NAME, denotes a word whereby men have agreed to express some idea; or which serves to denote or signify a thing or subject spoken of. See WORD.
This the grammarians usually call a noun, nomen, though their noun is not of quite so much extent as our name. See NOUN.
Seneca, lib. ii. de Beneficiis, observes, that there are a great number of things which have no name; and which, therefore, we are forced to call by other borrowed names. Ingens est (says he) rerum copia sine nomine, quas cum propriis appellationibus signare non possumus, alienis accommodatis utimur: which may show why, in the course of this dictionary, we frequently give divers senses to the same word.
Names are distinguished into proper and appellative.