Elephants Call Each Other by Name and Scientists Are Starting to Understand How

Elephants use unique, name-like calls, much like humans do.

07 May 2026, 12:48 by Tibi Puiu · ZME Science

Credit: Pixabay.

You’ve heard of elephants such as Dumbo and Lumpy before, but these are just names given by people. However, recent research has discovered that these highly intelligent gentle giants call each other by name. These unique vocalizations are, of course, not as articulate as human speech but rather distinct low rumbling sounds that identify the intended recipient. They’re name-like calls.

These remarkable findings position elephants as the first non-human animals to use a form of address that doesn’t mimic the receiver’s call, a trait previously observed in dolphins and parrots. In fact, elephants are one step ahead of other animals.

“Dolphins and parrots call one another by ‘name’ by imitating the signature call of the addressee,” said lead author Michael Pardo, who conducted the study as an NSF postdoctoral researcher at Colorado State University and Save the Elephants, a research and conservation organization based in Kenya. “By contrast, our data suggest that elephants do not rely on imitation of the receiver’s calls to address one another, which is more similar to the way in which human names work.”

The names of giants, revealed by AI

In northern Kenya’s Samburu ecosystem and southern Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, researchers led by behavioral ecologist Michael Pardo from Colorado State recorded over 600 elephant calls. You may be familiar with their iconic trumpet-like calls, but elephants also produce low-frequency noises between 1 to 20 Hertz, too low for the human ear to hear. However, these so-called infrasounds can travel over vast distances as large as 10 kilometers (6 miles).

The researchers then implemented a machine learning algorithm, which identified specific rumbles for 119 individual elephants, or close to 20% of cases. They isolated rumbles from certain individuals by observing what elephants were separated from or approached the herd during these vocalizations. This doesn’t mean scientists have translated elephant names the way we might translate a human word. They have not found that one rumble means “Margaret” and another means “Annie.” Instead, they found statistical evidence that some calls carry information about the intended receiver, and that elephants themselves seem to recognize when a call is meant for them.

Some of these rumbles were played back to 17 wild elephants. When they heard their name, they were more likely to move quickly toward the sound source and vocalize faster in response. These rumbles were remarkably consistent with the receiving elephant.

Elephants make different types of rumbles when they greet each other, encounter a predator, or want to play. But the ‘name’ calls are distinct. They’re not generic sounds either, such as those a mother elephant might use to solicit the attention of their offspring. This is a next-level cognitive ability, the researchers say — one that suggests that elephants are capable of abstract thought.

Researchers recorded elephant vocalizations in Kenya and used machine learning to confirm that some calls contain vocal labels akin to names. Credit: George Wittemyer

Elephants and humans may have parted ways on the evolutionary tree tens of millions of years ago, yet both species exhibit remarkable social complexity and advanced communication skills. Elephants operate within family units, social groups, and a broader clan structure, mirroring the intricate social networks humans navigate.

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Researchers suggest that similar social needs may have led to the development of arbitrary vocal labeling in both species—the practice of using abstract sounds to identify individuals.

“It’s probably a case where we have similar pressures, largely from complex social interactions,” said co-author George Wittemyer, a professor in Colorado State University’s Warner College of Natural Resources and chairman of the scientific board of Save the Elephants. “That’s one of the exciting things about this study, it gives us some insight into possible drivers of why we evolved these abilities.”

The researchers also noted that calls to the same elephant by different callers were similar, hinting at a multi-layered communication system. According to the new study, “receivers of calls could be correctly identified from call structure statistically significantly better than chance.”

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The scientists emphasized that considerably more data is required to pinpoint the names embedded within the calls and to ascertain whether elephants also assign names to other entities they interact with, such as food, water, and locations.

“Unfortunately, we can’t have them speak into microphones,” Wittemyer said, noting the barriers to collecting sufficient data.

In a lecture available on YouTube, Pardo says his discoveries “blur the line” between “what we think is unique to human language versus what is found in other animal communication systems.” The new research was published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Elephants are not alone

Since this elephant study was published, the “animal names” club has grown.

In 2024, researchers reported in Science that marmoset monkeys also appear to use vocal labels for one another. The tiny primates produce long-distance “phee calls,” and experiments suggested that these calls can be directed to specific individuals. Even more intriguingly, marmosets seemed to learn these labels from family members, hinting at a social, not purely instinctive, layer to their communication.

That doesn’t make elephant rumbles any less remarkable. If anything, it makes them more important. Elephants, dolphins, parrots and marmosets are separated by vast evolutionary distances. They do not share a recent ancestor that conveniently handed them a naming system. Instead, researchers increasingly suspect that similar pressures may have pushed them toward similar solutions: large social networks, long-term bonds, and the need to reach the right individual at the right time.

Since this study was first published, the story has grown even more interesting. In 2024, researchers reported that marmoset monkeys also appear to use name-like vocal labels, making them the first non-human primates with evidence of this ability. That means elephants may not be alone, but they remain one of the clearest examples of a larger idea: “names” may evolve in animals that live in complex social worlds and need to keep track of one another across distance, time and changing group structures.

The elephant finding remains distinctive because the calls do not appear to work by imitation. In dolphins and parrots, individuals may address others by copying a signature sound. In elephants, the evidence points toward something closer to an arbitrary label — a sound associated with an individual, rather than a copy of that individual’s own voice.

The bigger story, then, is no longer just “elephants have names.” It is that naming may be one of nature’s solutions to the same problem humans face every day: how to keep track of who is who in a complicated social world.