[R] [OT] "normal" (as in "Guassian")

[Douglas Bates]

On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 8:25 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
> On 3/3/2008 9:10 AM, Rogers, James A [PGRD Groton] wrote:
>  > As someone of partly French heritage, I would also ask how this
>  > distribution came to be called "Gaussian". It seems very unfair to de
>  > Moivre, who discovered the distribution at least half a century earlier.
>  > :-)
>
>  Just an example of Stigler's Law.

Taking this to a whole new level of "off topic", I wonder if Stigler's
Law is self-referential?  That is, should Stigler's Law more correctly
be attributed to someone else?

>  > On Mar 2, 2008, at 7:33 AM, (Ted Harding) wrote:
>  >
>  >> Hi Folks,
>  >> Apologies to anyone who'd prefer not to see this query
>  >> on this list; but I'm asking because it is probably the
>  >> forum where I'm most likely to get a good answer!
>  >>
>  >> I'm interested in the provenance of the name "normal
>  >> distribution" (for what I'd really prefer to call the
>  >> "Gaussian" distribution).
>  >>
>  >> According to Wikipedia, "The name "normal distribution"
>  >> was coined independently by Charles S. Peirce, Francis
>  >> Galton and Wilhelm Lexis around 1875."
>  >>
>  >> So be it, if that was the case -- but I would like to
>  >> know why they chose the name "normal": what did they
>  >> intend to convey?
>  >>
>  >> As background: I'm reflecting a bit on the usage in
>  >> statistics of "everyday language" as techincal terms,
>  >> as in "significantly different". This, for instance,
>  >> is likely to be misunderstood by the general publidc
>  >> when they encounter statements in the media.
>  >>
>  >> Likewise, "normally distributed" would probably be
>  >> interpreted as "distributed in the way one would
>  >> normally expect" or, perhaps, "there was nothing
>  >> unusual about the distribution."
>  >>
>  >> Comments welcome!
>  >> With thanks,
>  >> Ted.
>  >>
>  >
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