name
/neɪm/noun, verb
name is spelled N-A-M-E. The wrong spelling people search most is nmae: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 500 of all searches for the word. Name is a noun meaning “Any nounal word or phrase which indicates a particular person, place, class, or thing”. The plural of name is names or ñames.
How many letters and syllables are in name?
| Letters | 4: N-A-M-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 407 times per million words; the 220th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, nmae, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell name?
Name is spelled N-A-M-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 509 of the searches for name in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is name?
Name appears 407 times per million words in written English, the 220th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce name?
- US /neɪm/
- British /nɛjm/
As a noun (“Any of several types of true yam (Dioscorea) used in…”): /n(j)ɑmeɪ/, /neɪm/, /nɛjm/.
Name has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-name.ogg, En-au-name.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with name?
9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as name from its last stressed vowel (/eɪm/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mean, amen, mane.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of name
- names plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- nyem
- naming participle, present
- named participle, past
- ñame
- namé
- ñames plural
- namés plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does name mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 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.
- 2
A reputation.
And David won a name for himself.
- 3
An abusive or insulting epithet.
Stop calling me names!
- 4
A person (or legal person).
p. 2002, second edition of, 2002, Graham Richards, Putting Psychology in its Place, →ISBN, page 287 http://books.google.com/books?id=7bxvJIs5_wsC&pg=PA287&dq=names Later British psychologists interested in this topic include such major name
- 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
UKAn investor in Lloyd's of London bearing unlimited liability.
- 9
Any of several types of true yam (Dioscorea) used in Caribbean Spanish cooking.
verb
- 1
To give a name to.
One visitor named Hou Yugang said he was not too concerned about climate change and Baishui’s melting.
- 2
To mention, specify.
He named his demands.
- 3
To identify as relevant or important
naming the problem
- 4
To publicly implicate by name.
The painter was named as an accomplice.
- 5
To disclose the name of.
Police are not naming the suspect as he is a minor.
- 6
To designate for a role.
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.
noun
- 1
Synonym of name (“yam”).
noun
- 1
Synonym of name (“yam”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate name?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of name: NIL.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Name in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nom , nommer, dénommer , choisir, élire , préciser |
| German | Name , nennen, taufen, bezeichnen, benennen , Ruf |
| Portuguese | nome , nomear, denominar, chamar , fama, reputação |
| Spanish | nombre , nombrar , ñame |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does name come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).