Things Unexpectedly Named After People
July 19, 2020
An incomplete and infuriating list.
- PageRank (Larry Page)
- MySQL (My Widenius)
- Debian (two people named Deb and Ian)
- New Relic (anagram of Lew Cirne)
- Price Club (Sol Price)
- Taco Bell (Glen Bell)
- Westlake, Los Angeles (Henricus Wallace Westlake)
- Outerbridge Crossing (Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge)
- Main Street, San Francisco (Charles Main)
- Erlang (Agner Erlang)
- Mars (candy) (Franklin Mars)
A few additions that others have suggested:
- Snowflake, AZ (two people named Snow and Flake)
- Lake Mountain (George Lake)
- German chocolate cake (Samuel German)
- Baker’s Chocolate (Walter Baker)
- Unilever (Lever Brothers)
Even more, after this made the rounds again in 2024:
- Brown noise (Robert Brown)
- Southern blot (Edwin Southern)
- Smart & Final (Jim Smart, Hildane Final)
- Elo (Arpad Elo)
- Shrapnel (Henry Shrapnel)
- Leatherman (Timothy Leatherman)
- Max Factor (Max Factor)
- BernzOmatic torches (Otto Bernz)
- Waterfall Glen (Seymour Waterfall)
- Gasoline (John Cassell)
- ColorBrewer (Cynthia Brewer)
- Morgan Hill, CA (Hiram Morgan Hill)
Unfortunately, Rocket Lab does not seem to be named after seed investor/aerospace entrepreneur Mark Rocket.