法家思想裡，「名」是一個關係國家治亂的重要術語。「名」是多義詞，有「有名」、「名聲」、「名分」、「名義」、「命名」和「名稱」六個含義。「名稱」之「名」及其應用的兩種形態，即「名聲」之「名」和「名分」之「名」是本文的研究對象。「立名」是君主的首務。「名實不稱」分「有名無實」、「名多實少」、「名少實多」和「實非其名」四種情形。糾正「名實不稱」錯誤所採用的方法是「審合刑名」，具體又分「循名責實」和「循實察名」。法家的名學思想，特別是關於「名實不稱」和「審合刑名」的討論，都有今天辯證邏輯、法哲學、非形式邏輯和邏輯史未曾注意到的問題，頗有新意。這對於相關學科的理論研究是富有啟發意義的，對於包括法制社會建設在內的許多社會實踐活動也有重要的指導價值。

In the thought of the Legalists, ming is an important terminology that relates closely to the governance of a nation. Ming is a polysemous term, which has six meanings, i.e., famous, reputation, status, titular, name, and denomination. The research object of this paper will focus on reputation of the ming as well as status of the ming, which are the two forms of application of ming. Li ming is the first priority of the monarch. Ming shi bu cheng can be embodied in four circumstances, i.e, you ming wu shi, ming duo shi shao, ming shao shi duo and shi fei qi ming. The method to correct ming shi bu cheng is shen he xing ming, which can be divided into xun ming zhe shi and xun shi cha ming. The legalist thought on ming, especially the discussions on ming shi bu cheng and shen he xing ming touch on some issues that have been neglected by dialectical logic, philosophy of law, informal logic and history of logic, showing some innovative character, which will be meaningful for the theoretical research of related subjects, and which can also provide important guidance value for many social practices, including the construction of the society under the rule of law.