Because of the fact that Rene Descartes developed the Cartesian coordinate system, I would think that the word Cartesian would be named after him (Des-cartes). However, I can't shake the feeling that it should be named after the Latin
carta, meaning map: after all, the Cartesian system is a mapping system.
Or maybe Descartes isn't the inventor's real name, and he changed his name to that after discovering the system?
Could someone help me out here?