Name a cockroach after your ex at this Chicago zoo this Valentine's Day

Regardless of whether Valentine’s Day makes you swoon or scowl, Brookfield Zoo has a perfectly petty (and philanthropic) way to mark the occasion: naming a cockroach after your ex.

The zoo’s annual Name a Cockroach fundraiser is back for the season of love, inviting romantics, Galentines and the gloriously unbothered to symbolically christen a Madagascar hissing cockroach in honor of someone special… or not-so-special. For a $15 donation, you can assign a first name to one of the famously resilient insects, all while supporting the zoo’s conservation and animal care work.

After donating, you’ll receive a customizable digital Certificate of Naming, ideal for sharing, framing or sending along (we won’t judge). Names submitted by February 5 will also appear on the Cockroach Naming Board outside the Hamill Family Play Zoo, which is unveiled on Valentine’s Day itself. Yes, you can visit in person to see that name living on in roach-related glory.

The fundraiser first launched in 2020 and comes with a side of redemption for one of nature’s most misunderstood creatures. Cockroaches may not scream romance, but they do play an important ecological role—and the zoo is happy to supply some wild Valentine’s trivia to balance out the snark. Flamingos can bend their long necks into a half-heart shape thanks to 19 cervical vertebrae. North American river otters aren’t monogamous, despite what greeting cards suggest. And male golden-silk orb weaver spiders keep mating brief if they want to avoid becoming dinner.

If cockroach-naming isn’t quite your love language, the zoo is also rolling out a full slate of Valentine’s-adjacent experiences. New this year is ROAR-mantic Rhythms, a jazz dinner with a 1920s vibe, complete with a five-course meal, cocktails, live music and an up-close animal encounter. There’s also “Glow Wild: A Lantern Festival of Hope,” opening March 19, which turns the zoo into a nighttime wonderland of illuminated wildlife sculptures.

For gifts that skew wholesome rather than petty, options range from up-close Wild Connections animal encounters to honorary animal adoptions (penguin Empanada included) and year-long zoo memberships. The zoo is also currently offering free admission days through the end of February, with winter hours running daily from 10 am to 4 pm.

Whether you’re celebrating love, friendship or sweet, symbolic closure, nothing says “I’ve moved on” quite like a cockroach with your ex’s name on it.