List of eponyms (A–K)
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) from whom something is said to take its name. The word is back-formed from "eponymous", from the Greek "eponymos" meaning "giving name".
Here is a list of eponyms:
A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I–J – K – L–Z
A
- Niels Henrik Abel – Abelian group
- Achaemenes, founder of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia
- Achilles, Greek mythological character – Achilles' heel, Achilles tendon
- Adam, Biblical character – Adam's apple
- Adam Walsh, Abduction-Murder Victim – Code Adam
- Alvin Adams (1804–1877) – Adams Express
- Thomas Addison – Addison's disease
- Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen – the city of Adelaide in Australia
- Len Adleman – the third letter of the name RSA, an asymmetric algorithm for public key cryptography, is taken from Adleman
- Agatha of Sicily – St. Agatha's Tower
- Agrippina the Younger – Cologne, Germany (formerly Colonia Agrippina)
- Alfred V. Aho – the first letter of the name awk, a computer pattern/action language, is taken from Aho
- Rabbi Akiva – Bnei Akiva
- Semyon Alapin – Alapin's Opening
- Adolf Albin – Albin Countergambit
- Alexander Alekhine – Alekhine's Defence
- Alexander the Great – Alexandria, İskenderun, Kandahar
- Matthew Algie – tea and coffee merchant company
- Alice Liddell – Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Wonderland syndrome
- Alice Roosevelt – Alice blue, said to be the color of her eyes
- Alois Alzheimer – Alzheimer's disease
- Albert, Prince Consort – Prince Albert piercing, a common form of male genital piercing; Alberta (Canada), Albert Bridge, London, Albert Bridge, Glasgow, Royal Albert Dock, Royal Albert Hall, Albert Memorial, Lake Albert, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Albert Medal
- Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss – A&M Records
- Arthur Cecil Alport – Alport syndrome
- Bruce Ames – Ames Test, which tests for carcinogens
- André-Marie Ampère – ampere – unit of electric current, Ampère's law
- Roald Amundsen – Amundsen Sea; Amundsen crater, a crater on the Moon; Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station
- José de Anchieta – Anchieta Island, Anchieta Highway, in Brazil
- Anders Jonas Ångström – angstrom, unit of distance
- Adolf Anderssen – Anderssen's Opening
- Saint Andrew – Order of Saint Andrew, Saint Andrew's Cross, St Andrews, Scotland, San Andreas Fault, and numerous other localities, churches and cathedrals
- Virginia Apgar – the Apgar score, used to determine the general health of neonates
- Antoninus Pius – Antonine Wall
- Saint Thomas Aquinas – many educational institutions
- Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, nicknamed Pichichi – The Pichichi Trophy
- Archimedes – Archimedes' screw, Archimedes' principle, Archimedean point
- William George Armstrong – Armstrong breech-loading gun
- Hans Asperger – Asperger syndrome
- Robert Atkins (nutritionist) – Atkins Diet
- Atlas, a Titan who carried the sky on his shoulders – atlas
- Shlomo Zalman Auerbach – Ramat Shlomo
- Augustus – August
- Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira – Aurélio's Brazilian Portuguese Dictionary.
- Augustus Caesar – the month of August; the city of Zaragoza (originally Caesaraugustus); the city of Caesarea in Israel; numerous other cities once named Caesarea; the Caesarean section, because he was supposedly born in this manner
- R. Stanton Avery – Avery Dennison Corporation
- Amedeo Avogadro – Avogadro's number, Avogadro's Law
B
- Isaac Babbitt – Babbitt metal.
- Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski, French neurologist – Babinski reflex or Babinski sign, common name for the inverted Plantar reflex
- Lauren Bacall, American actress – Bogart–Bacall syndrome
- Karl Baedeker – Baedeker's
- Leo Baekeland – Bakelite
- William Baffin – Baffin Bay, Baffin Island
- Bahram V Gur – bahramdipity
- Balthazar traditional name for one of the Three Wise Men – 12 litre wine bottle (see Wine bottle#Sizes)
- J. G. Ballard – Ballardian
- János Balogh – Balogh Defense
- Heinrich Band – inventor of the Bandoneón, a free-reed instrument particularly popular in Argentina. It plays an essential role in the orquesta tipica, the tango orchestra.
- Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen – Bang and Olufsen
- Joseph Banks – Banks Peninsula, Banksia genus
- Barbara, daughter of Ruth Handler, creator of Barbie – Barbie doll
- Joseph Barbera and William Hanna – Hanna–Barbera Productions
- Thomas Wilson Barnes – Barnes Opening
- Yvonne Barr and Sir Anthony Epstein – Epstein–Barr virus
- Jean Alexandre Barré – Guillain–Barré syndrome
- Caspar Bartholin the Younger – Bartholin's gland
- Basarab I – Bessarabia
- Béla Bartók – Bartok pizzicato
- Karl Adolph von Basedow – Graves–Basedow disease
- George Bass – Bass Strait
- Tomas Bata – founder of Bata Shoes; Bata Shoe Museum, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Batawa; Batanagar, India; Batapur, Punjab, Pakistan
- Bryce Bayer – Bayer filter
- The Beatles – Beatlesque, Beatle boot, Beatle haircut
- Francis Beaufort – Beaufort scale.
- Heinrich Beck – Beck's beer, Beck's Futures art prize
- Louis de Béchamel, a courtier to King Louis XIV – Béchamel sauce
- Henri Becquerel – becquerel, unit of radioactivity
- Hulusi Behçet, Turkish dermatologist – Behçet's disease
- Adrian Bejan – Bejan number
- Alexander Graham Bell – bel – unit of relative power level; Bell Labs, BellSouth, Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies), Regional Bell operating company – companies. Also gave birth to a slang term i.e. give James a bell, call James on the telephone.
- Eliezer Ben-Yehuda – Ben Yehuda Street
- Edvard Beneš – Beneš decrees
- Pal Benko – Benko Gambit
- Arnold Bennett – Omelette Arnold Bennett, dish developed at the Savoy Hotel, London.
- Carl Benz – Benz & Cie. (later Daimler–Benz)
- Hiram Berdan – Berdan Sharps Rifle
- Vitus Bering – Bering Strait
- David Berkowitz also known as "Son of Sam" – Son of Sam law
- Juan de Bermudez – Bermuda
- Daniel Bernoulli – Bernoulli's principle
- Sergei Natanovich Bernstein, Bernstein polynomial
- Yogi Berra, baseball player – Yogi Bear, a bear in animated cartoons; Yogiisms
- Henry Bessemer – Bessemer converter
- Pierre Bézier, French engineer and creator of the Bézier curve
- Bieda, a Saxon landowner ("Bieda's ford" + shire) – Bedfordshire
- Henry Bird – Bird's Opening
- Laszlo Biro – Biro, (ballpoint pen)
- Otto von Bismarck, first German Chancellor – Bismarck Archipelago and Bismarck Sea near New Guinea; German battleship Bismarck as well as two ships of the Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine); Bismarck, North Dakota
- Fischer Black and Myron Scholes – Black–Scholes model of options pricing
- Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894) – bloomers
- Benjamin Blumenfeld – Blumenfeld Gambit
- Boann the Irish Goddess – The river Boyne
- Johann Elert Bode and Johann Daniel Titius – Titius–Bode Law
- William E. Boeing – Boeing Commercial Airplanes
- Humphrey Bogart – Bogart–Bacall syndrome
- Efim Bogoljubov – Bogo–Indian Defence
- Niels Bohr – Bohr magneton, Bohr radius, bohrium, chemical element
- Lecoq de Boisbaudran – gallium, chemical element. Although named after Gallia (Latin for France), Lecoq de Boisbaudran, the discoverer of the metal, subtly attached an association with his name. Lecoq (rooster) in Latin is gallus.
