Things Unexpectedly Named After People • Hacker News Board

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#151

Post by schoen » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:13 PM UTC

narag wrote: post #141

In my hometown there's a shop with two big signs: "Puertas Motos" and "Motos Puertas". I've always passed by too fast, by car, so I can't tell if it's some guy whose name is Puertas selling motorbikes or some guy called Motos selling doors.

That's awesome! Is it in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain? If so, I just looked it up and vg ybbxf yvxr gurl ner n qbbe naq jvaqbj fhccyl fgber, juvpu vf gb fnl gur frpbaq bs lbhe gjb cbffvovyvgvrf. (I don't want to spoil it for you if you're enjoying the ambiguity.)

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#152

Post by seaish » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:16 PM UTC

rachelshu wrote: post #88

There seem to be two meanings of “unexpected” not being differentiated here: 1) name-derived terms like Debian, or the French ‘poubelle’ in the comments, which have become genericized to the point where most of its users don’t know the derivation 2) a more interesting subset of (1), like PageRank, or Lake Mountain in the comments, where part or all of the name itself looks like a normal word appropriate for the situa…

We can add a third one where the name comes from a person that was likely named after a place, which is why it looks normal (Westlake, Outerbridge).

And for #2, most of them are surely done knowing that there's a double meaning, but the origin has been left behind. There's probably a few names that are now more associated with the person than the original pun.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#153

Post by schoen » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #125

tyingq wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"PageRank was named after Larry Page?" Interesting to me, as I thought it was Brin's idea, and 3 people worked on the paper.

That is all true, but they might still have agreed to name it after Larry Page - I'm certain they all had a sense of humor

Compare the αβγ paper:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpher%E2%80%93Bethe%E2%80%93G...

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#154

Post by thaumasiotes » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

morcheeba wrote: post #80

thaumasiotes wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Richard and Maurice McDonald, Wilber Hardee, and Little Caesars are all counter examples.

They're examples of someone being nicknamed off of their last name instead of their first name? How so?

Caesar isn't even a last name.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#155

Post by minitoar » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:23 PM UTC

Student’s T always seemed odd to me.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#156

Post by mauvehaus » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

air7 wrote: post #69

I find this post and comments to be surprisingly delightful. I'll aggregate the scattered gems in the comments here: - Sideburns : Named after the American Civil War general Ambrose Burnside. - Heaviside function (a mathematical step function) : named after Oliver Heaviside - The Children's python (animal) : Named after John George Children. - Snowflake, AZ : Named after Erastus Snow and William Jordon Flake. - Lake…

Student’s T-test/distribution:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student's_t-test

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#157

Post by ivv » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:30 PM UTC

dmurray wrote: post #96

morcheeba wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Richard and Maurice McDonald, Wilber Hardee, and Little Caesars are all counter examples.

Little Caesar's is named after a Mr. Little? That would be a perfect addition to this page

Little Caesar was a co-founder’s nickname.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#158

Post by avmich » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:32 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #105

mkl wrote: post #24

My favourite is the Heaviside function [1], which is named after Oliver Heaviside [2], who just happened to have an appropriate name for a function with one heavy side! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside_step_function [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside

Or Čech cohomology, usually denoted with the check "v" above characters.

It's a joke between students of quantum mechanics that to get operator from a function according to the principle of least action you have to put "^" above the function name.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#159

Post by JadeNB » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

radioactivist wrote: post #140

mkl wrote: post #24

My favourite is the Heaviside function [1], which is named after Oliver Heaviside [2], who just happened to have an appropriate name for a function with one heavy side! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside_step_function [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside

There is also the Poynting Vector [1] named after John H. Poynting [2] that "points" in the direction that electromagnetic energy is flowing. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynting_vector [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Poynting

Sadly not quite in the same vein, but the Killing field seems rather vicious until you know it's just named after Wilhelm Killing. (EDIT: Sorry, I didn't notice klyrs mentioned it 2 hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23890735 .)

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#160

Post by unterbahn » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

:-) fun. Tnx for sharing.

Bluetooth: tenth-century king Harald Bluetooth united dissonant Danish tribes into a single kingdom. (re: uniting communication protocols)

I guess it's not so surprising bc why the heck is it named after a tooth (had been thinking... the shape of a Bluetooth dongle? Lol) but still, this is a pretty obscure ref.