List of eponyms (L-Z)
From Self-sufficiency
An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) whose name has become identified with a particular object or activity.
Here is a list of eponyms:
A–K - L - M - N–O - P - Q–R - S - T - U–V - W - X–Z
L
- Rudolf Laban — choreographer, created labanotation.
- Laconia - an ancient Greek, after whom we name the Laconic phrase
- Ferruccio Lamborghini — founder, Lamborghini
- Francesco Landini — Landini cadence, might be described in its most characteristic form as a variation on the harmonic progression in which an unstable sixth (usually major) expands to a stable octave.
- Paul Langerhans — Islets of Langerhans
- Samuel Pierpont Langley — langley a measurement of solar radiation.
- Lev Davidovich Landau — Landau pole, Landau damping
- Chris Langton — Langton's ant
- Bent Larsen — Larsen's Opening
- Ernest Lawrence — lawrencium, chemical element
- Peter Lee — Peterlee, a town in County Durham
- Alfredo di Lelio — Alfredo sauce
- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin — Leninism, Lenin's Testament, for various places see Lenino and List of places named after Lenin
- John Lennard-Jones — Lennard-Jones potential
- Jules Léotard—leotard
- Leudonus — Lothian
- Lars Levi Læstadius — Laestadianism
- Abraham Lincoln — Lincoln Records; ships USS Abraham Lincoln (SSBN-602), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72); Lincoln is a slang term for the United States five dollar bill
- Charles Lindbergh, pilot — Lindbergh Law anti-kidnapping law
- Lisa, sister of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons — Lisa Simpson, character in The Simpsons animated TV series
- Ignacio de la Llave — Veracruz-Llave
- Veronica Lodge, fictional character in Archie Comics - the Veronica search engine
- Fritz London — London force
- Huey Pierce Long, American politician — Huey, one of "Huey, Dewey and Louie", animated cartoon characters
- Ruy López de Segura, Spanish monk — Ruy Lopez opening in chess
- John De Lorean — De Lorean
- Hendrik Lorentz — Lorentz force, Lorentz transformation
- Lothar — Lorraine, French province
- King Louis XIV of France — Louisiana
- Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria — Alberta
- H. P. Lovecraft, Among the most famous horror authors. Inspired the term Lovecraftian.
- Hubert von Luschka — foramina of Luschka (outlets for cerebrospinal fluid in the brain); Luschka's crypts; Luschka's joints
- Saint Lucy of Syracuse — Saint Lucia
- Martin Luther — the Lutheran Christian denomination
- Alois Lutz — Lutz, Figure skating jump
- Charles Lynch — lynching, lynch law
M
- Ernst Mach — Mach number
- Karel Hynek Mácha — Máchovo jezero (Mácha's Lake), in the Czech Republic
- Nicolo Machiavelli — Machiavellian—attempting to achieve what one wants by cunning, scheming and unscrupulous methods.
- Colin Maclaurin - Maclaurin series, Maclaurin's inequality, Sectrix of Maclaurin, Trisectrix of Maclaurin,
- Gaius Maecenas, a Roman patron of literature and the arts, a true "maecenas"
- François Magendie — foramen of Magendie (outlet for cerebrospinal fluid in the brain)
- Maggie, sister of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons — Maggie Simpson, character in The Simpsons animated TV series
- Martin Mailman - American composer
- Jules Germain François Maisonneuve — Maisonneuve fracture
- Mrs. Malaprop, a character in The Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan - malapropism (a humorous misuse of a word)
- Thomas Malthus — Malthusian, Malthusianism, Malthusian Growth Model, Malthusian catastrophe
- Benoît Mandelbrot — Mandelbrot set
- Vinoo Mankad - Mankaded or to be run out at the bowler's end in cricket.