- Simón Bolívar – Bolivia, Bolívar Department, Colombia, various cities and tows named Bolívar en Venezuela and Colombia, Venezuelan bolívar, Bolívar (cigar brand)
- Ludwig Boltzmann – Boltzmann constant, Stefan–Boltzmann constant, Stefan–Boltzmann law
- Karel Havlíček Borovský – Havlíčkův Brod
- B J T Bosanquet – bosie, the Australian term for the googly
- Satyendra Nath Bose – bosons, Bose–Einstein statistics, Bose–Einstein condensates
- Professor Amar Bose – Bose Speakers
- Dr. Elbert Dysart Botts, Caltrans engineer – Bott's Dots, a street and highway lane separator
- Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French navigator – the bougainvillea plant, which he discovered
- Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832–1897) – boycott
- Robert Boyle – Boyle's Law
- Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), published an edition of Shakespeare without words or expressions unsuitable to family reading, hence bowdlerize
- Jim Bowie – Bowie knife
- Bowman's Capsule, named for Sir William Bowman, a British anatomist
- Brahmagupta – Brahmagupta's formula, Brahmagupta's identity, Brahmagupta's trapezium, Brahmagupta's problem, Brahmagupta's polynomial
- Louis Braille (1809–1852) – the braille writing system for the blind
- Matthew Bramley (butcher) – Bramley apple
- Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza – Brazzaville
- Jack Elton Bresenham - Bresenham's line algorithm
- Ebenezer Cobham Brewer – Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
- Thomas Brisbane – Brisbane and Brisbane River
- Robert Brown – Brownian motion
- John Browning – Browning firearms, including the Browning Automatic Rifle and Browning Hi-Power
- Prince Brychan – Brecknockshire
- Hans-Joachim Bremermann – Bremermann's limit
- Bucca, a Saxon landowner ("Bucca's home" + shire) – Buckinghamshire
- David Dunbar Buick – founder, Buick
- Professor Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811–1899) – Bunsen burner
- General Ambrose Burnside – sideburns
- William Burke – burked – To execute someone by suffocation
- Lord Byron – byronic – Someone particularly melancholic and melodramatic.
C
- John Cadbury – opened his shop in 1824 which became the company Cadbury
- Julius Caesar – the month of July, Caesar cipher, the titles Czar, Tsar, and Kaiser, the Bloody Caesar cocktail. An urban legend also erroneously credits Julius Caesar as having given his name to the Caesarian section; the two are likely unrelated, however.
- John Calvin, 16th century theologian – the religious doctrine of Calvinism; Calvin's name (with Thomas Hobbes) inspired name of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip
- Gerolamo Cardano – the cardan joint, or Universal joint
- Caesar Cardini, restaurateur – Caesar salad
- Horatio Caro – Caro–Kann Defence
- Gian Giacomo Girolamo Casanova – casanova, a womanizer
- Sam Carr, neighbour of David Berkowitz also known as "Son of Sam" – Son of Sam law
- René Descartes, also known as Cartesius – Cartesian coordinate system
- Hendrik Casimir – Casimir effect
- Laurent Cassegrain – Cassegrain reflecting telescope
- Jean Dominique Cassini – Cassini division
- Empress Catherine I of Russia – Yekaterinburg
- Augustin-Louis Cauchy – List of things named after Augustin-Louis Cauchy
- Eduard Čech – Čech cohomology, Čech complex, Čech homology, Stone–Čech compactification
- Anders Celsius – degree Celsius (unit of temperature) Celsius (Moon crater)
- Ceredig – son of Cunedda – Cardigan
- Clyde Cessna – Cessna Aircraft
- Carlos Chagas – Chagas disease
- Jacques François de Chambray – Fort Chambray
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar – Chandrasekhar limit, Chandra X-ray Observatory
- Jean-Martin Charcot, French neurologist – Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease; Maladie de Charcot, the French name for motor neurone disease
- King Charles I of England – North Carolina and South Carolina
- Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor – places called Carlsbad, Karlstein Castle, Karlovy Vary, Charles University, Charles Bridge, asteroid 16951 Carolus Quartus
- Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor – château Karlova Koruna
- Jacques Charles and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac – Law of Charles and Gay-Lussac (frequently called simply Charles' Law)
- Bobby Charlton – the "Bobby Charlton" comb over hairstyle
- Nicolas Chauvin – chauvinism
- Anton Chekhov - Chekhov's gun
- Vitaly Chekhover – Sicilian Defence, Chekhover Variation
- Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov – Cherenkov effect
