At the end of Parashat Masei, we read how the children of Reuben “gave their names unto the cities they builded” (33:38), how Jair the son of Menashe similarly called some villages Havvoth-Jair, and how Nobah called villages Nobah, after his own name.
In English, places that are named after persons are called toponyms. Modern examples include Columbia (named after Columbus), Herzliah (after Herzl), and Alexandria (after Alexander the Great). Toponyms are special forms of eponyms, which are words named after people. Examples of eponyms are sandwich (named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich), mentor (named after the trusted friend of Odysseus (Ulysses) and counselor to Odysseus' son Telemachus), and panic (named after the Greek god Pan, the god of shepherds, hunters and the wilds of nature).
Did you know? Herzog College is an eponym (named after the diplomat Yaacov Herzog), while Israel is a toponym (named after Yaacov Avinu, whose second name was Yisrael).