- Antoine Marfan — Marfan syndrome
- Marge, mother of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons — Marge Simpson, character in The Simpsons animated TV series
- Henrietta Maria of France, wife of Charles I — Maryland
- Queen Mariana of Austria or Marie-Anne of Austria — Mariana Islands, Mariana Trench
- Pierre Marie — Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
- Saint Marinus — San Marino
- Géza Maróczy — Maróczy Bind
- Marplot, the main character in Susanna Centlivre's plays The Busy Body and Marplot in Lisbon - marplot (an officious meddler or busybody who disrupts the plans of others)
- Frank Marshall — Marshall Defense
- John Marshall — Marshall Islands
- Lionel Martin — Aston Martin
- Jean Martinet — martinet; a disciplinarian
- Maurice Martenot — Ondes Martenot, an electronic musical instrument with a keyboard and slide invented in 1928.
- Mary, mother of Jesus - numerous communities and geographic features (either named St. Mary or having the word Lady in them), a large number of cathedrals, churches, and religious orders, the ladybird
- Mary the Jewess, ancient alchemist invented the Bain-marie to warm substances such as Elixir to germinate precious metals
- John L. Mason — Mason jar
- Alonzo C. Mather — Mather Stock Car Company
- Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler — Mattel
- Jujiro Matsuda — founder, Mazda (also possibly inspired by Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda)
- Queen Maud of Norway - Queen Maud Land in Antarctica
- Maurice of Nassau — Mauritius
- Maussollus—mausoleum, a monumental tomb
- Hiram Maxim — Maxim gun
- James Clerk Maxwell — maxwell, unit of magnetic flux
- Louis B. Mayer — founder of Louis B. Mayer Pictures which later merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (or MGM)
- John Loudon McAdam — macadam process of road construction, tarmac (tar+macadam) road surface
- Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald — founders, McDonald's Corporation
- Giuseppe Meazza — Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, a football stadium in Italy
- Megan Kanka - Megan's Law
- Georg Meissner — Meissner's corpuscles
- Walter Meissner (and Robert Ochsenfeld) — Meissner effect (or Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect)
- Lise Meitner — meitnerium, chemical element
- Nellie Melba — Melba toast; Peach Melba; Melba, a suburb of Canberra, Australia
- Gregor Mendel — Mendelian inheritance, Mendel Polar Station, lunar crater Mendel
- Dmitri Mendeleev — mendelevium, chemical element
- Prosper Ménière — Ménière's disease
- Mentor (Greek mythology) — mentor: a trusted friend, counselor or teacher, usually a more experienced person, mentoring programs
- Giuseppe Mercalli — Mercalli intensity scale of an earthquake
- Meirion, son of Cunedda — Merionethshire
- Franz Mesmer (1734–1815)—Mesmerism
- Robert Metcalfe — Metcalfe's law
- Methuselah — 6 litre wine bottle see Wine bottle#Sizes
- Michelangelo, Renaissance painter — Michelangelo, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic characters
- Jacques Mieses — Mieses Opening
- Hermann Minkowski — Minkowski space, Minkowski's theorem, Minkowski addition, Minkowski inequality
- Ernesto Miranda — Miranda Warning
- Andrija Mohorovičić — Mohorovičić discontinuity
- Pépé le Moko fictional character from the novel and movies of the same name — Pepe Le Pew Warner Bros. French skunk character
- Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) — Molotov cocktail
- Robert Moog — Moog synthesizer, an analog synthesizer
- Gordon Moore — Moore's Law
- Jean Moreau de Sechelles — Seychelles
- José María Morelos — Morelos
- Prince Morgan the Old of Gwent — Glamorgan
- Ernst Moro — Moro reflex
- Samuel Morse — Morse code
- John Morton (1420–1500), Chancellor of England — Morton's Fork, a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives
- Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert — A&M Records
- Rudolf Mössbauer — Mössbauer effect
- Lord Louis Mountbatten — Mountbatten pink, naval camouflage pigment
- Erasto B. Mpemba — Mpemba effect
- Antonín Mrkos — four comets carry his name: 18D/Perrine-Mrkos, 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, 124P/Mrkos and 143P/Kowal-Mrkos
- Walther Müller — Geiger-Müller tube
- David, John A. or Thomas Mulligan - Mulligan
- Ian Murdock and Debra Murdock — Debian project for free software, made after combining Ian's and his wife's name Debra.
- William Lawrence Murphy — Murphy bed.
