Here are a few words in the English language that have been named for people. This list consists of widely-used words which are obviously named after specific people. You'll be surprised to find words like, bloomer, maudlin, namby-pamby, tarmac and tawdry having their origins in men and women of yesteryears. 
Enjoy!!!
oh! and add on more if you know, in comments.
ALDRIN Kurt Alder (1902-1958), American chemist
ALGORITHM al-Khowarizmi (c800 - c850), Arab mathematician. This term, which means "rules for computing" in English, comes from al-Khowarizmi (Try saying it fast), an Arab mathematician living around A.D. 825 who completed the earliest known work in arithmetic using Arabic numerals. He was the first to establish rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with the new Arabic numerals.
AUGUST Augustus Caesar (63 B.C. - A. D. 14)
BAKELITE Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944), Belgian-born American chemist
BÉCHAMEL SAUCE Marquis Louis de Béchamel (d.1703), steward of Louis XIV of France
BEEF STROGANOFF Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganoff (1772-1817), Russian diplomat
BEGONIA Michel Bégon (1638-1710), French patron of botany
BLOODY MARY Mary I Tudor (1516-1558), English queen (probably)
BLOOMER Amanda Bloomer or Amelia Jenkins Bloomer (1818-1894), American feminist
BOUGAINVILLEA Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), French explorer
BOYCOTT Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897), English land agent
BOYSENBERRY Rudolph Boysen, American botanist
BUHLWORK A. C. Boule (1642-1732), French cabinet maker
BUNKUM, BUNK Col. Edward Buncombe, Revolutionary War hero, This word actually comes from the name of Buncombe County, North Carolina; the county was named in honor of Col. Edward Buncombe, a Revolutionary War hero. The word originated after the congressman from that county defended an irrelevant speech in Congress by claiming that he was speaking to Buncombe.
BUNSEN BURNER Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-99), German chemist
CAESAREAN SECTION Gaius Julius Caesar, who according to legend was born in this manner
CAESAR SALAD Cesar Cardini, Tijuana, Mexico restaurateur
CAMELLIA George Josef Kamel (1661-1706), Moravian Jesuit missionary
CARDIGAN James Thomas Brudnell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797-1868), British cavalry officer
CASANOVA Giovanni Jacopo Casanova de Seingalt (1725-98), Italian adventurer
DAHLIA Anders Dahl (1751-1789), Swedish botanist
DECIBEL Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
DERBY Edward Stanley, 12th earl of Derby, founded the race, 1870
DIESEL Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913), German automotive designer
DOBERMAN PINSCHER Ludwig Dobermann, 19th century German dog breeder
DOILY Mr. Doyley, a 17th century London draper
DOLOMITE Deodat de Dolomieu (1750-1801), French geologist
DRACONIAN Draco, Athenian lawgiver, circa 650 B. C.
DUNCE John Duns Scotus (c. 1265-1308), Scottish theologian (who was actually very smart)
EGGS BENEDICT Commodore E. C. Benedict (1834-1920), American yachtsman and banker
EPICURE Epicurus (342?-270 B. C.), Greek philosopher
EUSTACHIAN TUBE Bartolommeo Eustachio (1524-1574), Italian anatomist
FALLOPIAN TUBE Gabriel Fallopius (1523-1562), Italian anatomist
FERRIS WHEEL George Washington Gale Ferris (1859-96), American engineer
FRANGIPANI Marquis Frangipani, 16th century Italian nobleman
FREESIA Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (d. 1876), German physician
FRISBEE William Russell Frisbie, pie shop owner in Bridgeport CT
FUCHSIA Leonard Fuchs (1501-1566), German botanist
GALVANIZE Luigi Galvani (1739-1798), Italian physiologist
GARDENIA Alexander Garden (1730-91), Scottish-American botanist
GARIBALDI Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82), Italian patriot and soldier
GREENGAGE Sir William Gage (1777-1864), English botanist
GROG Old Grog, nickname of Sir Edward Vernon (1684-1757), British admiral
GUILLOTINE Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814), French physician
GUPPY Robert J. L. Guppy (1836-1916), British scientist from Trinidad
GUY Guy Fawkes (1570-1606), British terrorist
HANSOM Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-82), English architect
HAVELOCK Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857), British general in India
HOBSON’S CHOICE Thomas Hobson (1544-1631), English liveryman
JACQUARD Joseph Marie Jacquard, 18th cent. French inventor
JACUZZI Roy Jacuzzi and Candido Jacuzzi (1903-1986), American inventors
JEROBOAM Jeroboam, first king of the northern kingdom of Israel
JULY Gaius Julius Caesar (c. 101 - 44 B. C.)
