While Jim Henson did have a childhood acquaintance named Kermit, it was not an uncommon name at the time, and Jim always said that the Frog was NOT named after this child from his elementary school.
The earliest version of Kermit first appeared in 1955 on Sam and Friends, Jim Henson's five-minute puppet show that aired twice daily on WRC-TV. The soon-to-be-famous frog had humble origins, as Henson explained in 1977: "I'd paint the scenery, and Janie would carry it in the station wagon.
A new frog species from Costa Rica is the spitting image of the beloved Kermit the Frog. The inch-long (2.5 cm) amphibian, named Hyalinobatrachium dianae, joins Costa Rica's 13 other types of glass frogs, creatures named for their translucent bodies, Live Science reported earlier this month.May 1, 2015
(CNN) Hi-ho, Kermit the Frog has some competition. A newly discovered species of glassfrog looks an awful lot like the famous Muppet. Bulging white eyes, Kelly green skin, the works. But the name's not nearly so catchy as its famous counterpart: Hyalinobatrachium dianae, or Diane's bare-hearted glassfrog.Apr 21, 2015