Was ist ein Name?

Abstract

The question “What is a name?” is often answered in different ways and out of extreme positions (from: names are “meaningless marks” unto: names have “the greatest number of attributes”). In this article the formal and semantic aspects of a name are discussed in comparison with those of a word. Name-giving and name-usage are subjects of consideration and ‒ in addition to that ‒ the traditional sentence “nomen est omen” is discussed.