Phrase guide

give name to

verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

verb

Meaning 1

To express (something) in words; to identify by name.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • 1711, letter signed ‘T.’ in Joseph Addison and Richard Steele (eds.), The Spectator, No. 145, 16 August, 1711, in The Works of Joseph Addison, New York: Harper, 1850, Volume 1, p. 218, The skirt of your [men’s] fashionable coats forms as large a circumference as our [women’s] petticoats; as these are set out with whalebone, so are those with wire, to increase and sustain the bunch of fold that hangs down on each side; and the hat, I perceive is decreased in just proportion to the head-dresses. We [women] make a regular figure, but I defy your mathematics to give name to the form you [men] appear in.
  • 1977, Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” in Sister Outsider, Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984, p. 36, [...] it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are—until the poem—nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To lend one's or its name to (something); to be the source of the name of (something).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, London: Ward, Lock, Introduction, p. xii, the author must now offer some notices of the individual who gives name to these volumes

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To give a name to (a person or animal).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, transitive

Examples

  • 1568, The Bishops’ Bible, London, Table setting out the genealogy of Adam, And Adam gaue name to the woman, which was made of his ribbe (while he was a sleepe) and called her EVA, as he gaue name to al other creatures.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: name

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.