late 14c., "secondary name;" 1570s, "nickname," from by + name (n.).

1530s, from fore- + name (n.). The equivalent of Latin praenomen. Old English had forenama. Middle English had fore-named in the sense "mentioned before" (c. 1200).

"portion of a personal name between the given name and the surname," 1815, from middle (adj.) + name (n.). As "one's outstanding characteristic," colloquial, from 1911, American English.

According to Mr. H.A. Hamilton, in his "Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth," the practice of giving children two Christian names was unknown in England before the period of the Stuarts, was rarely adopted down to the time of the Revolution, and never became common until after the Hanoverian family was seated on the throne. "In looking through so many volumes of county records," he says, "I have, of course, seen many thousands and tens of thousands of proper names, belonging to men of all ranks and degrees,—to noblemen, justices, jurymen, witnesses, sureties, innkeepers, hawkers, paupers, vagrants, criminals, and others,—and in no single instance, down to the end of the reign of Anne, have I noticed any person bearing more than one Christian name ...." [Walsh] 

c. 1500 "to call (someone) by an unsuitable or injurious name;" see mis- (1) "badly, wrongly" + name (v.). From 1520s as "to call by a wrong name." Related: Misnamed; misnaming.

"the use of opprobrious epithets," 1846, from call (someone or something) names "attempt to put someone or something in a bad light by affixing to him or it a word of unpleasant connotation" (1590s); see call (v.) + name (n.). 

WHEN dunces call us fools without proving us to be so, our best retort is to prove them to be fools without condescending to call them so. [The Rev. C.C. Colton, "Lacon: or Many Things in Few Words," London, 1823]

early 14c., "undistinguished, without fame or reputation," from name (n.) + -less. Meaning "having no name, anonymous" is early 15c.; that of "too abominable to be named" is from 1610s. Similar formation in Dutch naamloos, German namenlos. Related: Namelessly; namelessness.

"particularly, especially, expressly" (i.e. "by name"), c. 1200, from name (n.) + -ly (2). From mid-15c. as "that is to say."

also nameplate, "plate bearing a person's name," especially one of metal at the door of a residence or place of business, 1823, from name (n.) + plate (n.). Name-board, on the hull of a ship, is from 1846.

"person named for the sake of someone, one who has the same name as another," 1640s, probably originally (for the) name's sake. See name (n.) + sake (n.1).

"tag with a person's name inscribed on it," 1903, from name (n.) + tag (n.1).