List of eponyms
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
Achilles , Greek mythological character ? Achilles' tendon ; Achilles' heel
Adam , Biblical character ? Adam's apple
Adam Walsh , Abduction-Murder Victim -Code Adam
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
Alice Roosevelt - Alice blue, said to be the color of her eyes
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 Ampčre ? ampere ? unit of electric current, Ampčre'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 Ĺngström ? 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 Titan who carried the sky on his shoulders ? 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, the Caesarian section, because he was supposedly born in this manner
R. Stanton Avery ? Avery Dennison Corporation
Amedeo Avogadro ? Avogadro's number , Avogadro's Law
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
Leo Baekeland ? Bakelite
Balthazar traditional name for one of the Three Wise Men ? 12 litre wine bottle (see Wine bottle )
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 (now Telcordia Technologies ), Regional Bell operating company ? companies. Also gave birth to a slang term i.e. give James a bell, call James on the telephone.
Edvard Bene? - Bene? decrees
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; Yogiisms
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
Fischer 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, Venezuelan bolívar , Bolívar (cigar brand)
Ludwig Boltzmann ? Boltzmann constant , Stefan-Boltzmann constant , Stefan-Boltzmann law
Karel Havlí?ek Borovský - Havlí?k?v Brod
B J T Bosanquet ? bosie , the Australian term for the googly
Satyendra Nath Bose ? bosons , Bose-Einstein statistics , Bose-Einstein condensate s
Professor Amar Bose ? Bose Speakers
Dr. Elbert Dysart Botts , Caltrans engineer - Bott's Dots, a street and highway lane separator
Louis Antoine de Bougainville , French navigator - the bougainvillea plant, which he discovered
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
John Cadbury ? opened his shop in 1824 which became the company Cadbury
Julius Caesar ? the month of July, Caesar cipher , the titles Czar , Tsar , and Kaiser , the Bloody Caesar cocktail. 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's name (with Thomas Hobbes ) inspired name of the 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
Eduard ?ech - ?ech cohomology , ?ech complex , ?ech homology , Stone??ech compactification
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 , the French name for motor neurone disease
King Charles I of England ? North Carolina and South Carolina
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor ? castle Karl?tejn , city Karlovy Vary , Charles University , Charles Bridge , asteroid 16951 Carolus Quartus
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor ? château Karlova Koruna
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
Constantine I - Roman Emperor who in 330 moved the capital of the Empire to Constantinople
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). Cowpland also co-founded the PBX Design / Build Company Mitel with Terry Matthews . (Mitel stands MI ke and TE rry's L awnmowers)
Thomas Crapper - Crapper
Seymour Cray ? Cray Research
Cunedda ? Gwynedd
Marie and Pierre Curie ? curie , unit of radioactivity, curium , chemical element
Pierre Curie ? Curie point
Harvey Cushing ? Cushing Disease , a pituitary tumor producing adrenocorticotropic hormone that causes excessive cortisol production
Harvey Cushing ? Cushing's Syndrome , a clinical condition characterized by excessive production of cortisol
Saint Cuthbert ("church of Cuthbert") ? Kirkcudbright
Jacques Daguerre ? Daguerreotype
Anders Dahl (1751-1789) ? Dahlia
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz ? Daimler-Benz (later DaimlerChrysler )
John Dalton ? dalton , non-SI unit of atomic mass
Glenn Danzig -- Danzig , founder of the Heavy Metal band Danzig
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
Dylan Dog - Italian comic series
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 condensate s
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)
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 Cruithne ? Fife
Robert Fisk - Fisking
B.C. Forbes ? Forbes magazine
Henry Ford ? Ford Motor Company
Matthias N. Forney ? Forney locomotive
William Forsyth (1737-1804) ? Forsythia
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
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
Alexander Garden (naturalist) - after whom the gardenia was named.
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)
Elbridge Gerry - gerrymandering
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
Amber Hagerman , abducted child - AMBER Alert
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)
Victor Hasselblad ? Hasselblad , medium format photographic camera system
Stephen Hawking ? Hawking radiation
Paul Hawkins ? Hawk-Eye tracking system used in cricket and other sports
Frank Hawthorne ? mineral Frankhawthorneite
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 pahilosopher ? 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
Sherlock Holmes - anyone who solves a mystery or a difficult problem, based on the fictional character by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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 verb "hoover" means "to vacuum a floor" while the noun is the vacuum cleaner. 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
Frank Hornby - inventor of Meccano , Hornby and Hornby-Dublo train sets, and Dinky Toys
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 () ? Hussite , Czechoslovak Hussite Church
I?J
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
Megan Kanka , abducted child - Megan's Law
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
L?Z
See List of eponyms (L-Z)
An asterisk designates people who became eponyms despite their stated wishes not to.
See also
de:Liste der Eponyme
nl:Lijst van eponiemen
pl:Lista eponimów
ro:List? de cuvinte derivate de la nume de persoane
sv:Lista över eponymer
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