Names for Names

NAMES FOR NAMES

This short list defines some words relating to names. These words contain the root "nym ; which comes from the Greek onoma, a name.

ACRONYM — word formed from initial letters of another word

ALLONYM — other person's name used by an author

ANANYM — name written backward; often used as synonym

ANONYM — person whose name is not given; pseudonym

ANTONYM — word whose meaning is the opposite of a given word

APTRONYM — name that suits its owner

AUTONYM — a writer's real name; work published under writer's own name

CACONYM — wrongly derived name

COHYPONYM — word which is one of multiple hyponyms of another word

CRYPTONYM — secret name

DIONYM — name containing two parts or terms

EPONYM — personal name from which another name is derived

EUONYM — a pleasing or beautiful name

EUONYMOUS — appropriately named

EUPHONYM — euphonious synonym

EXONYM — name for a town or country in a foreign language

HETERONYM — word having same spelling but different sound and meaning

HOMONYM — words having the same sound but different meanings

HYPERNYM — word representing a class of words or things

HYPONYM — term which is a member of a larger class

ISONYM — word having the same derivation or form as another

MERONYM — word whose relation to another is a part to the whole

METONYMY — figurative use of word to name an attribute of its subject

METRONYMY — system of naming after the mother's or female line

ONYMOUS — bearing the author's name

PAEDONYMIC — name taken from one's child

PARANYM — euphemism; word whose meaning is altered to conceal evasion

PARONYM — word from same root or having same sound as another

PATRONYM — name derived from father's name

POECILONYM — synonym

POLYONYM — name consisting of several words

PSEUDONYM — fictitious name used by an author

RETRONYM — new name as modification of older term used alone

SYNONYM — word whose meaning is the same as another word

TAUTONYM — taxonomic name in which genus and species are the same

TEKNONYMY — the naming of the parent from the child

TOPONYM — place name derived from geographical feature

TRIONYM — name consisting or three words