© 2007 Sanjoy Haldar
August 25, 2007
August 6, 2007
Names' Name: Words ending with -onym
I enjoy pattern recognition. I like to classify, categorize things and develop frameworks. That possibly explains my fascination with lists. This is an effort to list words ending in -onym, words that describe names.
Acronym: a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term. My first encounter with an acronym that I can remember is RADAR (2nd year Engineering class at IIT)
Allonym: the name of a person, usually a historical person, assumed by a writer. Lal Mohan Ganguly, a character in Satyajit Ray’s Feluda stories, writes under the name of Jatayu, a character from the Indian epic Ramayana.
Antonym: a word of opposite meaning. My parents told me later that when I was a child and our house was being built, I used to pick up a brick and say, "the brick is heavy light," thinking heavy is a qualifier to the degree of lightness and not realizing that it exactly means the opposite of light.
Ananym: a name formed by reversing letters of another name, often used as a pseudonym. My niece’s name is Sayani but her sign-in name is InaYa$. I didn’t figure the logic till I learned that Oprah’s production company is called Harpo. The light bulb went on.
Anacronym: a word whose origin as an abbreviation is no longer widely known. Most people don’t remember what the letters stand for. e.g. scuba, laser, etc.
Anatonym: refers to a part of the body that is used as a verb. e.g. to face the music
Anonym: a fictitious name used when the person performs a particular social role. Stage name for an actor, a pen name for an author.
Anepronym: a word that becomes so well established that it is used to define other objects that share its own definition e.g. Xerox for photocopy or FedEx for express delivery
Anthroponym: the name of human beings. Patronym, Teknonym, Ethnonym (autonym, endonym, exonym) belongs to the category.
Apronym: is an acronym/bacronym which is also a real word e.g. SAD stands for Social Affective Disorder. USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act.
Aptronym: a name that's especially suited (humorously) to one's profession, e.g. Sally Ride, the astronaut or Will Snow, arctic explorer.
Aristonym: a surname used as or derived from a formal title of nobility
Astronym: a name of an astronomical object (star, constellation, etc.)
Autantonym: a word with many meanings, one of which is defined as the reverse of one of its other meanings. e.g. overlook can mean ‘to inspect’ or ‘to fail to notice’. cleave can mean ‘stick together’ or ‘split apart’. This type of word is also known as Contronym or Contranym or Antagonym. A good list is available here.
Autonym: a person's own name, as distinguished from a pseudonym. A word that describes itself. e.g. Abbr. is an abbreviation.
Basionym: the first name published for a biological taxon (species, genus, etc.), which remains the defining name for the taxon even when the taxon has been transferred to a new name
Backronym: (from back+acronym) a word re-interpreted as an acronym e.g. PERL. Taking a word that already exists and coming up with a humorous phrase using the letters of the word as initials. My favorite is ADIDAS (the famous sports good manufacturer) – All Day I Dream About Sports or FIAT – Fix It Again Tomorrow or FORD - Fix Or Repair Daily
Binym: having just two names
Capitonym: a word that changes its meaning (and sometime pronunciation) when capitalized. polish versus Polish
Caconym: a bad word, bad for whatever reason—badly constructed, insulting, ugly, etc.
Charactonym: a name of a fictional character that suggests the personality traits of that character. e.g. Mrs. Malaprop in Richard Sheridan's novel The Rivals. She was known for misusing words with humorous results. Long john Silver is another example
Chrematonym: a name of a politico-economic or commercial or cultural institution or thing; a catch-all category
Cohyponym: a word which is one of multiple hyponyms of another word
Cryptonym: code name used clandestinely to refer to another word/name
Demonym: name of people that refers to the place they come from. I am a die-hard Calcuttan, citizen of Calcutta, now Kolkata.
Dionym: name containing two parts or terms Endonym: self assigned name by locals of a place
Eponym: a name derived from a real/imaginary person as found in botany, zoo, artwork, place names. Rome from Romulus
Ergonym: sometimes used for the name of an institution or commercial firm
Ethnonym: the name of a people or ethnic group. (exonym -created by another group or autonym – created by the group itself)
Euonym: a good name or a name well suited to the person, place or thing named
Euphonym: a euphonious synonym
Exonym: a place name used by one group to refer to another group but who calls themselves by another name. Prague Praha or Germany Deutschland
Filionym: a name derived from that of a son
Geonym: name of a geographic feature
Heteronym: same spelling, but different sound and meaning: lead (verb), lead (metal) for a list of heteronyms, click here
Hiernym: a surname based on a sacred name e.g. St. John
Hodonym: name of street/road
Holonym: a word for the whole of which other words are part. House contains roof, door, window
Homonym: same sound but different meaning or spelling: row (verb), row (noun) to, two, too Hydronym: a name of river, lake, or other body of water
Hyperonym: a generic word that stands for a class or group of equally ranked items e.g. Furniture is a hypernym in relation to a chair, table, hutch. A hyperonym is a superordinate to a hyponym.
