The eponymous naming of airports

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines eponymous as “of, relating to, or being the person or thing for whom or which something is named.”

Examples of eponyms are streets, buildings, airports and highways named after famous people and national leaders.

The mid-20th century saw the emergence of airports being named after people, particularly national leaders.

One of the first to be named after a national leader is the airport in the District of Columbia (DC) which was opened in 1941 and named the Washington National Airport after George Washington, the first president of the US. In 1998, the US Congress passed a bill to rename it the Ronald Reagan National Airport in honour of president Ronald Reagan.

The major airport in New York City was originally called Idlewild Airport and later New York International Airport. After his assassination in 1963, the airport was renamed John F Kennedy International Airport as a tribute to the 35th president of the US.

In 1984, the main airport in Toronto, Canada, was renamed Lester B Pearson International Airport, in honour of the 14th prime minister of Canada.

In January 2004, the main airport in Montreal, Canada, was renamed the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport in honour of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the 15th prime minister of Canada and father of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In 1978, the main airport in Nairobi, Kenya, originally Embakasi Airport, was renamed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after Kenya's first president and prime minister.

In November 2006, Tanzania’s main airport, Dar es Salaam International Airport, was renamed after Tanzania’s first president, Julius Kambarage Nyerere.

Praia International Airport, in Santiago Island, Cape Verde, was renamed in January 2012 Nelson Mandela International Airport after South Africa's former president, an icon of freedom in Africa.

Palam Airport in New Delhi, the capital of India, was renamed Indira Gandhi International Airport on May 2, 1986, in honour of the prime minister who was assassinated on October 31, 1984, by her bodyguards.

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is the international airport that serves Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. Formerly known as Hyderabad International Airport, it was renamed on March 14, 2005, after Gandhi, former prime minister of India, was assassinated in 1991 at a public meeting by a female suicide bomber.

Nassau International Airport was renamed on July 6, 2006, the Lynden Pindling International Airport after the first prime minister of the Bahamas.

In 1974, Palisadoes Airport in the capital Kingston was renamed Norman Manley International Airport in honour of Jamaica's first premier.

Montego Bay Airport was renamed in 1974 the Sangster International Airport after Jamaica’s second prime minister Sir Donald Sangster.

Coolidge International Airport, was renamed in 1985 the VC Bird International Airport in honour of Sir Vere Cornwall Bird, first prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.

The main airport in Dominica was formerly Melville Hall Airport. It was renamed Douglas-Charles Airport on October 27, 2014, in honour of former prime ministers Rosie Douglas and Pierre Charles.

St Lucia’s Vigie Airport was renamed George FL Charles Airport on August 4, 1997, in honour of former chief minister Sir George Frederick Lawrence Charles.

Barbados's Grantley Adams International Airport, formerly Seawell Airport, was named in 1976 after Sir Grantly, the first premier of Barbados.

Point Salines Airport in Grenada, which replaced Pearls Airport, was renamed in 2009 the Maurice Bishop International Airport after former prime minister Bishop, who started its construction in 1979. On October 19, 1983, during a coup d’état, a four-man People's Revolutionary Army firing squad executed Bishop and three members of his Cabinet.

In Guyana, Timehri International Airport, formerly Atkinson Field, was formally renamed on May 21, 1997, in honour of former president Dr Cheddi Jagan, who died on March 6, 1997.

On May 9, 2011, then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that Cabinet had agreed to rename the Crown Point International Airport in Tobago the Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson Airport, to honour the contributions Robinson made to the country.

Robinson, born on December 16, 1926, in Calder Hall, Tobago, was this country's third prime minister, serving from December 18, 1986-December 17, 1991. Robinson also served as president of TT from March 19, 1997-March 17, 2003.

On May 19, 2011, at a gala function at the airport, it was officially renamed the ANR Robinson International Airport.

It was a most befitting honour for a man who served as the parliamentary representative for Tobago East, first chairman of the Tobago House of Assembly, prime minister and president of TT.

Of greater significance was Robinson's attendance at the function, where he gave an emotional rendition of the famous song Danny Boy.

After the passing of former prime minister Basdeo Panday on January 1, ministers in former prime minister Persad-Bissessar’s Cabinet are now supporting the call to rename the Piarco International Airport in honour of Panday, during whose tenure the north international and domestic terminals were constructed and formally opened in 2002.

On January 5, after viewing Panday’s body lying in state at the rotunda of the Parliament, Persad-Bissessar said his legacy will live on, as he did a lot for the country.

Some of the major ways in which she believed the state could honour Panday included constitutional reform, and echoed other suggestions from the public, including renaming the airport and an early childhood centre in his hometown of St Julien Village, Princes Town, as well as scholarships, after him.