Aneponym is anoun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the wordeponym includeeponymous andeponymic.
Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovations, biological nomenclature, astronomical objects, works of art and media, and tribal names. Various orthographic conventions are used for eponyms.
The termeponym[2][3] functions in multiple related ways, all based on an explicit relationship between two named things.Eponym may refer to a person – or, less commonly,[3] a place or thing – for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named.Eponym may also refer to someone or something named after, or believed to be named after, a person – or, less commonly, a place or thing. A person, place, or thing named after a particular person share an eponymous relationship. In this way,Elizabeth I of England is the eponym of theElizabethan era, but theElizabethan era can also be referred to as the eponym ofElizabeth I of England. Eponyms may be named for things or places, for example10 Downing Street, a building named after its street address. Adjectives and verbs may be eponyms, for examplebowdlerize.
Adjectives derived from the word eponym includeeponymous andeponymic. WhenHenry Ford is referred to as "theeponymous founder of theFord Motor Company", his surname "Ford" and the name of the motor company have an eponymous relationship. The word "eponym" can also refer to thetitle character of a fictional work (such asRocky Balboa of theRocky film series), as well as toself-titled works named after their creators (such as the albumThe Doors by the bandthe Doors).
Periods have often been named after a ruler or other influential figure:
One of the first recorded cases of eponymy occurred in the second millennium BC, when theAssyrians named each year after a high official (limmu).
Inancient Greece, theeponymous archon was the highest magistrate inclassical Athens. Eponymous archons served a term of one year which took the name of that particular archon (e.g., 594 BC was named afterSolon). Later historians provided yet another case of eponymy by referring to the period offifth-century Athens as The Age of Pericles after its most influential statesmanPericles.
TheHebrew Bible explains the origins of peoples through individuals who bear their name. Jacob is renamed "Israel" (Gen 35:9) and his sons (or grandsons) name the original12 tribes of Israel, while Edomites (Gen. 25:30), Moabites and Ammonites (Gen. 19:30-38), Canaanites (Gen. 9:20-27) and other tribes (the Kenites named after Cain[citation needed] (Cain's life is detailed in Gen. 4:1-16)) are said to be named after other primal ancestors bearing their name. In most cases, the experiences and behavior of the ancestor is meant to indicate the characteristics of the people who take their name.
Inancient Rome, one of the two formal ways of indicating a year was to cite the two annualconsuls who served in that year. For example, the year we know as 59 BC would have been described as "the consulship ofMarcus Calpurnius Bibulus andGaius Julius Caesar" (although that specific year was known jocularly as "the consulship of Julius and Caesar" because of the insignificance of Caesar's counterpart). Under the empire, the consuls would change as often as every two months, but only the two consuls at the beginning of the year would lend their names to that year.
During theChristian era, itself eponymous, many royal households used eponymous dating byregnal years. The Roman Catholic Church, however, eventually used theAnno Domini dating scheme - based on the birth of Christ - on both the general public and royalty. The regnal year standard is still used with respect to statutes and law reports published in some parts of the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries (England abandoned this practice in 1963).
Government administrations may become referred to eponymously, such asKennedy's Camelot andthe Nixon Era.
British monarchs have become eponymous throughout the English-speaking world for time periods, fashions, etc.Elizabethan,Georgian,Victorian, andEdwardian are examples of these.
Inbiological nomenclature, organisms often receivescientific names that honor a person. Examples are the plantLinnaea (afterCarl Linnaeus), the baobabAdansonia (afterMichel Adanson), and the mothCaligula (after the Roman emperorCaligula).[11][12]Common names can also be named after a person. Later, people may decide that they do not wish to memorialize a particular person, resulting in efforts to change a long-standing name. As debating each individual name is time-consuming, theAmerican Ornithological Society announced in 2024 that they would establish new common names for all birds in North America that had previously been named after a person, without regard to whether modern culture would judge the person well or poorly.[13]
Many astronomical objects are named after their discoverer or another person.[14]
In art:
Plays, books, and other forms of entertainment may have eponymous names, such as the ancient Greek epicThe Odyssey, derived from its principal character,Odysseus, and the novelRobinson Crusoe.
The term is also used in themusic industry, usually with regard to record titles, where it is prevalent and leads to confusion. For example,Bad Company's first album was entitledBad Company and contained a popular song named "Bad Company". Parodying this, the bandR.E.M. titled a 1988 compilation albumEponymous. One especially convoluted case of eponyms is the 1969 song "Black Sabbath", named after the 1963 movieBlack Sabbath; the band that wrote the song changed their name toBlack Sabbath and released it on the albumBlack Sabbath.
In tribal antiquity, both in ancient Greece and independently among the Hebrews, tribes often took the name of a legendary leader (asAchaeus forAchaeans, orDorus forDorians). The eponym gave apparent meaning to the mysterious names of tribes, and sometimes, as in theSons of Noah, provided a primitive attempt atethnology as well, in the genealogical relationships of eponymous originators.
However, some eponymous adjectives andnoun adjuncts are nowadays entered in many dictionaries as lowercase when they have evolved a common status, no longer deriving their meaning from the proper-noun origin.[17] For example,Herculean when referring to Hercules himself, but oftenherculean when referring to the figurative, generalized extension sense;[17] andquixotic anddiesel engine [lowercase only].[17][18] For any given term, one dictionary may enter only lowercase or only cap, whereas other dictionaries may recognize the capitalized version as a variant, either equally common as, or less common than, the first-listed styling (marked with labels such as "or", "also", "often", or "sometimes").The Chicago Manual of Style, in its section "Words derived from proper names",[19] gives some examples of both lowercase and capitalized stylings, including a few terms styled both ways, and says, "Authors and editors must decide for themselves, but whatever choice is made should be followed consistently throughout a work."
When the eponym is used together with a noun, the common-noun part is not capitalized (unless it is part of a title or it is the first word in a sentence). For example, inParkinson disease (named afterJames Parkinson),Parkinson is capitalized, butdisease is not. In addition, the adjectival form, where one exists, is usually lowercased for medical terms (thusparkinsonian althoughParkinson disease),[20] andgram-negative,gram-positive althoughGram stain.[21] Uppercase Gram-positive or Gram-negative however are also commonly used inscientific journal articles and publications.[22][23][24] In other fields, the eponym derivative is commonly capitalized, for example,Newtonian in physics,[25][26] andPlatonic in philosophy (however, use lowercaseplatonic when describing love).[15] The capitalization is retained after a prefix and hyphen, e.g.non-Newtonian.[15]
English can use eithergenitive case or attributive position to indicate the adjectival nature of the eponymous part of the term. (In other words, that part may be either possessive or non-possessive.) ThusParkinson's disease andParkinson disease are both acceptable. Medical dictionaries have been shifting toward nonpossessive styling in recent decades.[27] ThusParkinson disease is more likely to be used in the latest medical literature (especially inpostprints) thanParkinson's disease.
American and British English spelling differences may apply to eponyms. For example, British style would typically becaesarean section, which is also found in American medical publications, butcæsarean section (with a ligature) is sometimes seen in (mostly older) British writing, andcesarean is preferred by American dictionaries and some American medical works.[28]
AMA Manual of Style lowercases the termsroman numerals andarabic numerals. MWCD enters the numeral sense under the headwordRoman but with the note "not cap" on the numeral sense.[17]