- Louis Chevrolet – founder, Chevrolet
- Jesus Christ, "The Saviour" – El Salvador, Christianity, Christmas
- Saint Christopher – Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Walter Chrysler – founder of Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler, Chrysler Building
- Alfred Chuang – the third letter of the company name BEA Systems, is taken from Alfred, a co-founder
- Alonzo Church – Church–Turing thesis, Church–Turing–Deutsch principle
- Cincinnatus, Roman statesman – Cincinnati, Ohio (indirectly)
- André Citroën – founder, Citroën
- Senator Claghorn, regular character on the Fred Allen radio show – Foghorn Leghorn, Warner Bros. cartoons
- Claudius, Roman emperor – the city of Kayseri, formerly Caesarea Mazaca, in Turkey
- Ruth Cleveland, daughter of Pres. Grover Cleveland – Baby Ruth candy bars
- Bill Coleman – the first letter of the company name BEA Systems, is taken from Bill, a co-founder
- Edgard Colle – Colle System
- Samuel Colt – Colt revolver
- Christopher Columbus – Egg of Columbus; many places and territories, see Columbus, Colombia, Colombo, British Columbia in Canada
- Arthur Compton – Compton effect
- Confucius – Confucianism
- Constantine I – Roman Emperor who in 330 moved the capital of the Empire to Constantinople
- Captain James Cook – Cook Islands; Cooktown (Queensland); James Cook University (Townsville); Cook (suburb of Canberra; co-named for Sir Joseph Cook); Cooks River; Cook (Federal electorate); James Cook University Hospital (Marton, Middlesbrough, England); Aoraki/Mount Cook; Cook Strait
- Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis – Coriolis effect
- Nicolas Cotoner – Cottonera Lines
- Charles-Augustin de Coulomb – coulomb – unit of electric charge, Coulomb's law
- Michael Cowpland – founded the software company Corel (from Cowpland's Research Laboratory). Cowpland also co-founded the PBX Design / Build Company Mitel with Terry Matthews. (Mitel stands MIke and TErry's Lawnmowers)
- Richard Cox (horticulturist) – Cox's Orange Pippin
- Seymour Cray – Cray Research
- Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Maria Jakob – Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease
- Burrill Bernard Crohn – Crohn's disease
- Cunedda – Gwynedd
- Marie and Pierre Curie – curie, unit of radioactivity, curium, chemical element
- Pierre Curie – Curie point
- Harvey Cushing – Cushing Disease, a pituitary tumor producing adrenocorticotropic hormone that causes excessive cortisol production
- Harvey Cushing – Cushing's Syndrome, a clinical condition characterized by excessive production of cortisol
- Saint Cuthbert ("church of Cuthbert") – Kirkcudbright
- Saint Cyril – Cyrillic alphabet
D
- Jacques Daguerre – Daguerreotype
- Anders Dahl (1751–1789) – Dahlia
- Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz – Daimler–Benz (later DaimlerChrysler)
- Dalek – Popular nickname for the Bridgewater Place, Dalekmania
- John Dalton – dalton, non-SI unit of atomic mass, Daltonism
- Pedro Damiano – Damiano Defence
- Glenn Danzig – Danzig, founder of the Heavy Metal band Danzig
- Charles Darwin – Darwinism, Neural Darwinism, Social Darwinism, Darwinian Happiness, Darwin's theory of evolution, Darwinian selection, Non-darwinian evolution, Darwinian medicine, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin Mounds, Charles Darwin University, Darwin College, Cambridge, Charles Darwin National Park, Adelaide–Darwin railway, Darwin Awards, Darwin's finches, Darwin Island, Charles Darwin Research Station, Darwin Bay, Lecocarpus darwinii (a tree species) in (Galápagos Islands), Charles Darwin Foundation
- Adi Dassler – founder of adidas
- David – City of David, David's harp
- Arthur Davidson and William Harley – Harley–Davidson
- Humphry Davy – Davy lamp
- Richard Dawkins – Dawkinsia, Richard Dawkins Award
- Paul de Casteljau – de Casteljau's algorithm
- Michael Dell – founder of Dell, the computer company
- Delmonico, America's first restaurant – Delmonico steak (boneless Prime rib)
- David Eisenhower, grandson of US President Dwight Eisenhower – Camp David US presidential retreat
- Thomas Derrick (c. 1600), British hangman – Derrick (lifting device)
- Melvil Dewey – Dewey Decimal System
- Thomas Edmund Dewey, American politician – Dewey, one of "Huey, Dewey and Louie", animated cartoon characters
- David Deutsch – Church–Turing–Deutsch principle
- Saint Didacus – San Diego
- Bo Diddley – Popularizer of the Bo Diddley beat
- Rudolf Diesel – the diesel engine
- Paul Dirac – Dirac fermion, Dirac spinor, Dirac equation, Dirac delta function, Dirac sea, Dirac Prize, Fermi–Dirac statistics
