sobriquet

plural sobriquets · alternative soubriquet

1. A familiar name for a person or thing; a nickname (sometimes assumed by the person, but often given by others) that is descriptive.

   “The Bard” is a sobriquet of English playwright William Shakespeare.

   4 more examples

   So began the memorable paper-chase for an extremely nebulous shop-assistant and a foreigner whose description began and ended with the sobriquet 'Peter the Italian'.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

   They turned out to be speedy machines and earned the sobriquet "Greyhounds", giving excellent performances on the Exeter run.

   1951 November, David R. Webb, “The Drummond 4-4-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 774

   The sobriquet of Johnny Appleseed attached to him, though his real name was Chapman, in consequence of his being ever engaged in gathering and planting appleseed and cultivating nurseries of apple trees.

   1862, A. Banning Norton, (Please provide the book title or journal name)

   Tight quickly became a Jumeirah Jane—a sobriquet used as a caricature for non-working foreign women who live in Jumeirah, a posh part of the city, and spent their time driving kids to and from schools, shopping or meeting one another for lunch.

   2011, Pranay Gupte, Dubai: The Making of a Megapolis, Penguin Books India, →ISBN, page 344

   Synonyms: cognomen, moniker, nickname, byname, to-name