ACY

2 definitions found across Law Mind sources

ACYAuthored
The Law Mind • 559 words
Definition
"Acy" is not a freestanding legal term. It appears in Bouvier's Law Dictionary as a fragment or truncated entry — most likely a suffix component or a partial entry cut off mid-text, the surrounding context of which concerns the legal treatment of names, name changes, and the doctrine of idem sonans (words or names that sound alike). No independent legal doctrine, rule, or concept carries the designation "acy" as a term of art in Anglo-American law. Researchers encountering "acy" in Bouvier's should treat it as an artifact of transcription, pagination, or digitization rather than a discrete legal concept. ---
Common Confusion
"Acy" should not be confused with any operative legal doctrine. Researchers may encounter it in keyword searches of digitized historical sources and mistake it for a recognized term. It is not. The substantive legal rules visible in the Bouvier fragment are well-established under the headings IDEM SONANS, NAME, and ALIAS, where the relevant doctrine should be researched. ---
Why It Matters in Research
This entry exists as a research caution. Historical legal dictionaries — including Bouvier's — were frequently typeset, reprinted, and later digitized under conditions that introduced truncation, dropped characters, and split entries across pages or columns. A search returning "acy" as a standalone term is almost certainly retrieving a fragment of a longer word: possibilities includeacy as the tail of terms such asacy (as in legitimacy, supremacy, advocacy, piracy, or accuracy), or a corrupted rendering of an entry header. The substantive content preserved in the Bouvier fragment — covering name changes at common law, idem sonans, and the freedom to contract under an assumed name absent fraud — belongs properly under NAME or IDEM SONANS, not under any entry headed "acy." If you are searching the Law Mind corpus and this fragment surfaces, the productive research path is: 1. Check the surrounding corpus context for the full word of which "acy" is the ending. 2. Navigate directly to IDEM SONANS for the doctrine referenced in the Bouvier fragment. 3. Check NAME or ALIAS for the common law rules on name change and contracting under an assumed name that the Bouvier text discusses. Do not treat a hit on "acy" as evidence of a discrete legal rule or term. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary is the sole source presenting this fragment. The text preserved reads as a mid-sentence entry discussing: (1) names having the same sound (idem sonans), citing 1 Over. 434; (2) names having the same derivation, citing 2 Rolle, Abr. 135 and 1 Wash. C. C. 285; and (3) the common law rule that a person may change their name and may contract under any name chosen, absent fraudulent or criminal purpose, citing 10 Fed. Rep. 894, 123 Mass. 415, and 3 B. & Ald. 544. These citations are consistent with legitimate historical authority on name law. The entry itself, however, is incomplete — the final sentence breaks off mid-clause ("may enter into a contract by any name he may choose to as"). No other major historical law dictionary (Black's, Stroud's, Wharton's) carries an entry under "acy." The fragment almost certainly represents the tail end of a longer headword lost to transcription. ---
Related Terms
IDEM SONANS NAME (legal change of) ALIAS MISNOMER IDENTITY (of parties)
ACYmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
As to the use of names having the same sound, see IDEM SONANS; 1 Over. 434. As to the effect of using a name hav- ing the same derivation, see 2 Rolle, Abr. 135; 1 Wash. C. C. 285. At common law one could change his name: 10 Fed. Rep. 894; 123 Mass. 415; 3 B. & Ald. 544; and a person not having a fraudulent or crim- inal purpose in so doing may enter into a contract by any name he may choose to as- sume; 74 N. W. Rep. (Minn.) 147; 38 Minn. 361; 42 N. Y. Super. Ct. 567; 31 N. C. 184; 31 Mo. 188. Under this rule, legal pro- ceedings against a married woman under an assumed name have been held good after judgment; 19 Kan. 522; and obli- gations incurred by or with third parties under her maiden name are mutually bind- ing; 73 Wis. 646; 96 Cal. 609; see Schoul. Dom. Rel. 40; although until a decree in divorce giving a married woman leave to resume her maiden name goes into effect, or widowhood is succeeded by a new mar- riage, she keeps her former husband's sur- name; 2 P. D. 263. A person, not having a fraudulent or criminal purpose in doing so, may enter in- to a contract by any name he may choose to assume; it is only a question of identity; 74 N. W. Rep. (Minn.) 147; 41 N. Y. Super. 567. A grant of land under an assumed name will pass title; and evidence is ad- missible to prove identity: 38 Minn. 361. When a person uses a name in making a contract under seal, he will not be per- mitted to say that it is not his name: as, if he sign and seal a bond " A and B" (being his own and his partner's name), and he had no authority from his partner to make such a deed, he cannot deny that his name is A and B; 1 T. Raym. 2; 1 Salk. 214. And if a man describes himself in the body of a deed by the name of James, and signs it John, he cannot, on being sued by the latter name, plead that his name is James ; 3 Taunt. 505; Cro. Eliz. 897, n. a. P. & D. 271; 11 Ad. & E. 594; 19 Abb. N. C. 123. A man may sue by the name by which he has been known from childhood, instead of by that given him by his parents; 31 Wkly. Law Bul. 102. See 3 The right to the exclusive use of a name in connection with a trade or business is familiar to the law; and any person using that name, after a relative right of this description has been acquired by another, is considered guilty of a fraud, or at least an invasion of another's rights, and renders himself liable to an action, or he may be restrained from the use of the name by injunction. But the mere assumption of a name which is the patronymic of a family by a stranger who has never been called by that name is a grievance to the family for which the law affords no redress; L. R. 2 P. C. 441. See 11 Beav. 112; L. R. 2 Ch. 307. A name may be a trade-mark; L. R. 10 Ch. D. 436; 1 Eq. 518; 13 Beav. 209; 13 Am. Rep. 111. A person cannot, however, have an exclusive right of trade-mark in a name as against all others bearing the same name, and honestly using the name in competition, unless the defendant uses the same brand or stamp in connection with the name; 122 Mass. 139; 96 U. S. 245; 50 Barb. 236. Nor in the name of the city in which a thing is made; 44 Fed. Rep. 277. But such exclusive right to a name may be acquired as against a corporation called by the same name. See 11 Cent. L. J. 3; Poll. Torts 152; ELECTION; TRADE-MARK.

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