---
title: "Eponyms: Words Named After People & Places | Etymoasis"
description: "Words that come from people’s and places’ names, from sandwich, boycott and cardigan to quixotic and denim, searchable, each with a cited origin."
url: https://etymoasis.me/eponyms/
---

# Eponyms: words from names

72 English words that began as somebody’s name, a character’s or a place’s, each with a short origin and its dictionary source.

## Find an eponym

1. **academy** myth & legend from Akademos
   From Greek *Ἀκαδημία* (Akadēmía), a grove outside Athens where Plato taught, named after its supposed former owner, the hero Akademos.
   [Wiktionary: academy](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/academy#English)
2. **atlas** myth & legend from Atlas
   From the Titan Atlas of Greek myth, who bore the heavens. Mercator named his book of maps after him, and the sense ‘book of maps’ comes from that.
   [Wiktionary: atlas](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atlas#English)
3. **badminton** place from Badminton House, Gloucestershire
   Named after Badminton House, the Duke of Beaufort’s estate in Gloucestershire, where the game was first played in England.
   [Wiktionary: badminton](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/badminton#English)
4. **bedlam** place from Bethlem Royal Hospital, London
   From Bedlam, the popular name of the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, an asylum (the name is a worn-down form of Bethlehem). It came to mean any scene of uproar.
   [Wiktionary: bedlam](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bedlam#English)
5. **bikini** place from Bikini Atoll
   From French bikini, after Bikini Atoll, where the United States tested nuclear weapons in July 1946; the swimsuit was expected to cause as much excitement as a bomb.
   [Wiktionary: bikini](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bikini#English)
6. **bloomers** person from Amelia Bloomer
   Named after Amelia Bloomer, who sought to introduce this style of dress for women.
   [Wiktionary: bloomers](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bloomers#English)
7. **bowdlerize** person from Thomas Bowdler
   After Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published The Family Shakespeare, with the words he thought unfit to be read aloud in a family taken out.
   [Wiktionary: bowdlerize](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bowdlerize#English)
8. **boycott** person from Charles Boycott
   From Charles Boycott, an English land agent in Ireland who, in 1880, was shunned in a campaign organized by the Irish Land League after evicting tenants.
   [Wiktionary: boycott](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/boycott#English)
9. **braille** person from Louis Braille
   Borrowed from French, after Louis Braille. It names a system of raised dots that is read by touch.
   [Wiktionary: braille](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/braille#English)
10. **bungalow** place from Bengal
    Borrowed from a Gujarati word meaning ‘Bengali-style house’ (compare Hindi baṅglā ‘Bengali’), from the name of Bengal.
    [Wiktionary: bungalow](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bungalow#English)
11. **calico** place from Calicut (Kozhikode), India
    From Calicut (Kozhikode), the Indian port from which the cloth was first exported.
    [Wiktionary: calico](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/calico#English)
12. **canary** place from the Canary Islands
    Through French and Spanish from the Canary Islands, Latin Canariae insulae. The largest island was named for its dogs, from Latin canis ‘dog’, so the bird is named, at a distance, after dogs.
    [Wiktionary: canary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/canary#English)
13. **cardigan** person from James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan
    Named after James Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan.
    [Wiktionary: cardigan](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cardigan#English)
14. **Celsius** person from Anders Celsius
    After Anders Celsius, who proposed the centigrade temperature scale in 1742.
    [Wiktionary: Celsius](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Celsius#English)
15. **cereal** myth & legend from Ceres
    Through French from Latin Cereālis ‘of Ceres’, the Roman goddess of agriculture.
    [Wiktionary: cereal](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cereal#English)
16. **champagne** place from Champagne, France
    From French champagne, the sparkling wine of the Champagne region, whose name comes from Latin campānia, from campus ‘field, plain’.
    [Wiktionary: champagne](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/champagne#English)
17. **chauvinism** character from Nicolas Chauvin
    Borrowed from French chauvinisme, named after Nicolas Chauvin, a legendary and excessively patriotic soldier made famous by a stage play. He may never have existed.
    [Wiktionary: chauvinism](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chauvinism#English)
18. **coach** place from Kocs, Hungary
    Through French and German from Hungarian kocsi ‘of Kocs’, short for kocsi szekér ‘cart from Kocs’, a small Hungarian town known for its carts. The ‘tutor’ sense began as Oxford University slang around 1830.
