  We consider the proposal by many scholars and by the International
Astronomical Union to rename Hubble's law as the Hubble-Lemaitre law. We find
the renaming questionable on historic, scientific and philosophical grounds.
From a historical perspective, we argue that the renaming presents an
anachronistic interpretation of a law originally understood as an empirical
relation between two observables. From a scientific perspective, we argue that
the renaming conflates the redshift/distance relation of the spiral nebulae
with a universal law of spatial expansion derived from the general theory of
relativity. We note that the first of these phenomena is merely one
manifestation of the second, an important distinction that may be relevant to
contemporary puzzles concerning the current rate of cosmic expansion. From a
philosophical perspective, we note that many of the named laws of science are
empirical relations between observables, limited in range, rather than laws of
universal application derived from theory.
