- name
- name n Name, designation, denomination, appellation, title, style mean the word or combination of words by which something is called and by means of which it can be distinguished or identified.Name is so general that it can be used of any such word or combination whether it distinguishes a person or an object, an individual or a class, a particular or a universal, a thing having distinct existence in fact or a thing having distinct existence only in thought{
all nouns are names
}{love is the name of an emotion
}{the child's name is John Joseph Brown
}Sometimes name is thought of as something apart from the real character of the thing to which it is attached{what's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet— Shak.
}{for sixty years he had been a name, not a figure— Bennett
}More often, however, the term connotes identification of the word with the thing or, especially, the person it names, so that what affects one affects the other{[Oxford] home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!— A mold
}{if I discovered the worst, and it had to be exposed, I must see that Jane's name was kept entirely out of it— Rose Macaulay
}This common feeling of a mutual and almost inevitable relation between the name and the thing named is what distinguishes name from designation, denomination, appellation, all of which are thought of as given and therefore as having an artificial association with the thing and a utilitarian purpose such as description or identification.A designation is a name given primarily for the sake of distinguishing one thing, whether an individual or a class, from other things of the same general description{the French revolutionists changed the traditional designations of days and months
}{recognizing that this parasite was new, [he] . . . gave it the designation Aphytis A—Jour, of Economic Entomology
}{Madame Curie chose polonium as the designation of the newly discovered radio element in honor of her native Poland
}Denomination (see also RELIGION) is the name given especially to a class, to a category, or to a closely knit group (as of persons); the idea of a class name is so deeply rooted in the word that in extended use it often means the kind or group dis-tinguished by a particular name{most of George Eliot's works come under the denomination of novel
}{a roll of bills containing notes of every denomination
}{in the classic world of antiquity they called outsiders, indiscriminately, barbarians—a denomination which took on an increasingly depreciative sense— Ellis
}Appellation is the name by which a thing or person is known or called; the term implies actual use and differs from designation and denomination in precluding the idea, but not necessarily the fact, of self-choice{James Tubbington Brown, a boy better known to his fellows by the appellation Stinky
}{the government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested right— John Marshall
}A title is either a distinctive name given to a work (as a book, a picture, a play, or a musical composition) or an honorary appellation coming to a person by virtue of his rank, office, dignity, or descent or given to him as a mark of respect{the head of the state must have a title— Buchan
}When used without reference to a particular work of art or person title is sometimes preferred to denomination because it con-notes distinction and dignity{any admixture of logical, of "prose" meaning detracts from the value of a poem, if it does not disqualify it for the title of poetry altogether- Day Lewis
}When used abstractly in preference to name or designation it often connotes the lack of an essential relation between the name and the thing it names{things change their titles, as our manners turn— Pope
}Style is used to emphasize the exact form of a name and is applicable chiefly to such legal and formal titles as the legal name of a firm or corporation or the complete, formal designation of a royal or other exalted personage as used in documents or in ceremonial address{a business incorporated under the style of the Globe Manufacturing Co.
}{Thrones and Imperial Powers, offspring of Heaven, ethereal virtues! or these titles now must we renounce, and, changing style, be called Princes of Hell?— Milton
}name vb1 *designate, nominate, elect, appoint2 *mention, instance, specifyAnalogous words: *refer, allude, advert: *designate: identify, recognize (see corresponding nouns at RECOGNITION): cite, *quote
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