N–O
- Ashot Nadanian — Grünfeld Defence, Nadanian Variation
- Miguel Najdorf — Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation
- Fridtjof Nansen — Nansen passport
- John Napier — neper, unit of relative power level, Napier's bones, method for performing multiplication
- Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, — Napoleonic code and Napoleonic Wars
- Napoleon I of France — Napoleon Opening
- Narcissus - Narcissism
- John Forbes Nash — Nash equilibrium, Nash embedding theorem
- Joachim Neander (1650–1680), poet, for whom the Neanderthal (valley) was named, and thus the Neandertal fossil found there
- Nebuchadnezzar — nebuchadnezzar, 15 litre wine bottle
- Jawaharlal Nehru — Nehru jacket, Nehru Planetarium
- Baby Face Nelson — Baby Face Finlayson, formerly from The Beano comic
- Henri Nestlé — created the milk-based food in 1867 which became Nestlé
- Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople — nestorianism
- John von Neumann — Von Neumann machine, Von Neumann probe, Von Neumann architecture, John von Neumann Theory Prize, IEEE John von Neumann Medal
- Rolf Nevanlinna — Nevanlinna theory,
- Isaac Newton — newton — unit of force, Newton's law of cooling, Newton's law of gravitation, Newton's laws of motion, Newton's rings
- Jean Nicot - Nicotine
- Arthur Nielsen — Nielsen ratings from the Nielsen Media Research, Inc. firm
- Mike Nifong — Nifonged
- Aron Nimzowitsch — Nimzo-Indian Defence
- Alfred Nobel — Nobel Prizes, nobelium, chemical element
- Emmy Noether — Noether's theorem, Noetherian rings
- Ian Norman and Gerry Harvey — Harvey Norman
- Robert Ochsenfeld and Walter Meissner — Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect (Meissner effect)
- William of Ockham — Occam's Razor
- King Oengus I of the Picts — Angus
- Georg Ohm — ohm — unit of electrical resistance, Ohm's Law
- Ongull, a Scandinavian landowner — Anglesey
- Jan Oort — Oort cloud
- Adam Opel — founder of the car manufacturing company Opel
- Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery — orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system
- Hans Christian Ørsted — oersted, unit of magnetic field strength
- George Orwell - Orwellian
- John Owen — Owen's Defence
P
- David Packard and William Hewlett — Hewlett-Packard
- František Palacký — Palacký University, Olomouc
- Paparazzo, a press photographer in Federico Fellini's film La dolce vita — paparazzo press photographer
- Vilfredo Pareto — Pareto principle, Pareto efficiency, Pareto distribution, Pareto index
- Bernard Parham — Parham Attack
- James Parkinson — Parkinson's disease
- Rosa Parks — Rosa Parks Highway
- Blaise Pascal — pascal — unit of pressure; Pascal's triangle, Pascal's Wager or Pascal's Gambit, Pascal programming language, Pascal's theorem
- Louis Pasteur — Pasteurization
- Wolfgang Pauli — Pauli exclusion principle
- Axel Paulsen — Axel, Figure skating jump
- Ivan Petrovich Pavlov — Pavlovian conditioning
- Anna Pavlova — Pavlova
- Giuseppe Peano — Peano axioms
- Jean Charles Athanase Peltier — Peltier effect
- Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (ballpoint pen) — Penkalo
- William Penn — Pennsylvania
- J.C. Penney — JCPenney
- Roger Penrose — Penrose diagram, Penrose tiling, Penrose triangle, Penrose stairs
- Dom Pérignon (1638–1715), a blind French Benedictine monk — Dom Pérignon (wine)
- St. Peter — Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
- Alexander Petrov — Petrov's Defence
- François-André Danican Philidor — Philidor Defence
- Philip II of Spain — Philippines
- Gerard Philips — founder, Philips
- Joseph Pilates — the Pilates Method
- Vasja Pirc — Pirc Defence
- William Pitt — Pittsburgh
- Max Planck — Planck's constant, Planck's law of black body radiation
- Friedrich Carl Alwin Pockels — Pockels effect
- Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779–1851) — poinsettia
- Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille — poise — unit of viscosity, Poiseuille's Law
