entry
name
/neɪm/Word identifying a person, place, thing, or concept
From Proto-Indo-European via Proto-Germanic name (name).
from PIE root *no-men- "name." The meaning "a famous person" is
from Proto-Germanic *naman- (source also of Old Saxon namo , Old Frisian nama , Old High German namo , German Name ,...
+1 more sourcefrom Old English nama, noma
from Middle English name, nome
Word Ancestry
from PIE root *no-men- "name." The meaning "a famous person" is
from Proto-Germanic *naman- (source also of Old Saxon namo , Old Frisian nama , Old High German namo , German Name ,...
+1 more sourcefrom Old English nama, noma
from Middle English name, nome
Before a name could appear on a passport, a gravestone, or a neon theatre sign, it was simply a sound used to point at someone or something. English inherited it through Old English nama from Proto-Germanic *naman-, ultimately reaching the PIE root *no-men-, a root that also travels into Latin nomen and English words such as nominate and nominative. So when a committee nominates a candidate, it is literally putting that person’s name forward; a nominative noun is the grammatical “name-giver” of the sentence’s subject. English began using name for “reputation” around 1300, and by the 1610s a “name” could mean a famous person—long before celebrities had publicists. In 1908, actress Billie Burke described seeing her “name in lights,” a phrase that turned an ancient identifying word into a little electric promise of fame.
The Story
Before a name could appear on a passport, a gravestone, or a neon theatre sign, it was simply a sound used to point at someone or something. English inherited it through Old English nama from Proto-Germanic *naman-, ultimately reaching the PIE root *no-men-, a root that also travels into Latin nomen and English words such as nominate and nominative. So when a committee nominates a candidate, it is literally putting that person’s name forward; a nominative noun is the grammatical “name-giver” of the sentence’s subject. English began using name for “reputation” around 1300, and by the 1610s a “name” could mean a famous person—long before celebrities had publicists. In 1908, actress Billie Burke described seeing her “name in lights,” a phrase that turned an ancient identifying word into a little electric promise of fame.
Modern Usage
An exaggerated online self-hype definition praising a person’s name as exceptionally admirable
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary entries using exaggerated praise of personal names
Kin & Kindred
From 'name'·name, identifying word
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary