mononym

[ mon-uh-nim ]

noun

1. the name of a person who has or is known by only one name, usually a given name without a surname:

   Bajans know her as Robyn Fenty, but she is known in the rest of the world by her mononym, Rihanna.

mononym

/ ˈmɒnəʊˌnɪm /

noun

1. a person who is famous enough to be known only by one name, usually the first name

Other Words From

• mo·non·y·mous [m, uh, -, non, -, uh, -m, uh, s], mon·o·nym·ic [mon-, uh, -, nim, -ik], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mononym¹

First recorded in 1880–85 as a technical term in the biological and medical sciences; mono- ( def ) + -onym ( def )

Word History and Origins

Origin of mononym¹

C20: from mono- + ( epo ) nym

Example Sentences

While pursuing her art in Europe as a young woman, she shed her full name and adopted the mononym Bettina.

From New York Times

To distance herself from that perpetration and the identity she had formed from it, Ensler chose to go by the mononym V. As she explains in her new book, “V is my freedom name.”

From Washington Post

“I was named after my dad, Robert James Flynn. My last name was my nickname, which turned into my stage name. I legally became Flynn about six years ago,” he says about his mononym.

From Seattle Times

The film brings a more human understanding of a figure so noteworthy he has earned mononym status for the title.

From Washington Post

It operated for almost a decade as a Korean restaurant under this same mononym before reopening in August as a sundubu-jjigae restaurant with artisan ambitions.

From Los Angeles Times