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namesake

/ˌneɪmˈseɪk/
/ˈneɪmseɪk/
IPA guide

Other forms: namesakes

If your parents named you after your Great Uncle Abner, then you are his namesake. The two of you share a very nice name.

Use the noun namesake to describe the recipient of a handed-down name, like Bob Jr., or Ricky Smith III. Less often, the word also means anyone who shares a name with someone else, so you could refer to all the Emmas in your school as namesakes. The first recorded use of the word namesake was in the mid-1600s, and it probably began as the phrase "for the name's sake," before being condensed into a single word.

Definitions of namesake
  1. noun
    a person with the same name as another
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