[Ads-l] moneker, moniker (and many other spellings)

Stephen Goranson goranson at DUKE.EDU
Wed Sep 30 13:44:37 UTC 2020


Much info is available in OED, Green's Dictionary o' Slang, Partridge/Beale 1984 174/2 and scattered articles and usages. I won't attempt a survey.

Liberman's Bibliography lists C. H. Vellacott, "Thieves' Slang," Gentleman's Magazine 1896: 349 which offered: "'Moniker,' a common coster word for 'name,' was originally monarch, that is king or No. 1, and thus with frank egotism 'I, myself.' The slang use of 'monarco' for 'I' in Italian Gergo supports this apparently far-fetched derivation."

Though others support monarch, I, rather, provisionally accept the "far-fetched" characterization. Because these (early) names are polar opposites of royal Charles, George, James, and Elizabeth.
Instead, they are nicknames, additional names, individual and intended as unique names. Nicknames, from an eke-name ("an ekename" became "a nickname"). Hmm. Eke-name , as some have already noted, may seem related to the (frequently-used) spelling moneker. Unique name? One (individual) name? My (own, for my familiars) name?--not just a plain at-birth given name, as some use it today.

One could cite many examples of monekers. One of the more elaborate lists is "'Monekers,' Names by which Noted Criminals are Known in their Professional Circles, In Other Words, a Rogues' Directory [etc.], St. Louis Globe-Democrat (Missouri), March 6, 1882 p. 10 [newspapers.com] lists and describes 107 (!) such named persons, and often their given name and specialty. E.g., "'Tiger Jim,' is Chas. Montgomery, a burglar, who has the name tattoed on his arm."

Others also use the moneker spelling, such as "A Literary Bohemia", St. James Magazine [Proquest], April, 1868, 433, and "The Tramp; or Caste in the Jungle," New Outlook, August 19, 1911, pages 871, 873, 874, 875 ("Susquehana Red"--again, hardly a royal name-- and so on).

Stephen "moneker-speller' Goranson


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