give name to

Definitions

1. To express (something) in words; to identify by name.
   transitive
2. To lend one's or its name to (something); to be the source of the name of (something).
   transitive
3. To give a name to (a person or animal).
   obsolete, transitive

Examples

“[…] who may proceed against such Malignants where the Laws are wholy silent, and neither have⟳ given name⟳ to their fault, nor prescribed any punishment?”

“1711, letter signed ‘T.’ in Joseph Addison and Richard Steele (eds.), The Spectator, No. 145, 16 August, 1711, in The Works of Joseph Addison, New York: Harper, 1850, Volume 1, p. 218, The skirt of your [men’s] fashionable coats forms as large a circumference as our [women’s] petticoats; as these are set⟳ out with whalebone, so are those with wire, to increase⟳ and sustain the bunch of fold⟳ that hangs down on each side; and the hat, I perceive is decreased in just proportion to the head-dresses. We [women] make⟳ a regular figure⟳, but I defy your mathematics to give⟳ name⟳ to the form⟳ you [men] appear⟳ in.”

“1977, Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” in Sister Outsider, Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press⟳, 1984, p. 36, […] it is through poetry that we give⟳ name⟳ to those ideas which are—until the poem—nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.”

“The ensign of the Duke [of York] was a white rose, that of Henry a red. This gave name⟳ to the two houses, whose contentions were now about to drench the kingdom with slaughter.”

“1817, Walter Scott, Rob⟳ Roy, London: Ward, Lock⟳, Introduction, p. xii, the author must now offer⟳ some notices of the individual who gives name⟳ to these volumes”

“The new leaders moved their capital to Kamakura, an isolated town near present-day Tokyo, giving name⟳ to the era, the Kamakura period (1185-1333).”

“1568, The Bishops’ Bible, London, Table setting out the genealogy of Adam, And Adam gaue name⟳ to the woman, which was made of his ribbe (while he was a sleepe) and called her EVA, as he gaue name⟳ to al other creatures.”

CEFR level