December 21, 2003

Another Humboldt heard from

A reader from Japan suggested that Humboldt University in California, which is named after Humboldt County where it's located, is another university named for the linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (even if indirectly).

Close, but not quite -- Humboldt county is named for the explorer Alexander von Humboldt, Wilhelm's kid brother.

So this suggests another academic trivia question -- are there any other cases where each of two siblings has a university named after him or her (even through indirect geographical attribution)?

Posted by Mark Liberman at December 21, 2003 07:50 PM