Greek 'epi' (upon) + 'onyma' (name) — the process by which personal names become common words.
A person after whom a discovery, invention, place, or era is named; a word derived from a person's name (e.g., 'sandwich' from the Earl of Sandwich; 'algorithm' from al-Khwarizmi).
From Greek 'epṓnymos' (ἐπώνυμος, giving one's name to something, named after), from 'epí' (ἐπί, upon, over, to) + 'ónyma' (ὄνυμα, name, Aeolic dialect variant of 'ónoma'), from PIE *h₁nómn̥ (name). The PIE root *h₁nómn̥ is one of the most stable and widely attested roots in the family, appearing with minimal change across millennia: Latin 'nōmen' (name), Sanskrit 'nā́man' (name), Old English 'nama' (name), Gothic 'namō,' Old Irish 'ainm,' Hittite 'lāman,' and Tocharian B 'ñem.' In ancient Athens, each year
The word 'algorithm' is an eponym: it comes from the name of the 9th-century Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, whose surname (meaning 'from Khwarezm') was Latinized as 'Algoritmi.' A man's hometown, embedded in his name, became one of the most important words in modern technology.