Lady birds (Coccinellids) ‘are and have been for very many years a favourite insect of children. The insects had many regional names (now mostly disused) in English, such as the lady-cows, may-bug, golden-knop, golden-bugs (Suffolk); and variations on Bishop-Barnaby (Norfolk dialect) – Barnabee, Burnabee, the Bishop-that-burneth, and bishy bishy barnabee. The etymology is unclear but it may be from St. Barnabas feast in June, when the insect appears or a corruption of “Bishop-that-burneth”, from the fiery elytra of the beetles.
The ladybird was immortalised in the still-popular children’s nursery rhyme Ladybird, Ladybird:
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home
Your house is on fire and your children are gone
All except one, and that’s Little Anne
For she has crept under the warming pan….’
Source: Wikipedia