List of eponyms
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An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) from whom something is said to take its name. The word is back formed from "eponymous", which in turn is from the greek word "eponymos" meaning "giving name".
Here is a list of eponyms:
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - Z
A
- Achilles, Greek mythological character –Achilles' tendon
- 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
- Al-Khwarizmi, Persian mathematician of the 9th century – algorithm, algorism
- Alfred V. Aho – the first letter of the name awk, a computer pattern/action language, is taken from Aho
- Alice Liddell – Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Wonderland syndrome
- Alois Alzheimer – Alzheimer's disease
- 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
- Archimedes – Archimedes' screw, Archimedes' principle
- William George Armstrong – Armstrong breech-loading gun
- Robert Atkins – Atkins Diet
- Aurélio Buarque de Holanda – Aurélio's Brazilian Portuguese Dictionary.
- Caesar_Augustus – month August
- R. Stanton Avery – Avery Dennison
- Amedeo Avogadro – Avogadro's number, Avogadro's Law
B
- Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski, French neurologist – Babinski reflex or Babinski sign, common name for Plantar reflex
- Karl Baedeker – Baedeker's
- Bowman's Capsule, named for Sir William Bowman, a British anatomist
- Barbara, daughter of Ruth Handler, creator of Barbie – Barbie doll
- Joseph Barbera and William Hanna – Hanna-Barbera Productions
- Y. M. Barr – 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
- 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
- Alexander Graham Bell – bel - unit of relative power level; Bell Labs, BellSouth, Bellcore, Regional Bell operating company - companies
- Carl Benz – Benz & Cie. (later Daimler-Benz)
- David Berkowitz also known as "Son of Sam" – Son of Sam laws
- Juan de Bermudez – Bermuda
- Daniel Bernoulli – Bernoulli's principle
- Yogi Berra, baseball player – Yogi Bear, a bear in animated cartoons
- Henry Bessemer – Bessemer converter
- 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
- Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894), popularizer of modest, practical trousers for women, called "bloomers"
- 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 dicoverer of the metal, subtly attached an association with his name. Lecoq (rooster) in Latin is gallus.
- Simón Bolívar – Bolivia
- 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
- 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
- Brahmagupta – Brahmagupta's formula, Brahmagupta's identity
- 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 - had distinctive whiskers which became known as sideburns
C
- John Cadbury – opened his shop in 1824 which became the company Cadbury
- Julius Caesar – month July, Caesarean section, Caesar cipher, titles Kaiser and Tsar
- John Calvin, 16th century theologian – the religious doctrine of Calvinism, Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip
- Caesar Cardini, restaurateur – Caesar salad
- Sam Carr, neighbour of David Berkowitz also known as "Son of Sam" – Son of Sam laws
- Hendrik Casimir – Casimir effect
- Anders Celsius – 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
- Jacques Charles and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac – Law of Charles and Gay-Lussac (frequently called simply Charles' Law)
- 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
- 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
- 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
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, 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
- Adi Dassler – founder of adidas
- Arthur Davidson and William Harley – Harley-Davidson
- Humphry Davy – Davy lamp
- 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
E
- Thomas Edison – Edison effect, Edison Records, Edisonian approach, Edison, Georgia, Edison, New Jersey, Edisonade
- Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (brother of George III of the United Kingdom), 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
- Roland Eötvös – Eotvos, gravitational gradient
- M. A. Epstein – Epstein-Barr virus
- Lars Magnus Ericsson – Ericsson
- Bartolomeo Eustachi – Eustachian tube
F
- Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) - the Fahrenheit scale
- Gabriele Falloppio – Fallopian tube
- Michael Faraday – farad - SIunit of capacitance, faraday - cgs unit of current Faraday constant, Faraday effect, Faraday's law of induction, Faraday's law of electrolysis
- 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
- Fib of the Picts, one of the seven sons of Cruithe – Fife
- B.C. Forbes – Forbes magazine
- Henry Ford – Ford Motor Company
- William Fox – 20th Century Fox
- Benjamin Franklin – Franklin stove, franklin - cgs unit of electric charge
- Leonard Fuchs (1501-1566) - Fuchsia
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
- 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 a 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-Mueller tube
- King George I of Great Britain – Georgia
- Domingo Ghirardelli – Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
- Josiah Willard Gibbs – Gibbs free energy, Gibbs phenomenon
- Thomas Gilbert – Kiribati
- Gaston Glock – GLOCK
- 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
- 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,
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
- Gerald 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)
- 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
- 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".
- 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
I - J
- Eleuthčre Irénée du Pont – DuPont
- Ivan the Terrible – Ivy the Terrible from The Beano comic
- Joseph Marie Jacquard – Jacquard loom
- Jacob – Israel
- Roy 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
K
- 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)
- Ingvar Kamprad – the first two letters of IKEA, the home furnishings retailer he founded
- Moritz Kaposi, Hungarian dermatologist – Kaposi's sarcoma
- 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
- Gustav Kirchhoff – Kirchhoff's Laws
- Donald Knuth – Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm
- Wladimir Peter Köppen – Köppen climate classification
- Gerard Kuiper – Kuiper Belt
L - Z
An asterisk designates people who became eponyms despite their stated wishes not to.