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Is there a name for the title/nickname that some members of royalty get? Example: King Larry the Kind

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3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

Epithet is the closest in one of its meanings precisely matching "the Kind" (or "the Conqueror", "the Bastard", "the Great" for well-known historical case). Unfortunately, a more recent sense focusing on derogatory terms is increasingly the better known, to the point where it might seem wrong to some readers or listeners who don't know the earlier use.

Cognomen though that's also used of general nicknames, and part of the historical Roman naming system (the term's origin).

Sobriquet if it replaces their name (so Caligua would be an example).

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And, arguably, 'He who must not be named'. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 20 at 8:27
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You seem to looking for a sobriquet, an epithet, or a moniker.

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Moniker for royalty? – Jon Hanna Feb 20 at 2:02
@JonHanna Yeah well, I wasn’t sure he meant strictly royals. Think of something like “Billy the Kid”; we aren’t talking about Prince William here, but he certainly has an epithet attached there. Plus he has nicknames in the tags, so I wasn’t quite sure how far and where he might be going. – tchrist Feb 20 at 2:05
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It's pretty slangy. It can also mean given name, so for Billy the Kid it would cover, "Billy the Kid", "Billy", "William H. Bonney", "William Henry McCarty, Jr." and "Henry Antrim", as he used all those names. Still, moniker is a pretty interesting word, one of the few believed to be from Irish Traveller cant that has wide use in English. – Jon Hanna Feb 20 at 2:15
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Monarcher for royalty? – Edwin Ashworth Feb 20 at 8:24
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I can produce no evidence for its use, but calling it an attributive could, I think, be defeneded.

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protected by RegDwighт♦ Feb 20 at 9:41

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