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

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

From Project Gutenberg

And yet even here there were some, no better indeed than he, who grasped the meager prizes that even the sea itself could not withhold; prizes that he could never hope to touch—the command of ships, the right to tread the quarter-deck, the handle to one's name.

From Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg