Also, the term "Guy" which is an eponym for Guy Fawkes https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/guy#Etymology_1
And it's obverse, Che. (The famous person is named after the generic word for "some guy")
Things Unexpectedly Named After People
91–100 of 294 posts
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#92Silhouette, named for a French finance minister back in the 18th century. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette Eponyms can be very weird sometimes. The path from austerity-pushing minister to artistic rendering of outline in profile must have been a bit odd.
Related to austerity, Melba Toast.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#93Folks may remember a game called Supreme Commander. One of the big 'experimental class' artillery is called a Mavor. Jonathan Mavor, was one of the developers.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#94Loop subdivision, commonly used in CG: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_subdivision_surface
Actually named after its inventor Charles Loop.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#95Earlier 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…
The word poubelle isn't capitalised, so it was surprising to me that it was from a name. In contrast, Zeppelin being capitalised gives the game away.
It's a different thing to some of the 'surprises' here, but interesting and I'm glad it was shared.
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#96Earlier 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.
Little Caesar's is named after a Mr. Little? That would be a perfect addition to this page
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#97Page is an aptonym. There's a reason it's not called BrinRank. French Fries. Crapper toilet.
The “crapper” is actually not named after my 5x great uncle Thomas Crapper; “crap” has been around for ages as slang. Interesting nonetheless, though!
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#98German Chocolate Cake owes its name to an English-American chocolate maker named Samuel German.
That's a great one
Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#99Re: Things Unexpectedly Named After People
#100Folks may remember a game called Supreme Commander. One of the big 'experimental class' artillery is called a Mavor. Jonathan Mavor, was one of the developers.
The fact there's yet to be a modern equal to SupCom is really unfortunate. As fun as quick games are on FAF, I really enjoyed your long thousands of unit games... and the game just can't handle it.