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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Since then, a slew of other Lauder brands, including Too Faced and the eponymous Estée Lauder, have also joined the platform. —

Kathryn Hopkins, WWD, 21 Jan. 2025 Her eponymous restaurant led the artisan pizza movement in the Midwest, winning over locals with its handcrafted, elevated approach to Italian cuisine. —

Claudia Alarcón, Forbes, 20 Jan. 2025 Another Yellowstone spinoff that was announced is 1944, which follows the tradition of 1883 and 1923 in telling stories of the different generations of the Dutton family who run the eponymous Yellowstone cattle ranch. —

David Faris, Newsweek, 19 Jan. 2025 After the phylloxera outbreak destroyed vineyards in France in the late 19th century, rye whiskey became the spirit of choice for the eponymous Sazerac cocktail. —

Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 19 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for eponymous