KLIEG LIGHT John H. (1869-1959) and Anton T. Kleigl (1872-1927), American lighting experts
KNICKERBOCKERS Dietrich Knickerbocker, pseudonym of Washington Irving (1783-1859), American author
LEOTARD Jules Léotard (1839-70), French acrobat
LEVIS Levi Strauss (1830-1902), Bavarian immigrant to the USA and clothing merchant
LOBELIA Matthias de Lobel (1538-1616), Flemish botanist and physician
LOBSTER NEWBURG Ben Wenberg According to Dictionary of Words and Phrases by William and Mary Morris, the term is named for Ben Wenberg, a West Indies ship captain who came up with this dish by adding the ingredient cayenne to his famous recipe at Delmonico's Hotel. As the story goes, Mr. Wenberg had a falling out with the hotel owner, who, as revenge, reversed the first three letters of a dish which had previously been called Lobster Wenberg; hence, "Lobster Newberg."
LOGANBERRY Judge James H. Logan (1841-1928), horticulturist in California
LUDDITE Ned Ludd, 18th cent. Leicestershire workman who destroyed machinery (see note below)
LYNCH Capt. William Lynch (1742-1820), plantation owner in Virginia
MACADAMIA NUT John Macadam (1827-1865), Australian scientist
MACH Ernst Mach (1838-1916), Austrian physicist
MACKINTOSH Charles Macintosh (1766-1843), inventor of the waterproofing process
MAGNOLIA Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), French botanist
MANSARD François Mansart (1598-1666), French architect
MARIGOLD Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus
MASOCHISM Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), Austrian novelist
MAUDLIN Mary Magdalene, Biblical figure
MAUSOLEUM Mausolus, 4th century B. C. king of Caria, Asia Minor
MAVERICK Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870), Texas cattle owner
MELBA TOAST and PEACH MELBA Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931), Australian soprano
MENNONITE Menno Simons (1492-1559), Dutch religious reformer
MESMERIZE Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Austrian physician
MORSE CODE Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872), American artist and inventor
NAMBY-PAMBY Nickname of Ambrose Philips (1674-1749), English poet
NICOTINE Jean Nicot (c. 1530 - 1600), French ambassador to Portugal
OSCAR Oscar Pierce, American wheat and fruit grower and uncle of an Academy executive director
PAP SMEAR George Papanicolaou (1883-1962), American physician
PASTEURISE Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French chemist
PAVLOVA Anna Pavlova (1881-1931), Russian ballerina
PLATONIC Plato (c. 427-347 BC), Greek philosopher
POINSETTIA Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), U. S. minister to Mexico
PRALINE César de Choiseul, Count Plessis-Praslin (1598-1675), French soldier and diplomat
PULLMAN George Mortimer Pullman (1831-97), American inventor
PYRRHIC Pyrrus (c. 318 - 272 B. C.), king of Epirus, who overextended himself
QUISLING Maj. Vidkun Abraham Quisling (1887-1945), pro-Nazi Norwegian leader
RASTAFARIAN Ras Tafari, precoronation name of Haile Selassie (1892-1975), Emperor of Ethiopia
RICKETTSIA Howard T. Ricketts (1871-1910), American pathologist
RORSCHACH TEST Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922), Swiss psychiatrist
RITZY César Ritz (1850-1918), Swiss hotelier
SADISM Count Donatien Alphonse François de Sade (1740-1814), French soldier and novelist
SALISBURY STEAK James J. Salisbury, 19th century English physician
SALMONELLA Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850-1914), American veterinarian
SANDWICH John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), English diplomat
SAXOPHONE Antoine-Joseph Sax, also known as Adolphe Sax (1814-1894), Belgian inventor
SEQUOIA Sequoya (c. 1770-1843), Cherokee Indian who invented the Cherokee syllabary
SHRAPNEL Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), British army officer
SIDEBURNS Gen. Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824-1881), Union soldier
