The History of Stuff, Part 1.

Wainscotting

Back in the middle ages, rooms were not carpeted as we know them. Instead, large rugs took up the middle of most floors. While these seemed adequate, with the invention and instant popularity of the Cuban heel in the 12th century, accidents began to happen. The most famous of these was in the court of King Amstel the Egregious, in which Sir Godefroi of Fyshwick tripped over the leading edge of the royal rug as he approached the throne in supplication. This caused him to overbalance and he landed quite heavily, inadvertently deflowering Princess Hildegaard, who was visiting King Amstel from the court of Holland (or so the story was reported).
Queen Eldebarant, Amstel’s wife, quickly decided that such an event should never again occur, much to the unexpected chagrin of Princess Hildegaard. Queen Eldebarant insisted that from now on, knights with spiked soles should stand at the edge of every rug in the castle. Though this measure solved the problem it was rather knight-heavy, and after a while it started to cost a fair bit. And so a competition was held to devise a better method, the prize for which would be the hand of Princess Hildegaard in marriage (who was beginning to be an embarassment).
At this news all of the skilled artisans in Europe began to design methods to affix carpet in a wall-to-wall fashion. After much trial and error and several aggrieved beheadings, a winner was announced: Sir Sigismund, 3rd Wain of Cotting.

And it has borne his name ever since.