cognominate

Updated: May 1, 2025

Rochester, whose wealth, enterprise, and intelligence well qualified him for the undertaking; and as it had been assigned him to cognominate the new village, I have heard it said that he jocularly gave his reason for selecting its present title, as follows: "Should he call it Fitzhugh or Carroll, the slighted gentleman would certainly feel offended with the other; but if he called it by his own name, they would most likely both be angry with him; so it was best to serve them alike."

Austin Steward - Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years,: While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West