List of eponyms
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) from whom something is said to take its name. The word is back-formed from "eponymous", from the Greek "eponymos" meaning "giving name".
Here is a list of eponyms:
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I–J - K - L–Z
[edit] A
- Achilles, Greek mythological character — Achilles' tendon; Achilles' heel
- Adam, Biblical character — Adam's apple
- Alvin Adams (1804–1877) — Adams Express
- Len Adleman — the third letter of the name RSA, an asymmetric algorithm for public key cryptography, is taken from Adleman
- Agrippina the Younger — Cologne, Germany (formerly Colonia Agrippina)
- Alfred V. Aho — the first letter of the name awk, a computer pattern/action language, is taken from Aho
- Matthew Algie — tea and coffee merchant company
- Alice Liddell — Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Wonderland syndrome
- Alois Alzheimer — Alzheimer's disease
- Albert, Prince Consort — Prince Albert piercing, a common form of male genital piercing
- Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss — A&M Records
- André-Marie Ampère — ampere — unit of electric current, Ampère's law
- Roald Amundsen — Amundsen Sea; Amundsen crater, a crater on the Moon; Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
- José de Anchieta — Anchieta Island, Anchieta Highway, in Brazil
- Anders Jonas Ångström — angstrom, unit of distance
- Virginia Apgar — the Apgar score, used to determine the general health of neonates
- Saint Thomas Aquinas — many educational institutions
- Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, nicknamed Pichichi — The Pichichi Trophy
- Archimedes — Archimedes' screw, Archimedes' principle
- William George Armstrong — Armstrong breech-loading gun
- Benedict Arnold— traitor
- Hans Asperger — Asperger's syndrome
- Robert Atkins (nutritionist) — Atkins Diet
- Atlas, a mythical King — atlas
- Aurélio Buarque de Holanda — Aurélio's Brazilian Portuguese Dictionary.
- Augustus Caesar — the month of August; the city of Zaragoza (originally Caesaraugustus); the city of Caesarea in Israel; numerous other cities once named Caesarea
- R. Stanton Avery — Avery Dennison Corporation
- Amedeo Avogadro — Avogadro's number, Avogadro's Law
[edit] B
- Isaac Babbitt — Babbitt metal.
- Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski, French neurologist — Babinski reflex or Babinski sign, common name for Plantar reflex
- Karl Baedeker — Baedeker's
- Balthazar traditional name for one of the Three Wise Men — 12 litre wine bottle (see Wine bottle nomenclature)
- Barbara, daughter of Ruth Handler, creator of Barbie — Barbie doll
- Joseph Barbera and William Hanna — Hanna-Barbera Productions
- Yvonne Barr and Sir Anthony Epstein — Epstein-Barr virus
- Jean Alexandre Barré — Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Caspar Bartholin the Younger — Bartholin's gland
- Basarab I — Bessarabia
- Karl Adolph von Basedow — Graves-Basedow disease
- Tomas Bata — founder of Bata Shoes; Bata Shoe Museum, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Batawa, Ontario; Batanagar, India
- Francis Beaufort — Beaufort scale.
- Heinrich Beck — Beck's beer, Beck's Futures art prize
- Louis de Béchamel, a courtier to King Louis XIV — Béchamel sauce
- Henri Becquerel — becquerel, unit of radioactivity
- Hulusi Behçet, Turkish dermatologist — Behçet's disease
- Adrian Bejan — Bejan number
- Alexander Graham Bell — bel — unit of relative power level; Bell Labs, BellSouth, Bellcore, Regional Bell operating company — companies. Also gave birth to a slang term i.e. give James a bell, call James on the telephone.
- Carl Benz — Benz & Cie. (later Daimler-Benz)
- Hiram Berdan — Berdan Sharps Rifle
- David Berkowitz also known as "Son of Sam" — Son of Sam law
- Juan de Bermudez — Bermuda
- Daniel Bernoulli — Bernoulli's principle
- Sergei Natanovich Bernstein, Bernstein polynomial
- Yogi Berra, baseball player — Yogi Bear, a bear in animated cartoons
- Henry Bessemer — Bessemer converter
- Pierre Bézier, French engineer and creator of the Bézier curve
- Bieda, a Saxon landowner ("Bieda's ford" + shire) — Bedfordshire
- Laszlo Biro — Biro, (ballpoint pen)
- Otto von Bismarck, first German Chancellor — Bismarck Archipelago and Bismarck Sea near New Guinea; German battleship Bismarck as well as two ships of the Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine); Bismarck, North Dakota
- Fisher Black and Myron Scholes — Black-Scholes model of options pricing
- Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894) — bloomers
- Boann the Irish Goddess — The river Boyne
- Johann Elert Bode and Johann Daniel Titius — Titius-Bode Law
- Niels Bohr — Bohr magneton, Bohr radius, bohrium, chemical element
- Lecoq de Boisbaudran — gallium, chemical element. Although named after Gallia (Latin for France), Lecoq de Boisbaudran, the discoverer of the metal, subtly attached an association with his name. Lecoq (rooster) in Latin is gallus.
- Simón Bolívar — Bolivia, Bolîvar department, Colombia, various cities and tows named Bolívar en Venezuela and Colombia
- Ludwig Boltzmann — Boltzmann constant, Stefan-Boltzmann constant, Stefan-Boltzmann law
- James Bond, the ornithologist — James Bond, the fictional spy character
- Satyendra Nath Bose — bosons, Bose-Einstein statistics, Bose-Einstein condensates
- Professor Amar Bose — Bose Speakers
- Louis Antoine de Bougainville — French navigator who found the bougainvillea plant
- Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832–1897) — boycott
- Robert Boyle — Boyle's Law
- Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), published an edition of Shakespeare without words or expressions unsuitable to family reading, hence bowdlerize
- Jim Bowie — Bowie knife
- Bowman's Capsule, named for Sir William Bowman, a British anatomist
- Brahmagupta — Brahmagupta's formula, Brahmagupta's identity, Brahmagupta's trapezium, Brahmagupta's problem, Brahmagupta's polynomial
- Louis Braille (1809–1852) — the braille writing system for the blind
- Robert Brown — Brownian motion
- John Browning — Browning firearms, including the Browning Automatic Rifle
- Prince Brychan — Brecknockshire
- Bucca, a Saxon landowner ("Bucca's home" + shire) — Buckinghamshire
- Professor Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811–1899) — Bunsen burner
- General Ambrose Burnside — sideburns
[edit] C
- John Cadbury — opened his shop in 1824 which became the company Cadbury
- Julius Caesar — month July, Caesar cipher, titles Kaiser and Tsar. An urban legend also erroneously credits Julius Caesar as having given his name to the Caesarian section; the two are likely unrelated, however.
- John Calvin, 16th century theologian — the religious doctrine of Calvinism, Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip
- Caesar Cardini, restaurateur — Caesar salad
- Gian Giacomo Girolamo Casanova — casanova, a womanizer
- Sam Carr, neighbour of David Berkowitz also known as "Son of Sam" — Son of Sam law
- René Descartes, also known as Cartesius — Cartesian coordinate system
- Hendrik Casimir — Casimir effect
- Anders Celsius — degree Celsius (unit of temperature) Celsius (Moon crater)
- Ceredig, son of Cunedda — Cardigan
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar — Chandrasekhar limit, Chandra X-ray Observatory
- Jean-Martin Charcot, French neurologist — Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, Maladie de Charcot, French name for Motor Neurone Disease
- King Charles I of England — North Carolina and South Carolina
- Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor — castle Karlštejn, city Karlovy Vary, Charles University, Charles Bridge, asteroid 16951 Carolus Quartus
- Jacques Charles and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac — Law of Charles and Gay-Lussac (frequently called simply Charles' Law)
- Bobby Charlton — the "Bobby Charlton" comb over hairstyle
- Nicolas Chauvin — chauvinism
- Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov — Cherenkov effect
- Jesus Christ, "The Saviour" — El Salvador, Christianity, Christmas
- Saint Christopher — Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Walter Chrysler — founder of Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler
- Alfred Chuang — the third letter of the company name BEA Systems, is taken from Alfred, a co-founder
- Alonzo Church — Church-Turing thesis, Church-Turing-Deutsch principle
- Cincinnatus, Roman statesman — Cincinnati, Ohio (indirectly)
- Senator Claghorn, regular character on the Fred Allen radio show — Foghorn Leghorn, Warner Bros. cartoons
- Claudius, Roman emperor — the city of Kayseri, formerly Caesarea Mazaca, in Turkey
- Ruth Cleveland, daughter of Pres. Grover Cleveland — Baby Ruth candy bars
- Bill Coleman — the first letter of the company name BEA Systems, is taken from Bill, a co-founder
- Samuel Colt — Colt revolver
- Christopher Columbus — many places and territories, see Columbus, Colombia, Colombo, British Columbia in Canada
- Arthur Compton — Compton effect
