Things Unexpectedly Named After People • Hacker News Board

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#31

Post by jsnell » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

hh3k0 wrote: post #20

jsnell wrote: post #4

Earlier 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?

> 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 also having the last name that airships are often called by?

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#32

Post by overcast » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:06 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #27

TheRealSteel wrote: post #16

Most of these are great. Taco Bell makes sense to me however - I didn't expect to buy bells there. If it had been named after a Melanie Taco or similar, THAT would've been notable. My contribution: Lake Mountain in Victoria! "There is no lake at Lake Mountain, the area was named after George Lake, who was the Surveyor-General of the area including the mountain." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mountain_(Victoria…

I had always assumed the bell managed to reference both a dinner bell (food) and a mission bell (California, with its Hispanic population, hence Tex-Mex). I'm blown away it's just the founder's name.

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.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#33

Post by thedogeye » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

Don’t forget “Crap” named after Thomas Crapper

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#34

Post by logicchains » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

The Children's python: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_python. Not actually a suitable pet for children, rather it's named after John George Children.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#35

Post by naringas » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

ezoe wrote: post #21

PageRank was named after Larry Page? MySQL is named after the one of co-founder's daughter, My? I knew the Debian. but this is mind boggling.

I had always assumed it was called PageRank because it ranks (web)pages

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#36

Post by krallja » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

overcast wrote: post #32

crazygringo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had always assumed the bell managed to reference both a dinner bell (food) and a mission bell (California, with its Hispanic population, hence Tex-Mex). I'm blown away it's just the founder's name.

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.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#37

Post by jhbadger » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:15 PM UTC

jsnell wrote: post #4

dolmen wrote: post #3

In french, a waste container is called "une poubelle". From the name of the prefect Eugène Poubelle who decided the collection of waste in Paris in 1884. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poubelle

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?

It's a bit how in British English vacuum cleaners are often called "Hoovers" after the brand. At one hand, yes, it is a family name, but the word has become so genericized that people even talk about "hoovering" their carpet and any connection to a name is lost.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#38

Post by jhbadger » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:17 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #19

jsnell wrote: post #4

Earlier 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?

Named after a person named "Deb" (without the ian). Like the word "Jeffersonian" meaning the philosophy attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#39

Post by monocularvision » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

My contribution: Snowflake, AZ named after Erastus Snow and William Jordon Flake (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake,_Arizona).

Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People

#40

Post by Cass » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:22 PM UTC

The Cueva de los Verdes, a famous cave on Lanzarote, was named after the Verdes family and contains nothing green. (Well worth seeing if you ever get a chance to go.)