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Glite Dictionary
💸 To fail 🌊 To sink 🆔 To use a name
to go under

to go under

8 6.5
Be known by another name
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : conocerse como
  • What name shall we go under next time?
  • goes under the name
  • went under the title

Tell us, framers, do you think that nowadays that goes under the rubric of what would Madison do?

Examples

  • Look, tell him, um, Paul Hugo now goes under the name of Barry Grible.

    Eye of the Beholder (1999)

  • He goes under the name of Gordon Wilde.

    Payne & Redemption (2022)

  • What name is he going under?

    The Debt (2010)

  • I went to a Christian high school, so I went under my middle name.

    Blog text (26)

  • Among historians, this thesis goes under the name of "social control."

    Academic text (1990)

  • Apparently, she had two names: one she was known by professionally and one she liked to go under when incognito in Montana.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The lone female was Tonia Selley, who went under the name of Karla Krimpelien.

    Academic text (2004)

  • A movement that went under the name of Spiritualist Positivism, typical of such synthetic tendencies, emerged in the mid-1880s.

    Academic text (2015)

  • What name is he going under?

  • He was going under a false name.

Synonyms

to be known as
vsto go under
∞ 1.4

To be called a certain name or thought to have a certain reputation

is focused on being called by a name rather than reputation
to go by
vsto go under
117 3.0

To be called by a certain name

is about simply being called by a name rather than choosing it
also known as
vsto go under
8 1.5

To give another name for a person or thing

is the general state of being called by a particular name

Surface Forms

go under infinitive
going under present participle
goes under third person singular
went under past
gone under past participle

Morphology

go + under

The meaning 'to be known or called by a particular name' is not directly derivable from the literal senses of 'go' (to become) and 'under' (beneath/experiencing a state); the phrase relies on the idiomatic pattern 'go under the name (of)'. There is a partial metaphorical link (being 'under' a label), but the specific sense of adopting/being known by an alternate name is a fixed usage that B1 learners who only know the constituents would not reliably predict without exposure.

Etymology

Go under a name paints the picture of your name written under your photo or record, so you are listed by that name. That's why it means 'to be known as'.