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User:Charles R Greathouse IV/Vanity
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As the Style Sheet says:
- Avoid vanity: do not name the sequence after yourself (or your family members, your friends, etc.).
I've collected here some examples and non-examples for my own purposes. Below, I use "discoverer" loosely; sometimes the sequence was known or 'obvious', but the named mathematician discovered properties which made it interesting.
Of course, the discoverer is often not unique; many of these had been discovered before, or were otherwise misnamed. In some cases the person was wrongly attributed the discovery, but the name stuck. See Wikipedia's List of misnamed theorems for some examples.
Contents
Non-examples
Named after discoverer
This is a list of sequences named after a discoverer by the mathematical community. In several cases the particular name has been codified by the OEIS. Note that the concept of "discovery" in mathematics is very wide, and this list follows this expansive view rather than attempting to determine which of various candidates is most worthy of being considered "discoverer".
| Sequence | Name | Named for | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A000045 | Fibonacci numbers | Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa) | ||
| A000058 | Sylvester's sequence | James Joseph Sylvester | ||
| A000108 | Catalan numbers | Eugène Charles Catalan | ||
| A000129 | Pell numbers | John Pell | ||
| A000134 | Positive zeros of Bessel function of order 0 | Friedrich Bessel | also A000155, A000167, A000175, A000249, A000275, A000331, A000369, A000806, etc. | |
| A000140 | Kendall-Mann numbers | Maurice Kendall and Henry Mann | ||
| A000215 | Fermat numbers | Pierre de Fermat | ||
| A000372 | Dedekind numbers | Richard Dedekind | also A003182, A007153, A014466 | |
| A000658 | Strehl's sequence | Volker Strehl[1] | ||
| A000670 | Fubini numbers | Guido Fubini | ||
| A000789 | Ramsey numbers | Frank P. Ramsey | also A006672 | |
| A000795 | Salié numbers | Hans Salié | also A005647, A065547, A098435 | |
| A000905 | Hamilton numbers | William Rowan Hamilton | ||
| A000926 | Euler's "numerus idoneus" | Leonhard Euler | ||
| A000957 | Fine's sequence | Terrence L. Fine | ||
| A000978 | Wagstaff numbers | Samuel S. Wagstaff, Jr. | also A000979 | |
| A001006 | Motzkin numbers | Theodore Motzkin | ||
| A001008 | Wolstenholme numbers | Joseph Wolstenholme | also A007406, A007408, A088164, A119621 | |
| A001013 | Jordan-Polya numbers | George Pólya and Camille Jordan | ||
| A001045 | Jacobsthal sequence | Ernst Jacobsthal | also A048669, A048670 | |
| A001190 | Wedderburn-Etherington numbers | Joseph Wedderburn and Ivor Malcolm Haddon Etherington | ||
| A001220 | Wieferich primes | Arthur Wieferich | ||
| A001286 | Lah numbers | Ivo Lah | also A001754, A001755, A001777, A001778, A111597, A111598, A111599, A111600 | |
| A001316 | Gould's sequence | Henry W. Gould | ||
| A001348 | Mersenne numbers | Marin Mersenne | ||
| A001462 | Golomb's sequence | Solomon W. Golomb | ||
| A001608 | Perrin sequence | François Olivier Raoul Perrin | ||
| A001620 | Euler-Mascheroni constant | Leonhard Euler and Lorenzo Mascheroni | ||
| A002004 | Davenport-Schinzel numbers | Harold Davenport and Andrzej Schinzel | also A005004, A005005, A005006, A005280, A005281 | |
| A002034 | Kempner numbers | Aubrey J. Kempner | ||
| A002064 | Cullen numbers | James Cullen | ||
| A002068 | Wilson remainders | John Wilson | also A007540, A007619, A157250 | |
