Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a syndrome caused by increased intracranial pressure without a mass lesion. In the past, IIH has been known by many names since being first discovered by German internist and surgeon Heinrich Quincke in 1897, shortly after developing the lumbar puncture. Dr. Quincke first named IIH “meningitis serosa.” Just a few years later in 1904, German neurologist Max Nonne first published the term pseudotumor cerebri after noticing that the symptoms of IIH were similar to those found in patients with intracranial masses. This was later termed benign intracranial hypertension by J. Foley in 1955 to avoid the connotation of malignancy to the general public; however, given the possibility of permanent vision loss in untreated cases, and thus not “benign,” this name has fallen out of favor.