- Captain James Cook — Cook Islands; Cooktown (Queensland); James Cook University (Townsville); Cook (suburb of Canberra; co-named for Sir Joseph Cook); Cooks River; Cook (Federal electorate); James Cook University Hospital (Marton, Middlesbrough, England)
- Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis — Coriolis effect
- Charles-Augustin de Coulomb — coulomb — unit of electric charge, Coulomb's law
- Michael Cowpland — founded the software company Corel (from Cowpland's Research Laboratory)
- Seymour Cray — Cray Research
- Cunedda — Gwynedd
- Marie and Pierre Curie — curie, unit of radioactivity, curium, chemical element
- Pierre Curie — Curie point
- Saint Cuthbert ("church of Cuthbert") — Kirkcudbright
[edit] D
- Jacques Daguerre — Daguerreotype
- Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz — Daimler-Benz (later DaimlerChrysler)
- John Dalton — dalton, non-SI unit of atomic mass
- Charles Darwin — Darwinism, Neural Darwinism, Social Darwinism, Darwinian Happiness, Darwin's theory of evolution, Darwinian selection, Non-darwinian evolution, Darwinian medicine, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin Mounds, Charles Darwin University, Darwin College, Cambridge, Charles Darwin National Park, Adelaide-Darwin Railway, Darwin Awards, Darwin's finches, Darwin Island, Charles Darwin Research Station, Darwin Bay, Lecocarpus darwinii (a tree species) in (Galápagos Islands), Charles Darwin Foundation
- Adi Dassler — founder of adidas
- Arthur Davidson and William Harley — Harley-Davidson
- Humphry Davy — Davy lamp
- Paul de Casteljau, de Casteljau's algorithm
- Michael Dell — founder of Dell, the computer company
- David Eisenhower, grandson of US President Dwight Eisenhower — Camp David US presidential retreat
- Thomas Derrick (c. 1600), British hangman — Derrick (lifting device)
- Melvil Dewey — Dewey Decimal System
- Thomas Edmund Dewey, American politician — Dewey, one of "Huey, Dewey and Louie", animated cartoon characters
- David Deutsch — Church-Turing-Deutsch Principle
- Bo Diddley — Popularizer of the Bo Diddley beat
- Rudolf Diesel — the diesel engine
- Paul Dirac — Dirac's constant, Dirac equation, Dirac delta function, Dirac sea, Dirac Prize, Fermi-Dirac statistics
- Walt Disney — founder, The Walt Disney Company, Disneyland
- Doily family (c. 1700)
- Ray Dolby — Dolby Stereo, Dolby Surround and Dolby Pro Logic
- Donatello, Renaissance painter — Donatello, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic characters
- Christian Doppler — Doppler radar, Doppler effect
- Charles Dow and Edward Jones — Dow Jones & Company
- Herbert Dow — The Dow Chemical Company
- Guillaume Dupuytren — Dupuytren's contracture, Dupuytren's fracture
- Dr. August Dvorak — Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
[edit] E
- Thomas Edison — Edison effect, Edison Records, Edisonian approach, Edison, Georgia, Edison, New Jersey, Edisonade
- Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (younger brother of King George IV and King William IV), commander of British forces in Halifax — Prince Edward Island
- Gustave Eiffel — Eiffel Tower, designer
- Albert Einstein — Einstein refrigerator, einsteinium — chemical element, Bose-Einstein statistics, Bose-Einstein condensates
- Queen Elizabeth I of England, the "Virgin Queen" — Virginia and West Virginia
- Saint Elmo — St. Elmo's fire
- Loránd Eötvös — eotvos, gravitational gradient
- Sir Anthony Epstein and Yvonne Barr — Epstein-Barr virus
- Lars Magnus Ericsson — Ericsson
- Leonhard Euler — Euler's formula, Eulerian path, Euler equations; see also: List of topics named after Leonhard Euler
- Bartolomeo Eustachi — Eustachian tube
- Sir George Everest — Mount Everest
- Ewale a Mbedi — Duala people, Douala (from a variant of his name, Dwala)
[edit] F
- Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736) — the Fahrenheit scale
- Gabriele Falloppio — Fallopian tube
- Michael Faraday — farad — SI unit of capacitance, faraday — cgs unit of current Faraday constant, Faraday effect, Faraday's law of induction, Faraday's law of electrolysis
- Guy Fawkes — guy
- Enrico Fermi — fermions, Fermi energy, Fermi paradox, fermium — chemical element, Fermi-Dirac statistics. fermi (obsolete name for femtometre)
