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Is there a name for the title/nickname that some members of royalty get? For example, "King Larry the Kind".

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4 Answers 4

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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).

Edit: Some time later, but I've suddenly just remembered the word byname, while having more general senses, is uses for the sort of "X the Y" name that distinguished them from other monarchs, etc. of the same name.

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  • And, arguably, 'He who must not be named'. Commented Feb 20, 2013 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
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 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
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 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
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 2:15
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    Monarcher for royalty? Commented Feb 20, 2013 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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"the Kind" the "Great" are epithets, that is correct. Just to add something to this discussion:

Style refers to the address a particular member of the aristocracy should be attributed to. For example, the Queen gets a style of "Her Majesty" and other members of the Royal Family gets "His/Her Royal Highness".

Also, there are several ways to style a prince or a princess.For example, the Prince of Wales is styled as 'HRH The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales'. On the other hand, the Princess Royal is styled as HRH The Princess Anne, Princess Royal. As a son of the English Monarch, a royal prince gets to have THE prefixed on his name. Compare this with HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and HRH Prince Henry of Wales. Obviously, as soon as their father, THE Prince Charles, assumes the throne, they will be styled, respectively as HRH THE Prince Charles, Duke of Cambridge, and HRH THE Prince Henry.

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