eponymous

adjective

epon·y·mous i-ˈpä-nə-məs

: of, relating to, or being the person or thing for whom or which something is named : of, relating to, or being an eponym

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What’s in a name? If the name is eponymous, a name is in the name: an eponymous brand, café, river, or ice cream is named for someone or something. And because English is beastly sometimes, the one lending the name to the brand, café, river, or ice cream can also be described as eponymous. This means that if Noah Webster owns a bookstore called “Webster’s Books,” it’s an eponymous bookstore, and Noah himself is the bookstore’s eponymous owner. Most of the time, though, we see eponymous describing a thing named for a person—for example, an eponymous brand named for a designer, or a band’s eponymous album titled only with the band’s name. The related word eponym is less ambiguous: it refers to the one for whom someone or something is named. At our hypothetical “Webster’s Books,” Noah Webster is the bookstore’s eponym. Appropriately enough, the Greek root of both words is onyma, meaning “name.”

Examples of eponymous in a Sentence

… Ramayana, an Indian epic which chronicles, in sixty thousand verses, the adventures of its eponymous hero Rama … —Leila Hadley, Give Me the World, (1958) 1999

"Cool Britannia," which goes back to Ben and Jerry's eponymous ice cream in Spring 1996, met its sell-by-date within weeks … —Harold Perkin, Times Literary Supplement, 18 Dec. 1998

Karen Hubert Allison, the eponymous (if you count middle names) creator of Hubert's, didn't know she was making dining history … —Peter Kaminsky, New York Times Book Review, 11 May 1997

Recent Examples on the Web

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Like the eponymous Phoenix, the documentary participants have all risen over seemingly insurmountable barriers to prove the power of mind over matter. —Gus Alexiou, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025 During her eponymous show, Sherri, on Thursday, April 3, Shepherd, 57, talked about her exit from the dancing reality show in week three of season 14 in 2012. —Clare Fisher, People.com, 3 Apr. 2025 The story of that one, based on the eponymous book series by Cressida Cowell, centers on a sensitive young Viking who befriends one of the winged beasts his ilk have naturally opposed for years. —Michael Savio, Vulture, 3 Apr. 2025 In the film, Martin Lawrence plays an FBI agent who has to go undercover as a larger-than-life grandma — the eponymous Big Momma — to track down an escaped criminal. —William Earl, Variety, 1 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for eponymous