Discovery
Eugenia was discovered on June 28, 1857 by the Franco-German amateur astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt. His instrument of discovery was a 4-inch aperture telescope located in his sixth floor apartment in the Latin Quarter of Paris. It was the forty-fifth minor planet to be discovered. The preliminary orbital elements were computed by Wilhelm Forster in Berlin, based on three observations in July, 1857.
The asteroid was named by its discoverer after Empress Eugenia di Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III. It was the first asteroid to be definitely named after a real person, rather than a figure from classical legend, although there was some controversy about whether 12 Victoria was really named for the mythological figure or for Queen Victoria.
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