designate

designate, name, nominate, elect, appoint are comparable in the sense to declare a person one's choice for incumbency of an office, position, post, or benefice.

Designate implies selection by the person or body having the power to choose an incumbent or to detail a person to a certain post; it often connotes selection well in advance of incumbency

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Harold contended that he had been designated by Edward the Confessor as the latter's successor to the English throne

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a clergyman who has been designated by the proper ecclesiastical authority as the incumbent of an episcopacy is usually called bishop-designate until he has been consecrated or has been installed

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Name varies little in meaning from designate except that it stresses announcement rather than selection; it is more informal, however, and is usually preferred when the reference is to a political or government office within the gift of an executive or of an executive body

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the mayor has not yet named the commissioner of public safety

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only one member of the incoming president's cabinet remains to be named

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Nominate, though etymologically the equivalent of name, is rarely used as its equivalent in meaning

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the House of Commons was crowded with members nominated by the Royal Council— J. R. Green

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Usually it implies merely the presentation of the name of one's choice for an office for approval or rejection by others who have the final say; thus, a person from the floor at a convention may nominate his choice for a particular office; a state convention of a political party meets to nominate the party's candidates for governor and other state officers. Either nominate or name may be used when the execu-tive's choice must be confirmed by a body having that power.

Elect, as distinguished from nominate, implies a final selection (as by the electorate) from the candidates who have been previously nominated

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all the liberal candidates were elected

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not one person on the nominating committee's slate was elected at today's meeting

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Appoint always implies that the selection is determined without a general vote (as of an electorate) and represents the choice of the person or the body in whom such power is legally vested. Appoint may be used even when confirmation (as by the U. S. Senate) has been necessary to make the designation valid

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three justices of the Supreme Court have been appointed by the president within twelve months

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he [the president] shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court— U. S. Constitution

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Analogous words: *choose, select, single, opt, pick