Word.ws English Dictionary

byname

US/ˈbaɪˌneɪm/

byname noun: synonym of epithet, a descriptive and distinguishing additional name.

Noun

byname (plural bynames)

  1. Synonym of epithet, a descriptive and distinguishing additional name.
    • Lions-heart, is... the by-name of K. Richard.1631, John Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments..., page 644
    • The term surname originally denoted an additional name—that is, one used in addition to an individual’s given name, with no implication that it was hereditary. Across medieval Europe a surname was at first often no more than a byname, an ad-hoc sobriquet that was descriptively true of the...2016, Patrick Hanks et al., The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, volume I, page xii
    Synonyms:
    to-name, epithet
  2. (Germanic) A formal epithet for a god or goddess, used in rituals in Heathenry.
    Synonyms:
    to-name
  3. (Scotland, UK, dialectal) Synonym of pseudonym, a second name used to disguise authorship etc.
    Synonyms:
    to-name, pseudonym
  4. (archaic) Synonym of nickname, an informal personal name.
    Synonyms:
    to-name, nickname
  5. (archaic) Synonym of surname, a hereditary distinguishing additional name.
    • Some of these by-names... remained many years after to them, and theirs; amongst which Plantagenist was entailed on the Royal bloud of England.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-History of Britain..., page 30
    Synonyms:
    to-name, surname
  6. (archaic, historical) Synonym of cognomen, a personal or hereditary additional name in ancient Roman contexts.
    • Eutropius... gives him the additional name of Crinitus, perhaps a by-name of his family.1865, Charles Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire, volume VIII, page 16
    Synonyms:
    to-name, cognomen

Verb

byname (third-person singular simple present bynames, present participle bynaming, simple past and past participle bynamed)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To assign a byname to.
    Synonyms:
    to-name

byname meaning in Tamil and Kannada

byname in Tamil

உபபெயர், புனைப்பெயர், பட்டப்பெயர்

byname in Kannada

ಉಪನಾಮ, ಹೆಸರಿನಿಂದ, ಹೆಸರಿಗೆ

Synonyms of byname

All synonyms of byname

Forms of byname

Noun
pluralbynames
alternative formby-name
alternative formbye-name
Verb
third-person singular presentbynames
present participlebynaming
past participlebynamed
pastbynamed

Origin of byname

From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.

Questions about byname

What does byname mean?
Byname means synonym of epithet, a descriptive and distinguishing additional name.
What is byname in Tamil?
Byname in Tamil is உபபெயர், புனைப்பெயர், பட்டப்பெயர். See Byname meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is byname?
Byname can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce byname?
Byname is pronounced /ˈbaɪˌneɪm/ (US).
What is the plural of byname?
The plural of byname is bynames.

Words near byname in the dictionary

  1. bymeby
  2. bymoviral
  3. bymovirus
  4. bymoviruses
  5. BYMs
  6. byname
  7. bynamed
  8. bynames
  9. bynaming
  10. Bynarowicz
  11. Bynea

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: byname (page history and authors); byname (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); byname (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

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