Noun

names

1. Plural form of name.

Verb

names

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of name.

Anagrams

• amens
• manes
• manse
• means
• mensa, Mensa

A name is a label for a noun, normally used to distinguish one from another. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name. The name of a specific entity is sometimes called a proper name (although that term has a philosophical meaning also) and is a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes, more loosely, called names; an older term for them, now obsolete, is "general names".

The use of personal names is not unique to humans. Dolphins and elephants also use symbolic names, as has been shown by recent research. Individual dolphins have individual whistles, to which they will respond even when there is no other information to clarify which dolphin is being referred to.

Care must be taken in translation, for there are ways that one language may prefer one type of name over another. A feudal naming habit is used sometimes in other languages: the French often refer to Aristotle as "le Stagirite" from one spelling of his place of birth, and English speakers often refer to Shakespeare as "The Bard", recognizing him as a paragon writer of the language. Finally, claims to preference or authority can be refuted: the British did not refer to Louis-Napoleon as Napoleon III during his rule.

Names are labels for a people, things, places, products (as in a brand names) and even ideas or concepts.e.g Henry B, John and Albert.

Sourced

• The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.
  • Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan,

• What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.
  • Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Unsourced

• What's in a name? Everything if you find to whom it belongs.
  • Jonathan Gardner

• Names are easier classifications than bar codes.
  • Unknown

See also

• Middle name