Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to take a large mouthful of one’s drink.

1890

C. Hindley Vocab. and Gloss. in True Hist. of Tom and Jerry 158: Biting one’s name in it. Taking a good draught out of a pot of heavy wet.

(Aus.) to eat a meal for which someone else has paid.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 16: BITING YOUR NAME: slang [...] Australian bush invitation to a person to have a feed. Sometimes altered to ‘Sing your hand’ or ‘name’.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 82: To bite someone’s name [... ] to eat.

(Aus./US black) to speak with absolute candour, honesty.

1867		Grey River Argus (N.Z.) 31 Aug. 2/6: Lor, ’ow I larfed when I heerd this yarn, and I ses to wun o’ the chaps as ’ow it wus a good story, and we larfs again ; and then, he ses ‘Give it a name,’ which I then sed ‘P B,’ and I goes ’ome rejoicing.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Dec. 19/2: [P]eople shouted for him till he got fair weary of giving it a name.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 180: Ty’s eyes had widened as the girl spoke her mind. And that was giving it a name for sure!

1. a phr. used when one stands a round of drinks and asks the company what they would like.

1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act I: Give it a name, gentlemen.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 67: Give it a name, my Britons, and I’ll pay the shot.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Sept. 6/4: ‘Give it a name’ [...] ‘A large bottle of Mumm, Jim’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 July 12/1: An Australian indulges in no such foolishness. If he meets an old friend, his greeting is either ‘Give it a name!’ or ‘Do you hold it?’ according to circumstances. There is no preliminary beating about the bush with him.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Oct. 12/1: In these days, when such an everlasting howl is raised over the want of prudence and the excess of ‘cheek’ which characterise the Australian bushman, the following item [...] comes as welcome as [...] an invitation to ‘step across the street and name it.’.
1891		Sporting Times 10 Jan. 3/1: ‘Gents, give it a name!’ shouted the landlord; and soon the old Burton and the Scotch whisky [...] were circulating freely.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Dec. 17/2: ‘I never thort ter see yer as bad as this; but, give it a name, we has plenty soft tack fer them as likes it.’.
1904		R. Free Seven Years Hard 69: Then I took ’im to the nearest pub., and told ’im to put a name to it. ‘Four-half,’ says he. ‘Pint o’ four-half, miss,’ says I.
1907		News & Courier (Charleston, SC) 14 Apr. 18/2: Give it a name, then.
1915		Van Loan ‘On Account of a Lady’ in Taking the Count 124: T-bone [...] asks him what he will have. ‘Name it, cully!’ says T-bone.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘Duck an’ Fowl’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 16: ‘Duck and Fowl’ ’s ’er nomination; so ole Ginger jerks ’is frame / ’Cross to git some fancy pickin’s, an’ to give ’is choice a name.
1919		Aberdeen Jrnl 9 July 6/2: ‘Name it,’ said the resident. ‘Whisky,’ replied the traveller.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 283: Give it a name, citizen, says Joe. – Wine of the country, says he.

2. (US black) a general phr. of affirmation.

1992

J. Mowry Way Past Cool 20: ‘Cops gots a way of turnin everybody into nuthin.’ ‘Give it a name,’ said Rac.

to be destined or intended for someone; orig. of a bullet.

1917		A.G. Empey Over Top 312: Tommy detests these mortars because he knows that it is only a matter of minutes before a German shell with his ‘name and number on it’ will be knocking at his door.
1925		Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 163: Name (or number) on, to have one’s, said of a bullet that hit a man; i.e., that it was destined for him.
1932		(con. 1919) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 726: The shell had his number on it.
1943		in I. Hawkins B-17s Over Berlin 92: I don’t mind too much if I get hit by a piece of flak or a machine gun bullet that had got my name on it.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 226: Jack (Legs) Diamond, the prohibition hoodlum who kept a munitions plant working overtime before a bullet was turned out with his number on it.
1973		D. Francis Slay-Ride (1983) 140: The bomb probably had my name on it in the first place .
1977		C. McFadden Serial 60: A Langendorf bread truck he was sure had his number on it.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 88: Here, this last heinie got your name all over it.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 38: Got some Zodiac boots, too, nice low heels, got your name on ’em.

the vagina.

[c.1674		Bristol Drollery in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 98: Such delicate Thighs, And that shall be nameless between].
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 156: Herison, m. The female pudendum; ‘the nameless’.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 183: A lot of the fun of sexual activity lies in its forbidden nature [...] Examples occur in such phrases as [...] the nameless, the name-it-not.

the most important aspect of a situation, whatever matters most, the end, the finish.

1910		Chicago Trib. 6 Sept. 16/6: The exercise needed includes brain and hand / And work is the name of the game.
1963		E.L. Bond [title] ‘The name of the game’: our changing perception of life and how it will affect marketing concepts; an address. (Association of National Advertisers, U.S.) .
1970		J. Dickey Deliverance 206: The name of the game is trust; you’ve got to trust things.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 112: The name of the game is credibility and that means a nice, striped seersucker suit.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 109: We’re all the same here. They gave me a drink, though, and that’s the name of the game.

1. to suggest a third party (for a task).

1999

J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] TT put my name up meant he wanted some geezer whacking.

2. (UK Und.) to inform against someone, often to save one’s own skin.

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 274: If they find this Klaus before we do and he puts your name up, you’re fucked.

(US teen) an excl. used to intimidate or used for celebration.

1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Serial Killa’ 🎵 What’s my motherfucking name?
2002		Eminem ‘Say My Name’ 🎵 I don’t wanna hear what you meant, do not explain / Right before you lay in your coffin, hoe say my name.