What are Eponyms?

Eponyms are words and phrases that originate from a person’s name.

Here’s a select list…

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Alice Liddell (1852 - 1934)

Alzheimer’s Disease - Alois Alzheimer (1864 - 1915), German neuropathologist and psychiatrist

Anderson shelter - John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley (1882 - 1958), British politician

Apple charlotte - Princess Charlotte (1796 - 1817), daughter of King George IV of England

Appleton layer - Sir Edward Appleton (1892 - 1963), British physicist

Archimedes’ screw - Archimedes (circa 287 - circa 212BC), Greek mathematician and scientist

Atkins’ diet - Robert Atkins (1930 - 2003), American nutritionist

Baffin Bay/Island - William Baffin (circa 1584 - 1622), English navigator

Bailey bridge - Sir Donald Bailey (1901 - 85), English engineer

Barbie doll - Barbara Handler, daughter of the doll’s creator Ruth Handler

Bartlett pear - Enoch Bartlett (1779 - 1860), American merchant

Baskerville type - John Baskerville (1706 - 75), English printer

Béchamel sauce - Marquis Louis de Béchamel (died 1703), steward of Louis XIV of France

Beef Stroganoff - Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganoff (1772 - 1817), Russian diplomat

Belisha beacon - 1st Baron (Isaac) Leslie Hore-Belisha (1893 - 1957), British politician

Bessemer process - Sir Henry Bessemer (1813 - 98), British engineer

Boolean logic - George Boole (1815 - 64), English mathematician

Bowie knife - James Bowie (1799 - 1836), American soldier and adventurer

Bowler hat - William Bowler (1808 - 1878)

Boyle’s law - Robert Boyle (1627 - 91), British physicist and chemist

Bramley apple - Matthew Bramley, 19th century English butcher

Bunsen burner - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811 - 99), German chemist

Burnham scale - Harry Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham (1862 - 1933), English statesman

Caesarean section - Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman emperor

Caesar salad - Caesar Cardini, Mexican restaurateur

Catherine wheel - St Catherine of Alexandria, Christian martyr

Cox’s Orange Pippin - Richard Cox (1766 – 1845), English horticulturalist

Crohn’s Disease - Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884 - 1983), American gastroenterologist

Davis Cup - Dwight Filley Davis (1879 - 1945), American statesman and sportsman

Davy lamp - Sir Humphry Davy (1778 - 1829), British chemist

Doberman Pinscher - Ludwig Dobermann, 19th century German dog breeder

Doppler effect - Christian Johann Doppler (1803 - 53), Austrian physicist

Douglas fir - David Douglas (1798 - 1834), Scottish botanist

Dow-Jones index - Charles Henry Dow (1851 - 1902) and Edward D. Jones (1856 - 1920), American financial statisticians

Downing Street - Sir George Downing (1623 - 84), English statesman

Down’s syndrome - John Langdon-Down (1828 - 96), English physician

Eggs Benedict - Commodore E. C. Benedict (1834 - 1920), American banker and yachtsman

Eiffel Tower - Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832 - 1923), French engineer

Elgin Marbles - Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766 - 1841), British ambassador

Eustachian tube - Bartolommeo Eustachio (1524 - 74), Greek philosopher

Falkland Islands - Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland (circa 1610 - 43), English secretary of state

Fallopian tube - Gabriel Fallopius (1523 - 62), Italian anatomist

Fibonacci Numbers - Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci (1170 - 1250), Italian mathematician

Fosbury Flop - Dick Fosbury (born 1947), American athlete

Freudian slip - Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), Austrian psychiatrist

Gallup poll - George Horace Gallup (1901 - 84), American statistician

Garibaldi biscuit - Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807 - 82), Italian patriot and soldier

Gatling gun - Richard Jordan Gatling (1818 - 1903), American inventor

Geiger counter - Hans Geiger (1882 - 1945), German physicist

Gladstone bag - William Ewart Gladstone (1809 - 98), British statesman and prime minister

Gordon Bennett! - Gordon Bennet (1841 - 1918), American newspaper proprietor

Granny Smith apple - Maria Ann Smith (died 1870), Australian gardener

Gregorian chant - Pope Gregory I (circa AD540 - 604)

Hadrian’s Wall - Hadrian (AD76 - 138), Roman emperor

Halley’s comet - Edmund Halley (1656 - 1742), British astronomer

Hansom cab - Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803 - 82), English architect

