aftername

aftername noun: a designation which comes after a name, similar to, yet not necessarily equivalent to one's last name.

Noun

aftername (plural afternames)

A designation which comes after a name, similar to, yet not necessarily equivalent to one's last name
- 'Oh, Lord kens that; we dinna mind folk's afternames muckle here, they run sae muckle into clans.'1815, Walter Scott, Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer
- Not only did the saints have all these afternames but the heroes and ancestors had twice as many of an identical pattern. And soon I observed that the first names were composed of the same elements as the afternames.1972, Hubert Butler, Ten Thousand Saints, page 30

In England, in the Middle Ages, an individual sometimes used alternative afternames, that of his place of residence, his trade, or that of his master instead of that of his father.1979, Raymond Pearl, Human Biology, page 73:
'Now is Dog the first name you have or the aftername?'2006, Nigel Cox, Cowboy Dog, page 94:
At this point in his narrative Snorri ties up his tale of Harald's aftername.2009, Robert Ferguson, The Vikings:

plural	afternames

From after- + name.

What does aftername mean?: Aftername means a designation which comes after a name, similar to, yet not necessarily equivalent to one's last name.
How do you use aftername in a sentence?: In England, in the Middle Ages, an individual sometimes used alternative afternames, that of his place of residence, his trade, or that of his master instead of that of his father.
What part of speech is aftername?: Aftername is a noun.
What is the plural of aftername?: The plural of aftername is afternames.

Adapted from Wiktionary: aftername (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “aftername.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aftername. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.