Identifier

In computer languages, identifiers are tokens (also called symbols) which name language entities. Some of the kinds of entities an identifier might denote include variables, types, labels, subroutines, and packages.

A resource may carry multiple identifiers. Typical examples are:

• One person with multiple names, nicknames, and forms of address (titles, salutations)
  • For example: One specific person may be identified by all of the following identifiers: Jane Smith; Jane Elizabeth Meredith Smith; Jane E. M. Smith; Jane E. Smith; Janie Smith; Janie; Little Janie (as opposed to her mother or sister or cousin, Big Janie); Aunt Jane; Auntie Janie; Mom; Grandmom; Nana; Kelly's mother; Billy's grandmother; Ms. Smith; Dr. Smith; Jane E. Smith, PhD; and Fuzzy (her jocular nickname at work).
• One document with multiple versions[1]
• One substance with multiple names (for example, CAS index names versus IUPAC names;[2] INN generic drug names versus USAN generic drug names versus brand names)

The inverse is also possible, where multiple resources are represented with the same identifier (discussed below).

Many codes and nomenclatural systems originate within a small namespace. Over the years, some of them bleed into larger namespaces (as people interact in ways they formerly hadn't, e.g., cross-border trade, scientific collaboration, military alliance, and general cultural interconnection or assimilation). When such dissemination happens, the limitations of the original naming convention, which had formerly been latent and moot, become painfully apparent, often necessitating retronymy, synonymity, translation/transcoding, and so on. Such limitations generally accompany the shift away from the original context to the broader one. Typically the system shows implicit context (context was formerly assumed, and narrow), lack of capacity (e.g., low number of possible IDs, reflecting the outmoded narrow context), lack of extensibility (no features defined and reserved against future needs), and lack of specificity and disambiguating capability (related to the context shift, where longstanding uniqueness encounters novel nonuniqueness). Within computer science, this problem is called naming collision. The story of the origination and expansion of the CODEN system provides a good case example in a recent-decades, technical-nomenclature context. The capitalization variations seen with specific designators reveals an instance of this problem occurring in natural languages, where the proper noun/common noun distinction (and its complications) must be dealt with. A universe in which every object had a UID would not need any namespaces, which is to say that it would constitute one gigantic namespace; but human minds could never keep track of, or semantically interrelate, so many UIDs.