27, proffering four potential names — Campbell, Kincaid, Leucas and Opus. 

While each of these options has merit, only one evokes an air of musicality, rising melodically above the rest. 

Opus — the word for a musical composition or set of works by a composer — is distinctly more personable than the clinical alternatives. 

While Campbell and Kincaid reference prominent beluga habitats and Leucas comes from the whale’s scientific name, Delphinapterus leucas, Opus is a reference to belugas’ reputations as “canaries of the sea,” according to Block Club Chicago. 

The name is also more unique to this particular whale than the others, which either reference locations on the other side of the country or — even worse — the species as a whole. 

Opus, on the other hand, honors the beluga’s father, Beethoven. Although the father and son duo have yet to meet due to male belugas’ lack of parental instinct, according to a Shedd press release, naming the baby in relation to his father underscores the calf’s individuality in a way markedly absent in the other options. 

More than this, naming the calf after his father sets him up to be the protagonist in an epic coming-of-age journey, where he must learn to swim through life without a father figure — despite being forever haunted by the ghost of his father, conjured whenever he hears his name. 

This identity struggle perfectly sets up a beluga bildungsroman, turning Shedd’s darling debutante into a relatable character for Chicago’s youth. Featuring an aquatic mammal that aquarium goers identify with may even spur oceanic education and environmental initiatives city-wide. After all, who doesn’t love a cetacean with a story? 

Above all else, the name Opus has a certain je ne sais quois — a gleeful, sing-song quality evocative of birds chirping in the western wind or waves crashing against a glacial shore. An ode to Mother Nature’s eternal tune, the name simultaneously emphasizes the calf’s individuality and its place as an essential part of the environment’s endless network. 

Given the fame of Shedd’s beluga exhibit and the rarity of beluga births — especially as an endangered species — it’s clear the calf’s name should reflect its status as the aquarium’s magnum opus.