h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Male goats, like male rabbits and deer are called BUCKS....not Billies. Furthermore, female goats are called DOES....just like female rabbit/deer.....they are not Nannies. Castrated male goats are called WETHERS just like castrated male sheep. You got baby goats right....they are called kids. To differentiate, kid bucks are called Bucklings. Kid does are Doelings.

According to my dictionary:

billy goat n [fr. the name Billy] (1861): a male goat
nanny goat n [Nanny, nickname for Anne] (1788): a female domestic goat

Yes, true, the 'dictionary' calls them Billy and Nanny goats.....however if you ask any REAL goat breeder, or anyone who raises goats as more then a 'hobby', you would know they are called Bucks and Does. Goats are first cousins to deer, and are closely related to them in terms of eating habits (browsers) and nutritional requirements. From a little distance, the brown shorthaired goat (German Brown) and Oberhasli goats are often mistaken for deer. I have two brown goats which would be mistaken for deer if they didn't have their horns. If you have ever watched goats run, they hop/run exactly like deer. Male goats go in rut....just like deer.

Technically they are Bucks and Does, in spite of what the dictionary calls them. They are often "refered" to as Nanny, Billy goats. Since goats have been domesticated since around 7000 BC, somewhere along the line, 'someone' must have refered to them as 'Billy' and 'Nanny' and those labels stuck. Webster’s Dictionary calls itself The Voice of Authority and usually is pretty accurate, but not all definitions are based on fact.....and this is one of them.

Doe n. pl. doe or does
The female of a deer or related animal.
The female of various mammals, such as the hare, goat, or kangaroo.

Buck n.
The adult male of some animals, such as the deer, antelope, goat, or rabbit.
Antelope considered as a group: a herd of buck.