In zoology, a trinomen, or trinominal name, refers to the name of a subspecies.

A trinomen is a name consisting of three names: generic name, specific name and subspecific name. All three names are typeset in italics, and only the generic name is capitalised. No indicator of rank is included: in zoology, subspecies is the only rank below that of species.

Buteo jamaicensis borealis is one of the subspecies of the red-tailed hawk. (Buteo jamaicensis).

If the generic and specific name have already been mentioned in the same paragraph, they are often abbreviated to initial letters: for example one might write, "The Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo has a distinct subspecies in Australasia, the Black Shag P. c. novaehollandiae".

In a scientific publication, a name is incomplete without an author citation and publication details. This indicates who published the name; in what publication; with the date of the publication.

Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae Stephens, 1826

See also

• binominal nomenclature
• in plants, an infraspecific taxon gets a three part name, a ternary name.
• forms in zoological literature

zoological nomenclature

Trinomen