Names That Became Nouns

Some of these people, who's names have become nouns, were remembered in a good way. Others were not so fortunate. Either way, NPR came up with this clever report about them.

Many of these names nouns we use almost on a daily basis.

The NPR report, quite cleverly, discusses Henry Shrapnel, Jules Leotard, Robert Bunsen, Samuel Maverick, Charles Boycott and several other individuals. Names who have become indelible expressions that lasted far beyond their life spans.

Source: NPR
Credit: Adam Cole, Robert Krulwich

There's also a long list of inventions named after the people who discovered them.

A couple more not mentioned in the article--'MICKEY FINN'- Michael Finnish, An American saloon keeper

'PLATONIC'- Plato, the Greek philosopher

'RITZY'- The Swiss hotelier, César Ritz

'DRACONIAN'- Draco a legislator in Athens (around 650 BC). Even minor offenses resulted in death penalties

'CASANOVA'- Giovanni Jacopo Casanova de Seingalt (Italy). Lover of adventure and women

'HOOLIGAN'- Patrick Hooligan, an Irish bouncer and thief who lived in the London

'GERRYMANDER'- Elbridge Gerry, 9th Governor of Massachusetts who died in 1814. The first guy to redraw electoral districts. (5th vice-President under James Madison). He said, "The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy." Maybe this explains why he did what he did.