Byname

//ˈbaɪˌneɪm// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A secondary name for a person or thing; a person's surname. archaic, historical
  2. 2
    a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name) wordnet
  3. 3
    A nickname. archaic, historical
  4. 4
    A pseudonym; nom-de-plume. Scotland, UK, dialectal
  5. 5
    A ritual title for a god or goddess used in Heathenry. Germanic
Verb
  1. 1
    To assign a byname to. archaic, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
cognomensobriquetbywordcognomendiminutiveformal

Etymology

From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.

Related phrases

nom de plume

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.