English edit

Etymology edit

Possibly influenced by erroneous analysis as sire-name (per Brewer's 1877 Errors of Speech and of Spelling).

Noun edit

sirname (plural sirnames)

  1. Archaic spelling of surname. [uncommon after 1860]
    • 1806, Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. II (of 3)[1]:
      Fair Helen's sirname, therefore, depends upon the period at which she lived, which it is now impossible to ascertain.
    • 1833, Charles K. Dillaway, Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology[2]:
      These names were not always used; commonly two, and sometimes only the sirname.
    • 1902, William Younger Fletcher, English Book Collectors[3]:
      They were in two trunks (made exactly fit for them) that had the first letters of my christian and sirname decyphered upon them with nails; and on the first page of every book was my ordinary motto and name written at length in my own hand.

Verb edit

sirname (third-person singular simple present sirnames, present participle sirnaming, simple past and past participle sirnamed)

  1. Archaic spelling of surname.

Anagrams edit