1. Lead pencil
The writing point of a pencil is made from a mixture of graphite and clay.
Graphite was originally mistaken to be an ore of lead.
Thus the pencil was named as lead pencil though there is no lead in it.

2. Blackboard
Black boards are not necessarily black always.
They come in other colors such as green, red or blue.
Still they are all called as blackboards.

3. Chalk piece.
The writing chalks are made of gypsum and not chalk.
Yet the original name chalk piece is used to denote them.

4. Tin foil
The tin foil used now is made of aluminium and not tin.
But the name of tin foils still hangs on to it !

5. Tin cans
The tin cans of the present day are made of steel and given a thin coating of tin.
Yet these cans are called as tin cans and not as steel cans!

6. Dialed telephone number
The rotary phones are out of use at present.
Yet the numbers we press are called as dialed numbers.

7. Wood clubs
The clubs used in Golf are called woods though they are made of metal.
The name continues since the woods were made of wood in the past.

8. Guinea pigs
The guinea pig is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus Cavia.
Despite the name, these animals neither belong to the pig family, nor are they from Guinea.
These rodents originate from the Andes.

9. Catgut
Catgut is made from the intestines of sheep.
The cat guts do not come from a cat.

10. Egg cream
An egg cream contains neither eggs nor cream.
It is a chocolate flavored syrup with milk and seltzer.

11. English horn
This in neither a horn nor English in origin.
It is a double reed woodwind instrument.

12. Head cheese
Head cheese is not a cheese. It is a meat product.
It is a meat jelly made with the flesh from the head of a calf/pig/sheep/cow.

13. Horny toads
Horny toads are actually lizards.

14. Velvet ant
It is not an ant but a kind of wasp.

15. Koala bear
These are marsupials and are not related to the family of bears.

16. Jelly fish
As jellyfish are not even a vertebrate to qualify to be a fish!
American public aquariums popularize the use of the terms jellies or sea jellies instead.

17. Star fish
Although sea stars live underwater and are commonly called as star fish they are not fish.
They do not have gills, scales, or fins like fish do and they move quite differently from fish.
While fish propel themselves with their tails, sea stars have tiny tube feet to help them move along

18. Peanut
A peanut is not a true botanical nut but a legume.
A legume fruit is a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel
and usually opens along a seam on two sides.
A common name for this type of fruit is a pod.

19. Coconut
The term coconut refers to the fruit which botanically is a drupe and not a nut.

20. Berries
Strawberries, bayberries, raspberries and black berries are not true berries

21. Arabic numerals
These originated in India but are still called as Arabic numerals.

22. The Norway rat
This originated in North China and not in Norway.

23. French horns
These originated in Germany and not France.

24. Chinese checkers
These originated neither from China nor from any other part of Asia.

25. Dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is not really dry since it employs other liquid solvents for the cleaning.

26. Funny bone
This is not a bone at all. It is the ulnar nerve which runs near the ulna bone.