Generic Words that originate from names

It's fun to discover the origins of words we use everyday. Many words were once either someone's name or a product name, or even a place name.

I'll preempt Wilsjane and use Thomas Crapper as an example, the man who invented the toilet or WC and knows crap when he sees it!

Post up as many words you can think of that were once names and are now generic words. Provide info on the names.

 

Names of historical groups are ok too like the Thugs and Vandals.

Thugs: One of a group of professional criminals, devotees of Kali, who robbed and murdered travelers in northern India until the mid-1800s.

Vandals: the Vandals were a Germanic people who plundered Rome for fourteen days,[3] Renaissance and early-modern writers characterized the Vandals as prototypical barbarians. This led to the use of the term "vandalism" to describe any pointless destruction, particularly the "barbarian" defacing of artwork.

 

Jesus H. Christ?

 

MacGyvered. To be clever and resourceful enough to make anything out of common items.

 

Many places names have become generic for various things, esp. things like wine.

Champagne was becoming a generic term meaning almost any bubbly wine. It's a specific grape growing region in France and they insist the appellation can only apply to wines with grapes grown in Champagne and processed using the traditional hand turn method. So they require the entire world to comply or lawsuits will follow.

 

I hate to be that bitch, but that does bug me. Almost as much as the misuse of charcuterie

 

Here's my TOP 10 list of words & phrases that originated from proper names:

1. Sandwich – Named after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. He supposedly asked for his meat to be placed between two pieces of bread so he could eat without interrupting his gambling game.
   
   
2. Silhouette – Named after Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister. He was known for his austere economic policies, and his name became associated with cheap, shadow-like profiles due to the popularity of inexpensive portraits in his time.
   
   
3. Braille – Named after Louis Braille, the French educator and inventor who developed a system of writing and reading for the blind.
   
   
4. Diesel – Named after Rudolf Diesel, the German inventor of the diesel engine.
   
   
5. Fahrenheit – Named after Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, the Polish-German physicist who invented the temperature scale.
   
   
6. Jacuzzi – Named after the Jacuzzi brothers, Italian-American inventors who developed the first hydrotherapy pump.
   
   
7. Leotard – Named after Jules Léotard, a French acrobat and aerialist who popularized the garment.
   
   
8. Maverick – From Samuel Maverick, a 19th-century American rancher who did not brand his cattle, and they were called "Mavericks."
   
   
9. Cardigan – Named after James Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War. The knitted sweater became associated with him.
   
   
10. Bikini – Named after the Bikini Atoll, a site of atomic bomb tests in the 1940s. The swimsuit was named to suggest that it was as shocking as an atomic explosion.

 

Yes it's a UNESCO thing regarding produce of protected origin.
Melton Mowbray pork pies is another as is the 'Cornish Pasty'. They can be made elsewhere but can't be called those names unless they are compliant with the UNESCO rule.
I think sherry is another.

 

Nobody mentioned Hoover. The generic name for a vacuum cleaner. No it's not Dyson. Lol
And Google, pretty much. Not someone's name but the word used instead of 'search'.

 

Pasteurization from Louis Pasteur who invented it and probably saved tens of millions of lives.

 

Surprisingly, the 2 meanings of the word Turkey seem to be coincidental, but they're not. A similar guinea fowl was imported to England, and it came thru the ottoman empire, or Turkey. It was applied when the similar bird appeared in markets.

 

What about a trump?!
Long before 2016, in the UK, England mostly, when someone farted it was described as trumping.

It was just meant to be. Today we have a Trump trumping from his mouth.

 

In UK, peelers. And bobbies.
Not people removing the skin of potatoes or floating somewhere but, police officers, named after the founder of the police, Sir Robert Peel.