Unlike most plants, the cocoa tree’s botanical name consists of three words. The Swedish natural scientist Carl von Linné was so excited by this plant that he not only named it, but gave it his own name as well: Theobroma Cacao Linné.

Born in Rashult in the southern Swedish province of Småland, Linné studied medicine and natural sciences. He developed the so-called binary nomenclature, which is a scientific name that joins two Latin words. In doing so, he finally brought order to the name chaos that had previously existed in the plant and animal world. It also made his name.

The first name describes the genus and the second name describes the species within that genus. This, for example, meant that humans became, Homo sapiens. In turn, the cocoa tree became, Theobroma Cacao L.. His binary nomenclature made him famous within his own lifetime. In addition, he created a hierarchical taxonomy system. This classified all organisms, according to their degree of relationship, under the groupings of kingdom, class, order, genus, and species. This system is still used today in a somewhat developed form.