All these words denote a word or phrase by which a person or thing is called. Title has many shades of meaning; it may be the designation given to a book, painting, drama or other creative work, or a designation that indicates office or rank and is added to a personal name.

• The title of Thomas Wolfe¡¯s most famous book is Look Homeward, Angel ; Brown¡¯s formal title is ¡°Professor,¡± but he prefers to be called ¡°Mr.¡±

Name is fairly general, being used of both persons and things, but it is also specific, in that we think of a name as being peculiarly appropriate to its object in some sense, whether familial, legal, traditional, taxonomic, etc. no such relationship is suggested between appellation and the thing it designates. Appellation , a formal term, is more general than either name or title , and can be applied to anything identifiable: No suitably brief appellation could be found for the organization; hence it was known by the acronym SEATO. But either name or title also would fit the example just given, with a possible gain in directness.

Cognomen , originally signifying a personal surname, is still sometimes used in the general sense of any name, nickname or appellation ¨C although it is very formal and possibly dated. In ancient Rome cognomen referred to the last of a citizen¡¯s three names, i.e., his family name , as Naso in Publius Ovidius Naso. Moniker is an old-fashioned slang term close in meaning to appellation; it refers to that by which a person is identified, as a name , nickname, signature or the like. Perhaps because of its use in gangster films, it has a distinctly underworld flavour.

• What¡¯s his moniker ? He¡¯s called Fatso the Greek.