The riddle
What Belongs to You but Is Used More by Other People?
From Conundrums, Riddles and Puzzles, 1903
Why the answer is a name
Wiktionary defines a name as a word or phrase that indicates a particular person, place, class or thing. Yours is given to you, and other people use it far more than you do. Friends, teachers and relatives say it all day, while you seldom say it about yourself. Some people suggest other answers, such as a reputation, but name is the traditional answer and the one that fits every word of the question.
Four books, four wordings
The riddle appears in four collections between 1890 and 1924, each with the answer "Your name." Charles B. Eaton's 1890 book asks, "What belongs to yourself, yet is used by everybody more than yourself?" Rivers's 1903 book asks, "What belongs to yourself, and is used by your friends more than by yourself?" Ordway's 1915 Handbook of Conundrums asks, "What is that which belongs to yourself, yet is used by every one more than yourself?" J. Gilchrist Lawson's 1924 collection asks, "What is it which, while it is yours alone, is used more by other people than by yourself?"
A name that grew an n
Wiktionary traces nickname to the Middle English neke name, an alteration of the earlier ekename, in which eke meant additional. "An ekename" was heard as "a nekename", and the n moved to the next word. A nickname is a familiar, invented name used in place of a real one.
A follow-up for a group
After the answer, ask the group how often each person says their own name in a day compared with how often others say it. A riddle with a similar shape is what can be wasted but never bought.