Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27082610-20170424154014/@comment-4010415-20170524005210

SomeoneYouUsedToKnow wrote: To be fair, words like Fauna exist, which also refers to animals in general. Faunus works by itself too, but Fauna is more conventional, so it makes sense some people think it's silly.

Granted, they likely do use Fauna to refer to real animals in general. But then I wonder why the Faunus are called that (and call themselves that), since it's literally calling them animals. Most likely, MMK's intention behind naming the species Faunus is in reference to Faunus, the Roman god of forests, plains, and fields. He's a satyr (his lower half is the rear half of a goat).

It certainly matches how they tried to fill RWBY with a fairy tale vibe - kingdoms, huntsmen, everyone alluding to a classic story, monsters being called Grimm after the Grimm brothers, the White Fang sharing their name with the Jack London novel, etc.

So, the fact that the word "fauna" exists probably wasn't even involved in MMK's naming of the species.