- Walt Disney – founder, The Walt Disney Company, Disneyland, Disneyfication
- Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason – Mason–Dixon Line
- John Francis Dodge and Horace Dodge – founders, Dodge
- Doily family (c. 1700)
- Ray Dolby – Dolby Stereo, Dolby Surround and Dolby Pro Logic
- Donatello, Renaissance painter – Donatello, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic characters
- Christian Doppler – Doppler radar, Doppler effect
- Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. – Douglas Aircraft Company
- Charles Dow and Edward Jones – Dow Jones & Company
- Herbert Dow – The Dow Chemical Company
- John Langdon Down, English physician – Down syndrome
- Robin Dunbar – Dunbar's number
- Guillaume Dupuytren – Dupuytren's contracture, Dupuytren's fracture
- Dr. August Dvorak – Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
- Draco (lawgiver) – Draconian laws
- Henry Draper – Draper (crater), lunar impact crater
- John William Draper – Draper point, 977˚ F (525˚ C, 798 K)
- Duns Scotus – Dunce cap
E
- Jay Earley - Earley parser
- Thomas Edison – Edison effect, Edison Records, Edisonian approach, Edison, Georgia, Edison, New Jersey, Edisonade
- Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (younger brother of King George IV and King William IV), commander of British forces in Halifax – Prince Edward Island
- Gustave Eiffel – Eiffel Tower, designer
- Albert Einstein – Einstein refrigerator, einsteinium – chemical element, Bose–Einstein statistics, Bose–Einstein condensates, Einstein tensor
- David Eisenhower – Camp David
- Queen Elizabeth I of England, the "Virgin Queen" and "Wingina", a Native American regional king – Virginia, West Virginia, Elizabethan sonnet, Elizabethan era, Elizabethan theatre, Elizabethan architecture, Elizabethan government
- Saint Elmo – St. Elmo's fire
- Arpad Elo – Elo rating system
- Loránd Eötvös – eotvos, gravitational gradient
- Sir Anthony Epstein and Yvonne Barr – Epstein–Barr virus
- Lars Magnus Ericsson – Ericsson
- Agner Krarup Erlang (1878–1929) – in telecommunications and queueing theory, the Erlang (unit) and Erlang distribution are widely used; in computing, the concurrent-processing Erlang (programming language)
- Emil Erlenmeyer – Erlenmeyer flask
- Leonhard Euler – Euler's formula, Eulerian path, Euler equations; see also: List of topics named after Leonhard Euler
- Europa – Europe
- Bartolomeo Eustachi – Eustachian tube
- William Davies Evans – Evans Gambit
- Sir George Everest* – Mount Everest
- Ewale a Mbedi – Duala people, Douala (from a variant of his name, Dwala)
- Edward Eyre – Lake Eyre, Eyre Peninsula, Eyre Highway, Eyre Creek, Mount Eyre, Eyre Mountains (New Zealand)
F
- Johannes Fabry – Fabry disease
- Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736) – the Fahrenheit scale
- Ernst Falkbeer – Falkbeer Countergambit
- Gabriele Falloppio – Fallopian tube
- Michael Faraday – farad – SI unit of capacitance, faraday – cgs unit of current Faraday constant, Faraday effect, Faraday's law of induction, Faraday's law of electrolysis
- Guy Fawkes – guy
- Enrico Fermi – fermions, Fermi energy, Fermilab, Fermi paradox, fermium – chemical element, Fermi–Dirac statistics. fermi (obsolete name for femtometre)
- Enzo Ferrari – founder, Ferrari
- George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. – Ferris wheel
- Richard Feynman – Feynman diagram
- Fib of the Picts, one of the seven sons of Cruthin – Fife
- Leonardo Fibonacci (1175–1250), Mathematician – Fibonacci Numbers
- Bobby Fischer – Fischer Defense
- Robert Fisk – Fisking
- Matthew Flinders – Flinders Bay, Flinders Chase National Park, Flinders Island, Flinders Ranges, Flinders River, Flinders Street Station, Flinders University, Flinders, Victoria (Australia)
- Pietro Paolo Floriani – Floriana, Floriana Lines
- B.C. Forbes – Forbes magazine
- Henry Ford – Ford Motor Company
- Matthias N. Forney – Forney locomotive
- William Forsyth (1737–1804) – Forsythia
- Charles Fort – Forteana, Fortean Society, Fortean Times
- Dick Fosbury – American athlete Fosbury flop, used in the high jump
- Francis of Assisi – San Francisco
- Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hungary – Franz Josef Land
- Benjamin Franklin – Franklin stove, franklin – cgs unit of electric charge
- William Fox – 20th Century Fox
- Sigmund Freud – Freudian slip
- Guido Fubini (1879–1943), Math/Measurements – Fubini's theorem
- Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566) – Fuchsia
- Captain Fudge (17th Century captain of The Black Eagle) - To fudge the truth.
- Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita (1920–1998) – Fujita scale
- Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) – Fullerene
G
- Johan Gadolin, Finnish chemist and geologist – gadolinite, the mineral after which the chemical element gadolinium has been named
- Thomas Gage (botanist) – greengage
- Uziel Gal – the Uzi submachine gun
- Galileo Galilei – galileo or gal, unit of acceleration
- Israel Galili – the Galil assault rifle
- Luigi Galvani (1737–1798), discovered the Galvanic response of muscles to electricity. The process of galvanization is also named after him.
- James Gamble and William Procter – Procter & Gamble
- Henry Laurence Gantt – Gantt chart
- John Garand – M1 Garand rifle
- Alexander Garden (naturalist) – after whom the gardenia was named.
- Giuseppe Garibaldi – Garibaldi biscuits, Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Gideon Gartner – Gartner
- Hermann Treschow Gartner – Gartner's duct
- Martin Garzez – Garzes Tower
- Richard J. Gatling – Gatling gun
- Charles de Gaulle – Charles de Gaulle Airport
- Carl Friedrich Gauss – gauss – unit of magnetic induction, Gauss' law; see also: List of topics named after Carl Friedrich Gauss.
- Enola Gay Tibbets – Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. Tibbets' son Paul Tibbets, pilot of the plane, named it after his mother.
- Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Jacques Charles – Law of Charles and Gay-Lussac
- Lou Gehrig, American Baseball player – Lou Gehrig's disease
- Hans Geiger – Geiger counter, Geiger–Müller tube
- King George I of Great Britain – Georgia (U.S. state)
- King George V of Great Britain – King George Street (Jerusalem), King George Street (Tel Aviv), King George V Dock
- King George VI of Great Britain – George Cross, George Medal
- Saint George – Order of Saint George, Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Saint George's Cross, Georgia (country), Saint George's, Grenada, and numerous other localities, churches and cathedrals
- Elbridge Gerry – gerrymandering
- Domingo Ghirardelli – Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
- Josiah Willard Gibbs – Gibbs free energy, Gibbs phenomenon
- Thomas Gilbert – Kiribati
- King Camp Gillette – founder, Gillette
- William Gladstone - British Prime Minister - Gladstone bag
- Gaston Glock – GLOCK GmbH and its best-known product, the Glock pistol
- Kurt Gödel – Gödel's incompleteness theorem, Gödel's ontological proof
- Maria Goeppert-Mayer – Goeppert-Mayer (GM) unit for the cross section of two-photon absorption
- Samuel Goldwyn – Goldwyn Picture Corporation, later merged into Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer Inc. (or MGM)
- Wilbert Gore – Gore-Tex
- Klement Gottwald – Zlín, a city in Moravia, the Czech Republic, was renamed Gottwaldov during 1949–1990
- Ernst Gräfenberg – Gräfenberg spot (G-spot)
- Sylvester Graham – Graham crackers, Graham flour
- Thomas Graham – Graham's Law
- Robert James Graves – Graves–Basedow disease
- Louis Harold Gray – gray, unit of absorbed dose of radiation
- Henri Grob – Grob's Attack
- Edward Vernon - (1684-1757) Vice Admiral "Old Grog" Vernon ordered all rations of rum to be watered down to reduce brawling in 1740.
