The story
- Old English · inherited fromtōnama“surname”
- Middle English · inherited fromtoname
- English todayto-name
From Middle English toname, tonome, from Old English tōnama (“surname”), equivalent to to- + name. Cognate with West Frisian tanamme, Dutch toenaam, Middle Low German toname, German Zuname, Danish tilnavn, Swedish tillnamn.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.