NPR science correspondent Robert Krulwich had a story over the weekend about the practice of naming places after living people: in the 19th century, towns had a distinct tendency to be named after their postmasters; nowadays, though U.S. places cannot be named after living people, seamounts and Antarctic mountains are unregulated by international law: a mountain range in Antarctica, for example, is named after successive (and living) retired executive secretaries of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. (Kind of like how biologists name species after one another.) Via All Points Blog.

(Mark Monmonier covers this ground in chapter eight of his recent book, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow.)

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