cardigan (n.) Look up cardigan at Dictionary.com
1868, from James Thomas Brudenell (1797-1868), 7th Earl of Cardigan, English general distinguished in the Crimean War, who set the style, in one account supposedly wearing such a jacket while leading the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava (1854). The place name is an Englishing of Welsh Ceredigion, literally "Ceredig's land." Ceredig lived 5c.