- Ernst Grünfeld – Grünfeld Defence
- Vicente Guerrero – Guerrero
- Georges Guillain – Guillain–Barré syndrome
- Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814) – advocate of what came to be called the guillotine
- Henry C. Gunning – mineral gunningite
- Robert John Lechmere Guppy (1836–1916) – guppy or guppie
H
- Hadrian – Hadrian's Wall and Hadrian's Wall Path
- Amber Hagerman, abducted child – AMBER Alert
- Otto Hahn – hahnium, chemical element. This element name is not accepted by IUPAC. See element naming controversy
- Edwin Hall – Hall effect
- Edmond Halley – Halley's Comet
- Hugh Halligan – Halligan bar
- Laurens Hammond – Hammond Organ
- Hamo, a 6th-century Saxon settler and landowner – Hampshire
- John Hancock, signatory of the US Declaration of Independence – John Hancock, a signature
- Elliot Handler and Harold "Matt" Matson – Mattel
- William Hanna and Joseph Barbera – Hanna–Barbera Productions
- Gerhard Armauer Hansen – Hansen's disease
- Charles Henry Harrod – founder, Harrods
- William Harley and Arthur Davidson – Harley–Davidson
- David Harris (protester) – David's Album
- Alexis Hartmann – Hartmann's solution, given via the IV route to patients
- Douglas Hartree – Hartree energy
- Gerry Harvey and Ian Norman – Harvey Norman
- Hashimoto Hakaru – Hashimoto's thyroiditis
- Hassan-i-Sabah, leader of the murderous Hashshashin cult – assassin from hassansin (this etymology is disputed)
- Victor Hasselblad – Hasselblad, medium format photographic camera system
- Stephen Hawking – Hawking radiation
- Paul Hawkins – Hawk-Eye tracking system used in cricket and other sports
- Frank Hawthorne – mineral Frankhawthorneite
- Oliver Heaviside and Arthur Edwin Kennelly – Kennelly–Heaviside layer
- Henry Heimlich – Heimlich Maneuver
- Gerard Adriaan Heineken – founder, Heineken
- John Henry – John Henryism, psychological term
- Joseph Henry – henry, unit of inductance
- William Henry – Henry's law
- Milton S. Hershey – Hershey Company
- Heinrich Rudolf Hertz – hertz, unit of frequency
- Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell – Hertzsprung–Russell diagram
- William Hewlett and David Packard – founders, Hewlett–Packard
- Edward C. Heyde – Heyde's syndrome
- Miguel Hidalgo – Hidalgo
- David Hilbert – Hilbert's program
- Eugen von Hippel – Von Hippel–Lindau disease
- Harald Hirschsprung, Danish physician – Hirschsprung's disease
- Paul von Hindenburg – after whom the Hindenburg airship was named
- Thomas Hobbes, 17th century philosopher – Hobbes from "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip
- Thomas Hobson (1544–1630), stable manager in England – Hobson's choice, an only apparently free choice that is no choice at all
- Thomas Hodgkin – Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Homer, father of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons – Homer Simpson, character in The Simpsons animated TV series
- Sherlock Holmes – anyone who solves a mystery or a difficult problem, based on the fictional character by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Soichiro Honda – founder, Honda
- Mark Honeywell – founder, Honeywell
- Robin Hood, English folk hero – Robin Hood effect, Robin Hood Foundation, Robin Hood Flour, Robin Hood Hills, Robin Hood hat, Robin Hood index, Robin Hood Gardens, Robin Hood plan, Robin Hood tax, Robin Hood test, Robin Hood character (someone who steals money to give it to the poor or a criminal who becomes a folk hero), Robin of the Batman series
- Robert Hooke – Hooke's law
- William Henry Hoover (1849–1932) – The Hoover Company; in British English, the verb "hoover" means "to vacuum a floor" while the noun is the vacuum cleaner. The word "hoover" has also come to mean anything that is sucked up at a great rate ("They hoovered their way through the banquet").
- August Horch – founder of Audi (audi is Latin for horch. It means listen in English)
- Leslie Hore-Belisha – Belisha beacon
- James Horlick and William Horlick – founded the company Horlicks in 1873
- William Howe (1803–1852) – Howe truss bridges
- Hroc, an ancient landowner ("Hroc's fortress" + shire) – Roxburghshire
- Henry Hudson – Hudson Bay, Hudson River, Hudson Strait
- Howard Hughes – Hughes Aircraft company, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Hughes Airwest airlines, Hughes Glomar Explorer ship
- Howard R. Hughes, Sr. – Hughes Tool Company, Baker Hughes company
- Alexander von Humboldt – Humboldt Bay, Humboldt Current, Humboldt Falls, Humboldt Glacier, Humboldt lily, Humboldt Peak, Humboldt penguin, Humboldt Range, Humboldt River, Humboldt Sink, Humboldt squid, Pico Humboldt, Humboldt University of Berlin, Humboldt State University, Humboldtian Science, Humboldt's hog-nosed skunk
- John Huss (Czech: Jan Hus) – Hussite, Czechoslovak Hussite Church
I–J
- Max Immelmann – Immelmann turn used in aviation.
