Definition
A name is a word or combination of words used to identify and distinguish a particular person, entity, or thing. In legal contexts, the term operates across several distinct registers:
1. Personal name. The designation by which a natural person is known, comprising a given (Christian or first) name and a surname (family name). The personal name is the primary means by which law identifies individuals for purposes of pleading, contracting, testifying, and conferring rights or obligations. A person may also be legally known by a trade name or assumed name without abandoning their legal name.
2. Corporate or firm name. The designation under which a business entity — partnership, corporation, LLC, or other juridical person — is recognized, conducts business, and is subject to suit. Statutes in every jurisdiction regulate name registration and restrict deceptively similar names.
3. Name as distress (historical). In old French and Latin-derived legal usage, "name" or "namium" meant a taking or distress — the act of seizing a chattel. This archaic sense survives only in historical sources and is functionally extinct in modern practice.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To give a name to; to mention or specify; to designate for a role; to publicly implicate by name; in parliamentary procedure, to formally call out a member for misconduct.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The title by which any person or thing is known or designated; a distinctive specific appellation, whether of an individual or a class.
The gap between common and legal meaning is significant in two directions. First, common usage treats "name" as virtually unlimited — nicknames, stage names, usernames, and handles all qualify. Law is more precise: it asks which name is legally operative for a given purpose (pleading, recording, licensing). Second, the parliamentary usage in Wiktionary — naming a member as a disciplinary act — is a formal legal procedure with its own rules; it shares vocabulary with the personal-identification sense but is substantively distinct.
Common Confusion
Three confusions recur in legal research:
Name vs. misnomer. A name is the correct designation; a misnomer is an error in that designation. The legal consequences differ: a misnomer in a pleading or indictment may be harmless or fatal depending on jurisdiction and era. Historical sources treat this distinction with great care; modern sources often collapse it.
Legal name vs. assumed name. A person's legal name — established by birth certificate or court order — is distinct from a trade name, alias, or assumed name used in commerce. Many statutory schemes require assumed names to be publicly registered precisely because the two can otherwise be confused.
"Namium" (distress) vs. personal name. Burrill's entry on "name" actually defines the Norman-French term for distress, a completely separate concept that happens to share spelling with the English word. Researchers working in medieval or early common law sources must distinguish these.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Given name (Christian name): The personal name conferred at birth or baptism, preceding the surname. Historical law recognized only one such name; compound given names occupied uncertain status.
Surname (family name): The heritable name identifying family lineage. Historically acquired by custom rather than law; modern law regulates changes by court order.
Trade name / assumed name / fictitious name: A name used in commerce that differs from the legal name of the natural person or entity. Registration statutes govern these in all U.S. jurisdictions.
Corporate name: The statutory designation of an incorporated entity, registered with the state and protected against confusingly similar registrations.
Domain name: An internet-specific identifier with its own legal regime, including trademark-based claims and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.
Why It Matters in Research
Spelling and identity across historical records. Before standardized spelling, names were recorded phonetically and inconsistently. A surname might appear a dozen ways in deed books, wills, and court files. Researchers tracing chain of title or party identity in historical records must treat name variations as a core research problem, not an anomaly.
The "one Christian name" rule. Historical authorities — Black's, Bouvier's, and the cases they cite — state that law recognizes only one Christian name. This rule generated substantial litigation over compound names (John Peter, Mary Ann). It is functionally obsolete in modern law but will appear repeatedly in 18th- and 19th-century case annotations and must be understood to interpret those authorities correctly.
Misnomer doctrine across eras. The consequences of getting a name wrong in pleading, indictment, or contract shifted significantly from the common law era (often fatal defect) through code pleading reforms (often amendable) to modern notice pleading (generally harmless if the party had notice). A case discussing "name" problems may be interpreting a rule that no longer applies.
Corporate naming statutes. Researchers in business law must distinguish the common law name rule (governing natural persons) from the statutory name rules governing entities. These are entirely separate bodies of doctrine that happen to use the same vocabulary.
Burrill's misdirection. Researchers following Burrill's entry on "name" to understand personal nomenclature will find instead a treatise on the law of distress. This is not an error in Burrill — he is defining the Norman-French legal term — but it is a trap for the unwary.
Privacy and identity torts. The legal name intersects with invasion of privacy law when a name is appropriated for commercial purposes without consent. The name in this context is treated as a property-adjacent interest rather than a mere identifier.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources agree on fundamentals — a name identifies a natural or artificial person — but differ in emphasis and in what they notice.
Black's (both editions) leads with the one-Christian-name rule and cites Rex v. Newman for the proposition. This framing reflects a period when compound given names were legally contested. Black's 2nd edition adds a reference to In re Snook for the historical development of Christian names and surnames, which is a useful research gateway for that question.
Bouvier's is the most analytically complete of the historical sources, distinguishing Christian names from surnames, acknowledging compound names, and gesturing toward the rules governing misnomer. Bouvier's attention to the functional consequence of naming errors — when is a variant name legally the same name? — makes it more useful as a research starting point than the more declarative entries in Black's.
Anderson's adds a practically useful observation: when two names share a common origin or one is an abbreviation or corruption of the other, use of one for the other is not a material misnomer. This principle is more important in practice than the one-Christian-name rule, because it governs how courts handle real-world name variations in pleadings and instruments.
Rapalje & Lawrence offers the concise formulation "discriminative appellation of an individual" — correct but thin, with no development of the doctrine.
Burrill's, as noted, is substantively about the law of distress rather than personal nomenclature. Its entry on "name" is linguistically related but legally unrelated to the others.
What the historical sources collectively miss: domain names, assumed-name registration statutes in their modern form, the name-change procedures now housed in family court, and the privacy-tort dimension of name appropriation. These are entirely post-codification developments that require modern sources for adequate treatment.
Jurisdictional Note
Name-change procedures, assumed-name registration requirements, and corporate naming rules are entirely creatures of state statute and vary significantly. Most states require court approval for a legal name change; some states allow administrative change upon marriage or divorce without a court order. Assumed-name (DBA) registration requirements differ in filing location, penalties for non-compliance, and who may rely on registered-name protections.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Family Law Encyclopedia, family_210: Family Law — Name Changes (Adults and Children in Family Proceedings)
Intellectual Property Encyclopedia, ip_79: Domain Names, Cybersquatting, and the ACPA
Torts & Personal Injury Encyclopedia, torts_130: Defamation and Privacy Torts — Invasion of Privacy — Appropriation of Name or Likeness