- Charles Ponzi (1877–1949) — Ponzi scheme, a kind of fraud
- Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani — Ponziani Opening
- Eugène Poubelle (1831–1907), French lawyer, administrator and diplomat — poubelle, French word for "dustbin"
- Pierre Poujade (1920–2003) — Poujadism
- Ferry Porsche — founder, Porsche
- Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin — Potemkin village
- Percivall Pott — Pott's disease, Pott's fracture
- Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn - Prince Edward Island
- William Procter and James Gamble — Procter & Gamble
- Joseph Pulitzer — Pulitzer Prize
- Jan Evangelista Purkyně — Purkinje cell
Q–R
- Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), Norwegian traitor — the term "quisling" became a synonym in many European languages for traitor
- C. V. Raman — Raman spectroscopy, Raman effect
- William John Macquorn Rankine — degree Rankine, Rankine cycle
- Raphael, Renaissance painter — Raphael, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic characters
- John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh — Rayleigh scattering
- Maurice Raynaud, French physician — Raynaud's disease
- Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. president – Reagan Era, Reaganomics, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), Ronald Reagan Trail
- René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur — degree Réaumur, unit of temperature
- Dorothy Reed — Reed-Sternberg cell
- Rehoboam — 4.5 litre wine bottle (see Wine bottle#Sizes)
- Richard Réti — Réti Opening
- Arnold Reuben (possibly) — Reuben
- Paul Reuter — Reuters news agency
- Cecil Rhodes — Northern Rhodesia (Now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe)
- Victor A. Rice - Varity Corporation
- Isaac Rice — Rice Gambit
- Charles Richter — Richter magnitude scale
- Ron Rivest — the first letter of the name RSA, an asymmetric algorithm for public key cryptography, is taken from Rivest
- John D. Rockefeller, — Oysters Rockefeller
- Romulus — Rome
- Count Karl Robert von Nesselrode — Nesselrode
- Alvah Roebuck and Richard Sears — Sears, Roebuck, now Sears
- Charles Rolls and Henry Royce — Rolls-Royce
- Wilhelm Röntgen — röntgen, unit of dosage of X-rays or gamma radiation
- Andrés Quintana Roo — Quintana Roo
- Theodore Roosevelt, jr. (1858–1919) — Teddybear
- Gioacchino Rossini — Tournedos Rossini
- Eugène Rousseau — Rousseau Gambit
- Rota, a Saxon landowner ("Rota's land") — Rutland
- Karl Rove - Rovian (dirty) campaign tactics
- Henry Royce and Charles Rolls — Rolls-Royce
- Ernő Rubik — Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Clock, Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Revenge
- Carle David Tolmé Runge — Runge's phenomenon
- Lord Rutherford — rutherfordium, chemical element
- Johannes Rydberg — Rydberg constant
S
- Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade, or, the Marquis de Sade, whose writings gave the name to sadism.
- Sheikh Safi-ad-din Ardabili — Safavid Dynasty, Safavids
- Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, one of the first to write of the pleasures of pain and humiliation, now called masochism
- John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich — sandwiches and South Sandwich Islands
- Franz Sacher, Vienna — Sachertorte
- Ulrich Salchow — Salchow, Figure skating jump
- Salmanazar biblical king — 9 litre wine bottle (see Wine bottle#Sizes)
- Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, a Russian mine official — samarskite, the mineral after which the chemical element samarium has been named
- Rick Santorum, a United States Senator — santorum, a sexually explicit term
- Sappho (630 BC–612 BC), Greek poetess who wrote love poems addressed to women — sapphism or lesbianism
- Sarah Payne - Sarah's Law
- Muhammad bin Saud — Saudi Arabia
- Pierre Auguste Sarrus — Sarrusophone, a double-reed woodwind instrument made of brass or silver.
