Germain Pirlot (born 18 March 1943 in Sart-Custinne,

Gedinne Gedinne (; wa, Djedene) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 4,405 inhabitants. The total area is , giving a population density of . It is situated in the Ardennes eas ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

) is a Belgian

esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...

and ex-teacher of French and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, presently living in

Ostend Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...

. He is best known as the inventor of the name ''euro'' for the common currency of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

(EU). On 4 August 1995, Pirlot sent a letter to then President of the European Commission,

Jacques Santer Jacques Santer (born 18 May 1937) is a Luxembourg politician who served as the 9th President of the European Commission from 1995 to 1999. He served as Finance Minister of Luxembourg from 1979 until 1989, and the 20th Prime Minister of Luxemb ...

, in which he suggested the name ''euro'' to be used for the planned currency of the EU. Later, Pirlot received an official letter thanking him for the suggestion.A letter to Germain Pirlot, sent by Claude Landes on behalf Jacques Santer on 1995-09-18, ref. SG(95)D/86446 The name ''euro'' was officially adopted by the European Council in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

(

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

) on 16 December 1995. Jean-Jacques Schul, chairman of Promeuro (Association for the promotion of the euro), claims that to his knowledge nobody else had suggested to use this name for the currency before 4 August 1995. Another suggestion made by Pirlot in the same letter, to name the hundredth of the currency "ropas", has not been realized – instead, the name " cent" has been adopted.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirlot, Germain 1943 births Living people People from Namur (province) Euro