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

Did you know?

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

These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Levine would be fired for season 2 and later producers would tweak that ratio — naturally preferring the Superman aspects — but also going to cartoonish lengths to prolong its eponymous romance. —

Joshua Rivera, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2024 The Swiss watchmaker is teaming up with the late Formula 1 icon’s eponymous brand to release a special Carrera chronograph. —

Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 31 Oct. 2024 This is an outstanding Halloween costume: Model Heidi Klum dressed as E.T., the extraterrestrial from Steven Spielberg’s eponymous 1982 film. —

Cate Martel, The Hill, 4 Nov. 2024 Aldo Gucci first opened an outpost of his eponymous boutique here all the way back in 1968. —

Brad Japhe, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for eponymous