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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

name.

Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class, or thing.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/neɪm/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/nɛjm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class, or thing.

    I've never liked the name my parents gave me so I changed it at the age of twenty.
    What's your name? Puddintane. Ask me again and I'll tell you the same.
  2. A reputation.

  3. An abusive or insulting epithet.

    Stop calling me names!
  4. A person (or legal person).

  5. Those of a certain name; a race; a family.

  6. An authority; a behalf.

    Halt in the name of the law!
  7. An identifier, generally a unique string of characters.

  8. An investor in Lloyd's of London bearing unlimited liability.

    UK
Where this word comes from

PIE word *h₁nómn̥ Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ Proto-Germanic *namô Proto-West Germanic *namō Old English nama Middle English name English name From Middle English name, nome, from Old English nama, noma, from Proto-West Germanic *namō, from Proto-Germanic *namô (“name”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (“name”). Cognates Germanic Cognates: Yola naame, name, naume (“name”), North Frisian Naam, neem, noome, nööm (“name”), Saterland Frisian Nome, Noome (“name”), West Frisian namme (“name”), Alemannic German Naame, namä, noame, nomu, nàmund (“name”), Cimbrian naamo, name, nåm (“name”), Dutch naam, name (“name”), German Nahme, Name (“name”), German Low German Naam (“name”), Luxembourgish Numm (“name”), Mòcheno nu'm (“name”), Vilamovian noma (“name”), Yiddish נאָמען (nomen, “name”), Danish, Faroese and Norwegian Bokmål navn (“name”), Icelandic nafn (“name”), Norwegian Nynorsk nabn, namn (“name”), Swedish namn (“name”), Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌼𐍉 (namō, “name”). Indo-European Cognates: Latin nōmen (“name”) (whence Spanish nombre (“name”)), Russian имя (imja, “name”), Ashkun nām (“name”), Kamkata-viri nom, num (“name”), Prasuni nom, nëmë (“name”), Waigali nām (“name”), Sanskrit नामन् (nā́man, “name”). Possible cognates outside of Indo-European include Finnish nimi (“name”) and Hungarian név (“name”). Doublet of nomen, noun, and -onym. False cognate of Japanese 名前 (namae).

verb/neɪm/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/nɛjm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. To give a name to.

    ditransitive
    One visitor named Hou Yugang said he was not too concerned about climate change and Baishui’s melting.
  2. To mention, specify.

    transitive
    He named his demands.
    You name it!
  3. To identify as relevant or important

    transitive
    naming the problem
  4. To publicly implicate by name.

    transitive
    The painter was named as an accomplice.
  5. To disclose the name of.

    transitive
    Police are not naming the suspect as he is a minor.
  6. To designate for a role.

    transitive
    My neighbor was named to the steering committee.
  7. To initiate a process to temporarily remove a member of parliament who is breaking the rules of conduct.

    Westminster-system · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English namen, from Old English namian (“to name, mention”) and ġenamian (“to name, call, appoint”), from Proto-West Germanic *namōn (“to name”). Cognate with West Frisian neame (“to name; to mention”). Compare also Old English nemnan, nemnian (“to name, give a name to a person or thing”).

noun/n(j)ɑmeɪ//neɪm/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/nɛjm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Any of several types of true yam (Dioscorea) used in Caribbean Spanish cooking.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Spanish ñame, substituting n for the unfamiliar Spanish letter ñ. Doublet of yam.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.