How viruses got their names:

1. COVID-19. This is the name of the disease not the virus. The viruse that causes it is SARS-CoV2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). For COVID19, Co is for Corona, VI is for Virus, D is for Disease, & 19 is the year it was identified

2. Chickenpox AKA varicella, caused by Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV). We don’t actually know how chickenpox got its name – might be because vesicles look like chickpeas or because “chick” refers to “child” & disease is usually seen in childhood. Or because disease is often mild

3. Ebola. The name comes from the Ebola River – an outbreak in 1976 (when Ebola was first identified) was in a village near this river.

4. Hantavirus. The name comes from the Hantan River where the disease was detected early on.

5. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). It was actually first named HTLV-III/LAV which was for human T-cell lymphotrophic virus-type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus. Later, it was renamed as HIV, which highlights the immunodeficiency impact of viral infection.

6. Influenza. The name comes from Italian for “influence” – initially (in the 1700s) it was though that the stars would influence symptoms.

7. Marburg. The name for the Marburg virus comes from the city in Germany where they fist found the virus.

8. Measles. It has been called different things through history. Current word measles might be from “maselen” which is Middle English for “many little spots” or it could be from “miser” which is Arabic & means “unhappiness of lepers”

9. MERS-CoV. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus. So named because it first appeared in Saudi Arabi in the Middle East.

10. Norwalk, a Norovirus. So named because an outbreak occurred in Norwalk, Ohio in the late 1960s.

11. Poliovirus. It is thought that “polio” comes from the Ancient Greek term of “grey” maybe referring to spinal cord grey matter

12. Rabies is caused by a lyssavirus. The word rabies comes from the Latin word meaning “madness” & the word lyssa is a Greek word meaning “violent”

13. Rotavirus. In the early 1970s it was noted that the virus looks like a wheel when seen under electron microscopy. The word for wheel is “rota” in Latin.

14. Smallpox. It is thought that “smallpox” was used in Britain in the 1500s to separate this disease from syphilis which was called “great pox.” Note – syphilis is caused by a bacterium, not a virus.

15. Spanish Flu. Influenza pandemic from 1918-1920. Spain reported widely on it, however UK, France, & Germany didn’t because of censorship related to morale at the end of WWI. So it was publicly understood that Spain had more cases than elsewhere when this wasn’t the case

16. Zika virus. Name is attributed to the Ziika Forest in Uganda. In the late 1940s, this is where the virus was first isolated.

And yes, it used to be common to name viruses after their place of origin but that isn’t done anymore, because it can cause harm and stigma...

...and it can also be incorrect (like Spanish Flu, which didn’t actually originate in Spain.)

Also, note that “swine flu” aka the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic wasn’t called “North American Flu” – but that is where it started.