death-name

death-name (plural death-names)

1. A name that is given (usually by a priest) to refer to someone who has died so that the living can avoid using the actual name of the dead person.
   • 1906, John Luther Long, The Way of the Gods, page 25:

     Indeed, those old insurgents, of 1868, are gradually being canonized with crimson death-names, because they neither knew dishonor, no, nor suffered it.

   • 1968, Richard K. Beardsley, John W. Hall, Robert E. Ward, Village Japan, page 342:

     The priest at that time would give a death-name for the deceased, eventually to be inscribed on a stone monument.

   • 1995, Omega: An International Journal for the Study of Dying:

     Most death-names are not actually names but titles, given to persons on the death of a close relative.

   • 2015, Alan R. Kemp, Death, Dying and Bereavement in a Changing World:

     Using death-names instead of usual names is their way to protect the feelings of the bereft (using the name of the dead might arouse sad feelings).