I believe it's a common practice in some communities to name children after their grandparents or parents or relatives and sometimes even friends and popular people. Places, roads, streets etc., get named after famous people, too. Many inventions and discoveries have been named after people who invented or discovered them.
But I am not yet aware of a term that refers to the person whose name is given to people, places or objects this way. Is there a suitable word to fill in the blank below?
They named their son after the famous football player, David Beckham.
David Beckham is ………. of their son.
Best Answer
OED has this for eponym:
and this for protonym:
The distinction appears to be that with eponym, the later thing takes its name from a direct relationship with the earlier thing; whereas with protonym the second thing has simply been given the same name as the first.
Wikipedia gives an example:
OED has this:
The instrument called the theremin takes its name from its eponymous ("name-giving") inventor; whereas the boat Evening Star was simply given the existing name of an unrelated thing.
In the question, David Beckham is the protonym of the child.
In British English, the word namesake is a "bi-directional" relation: David Beckham and the child are namesakes. It appears from the Wikipedia entry that in American English namesake can mean protonym as well, and imply a uni-directional relationship.