Here's an interesting entry at GeyserTimes concerning some new activity on Geyser Hill.
First, since the feature's activity seems associated with Little Squirt, why was it not given a designation like "GT-TD2-Little Squirt"? Seems like it's being associated with the wrong feature.
The activity around this feature has been around for at least 2-1/2 years. I noted it and posted a photo of the area on 2021 May 23. Later on I noted in the May 26 report that it seemed to be active along with Little Squirt.
On Geyser Hill, these sorts of areas of hot ground come and go, and a few years from now this feature may not even be locatable. (For example, back in the 1980s several deep holes appeared next to the boardwalk near Plume. The NPS put railings up. After a few years the holes naturally filled in, but the railings were still there until a boardwalk renovation was done. Now the location of the holes can only be found if you know where to look. No activity, so no name left hanging.)
So why the need for a name now? A designation is fine, but who tried to slap the name "Pygmy" on this, and why? I guess it's a way for people to leave their mark. But until the activity stabilizes, any name would be inappropriate. We have a proliferation of many ephemeral features with silly names already. Plus, a feature that's evolving shouldn't be named for a characteristic that can easily change. (The best example of that is Graceful Geyser at Norris, which really was graceful until it turned itself into a ragged hole.)
Which leads to the part about "USBGN's policy on derogatory names." Because of the long standing policy of not naming thermal features after people, living or dead, we have been spared iconoclasm from the perpetually offended over geyser names now being considered somehow offensive to someone, somewhere. With a few exceptions. But, the last time I looked, a few years ago, "Chinese Spring" did not appear in the USBGN online database, but "Chinaman Spring" still did. (I've always thought Belgian Pool will get the rename treatment someday...)
Yes, "pygmy" is a word that was used to describe some groups of people. It's also a synonym for "small", as is "midget", or "dwarf" or "runt", or "elf", or "model", or "fairy", or "shrimpy", all meaning "littleness". Shall we assume that any geyser name implying "littleness" needs to be changed, lest someone somewhere who doesn't care at all about geysers is momentarily offended on behalf of someone no one has ever met?
Finally, under current policy, it appears the USBGN is never going to approve "Pygmy", or any other name, for any feature any more, no matter how inoffensive. Last century I put in the effort get a number of Sawmill group features made "official". A few years after that I encountered Whittlesey who made a comment about how wonderful it was that GOSA had done the work on those names. I pointed out to him that GOSA had nothing to do with it, but it was one individual who took the initiative and did all the work alone. It was shortly after that that the moratorium on looking at making thermal feature names official came down, which I find to be an interesting coincidence.
So at this point the owners of GeyserTimes have become an arbiter of thermal feature names, taking on the role abdicated by the USGBN and the bureaucrats at Mammoth. I hope they put this power to use wisely for the future.