| A002083 | Narayana-Zidek-Capell numbers | Tadepalli Venkata Narayana, James Victor Zidek, and P. Capell | ||
| A002210 | Khintchine's constant | Aleksandr Khinchin | ||
| A002216 | Harary-Read numbers | Frank Harary and Ronald C. Read | ||
| A002315 | NSW numbers | Morris Newman, Daniel Shanks and Hugh C. Williams | also A088165 | |
| A002321 | Mertens' function | Franz Mertens | ||
| A002487 | Stern's diatomic sequence | Moritz Abraham Stern | also A005230, A042978 | |
| A002661 | Least integer having Radon random number n | Johann Radon | also A101119, A209675 | |
| A002736 | Apéry numbers | Roger Apéry | also A005258, A005429, A005430 | note A002117 is officially zeta(3) rather than Apéry's constant in the OEIS |
| A002858 | Ulam numbers | Stanislaw Ulam | ||
| A002895 | Domb numbers | Cyril Domb | ||
| A002954 | Smallest number such that n-th iterate of Chowla function is 0 | Sarvadaman Chowla | also A048050, A054013, A054014, A054015, A054017, A054020, A054021, A054022, A054023, etc. | |
| A002997 | Carmichael numbers | Robert Daniel Carmichael | ||
| A003136 | Loeschian numbers | August Lösch | ||
| A003173 | Heegner numbers | Kurt Heegner | ||
| A003261 | Woodall (or Riesel) numbers | H. J. Woodall or Hans Riesel | also A050918 | |
| A003278 | Szekeres's sequence | George Szekeres | ||
| A003458 | Erdős-Selfridge function | Paul Erdős and John Selfridge | ||
| A003484 | Radon function, also called Hurwitz-Radon numbers | Johann Radon and Adolf Hurwitz | also A003485, A034584 | |
| A003957 | Dottie number | Dottie | ||
| A004231 | Ackermann's sequence | Wilhelm Ackermann | also A143796 | |
| A005044 | Alcuin's sequence | Alcuin of York | ||
| A005130 | Robbins numbers | David P. Robbins | ||
| A005132 | Recamán's sequence | Bernardo Recamán Santos | ||
| A005235 | Fortunate numbers | Reo Fortune | ||
| A005282 | Mian-Chowla sequence | Abdul Majid Mian and Sarvadaman Chowla | ||
| A006255 | Ron Graham's sequence | Ronald Graham | ||
| A006509 | Cald's sequence | Francis Cald | ||
| A006720 | Somos-4 sequence | Michael Somos | many others | |
| A006752 | Catalan's constant | Eugène Charles Catalan | ||
| A007318 | Pascal's triangle read by rows | Blaise Pascal | many others | |
| A007434 | Jordan function J_2(n) | Camille Jordan | also A059376, A059377, A059378, A059387, A069091, A069092, A069093, A069094, A069095 | |
| A007458 | Order of group of n X n X n Rubik cube | Ernő Rubik | many others | |
| A007459 | Higgs' primes | Denis Higgs | ||
| A007850 | Giuga numbers | Giuseppe Giuga | ||
| A008301 | Poupard's triangle | Christiane Poupard | ||
| A008302 | Triangle of Mahonian numbers | Percy Alexander MacMahon | ||
| A008683 | Möbius function mu(n) | August Ferdinand Möbius | many others | |
| A000931 | Padovan sequence | Richard Padovan | ||
| A014586 | Nim-Grundy function | Patrick Michael Grundy | also A019307, A019591, A033623, A036685, A036686, A054043, A054044, A054045, A054046, A069001, etc. | |
| A016014 | Proth numbers | François Proth | also A080076 | |
| A016105 | Blum numbers | Manuel Blum | ||
| A018804 | Pillai's arithmetical function | Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai | also A066352, A063980 | |
| A022493 | Fishburn numbers | Peter C. Fishburn | ||
| A033548 | Honaker primes | G. L. Honaker, Jr. | ||
| A037077 | MRB constant | Marvin Ray Burns | also A160755, A173273 | |
| A038219 | Ehrenfeucht-Mycielski sequence | Andrzej Ehrenfeucht and Jan Mycielski | ||
| A047812 | Parker's partition triangle | E. T. Parker | ||
| A048736 | Dana Scott's sequence | Dana Scott | ||
| A048992 | Hannah Rollman's numbers | Hannah Rollman | ||
