Word.ws English Dictionary

folk name

folk name noun: a name used in common parlance as opposed to an official name.

Noun

folk name (plural folk names)

  1. A name used in common parlance as opposed to an official name.
    • Folk names are generally not used in the scientific or birdwatching community. An example of a folk name in Indian English is paddy bird which is used for any of various egrets commonly found feeding in paddy fields.2016, James Lambert, “Ornithonymy and Lexicographical Selection Criteria”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 30, number 1, pages 39–62

Forms of folk name

pluralfolk names
alternative formfolkname

Questions about folk name

What does folk name mean?
Folk name means a name used in common parlance as opposed to an official name.
What part of speech is folk name?
Folk name is a noun.
What is the plural of folk name?
The plural of folk name is folk names.

Words near folk name in the dictionary

  1. folk memories
  2. folk memory
  3. folk metal
  4. folk music
  5. folk musics
  6. folk name
  7. folk names
  8. folk punk
  9. folk religion
  10. folk religionist
  11. folk religionists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: folk name (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: “folk name.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/folk_name. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.