Named after | English expression meaning | Free online English audio lesson (2024)

Named after

Today’s expression is “named after.” What does it mean to be “named after” someone or something? This is how we describe where you got your name or, more specifically, how and why your parents selected your name. And this is the rule: to use “named after” there must be a specific person, place, or event that inspires the name. Keep that in mind as we go through the examples. To be “named after” someone or something, there must be some meaning in the name.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in the news again because they had a baby daughter. The daughter’s name is Lilibet and she is named after her great-grandmother, the Queen of England. The great-grandmother’s name is Elizabeth, but her private nickname is Lililbet; the new baby’s name is Lilibet; so we can say, Meghan and Harry’s new daughter is named after Queen Elizabeth.

She is also named after her grandmother. How can that be true, you might ask? Well, Lilibet’s middle name is Diana. Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor is her full name. So, she’s named after the Queen and the late Princess Diana. In that way, a person can be named after two people. Now, it wouldn’t be a story about the Duke and duch*ess of Sussex if there wasn’t a little family controversy: Lilibet is the Queen’s fairly private nickname, used only by her inner circle. And there are rumors—which everyone denies—that the Queen was not consulted before her private nickname was given, officially, to Harry and Meghan’s daughter. I’ll stay out of that family drama!

It’s common to name kids after family members. That would be the most common inspiration of names for children. But, some parents name their kids after their idols or heroes. The first black baseball player in the Major Leagues was called Jackie Robinson; today, Robinson Canó is the second baseman for the Seattle Mariners. He was named after Jackie Robinson. There are a lot of similar examples. Mariah Carey’s daughter is named Monroe; she’s named after Marilyn Monroe, the actress who Carey admired.

Some people’s names—their first names, I mean—are just a name that their parents liked. In that case, they’re not named after anyone. I, for example, am not named after anyone. Jeff, Jeffrey: this was just a name my parents liked, and that’s what I got.

I’m going to pause here and give you an example where you cannot use “named after.” A popular baby name these days is Brooklyn, which is also the name of a part of New York City (we talked about it in Lesson 236 ). But most babies named “Brooklyn” are not given that name because their parents have a particular affection for Brooklyn, New York; they get the name because it’s a popular name. So, most of the little Brooklyns running around are not named after a part of New York. They were just given that name.

If you find a person has an unusual name, you might ask him or her, “Were you named after anyone special?” And that person may reply, “Yes, I was named after my grandmother” or “Nope, I wasn’t named after anyone. My parents just liked this name.”

Now, let’s talk about another way to use “named after” and that’s pets. You have a little more license with pets, a little more freedom than you have with naming a child. You can’t ruin a pet’s life by naming him after something embarrassing!

There is a famous comet called Halley’s comet. It’s visible on earth every 75 or 76 years and was last seen in 1986. Prior to that, it was visible in 1910 and 1835; its appearances have been recorded by humans dating back to the year 141 AD in China. Some people think it was recorded on earth even earlier than that, but we can’t be certain. One of my family pets was born in 1986. My parents named her Halley, after the famous comet that appeared in the year of her birth. She was named after the comet.

Do you remember, then, how you heard it in today’s lesson? A pair of dinosaur researchers found fossils on their property. They suspected it was a new species, but they weren’t sure. So, they gave the dinosaur a nickname: Cooper. They named it after Cooper Creek , which was a creek, really a small river, near where he was found. The scientists could have named it anything they wanted; this was just an informal name while they examined the fossils more closely.

Did you know, that the city of New York is named after the Duke of York? Dutch settlers in the area named it New Amsterdam, after the capital of the Netherlands. Then, England seized the land in 1664 and named it after the Duke of York. And, so now, we have New York. Chicago is a Native American word that means “garlic.” Our city was named after the most common plant growing nearby when the area was settled. The city of Houston was named after a famous general, Sam Houston, who fought for the Republic of Texas before it became part of the United States.

Quote of the Week

Here’s another disputed quote. A lot of my quotes lately have been disputed, meaning we don’t know exactly who said them first. This quote has been attributed to many people. We’ll officially say it’s from Albert Einstein, although when he used it, he was quoting someone else—he just didn’t say who. But since he was the first to commit it to writing, we’ll say it belongs to Einstein.

Here’s the quote, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” This quote draws a distinction between the very practical things you learn in school, versus the wisdom and experience you come away with from everyday life. Meaning that wisdom and experience can come from school, or from what I like to call “the school of life.”

But education, according to this quote, is not simply facts or very narrow skills, but something you acquire over the years that runs deeper. So, listen one more time, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school,” and we’ll give that to Albert Einstein.

See you next time!

And that’s all for today, Monday, June 28, 2021. Thanks so much for making Plain English a part of your English learning; for more on this lesson, visit PlainEnglish.com/376.

Before we go, I wanted to let you know about one feature in Plain English Plus+ that I don’t talk about too often. On our website, we have lots of places where you can practice writing your own examples. So, on the page for “named after,” for example, Plus+ members can go to the bottom of the page and write their own examples. And I read every single example and provide feedback or little suggestions to help you improve. And that goes for all our expressions and how-to videos.

So, if you ever find yourself thinking, you’re learning a lot of great new expressions, but you’re worried that you won’t remember them, or you’re not quite sure how to use it yourself—get into Plain English Plus+ and start practicing right on our pages and I will personally look and give you tips. That’s just one of the great ways Plain English Plus+ can help you upgrade your English. To join, visit PlainEnglish.com/Plus .