Stigler’s law of eponymy is a process proposed by University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler in his 1980 publication “Stigler’s law of eponymy”. In its simplest and strongest form it says: “No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.”
Fittingly, “Stigler attributes the discovery of Stigler’s Law to Robert K. Merton (which makes the law self-referencing).”
Related reading: Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker article, “In the Air”
