eponymous
adjective
Sonja AndersonThuc Nhi Nguyen
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
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
Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 17 May 2026
Premiering at Directors’ Fortnight, the film is based on Pilar Quintana’s eponymous book and produced by Chile’s Planta in co-production with Brazil’s RT Features.
—Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 17 May 2026
The actor, 28, plays the lead romantic interest in Off Campus, the new Prime Video adaptation of Elle Kennedy's eponymous bestselling book series, the all-star hockey player at the fictional Briar University.
—Julia Moore, PEOPLE, 16 May 2026
Also in 1962, Williams’ eponymous variety show debuted and quickly became a hit.
—Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for eponymous
Cite this Entry
“Eponymous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eponymous. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
eponymous
adjective
R. O. Brady
