The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 2 August 2004

The Sometimes Offbeat Legacy of Royal Eponyms

Every American child learns in grammar school that Virginia was named for the “Virgin” Queen Elizabeth I of England, Charleston originated as Charles Town in honor of King Charles II, and Georgia was named after King George II. Of course, Queen Victoria’s legacy is as vast as her empire once was. Cities, islands, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, universities, museums, and architecture, just to name a few, are all named for the Queen who gave her name to an era.  

Between places, ships, and, of course, buildings, there is no doubt that the names of Britain’s royals are forever imprinted on our collective consciousness, but apart from the historical and obvious royal eponyms, there are many more that we are not as familiar with. Even among those we are familiar with, we may not know how the names came to be eponymous.  

There’s a wonderful anecdote about how the RMS Queen Mary was named. Apparently, The Cunard Line planned to name the ship the Queen Victoria, but when the company went to George V and told him that they wanted to name the ship after Britain’s “greatest queen,” the King responded by saying something to the effect of, ‘my wife will be delighted.’ To save any embarrassment, the ship was duly named the Queen Mary. 

Accidentally or not, Britain’s queens have always inspired eponyms, especially among the sweeter things in life. Unlike in France, the connection between Britain’s queens and cakes has been a more positive one. When a famous Polish pianist served Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother a flourless chocolate cake, he couldn’t possibly have imagined that she would like it so much she would ask for the recipe; but she did and served it to her own guests whenever possible. Fittingly, the cake is now known as the Queen Mother’s Cake.  

Likewise, history tells us that you can thank Queen Charlotte for the Apple Charlotte. George III’s consort is not only credited with inspiring the layered apple cake, but, sometimes, with actually bringing the recipe with her from Germany. But even if the recipe wasn’t in her trousseau, it is certain that the apple-loving Queen Consort did introduce to Britain a number of new apple varieties from Germany, including one that’s named for her. 

But royal ladies didn’t always have to do so much to inspire an eponym. Another royal consort made her name synonymous with wild carrot, the plant we know better as Queen Anne’s Lace, simply by wearing the flowers of the plant. This particular Queen Anne – Anne of Denmark, the wife of James I – was simply doing what so many more modern royals have done… start an eponymous fashion trend.  

Perhaps the most famous of these is the Windsor Knot – a style of tying a necktie that creates a thicker, wider knot than usual. Credited to the Duke of Windsor, the origin of the eponym is perhaps just as controversial as the Duke himself was. Like so many other eponyms, the origin of the Windsor Knot is disputed, and the Duke of Windsor himself dismissed that he had invented it.  And speaking of eponymous controversy, it would be irresponsible not to point out that even poor Queen Charlotte’s claim to the Apple Charlotte is not without dispute. Some say that the name of the cake actually originates from “charlets,” meat dishes that were popular in the 15^th century.  

While some eponyms may be simply disputed, others lean towards the apocryphal, like the idea that the Bloody Mary cocktail was named for England’s “Bloody Mary,” Queen Mary I of England. While cocktail history is (appropriately) somewhat clouded and contradictory at times, a commonly told story claims that a Parisian bartender created the drink and named it after a girl he knew at Chicago’s Bucket of Blood Club.  

If you think that explanation is a bit strange, consider for a moment the piercing named for Prince Albert, who, legend tells us, had a very intimate part of his anatomy pierced so that he could “control” it underneath the tight clothing of the time.  Again, the story is perhaps dubious, but it certainly has a firm place in today’s alternative popular culture.  

One thing is sure about royal eponyms – the most interesting ones are those you didn’t learn about in school.

Until next week, 

- Tori Van Orden Mart�nez