    [Wiktionary: coach](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coach#English)
19. **cologne** place from Cologne, Germany
    From eau de Cologne ‘water of Cologne’, the name given to the original scent in 1709.
    [Wiktionary: cologne](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cologne#English)
20. **currant** place from Corinth, Greece
    From Anglo-Norman raisin de Corinthe ‘grapes of Corinth’.
    [Wiktionary: currant](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/currant#English)
21. **dahlia** person from Anders Dahl
    Named in 1791 after the Swedish botanist Anders Dahl by the Spanish botanist Antonio José Cavanilles.
    [Wiktionary: dahlia](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dahlia#English)
22. **denim** place from Nîmes, France
    From French de Nîmes ‘from Nîmes’, the French town where the fabric was first made.
    [Wiktionary: denim](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/denim#English)
23. **diesel** person from Rudolf Diesel
    After Rudolf Diesel, who developed the engine in Germany in the 1890s.
    [Wiktionary: diesel](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diesel#English)
24. **draconian** person from Draco
    After Draco, the Athenian lawmaker known for very harsh laws (his name is the Greek word *δράκων*, drákōn, ‘dragon’).
    [Wiktionary: draconian](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/draconian#English)
25. **dunce** person from John Duns Scotus
    From John Duns Scotus, a well-known medieval Scottish thinker. His later followers opposed the new learning of the Renaissance, so by 1530 dunce meant someone who rejected new knowledge, and later anyone thought stupid.
    [Wiktionary: dunce](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dunce#English)
26. **Ferris wheel** person from George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.
    After George W. G. Ferris Jr., who built the first such wheel.
    [Wiktionary: Ferris wheel](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel#English)
27. **galvanize** person from Luigi Galvani
    After the Italian physiologist Luigi Galvani (1737–1798), by way of galvanism. Its older sense was ‘to electrify’; ‘to shock into action’ grew out of that.
    [Wiktionary: galvanize](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/galvanize#English)
28. **gerrymander** person from Elbridge Gerry
    A blend of Gerry and salamander, after Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts: in 1812 the Boston Gazette compared a district he signed into law to the shape of a salamander.
    [Wiktionary: gerrymander](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gerrymander#English)
29. **guillotine** person from Joseph-Ignace Guillotin
    From French guillotine, after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who proposed its use for executions.
    [Wiktionary: guillotine](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/guillotine#English)
30. **guy** person from Guy Fawkes
    From Guy Fawkes, executed for his part in the Gunpowder Plot. His effigies, burned every Guy Fawkes Night, were called guys, and the word widened to mean any man.
    [Wiktionary: guy](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/guy#English)
31. **hamburger** place from Hamburg, Germany
    Short for Hamburger steak or Hamburger sandwich, from German Hamburger ‘of Hamburg’.
    [Wiktionary: hamburger](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hamburger#English)
32. **jeans** place from Genoa, Italy
    From Gene or Jean, an old English name for Genoa. Jean fustian was a coarse cotton cloth linked with the city; the word was used for trousers of that cloth in the 19th century.
    [Wiktionary: jeans](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jeans#English)
33. **jovial** myth & legend from Jupiter (Jove)
    Through French and Italian from Latin Ioviālis ‘of Jupiter’. People born under the astrological influence of the planet Jupiter were believed to be cheerful.
    [Wiktionary: jovial](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jovial#English)
34. **Kafkaesque** person from Franz Kafka
    Kafka plus -esque, after the writer Franz Kafka.
    [Wiktionary: Kafkaesque](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kafkaesque#English)
35. **laconic** place from Laconia, Greece
    Through Latin from Greek *Λακωνικός* (Lakōnikós) ‘of Laconia’, the region ruled by the Spartans, who were known for speaking briefly.
    [Wiktionary: laconic](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laconic#English)
36. **leotard** person from Jules Léotard
    Named after Jules Léotard.
    [Wiktionary: leotard](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leotard#English)
37. **Machiavellian** person from Niccolò Machiavelli
    From Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), whose book The Prince advises that gaining and keeping power may require unethical methods.
    [Wiktionary: Machiavellian](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Machiavellian#English)
38. **mackintosh** person from Charles Macintosh
    From Charles Macintosh (1766–1843), who patented a rubberized cloth in 1823. The k is a later addition to the spelling.
