This pre-publication draft is Copyrighted by Bruce A. Martin/ABCD unlimited. All rights reserved!
This document is under construction

				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:  ...







This pre-publication draft is Copyrighted by Bruce A. Martin/ABCD unlimited. All rights reserved! Back to home page