A name is a label for a thing, person, place, product (as in a brand name) and even an idea or concept, normally used to distinguish one from another. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A name for a specific unique and identifiable individual living being (including animals, pluralities, or ethnic groups), is sometimes called a proper name and is a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes, more loosely, called names; an older term for them, now obsolete is general name.

The use of personal names is not unique to humans. Dolphins also use symbolic names, as has been shown by recent research. Individual dolphins have individual whistles, to which they will respond even when there is no other information to clarify which dolphin is being referred to.

Use of names

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Naming is the process of assigning a particular word or phrase to a particular object or property. This can be quite deliberate or a natural process that occurs in the flow of life as some phenomenon comes to the attention of the users of a language. Many new words or phrases come into existence during translation as attempts are made to express concepts from one language in another.

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NPR Topics: Space

Millionaire Follows Dad's Footsteps — Into Space
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:41:00 -0400
Richard Garriott, a famous video game developer, is paying millions of dollars for a ride on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. He has wanted to go to space since he was a kid. His father and all of his neighbors were NASA astronauts. It's the first time the child of an American astronaut will blast off into space.
Young Galaxy's Magnetic Field Is Surprisingly Strong
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:53:00 -0400
Current models indicate that the magnetic fields that enclose galaxies grow slowly over billions of years. But scientists have used a telescope to peer back millions of years in time and discovered a distant galaxy with a magnetic field at least 10 times the average strength.
SpaceX Celebrates First Successful Rocket Launch
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:53:00 -0400
SpaceX's flagship Falcon1 rocket has successfully launched from an island in the central Pacific, becoming the first privately-developed rocket to orbit the planet. NASA has already contracted SpaceX to begin private space flight missions to the International Space Station beginning in 2010.
Computer Malfunction Delays Hubble Mission
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:31:00 -0400
NASA has postponed a planned repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope after a new problem developed with the orbiting observatory. Ed Weiler, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, explains why repairs won't take place until Feb. 2009 — at the earliest.
For Young Chinese, Spacewalk An Indicator Of Might
Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:05:00 -0400
China on Saturday will become only the third nation — after Russia and the United States — to carry out a spacewalk. The event will be broadcast live nationwide. This milestone underscores China's technological achievements and is boosting national pride.
Solar Winds, Crucial To Life On Earth, Decreasing
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:45:00 -0400
Solar winds — invisible gas plasma emitted by the Sun — protect the solar system from cosmic rays that are hostile to terrestrial life. But new data from the Ulysses NASA probe indicate solar wind output is lower than has ever been previously documented.

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