- Adolphe Sax — the saxophone, a musical instrument
- Louie Schmitt, animator — Louie, one of "Huey, Dewey and Louie", animated cartoon characters
- Walter H. Schottky, German physicist — Schottky diode
- Erwin Schrödinger — Schrödinger equation, Schrödinger's cat, Schrödinger's Kittens — a book
- Ed Scott — the second letter of the company name BEA Systems, is taken from Ed, a co-founder
- Robert Scott, Antarctic explorer — Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
- Ebenezer Scrooge, fictional character in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol — Scrooge McDuck
- Glenn T. Seaborg — seaborgium, chemical element
- Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck — Sears, Roebuck; stores bear only the Sears name
- Chief Seattle — City of Seattle
- Thomas Johann Seebeck — Seebeck effect
- Josef Sekanina — mineral Sekaninaite
- Edgar Selwyn and Archibald Selwyn, who used the last three letters of their name along with the first four of Samuel Goldfish to create Goldwyn Picture Corporation, which later merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (or MGM)
- Adi Shamir — the second letter of the name RSA, an asymmetric algorithm for public key cryptography, is taken from Shamir
- Sherlock - short for Sherlock Holmes, anyone who solves a mystery or a difficult problem, based on the fictional character by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Roger Shepard — Shepard tone
- Henry S. Shrapnel (1761–1842) — shrapnel
- Jean Sibelius (composer) — Sibelius notation program, and its developer Sibelius Software Limited
- Ambrose Burnside (1824–1881) — Sideburns
- Werner von Siemens — siemens — unit of electrical conductance; Siemens AG — company
- Rolf Sievert — sievert, unit of radiation dose equivalent
- Etienne de Silhouette (1709–1767) — Silhouette
- Homer Simpson cartoon figure from The Simpsons — "doing a homer"; meaning to accidentally save the day from disaster
- Issac Merritt Singer, inventor, improvements in the design of the sewing machine — Singer Corporation
- Alexander Skene — Skene's gland
- BF Skinner - behaviorist who created the operant conditioning chamber -- which is often called the Skinner box
- Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson - Smith & Wesson
- Oliver R. Smoot — smoot
- Hermann Snellen — Snellen chart
- Snot, a Saxon landowner ("Snot's home" + shire) — Nottinghamshire
- Socrates - Socratic Method
- Alexey Sokolsky — Sokolsky Opening
- Solomon — Solomon Islands
- John Philip Sousa — Sousaphone
- William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930) — spoonerism
- Joseph Stalin — Stalinism and Neo-Stalinism (also see De-Stalinization), see List of places named after Joseph Stalin, Joseph Stalin Museum, Stalinist architecture, Stalin Society, Stalin Prize, Stalin Peace Prize, Iosif Stalin tank
- Johannes Stark — Stark spectroscopy, Stark effect
- Howard Staunton — Staunton Gambit
- Jozef Stefan and Ludwig Boltzmann — Stefan-Boltzmann constant
- Carl von Sternberg (disputed) — Reed-Sternberg cell
- George M. Sternberg (disputed) — Reed-Sternberg cell
- John K. Stewart and Arthur P. Warner — Stewart-Warner
- George Gabriel Stokes — stokes, unit of viscosity
- Marshall Harvey Stone — Stone–von Neumann theorem, Stone–Čech compactification, Stone's representation theorem for Boolean algebras, Stone space, Stone-Weierstrass theorem, Stone's representation theorem for distributive lattices, Stone duality, Stone's theorem on one-parameter unitary groups, Banach-Stone theorem
- Antonio Stradivari — Stradivari violin
- Levi Strauss — Levi Strauss & Co.
- Count Stroganov (possibly Count Pavel Alexandrovitch Stroganov or Count Grigory Stroganov) — Stroganoff
- Rashid Sunyaev and Yakov B. Zel'dovich — Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
- Michio Suzuki — founder, Suzuki
- Sage Kambu Swayambhuva — Cambodia
- Theodor Svedberg — svedberg, unit of sedimentation rate
T
- James Mourilyan Tanner — Tanner stage
- Tarik-ibn-Ziyad (from Arabic djebl al-Tarik or "mountain of Tarik") — Gibraltar
- Siegbert Tarrasch — Tarrasch Defense
- Abel Tasman — Tasmania, Tasman Sea, Tasman Region, Abel Tasman National Park, Tasman Bay
- J. R. D. Tata — founder, Tata
- Stéphanie Tatin and Caroline Tatin — Tarte Tatin
- Maria Teresa, the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg — Maria Teresa cocktail
- Nikola Tesla — Tesla coil, tesla — unit of magnetic flux density
- Luisa Tetrazzini, operatic soprano — Chicken Tetrazzini
- Leon Theremin — Theremin
- Lou Thesz — "Lou Thesz punches," a professional wrestling maneuver involving using primarily your legs to tackle an opponent to the ground, then delivering a series of punches while straddling your opponent.