| A051015 | Zeisel numbers | Helmut Zeisel | ||
| A051254 | Mills primes | William H. Mills | ||
| A052427 | Baxter-Hickerson numbers | Dean Robert Hickerson and Lew Baxter | ||
| A053012 | Platonic numbers | Plato | ||
| A054639 | Queneau numbers | Raymond Queneau | ||
| A057588 | Kummer numbers | Ernst Kummer | ||
| A059756 | Erdos-Woods numbers | Paul Erdős and Alan Robert Woods | ||
| A060941 | Duchon's numbers | Philippe Duchon | ||
| A061783 | Luhn primes | Hans Peter Luhn | ||
| A063170 | Schenker sums with n-th term | Hank Schenker | also A219546 | |
| A064152 | Erdos primes | Paul Erdős | ||
| A071336 | Number of vertices of Goldberg-Casper-Klug pseudo-icosahedra | Michael Goldberg, Donald Casper, and Aaron Klug | ||
| A074962 | Glaisher-Kinkelin constant | James Whitbread Lee Glaisher and Hermann Kinkelin | ||
| A076046 | Ramanujan-Nagell numbers | Srinivasa Ramanujan and Trygve Nagell | ||
| A076337 | Riesel numbers | Hans Riesel | ||
| A076847 | Ramanujan function tau(p) | Srinivasa Ramanujan | many others | |
| A076980 | Leyland numbers | Paul Leyland | also A094133 | |
| A080262 | Cunningham numbers | Allan Joseph Champneys Cunningham | ||
| A083207 | Zumkeller numbers | Reinhard Zumkeller | ||
| A086886 | Ljungstrand's sequence | Erik Ljungstrand | ||
| A090822 | Gijswijt's sequence | Dion C. Gijswijt | ||
| A091522 | A Graham-Pollak sequence | Ronald Graham and Henry O. Pollak | Also A091523, A091524, A100671, A100673; note that A001521, "the" Graham-Pollak sequence, is not called the Graham-Pollak sequence in the OEIS | |
| A099054 | Arshon's sequence | S. E. Arshon | ||
| A104016 | Devaraj numbers | Agaram Kandadai Devaraj | ||
| A106108 | Rowland's prime-generating sequence | Eric S. Rowland | ||
| A109611 | Chen primes | Chen Jingrun | ||
| A115569 | Lynch-Bell numbers | Stephen Lynch and Andrew Bell | ||
| A118227 | Cahen's constant | Eugène Cahen | ||
| A125143 | Almkvist-Zudilin numbers | Gert Almkvist and Wadim Zudilin | ||
| A135529 | Guy Steele's sequence GS(4,5) | Guy L. Steele Jr. | also A135533, A135542 | |
| A143797 | Ackermann-Buck function | Wilhelm Ackermann and Robert Creighton Buck | ||
| A158079 | Marcus Du Sautoy's sequences of symmetries | Marcus du Sautoy | ||
| A163973 | Van der Pauw's constant | Leo J. van der Pauw | ||
| A165255 | Solinas primes | Jerome A. Solinas | ||
| A167268 | Janet's sequence | Charles Janet | ||
| A177143 | Pasquale's sequence | Pasquale Malpeso | ||
| A177834 | Opmanis's sequence | Mārtiņš Opmanis | ||
| A177865 | Polya-Vinogradov numbers | George Pólya and Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov (Ива́н Матве́евич Виногра́дов) | ||
| A180874 | Lassalle's sequence | Michel Lassalle | ||
| A181391 | Van Eck's sequence | Jan Ritsema van Eck | ||
| A182523 | Rademacher's sequence | Hans Rademacher | ||
| A185086 | Fouvry-Iwaniec primes | Étienne Fouvry and Henryk Iwaniec | ||
| A185311 | Keränen's abelian squarefree endomorphism of size 85 | Veikko Keränen | also A185312 | |
| A187595 | Bernoulli-Kervaire-Milnor numbers | Jacob Bernoulli, Michel Kervaire, and John Milnor (the latter two as discoverers) | ||
| A194472 | Erdős-Nicolas numbers | Paul Erdős and Jean-Louis Nicolas | ||
| A197630 | Lerch quotients of odd primes | Mathias Lerch | also A197631, A197632 | |
| A200216 | Danilov's sequence | L. V. Danilov (Л. В. Данилов) | also A200217 and A200218 | |
| A216868 | Nicolas's sequence | Jean-Louis Nicolas | also A218245 | |
| A221286 | Vsemirnov's sequence | Maxim Vsemirnov | ||
| A224749 | Vauban's sequence | Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban | ||