    [Wiktionary: mackintosh](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mackintosh#English)
39. **magnet** place from Magnesia
    Through Latin from Greek *μάγνης* (mágnēs) ‘magnet, lodestone’, the ‘Magnesian’ stone, named after Magnesia: either the city of Magnesia in Lydia or the Greek region of Magnesia.
    [Wiktionary: magnet](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/magnet#English)
40. **magnolia** person from Pierre Magnol
    From the genus name Magnolia, after the French botanist Pierre Magnol (1638–1715).
    [Wiktionary: magnolia](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/magnolia#English)
41. **malapropism** character from Mrs. Malaprop
    From Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play The Rivals (1775) who mixes up similar-sounding words. Her name probably comes from French mal à propos ‘inappropriate’.
    [Wiktionary: malapropism](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malapropism#English)
42. **marathon** place from Marathon, Greece
    Coined in French in 1894 by Michel Bréal for the first modern Olympic Games, after the Greek town of Marathon: the legend says Phidippides ran from Marathon to Athens with news of the battle.
    [Wiktionary: marathon](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/marathon#English)
43. **maudlin** person from Mary Magdalene
    From Maudelen, an old form of the name Mary Magdalene, who was usually shown weeping in art.
    [Wiktionary: maudlin](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/maudlin#English)
44. **mausoleum** person from Mausolus
    Through Latin from Greek *Μαυσωλεῖον* (Mausōleîon), the grand tomb built around 353–351 BCE at Halicarnassus for Mausolus, a ruler of Caria.
    [Wiktionary: mausoleum](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mausoleum#English)
45. **maverick** person from Samuel Maverick
    From Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. A maverick was first an unbranded animal, then a person who shows independence in thought or action.
    [Wiktionary: maverick](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/maverick#English)
46. **meander** place from the Maeander river
    From Latin Maeander, from Greek *Μαίανδρος* (Maíandros), a river in Asia Minor known for its winding course.
    [Wiktionary: meander](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meander#English)
47. **mesmerize** person from Franz Anton Mesmer
    From mesmerism, named after Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), a German physician who developed the theory of ‘animal magnetism’.
    [Wiktionary: mesmerize](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mesmerism#English)
48. **muslin** place from Mosul, Iraq
    From French mousseline, from Italian mussolina, from Mussolo, the Italian name of Mosul in northern Iraq.
    [Wiktionary: muslin](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/muslin#English)
49. **nicotine** person from Jean Nicot
    After Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal who sent tobacco seeds back to France in 1561, plus the suffix -ine.
    [Wiktionary: nicotine](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nicotine#English)
50. **odyssey** character from Odysseus
    From the Odyssey, the Greek epic telling the long journey home of Odysseus.
    [Wiktionary: odyssey](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/odyssey#English)
51. **Orwellian** person from George Orwell
    From the surname of George Orwell, the pen name of the English writer Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950).
    [Wiktionary: Orwellian](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Orwellian#English)
52. **panic** myth & legend from Pan
    Through French panique from Greek *πανικός* (panikós) ‘of Pan’. Pan, the god of fields and woods, was believed to cause sudden groundless fear in herds and crowds.
    [Wiktionary: panic](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/panic#English)
53. **pasteurize** person from Louis Pasteur
    Borrowed from French pasteuriser, from Louis Pasteur, who devised the heating process, plus -ize.
    [Wiktionary: pasteurize](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pasteurize#English)
54. **poinsettia** person from Joel Roberts Poinsett
    From an old genus name honoring Joel Roberts Poinsett, the 19th-century US minister to Mexico.
    [Wiktionary: poinsettia](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poinsettia#English)
55. **quixotic** character from Don Quixote
    From Don Quixote, the idealistic hero of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel, plus the suffix -ic.
    [Wiktionary: quixotic](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quixotic#English)
56. **raglan** person from Lord Raglan
    Named after Lord Raglan (1788–1855), a British commander in the Crimean War.
    [Wiktionary: raglan](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/raglan#English)
57. **rugby** place from Rugby School, Warwickshire
    From Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, where the modern game was developed in the 19th century.
    [Wiktionary: rugby](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rugby#English)