SILHOUETTE Etienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), French minister of finance in 1759
SPOONERISM Rev. William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), of New College, Oxford
SOUSAPHONE John Phillip Sousa (1854-1932), American composer and bandleader
STETSON John Bauerson Stetson (1830-1906), American hat-maker
TARMAC John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), Scottish engineer (the word is short for "tarmacadam")
TAWDRY St. Audrey (St. Etheldreda, c. 630 - 679), queen of Northumbria
TEDDY BEAR Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U. S. president
TETRAZZINI Luisa Tetrazzini (1874-1940), Italian opera singer
THESPIAN Thespis, 6th century B. C. Greek poet
TIMOTHY GRASS Timothy Hanson, 18th century American farmer (probably)
TOMMY GUN Gen. John Taliaferro Thompson (1860-1940), U. S. soldier
TONTINE Lorenzo Tonti (1620-1695), Neopolitan banker
TUPPERWARE Earl Silas Tupper (1907-1983), American landscaper and inventor
UZI Uziel Gal (1923-2002), Israeli inventor
VALENTINE Valentine, 3rd century Christian martyr
VERNIER Pierre Vernier (1580-1637), French mathematician
WELLINGTON BOOT Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), British soldier and statesman
WISTERIA Caspar Wistar (1761-1818), American physician
ZEPPELIN Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917), German general and aeronautical pioneer
ZINNIA Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727-1759), German botanist
Dec 31, 2008 - Wise Words for the Day
" He drew a circle that shut me out
heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win,
we drew a circle that took him in."
--- Edwin Markham, Outwitted
In the 19th century, philosophers and linguists proposed a number of hypotheses to explain the origin of language, and most of these have very astonishing nomenclatures. I almost did a double take each time I read of them. The first such names were coined by Otto Jesperson as a way of deriding the hypotheses as simplistic speculation. Once the names caught on, new hypotheses that have arisen often have been given names with a similar style.
The "ding-dong" hypothesis:
This hypothesis places the origin of human language in onomatopoeia: the various imitative sounds that humans make to mimic the sounds of the world around them. So boom becomes a word for thunder, and oink for a pig. It is unclear how this process could supply words for silent objects like rocks; much less prepositions and other grammatical particles or abstract concepts. Words marked by onomatopoeia are conspicuous and somewhat unusual in most languages. The "ding-dong" hypothesis is therefore not considered as a total explanation for the origin of language.
The "bow-wow" hypothesis:
Similar to the "ding-dong" hypothesis, this one has humans forming their first words by imitating animal sounds.
Not only do all of the objections involving other sorts of onomatopoeia explanations apply here, it is worthy to note that the names of animal sounds are strongly culturally determined and differ remarkably from one culture to the next, as the article on oink sets forth. It seems difficult to accept that humans learned to speak to one another by talking to the animals.
The "pooh-pooh" hypothesis:
According to this hypothesis, the first words developed from sighs of pleasure, moans of pain, and other semi-involuntary cries or exclamations. These vocalisms then became the names of the phenomena that made people say them.
Most of the objections to the "ding-dong" hypothesis apply here also. Such words are found in most languages; they are conspicuous by their preverbal nature and incomplete assimilation into the lexicon. Moreover, they are culturally determined, and themselves show a great deal of arbitrariness.
The "ta-ta" hypothesis:
Charles Darwin lent his authority to this hypothesis. According to this, human language represents the use of oral gestures that began in imitation of hand gestures that were already in use for communication.
