1
general::
first name
( also given name especially American English formal ) the name chosen for you by your parents:
• People usually call each other by their first name. • Please write your given name and your date of birth.
Christian name
old-fashioned first name:
• His Christian name was Joseph.
last name/family name/surname
the name that you share with your family or husband. Most English speakers would say last name . Surname sounds slightly formal:
• Can I have your last name? • Johnson is a common English family name. • At school they used to call each other by their surnames.
middle name
the name between your first and last names:
• Harry Potter’s middle name is James.
full name
your first name, middle name, and last name:
• I need your full name and address.
maiden name
a woman’s family name before she married and began using her husband’s name:
• My mother’s maiden name was Higgins.
married name
a woman’s family name after she gets married, if she uses her husband’s name:
• I don’t know what her married name is.
nickname
a name that people call you because of your appearance, personality etc, which is not your real name:
• At school he was given the nickname ‘Shorty’.
stage name
the name that an actor uses which is not their real name:
• She began acting in her childhood under the stage name Marjorie Moore.
pen name
( also pseudonym formal ) a name that a writer uses which is not their real name:
• Mark Twain was his pen name. His real name was Samuel Clemens. • She wrote under the pseudonym of George Eliot.
under an assumed name
using a false name in order to hide your real name:
• He had rented the car under an assumed name.
alias
a false name, especially one used by a criminal:
• He uses a number of aliases.
appellation
formal a name which describes something – a very formal use:
• This fine city justifies its appellation ‘the Pearl of the Orient’.
sobriquet
formal a nickname – a very formal use:
• Jackson gained the sobriquet ‘Stonewall’ at the Battle of Bull Run.
Longman-Thesaurus