Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A paternal name; a name derived from one's father or from one's ancestors in the male line.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The name of someone's father.
  • noun A patronymic surname.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a family name derived from name of your father or a paternal ancestor (especially with an affix (such as -son in English or O'- in Irish) added to the name of your father or a paternal ancestor)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πατήρ (patēr, "father") + ὄνομα (onoma, "name").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word patronym.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.