day name

[ dey-neym ]

noun
  1. (formerly, especially in creole-speaking cultures) a name given at birth to a Black child, in accordance with African customs, indicating the child's gender and the day of the week on which they were born, as the male and female names for Sunday (Quashee and Quasheba ), Monday (Cudjo or Cudjoe and Juba ), Tuesday (Cubbena and Beneba ), Wednesday (Quaco and Cuba or Cubba ), Thursday (Quao and Abba ), Friday (Cuffee or Cuffy and Pheba or Phibbi ), and Saturday (Quamin or Quame and Mimba ).

Origin of day name

1
First recorded in 1820–30

Words Nearby day name

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use day name in a sentence

  • Suppose you climb down out of the high-browed altitudes and give it a plain, every-day name?

  • Whoever is right, it is certain that the year can begin with its first day-name only once every four years.

    The American Egypt | Channing Arnold
  • It is a beautiful name with a beautiful meaning, if it werent that it is her every-day name.

    Winona of the Camp Fire | Margaret Widdemer
  • Will you think me rude if I ask you the every-day name of your King Cophetua?

    Molly Bawn | Margaret Wolfe Hamilton
  • Finally, in any given year any particular day-name occupied the same relative position throughout the divisions of that year.

British Dictionary definitions for day name

day name

noun
  1. Western African a name indicating a person's day of birth

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012