handle to one's name

Idioms  

1. A nickname or title, as in He was knighted and now had a handle to his name, or His gluttony earned him a handle to his name, Big Mouth. [First half of 1800s]

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Example Sentences

The real flattering thing would be to be made as much of as Philip is, for one's own merits, and not for the handle to one's name.'

From The Heir of Redclyffe by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

A handle to one's name, an estate, all the little earmarks of "nobility" are not only required but insisted on.

From Memoirs of an American Prima Donna by Kellogg, Clara Louise

There was nothing left for Dolores to do but to sit by in the window-seat, philosophizing on the remarkable effects of a handle to one's name, and feeling cruelly neglected.

From The Two Sides of the Shield by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

All that has been accomplished is the displacement of the objective point; the desire, the mania for a handle to one’s name is as prevalent as ever. 

From Worldly Ways and Byways by Gregory, Eliot