What characteristics a body of water must have to be given its name?

Question

For instance, what's the difference between a lake and a bay? An ocean and sea? A lagoon and a swamp? How many types are they? What's the largest/smallest? What's the deepest?

Answer 1

Geography and Social Studies were my weak points in school to the chagrin of my father.

I found this to be a wonderful site to your question: http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/arti...  The following below is quoted or rearranged from the above link for purposes of clarity and/or brevity

The smallest body of water is the brook. Brooks, creeks, streams can be tributaries of rivers

A river is a larger body of water that flows aboveground, in a particular direction. A river will always have more water in it than a stream. Rivers often flow into other bodies of water like a gulf or larger

A gulf is a sheltered area of shoreline into which water flows and gather.  It is the largest kind of body of water with this description. Other types of bodies of water matching "sheltered area of shoreline" are a cove, which is the smallest and in between is a bay.

A lake is a large body of water that is totally surrounded by land. A pond is the same thing, only with less water and a smaller diameter. No standards exist for how big a pond can become before it is officially termed a lake.

A lake or pond can also have a cove in it. A cove is a small sheltered area of shoreline into which water flows and gathers. A cove that is rather large is called a bay.

Moving up in size, a sea is a large body of water that is surrounded by land or attached to another body of water.

An ocean, which is the largest body of water on Earth, is generally thought of as having no boundaries.

Hope that helped!