The difficulty with this hypothesis, is that it begs the question: it requires that a fairly sophisticated repertoire of gestures be in place already for humans to imitate with their mouth gestures. It assumes the existence of a language of gestures without explaining how it arose.
The "uh-oh" hypothesis:
According to this hypothesis, human language begins with the use of arbitrary symbols that represent warnings to other members of the human band. It is agreed that one sort of vocal cry means that lions have been spotted in the area, and another one indicates a snake. You holler one thing at your neighbour to warn them, "Don't eat that! It'll make you sick!" and something distinguishable to warn them "Don't eat that! It's mine!"
This hypothesis seems to have the potential to explain the perceived diversity of human speech; obviously the warning cries uttered here are to some measure arbitrary.
The "yo-he-ho" hypothesis:
According to this hypothesis, language arose in rhythmic chants and vocalisms uttered by people engaged in communal labour.
This may have more to do with the origins of poetry than with language itself. Sea chanteys, jody calls, and similar work songs all show humans engaged in communal work improvising with their language around the rhythms of their work. It is uncertain from this hypothesis how meanings came to be associated with the vocalisms uttered by the workers.
The "watch the birdie" hypothesis:
This one is associated with ethologist and linguist E. H. Sturtevant. According to this hypothesis, human language became elaborated because humans found selective advantage in being able to deceive other humans. Since exclamations and vocalisms can involuntarily reveal your true mental state, humans learned to feign them in order to deceive others for selfish advantage.
The psychedelic glossolalia hypothesis:
This theory states that speech was inspired by psychoactive fungi. The line of reasoning is thus: A common symptom of tryptamine intoxication is glossolalia, more commonly known as “speaking in tongues”. As the continent of Africa began to dry, grassland savannas opened, forcing humans out of the forests and into the plains where the dung of large herbivores was ubiquitous. Species of tryptamine-bearing fungi like Psilocybe, which live on animal dung, would have been very attractive to human populations seeking a new food source. Regular ingestion of the fungi could, over a long time, have stimulated complex vocalizations that eventually led to communicative speech.
How humans could have made the transition from random vocalization to symbolic language is not entirely clear. This one sounds all scientific to me... other than its halucinatory LSD angle. 
The Biblical account in Genesis:
"The entire earth had one language with uniform words. When they migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar, and they settled there. They said to one another, 'Come, let us mold bricks and fire them.' They then had bricks to use as stone, and asphalt for mortar. They said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top shall reach the sky. Let us make ourselves a name, so that we will not be scattered all over the face of the earth.' God descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. God said, 'They are a single people, all having one language, and this is the first thing they do! Now nothing they plan to do will be unattainable for them! Come, let us descend and confuse their speech, so that one person will not understand another's speech'. From that place, God scattered them all over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city. He named it Babel, because this was the place where God confused the world's language. It was from there that God dispersed humanity over all the face of the earth."
-- Book of Genesis 11:1-9
This would be fine, if there were not be any other religions in the world. I am sure other religions have their own incoherent and mythological stories too.
***
Other than that, History contains a number of anecdotes about people who attempted to discover the origin of language by experiment. The first such tale was told by Herodotus, who relates that Pharaoh Psamtik I caused two children to be raised by deaf-mutes; he would see what language they ended up speaking. When the children were brought before him, one of them said something that sounded to the pharaoh like bekos, the Phrygian word for bread. From this, Psamtik concluded that Phrygian was the first language. King James IV of Scotland is said to have tried a similar experiment; his children were supposed to have ended up speaking Hebrew. Akbar,the 16th century Mogul Emperor of India is said to have tried a similar experiment; his children did not speak.
November 24, 2008 - Wise Words For the Day:
"Time and again human consciousness fixates, and slams the door on its greatest gift, the open-endedness of infinite possibility. As a result we do not experience reality but merely our concept of it"
-- Jose Arguelles in "The Transformative Vision", p. 26
