Late Old English pellicane, via late Latin from Greek pelekan, probably based on pelekus 'axe' (with reference to its bill).

• The pelican has always been noted for its long bill and deep throat-pouch for scooping up fish. This distinctive feature probably gave the bird its name, which came from Greek pelekan, probably based on pelekus ‘axe’. In Britain a pelican crossing is a road crossing with traffic lights operated by pedestrians. The name, first used in 1966, was taken from the initial letters of the formal title, pedestrian light controlled crossing. Two other pedestrian crossings were given bird names by analogy with the pelican, the puffin (from pedestrian user-friendly intelligent), and toucan crossing. As bird names, puffin has a rather complicated history. It was used in Middle English for the Manx shearwater, probably from ‘puff, puffed up’, describing the shearwater's fat nestlings. As the two birds often nest together the name was then transferred to the bird we now call a puffin. Toucans, who first appeared in English in the mid 16th century, get their name from the language of the Amazonian Indians called the Tupi, and their name imitates their cry.