Eponym
- For the R.E.M. album, see Eponymous (album)
An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, which has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery or other item. An eponymous person is the person referred to by the eponym. In contemporary English, the term "eponymous" is often used to mean "self-titled." The word eponym is often used for the thing titled.
Political eponyms of time periods
In different cultures, time periods have often been named after the person who ruled during that period.
- One of the first cases of eponymity occurred in the second millennium BC, when the Assyrians named each year after a high official (limmu).
- In ancient Greece, the eponym archon was the highest magistrate in Athens. The Archon of Athens had a yearly charge and each year was named after the elected one (e.g., the year 594 BC was named after Solon).
- In Rome, the two annual consuls, as formal chief magistrates of the Roman republic (never constitutionally abolished, so still formally the joint heads of government even under the "political" reality of empire, both principate and dominate) gave both their names — regardless whether either one was reelected — to the year they were in office, this being the formal way of dating, alongside the "Ab Urbe Condita" continuous year ordinal (starting from the mythical date of the founding of Rome), the Greek Olympiad or even the rather pointless fiscal indiction (yet a tradition long surviving the Roman empire).
- Famously, when the future dictator-for-life Julius Caesar was in office with an entirely insignificant political colleague, the jocular phrase was "the consulate of Julius AND Caesar". Emperors would often be elected consul, some even repeatedly, but never had an automatic right to be eponymous.
- Well into the Christian era, dating eponymously by reign-years (the first, 2nd etc year of a named monarch) was not uncommon in various chanceries, especially at the court of a prince aspiring pivotal importance to his entire state's society, and was copied by minor dignitaries, even prelates. But the church, carefully presenting God as the supreme monarch above all mortal rulers (at times with some success in positioning its ecclesiastic head, the pope, as his viceregent on earth - sovereigns as John Lackland of England recognized him as their suzerain, the Holy Roman Emperor's refusal to do so being the ideological stake of the medieval so-called Investiture conflict), would succeed in imposing first on the public, and ultimately on all royal scripts, the 'neutral' dating AD.
- Presidential administrations often become eponymous for a time period or trend, e.g., The Nixon Era, Jeffersonian Expansionism, A Kennedy Camelot, or simply the days of the Clinton administration.
- British monarchs have become eponymous, throughout the English speaking world, for time periods, fashions, etc. Edwardian, Georgian, and most famous of all, Victorian, are examples of these.
Other eponyms
- Both in ancient Greece and independently among the Hebrews, a legendary leader of a tribe gave his name to it (as Achaeus for Achaeans, or Dorus for Dorians). The eponym gave apparent meaning to the mysterious names of tribes, and sometimes, as in the Sons of Noah, provided a primitive attempt at ethnology too, in the genealogical relationships of eponymous originators.
- Places and towns can also be given an etymological meaning through an important figure: Peloponnesus was said to derive its name from Pelops. In historical times, new towns have often been named and renamed for historical figures.
- In science and technology, discoveries are often named after the (supposed) discoverer, or to honor some other influential workers. Examples are Avogadro's number, the Diesel engine, and Parkinson's disease.
- In the post-colonial United States of America, John Hancock's name has come to mean "signature".
- In (modern) art
- Some books, films, and TV shows have an eponymous principal character(s): Robinson Crusoe and Daria, for example.
- The term is also applied to music, usually with regard to record titles. For example, Blur's 1997 album was also titled Blur. Many other artists and bands have also served as eponyms of albums or singles, usually as their debut or second release. (Blur is an oddity in that their album Blur was their 5th release.) Some bands, such as the Tindersticks, Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran, and Weezer, have released more than one and are thus referred to in other ways, including number (Led Zeppelin IV) and album art ( The Blue Album). Peter Gabriel's first four long play releases were all such (though the fourth was given a title for its US release). Another more common term is the self-titled album. The band R.E.M. titled their 1988 compilation CD Eponymous as a joke.
- Self-titled albums are often indicated with the abbreviation "s/t," e.g., "They Might Be Giants (s/t)"
Lists of eponyms
By person's name
By category
- Adages
- Adjectives
- Asteroids
- Astronomical objects
- Cartoon characters
- Chemical elements
- Companies
- Diseases
- Foods
- Human anatomical parts
- Inventions
- Medical terms
- Musical terms
- Observations
- Places and political entities
- Prizes, awards and medals
- Scientific constants
- Scientific laws
- Scientific phenomena
- Scientific units
- Sports terms
See also
- Etymology
- Lists of etymologies
- Antonomasia
- Genericized trademark
- List of literary works with eponymous heroines
- Fake etymology (fake eponyms)
- Metonym
- Proprietary eponym
- List of eponymous diseases