Mononym

Mononymous persons are individuals who are commonly known by a mononym,^[1] or "single name." In some cases, the name has been selected by the individual himself; in other cases, it has been applied to him by some segment of the public.

History

Historically the use of a single-word name is a luxury that has been the privilege of famous persons such as monarchs and prominent writers, artists, entertainers, musicians and sportsmen.^[2]

Monarchs and other royalty have traditionally availed themselves of this privilege. While many of them have formally sported long chains of given names, in practice they have tended to use only one or two and have not had to use surnames at all.

Non-royal individuals have had other reasons for using mononyms.

Some have had names that were unwieldy, or unfamiliar and difficult to remember or to pronounce in the community in which they were currently living, but did not want to change their names to something more familiar to the broad public at the cost of abandoning their self-identification.

Some individuals, such as the writer Voltaire, have invented names that were suggestive of certain qualities that they wished to be associated with in the public mind.

Other individuals have chosen to use mononyms for the sake of the familiarity — hence, celebrity or notoriety — that such names suggest: one does not refer to an obscure person by his given name, as others would not know to whom one is referring.

Some individuals have selected their mononym themselves, when they have been able to do so because of its distinctiveness. Others have come to be known by a mononym that has been applied to them by some segment of the public. Both mechanisms contributed in the case of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been called, and has publicly called herself, simply "Hillary."^[3]

Examples

Beyoncé (Beyoncé Knowles)
Björk (Björk Guɖmundsdóttir)
Bono (Paul David Hewson)
Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus)
Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere)
Chryssa (Chryssa Vardea Mavromichali)
El Greco (Doménicos Theotokópoulos)
Madonna (Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie)
Michelangelo (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni)
Napoleon (Napoleon Bonaparte)
Oprah (Oprah Winfrey)
Pelé (Edison Arantes do Nascimento)
Stendhal (Henri-Marie Beyle)
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)

Notes

^ The expression takes several forms. Nouns: "mononym," "mononymy"; adjective: "mononymic"; verb: "mononymize." [1] tiscali.
^ "A mononym is a name consisting of a single word. They are generally favored by celebrities of sufficient stature to be identified in this way, such as Madonna, Pelé, Bono." [2] "Mononym," on Answers.com
^ Peter Funt, of Candid Camera, wrote in a February 21, 2007, New York Times op-ed piece, "The Mononym Platform": "Someone has apparently decided that Mrs. Clinton will be the first major single-name candidate since 1952, when Ike's P.R. gurus realized that 'Eisenhower' was tough to fit on a bumper sticker.... In an apparent attempt to model her marketing on the likes of Madonna, Beyoncé and Cher, Mrs. Clinton's site proclaimed: 'Today, Hillary took the first step...'..." [3]

External links

Peter Funt, "The Mononym Platform," New York Times, February 21, 2007. [4]

[1] The expression takes several forms. Nouns: "mononym," "mononymy"; adjective: "mononymic"; verb: "mononymize." [1] tiscali.

[2] "A mononym is a name consisting of a single word. They are generally favored by celebrities of sufficient stature to be identified in this way, such as Madonna, Pelé, Bono." [2] "Mononym," on Answers.com

[3] Peter Funt, of Candid Camera, wrote in a February 21, 2007, New York Times op-ed piece, "The Mononym Platform": "Someone has apparently decided that Mrs. Clinton will be the first major single-name candidate since 1952, when Ike's P.R. gurus realized that 'Eisenhower' was tough to fit on a bumper sticker.... In an apparent attempt to model her marketing on the likes of Madonna, Beyoncé and Cher, Mrs. Clinton's site proclaimed: 'Today, Hillary took the first step...'..." [3]

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