- Eleuthère Irénée du Pont – DuPont
- Joseph Marie Jacquard – Jacquard loom
- Jacob – Israel
- Candido Jacuzzi – inventor of the jacuzzi whirlpool bath.
- Maharajah Jai Singh – Jaipur
- Alfons Maria Jakob and Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt – Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease
- Saint James – Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Chile
- Thomas James (sea captain) – James Bay
- Calamity James from The Beano comic
- Calamity Jane – nickname of Martha Jane Canary, Deadwood, South Dakota frontier figure
- Karl Jansky – jansky, unit of flux density
- Robert Jarvik, MD – Jarvik artificial heart
- Jeremiah, the Biblical prophet – jeremiad
- Jeroboam, first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel – Jeroboam wine bottle
- Jessica Lunsford – Jessica's Law
- Jesus Christ – Jesus and Christianity
- John the Baptist – Order of Saint John, San Ġwann
- Tommy John – Tommy John surgery
- Jonathan Carey – Jonathan's Law
- Barry Jones – Barry Jones Bay, Yalkaparidon jonesi
- Edward Jones and Charles Dow – Dow Jones & Company
- Brian David Josephson – Josephson junction, Josephson effect
- James Prescott Joule – joule, unit of energy, unit of work, unit of heat
- Judah (biblical person) (Hebrew: יהודה, Yehuda) – Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C., Kingdom of Judah
- Judas Iscariot – Judas
- Julius of Caerleon – St Julians, Newport
- Julian the Hospitaller – St. Julian's, St. Julian's Tower
- Justinian I – Codex Justinianus
K
- Franz Kafka – adjective Kafkaesque
- Mikhail Kalashnikov – the Avtomat Kalashnikova series of weapons, including the AK-47, the Kalashnikov Handheld Machine Gun or Ruchnoi Pulemet Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974g (RPK-74)
- Kamen Rider – The main protagonists of the various series in this Japanese TV franchise are named after their corresponding TV series.
- Ingvar Kamprad – the first two letters of IKEA, the home furnishings retailer he founded
- Gaetano Kanizsa, Italian psychologist – Kanizsa triangle
- Megan Kanka, abducted child – Megan's Law
- Moritz Kaposi, Hungarian dermatologist – Kaposi's sarcoma
- Theodore von Kármán – Karman line
- Anna Karenina
- Tadao Kashio – founder of Casio
- Yevgeny Kaspersky – Kaspersky Anti-Virus
- Shozo Kawasaki – founder, Kawasaki Heavy Industries
- Tomisaku Kawasaki – Kawasaki disease
- Grace Kelly – Hermès Kelly bag
- Lord Kelvin – kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature
- John F. Kennedy – John F. Kennedy International Airport, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center Honors, John F. Kennedy University
- Arthur Edwin Kennelly and Oliver Heaviside – Kennelly–Heaviside layer
- Paul Keres – Keres Defence
- Brian W. Kernighan – the third letter of the name awk, a computer pattern/action language, is taken from Kernighan
- John Kerr (physicist) – Kerr effect
- John Maynard Keynes – Keynesian economics
- Wilhelm Killing – Killing vector field
- Gustav Kirchhoff – Kirchhoff's Laws
- Donald Knuth – Knuth–Morris–Pratt algorithm
- Ed Koch – Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge
- Zoltán Kodály – Kodály Method
- Alexander Konstantinopolsky – Konstantinopolsky Opening
- Abraham Isaac Kook – Mossad Harav Kook
- Wladimir Peter Köppen – Köppen climate classification
- Aharon Kotler – Ramat Aharon
- Alfried Krupp – founder of Krupp, now ThyssenKrupp
- Gerard Kuiper – Kuiper Belt
L–Z
An asterisk designates people who became eponyms despite their stated wishes not to.