Publisher's blurb: When I came across Names and Their Meaning: A Book for the Curious by Leopold Wagner, I had that same thrill again. It is not, despite the title, a “baby name” sort of book good for naming characters. Not even close. It is, instead, about how all manner of things got their names. I’ve had no luck learning anything about Wagner himself, but his original book was a chaotic thrill ride. There was no organization or order to things. He moved with reckless abandon from writing about malt liquor to diamonds to naval nicknames. His list of London districts was followed not by other entries on that esteemed city, but his thoughts on battles, then festivals, then textiles. Still, the book was popular enough that there were at least three editions. What you see before you is drawn from the 3rd edition, published in 1893. I’ve taken the liberty of imposing some semblance of order upon it, creating individual chapters for People, Places, Things, and Events. From there, the sections are presented in alphabetical order. The lists themselves, however, retain Wagner’s original haphazard, almost stream-of-consciousness flow.