byname

plural bynames · alternative by-name · alternative bye-name

1. Any secondary name, particularly
   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

      1 more example

      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 individual to whom it was given.

      2016, Patrick Hanks et al., The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, volume I, page xii

      Synonyms: to-name, epithet

   2. GermaniclifestyleA formal epithet for a god or goddess, used in rituals in Heathenry.

      Synonyms: to-name

   3. ScotlandUKdialectalSynonym of pseudonym, a second name used to disguise authorship etc.

      Synonyms: to-name, pseudonym

   4. archaicSynonym of nickname, an informal personal name.

      Synonyms: to-name, nickname

   5. archaicSynonym 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. archaichistoricalSynonym 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

present singular third person bynames · participle present bynaming · participle past bynamed · past bynamed · alternative by-name · alternative bye-name

1. archaictransitiveTo assign a byname to.

   Synonyms: to-name