- Enzo Ferrari — founder, Ferrari
- George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. — Ferris wheel
- Richard Feynman — Feynman diagram
- Fib of the Picts, one of the seven sons of Cruithe — Fife
- B.C. Forbes — Forbes magazine
- Henry Ford — Ford Motor Company
- Matthias N. Forney — Forney locomotive
- Charles Fort — Forteana, Fortean Society, Fortean Times
- Benjamin Franklin — Franklin stove, franklin — cgs unit of electric charge
- William Fox — 20th Century Fox
- Sigmund Freud — Freudian slip
- Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566) — Fuchsia
- Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita (1920–1998) — Fujita Scale
- Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) — Fullerene
[edit] G
- Johan Gadolin, Finnish chemist and geologist — gadolinite, the mineral after which the chemical element gadolinium has been named
- Thomas Gage (botanist) — greengage
- Uziel Gal — the Uzi submachine gun
- Galileo Galilei — galileo or gal, unit of acceleration
- Israel Galili — the Galil assault rifle
- Luigi Galvani (1737–1798), discovered the Galvanic response of muscles to electricity. The process of galvanization is also named after him.
- James Gamble and William Procter — Procter & Gamble
- Henry Laurence Gantt — Gantt chart
- John Garand — M1 Garand rifle
- Giuseppe Garibaldi — Garibaldi biscuits, Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Gideon Gartner — Gartner
- Hermann Gartner — Gartner's duct
- Richard J. Gatling — Gatling gun
- Carl Friedrich Gauss — gauss — unit of magnetic induction, Gauss' law; see also: List of topics named after Carl Friedrich Gauss.
- Enola Gay Tibbets — Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. Tibbets' son Paul Tibbets, pilot of the plane, named it after his mother.
- Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Jacques Charles — Law of Charles and Gay-Lussac
- Lou Gehrig, American Baseball player — Lou Gehrig's Disease
- Hans Geiger — Geiger counter, Geiger-Müller tube
- King George I of Great Britain — Georgia (U.S. state)
- Domingo Ghirardelli — Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
- Josiah Willard Gibbs — Gibbs free energy, Gibbs phenomenon
- Thomas Gilbert — Kiribati
- Gaston Glock — GLOCK GmbH
- Kurt Gödel — Gödel's incompleteness theorem, Gödel's ontological proof
- Samuel Goldwyn — Goldwyn Picture Corporation, later merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (or MGM)
- Wilbert Gore — Gore-Tex
- Klement Gottwald — Zlín, a city in Moravia, the Czech Republic, was renamed Gottwaldov during 1949—1990.
- Ernst Gräfenberg — Gräfenberg spot (G-spot)
- Sylvester Graham — Graham crackers, Graham flour
- Thomas Graham — Graham's Law
- Robert James Graves — Graves-Basedow disease
- Louis Harold Gray — gray, unit of absorbed dose of radiation
- Vicente Guerrero — Guerrero
- Georges Guillain — Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814) — advocate of what came to be called the guillotine
- Henry C. Gunning — mineral Gunningite
- Robert John Lechmere Guppy (1836–1916) — Guppy or guppie
[edit] H
- Otto Hahn — hahnium, chemical element. This element name is not accepted by IUPAC. See element naming controversy
- Edwin Hall — Hall effect
- Hugh Halligan — Halligan bar
- Laurens Hammond — Hammond Organ
- Hamo, a 6th century Saxon settler and landowner — Hampshire
- John Hancock, signatory of the US Declaration of Independence — John Hancock, a signature
- Elliot Handler and Harold "Matt" Matson — Mattel
- William Hanna and Joseph Barbera — Hanna-Barbera Productions
- Gerhard Armauer Hansen — Hansen's disease
- William Harley and Arthur Davidson — Harley-Davidson
- Douglas Hartree — Hartree energy
- Gerry Harvey and Ian Norman — Harvey Norman
- Hakaru Hashimoto — Hashimoto's thyroiditis
- Hassan-i-Sabah, leader of the murderous Hashshashin cult — assassin from hassansin (this etymology is disputed)
- Stephen Hawking — Hawking radiation
- Frank Hawthorne — mineral Frankhawthorneite
- Paul Hawkins — Hawk-Eye tracking system used in cricket and other sports
- Oliver Heaviside and Arthur Edwin Kennelly — Kennelly-Heaviside layer
