If name is altered: suggests a sense of change in the way we see ourself. Other people’s names: our feelings for that person; the quality we feel in regard to someone else with the same name, or wordplay or associations with the name.
A woman dreamt a friend asks her ‘Do you know where Chris is?*; she replied he was on the back seat. On waking she realises she is being asked ‘Where’s the crisis?’ Two weeks later she had a kidney infection—in the back seat. Names also suggest qualities, as in Peter, the rock; or one’s friend Pat may be pleasure loving, so we use the name or person to represent that quality.
Place names: these can represent our feelings about the place, or be similar to personal names in their suggestion of something. Example: ‘On the other side of the road was a window with my wife’s ring and watch and other trinkets. I went to pick them up but a stranger put his hand over them. I then crossed the road to get a bus to Andover’ (Arthur P). Arthur’s dream wants to make sure he gets the message by saying hand-over and Andover.
Idioms: call someone names; clear someone’s name; have a bad name; not a thing to one’s name; in name alone; in the name of; make a name for oneself; name dropper, one’s middle name, name is mud; somebody who shall be nameless; or my name’s not . . .; worthy of the name; name in vain; lend one’s name to; name the day. [1]