[f. FORE- pref. + NAME.] A person’s first or ‘Christian’ name; in Rom. Ant. = PRÆNOMEN.
1533. Cath. Parr, trans. Erasm. Comm. Crede, 74. For the same consideration and skyl, for which it dyd expresse the name and the forename of Pylate, that is to witte for the more euidence of the history.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 320. His sonne, carrying the same fore-name [Bartholomew] not degenerating from his father.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann., VI. (1658), 753. That all the ornaments of Antonius should be cast down and demolished, his birth-day also was judged unlucky: and it was provided by an Edict, that none of that family should have the forename of Marcus.
1716. M. Davies, Athenæ Britannicæ, III. Crit. Hist., 99. The Ancient Roman Women had a Fore-name, or a Christen-Name besides their Sir Name.
1870. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud. (1875), 34. Thus it is but natural that the poet should hearken rather to the higher voice than to the voice of expediency, to the counsellor whose name is Reason, whose forename is Interest.
1883. Academy, XXIV. 15 Dec., 394/2. Mary Martha Brooke, whose twofold fore-name is intended to symbolise her character, as otherwise shadowed in the title of the book, is shown to us under a variety of conditions.
transf. 1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 519. This place [Cole-Overton] hath a Cole prefixed for the forename which Sir Thomas, as some write, was hee, who was slaine manfully fighting.
