`  == The name ``Peeping Tom`` for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend[?] ==  ``The name ``Peeping Tom`` for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom had watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.``  This strikes me as unlikely. ``Tom`` is one of several names used in English to denote everyman, any man, and often a common, lower-class, or working man. Compare ``every/any Tom, Dick, and/or Harry``, ``every man Jack`` and so on. In this case, I think we can safely conjecture that the legend was backformed from a stock phrase describing a voyeur. That the name Tom became attached to this activity might have been influenced by the sexual connotations from the use of tom to denote a male cat. (Compare our current use of ``tomcatting`` to describe the behavior of men on the sexual prowl.) The addition to the legend seems likelier to have arisen from the phrase than the other way around.  Someone who can address this question with more authority might want to qualify the present assertion.    `