- Christopher Titus — Titus, an Emmy nominated TV series broadcast on FOX from 2000–2002.
- Saint Thomas — São Tomé and Príncipe
- John T. Thompson — Thompson submachine gun
- Miloš Tichý — comet P/2000 U6 Tichý
- Johann Daniel Titius and Johann Elert Bode — Titius-Bode Law
- James Tobin — the proposed Tobin tax
- Howard Henry Tooth — Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
- Carlos Torre Repetto — Torre Attack
- Evangelista Torricelli — torr, unit of pressure
- Linus Torvalds — Linus's law, Linux operating system (from Linus' Minix), Tux — mascot of Linux (from Torvald's Unix)
- Sakichi Toyoda — founder, Toyota
- Octavio Trompowsky — Trompowsky Attack
- Donald Trump — Trump Tower, the Trump International Hotel and Tower, Trump Plaza etc.
- Alan Turing — Turing machine, Turing-complete, Turing tarpit, Turing test, Church-Turing thesis, Church-Turing-Deutsch principle
- J. M. W. Turner, English painter — Turner Prize in art
- Ted Turner, media mogul — Turner Entertainment, Turner Classic Movies, Turner Broadcasting System or TBS, TBS Superstation, WTBS, Turner Network Television or TNT, Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award, Ted Turner debate (a style of team debate recognized by the National Forensic League; also referred to as Controversy debate)
- Marie Tussaud — Madame Tussauds wax museum
U–V
- James Van Allen — Van Allen radiation belt
- Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen — creators of band Van Halen
- George Vancouver — Vancouver, British Columbia, Vancouver, Washington, Vancouver Island
- Johannes Diderik van der Waals — Van der Waals force
- Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512) — America
- Queen Victoria — Queensland, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria Island, Lake Victoria, Victoria Harbour, London Victoria station, Victoria line
- Saint Vincent — Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance painter — Leonardo, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic characters
- Andrew Viterbi (born 1935), Qualcomm Corp. - Viterbi Algorithm
- Vitruvius, Roman architect — Homo Vitruvianus or Vitruvian Man — famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
- Alessandro Volta — the volt, a unit of electromotive force
W
- Robert Wade — Wade Defence
- Richard Wagner — Wagner tuba, a brass instrument that combines elements of both the French horn and the tuba.
- Samuel Wallis, 18th century navigator — Wallis and Futuna
- Sam Walton — Wal-Mart
- Preston Ware — Ware Opening
- the brothers Jack Warner, Sam Warner, Harold Warner and Albert Warner — Warner Bros.
- Arthur P. Warner and John K. Stewart — Stewart-Warner
- George Washington — Washington and Washington D.C.
- James Watt (1736–1819) — the watt, a unit of power
- Wilhelm Eduard Weber — weber, unit of magnetic flux
- Peter J. Weinberger — the second letter of the name awk, a computer pattern/action language, is taken from Weinberger
- Duke of Wellington — Beef Wellington, Wellington boot
- Eudora Welty — Eudora, an e-mail client.
- Mae West (1893–1980), busty actress for whom the flotation safety vest was named.
- Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr — Delaware
- George Hoyt Whipple — Whipple's disease
- Gough Whitlam, Australian Prime Minister - The Whitlams pop group
- Frederick Methvan Whyte (1865–1941) — Whyte notation
- Wilhelm Wien — Wien's displacement law
- Eugene Wigner — Wigner's friend
- Erik Adolf von Willebrand — Von Willebrand disease, Von Willebrand factor
- Max Wilms, a German surgeon — Wilms' tumor
- Oliver F. Winchester — chief investor Winchester repeating rifle
- Caspar Wistar (1761–1818) — Wisteria
- Kaspar Friedrich Wolff — Wolffian duct
X–Z
- James, Duke of York — New York, New York State
- Pops Yoshimura — Yoshimura motorcycle tuning company
- Frank J Zamboni - Zamboni ice resurfacer
