There&#x27;s a good book on the subject, &quot;The theory that would not die&quot;, which covers the history and sheds some light on the people (Fisher, Laplace, Bayes, Pearson) behind the names.<p>Reviewed: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ams.org&#x2F;notices&#x2F;201205&#x2F;rtx120500657p.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ams.org&#x2F;notices&#x2F;201205&#x2F;rtx120500657p.pdf</a>