Namesmanship
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The way names are assigned. uncountable
"They are thankful for a group of advertisers dedicated to conservatism, the soft sell and generic namesmanship!"
- 2 The art of naming things in order to influence the reactions of others. uncountable
"The latest trick, of couse, is to exchange the "college" label for that of "university." I dare not guess what may come next in academic namesmanship."
- 3 The pursuit of status by having things named after oneself. uncountable
"Our human trait of unwillingness to admit word ignorance often leads to survival of duplicated or spurious meanings. There is now no doubt that namesmanship has hindered the analysis of published knowledge quite seriously, and this will be outlined below"
- 4 The art of name-dropping or giving the names of people who are involved with a project, in order to confer status or legitimacy. uncountable
"In his preface, a scholar can practice two kinds of namesmanship. In Downward Namesmanship, the author lists those who assisted him: students, secretaries, librarians, and so on, which shows he is important enough to command such resources."
- 5 Skill in knowing and pronouncing names. uncountable
"“Namesmanship” is vital in manners; it consists of making your own name clear to other people about you while being certain you memorize their names the first time around."
Example
More examples"They are thankful for a group of advertisers dedicated to conservatism, the soft sell and generic namesmanship!"
Etymology
Blend of name + gamesmanship.
More for "namesmanship"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.