Miss: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market. Miss, Misses (Mrs.) and Mister (Mr.) are the three most distinctly disagreeable words in the language, in sound and sense. Two are corruptions of Mistress, the other of Master. If we must have them, let us be consistent and give one to the unmarried man. I venture to suggest Mush, abbreviated to MH.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
I think a child should be allowed to take his father’s or mother’s name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
We do what we must, and call it by the best names.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A good name lost is seldom regained.—When character is gone, all is gone, and one of the richest jewels of life is lost forever.
—Joel Hawes (1789–1867) American Clergyman
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
—Unknown
A virtuous name is the precious, only good, for which queens and peasants’ wives must contest together.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Names, says an old maxim, “are things.”—They certainly are influences.—Impressions are left and opinions are shaped by them.—Virtue is disparaged, and vice countenanced, and so encouraged by them. The mean and selfish talk of their prudence and economy; the vain and proud prate about self-respect; obstinacy is called firmness, and dissipation the enjoyment of life; seriousness is ridiculed as cant, and strict morality and integrity, as needless scrupulosity; and so men deceive themselves, and society is led to look leniently, or with indifference, on what ought to be sharply condemned.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
The names that do the serious damage are the ones we call ourselves. The stereotypes we give ourselves are the ones that matter in the long run, not the ones imposed on us by other people.
—Judith Rich Harris (1938–2018) American Psychologist
Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
Who hath not owned, with rapture-smitten frame, the power of grace, the magic of a name.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Named softly as the household name of one whom God had taken.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
Call a spade a spade.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
And we were angry and poor and happy, and proud of seeing our names in print.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth’s marvels, beneath the dust of habit.
—Salman Rushdie (b.1947) Indian-born British Novelist
Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) (1915–77) American Columnist, Author
Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
No better heritage can a father bequeath to his children than a good name; nor is there in a family any richer heirloom than the memory of a noble ancestor.
—James Hamilton (1814–67) Scottish Protestant Minister
Some to the fascination of a name, surrender judgment hoodwinked.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Whatever you lend let it be your money, and not your name. Money you may get again, and, if not, you may contrive to do without it; name once lost you cannot get again, and, if you cannot contrive to do without it, you had better never have been born.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Favor or disappointment has been often conceded, as the name of the claimant has affected us; and the accidental affinity or coincidence of a name, connected with ridicule or hatred, with pleasure or disgust, has operated like magic.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Good name, in man or woman, is the immediate jewel of their souls.—Who steals my purse steals trash; but he that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I came to live in a country I love; some people label me a defector. I have loved men and women in my life; I’ve been labeled “the bisexual defector” in print. Want to know another secret? I’m even ambidextrous. I don’t like labels. Just call me Martina.
—Martina Navratilova (b.1956) Czech-born American Sportsperson
I don’t like your miserable lonely single “front name.” It is so limited, so meager; it has no versatility; it is weighted down with the sense of responsibility; it is worn threadbare with much use; it is as bad as having only one jacket and one hat; it is like having only one relation, one blood relation, in the world. Never set a child afloat on the flat sea of life with only one sail to catch the wind.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
A good name, like good will, is attained by many actions and may be lost by one.
—Unknown
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love…
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet…
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A nickname is the hardest stone that the devil can throw at a man.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Better to see the face than to hear the name.
—Unknown
He lives who dies to win a lasting name.
—Henry Drummond
Names are changed more readily than doctrines, and doctrines more readily than ceremonies.
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) English Satirist, Novelist, Author