A specific kind of boson that is thought to be likely to exist is called the Higgs boson. Calling it by that name takes no credit from Bose, for whom all the boson class of particles are named.

Every particular kind of boson has to have a unique name, to tell which one we're talking about, and the "Higgs" boson is just a specific one out of the many. The thing that makes the Higgs one so interesting is that even though many (but not all) scientists believe it should exist we're still trying very hard to actually find one - which hasn't happened yet.

The Higgs has been called "the God particle" from the title of a book by Lederman. Wiki misses the point that Lederman's book was in no small part an effort to "popularize" the need to try to prove whether or not the particle exists during an attempt to get support for building an accelerator in Texas, but quotes Lederman as saying:

"... he gave it the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive,"[58][59][61] but jokingly added that a second reason was because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing."[59]"

Whether because of the enormous costs, or for other reasons, the Texas construction failed to materialize, and the CERN project supplanted it. The search for the Higgs is by no means the only reason for building the new accelerator, but that search is probably one of a few "most important" primary reasons for it.

My own theory is that the new facility wasn't built in the US because they proposed putting it in Texas (General Sheridan got it right when he said "If I owned Texas and Hell I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." He was, of course, speaking of a specific part of Hell Texas where he trained tank troops for Desert Campaigns.)

CERN of course is not the first time we've spent massive amounts of money, and devoted enormous efforts to the pursuit and study of something that quite possibly doesn't exist at all ...

We just don't know. As to the Higgs boson, we're getting a lot better (with recent CERN results) at proving where it isn't, but have yet to determine whether the real answer as to where it is is "nowhere."

John