58. **salmonella** person from Daniel Elmer Salmon
    From the genus name Salmonella, after Daniel Elmer Salmon.
    [Wiktionary: salmonella](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salmonella#English)
59. **sandwich** person from the Earl of Sandwich
    Named after the Earl of Sandwich, its supposed inventor. The naming is well recorded; the story of exactly how he came to eat it is less certain.
    [Wiktionary: sandwich](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sandwich#English)
60. **saxophone** person from Adolphe Sax
    The surname of its inventor, Adolphe Sax (1814–1894), plus -o- and -phone, from Greek *φωνή* (phōnḗ) ‘sound, voice’.
    [Wiktionary: saxophone](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saxophone#English)
61. **shrapnel** person from Henry Shrapnel
    After Henry Shrapnel, who invented a shell that scattered bullets over a target.
    [Wiktionary: shrapnel](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shrapnel#English)
62. **sideburns** person from Ambrose Burnside
    Reshaped from burnside, after Ambrose Burnside, who was noted for his unusual facial hair.
    [Wiktionary: sideburns](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sideburns#English)
63. **silhouette** person from Étienne de Silhouette
    From the surname of Étienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), a French finance minister. Why his name was attached to outline portraits is not settled: suggestions include his penny-pinching policies, his short time in office and his own outline portraits.
    [Wiktionary: silhouette](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/silhouette#English)
64. **spoonerism** person from William Archibald Spooner
    After the Reverend W. A. Spooner of Oxford, who is supposed to have often swapped the sounds of words by mistake.
    [Wiktionary: spoonerism](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spoonerism#English)
65. **suede** place from Sweden
    From French gants de Suède ‘gloves from Sweden’.
    [Wiktionary: suede](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/suede#English)
66. **tantalize** myth & legend from Tantalus
    From Tantalus of Greek myth, condemned to stand in water that drew back when he stooped to drink, under fruit that was always out of reach.
    [Wiktionary: tantalize](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tantalize#English)
67. **tawdry** person from Saint Audrey (Æthelthryth)
    Shortened from tawdry lace, a slurred form of Saint Audrey lace: lace necklaces sold to pilgrims of Saint Audrey. When they went out of fashion, tawdry came to mean ‘cheap and showy’.
    [Wiktionary: tawdry](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tawdry#English)
68. **teddy bear** person from Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
    Made in 1902 by the Brooklyn shop owner Morris Michtom, who named it in honor of President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt after hearing that Roosevelt had refused to shoot a bear cub on a hunting trip.
    [Wiktionary: teddy bear](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/teddy_bear#English)
69. **tuxedo** place from Tuxedo Park, New York
    From Tuxedo Park, New York, where the fashion is often said to have started.
    [Wiktionary: tuxedo](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tuxedo#English)
70. **volcano** myth & legend from Vulcan
    From Italian vulcano, after the island of Vulcano, named from Latin Vulcānus, the Roman god of fire.
    [Wiktionary: volcano](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/volcano#English)
71. **volt** person from Alessandro Volta
    The unit is named after Alessandro Volta.
    [Wiktionary: volt](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/volt#English)
72. **watt** person from James Watt
    The unit is named after James Watt.
    [Wiktionary: watt](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/watt#English)

## About these eponyms

An eponym is a word taken from a name. Search for the word (*leotard*), the person or place (*Kafka*, *Greece*) or anything in the story (*cloth*, *units*), and use **Named after** to show only real people, characters from books and plays, figures from myth and legend, or places.

Each origin is short and careful. Where a dictionary says a story is only “supposed” or “often said”, so do we: the Earl of Sandwich is the *supposed* inventor of the sandwich, and Nicolas Chauvin, who gave us *chauvinism*, may never have existed. Every entry was checked against its Wiktionary page, which is linked under it.

## Questions

**What is an eponym?**

A word formed from a name, such as *boycott* from Charles Boycott. The word eponym can also mean the person a thing is named after, so Boycott is the eponym of boycott.

**Why are place names included?**

Many everyday words began as places: *denim* is cloth from Nîmes and *jeans* comes from an old English name for Genoa. Dictionaries sometimes call these toponyms; they are listed here so you can find them in one place.

**Are the famous stories true?**

Some are and some are not certain. We give only what the linked dictionary entry supports, and say so when it calls a story supposed, legendary or disputed. For outright myths, see the word origin myths page.