forename

noun

1. A name that precedes the surname.

verb

1. To assign (someone) a first name.

   “He forenamed him Ishmael, and assigns as a reason, his own attention to her present distress.”

   “It may be noted that Le Verrier subsequently suggested another ad hoc hypothesis , namely , that the irregularities in the orbit of Mercury were due to an interior planet, which he forenamed Vulcan.”

   “Implicit in the record of the resolution of a dispute in the manorial court of Werrington in 1368 are issues relating to the pattern of forenaming amongst the lower social groups of medieval England, as well, perhaps, as those concerning law and love and arbitration in inter-peasant conflict.”

   “The child was named Pujari Venkata Guru Siva Prasad. the boy was forenamed Pujari to serve as a reminder to the people that he will look after the temple of Gurappa Swami and perform Devara.”

2. Synonym of prenominate.

   “This forenaming of Cyrus is, indeed, extraordinary, and calculated to excite attention.”

   “A second Parcell of meadow which wee forenamed, sould unto the sayd John Greenland , containing Three Akers, by estimation more or less: Is lying and scituate alsoe on mistike syde, By and nere the South River , It is Bounded by a part of the South River where it divides, and it is Bounded Northwest by the Lands of Richard Dexters, alsoe it is Bounded North Easte by the Lands of Richard Cooke.”

   “So, now, Dickens turned to another idea prefigured in his notebook — a novel which might have been called Time (as he proposed) instead of A Tale of Two Cities (as it became), and which has as a central character the person he forenamed in his notes as "Memory Carton.””

   “Before His birth, He was forenamed, “a man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3).”

3. To appoint in advance.

   “CAP provides for the forenaming of approved mortgagees in small communities […]”

   “A committee was forenamed consisting of Messrs: G W Naylor, W Lister, Jno McDonald, Geo Barraclough, M Worsley, Jos Blacker, R H Morley and Heap with Mr Wood as secretary.”