Heath Robinson - William Heath Robinson (1872 - 1944), English artist

Heaviside layer - Oliver Heaviside (1850 - 1925), English physicist

Heimlich Manoeuvre - Dr Henry Heimlich (born 1920), American physician

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle - Werner Heisenberg (1901 - 1976), German physicist

Hippocratic oath - Hippocrates (circa 460 - circa 377BC), Greek physician

Hobson’s choice - Thomas Hobson (1544 - 1631), English liveryman

Hodgkin’s disease - Thomas Hodgkin (1798 - 1866), English physician

Hooke’s law - Robert Hooke (1635–1703), English natural philosopher

Huntingdon’s chorea - George S. Huntingdon (1851 - 1916), American neurologist

Jack Russell terrier - John (Jack) Russell (1795 - 1883), English clergyman

Jacquard loom - Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752 - 1834), French weaver and inventor

Joule’s law - James Joule (1818 - 1889), English physicist

Lobster Newburg - Ben Wenberg, West Indies ship captain

Lonsdale belt - Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale (1857 - 1944), English sportsman

Macadamia nut - John Macadam (1827 - 65), Australian scientist

Mach number - Ernst Mach (1838 - 1916), Austrian physicist and philosopher

Mae West - Mae West (1892 - 1980), American actress

Maginot line - André Maginot (1877 - 1932), French WWII minister of war

mansard roof - François Mansart (1598 - 1666), French classical architect

Melba toast - Dame Nellie Melba (1861 - 1931), Australian soprano

Mercator projection - Gerardus Mercator (original name Gerhard Kremer; 1512 - 94), Flemish geographer

Mickey Finn - Mickey Finn, Chicago saloon-keeper at the end of the 19th century

Möbius strip - August Ferdinand Möbius (1780 - 1868), German mathematician

Molotov cocktail - Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (1890 - 1986), Soviet statesman

Montezuma’s revenge - Montezuma II (1480 - 1520), ruler of the Aztec Empire of Mexico

Moog synthesiser - Robert Arthur Moog (born 1934), American physicist, engineer and electrician

Morse code - Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791 - 1872), American artist and inventor

Mount Everest - Sir George Everest (1790 - 1866), English surveyor-general of India

Murphy’s law - Edward Murphy (1918 - 1990), American engineer

Namby-pamby - Nickname of Ambrose Philips (1674 - 1749), English poet

Napoleonic - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821), French emperor

Nissen hut - Lieutenant Colonel Peter Norman Nissen (1871 - 1930), British mining engineer

Nobel prize - Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833 - 96), Swedish chemist, manufacturer and philanthropist

Nosey parker - Matthew Parker (1504 - 75), Anglican churchman

Ockham’s razor - William of Ockham (circa 1285 - 1349), English philosopher and Franciscan

Oedipus complex - Oedipus, character in Greek mythology

Ohm’s law - Georg Simon Ohm (1789–1854) German physicist

Pandora’s box - Pandora (‘all gifts’), in Greek mythology, the first woman

Parkinson’s disease - James Parkinson (1755 - 1824), English physician

Parkinson’s law - Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993), English naval historian

Peach Melba - Dame Nellie Melba (1861 - 1931), Australian soprano

Peter principle - Dr Laurence J. Peter (born 1919), Canadian educator

Planck’s constant - Max K. E. L. Planck (1858 - 1947), German physicist

Plimsoll line - Samuel Plimsoll (1824 - 98), English shipping reform leader

Ponzi Scheme - Carlo Ponzi (1882 - 1949), Italian-born American swindler

Pre-Raphaelite - Raphael (original name Raffaello Santi; 1483 - 1520), Italian painter

Pulitzer prize - Joseph Pulitzer (1847 - 1911), Hungarian-born US newspaper publisher

Pyrrhic victory - Pyrrhus (circa 318 - 272 BC), king of Epirus

Pythagoras’ theorem - Pythagoras (circa 570 - 495 BC), Greek mathematician

Queensberry rules - John Sholto Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry (1844 - 1900)

Rhesus monkey - Rhesus, king of Thrace, in Greek mythology

Richter scale - Charles Richter (1900 - 85), American seismologist

Rolls-Royce - Charles Stewart Rolls (1877 - 1910) and Sir Frederick Henry Royce (1836 - 1933), English car manufacturers

Teddy bear - Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919), American president

Teddy boy - Edward VII (1841 - 1910), English king

Tommy gun - John Taliaferro Thompson (1860 - 1940), American army general

Venn diagram - John Venn (1834 - 1923), English mathematician and logician

Wellington boot - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769 - 1852), British soldier and statesman

Wendy house - Wendy, girl in the play Peter Pan by Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860 - 1937)