# Names

A name is a term used for identification.

## Quotes

* A shame; the ones who died without a name.
** Billie Joe Armstrong, "Holiday", American Idiot (2004), California: Reprise Records
* I don't want my name on anything.
** Warren Buffet, (November 12, 2014)"Warren E. Buffett, 25th Anniversary of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.". The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., YouTube. (quote at 36:12 of 43:23)
* In calling his two sons by the names of Gershom and Eliezer, Moses, like Joseph and other righteous men, intended to have the fact of God's help constantly before him. Since his sons would be with him, and he would often address them or call them by name, he would remember his gratitude to God.
** Exodus Rabbah 1, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 89
* I have as many names as there are winds, as many titles as there are ways to die.
** Neil Gaiman, American Gods (2001), Mr. Wednesday to Shadow
* There was a time when that there was no name for God, and there is going to be when he will not have one.
** Isaac of Nineveh, Second Part (3.3.1), p. 139. In: Brock, Sebastian (translator). (2022). Headings on Spiritual Knowledge: the Second Part, Chapters 1-3. St Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-88141-702-9.
* What is this that is nameless and cannot be identified with either body or mind? If you try to conceive of it, it is beyond thought; if you try to express it, words are exhausted. It appears both foolish and saintly. It is as high as the mountain and as deep as the ocean, yet discloses neither its full height nor depth. It is illuminatively unbound by conditions, displaying a radiance that cannot be discerned by the naked eye. It penetrates beyond thought and has a clarity above the entanglements of speech. It transcends both heaven and earth and is realized only by the entire person.
** Keizan, Advice on the Practice of Zazen (坐禪用心記坐禪用心記). In: Heine, Steven (2005). "Advice on the Practice of Zazen". Zen texts. Berkeley, California: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. p. 265. ISBN 1-886439-28-1.
* Names are the way we humans build relationship, not only with each other but with the living world.
** Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. 16 September 2013. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-57131-871-8.
* Let us not get into the habit of names. Names are dangerous.
** Tyrion Lannister in A Clash of Kings (1999) by George R. R. Martin, Chapter III.
* The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
** Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English (1972).
* The unnameable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things.
** Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992).
* The tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name. The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of creation. Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery. By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
** Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as translated by J.H.McDonald (1996) [Public domain translation]
* Love is my name.
** Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation (1949)
* The names of worldly things are utterly deceptive, for they turn the heart from what is real to what is unreal. Whoever hears the word god thinks not of what is real but rather of what is unreal. So also with the words father, son, holy spirit, life, light, resurrection, church, and all the rest, people do not think of what is real but of what is unreal, [though] the words refer to what is real. The words [that are] heard belong to this world. [Do not be] deceived. If words belonged to the eternal realm, they would never be pronounced in this world, nor would they designate worldly things. They would refer to what is in the eternal realm.
** Gospel of Philip, as translated by Marvin Meyer
* Truth brought forth names in the world for us, and no one can refer to truth without names. Truth is one and many, for our sakes, to teach us about the one, in love, through the many.
** Gospel of Philip, as translated by Marvin Meyer
* The rulers wanted to fool people, since they saw that people have a kinship with what is truly good. They took the names of the good and assigned them to what is not good, to fool people with names and link the names to what is not good. So, as if they were doing people a favor, they took names from what is not good and transferred them to the good, in their own way of thinking. For they wished to take free people and enslave them forever.
** Gospel of Philip, as translated by Marvin Meyer, in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (2007), p. 163
* Few perhaps are the days of the just man’s life but an honored name endures forever.
** Ben Sirach, Ecclesiasticus:Wisdom of Sirach 41 : 13

### Bible

    The Bible on Wikisource.
* A good name is better than precious ointment.
** Ecclesiastes, VII. 1.
* There be of them that have left a name behind them.
** Ecclesiasticus, XLIV. 8.
* But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.
** Malachi, IV. 2.
* My name is Legion.
** Mark. V. 9.
* A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.
** Proverbs, XXII. 1.
* The name of Jehovah is a strong tower. Into it the righteous runs and is given protection.
** Solomon, Proverbs 18:10, New World Translation

### Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

    Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 541-43.
* Oh! no! we never mention her, Her name is never heard; My lips are now forbid to speak That once familiar word.
** Thomas Haynes Bayly, Melodies of Various Nations. Oh! No! We Never Mention Her.
* Je ne puis rien nommer si ce n'est par son nom; J'appelle un chat un chat, et Rollet un fripon.
** I can call nothing by name if that is not his name. I call a cat a cat, and Rollet a rogue.
** Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, Satires, I. 51.
* Call a spade a spade.
** Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritis Junior to the Reader, p. 11. Scalinger, Note on the Priapeia Sive Diversorum Poetarum. Baxter, Narrative of the Most Memorable Passages of Life and Times. (1696). Dr. Arbuthnot, Dissertations on the Art of Selling Bargains. Philip of Macedon. See Plutarch's Life of Philip.
* He left a Corsair's name to other times, Linked with one virtue, and a thousand crimes.
** Lord Byron, The Corsair (1814), Canto III, Stanza 24.
* I have a passion for the name of "Mary," For once it was a magic sound to me, And still it half calls up the realms of fairy, Where I beheld what never was to be.
** Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto V, Stanza 4.
* Oh, Amos Cottle!—Phœbus! what a name!
** Lord Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, line 399.
* Who hath not own'd, with rapture-smitten frame, The power of grace, the magic of a name.
** Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, Part II, line 5.
* Ah! replied my gentle fair, Beloved, what are names but air? Choose thou whatever suits the line: Call me Sappho, call me Chloris, Call me Lalage, or Doris, Only, only, call me thine.
** Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What's in a Name.
* Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked.
** William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book VI, line 101.
* "Brooks of Sheffield": "'Somebody's sharp.' 'Who is?'" asked the gentleman, laughing. I looked up quickly, being curious to know. "Only Brooks of Sheffield," said Mr. Murdstone. I was glad to find it was only Brooks of Sheffield; for at first I really thought that it was I.
** Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1849-1850), Chapter 2. "I know that man; he comes from Sheffield." Sidney Grundy, A Pair of Spectacles.
* Known by the sobriquet of "The Artful Dodger."
** Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 8.
* The dodgerest of all the dodgers.
** Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, Chapter XIII.
* Called me wessel, Sammy—a wessel of wrath.
** Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers (1836), Chapter 22.
* He lives who dies to win a lasting name.
** Drummond, Sonnet, XII.
* Above any Greek or Roman name.
** Dryden, Upon the Death of Lord Hastings, line 76.
* Ficum vocamus ficum, et scapham scapham.
** We call a fig a fig, and a skiff a skiff.
** Erasmus, Colloquy. Philetymus et Pseudocheus. Also in Dilucalum Philyphnus. In his Adagia he refers to Aristophanes as user of a like phrase. Quoted by Lucian, Quom, Hist. sit. conscribend. 41. Also in his Jov. Trag. 32. Found also in Plutarch, Apopthegms, p. 178. (Ed. 1624). Old use of same idea in Taverner, Garden of Wysdom, Part I, Chapter VI. (Ed. 1539).
* The blackest ink of fate was sure my lot, And when fate writ my name it made a blot.
** Henry Fielding, Amelia, II. 9.
* I cannot say the crow is white, But needs must call a spade a spade.
** Humphrey Gifford, A Woman's Face is Full of Wiles.
* "Whose name was writ in water!" What large laughter Among the immortals when that word was brought! Then when his fiery spirit rose flaming after, High toward the topmost heaven of heavens up-caught! "All hail! our younger brother!" Shakespeare said, And Dante nodded his imperial head.
** Richard Watson Gilder, Keats.
* My name may have buoyancy enough to float upon the sea of time.
** Quoted by Gladstone, Eton Miscellany, Nov. 1827.
* One of the few, the immortal names, That were not born to die.
** Fitz-Greene Halleck, Marco Bozzaris.
* A nickname is the hardest stone that the devil can throw at a man.
** Quoted by Hazlitt, Essays. On Nicknames.
* Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith.
** Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Boys; (of S. F. Smith).
* My name is Norval; on the Grampian hills My father feeds his flocks; a frugal swain, Whose constant cares were to increase his store, And keep his only son, myself, at home.
** John Home, Douglas, Act II, scene 1, line 42.
* And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
** Leigh Hunt, Abou Ben Adhem.
* He left the name, at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale.
** Samuel Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes, line 221.
* Ramp up my genius, be not retrograde, But boldly nominate a spade a spade.
** Jonson, Poetaster, Act V. 3.
* Have heard her sigh and soften out the name.
** Walter Savage Landor, Gebir, Book V, line 145.
* Stat magni nominis umbra.
** He stands the shadow of a mighty name.
** Lucan, Pharsalia. I. 135. Junius adapted this as motto affixed to his Letters. (Stat nominis umbra). Claudianus, Epigrams. 42. gives "Nominis umbra manet veteris".
* Clarum et venerabile nomen.
** An illustrious and ancient name.
** Lucan, Pharsalia, IX. 203.
* Out of his surname they have coined an epithet for a knave, and out of his Christian name a synonym for the Devil.
