1Joseph-Ignace Guillotin

Our last entry is probably one of the most commonly miscredited, something the person in question was known to hate. As you might have guessed from the name, we’re talking about the guillotine. Despite what your local know-it-all might have told you, Guillotin wasn’t the inventor, nor a victim, of the slicey device in question. In fact, he was a staunch opponent of the death penalty.

Guillotin realized he probably wasn’t going to stop heads from rolling anytime soon. Instead, he suggested that execution be made more humane, not a big ask when people were still subject to the strength and accuracy of a human executioner. He developed a prototype with the help of a doctor and a harpsichord maker, and it worked so well they decided to name it after him, something he responded to with the French equivalent of “the hell you are!”

Unfortunately for him, the name stuck, despite spending his entire life trying to shake the connection. Even after his death, his family attempted to get the government to change the guillotine’s name, but eventually just ended up changing theirs instead.