Patronymic

//ˌpætɹəˈnɪmɪk// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A name acquired from one's father.
  2. 2
    a family name derived from name of your father or a paternal ancestor (especially with an affix (such as ‘-son’ in English or ‘O'-’ in Irish) added to the name of your father or a paternal ancestor) wordnet
  3. 3
    A name acquired from the first name of one's father, grandfather or earlier (male) ancestor. Some cultures use a patronymic where other cultures use a surname or family name; other cultures (like Russia) use both a patronymic and a surname. broadly

    "The use of patronymics arose early in Russia, and they continue to be used down to the present day, through proper surnames came into use in the Middle Ages."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Derived from one's father. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Derived from one's ancestors. broadly, not-comparable

    "a patronymic denomination"

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or derived from a personal or family name wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
patronymavonymiccognomenmatronymmatronymicmetronym

Example

More examples

"What is your surname, first name and patronymic?"

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr, “father”) + ὄνυμα (ónuma, “name”) (a variant form of ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”)). Also patronym + -ic, from patri- + -onym.

Related phrases

family namefirst namegiven name

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