Selfname

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A proper name; a name for one's own self, as opposed to one's family; one's real name.

    "Surnames are, with a few exceptions, monosyllabic. Selfnames can be either monosyllabic or bisyllabic."

  2. 2
    A name given to oneself; a self-denomination or self-appellation.

    "Mina is the selfname of the language referred to in the literature as Hina or Besleri."

  3. 3
    An autonym.

    "In the past, the Ainu (their selfname meaning 'person'), traditionally huntergatherers, occupied not only Hokkaido but also a considerable part of the island of Honshu until the middle the eighteenth century, [...]"

Synonyms

All synonyms
autonymendonymproper nounproper noun

Example

More examples

"Surnames are, with a few exceptions, monosyllabic. Selfnames can be either monosyllabic or bisyllabic."

Etymology

From self (“own, proper”) + name. The autonym sense is possibly a calque of Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-, “self-”) + ὄνομᾰ (ónomă, “name”), which are the ultimate roots of English autonym itself.

Related phrases

proper name

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