The leotard is named after its inventor, French acrobat Jules Léotard: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leotard
Things Unexpectedly Named After People
41–50 of 294 posts
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#42Noob Saibot, the Mortal Kombat character, is named after John Tobias and Ed Boon.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't just a list of things named after people, but "unexpectedly named". For example "Main Street" being named after a person is surprising since you'd usually expect it to come from "main" in the sense of "principal". "Price Club" is funny since you'd expect that it's referring to low prices. Is there another pre-existing meaning for "poubelle" that makes this naming unexpected?
I think you're reading too much into the list. What's the non-name meaning of "Debian" supposed to be?
That one stood out as not seeming to fit the theme of the list to me. I dont think debian should have been included
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#44Sideburns aren't called sideburns just because they're on the sides of your face; sideburns were originally called burnsides after the American Civil War general Ambrose Burnside [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnside#Sideburns
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't just a list of things named after people, but "unexpectedly named". For example "Main Street" being named after a person is surprising since you'd usually expect it to come from "main" in the sense of "principal". "Price Club" is funny since you'd expect that it's referring to low prices. Is there another pre-existing meaning for "poubelle" that makes this naming unexpected?
I think you're reading too much into the list. What's the non-name meaning of "Debian" supposed to be?
I had always just assumed it was a nonce word, like Kodak.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is there another pre-existing meaning for "poubelle" that makes this naming unexpected? I mean, it _is_ the French term for "trash can". It might be surprising to you, for example, if you'd suddenly find out that trash cans are named after "Michael Trashcan" or something along those lines.
It's a "can" that one puts "trash" into, so the term appears descriptive on the surface. When it then turns out to just be named after the inventor, it would indeed be quite surprising. Which is why I was asking whether there was some pre-existing meaning for the word. Otherwise it's like: Oh my God! I just realized that Zeppelins were invented by Graf von Zeppelin. What are the odds of the person inventing airships…
I see your point and perhaps my example was poorly chosen. A better one would've been "a bin by Frederik Bin" or something along those lines. Poubelle is an everyday item, a term that the average person uses daily (and without knowing the exact etymology, I'd wager). And with that in mind, Zeppelin appears to be a poor comparison on your part.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#47There is a Texas town called Iraan that I assumed when passing through it must have something to do with the Mideast country, but is actually much more simply named after Ira and Ann. (So why not Iraann?)
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't believe it would have been called Taco Smith. It happened to be that the dudes last name made sense in the context of a dinner bell being rung for tacos.
Taco John’s is a reasonably successful chain with a similar name.
That really isn't similar in terms of usage. "Taco John" is a person's nickname. (And then, Taco John's is just the place that belongs to Taco John.) But you wouldn't call someone by their last name.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#49Going down the wiki rabbit hole on this led me to the very sad history of Ian Murdock, founder of Debian (Deb was his girlfriend's name at the time). Apparently he hanged himself in 2015 after a somewhat bizarre tweet storm announcing his suicide.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#50If you know a girl named Mercedes, she might be named after a car company which was named after someone's daughter.
https://www.mercedesbenzchicago.com/what-does-the-mercedes-b...