Some are born notorious.
Others have notoriety thrust upon them.
*Poor virgin St. Audrey suffered from a bulging neck tumor and the unwanted advances of an unsympathetic husband, but never lived to hear crass vendors eventually hawk her "tawdry" lace.
*If New York blueblood Harmen Knickerbocker isn’t rolling over in his grave, his nineteenth-century drawers are at least in a twist over having his venerable family name associated with underwear.
*Barbara Handler has never been happy about providing the name for the original Barbie, to say nothing of her doll’s plastic relationship with Ken-named for her real-life brother.
*In contrast to these, dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel avoided the inevitable "merchant of death" epitaph awaiting him by using his enormous explosives fortune to establish the Nobel Prize Foundation. Want to know where your words come from? The surprising, humorous, and often ironic stories behind ninety notable eponyms will take you on an undercover tour of the etymological sausage factory.