Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
131–140 of 346 posts
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#132Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#133Main Street in San Francisco was named after Charles Main. https://mountainviewpeople.blogspot.com/2007/09/charles-main... Here are some more interesting ones... * Mason jar was named after John Landis Mason, 19th century American tinsmith * Guppy (fish) was named after Robert John Lechmere Guppy, 19th century British naturalist * Silhouette was named after Étienne de Silhouette, 18th century French politican * Bloom…
>Main Street in San Francisco was named after Charles Main. I feel this might be a bit of a cheeky urban legend, or at the very least a coincidence. "Main st" has been used in western city's and towns for a lot longer than SF has been around.
In the heart of the Georgian city of Bath we have 3 streets designed by the architect John Wood.
The streets are named Quiet St, John St and Wood St. It is claimed that the naming of these streets is based on the 3 words most regularly used in the clearly passionate council meetings of the time.
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#134And here I thought Snowflake was for the data model!
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#135There is a park near me named Alice Keck Park. It is named after Alice Keck Park.
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#136Ritalin. Leandro Panizzon first synthesized it and named it after his wife, Rita, who used it to treat low blood pressure.
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#137At the opposite end of things, here's Stigler's law of eponymy[0]. This "law" states that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. It was discovered by Robert K. Merton. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy
Thank you for this, it made me genuinely chuckle
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#138I don't know who that Faubourg guy was but they really loved naming parts of Paris after him
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#139The generic Hungarian word for trash cans, 'kuka', unexpectedly originates from the names of German industrialists Johann Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich. The story is quite involved, to the extent that one would be tempted to dismiss it as a folk etymology, if it wasn't ridiculously well-attested. Keller and Knappich founded an acetylene factory in Augsburg, Bavaria in 1898. They named it Keller und Knappich Augsbur…
Interesting, it seems to be the same KUKA that know produces robots
Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Main Street in San Francisco was named after Charles Main. I feel this might be a bit of a cheeky urban legend, or at the very least a coincidence. "Main st" has been used in western city's and towns for a lot longer than SF has been around.
San Francisco’s “Main Street” is in no way a major artery, however. Market Street served that function. Here’s an 1853 map https://rumsey.geogarage.com/maps/g3463000.html in which today’s Main Street is only a block long. The map calls it Front St, although there’s another Front St nearby which kept the name – perhaps it was renamed Main to disambiguate once the streets connected?
Ooohh, so 1st St made sense back then. I always wondered why SF needed like a -4th St.