Use of "entitle" in "the book is entitled 1984"

Is it really proper to say "The book is entitled 1984"? Entitle seems to refer to the act of giving one the right to do something.


Solution 1:

There is nothing wrong with using entitle that way.

entitle : 5. give a title to a book, film, play, etc.

It may be taken as in a higher register than many people normally speak but it is, in fact, more widely used in books a Google ngram chart showing the usage of "book entitled" varying over time but averaging around 0.00007% where "book titled" had nearly zero usage until 1930, when its usage has somewhat steadily increased from 0% to 0.00002% in the year 2000

Solution 2:

It's better and more usual to say 'the book is titled 1984,' or 'the book's title is 1984.'