eponymous

adjective

epon·​y·​mous i-ˈpä-nə-məs 

e-

1

: being the person or thing for whom or which something specified is named : of, relating to, or being an eponym

the eponymous owner of the bookstore

The epic poem's eponymous hero, then an aging warrior, stepped in.

—Sonja Anderson

2

: named for a particular person or thing

the band's eponymous album [=the album titled with the band's name]

an eponymous brand/label

[Simone] Biles performed a vault that was worth eight-tenths of a point less than her eponymous double-flipping skill.

—Thuc 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

… 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

The president already has an eponymous production LLC, which was a vehicle for his work on reality projects before his political ascent. —Gary Baum, HollywoodReporter, 6 Dec. 2025

The brood, which consists of the couple’s seven kids, eight pets and two nannies, was featured on their eponymous reality show launched earlier this year. —Karu F Daniels, Mercury News, 5 Dec. 2025

That said, November was a busy month for Jeff Bezos ′ eponymous family office. —Hayley Cuccinello, CNBC, 4 Dec. 2025

Cropper appears in the 1980 eponymous film. —Vulture, 4 Dec. 2025

Word History

Etymology

see eponym

First Known Use

1846, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for eponymous

• anonymous
• autonomous
• economise
• synonymous

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Medical Definition

eponymous

adjective

epon·​y·​mous i-ˈpän-ə-məs, e- 

: of, relating to, or named after an eponym

those eponymous genetic conditions … such as … Friedreich's ataxia

—R. O. Brady