Anatomy can be considered the first specific scientific field within the area of the medicine, is a concrete science, used to describe the structures of the human body, which has developed a specific, unequivocal, precise, universal and descriptive language, called "Anatomical Terminology" (TA). The Department of Anatomy, from the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Nacional Autóno- ma de México (UNAM), favors the use of TA considering students should know and use it from the first year of a degree in medicine. However, there is some resistance on the part of students and teachers, who on more than one occasion, relied on the use of eponyms. The purpose of this research was to determine the knowledge of use of the TA among first year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine UNAM, in which 182 students of the anatomy course, participated during the 2011-2012 school year. The analysis of the results shows that 60.2 % of students prefer to use the terms proposed by the TAI during the anatomy class, while out of class only 52.1 % were using it. It is possible that these guidelines on the use of TA affect learning scientific medical language that students will use throughout their professional life.

KEY WORDS: Anatomy; International Anatomical Terminology; Medical Education.