Friday, July 20, 2018

What is a name?


Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, Eviatar Bach

What is a name? Here is my definition:
A name is a word that designates something
I believe that words and names have a perfect overlap, but have slightly different meanings. Every word is a name for concept, and every name is a word. Here is the difference: the emphasis of a name is designation, whereas the emphasis of a word is the collection of letters or phonetic sounds. For example, think of a name tag. It wouldn't make sense to say, "Hello my word is: ". This is because your personal name is primarily a designation. It's not as important that your personal name is a collection of letters or phonetic sounds.

License: CC BY-SA 4.0