suricate.
meerkat (mammal)
Meaning & usage
meerkat (mammal)
Where this word comes from
Coined by French natural historian Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1765 as surikate, probably from a blend of Surinam (“Suriname”) + Dutch kat (“cat”) (influenced by Afrikaans meerkat) due to the author’s misconception that this animal originated from Suriname. Other sources point to a loan from a southern African language, but this is comparably unlikely.
Try it on your idea.
suricate has 8 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.