What Is a Capitonym? — bigwords101

A capitonym is a word that is sometimes capitalized and other times not, without having the same meaning. In other words, sometimes a proper noun or adjective and other times a common noun or adjective. I don’t know if any are verbs, but I will check it out. So Rome and roam are not, but Turkey and turkey are.

Obviously many of these capitonyms are people’s first names. They can also be last names or names of places, etc. In this post, we are talking only about capitonyms that are people’s first names. Mine obviously isn’t one (Arlene), but my last name is. I guess the Miller surname came from us being millers. I grew up on Baker Street, but I don’t know if there were any bakers on the street (LOL).

I got these first names from a list of fairly common names. I also checked out a list of the 1000 most common baby names of 2025. Most of them were not names back when I was growing up. Of course, you can name your baby anything you want. There are no sanctioned first names. I wonder if Linda, Susan, and Barbara were ever considered unusual….

If you have any names to add to my list, please let me know. This list is not exhaustive.