We’re all familiar with the “Einsteins” of the world:
Famous names that have come to describe genius.
But what about the Skutniks?
Or the Beddias? Or the Murphys?
These clearly aren’t household names, yet they’ve quietly slipped into our historical and pop-cultural lexicon. Here’s a look at four instances where a comparatively unknown person left a permanent and significant linguistic mark.
A Skutnik
A Regular Guy Becomes An Instant Hero – And Begins A Presidential Political Tradition
On January 13, 1982, a United States Congressional Budget Office worker was carpooling through Washington D.C. on his usual commute home to Lorton, Virginia. Because of a snowstorm, he and his coworkers had left the office earlier than usual.
Lenny Skutnik witnessed the horrific crash of Air Florida Flight 90 into the Potomac River. He instinctively stopped to help and heroically dove into the icy water to rescue Priscilla Tirado, who had fallen from the plane and was struggling to hold onto a rescue line dropped from a helicopter.
Selflessly assisting a a compete stranger: A true act of spontaneous heroism captured on live television.
President Reagan honored Skutnik during the State of the Union address two weeks later, asking him stand to receive the nation’s gratitude.
It was this moment that transformed political speechmaking. Today, a “Skutnik” refers to an everyperson hero or an individual who has overcome adversity, and is invited to attend the State of the Union address to be publicly acknowledged by the President.
These guests are also sometimes disparagingly called “human props,” but the term “Skutnik” itself is a title of respect, paying proper tribute in general to deserving individuals, and in particular to the man who started the tradition.
The Bechdel Test
A Conversation Between Friends Changes Gender Media Criticism Forever
n 1985, cartoonist Alison Bechdel included a simple conversation in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For.
A character explains she only watches movies that satisfy three criteria:
1) It must feature at least two women:
2) Who talk to each other –
3) About something other than a man.
Inspired by real-life conversations with Bechdel’s friend Liz Wallace, what began as a witty observation between fictional characters evolved into the Bechdel Test: now a fundamental concept in film criticism.
While Bechdel wasn’t a complete unknown, she was far from famous when her name became attached to this cultural measuring stick.
And name, like the overall concept, stuck.
Decades later, The Bechdel Test continues to influence how people evaluate gender representation in media.
The Beddian Birthday
A Firefighter Creates a Mathematical – And Bittersweet Curiosity
Born on September 7, 1953, Bobby Beddia was a New York City firefighter. He seems to be the first person that noticed a slight, age-related numerical quirk:
That at some point, a person’s age is likely to match the last two digits of their birth year.
The term “Beddian birthday” refers to this unique numerical coincidence.
For example, if you were born in 1961, your Beddian birthday would have happened in 2022 – when you turned 61 years old.
Beddia’s observation of this calendrical symmetry captured people’s imagination, and the term spread among mathematical enthusiasts and life-milestone aficionados alike.
Beddia himself was said to have been excited to reach his inventive milestone, celebrating it in 2006.
Sadly, he died in the line of duty on August 18, 2007, at the age of 53, while fighting a fire at the former Deutsche Bank building near Ground Zero in Manhattan.
His death occurred just a few weeks before his 54th birthday, making it a poignant and rare alignment of fate, and the concept he had observed.
“I told the guys at the firehouse, ‘Hey! I’m turning the same age as the year I was born!’ They said, ‘Cool.’
‘Now, put out the fire.’” — Bobby Beddia
By any calculation: he sounds like he was good guy.
Murphy’s Law
Patient Zero For Observing: “Anything That Can Go Wrong Will”
We’ve all been there: toast lands butter-side down, or the fastest line suddenly stops. “That’s just Murphy’s Law,” we mutter. But who was Murphy? Not a philosopher or clumsy inventor, but an actual person, an aerospace engineer, whose name became an eponym from a single, frustrating incident.
Meet Captain Edward A. Murphy Jr. In 1949, Murphy was working at Edwards Air Force Base on Project MX981, a high-speed sled test. They were using strain gauges, devices deployed to measure the stress of the hardware design. After investigating a consistent series of failures, it was discovered that all 16 gauges were installed incorrectly.
The technical term: Backwards.
Murphy, observing this, reportedly muttered something like, “If there are two ways of doing something, and one of them will result in catastrophe, then [the test subject] will do it that way.”
The project manager, Colonel John Stapp, recognized the profound truth.
When asked how they avoided accidents, Stapp often credited “Murphy’s Law,” explaining they anticipated everything that could go wrong. From this specific incident and Stapp’s popularization, the phrase spread.
Edward A. Murphy Jr. wasn’t famous. He was an “everyman” engineer whose brief, offhand comment, born from a moment of human error, crystallized a fundamental truth about the universe. His name became an eponym not for himself, but for the inherent perversity of inanimate objects and the inevitability of minor disaster.
Why Do Some Names Stick While Others Fade?
What makes these particular names transcend their bearers to become terminology? Often, it’s the perfect storm of timing, media attention, and a concept that needs naming.
There’s something charmingly democratic about these eponyms.
Unlike terms named after celebrities or historical figures, these names remind us that ordinary people: cartoonists, firefighters, soldiers, and even a guy who was just coming home from work – can also leave linguistic legacies that outlive them.
It’s proof that linguistic immortality doesn’t require fame, just the right place in the right cultural moment.
There have to be more…
What ordinary-person eponyms have I missed? Share your favorites in the comments below.
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Very cool topic. I wasn’t familiar with a Skutnik or a Beddian birthday (nor is my spell-check) but I’ve known about the Bechdel test for a few years. Coincidentally, just two days ago, I watched a very meta rom-com about a guy pitching a rom-com script to two studio execs and at one point one of them wants to make sure it passes the Bechdel test.
At the church for which I work, for quite awhile, when a funeral would come in for a day when both priests were out, we called it Murphy’s Law, not just because it happened a lot and fit the definition, but also due to the fact that the retired priest we would call to substitute was actually named Fr. Murphy. Sadly he passed a few years back.
Coincidentally, the term for coming up with an obscure but really interesting topic is an mt58. Well done!
I think an mt58 can also be a direct reference to taking the high road and an overall classy demeanor.
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Very interesting stuff. I only know of Murphy’s Law out of these but didn’t know the derivation. Nicely done.
One that we have here is; Gordon Bennett. Said as an exclamation of frustration, surprise or shock. Probably not as common now, not sure it’s as recognisable to under 40s.
There’s debate as to how it came about. James Gordon Bennett Senior was the Scottish born founder of the New York Herald. It’s possible his name became associated with what was seen as sullying the journalistic profession, directing it to the gutter. Then there’s his son James Gordon Bennett Junior. By all accounts an international playboy of ill repute with his name becoming an exclamation of shock at his exploits.
Another explanation is it’s a variation of the cockney saying; Gor Blimey, which itself derived from God Blind Me. Or possibly its a combination of all three.
I was thinking another one is “taking a mulligan”, a do-over shot in golf, which has kind of spread to other applications as well. I looked it up, and there are 3 different possible origin stories, 2 of them involving real people named Mulligan. Not as cut and dried as I had hoped.
The Bechdel test is handy, but simplistic. I remember there was much discussion about it surrounding the 2013 Oscars. It was noted that Gravity, despite a strong central performance by Sandra Bullock, did not pass the test, while The Wolf of Wall Street, a very un-feminist film, did pass.
Nachos is another one! Named after a chef named Ignacio Anaya Garcia.
And then there’s Quisling, which is a much less fun one…