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

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Like many other small batch nut butter brands, the eponymous founder got his start selling jars of homemade nut butter at a farmers market, this time in Boulder, Colorado. —

Alaina Chou, Bon Appétit, 13 Feb. 2025 Chef Jeff Osaka, who opened his eponymous restaurant, at 2611 Walnut St., in the fall of 2015, said in a statement Wednesday that his last day of business will be Sunday, Feb. 23. —

Miguel Otárola, The Denver Post, 12 Feb. 2025 Dell did just that during its eponymous Dell Tech Days sale. —

Jade Chung-Lee, PCMAG, 12 Feb. 2025 Marco Galloway Heritage Swiss brand USM, maker of the modular steel furniture system that feels somewhat omnipresent lately, is releasing a collection with its latest collaborator, Armando Cabral, whose eponymous clothing brand combines West African and Portuguese influences. —

Morgan Meier, Curbed, 12 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for eponymous