What is "proper name"

Name \Name\ (n[=a]m), n. [AS. nama; akin to D. naam, OS. & OHG. namo, G. name, Icel. nafn, for namn, Dan. navn, Sw. namn, Goth. nam[=o], L. nomen (perh. influenced by noscere, gnoscere, to learn to know), Gr. 'o`mona, Scr. n[=a]man. [root]267. Cf. Anonymous, Ignominy, Misnomer, Nominal, Noun.]

1. The title by which any person or thing is known or designated; a distinctive specific appellation, whether of an individual or a class.

   Whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
   --Gen. ii. 19.

   What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.
   --Shak.

2. A descriptive or qualifying appellation given to a person or thing, on account of a character or acts.

   His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
   --Is. ix. 6.

3. Reputed character; reputation, good or bad; estimation; fame; especially, illustrious character or fame; honorable estimation; distinction.

   What men of name resort to him?
   --Shak.

   Far above . . . every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
   --Eph. i. 21.

   I will get me a name and honor in the kingdom.
   --1 Macc. iii. 1

4. He hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin.
   --Deut. xxii. 19.

   The king's army . . . had left no good name behind.
   --Clarendon.

   4. Those of a certain name; a race; a family.

   The ministers of the republic, mortal enemies of his name, came every day to pay their feigned civilities.
   --Motley.

5. A person, an individual. [Poetic] They list with women each degenerate name. --Dryden. Christian name.

   1. The name a person receives at baptism, as distinguished from surname; baptismal name; in western countries, it is also called a first name.

   2. A given name, whether received at baptism or not. Given name. See under Given. In name, in profession, or by title only; not in reality; as, a friend in name. In the name of.

      1. In behalf of; by the authority of. `` I charge you in the duke's name to obey me.''
         --Shak.

      2. In the represented or assumed character of. ``I'll to him again in name of Brook.''
         --Shak.

         Name plate, a plate as of metal, glass, etc., having a name upon it, as a sign; a doorplate.

         Pen name, a name assumed by an author; a pseudonym or nom de plume.
         --Bayard Taylor.

         Proper name (Gram.), a name applied to a particular person, place, or thing.

         To call names, to apply opprobrious epithets to; to call by reproachful appellations.

         To take a name in vain, to use a name lightly or profanely; to use a name in making flippant or dishonest oaths.
         --Ex. xx. 7.

         Syn: Appellation; title; designation; cognomen; denomination; epithet.

         Usage: Name, Appellation, Title, Denomination. Name is generic, denoting that combination of sounds or letters by which a person or thing is known and distinguished. Appellation, although sometimes put for name simply, denotes, more properly, a descriptive term (called also agnomen or cognomen), used by way of marking some individual peculiarity or characteristic; as, Charles the Bold, Philip the Stammerer. A title is a term employed to point out one's rank, office, etc.; as, the Duke of Bedford, Paul the Apostle, etc. Denomination is to particular bodies what appellation is to individuals; thus, the church of Christ is divided into different denominations, as Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc.

n. 1 A proper noun. 2 A phrase that names a specific object.

n. a noun that denotes a particular thing; usually capitalized [syn: proper noun] [ant: common noun]

In the philosophy of language a proper name, for example the names of persons or places, is a name which is ordinarily taken to uniquely identify its referent in the world. As such it presents particular challenges for theories of meaning and it has become a central problem in analytical philosophy. The common sense view was originally formulated by John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic where he defines it as "a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about but not of telling anything about it". This view was criticized when philosophers applied principles of formal logic to linguistic propositions. Gottlob Frege pointed out that proper names may apply to imaginary and inexistent entities without becoming meaningless, and he showed that sometimes more than one proper name may identify the same entity without having the same sense, so that the phrase "Homer believed the morning star was the evening star" could be meaningful and not tautological in spite of the fact that the morning star and the evening star identifies the same referent. This example became known as Frege's Puzzle and is a central issue in the theory of proper names.

Bertrand Russell was the first to propose a Descriptivist theory of names, which held that a proper name refers not to a referent, but to a set of true propositions that uniquely describe a referent - for example "Aristotle" refers to "the teacher of Alexander the Great". Rejecting descriptivism Saul Kripke and Keith Donnellan instead advanced causal-historical theories of reference which hold that names come to be associated with individual referents because social groups who links the name to its reference in a naming event (e.g. a baptism) which henceforth fixes the value of the name to the specific referent within that community. Today a direct reference theory is common, which holds that proper names refer to their referents without attributing any additional information, connotative or of sense, about them.