(in logic), a linguistic expression which refers to an entity ( proper, or singular, name) or a set (class) of entities (common name). An entity is interpreted in a broad sense as anything to which we may refer.
Among proper names a distinction is made between names of individual entities, such as “Pushkin” or “the author of Titus Andronicus” and names of classes, for example, “humanity” as the proper name of the class of all people. Proper names of classes of entities should be distinguished from common names, for example, “man.” The name of a class is applicable to the whole class as a single entity but not to each individual element of the class, whereas common names may be applied to each element of the appropriate class but not to the class as a whole. Simple, or elementary, names—that is, names that do not consist of other names or other meaningful linguistic expressions—are distinguished from complex names, that is, names constructed from significant parts (“humanity” is a simple name, but “contemporary humanity” is a complex name). In formalized languages a constant is an analogue of a proper name, with individual constants corresponding to proper names of entities and class constants to proper names of classes; variables and terms are analogues of common names. Proper names in formalized languages are subdivided into primary proper names, which are given specific meanings, and (complex) names, which are constructed from primary names, that is, names whose structure reflects the way in which they refer to entities.
Names and the relations associated with them, primarily the relation between the name and the entity referred to by the name—the referring, or naming relation—are studied in logical semantics. This branch of logic analyzes specifically what is known as the semantic triangle—the relations among three entities: the name, the meaning of the name, and that which the name refers to (or the set of entities referred to).