A new study based on nearly 900 parrots shows that some parrots seem to be able to use specific "names" to refer to specific people or animals just like humans. Their social communication skills are far more complex than people think. By analyzing speech recordings of captive parrots and situational information provided by their owners, researchers found that the birds displayed a diverse use of names based on imitation of human speech.
In nature, many animals make calls that sound like they are "calling each other", and humans often intuitively feel as if they are naming a certain individual. But whether these sounds are really equivalent to "names" in the human context has always been a difficult problem in animal behavior. To this end, Lauryn Benedict, a biology professor at the University of Northern Colorado, chose to bypass the traditional route of tropical field expeditions and instead turned her attention to domestic parrots that have become proficient in imitating human speech, hoping to more directly explore how "names" are used.
Benedict, along with long-time collaborator Christine Darling of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, and a team of Austrian researchers, analyzed speech recordings from more than 880 captive parrots. They found that many parrots use specific names to refer to people or animals in everyday interactions, much in the same way humans use names to identify individuals. The recordings also show that the parrots do not just repeat themselves mechanically, but use these "names" flexibly in unexpected situations.
In human society, proper names are an important tool for organizing complex social relationships, allowing us to quickly and accurately target a specific individual. In the animal world, more and more research shows that some species also use vocal signals similar to "name tags", perhaps for similar social needs. However, Darling pointed out that it is still difficult to simply equate these animal signals with human names, because the forms of animal vocalizations are often different, and researchers still cannot fully understand the subjective intentions behind them.
Parrots are ideal subjects for study in large part because of their unique acoustic learning ability, which allows them to imitate human speech, including the names humans give each other. Benedict's team relied on the "ManyParrots" project, a research network, and obtained large-scale questionnaire data and audio samples to systematically analyze the language behavior and cognitive performance of parrots in the home environment.
The researchers reviewed questionnaire data from 889 parrots in total, and a large number of them were accompanied by situation descriptions provided by owners to help them determine the object and purpose of the parrot's name. Nearly half of those who submitted the questionnaire reported that their parrot could name it. Of the 413 audio clips collected, 88 were determined to be parrots using names to mark specific people or animals. Further analysis showed that some parrots did not just call "people" a general name, but clearly referred to a specific individual.
At the same time, research also found that parrots' use of names does not entirely follow human habits. Some birds call their own names repeatedly to attract their owner's attention rather than to refer to others. There are also parrots that use names to interact with people in conversations. Even when the other person is not present, they will still call out their name, seeming to be talking about the "absent person." These phenomena suggest that parrots are not only able to accurately imitate the syllables of names in vocalizations, but also have the ability to use names in a variety of ways at the cognitive level.
However, differences between species and between individuals of the same species remain significant, and many key questions remain to be clarified: In what situations are parrots more likely to use names? Do they understand that the name refers to a stable and unique "individual"? In a complex social structure, what function does this "roll call" behavior serve? The researchers believe that the current results are more of a starting point, showing that the upper limit of animal language and cognitive potential is much higher than traditional impressions.
The study, titled "Name Use in Companion Parrots," was published online on April 17, 2026 by authors including Lauryn Benedict, Victoria Groys, Marissa Hescheler, Eva Reinisch, and Christine R. Darling. The research was partly funded by the "ANIML" project of the Vienna Science and Technology Foundation. The funder did not participate in specific aspects such as research design, data analysis or paper writing.