WARD'S BOOK OF EPONYMS Who gave their names to what
If you have ever wondered who gave their names to things and places, you will find the answer here. You can read about John Sandwich, George Dallas, Gustave Eiffel, James of York (New York), Clarence Birds-Eye, Charles Baltimore and many many others.
This is Ward's Book of Eponyms where you will find a large list of people who had things named after them. This page is devoted to things named after people whose name begins with the letter:
U
Uranus uranium In Greek mythology, Ouranos was the god of the heavens. The Romans called him Uranus. He was the original ruler of the universe before he was deposed and castrated by his son, Cronus. Sir William Herschel (1738–1822), a British astronomer, discovered a new planet in 1781, the first such discovery since ancient times. He named his discovery Uranus in honour of the god of the sky. In 1789, Martin Henrich Klaproth (1743–1817), a German chemist identified a new element, which he named uranium after the new planet. Little did he know that this new element would, in due course, produce the atomic bomb.
Utopia The original Utopia was an ideal republic where there was justice and social harmony ruled only by reason. The concept was the creation of St Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), an English statesman, who wrote a book on this fictional ideal world. He called the place Utopia, which is Greek for ‘nowhere’. More was a servant of Henry VIII but fell out of favour when he refused to support the king’s divorce. He was executed when his enemies produced false evidence of treason.Other letters