byname
verbEtymology From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.
1
Archaic To assign a byname to.
byname
nounUS /ˈbaɪˌneɪm/
Etymology From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.
› Any secondary name, particularly
1
Synonym of epithet, a descriptive and distinguishing additional name.
- Lions-heart, is... the by-name of K. Richard.1631, John Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments..., page 644:
- The term surname originally denoted an additional name—that is, one used in addition to an individual’s given name, with no implication that it was hereditary. Across medieval Europe a surname was at first often no more than a byname, an ad-hoc sobriquet that was descriptively true of the individual to whom it was given.2016, Patrick Hanks et al., The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, volume I, page xii:
4
Archaic Synonym of nickname, an informal personal name.
5
Archaic Synonym of surname, a hereditary distinguishing additional name.
- Some of these by-names... remained many years after to them, and theirs; amongst which Plantagenist was entailed on the Royal bloud of England.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-History of Britain..., page 30:
6
Archaic, Historical Synonym of cognomen, a personal or hereditary additional name in ancient Roman contexts.
- Eutropius... gives him the additional name of Crinitus, perhaps a by-name of his family.1865, Charles Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire, volume VIII, page 16:
- Hypernyms
- name and Thesaurus:surname