name
/neɪm/
"name" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“name” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #220. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #220
- frequency rank, English
- 24,391
- “N” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class, or thing.
Corpus desk
Index EN-name · name · English
name · rank #220 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #220
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 24,391
- PHOTO-FINISH lot
Nearest frequency peer: lot (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “name”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- city
city
99,784 corpus weight
- days
days
99,783 corpus weight
- lot
lot
99,782 corpus weight
- name
name
99,781 corpus weight
- night
night
99,780 corpus weight
- play
play
99,779 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “name” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | name |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /neɪm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #220 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “name” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around name (IPA /neɪm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #220 among 24,391 “N” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for name, with forms such as "anme", "naem", and "namme". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ne", "nm", "nap", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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… The correct English form is name, spelled N-A-M-E.
Definition
- 1Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class, or thing.
- 2A reputation.
- 3An abusive or insulting epithet.
- 4A person (or legal person).
- 5Those of a certain name; a race; a family.
- 6An authority; a behalf.
- 7An identifier, generally a unique string of characters.
- 8An investor in Lloyd's of London bearing unlimited liability.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how name appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
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.
Etymology
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 and noun.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- anme
- naem
- namme
- nmae
- nname
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of name - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "name"?
What does "name" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "name", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.