Hyponym: an item that belongs to and is equally-ranked in a generic class or group. chair is a hyponym in relation to a Furniture. A hyponym is said to be "subordinate" to a hyperonym
Hypocoroonym: a colloquial, usually unofficial, name of an entity
Iatronym: a medical term or medical nomenclature
Isonym: a word having the same root or stem as another—also known as paronym.
Malonym: a metaphor, cliché, or popular expression mangled by the use of an incorrect word
Matronym: a part of the name based on the name of one's mother or female ancestor.
Meronym: (meros =part) a word that refers to a part of what another word refers to. e.g. in the relationship between leg and ankle, ankle is a meronym; in the relationship between brim and hat, brim is a meronym. It can also mean a term midway between two opposites; e.g. flat between convex and concave, present between past and future.
Metonym: meta =change. a word that designates something by the name of something associated with it. e.g. the Crown referring to the monarchy, the bottle referring to alcohol, the White House for the US executive branch.
Metronym: (metros =mother) a name derived from the name of one's mother, or another female ancestor.
Mononym: a term consisting of only one word
Necronym: a reference to or name of a person who has died
Netcronym: an abbreviation that consists of the first letters of each word in a phrase and which is used when discussing a subject in a chat room or when writing an e-mail. A quick way of telling people what you think; for example, IMO is a netcronym for “in my opinion”
Numeronym: the name of a number or names of numbers
Odonym: a name of a street or road
Oikonym or Oeconym: a name of a house or other building. My parent’s house is called ‘Punascha,’ the Bengali for New Beginning or Post Script. My dad came to Calcutta as a refugee from Barishal, East Bengal, and now Bangladesh as a result of partition during India’s independence. So, this house was truly a new beginning for him.
Oronym: (oral =spoken) a string of words which is homophonic with another string of words; e.g. ice cream and I scream, mint spy and mince pie. more examples are available here. Paedonym: a name taken from one’s child
Paranym: para =beside. a word from the same root, and usually related, to another; e.g. beautiful and beauteous, dubious and doubtful
Paronym: a word formed from a word in another language.
Patronym: a part of the name based on the name of one's father. This has been true for many regions and culture of the world.
Johnson (son of John) in English
O’Brien (of Brien) in Irish
MacDonald (from Donald) in Scottish
Ivanovich (from Ivan) in Czech
Bin Laden (son of Laden) in Arabic
Ben Hur (son of Hur) in Hebrew
Brahmaputra (son of Brahma) or Rajput (son of Raj) putra or put is son in Hindi
Fernandez (Ez is son of Fernando) in Spanish
Pritchard (son of Ritchard) in Welsh
Phytonym: name of a plant
Poecilonym: a synonym. Greek Poikilo many-colored, variegated, various
Polyonym: a name consisting of several words
Pseudonym: false, fictitious, assumed name by an author. aka pen name. Now we have digital pseudonym - people using fictitious sign-in name to hide their identity
Retronym: a term coined to distinguish something due to a new development: analog computer, coined because now almost all computers are digital. Similarly fountain pen due to ball-point pen or pocket watch due to wrist watch
Synonym: a word equivalent in meaning or nearly so to another word; a word that may be substituted for another word that has the same or a similar meaning, such as near and close (compare "antonym")
Tautonym: (taut =same) A word composed of two identical parts; e.g. pawpaw, yoyo, tutu, byebye, pompom, etc.
Taxonym: a name used for classification or identification purposes, usually signifying a relationship to something.
Teknonym: a parent's name which was derived from a child's name
Textonym: a word that is generated by a single sequence of numerals keyed in to a mobile telephone; for example, 726 produces pam, ram, sam, and ran. Also called homonumeric words.
Theonym: a name of a god. The names societies give their gods at times is useful in understanding the origin of their language as well as their view of a particular deity.
Toponym: (topos=place) derived from a place name. e.g. cashmere from Kashmir in India or champagne from Champagne in France.
Trionym: name consisting of three words
Troponym: a verb conveying a meaning which is a particular case of the meaning of another verb. For example, to duel is a troponym of to fight; to write is a troponym of to communicate, etc.
