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

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.
:-)

--Jim Rogers 


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.