phrases, sayings, proverbs and idioms at

What are Eponyms?

What are Eponyms?

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

Here's a select list...

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)
Gary Martin - the author of the phrases.org.uk website.

By Gary Martin

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

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