Also 9 bye-name. [f. BY- 5 + NAME.]
1. A name other than the principal or main one; a subsidiary name or appellation; esp. a cognomen or surname; a sobriquet.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. ix. 84. Suffisaunce, power, noblesse, reuerence, and gladnesse ben only dyuerse bynames [of happiness], but hir substance haþ no diuersite.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 644. Lions-heart, is … the by-name of K. Richard.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., III. ii. § 52. Some of these by-names … remained many years after to them, and theirs; amongst which Plantagenist was entailed on the Royal bloud of England.
1865. Merivale, Rom. Emp., VIII. lviii. 16. Eutropius … gives him the additional name of Crinitus, perhaps a by-name of his family.
2. A nickname given in sport or ridicule.
1580. North, Plutarch, 975. Pleasant by-Names against Augustus, Livia, and their familiars, whereat every one of them laughed.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 212. A by-name geuen in sport … As, Tiberius the Emperor, because he was a great drinker of wine, they called him … Caldius Biberius Mero, in steade of Claudius Tiberius Nero.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 504. Callimachus is the workeman of greatest note, in regard of a by-name giuen vnto him, and that was Cacizotechnos.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-Cr., II. vii. 70. No By-names of Whig or Tory, Highflyers or Dissenters.
1862. Earl Stanhope, Pitt, I. 67. Mr. Welbore Ellis … the butt of Junius, under the by-name of Grildrig.
