Words in English that began as someone’s name are “eponyms.” Probably the most-used eponym in English is “sandwich,” which is named after the Earl of Sandwich (1718 to 1792). The Earl’s given name was John Montagu, and supposedly he invented the “slice of meat between two pieces of bread.” It’s probably not true, but he was a prominent member of the nobility and he did at least popularize it, so today it still bears his name. It’s lucky he had that title, or else we might have contention for the word “john” (which is possibly another epoynym).
When you want to say that someone goes his own way and doesn’t follow the crowd, you might call them a “maverick.” That’s another eponym, after Samuel Maverick, who was a rancher in Texas in the 1800s. It seems he didn’t brand the cattle on his ranch, so when the other ranchers found a steer wandering around without any identifying marks, they took to calling it a “maverick”.
There are also eponyms based on fictional characters rather than real people. A person who manipulates another, often from hiding, is called a “Svengali.” The original Svengali was not a real person — he was a character in a novel from 1894 called “Trilby.” It was written by George du Maurier, who was probably eternally grateful that manipulators didn’t end up being called “Mauriers”.
That brings us to another eponym that’s less common, but still in use (particularly regionally): “boniface.” A boniface is a convivial, welcoming innkeeper — nowadays that might be a restaurant manager who greets the guests and checks to make sure the service is to their liking. It’s used as an adjective, as in “the manager of Le Mouton Noir in Saratoga, CA is boniface” (this is, or at least was, quite true). This one also comes from fiction. “Boniface” comes from a play written by George Farquhar in 1707: “The Beaux’ Strategem.” An important character is a jovial innkeeper named “Boniface.” Evidently the play was so popular in the early 1700s that the character’s name entered the language.
The list of eponyms in English goes on for quite some length: braille, cardigan, and even the ubiquitous “guy,” which comes from Guy Fawkes. “Mentor” comes from a friend of Odysseus in the Odyssey. “Panic” comes from that era too; it’s from the god Pan in Greek mythology. Some eponyms are pretty obvious, like “morse code” and “pasteurization” — but some connections have mostly been forgotten, like “silhouette.” It’s from Etienne de Silhouette, who was the French minister of Finance in the 1700s. He didn’t make silhouettes; instead he imposed such heavy taxes that people began to substitute having their profiles cut out of paper for the more expensive practice of having their portraits painted.
The list goes on: boycott is an eponym, as is atlas, derby (in the sense of a horse race), leotard, nicotine, and teddy bear. And of course, some eponyms are obviously based on someone’s name and even retain their capitalization, like the machine that resurfaces the ice on an ice rink — the Zamboni. It was invented (and the Zamboni company founded) by Frank Zamboni, who opened an ice rink in Los Angeles in 1940 (it’s still in business; it’s called the Iceland Rink). The original Zamboni machine used parts from an airplane, a Jeep, and an oil derrick, and took 9 years to perfect. Frank Zamboni didn’t make it to sell; he just wanted to resurface his own rink — but the famous figure skater Sonja Henie saw it and (apparently to Frank’s astonishment) ordered two! After that it caught on, and the Montreal Canadiens hockey team took delivery of the ten thousandth Zamboni machine in 2012.
