Eponyms

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When I Grow Up,
I Wanna be an Eponym

When Adam was assigned the task of naming things, he could hardly resort to the
technique of "eponomy" because there weren't many people around to name things after.
Since then, many things, such as creatures, contraptions, cultures, and confections, have
been named after a person who thus became the "eponym" of that thing. In fields from
astronomical observation to zoological taxonomy, with geographical exploration and
subnuclear particle physics in between, the person who makes a discovery is often honored
by making him the eponym of what he discovered.
.... Animals
.... Stars, comets, etc.

The eponym of my country is the explorer Amerigo Vespucci . Christopher
Columbus (who never landed on these shores, either), is the eponym of its Capital
district, as well as several cities, one Canadian province, and a country on one of the two
continents named after Captain Vespucci. Many other sailors, such as Ferdinand
Magellan, Heinrich Hudson, Vitus Bering, and F??? Balboa became the eponym for one or
more straits, rivers, bays, seas, and ???

DEVICES
Inventors often are eponyms. Examples include the ...

CRAPPER: A rather strange eponymous instance is Mr. Thomas Crapper, who
invented a device which bears his name as a deprecated slang term, but is more politely
referred to a the flush toilet.

Phillips screwdriver

Morris chair.

NAUGA: On the other hand, no person is the eponym of the artificial fabric
known as "Naugahyde", nor is there a creature (named the Nauga or otherwise) from
whose hide this material is made.
BELL: As everyone knows, the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham
Bell, who then created a continental network of businesses still known as "the Bell
System". The illustrious Scottish-Canadian inventor (of airplanes, +++++, and many
other devices, as well as telephones), Mr. Bell, was not the eponym of the little metal bell
that was rung to announce callers. While the etymology of the word "bell" is unclear, it
certainly predates him. Nevertheless, he is the eponym for "the Bell System" which
describes an network of closely-related companies which for nearly a century rented his
instruments and provided connections between them.
AMECHE: Possibly because his name matched that of a common word, Bell
never became the eponym of the device he invented. His fame, however, prompted at
least one biographical Hollywood movie in which he was portrayed by an actor named
Don Ameche. As a result of this casting, the telephone is occasionally referred to in slang
teminology as "the Ameche" -- providing at least one instance where an actor's real-life
name has become the eponym of somthing named for a real-life person he portrayed in a
film.
BROCCOLI: People sometimes chuckled when they saw Albert Broccoli listed
in the credits as the producer of several of the James Bond movies. Isn't it humorous, they
might have thought, that this man was named after an oddly-named vegetable. The fact
of the matter is that his name IS an eponym, because one of his ancestors invented the
vegetable to which he gave his name. By crossing a Cauliflower with the Rabe lettuce, the
___ist ______ Broccoli created a delectable, dark green, bud-laden, flavorful veggie so
hated by many children and at least one President. Next time you enjoy a 007 movie, and
stay for the credits, rather than laughing at the funny name of the producer, you might
dwell briefly upon the accompishments of his genetic-engineering forbear.

Names of States
The names of the 50 states of the United States of America derive from many
sources. Not surprisingly, ??% of these names arise from words used by the so-called
"Indians" whose migration to this continent (via the Bering Straits, probably during the
last ice age) predated that of the Europeans by at least ???? years. Among these are ...
Alabama may have been named from Indian language, but this is uncertain. Add to these
Alaska and Hawaii, whose names also comes from native languages, and the total comes
to ___%.
____% of the states' names have a British Monarch for their eponym, sometimes
via a Latin version of the name (as with the two Carolinas, named after King Charles II)
and in the case of Virginia after an alleged attribute of a Queen. The eponym of West
Virginia arguably is the state of Virginia, rather than Queen ___ herself. Quite obviously,
a King of France is the epomym of the state of Lousiana.
Of the thirteen colonies, Maryland was named for Queen Mary and Georgia for
George II, bringing the total of royal eponyms to ___ among the original 13, and ___
(including WV) among the ___ states. Delaware was named for the nobleman Thomas
West, also known as Lord De La Ware, who was actualy a clolonia Governor of Virginia.
????% other states were named after cities, counties, and fiefdoms in Great Britain,
often using the word "New" as a prefix. (NH, NJ, NY, and ...)
This leaves ___ states whose eponyms are neither native, noble, nor imported.
Vermont, one of the original, rebellious colonies but not counted among the
"thirteen" for political reasons, was named for its Green Mountains using a French
formulation.
___% (___ states) have names that come from a Spanish term that describest their
.... or ...., e.g. Colorado (Red), Montana (mountainous), Nevada (???). California and
another ___ states have names that may have derived fro Spanish (__,__,__) or Indian
names )__,__,__), but this is not certain. ___% (__) ++++++++++++++

Chart: ...

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