Typonym: name based on a type or specimen
Zoonym: a name of an animal
Sources used: m-w.com, wordsmith.org, fun-with-words.com, wikipedia.org, startwright.com, wordquests.info
© 2009 Sanjoy Haldar
Acronym: a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term. My first encounter with an acronym that I can remember is RADAR (2nd year Engineering class at IIT)
Allonym: the name of a person, usually a historical person, assumed by a writer. Lal Mohan Ganguly, a character in Satyajit Ray’s Feluda stories, writes under the name of Jatayu, a character from the Indian epic Ramayana.
Antonym: a word of opposite meaning. My parents told me later that when I was a child and our house was being built, I used to pick up a brick and say, "the brick is heavy light," thinking heavy is a qualifier to the degree of lightness and not realizing that it exactly means the opposite of light.
Ananym: a name formed by reversing letters of another name, often used as a pseudonym. My niece’s name is Sayani but her sign-in name is InaYa$. I didn’t figure the logic till I learned that Oprah’s production company is called Harpo. The light bulb went on.
Anacronym: a word whose origin as an abbreviation is no longer widely known. Most people don’t remember what the letters stand for. e.g. scuba, laser, etc.
Anatonym: refers to a part of the body that is used as a verb. e.g. to face the music
Anonym: a fictitious name used when the person performs a particular social role. Stage name for an actor, a pen name for an author.
Anepronym: a word that becomes so well established that it is used to define other objects that share its own definition e.g. Xerox for photocopy or FedEx for express delivery
Anthroponym: the name of human beings. Patronym, Teknonym, Ethnonym (autonym, endonym, exonym) belongs to the category.
Apronym: is an acronym/bacronym which is also a real word e.g. SAD stands for Social Affective Disorder. USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act.
Aptronym: a name that's especially suited (humorously) to one's profession, e.g. Sally Ride, the astronaut or Will Snow, arctic explorer.
Aristonym: a surname used as or derived from a formal title of nobility
Astronym: a name of an astronomical object (star, constellation, etc.)
Autantonym: a word with many meanings, one of which is defined as the reverse of one of its other meanings. e.g. overlook can mean ‘to inspect’ or ‘to fail to notice’. cleave can mean ‘stick together’ or ‘split apart’. This type of word is also known as Contronym or Contranym or Antagonym. A good list is available here.
Autonym: a person's own name, as distinguished from a pseudonym. A word that describes itself. e.g. Abbr. is an abbreviation.
Basionym: the first name published for a biological taxon (species, genus, etc.), which remains the defining name for the taxon even when the taxon has been transferred to a new name
Backronym: (from back+acronym) a word re-interpreted as an acronym e.g. PERL. Taking a word that already exists and coming up with a humorous phrase using the letters of the word as initials. My favorite is ADIDAS (the famous sports good manufacturer) – All Day I Dream About Sports or FIAT – Fix It Again Tomorrow or FORD - Fix Or Repair Daily
Binym: having just two names
Capitonym: a word that changes its meaning (and sometime pronunciation) when capitalized. polish versus Polish
Caconym: a bad word, bad for whatever reason—badly constructed, insulting, ugly, etc.
Charactonym: a name of a fictional character that suggests the personality traits of that character. e.g. Mrs. Malaprop in Richard Sheridan's novel The Rivals. She was known for misusing words with humorous results. Long john Silver is another example
Chrematonym: a name of a politico-economic or commercial or cultural institution or thing; a catch-all category
Cohyponym: a word which is one of multiple hyponyms of another word
Cryptonym: code name used clandestinely to refer to another word/name
Demonym: name of people that refers to the place they come from. I am a die-hard Calcuttan, citizen of Calcutta, now Kolkata.
Dionym: name containing two parts or terms Endonym: self assigned name by locals of a place
Eponym: a name derived from a real/imaginary person as found in botany, zoo, artwork, place names. Rome from Romulus
Ergonym: sometimes used for the name of an institution or commercial firm
Ethnonym: the name of a people or ethnic group. (exonym -created by another group or autonym – created by the group itself)
Euonym: a good name or a name well suited to the person, place or thing named
Euphonym: a euphonious synonym
Exonym: a place name used by one group to refer to another group but who calls themselves by another name. Prague Praha or Germany Deutschland
Filionym: a name derived from that of a son
Geonym: name of a geographic feature
Heteronym: same spelling, but different sound and meaning: lead (verb), lead (metal) for a list of heteronyms, click here
Hiernym: a surname based on a sacred name e.g. St. John
Hodonym: name of street/road
Holonym: a word for the whole of which other words are part. House contains roof, door, window
Homonym: same sound but different meaning or spelling: row (verb), row (noun) to, two, too Hydronym: a name of river, lake, or other body of water
Hyperonym: a generic word that stands for a class or group of equally ranked items e.g. Furniture is a hypernym in relation to a chair, table, hutch. A hyperonym is a superordinate to a hyponym.
