How Do Diseases Get Their Names? The Medical Nomenclature

By Dr. Carol Hoban  |  08/05/2025

Have you ever wondered how a disease gets its name? According to the medical website STAT, the official names of certain diseases have different origins:

• Latin or Greek words
• Physicians or famous patients
• Food animals
• Locations
• The genetic makeup of the illness

Diseases Named after Latin or Greek Words

The scientific names for some diseases come from certain Latin or Greek words. Chickenpox is thought to come from “giccan,” a Latin word meaning “to itch.” However, others believe chickenpox is named for the pox marks that appear when someone contracts chickenpox.

Tetanus comes from the Greek word “tetanos” (tension). For patients who have contracted tetanus, they experience muscle stiffness.

Similarly, epilepsy comes from the Greek word “epilambanein,” a Greek word meaning “to seize” or “to be taken hold of.” People with epilepsy are prone to sudden seizures.

Polio comes from the Greek word “polios,” which means grey. Polio typically attacks nerve cells in the grey matter of the spinal cord.

Diseases Named After Physicians or Famous Patients

Alzheimer’s disease affects many people, especially the elderly. It is named after the person who discovered it in 1906 – Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist.

Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) gets its name from Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas Brazilian physician and researcher who discovered the disease in 1909. Carlos Chagas diagnosed the first human case on April 14, 1909. In May 2019, the 72nd World Health Assembly established World Chagas Day in his honor.

Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is named after New York Yankees baseball player Lou Gehrig. His career was cut short by the disease.

Legionnaires’ disease, a type of pneumonia, appeared in 1976. Members of the American Legion were celebrating the U.S. bicentennial at their annual convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.

Right after the event started, attendees became violently ill with chest pains, confusion, vomiting, and diarrhea. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isolated the bacteria and termed it “Legionnaire lung loving” bacteria, noting it had multiplied in the hotel’s cooling tower.  

Diseases Named After Food Animals

The illness known as “swine flu” commonly affects pigs infected with the H1N1 flu virus, but it can also spread to humans. This type of flu is named after the animal that transmits the virus. However, it’s also essential to isolate infected pigs to avoid triggering needless slaughtering.

Diseases Named After Locations

Diseases can also be named after a particular location. For instance, Rift Valley fever is a viral disease, and researchers found that it came a virus in the sheep raised in Kenya’s Rift Valley in the early 1930s.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, German measles (rubella) takes its name from German medical literature. It was first mentioned by Alfred Hess in 1914.

“Spanish flu,” a type of flu that directly affected millions of people in a worldwide pandemic during World War I, likely originated in the U.S. but was called “Spanish flu” due to the news media in Spain. Even today, the 1918 pandemic still refers to the Spanish flu.

The Ebola virus disease is named after a river. In 1976, the Ebola virus was found in the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a viral respiratory disease, was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. MERS has also spread to other countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia and is caused by the MERS coronavirus.

Diseases Named After Their Genetic Makeup

Some diseases are caused by viruses and the name of an illness can be based on what a virus does to the human body. However, it’s also important to know what strain a virus is to differentiate one virus-based disease from another and to create an effective treatment.

Influenza is an example of a virus named for its makeup. The HN1 influenza strain is derived from haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). However, flu variations ranging from H1N1 to H5N2 are different, which is why the numbers associated with these strains are different.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) gets its name because it affects the respiratory system. It causes problems with the lungs and the airways in a human.

If the cause or pathogen of a disease is known to doctors, researchers, and scientists, then a disease name may incorporate this information. COVID-19’s name, for instance, comes from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Disease Names Can Carry a Social Stigma Due to Outbreaks and Public Panic

Today, the scientific community and health officials have veered away from naming some diseases after their original locations. However, the naming of a new disease is no trivial issue.

Some disease names can cause serious consequences and create unjustified barriers; they can harm cultures and ethnic communities by stigmatizing them. Throughout history, the introduction of new pathogens to societies has caused deaths, economic issues, and other problems to certain communities.

Certain disease names provoke hostility, especially during outbreaks that spread from country to country. During medieval times, the “Black Death” (a bubonic plague that resulted in a global pandemic) caused businesses to close their doors and priests to stop visiting their parishioners due to the risk of infections. In many cases, people who were sick or dying were abandoned by their own families.

The World Health Organization’s Guidelines for Naming New Human Infectious Diseases

To prevent unintended negative impacts resulting from an infectious disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) has guidelines for naming new, human infectious diseases. The WHO’s guidelines recommend using generic descriptive terms based on:

• Disease symptoms
• Body parts affected by the disease
• The pathogen causing the disease
• Any specific descriptors, such as the severity or seasonality of the disease

The WHO also recommends that when new, infectious diseases are found, societies should avoid using naming conventions such as:

• Geographic locations
• Animal species
• People's names
• Any references to cultures, populations, industries, or occupations
• Any terms that might cause public panic (for example, fatal)

The Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health at AMU

For aspiring public health professionals interested in learning more about diseases and how they impact public health, American Military University (AMU) offers an online Bachelor of Science in Public Health. This academic program offers a wide range of courses, including epidemiology, the foundation of nutrition, and public policy. These courses are taught by experienced faculty members with a deep knowledge of public health, emergency medicine, and community health.

For more details about this bachelor’s degree in public health, visit AMU’s health sciences degree program page.