Derby

The original Derby was a horse race. In 1780, Edward Smith-Stanley, the twelfth Earl of Derby, and Sir Charles Bunbury decided to create a new race at Epsom Downs for three-year-old thoroughbreds. According to tradition, they flipped a coin to decide whose name it would carry. Derby won. If the coin had landed differently, every major horse race in the world would be called a Bunbury.

The Epsom Derby became the most prestigious flat race in England. Within decades, the name had been exported. The Kentucky Derby, first run in 1875, was explicitly modeled on the Epsom race by Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. The French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club), the Irish Derby, the Japanese Derby — every major racing nation created its own. The word 'derby' ceased to be a proper noun and became a common noun meaning any important race.

The expansion continued beyond horse racing. By the late nineteenth century, a derby was any significant competition between local rivals. The football (soccer) match between Liverpool and Everton is the Merseyside derby. The match between Real Madrid and Barcelona is El Derbi. The word spread to roller derby, demolition derby, soap box derby — any competitive event with intensity and local pride.

The derby hat — a hard, round-crowned felt hat — was named separately, probably after the Earl's race. In America it is called a derby; in Britain, a bowler. The hat became associated with the well-dressed spectators at the Epsom Derby. The Earl gave his name to a race, a category of competition, and a hat. He was trying to name a horse race.