Hyponym: an item that belongs to and is equally-ranked in a generic class or group. chair is a hyponym in relation to a Furniture. A hyponym is said to be "subordinate" to a hyperonym
Hypocoroonym: a colloquial, usually unofficial, name of an entity
Iatronym: a medical term or medical nomenclature
Isonym: a word having the same root or stem as another—also known as paronym.
Malonym: a metaphor, cliché, or popular expression mangled by the use of an incorrect word
Matronym: a part of the name based on the name of one's mother or female ancestor.
Meronym: (meros =part) a word that refers to a part of what another word refers to. e.g. in the relationship between leg and ankle, ankle is a meronym; in the relationship between brim and hat, brim is a meronym. It can also mean a term midway between two opposites; e.g. flat between convex and concave, present between past and future.
Metonym: meta =change. a word that designates something by the name of something associated with it. e.g. the Crown referring to the monarchy, the bottle referring to alcohol, the White House for the US executive branch.
Metronym: (metros =mother) a name derived from the name of one's mother, or another female ancestor.
Mononym: a term consisting of only one word
Necronym: a reference to or name of a person who has died
Netcronym: an abbreviation that consists of the first letters of each word in a phrase and which is used when discussing a subject in a chat room or when writing an e-mail. A quick way of telling people what you think; for example, IMO is a netcronym for “in my opinion”
Numeronym: the name of a number or names of numbers
Odonym: a name of a street or road
Oikonym or Oeconym: a name of a house or other building. My parent’s house is called ‘Punascha,’ the Bengali for New Beginning or Post Script. My dad came to Calcutta as a refugee from Barishal, East Bengal, and now Bangladesh as a result of partition during India’s independence. So, this house was truly a new beginning for him.
Oronym: (oral =spoken) a string of words which is homophonic with another string of words; e.g. ice cream and I scream, mint spy and mince pie. more examples are available here. Paedonym: a name taken from one’s child
Paranym: para =beside. a word from the same root, and usually related, to another; e.g. beautiful and beauteous, dubious and doubtful
Paronym: a word formed from a word in another language.
Patronym: a part of the name based on the name of one's father. This has been true for many regions and culture of the world.
Johnson (son of John) in English
O’Brien (of Brien) in Irish
MacDonald (from Donald) in Scottish
Ivanovich (from Ivan) in Czech
Bin Laden (son of Laden) in Arabic
Ben Hur (son of Hur) in Hebrew
Brahmaputra (son of Brahma) or Rajput (son of Raj) putra or put is son in Hindi
Fernandez (Ez is son of Fernando) in Spanish
Pritchard (son of Ritchard) in Welsh
Phytonym: name of a plant
Poecilonym: a synonym. Greek Poikilo many-colored, variegated, various
Polyonym: a name consisting of several words
Pseudonym: false, fictitious, assumed name by an author. aka pen name. Now we have digital pseudonym - people using fictitious sign-in name to hide their identity
Retronym: a term coined to distinguish something due to a new development: analog computer, coined because now almost all computers are digital. Similarly fountain pen due to ball-point pen or pocket watch due to wrist watch
Synonym: a word equivalent in meaning or nearly so to another word; a word that may be substituted for another word that has the same or a similar meaning, such as near and close (compare "antonym")
Tautonym: (taut =same) A word composed of two identical parts; e.g. pawpaw, yoyo, tutu, byebye, pompom, etc.
Taxonym: a name used for classification or identification purposes, usually signifying a relationship to something.
Teknonym: a parent's name which was derived from a child's name
Textonym: a word that is generated by a single sequence of numerals keyed in to a mobile telephone; for example, 726 produces pam, ram, sam, and ran. Also called homonumeric words.
Theonym: a name of a god. The names societies give their gods at times is useful in understanding the origin of their language as well as their view of a particular deity.
Toponym: (topos=place) derived from a place name. e.g. cashmere from Kashmir in India or champagne from Champagne in France.
Trionym: name consisting of three words
Troponym: a verb conveying a meaning which is a particular case of the meaning of another verb. For example, to duel is a troponym of to fight; to write is a troponym of to communicate, etc.
Typonym: name based on a type or specimen
Zoonym: a name of an animal
Sources used: m-w.com, wordsmith.org, fun-with-words.com, wikipedia.org, startwright.com, wordquests.info
© 2009 Sanjoy Haldar
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