Etymologically
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name

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /neɪm/[1]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English name,[2][3] inherited from Old English nama, noma (“name, reputation”),[4][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *namô,[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *no-men- (“name”).[4][6] Its Germanic cognates include Old Frisian nama, Old Saxon namo, Dutch naam, Old High German namo (modern German Name), Old Norse nafn and Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌼𐍉 (namō);[2][4][7] outside Germanic it is related to Latin nōmen, Ancient Greek ὄνομα (ónoma), Sanskrit नामन् (nā́man), Old Irish ainm, Welsh enw, Old Church Slavonic имѧ (imę), Old Armenian անուն (anun) and Hittite lāman.[8][9][10] Barnhart notes that the variety of forms suggests a vowel was prefixed to an original root.[8] Skeat rejects any connection with know.[11] The verb is from Old English namian (“to give a name to; to nominate”), genamian, from the noun;[4][2][7] it replaced Middle English nemne, from Old English nemnan.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word by which a person, animal, place or thing is known (Old English, before 725 in Genesis A and about 725 in Beowulf; 862 in the OED).[8][12]

Semantic evolution

Old English nama already meant both “name” and “reputation”, and in grammar it was the term for a noun.[4][13] The sense “one's reputation, what is commonly said of a person” is recorded from about 1300 (13th century in Hoad),[4][9] and in the name of “on behalf of, by authority of”, used in invocations, by the late 14th century.[4] A man of name was a man of distinction from about 1400, and a name “a famous person” dates from the 1610s.[4][13] The verb meant “to call by a title or epithet” in Old English, “to specify, fix (a price or time)” from 1597, and of the Speaker of the House of Commons “to name a member” in formal reprimand from 1792.[13][10] Namely first meant “especially” (12th century), and later “that is to say”.[9][8][14] A namesake (1646) was originally one named “for the name's sake” of another.[8][14][9] The adjective “well-known” dates from about 1932 in the Historical Thesaurus (1938 in Etymonline),[13][4] name-dropper from 1947, and the name of the game from 1966.[4] Shakespeare's “What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet” is from Romeo and Juliet.[15][16]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English nama, in Beowulf.[8]
  • c. 1000 – verb namian, to give a name to.[2][12]
  • c. 1125 – name.[2]
  • c. 1300 – reputation.[4]
  • late 14th century – in the name of.[4]
  • 1597 – to specify, fix (a price or time); names, abusive epithets.[13]
  • 1598 – as an adjective, bearing a name.[17][10]
  • 1610s – a famous person.[4][13]
  • 1646 – namesake.[8]
  • 1792 – the Speaker names a member.[13]
  • 1885 – a Lloyd's underwriter.[13]
  • 1938 – adjective, well-known.[4]
  • 1947 – name-dropper.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A word or words by which a person, place or thing is known and distinguished from others.
  2. A descriptive word, often abusive: called him names.
  3. Reputation, especially a good one: made a name for herself.
  4. A famous person: a big name.
  5. Appearance as opposed to reality: a ruler in name only.
  6. A family or clan.
  7. Authority; behalf: in the name of the law.
  8. (Britain) An underwriting member of Lloyd's of London.

Verb

  1. To give a name to: named the child after her grandmother.
  2. To mention or identify by name; to accuse by name.
  3. To nominate or appoint to an office.
  4. To specify or fix: name the day.
  5. (Britain) Of the Speaker of the House of Commons, to reprimand (a member) by name.

Adjective

  1. Well-known by name; famous: a name brand.

Word family

  • namable
  • namer
  • bename
  • misname
  • rename
  • noun
  • nominal
  • nominate
  • denominate
  • misnomer
  • renown
  • onomastic
  • anonymous
  • synonym
  • namesake
  • namely

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary calls name the general term for the word by which someone or something is called, as against designation and denomination, which classify, and title, appellation and cognomen.[3] Random House distinguishes name, the simpler word, from title, an official or honorary term or the designation of a book.[18]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
  17. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  18. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House