WHO WAS MOUNT EVEREST NAMED AFTER?
It would have been pretty cool if the first person who climbed Mount Everest got to name it, but sadly it wasn’t the case here, it was named after a man called George Everest, but why?
In 1852, British surveyors discovered Mount Everest when they were mapping out the Indian subcontinent. Of course, at the time, the largest mountain on Earth did not have a name to go by, and it was for a time known as Peak XV / Peak B.
But as you can imagine, Peak XV/Peak B aren’t the most interesting names.
It wasn’t until Andrew Waugh – a surveyor general of India proposed that it should be named after his predecessor – Sir George Everest. From what Andrew could ascertain, there were no local names that had been given to the mountain.
However, unbeknownst to him, there were a few names locals had given which included – Chomolungma, which translated to Goddess Mother of the World.
Either way, Andrew Waugh had put the name forward, but Sir George Everest did initially take issue with it. Firstly, Sir George hadn’t been to the mountain, nor had he even seen it. His only real participation in all of this was hiring Andrew…! Secondly, he also took issue with the fact the natives of India wouldn’t be able to pronounce his name, nor spell it easily.
Fast forward 13 years and the Royal Geographical Society eventually decided to go for Mount Everest. Which seems odd considering the above…!
But the next time someone asks ‘oh I wonder who Mount Everest’ was named after, you can politely say, ‘George’.