household name

plural household names

1. A brand name that is well known to the great majority of households.

   Synonyms: household word

2. A genericized trademark.
3. A very well-known public figure.

   Instagram has revolutionized shopping, dealt a near-death blow to women’s magazines, taken celebrities from TV and movie screens to our fingertips and made Shih Tzus and personal trainers household names. (At least in some households.)

   2020 January 17, Amy Chozick, “This Is the Guy Who’s Taking Away the Likes”, in New York Times

   1 more example

   [Jean] Twenge […] isn’t necessarily a household name like her sometimes collaborator Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and the author of the megahit “The Anxious Generation,” which has spent 75 weeks hovering near the top of the New York Times best-seller list.

   2025 September 6, Catherine Pearson, “She Started the Debate About Kids and Phones. Now She Wants to End It.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC