namesmanship

English

Etymology

Blend of name +‎ gamesmanship

Noun

namesmanship (uncountable)

1. The way names are assigned.
   • 1960, The New England Journal of Medicine - Volume 263, Part 2, page 1090:

     They are thankful for a group of advertisers dedicated to conservatism, the soft sell and generic namesmanship!

   • 1983, Mary Lassiter, Our names, our selves: the meaning of names in everyday life, page 144:

     Namesmanship, as will be obvious by now, is no game. It deals with material that lies deeply in everyone and is brought to the surface by a few.

   • 2002, Frederick L. Cullen, Secrets Are Anonymous:

     Every important home in Bexley was known by name, but not that of the current or even the previous owner. There was some unwritten code of namesmanship which attributed each house to a former owner who might, or might not, still be alive.

2. (more specifically) The art of naming things in order to influence the reactions of others.
   • 1961, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Yearbook - Volume 14, page 36:

     The latest trick, of couse, is to exchange the "college" label for that of "university." I dare not guess what may come next in academic namesmanship.

   • 1963, United States. Congress, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the Congress, page A5589:

     A quality stabilization bill, a citizen might suppose, would be a bill having something to do with quality stabilization. But that's where said citizen would betray his innocence of legislative namesmanship.

   • 1963, Professional Journal of the United States Army, page 62:

     In effect, it means that DOD has agreed that, if most of the country's population and property are to be protected against ICBM's, some losses must be accepted. The Pentagon's namesmanship experts call this the “bloody nose” concept.

   • 1976, Anthropology Newsletter - Volumes 17-18, page 47:

     There is no stipulation in the legislation that the person have a certain precentage of Spanish or Native American blood. It is all namesmanship. Other universities will be glad to have us. We're well trained and now, fortunately, well-named.

   • 2005, Linguistic Society of America, Meeting Handbook, page 63:

     In testing this scheme by tabulating the profile of name choices, the array of unwritten codes within seriously understudied business and nonbusiness enterprises, in this instance a variety of such in present-day Chicago, we find striking contrasts as well as some commonalities but, most usefully, insights into the psychology and strategies of namesmanship and into general societal values.

3. The pursuit of status by having things named after oneself.
   • 1965 December, GB Elliott, “Miniature endocrine amplifiers as end organs of the involuntary nervous system: The functional linkage between adrenal medulla and glomus jugulare”, in The Laryngoscope, volume 12, number 75:

     Our human trait of unwillingness to admit word ignorance often leads to survival of duplicated or spurious meanings. There is now no doubt that namesmanship has hindered the analysis of published knowledge quite seriously, and this will be outlined below

   • 1998, Eric J. Bolland, Charles W. Hofer, Future Firms: How America's High Technology Companies Work:

     But more recent history has been marked by a departure from namesmanship to functionality — companies with names that say what they do. The result is that when the founders leave, their names do, too.

4. The art of name-dropping or giving the names of people who are involved with a project, in order to confer status or legitimacy.
   • 1957, The New Leader - Volume 40, Part 1, page 24:

     In his preface, a scholar can practice two kinds of namesmanship. In Downward Namesmanship, the author lists those who assisted him: students, secretaries, librarians, and so on, which shows he is important enough to command such resources.

   • 2003, John Robert Colombo, O Rare Denis Saurat: An Appreciation, page 391:

     Not content with that, he offers the names of some authors who are well disposed to religion, who "say yes". (This seems to be the game of "namesmanship.")

5. Skill in knowing and pronouncing names.
   • 1952, George H. Brett, The Air Force Officer's Guide:

     “Namesmanship” is vital in manners; it consists of making your own name clear to other people about you while being certain you memorize their names the first time around.

   • 2000, Peter G. Beidler, Marion F. Egge, Native Americans in the Saturday Evening Post, page 59:

     In a letter to the editor referring to an earlier piece about names that were difficult to pronounce or spell (J.C. Furnas, "In the Names We Go By,", Dec. 28, 1957) the writer suggests: "How could J. C. Furnas write a piece about namesmanship and not mention Lake Chargoggaggoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaug near Webster, Mass.? Sissies call it Webster Lake.