There is a pachyderm in the room here isn't there? It's the common name for this group. Most bird sites consider themselves way too aloof to even allude to it, seemingly hoping it will all go away. But me? Well, you know me, I got a thick skin. So, once and for all, 'tits', in this case, has no connection at all with err, umm, well, how do I put this, ladies' chests. The root in fact is somewhat different.
The older English name for this group was Titmice (titmouse singular) a compound name derived from '
tit' meaning small and '
Mâse a name for several small birds. The latter akin to the French
Mésange and the German
Meise so it was shared across much of Europe. In the UK Titmouse was the name used up to the 20th century
In fact, the name Titmouse is still used pretty much across the English speaking world for similar birds, the name no doubt taken from England by early colonists, and it remains unaltered. Why we lost the 'mouse' off the end I can't seem to find out.
Right now, we've got that off our chests, we can look at a few of these active and attractive little birds.