Today is the conclusion of our theme week on 5 Things You Didn’t Know Were Named After People. Today we’re talking about sideburns – which were originally called “burnsides” after Civil War general Ambrose Burnside! Burnside had spectacular facial hair. The strips of hair in front of his ears were joined to his mustache, with his chin clean-shaven. This style was so remarkable that “burnsides” was coined to describe it. The syllables were later reversed to give us “sideburns”. Sideburns have been around a long time – they’re even present on statues and masks of Romans dating back to the 1st century. Learn more about Ambrose and sideburns in the audio below!