I'm a Gnu , how do you do?

My favourite geologist, Iain Stewart was on the BBC this week talking about Africa and Gnu's.

The Gnu is also called a Wildebeest, a Dutch word for wild beast. So where did it get the name Gnu and why do English speakers call it a wildebeest? 

It seems that another Dutch name is Gnoe, so the English probably comes from there.

Found in Southern and Eastern Africa, the gnu (pronounced g-nu or new) is a really unique animal that looks like a combination of many others, with its ox-like head, the mane of a horse and buffalo horns

It hit home to me that it's a good job I retired.... I'd never heard of the Gnu (free) operating system!
The originator of the system, Richard Stallman chose the name by using various plays on words,
including the song The Gnu.