--- title: Bowie Is Name of Penguin at Cincinnati Zoo description: Bowie is the name of newborn penguin at the Cincinnati Zoo canonical: https://time.com/4175659/david-bowie-penguin-cincinnati-zoo/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-11T19:02:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:32.322Z og:title: Cincinnati Zoo Names Newborn Penguin After David Bowie og:description: The bird hatched on the morning of January 8, David Bowie's birthday og:url: https://time.com/4175659/david-bowie-penguin-cincinnati-zoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cincinnati Zoo Names Newborn Penguin After David Bowie twitter:description: The bird hatched on the morning of January 8, David Bowie's birthday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Cincinnati Zoo Names Newborn Penguin After David Bowie  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jan 11, 2016 7:02 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jan 11, 2016 7:02 PM UTC The Cincinnati Zoo named a penguin after David Bowie on the late singer’s birthday Friday, just two days before the British rockstar [died](http://time.com/4175067/tribute-david-bowies-childhood-home/?xid=homepage) from cancer at 69. Known as a blue or fairy penguin, the zoo’s first animal birth of 2016 hatched weighing less than two ounces, the [Associated Press reports](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/dc75ad212bdb4993bb79e7a6e6b46f9c/cincinnati-zoo-names-baby-penguin-bowie-after-singer). Even though its gender is unknown, it was almost named Elvis, for Friday was also the late Elvis Presley’s birthday. However, “The penguin keepers chose Bowie because we already have a king penguin named Elvis,” the zoo wrote [on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/cincinnatizoo/photos/a.96076385478.116723.61800120478/10153748736305479/?type=3&theater). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4175659/david-bowie-penguin-cincinnati-zoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4175659/david-bowie-penguin-cincinnati-zoo/"},"headline":"Cincinnati Zoo Names Newborn Penguin After David Bowie","datePublished":"2016-01-11T19:02:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:32.322Z","description":"The bird hatched on the morning of January 8, David Bowie's birthday","url":"https://time.com/4175659/david-bowie-penguin-cincinnati-zoo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4175659/david-bowie-penguin-cincinnati-zoo/","name":"Cincinnati Zoo Names Newborn Penguin After David Bowie"}}]}] ```