mononymn.

1884 E. Coues New Terms Zoöl. Nomencl. in Auk 1 321 Mononym, an onym consisting of a single term.

1885 B. G. Wilder in Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. 12 272 Most of the names selected or introduced by me consist of a single word each; they are monomials, or better, mononyms.

1889 A. H. Buck Ref. Handbk. Med. Sci. VIII. 518/1 There are two methods of securing mononyms from pre-existing polyonyms: A. By the omission of unessential words... B. By the compounding of two or more of the separate words.

1899 Science 21 Apr. 568/1 The mononyms dura and pia occur two and four times respectively, and the authorized polyonyms are conspicuous by their absence.

1962 N.Y. Times 22 Feb. 20/1 As the heroine, the tall, thin actress who calls herself Capucine is as crystalline and icy as her elegant mononym.

1968 Washington Post 15 July d1/1 It was manifest that Pele's reputation had preceded him because 20,189 soccer fans were gathered,..the biggest crowd ever attracted by a mononym.

2009 Daily Mail (Nexis) 31 July My late grandmother knew a Thirties jazz singer called ‘Hutch’. Poor Leslie Hutchinson met a sad end, but he was a fine singer and probably owed part of his fame to that mononym.

2016 Times 5 Mar. 25 Plato, Elvis, Boudicca, Geronimo and Adele are mononyms, that is, people who are famous enough to be known and addressed by a single name, usually their first.