---
title: "List of examples of Stigler's law"
chunk: 1/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_Stigler's_law"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:17:59.384401+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Stigler's law concerns the supposed tendency of eponymous expressions for scientific discoveries to honor people other than their respective originators.
Examples include:

== A ==
Aharonov–Bohm effect. Werner Ehrenberg and Raymond E. Siday first predicted the effect in 1949, and similar effects were later rediscovered by Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm in 1959.
Ampère's circuital law was inspired by the experimental results of André-Marie Ampère, and named in his honor. However, it was James Clerk Maxwell who combined those results into a single mathematical law.
Arabic numerals, first developed in India around 7th century.
Archimedes' screw is known to predate Archimedes by at least three centuries in ancient Babylon.
Argand diagram by Caspar Wessel in 1797, predating Jean-Robert Argand by nine years.
Arrhenius equation. The equation was first proposed by the Dutch chemist J. H. van 't Hoff in 1884; five years later in 1889, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius provided a physical justification and interpretation for it.
Auger effect. First discovered by Lise Meitner in 1922 and then, independently, in 1923 by Pierre Victor Auger.

== B ==
Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe formula was discovered by Simon Plouffe, who has since expressed regret at having to share credit for his discovery.
Bell numbers have been studied since the 19th century and even medieval Japan, but are named after Eric Temple Bell who wrote about them in the 1930s.
Bellman–Ford algorithm for computing the shortest-length path, proposed by Alfonso Shimbel, who presented the algorithm in 1954, but named after Richard Bellman and Lester Ford Jr., who published equivalent forms in 1956 and 1958.
Benford's law, named after physicist Frank Benford, who stated it in 1938, although it had been previously stated by Simon Newcomb in 1881.
Bertrand's ballot theorem proved using André's reflection method, which states the probability that the winning candidate in an election stays in the lead throughout the count.  It was first published by W. A. Whitworth in 1878, nine years before Joseph Louis François Bertrand; Désiré André's proof did not use reflection, though reflection is now the method commonly taught.
The Bessemer process was discovered by William Kelly in 1851. Henry Bessemer was the first to obtain a patent in 1855.
The Bethe–Salpeter equation (named after Hans Bethe and Edwin Salpeter), which describes the bound states of a two-body system in quantum field theoretical.  The equation was first published by Yoichiro Nambu, but without derivation.
Betteridge's law of headlines, stating that when a headline asks a (yes-no) question, the answer is no. Considered "an old truism among journalists", it was well known before Betteridge wrote about it in 2009.
Betz' law, which shows the maximum attainable energy efficiency of a wind turbine, was discovered first by Frederick W. Lanchester. It was subsequently independently rediscovered by Albert Betz and also Nikolai Zhukovsky.
The Bilinski dodecahedron appears in a 1752 book by John Lodge Cowley but is named after Stanko Bilinski, who rediscovered it in 1960.
The Black–Scholes model postulating a geometric Brownian motion as a model for stock market returns, credited to the 1973 academic papers of Fischer Black, Myron Scholes and Robert C. Merton, was first proposed by Paul Samuelson in 1965, and refined further in work with Merton in 1969.
Blount's disease was described independently by C. Mau (1923) and Harald Nilsonne (1929), both writing in German, before it was described in English by Walter Putnam Blount (1937).
Bode's law of 1772, stating that the distances of the planets from the sun follow a simple arithmetical rule, was first stated by Johann Titius in 1766, not Johann Elert Bode.
The Bonferroni correction is named after Italian mathematician Carlo Emilio Bonferroni for its use of Bonferroni inequalities. However, its development is often credited to Olive Jean Dunn, who described the procedure's application to confidence intervals.
Boyce–Codd normal form, a normal form used in database normalization. The definition of what we now know as BCNF appeared in a paper by Ian Heath in 1971. Date writes: Since that definition predated Boyce and Codd's own definition by some three years, it seems to me that BCNF ought by rights to be called Heath normal form. But it isn't.
Boyle's law, which stipulates the reciprocal relation between the pressure and the volume of a gas, was first noted by Richard Towneley and Henry Power. In France, the law is known as Mariotte's law, after Edme Mariotte, who published his results later than Boyle, but crucially added that the relation holds only when temperature is kept constant.
Bradley–Terry model, one of the most popular models for Pairwise comparison, first described by Ernst Zermelo in 1929.
Braess's paradox, that adding one or more roads to a road network can cause overall traffic flow through it to slow down, was first discovered by Arthur Pigou in 1920.
Brayton Cycle, as quoted from Wikipedia itself: The engine cycle is named after George Brayton (1830–1892), the American engineer who developed it originally for use in piston engines, although it was originally proposed and patented by Englishman John Barber in 1791.
Brus equation named after Louis E. Brus. Proposed a few years earlier by Alexander Efros.
Burnside's lemma, a counting technique in group theory, was discovered by Augustin Louis Cauchy, or possibly others. William Burnside originally attributed it to Ferdinand Georg Frobenius. Ironically, Burnside made many original contributions to group theory, and Burnside's Lemma is sometimes jokingly referred to as "the lemma that is not Burnside's".
Buridan's ass originates from the Persian philosopher Al-Ghazali. The version popularised by Jean Buridan also does not include the eponymous donkey.