Eponym and Toponym

Yes. Many places take their names from people or from their own topograhical uniquess and even from its very origins.

Other inventions in language, tangibles and what-have-you also took their cue from their inventors' names or their peculiar cultural origination, sometimes unwittingly.

The Vikings swung onto the Northern Hemisphere like a thunderbolt from the sky (much like Thor, the Thunder God). They founded Newfoundland and not long after the French and English tussle had New England on the map as well.

So is it any surprise we have so many duplicates, even triplicates or quadriplicates, of street names shared between Australia, the British Isles , the United States of America and some of its former colonial strongholds. Manchester, Porstmouth and Cambridge just to name a few.

When I speak to a Caucasian (incidentally this name stems from Caucasus, a region in Russia) I have to be really attentive to the places he says he hails from. Such is the intricacy of the name of a place, region or street.

The Rocky Mountains speaks for itself what we can expect of its geological terrain. And in Singapore we have so many streets, buildings and places named after prominent British rulers or indigenous founders , merchants or pioneers.

Kandang Kerbau (buffalo market) and Eunos are so named after the place of trade and the native merchant in his communal abode.

So China's Nanjing which was once the old capital is also affectionately known as gucheng. So too are some other former capitals of the country like Xian and Peking (yes that famous Peking duck we are all too familiar with even though I have never tasted one because I simply HATE ducks - that terrible stench - yucks!) .

The same goes for botanical species , scientific inventions and pioneering corporations. The Dillenia is named after famed German botanist JJ Dillenia. The Dell computer company is likewise nicknamed after its founder and so is the Geiger-Muller tube.

And linguistically, spoonerism is named after Reverend A William Spooner, malapropism after the character Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan's play "The Rivals", pickwickian after the character Mr Pickwick in Charles Dickens' "The Pickwickian Papers".

Just so if you wanna know, Dickens' "Mr Pickwick" was the English equivalent of Cervantes' Spanish "Don Quixote". That poor bumbling self-proclaimed knight trying to save humanity from the brink of certain death.

Add on some origins of words which were cultural inventions as well. Kowtow which is distinctly Chinese, Khakis Arabic/Persian and typhoon Greek (Sorry if you thought this was an Asian word because it really isn't)

And for Nirvana or Enlightenment we have the German"Aufklarung" and world view has "Weltanschauung" as its substitute.

We only have to pause and ponder at the infinite places and inventions around us to appreciate the pioneering spirit of the people behind their origins and history.

So the next time you pick something up or visit any place anywhere, stop to think of the people and meaning behind them. You will be so much the richer for it.