** Macaulay, On Machiavelli, 1825.
* The name that dwells on every tongue, No minstrel needs.
** Don Jorge Manrique, Coplas de Manrique, Stanza 54. Longfellow's translation.
* I, a parrot, am taught by you the names of others; I have learned of myself to say, "Hail! Cæsar!"
** Martial, Epigrams, Book XIV, Epigram 73.
* "What is thy name, faire maid?" quoth he. "Penelophon, O King," quoth she.
** Thomas Percy, Reliques. King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid.
* O name forever sad! forever dear! Still breath'd in sighs, still usher'd with a tear.
** Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, line 31.
* Byzantine Logothete.
** [[Term applied by Roosevelt to President Wilson. Taken from Hodgkin's Italy and Her Invaders, or Bury's Hist. of the Later Roman Empire. The officials of Byzantium were called Logothetes, "men of learning," "academic"; their foes were "barbarians." These men wrote notes to their foes, who read the notes and conquered the empire. Term defined by Prof. Basil Gildersleeve as "a scrivener, a subordinate who draws up papers." See N. Y. Tribune, Dec. 13, 1915.
* Your name hangs in my heart like a bell's tongue.
** Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac.
* Ich bin der Letzte meines Stamms; mein Name Endet mit mir.
* I am the last of my race. My name ends with me.
** Schiller, Wilhelm Tell, II. 1. 100.
* My foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor!
** Scott, Rob Roy, Chapter XXXIV.
* Who, noteless as the race from which he sprung, Saved others' names, but left his own unsung.
** Scott, Waverley, Chapter XIII.
* The one so like the other As could not be distinguish'd but by names.
** William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, Act I, scene 1, line 52.
* I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought.
** William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, scene 2, line 92.
* Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words— * * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
** William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, scene 3, line 51.
* And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter; For new-made honour doth forget men's names.
** William Shakespeare, King John, Act I, scene 1, line 186.
* When we were happy we had other names.
** William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, scene 4, line 7.
* I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.
** William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, scene 2, line 17.
* Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.
** William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act III, scene 3, line 157.
* What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.
** William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act II, scene 2, line 43. ("Name" is "word" in Folio, and quarto of 1609).
* I do beseech you— Chiefly, that I might set it in my prayers— What is your name?
** William Shakespeare, Tempest, Act III, scene 1, line 32.
* I am thankful that my name is obnoxious to no pun.
** Shenstone, Egotisms.
* Ye say they all have passed away, That noble race and brave; That their light canoes have vanished From off the crested wave; That mid the forests where they roamed There rings no hunter's shout; But their name is on your waters; Ye may not wash it out.
** Lydia Sigourney, Indian Names.
* And last of all an Admiral came, A terrible man with a terrible name,— A name which you all know by sight very well; But which no one can speak, and no one can spell.
** Southey, The March to Moscow, Stanza 8.
* I'll give you leave to call me anything, if you don't call me spade.
** Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation. Dialogue II.
* And the best and the worst of this is That neither is most to blame, If you have forgotten my kisses And I have forgotten your name.
** Algernon Charles Swinburne, An Interlude.
* The myrtle that grows among thorns is a myrtle still.
** Talmud. Sanhedrin. 44.
* No sound is breathed so potent to coerce And to conciliate, as their names who dare For that sweet mother-land which gave them birth Nobly to do, nobly to die.
** Alfred Tennyson, Tiresias.
* O, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!
** Thomson, Sophonisba.
* Charmed with the foolish whistling of a name.
** Virgil, ''Georgics (c. 29 BC), Book II, line 72. Cowley's translation.
* Neither holy, nor Roman, nor Empire.
** Voltaire, Essay on the Morals of the Holy Empire of the Hapsburgs.

### The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)

    Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 180.
* Where a man calls himself by a name which is not his name, he is telling a falsehood.
** William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher, M.R., Reddaway v. Banham (1895), L. R. 2 Q. B. D. [1895], p. 293; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 180.
* Nihil facit error nominis owm de corpore constat: An error as to a name is nothing when there is certainty as to the person.
** llCo.21. See also Janes v. Whitbread and others (1851), 11 C. B. 406, 411; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 180.
* Any one may take upon him what surname, and as many surnames as he pleases without an Act of Parliament.
** Sir Joseph Jekyll, M.B., Barlow v. Bateman (1730), 3 P. Wms. 65; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 180.

## See also

* Middle name