Talk:andronym

This word seems to be offered up speculatively from time to time (e.g., on LOP) as meaning "a male name", but it appears that a more specialized sense is already in academic use, deriving from the Greek "aner" (apologies for the incorrect font), meaning "husband". Doubtless this is the same as or cognate with the root used in "anthropology", "misanthrope", "androgen" and so forth, but it's quite common for the same word to denote both "husband" and "man".

In any case, the primary meaning appears to be "a name taken from one's husband", by analogy with "patronym". E.g., something meaning "wife of John" would be an andronym, just as "son of John" (Johnson, Ivanovich, ben Yonatan, etc.) would be a patronym. In addition to the quotes given, Levi-Strauss's "The Savage Mind" mentions "andronym" as a possible coinage in contrast to teknonym, but one which would not be necessary.

On the other hand, the term is rare enough, and "male name" an easy enough analysis, that it's likely to be re-invented on its own. At the moment, there doesn't seem to be convincing evidence that this has happened. Even the example of a female writer taking on an "andronym" could be construed narrowly, as I have done in the second definition. At the least, the term seems only to be used where a male name is not already implicit. E.g. "She took on the andronym 'George Sand'." seems more appropriate than "I gave my son the andronym 'John'." -dmh 18:35, 22 August 2005 (UTC)