Hiddenite was named after the geologist William Earl Hidden, and the North Carolina town was eventually renamed with the mineral’s name. There are a variety of criteria used to describe minerals, and when differences from currently-known minerals are observed, they say they’ve found a new mineral. X-ray crystallography is very useful, although they didn’t have that at the time hiddenite was identified!
I took a class from a geologist who had found a new mineral in Antarctica, which was the only place that particular compound was found in nature in a solid state.
Wow..... in addition to her other charms, she likes rocks too!!!