| A226898 | Hooley's Delta function | Christopher Hooley | ||
| A226903 | Shiraishi numbers | Shiraishi Nagatada (白石 長忠; Shiraishi Chochu) | ||
| A242679 | Bobo numbers | E. Ray Bobo | ||
| A249357 | Fibonacci-Zumkeller numbers | Reinhard Zumkeller and Fibonacci (the former as discoverer) | ||
| A256627 | Moessner's magic square | Alfred Moessner | ||
| A258117 | The Heinz numbers | Alois P. Heinz | ||
| A259679 | Lampard's constant | Doug G. Lampard | ||
| A261532 | Hall's sequence | James S. Hall | ||
| A263883 | Ivanov's number | Oleg A. Ivanov | ||
| A268642 | Seelmann's sequence | David Seelmann | ||
| A273774 | Jevon's number | William Stanley Jevons | ||
| A274628 | Nathanson's orphan-counting function | Melvyn B. Nathanson | ||
| A330503 | Number of Sós permutations | Vera T. Sós |
Named after earlier researcher
This is a list of sequences named after an earlier researcher or researchers who inspired the sequence with related work.
Named after others
This is a list of sequences named after someone unrelated to the work, but also not a friend or relative of a discoverer.
| Sequence | Name | Named for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A006145 | Ruth-Aaron numbers | Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron | also A006146, A039752 |
Named after place, legend, etc.
This is a list of sequences not named after people, or after fictional or legendary people, but with the potential for confusion.
| Sequence | Name | Named for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A006345 | Linus sequence | Linus van Pelt | named by Nathaniel Hellerstein |
| A006346 | Sally sequence | Sally Brown | named by Nathaniel Hellerstein |
| A072274 | Ormiston prime pairs | Ormiston College | named by Andy Edwards ("for want of a better name") when teaching there |
| A101110 | First Beale cipher | Thomas J. Beale (see Beale ciphers) | also A101111, A101112 |
| A174541 | Baron Munchhausen's sequence | Baron Munchhausen | also A166623, A186313 |
| A255899 | Mrs. Miniver's constant | Mrs. Miniver (see Mrs. Miniver's problem) | |
| A256060 | Queen Dido's puzzle | Dido of Carthage | |
| A256590 | Base-2 Reacher numbers | Jack Reacher | named by Jeffrey Shallit |
| A277402 | 3-Portolan numbers | portolan charts | named by Ethan Beihl |
Examples
This is a list of sequences apparently named after themselves by a discoverer. Usually these names are not appropriate for the OEIS. (These sequences, being in the OEIS, are presumably exceptions.) Many of these sequences are recreational mathematics.
| Sequence | Name | Named for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A001101 | Moran numbers | Bill Moran | |
| A003624 | Duffinian numbers | L. Richard Duffy | |
| A006886 | Kaprekar numbers | Dattaraya Ramchandra Kaprekar | |
| A019518 | Smarandache-Wellin numbers | Florentin Smarandache and Paul R. Wellin | |
| A035312 | Zorach additive triangle | Alex Zorach | |
| A036057 | Friedman numbers | Erich Friedman | |
| A064164 | EHS numbers | Paul Erdős, George E. Hardy, and Mathukumalli V. Subbarao | |
| A080867 | Dorey's period-90 sequence | Laurent Dorey | |
| A106007 | Coster numbers | Matthijs Coster | |
| A247698 | Brady numbers | Brady Haran |
This is a list of sequences apparently named after family members, friends, etc. Usually these names are not appropriate for the OEIS. (These sequences, being in the OEIS, are presumably exceptions.)
Former examples
This is a list of sequences formerly named after family members, friends, etc.
Unknown
I don't know who discovered or named these sequences.