- Joseph Henry — henry, unit of inductance
- William Henry — Henry's law
- Heinrich Rudolf Hertz — hertz, unit of frequency
- William Hewlett and David Packard — founders, Hewlett-Packard
- Edward C. Heyde — Heyde's syndrome
- Miguel Hidalgo — Hidalgo
- David Hilbert — Hilbert's program
- Eugen von Hippel — Von Hippel-Lindau disease
- Harald Hirschsprung, Danish physician — Hirschsprung's disease
- Paul von Hindenburg — after whom the Hindenburg airship was named
- Thomas Hobbes, 17th century philosopher — Hobbes from "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip
- Thomas Hobson (1544–1630), stable manager in England — Hobson's choice, an only apparently free choice that is no choice at all
- Thomas Hodgkin — Hodgkin's disease, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Homer, father of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons — Homer Simpson, character in The Simpsons animated TV series
- Soichiro Honda — founder, Honda
- Mark Honeywell — founder, Honeywell
- Robin Hood, English folk hero — Robin of the Batman series
- Robert Hooke — Hooke's law
- William Henry Hoover (1849–1932) — The Hoover Company; in British English, the word "hoover" became a verb meaning "to vacuum a floor". The word "hoover" has also come to mean anything that is sucked up at a great rate ("They hoovered their way through the banquet").
- August Horch — founder of Audi (audi is Latin for horch. It means listen in English)
- James Horlick and William Horlick — founded the company Horlicks in 1873
- William Howe (1803–1852) — Howe truss bridges
- Hroc, an ancient landowner ("Hroc's fortress" + shire) — Roxburghshire
- Howard Hughes — Hughes Aircraft company, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Hughes Airwest airlines, Hughes Glomar Explorer ship
- Howard R. Hughes, Sr. — Hughes Tool Company, Baker Hughes company
- John Huss (Czech Jan Hus) — Hussite, Czechoslovak Hussite Church
[edit] I–J
- Max Immelmann — Immelmann turn used in aviation.
- Eleuthère Irénée du Pont — DuPont
- Ivan the Terrible — Ivy the Terrible from The Beano comic
- Joseph Marie Jacquard — Jacquard loom
- Jacob — Israel
- Candido Jacuzzi — inventor of the jacuzzi whirlpool bath.
- Calamity Jane — Calamity James from The Beano comic
- Karl Jansky — jansky, unit of flux density
- Jeremiah, the Biblical prophet — jeremiad
- Jeroboam, first king of the Hebrews — jeroboam wine bottle
- Edward Jones and Charles Dow — Dow Jones & Company
- Brian David Josephson — Josephson junction, Josephson effect
- James Prescott Joule — joule, unit of energy, unit of work, unit of heat
[edit] K
- Franz Kafka — adjective Kafkaesque
- Mikhail Kalashnikov — the Avtomat Kalashnikova series of weapons, including the AK-47, the Kalashnikov Handheld Machine Gun or Ruchnoi Pulemet Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974g (RPK-74)
- Kamen Rider - The main protagonists of the various series in this Japanese TV franchise are named after their corresponding TV series.
- Ingvar Kamprad — the first two letters of IKEA, the home furnishings retailer he founded
- Gaetano Kanizsa, Italian psychologist — Kanizsa triangle
- Moritz Kaposi, Hungarian dermatologist — Kaposi's sarcoma
- Theodore von Kármán — Karman line
- Anna Karenina
- Tadao Kashio — founder of Casio
- Shozo Kawasaki — founder, Kawasaki Heavy Industries
- Lord Kelvin — kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature
- John F. Kennedy — John F. Kennedy International Airport, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center Honors, John F. Kennedy University
- Arthur Edwin Kennelly and Oliver Heaviside — Kennelly-Heaviside layer
- Brian W. Kernighan — the third letter of the name awk, a computer pattern/action language, is taken from Kernighan
- John Kerr (physicist) — Kerr effect
- Wilhelm Killing — Killing vector field
- Gustav Kirchhoff — Kirchhoff's Laws
- Donald Knuth — Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm
- Wladimir Peter Köppen — Köppen climate classification
- Gerard Kuiper — Kuiper Belt
[edit] L–Z
An asterisk designates people who became eponyms despite their stated wishes not to.
