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A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person.
A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains common in modern societies such as in Afghan name, Bhutanese name, some parts of Indonesian names (especially by older Javanese name people), Burmese names, Mongolian name, Tibetan name, and South India.
In other cases, a person may select a single name from their polynym or adopt a mononym as a chosen name, pen name, stage name, or regnal name. A popular nickname may effectively become a mononym, in some cases adopted legally. For some historical figures, a mononym is the only name that is still known today.
Native Americans from the 15th through 19th centuries, whose names are often thinly documented in written sources, are still commonly referenced with a mononym. Examples include Anacaona (Haiti, 1464–1504), Agüeybaná (Puerto Rico, died 1510), Diriangen (Nicaragua, died 1523), Urracá (Panama, died 1531), Guamá (Cuba, died 1532), Atahualpa (Peru, 1497–1533), Lempira (Honduras, died 1537), Lautaro (Chile, 1534–1557), Tamanaco (Venezuela, died 1573), Pocahontas (United States, 1595–1617), Auoindaon (Canada, fl. 1623), Cangapol (Argentina, fl. 1735), and Tecumseh (United States, 1768–1813).
Prominent Native Americans having a parent of European descent often received a European-style polynym in addition to a name or names from their indigenous community. The name of the Dutch-Seneca diplomat Cornplanter is a translation of a Seneca language mononym (Kaintwakon, roughly "corn-planter"). He was also called "John Abeel" after his Dutch people father. His later descendants, including Jesse Cornplanter, used "Cornplanter" as a surname instead of "Abeel".
Some North American Indigenous people continue their nations' traditional naming practices, which may include the use of single names. In Canada, where government policy often included the imposition of Western-style names, one of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was for all provinces and territories to waive fees to allow Indigenous people to legally assume traditional names, including mononyms. In Ontario, for example, it is now legally possible to change to a single name or register one at birth, for members of Indigenous nations which have a tradition of single names.
In the past, mononyms were common in Indonesia, especially in Javanese name.Robert C. Bone, "Suharto", Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 25, p. 857. Some younger people may have them, but this practice is becoming rarer, since mononyms are no longer allowed for newborns since 2022 (see Naming law § Indonesia).
Single names still also occur in Tibet. Most Afghans also have no surname.National Public Radio report of 18 May 2009 about civilian Afghan victims of U.S. Drone aircraft bombings in the U.S.-Taliban war. [1]
In Bhutan, most people use either only one name or a combination of two personal names typically given by a Buddhist monk. There are no inherited family names; instead, Bhutanese differentiate themselves with nicknames or prefixes.Hickok, John. Serving Library Users from Asia: a Comprehensive Handbook of Country-Specific Information and Outreach Resources. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019., p.588
Mononyms also continue to be used in parts of India, especially the South. Mayawati, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, chooses to use only a single name. They are also used to resist casteism, as surnames are generally a telltale sign of castes. Several Indian film personalities, such as Biswajit, Dharmendra, Govinda, Kajol, Pran, Rekha, Irrfan Khan, and Tabu, are also mononymous. Govindjee, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Plant Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an Indian-American and an authority on photosynthesis, publishes his research under his singular name. In the northeastern state of Mizoram, most people have a single name, mostly of four syllables (e.g., Lalthansanga, Thangrikhuma, Zorinmawia). Everyone also has a tribal or clan name inherited from their father, but they do not include it in their official name.
A departure from this custom occurred, for example, among the ancient Rome, who by the Roman Republic period and throughout the Roman Empire period Tria nomina: a male citizen's name comprised three parts (this was mostly typical of the upper class, while others would usually have only two names): praenomen (given name), nomen (clan name) and cognomen (family line within the clan) – the nomen and cognomen were almost always hereditary.William Smith, Dictionary of the Bible, p. 2060. Famous ancient Romans who today are usually referred to by mononym include Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) and Terence (Publius Terentius Afer). , for example Augustus, Caligula, and Nero, are also often referred to in English by mononym.
Mononyms in other ancient cultures include Hannibal, the Celts queen Boudica, and the king Jugurtha.
Composers in the ars nova and ars subtilior styles of late medieval music were often known mononymously—potentially because their names were —such as Borlet, Egardus, Egidius, Grimace, Solage, and Trebor.
In the 18th century, François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778) adopted the mononym Voltaire, for both literary and personal use, in 1718 after his imprisonment in Paris' Bastille, to mark a break with his past. The new name combined several features. It was an anagram for a version (where "u" become "v", and "j" becomes "i") of his family surname, "Arouet, le jeune" ("Arouet, the young"); it reversed the syllables of the name of the town his father came from, Airvault; and it has implications of speed and daring through similarity to French expressions such as voltige, volte-face and volatile. "Arouet" would not have served the purpose, given that name's associations with "roué" and with an expression that meant "for thrashing".Richard Holmes, Sidetracks, pp. 345–66; and "Voltaire's Grin", The New York Review of Books, November 30, 1955, pp. 49–55.
The 19th-century French author Marie-Henri Beyle (1783–1842) used many , most famously the mononym Stendhal, adapted from the name of the little town of Stendal, birthplace of the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann, whom Stendhal admired.F.W.J. Hemmings, "Stendhal", Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 25, p. 680.
NadarGreg Jenner, Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen, Orion, 2020, , p. 213. (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, 1820–1910) was an early French photographer.
In the 20th century, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873–1954, author of Gigi, 1945), used her actual surname as her mononym pen name, Colette.Elaine Marks, "Colette", Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 7, p. 230.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, most Italian castrato singers used mononyms as stage names (e.g. Caffarelli, Farinelli). The German writer, mining engineer, and philosopher Georg Friedrich Philipp Freiherr von Hardenberg (1772–1801) became famous as Novalis."Novalis", Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 20, p. 503.
The 18th-century Italian painter Bernardo Bellotto, who is now ranked as an important and original painter in his own right, traded on the mononymous pseudonym of his uncle and teacher, Antonio Canal (Canaletto), in those countries—Poland and Germany—where his famous uncle was not active, calling himself likewise "Canaletto". Bellotto remains commonly known as "Canaletto" in those countries to this day."Bellotto, Bernardo", Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 3, p. 520. The 19th-century Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820–87), better known by his mononymous pen name MultatuliHugh Chisholm, "Dekker, Edward Douwes", Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 7, Cambridge University Press, 1911, p. 938. (from the Latin multa tuli, "I have suffered or many things"), became famous for the satirical novel, Max Havelaar (1860), in which he denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
Surnames were introduced in Turkey only after World War I, by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as part of his Westernization and modernization programs.Jan Siwmir, " Nieziemska ziemia" ("An Unearthly Land"), Gwiazda Polarna The: America's oldest independent Polish-language newspaper, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, vol. 100, no 18, August 29, 2009, p. 1.
The 20th-century British author Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916) became known by his pen name, Saki. In 20th-century Poland, the theater-of-the-absurd playwright, novelist, Painting, photographer, and philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885–1939) after 1925 often used the mononymous pseudonym Witkacy, a conflation of his surname ( Witkiewicz) and middle name ( Ignacy)."Witkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy", Encyklopedia Polski, pp. 747–48.
The Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said Esber (born 1930) at age 17 adopted the mononym pseudonym, Adunis, sometimes also spelled "Adonis". A perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he has been described as the greatest living poet of the Arab world.
and other Royal family, for example Napoleon, have traditionally availed themselves of the privilege of using a mononym, modified when necessary by an regnal number or epithet (e.g., Queen Elizabeth II or Charles the Great). This is not always the case: King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has two names. While many European royals have formally sported long chains of names, in practice they have tended to use only one or two and not to use .
Roman Catholic have traditionally adopted a single, regnal name upon their election. John Paul I broke with this tradition – adopting a double name honoring his two predecessors – and his successor John Paul II followed suit, but Benedict XVI reverted to the use of a single name.
The comedian and illusionist Teller, the silent half of the duo Penn & Teller, legally changed his original polynym, Raymond Joseph Teller, to the mononym "Teller" and possesses a United States passport issued in that single name. Similarly, Kanye West legally changed his name to the mononym "Ye".
In Australia, where nicknames and short names are extremely common, individuals with long names of European origin (such as former Premier of New South Wales Gladys Berejiklian, who is of Armenian descent, and soccer manager Ange Postecoglou, who was born in Greece) will often be referred to by a mononym, even in news headlines. Similarly, outside Greece the Greek basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo is often referred to as just "Giannis" due to the length of his last name.
In Brazil, it is very common for footballers to go by one name for simplicity and as a personal brand. Examples include Pelé, Ronaldo, Kaká, Alisson Becker, Neymar, and Ronaldinho. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is known as "Lula", a nickname he officially added to his full name. Such mononyms, which take their origin in , or , are often used because tend to be rather long.
Players from other countries where Portuguese is spoken, such as Portugal itself and Lusophone countries in Africa, also occasionally use mononyms, such as Bruma, Otávio, Pepe, Toti Gomes and Vitinha from Portugal.
Western computer systems do not always support mononyms, most still requiring a given name and a surname. Some companies get around this by entering the mononym as both the given name and the surname.
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