the.com/tom

means A short name—originally from Thomas—that English has pressed into service as a generic stand-in for any ordinary man, and as a tag for various creatures and roles (a tomcat, a peeping Tom, a tom turkey).

from A pet form of Thomas, itself from an Aramaic word meaning 'twin' (the same sense behind the apostle's nickname). Because Thomas was so common a name, 'tom' drifted into meaning 'any random fellow'—heard in pairings like 'Tom, Dick, and Harry.' From there it latched onto animals as a marker of maleness or ordinariness: the tomcat, the tom turkey. 'Peeping Tom' comes from the legend of Lady Godiva's ride, in which a tailor named Tom is said to have stolen a forbidden look—though that tale is later folklore grafted onto the older story.