 The French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat was the first to use the vernacular name "aye-aye" in 1782 when he described and illustrated the lemur, though it was also called the "long-fingered lemur" by English zoologist George Shaw in 1800—a name that did not stick.According to Sonnerat, the name "aye-aye" was a ""cri d'exclamation & d'étonnement"" (cry of exclamation and astonishment).However, American paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall noted in 1982 that the name resembles the Malagasy name "hai hai" or "hay hay", which refers to the animal and is used around the island.