Eponyms

Did you know that King Charles (Prince of Wales at the time), had a tree frog named after him? Because of his charity work in conservation, there is now a species of tree frog hopping around in Ecuador called Hyloscirtus princecharlesi (Prince Charles stream tree frog). This relates to the topic of eponyms, which we will be exploring today.

We will look at the meaning of eponyms and some examples of the different types of eponyms. We will also consider why they are used.

Eponyms meaning

The meaning of an eponym is as follows:

Eponyms show the close connection between certain people and their discoveries/inventions and celebrate their importance. Because of this, eponyms can immortalise people and become of historical significance, giving credit to people who made a change in the world.

Types of eponyms

There are different types of eponyms, which differ in structure. The six main types of eponyms are as follows:

• Simple
• Compounds
• Suffix-based derivatives
• Possessives
• Clippings
• Blends

Fig. 1 - The Greek God Atlas is an eponym for an atlas (book).

This refers to when a proper noun is combined with a common noun to form a new term. For example:

Walt Disney → Disneyland.

Walter Elias 'Walt' Disney was an American entrepreneur and animator, best known for being a pioneer of cartoon animations (and creating characters such as Mickey Mouse). In 1955, the theme park Disneyland opened, which was designed and built under the guidance of Disney himself. This is an example of a compound eponym as the proper noun Disney is combined with the common noun land to form the new word Disneyland.

Suffix-based derivatives

These eponyms refer to a proper noun that is combined with a Suffix of a common noun to form a new word. For example:

Karl Marx → Marxism.

Karl Marx created Marxism, an economic and political theory that focuses on the effects of capitalism on the working class. Marxism is an example of a suffix-based derivative as the proper noun Marx is combined with the Suffix ism to form the new word Marxism.

Possessive eponyms

This refers to compound eponyms written in the possessive tense to show ownership. For example:

Sir Isaac Newton → Newton's laws of motion.

Physicist Sir Isaac Newton created Newton's laws of motion to describe the correlation between the movement of an object and the forces that act on it. The use of the possessive tense gives credit to Newton for his invention and clearly shows that it belongs to him.

Clippings

This refers to eponyms in which part of the name has been removed to create a shortened version. These are not as commonly used as the previous types of eponyms. An example is as follows:

Eugene Kaspersky → Kasper.

Eugene Kaspersky created a computer protection programme named after himself. This is often shortened to Kasper in casual speech.

Blends

This refers to eponyms in which parts of two words are combined to form a new word. For example:

Richard Nixon → Nixonomics.

This blend combines the proper noun Nixon and part of the common noun economics. It was created to refer to the policies of President Richard Nixon.

Eponym examples

Here are some more eponym examples that are frequently used! Are you familiar with the people who gave their names to the following terms? It is typical for the eponymous part of a term to be capitalised, whereas the common noun isn't.

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer who recognised that the lands Christopher Columbus travelled to were continents separate from the rest of the world. This eponym was first used by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller on both a globe map and a wall map that he created.

American inventor Ruth Handler created the Barbie doll, which debuted in 1959. Ruth named the doll after her daughter Barbara.

Brudenell created this example of an eponym when the tail of his coat burned off in the fireplace, forming a shorter jacket.

Louis Braille was a French inventor who created braille in 1824, a writing system for the visually impaired consisting of raised dots. This invention, named after Braille himself, remains mostly the same to this day and is known as braille worldwide.

In this example of an eponym, although many people think the popular salad was named after Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, it was Italian chef Caesar Cardini who supposedly created the Caesar salad.

Eponym vs namesake

It is easy to get eponyms and a namesake mixed up as they both refer to the use of names, but there are differences between the two. Let's begin by looking at the meaning of a namesake:

On the other hand, an eponym refers to the person or thing that has given its name to someone/something else. Think of an eponym as the originator of that name.

List of eponyms

Bet you didn't know these common words were an example of an eponym!

Common eponyms

• Sandwich- named after the 4th Earl of Sandwich who supposedly invented it.
• Zipper- the brand name of the zip fastener which also refers to the product itself.
• Fahrenheit- originating from Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit who invented the mercury thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale.
• Lego- the brand name of the toy which also refers to the product e.g. 'a piece of lego'.
• Sideburns- the funky facial hair was inspired by Ambrose Burnside who sported the look.
• Diesel- originating from engineer Rudolf Diesel who invented the Diesel engine.