moniker
noun

- a name or nickname — especially one that is informally given or personally adopted.

- the moniker of a person or thing is their name, especially when they have changed it or use an unofficial version of it.

Merriam-Webster, Collins English Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Moniker first appeared in print in 1851, in Henry Mayhew's 'London Labour and the London Poor', where it was spelled monekeer. It showed up in Australia by 1881 (monniker) and reached the United States shortly after — almost certainly carried by migrants.

Where it came from is one of English etymology's more entertaining mysteries. Dictionaries trace it — cautiously — to Shelta, the secret language spoken by Irish Travellers, in which mŭnnik meant "name." That word was itself a disguised form of the Old Irish ainm ("name"), which the Travellers had deliberately scrambled, as they did with many words, to keep outsiders from understanding them.

The Irish ainm belongs to the ancient Indo-European root nō-men-, which also gave Latin nomen, Greek onoma, and English name — so moniker and name are, at the deepest level, the same word.

But not everyone accepts the Shelta theory. Other proposals have included a corruption of monogram, a twist on monarch (the idea being that one's name partly rules one's life), a connection to the saint's name Monica, and even an origin in backslang based on the old English ekename — the ancestor of nickname. The spelling itself wandered across at least fourteen variants before settling down.

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MAFIA MONIKERS

One of the most creative users of monikers has been the Italian Mafia. Some of the nicknames stem from other activities that the criminals carried out. Simone Rizzo “Sam” DeCavalcante was also known as Sam The Plumber because he operated a plumbing business as a front for his illegal activities.

Vincent “The Chin” Gigante was an ex-boxer, for instance. He was also known as the Oddfather (as opposed to the Godfather) because he pretended to be insane in order to avoid a prison sentence. Others, such as Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno got their monikers from physical characteristics.

European monarchs were also once famous for having monikers, such as Frederick I of Austria (The Handsome), William III of England (King Billy), Richard I of England (Lionheart), Ludwig II of Bavaria (The Mad) and Ivan IV of Russia (The Terrible).

Our favourite for the best royal nickname goes to Ivailo, a 13th century Bulgarian king, who was also known as Ivailo the Cabbage.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

a.k.a., affectionate name, agnomen, alias, answers to, appellation, assumed name, badge, banner, birth name, byname, byword, call sign, called, calling, cognomen, cover name, denomination, designation, endearment, epithet, false name, given name, go by, goes by, handle, informal title, known as, label, MONIKER, nametag, nickname, nom de guerre, nom de plume, patronym, pen name, personal name, pet name, pseudonym, ring name, screen name, signature, sobriquet, stage name, street name, tag, title, trade name, trading as, under the name of, username, what the world calls you, what they call you, what's on the tin, working name

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“David Bowie assumed the MONIKER ‘The King of Glam Rock’ in the early 1970s.”

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