The Baby Beluga's Name is... TIQA!

Staff and volunteers at the Vancouver Aquarium are delighted to share news of the winning choice in a national contest to name the baby beluga born on June 10, 2008. Tiqa, Pronounced as TEE-kah, is the winning name suggestion among a shortlist of five.  It received the most votes by members of the Vancouver Aquarium. The four remaining shortlisted name suggestions were Kuvia, Mira, Shiya and Sura.  

The name Tiqa was submitted by the McDonald family of West Vancouver.  Intended as an acronym, Tiqa stands for:

“T” is for Tuesday (the day of the week on which the beluga calf was born)
“I” is for Imaq (pronounced: EE-mak), Tiqa’s father
“Q” is for Qila (pronounced: KEE-lah), Tiqa’s mother
“A” is for Aurora, Tiqa’s grandmother  

The McDonald family watched Tiqa’s birth from the UK via the Aquarium’s website beluga cam located at vanaqua.org/belugacam.  A recent enrolment in Vancouver Aquarium membership encouraged the McDonald family to donate the annual family membership portion of their prize to charity.  

You can learn more about Tiqa on our baby beluga page.

Name the Baby Beluga - contest background:

During the contest period 09/29 – 10/10, www.vanaqua.org received name suggestions.  A panel of judges selected five “finalist” names and put the shortlist to Aquarium members for voting. The winning name was originally publicized on Friday, October 24, 2008.  The Grand Prize consists of a “one of a kind” Beluga Encounter with Tiqa, Qila and Aurora hosted by the Aquarium’s lead veterinarian and marine mammal curator; annual family membership and a $150.00 (CAD) gift certificate from the Gift Shop at the Aquarium.  Five prizes each consisting of an annual family membership were also randomly awarded from all contest entries.

Did You Know?

• Mother Qila’s name is short for qilalugaq qualuqtaq – beluga in Inuktitut.
  
  
• Tiqa’s father, Imaq, is named for the (Arctic) sea in Inuktitut.
  
  
• Grandmother Aurora is named after the aurora borealis, the famous northern lights of her native Arctic.
  
  
• Kavna, the other female beluga, is named after an Inuit mythological being – the mother of the sea mammals. It literarily means “the one down there.”

Visit the Vancouver Sun's Beluga Feature site for news updates!