Using Name Tags to Give Villagers Custom Names in Minecraft

Download Article
A complete guide to giving your villagers personalized names
Download Article

So you got lucky enough to find a Village. Obviously, you’ll stay there for the resources you can’t otherwise get and for the instant shelter provided by the pre-made houses. Maybe, after a while, you find yourself getting fond of your Villager neighbors. Name Tags are a bit rare and are mostly novelty items that let you name a mob of any kind. When you attach a name to your tag and place it on your target, this will give them a specific name that appears above the target’s head. In the case of hostile mobs like Zombies and Skeletons, a Name Tag will keep them in your world indefinitely until they die or burn.

Part 1
Part 1 of 2:

Getting Name Tags

Download Article
  1. How.com.vn English: Step 1 Fish for Name Tags.
    Fishing is a simple activity where you cast out the line, wait for a bubble trail to appear towards your lure, and immediately reel it in once the lure is tugged on. If you time it right, you’ll either get nice, juicy fish to eat, some random “junk” to use, or rare items like Enchanted Books and Name Tags!
    • To cast your line, you right-click or press LT/L2 while facing a body of water. Reeling it in uses the same controls.
    • Click here for instructions on creating a Fishing Rod.
    • Fishing can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Name Tags are part of the “treasure” category of items found by fishing, and the overall chance to even acquire a treasure is about 5%. It might take a while before you can receive one, depending on how lucky you are.
    • For more experienced players, having a fishing rod enchanted with Luck of the Sea III would improve your chances of getting rarer items to 8%. This will not immediately assure you’ll get a Name Tag, however, but simply improves your chances to get “treasure” items.
  2. How.com.vn English: Step 2 Trade with a librarian villager.
    If you’re lucky enough to have one, a librarian villager (the ones with white robes) will sometimes be partial to trade you a Name Tag for about 20-22 emeralds (the currency of villagers, acquired by trading) apiece as a late-tier trade. You can unlock these trades by trading with them enough times.
    Advertisement
  3. How.com.vn English: Step 3 Find Name Tags in chests.
    If you’re extremely lucky, Name Tags have a small chance to be found in the chests found in Dungeons. Dungeons are uncommon, randomly-generated structures normally found underground. They are small rooms containing a chest or two, with a monster spawner in the middle of the room.
  4. Advertisement
Part 2
Part 2 of 2:

Renaming Villagers

Download Article
  1. How.com.vn English: Step 1 Pull up the anvil’s crafting menu.
    A Name Tag must be renamed before use, since it’s blank and would defeat the purpose of naming something a “blank” name. Of course, before you can rename your tag, you need to figure out how your anvil works. You can pull up the anvil’s dedicated crafting menu by pressing X or square on the console or by right-clicking the anvil on the PC.
    • If you don’t have an anvil yet, it costs 3 Iron Blocks and 4 Iron Ingots. Click here for detailed instructions on crafting an Anvil.
  2. How.com.vn English: Step 2 Name the tag.
    Place the tag in the first slot of your anvil’s menu, and select the box that says “Name Tag.” Then simply type in the new name you want to use for a villager, and take the Name Tag from the result slot.
    • You’ll need at least 5 experience levels to rename the tag. You can gain experience through various activities, such as killing mobs (both hostile and non-hostile), breeding animals, mining all ores (aside from Gold and Iron which you need to smelt to get experience), and fishing.
  3. How.com.vn English: Step 3 Name your villager.
    Now all that’s left is to go up to a baby villager and use the Name Tag on them! This is done by right-clicking (PC) or pressing LT/L2 (console) on your villager. Now, whenever you look at a villager, you’ll see their name hovering above their heads! If you want an adult named villager you will need to wait for it to grow up (always takes 20 minutes. never less. never more) or you can name a spawn egg. (below)
  4. Advertisement

Expert Q&A

Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
      Advertisement

      Tips

      • On the PC and Console, if you name a villager Dinnerbone or Grumm, they’ll immediately be rendered upside-down!
      • Never give the same name to two or more villagers.
      • If you don't have Name Tags, XP, or emeralds to trade with, you can rename a spawn egg instead! Using an anvil, rename the village spawn egg. Then, use the renamed egg and you now have a renamed villager!


      Submit a Tip
      All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published
      Thanks for submitting a tip for review!
      Advertisement

      About This Article

      How.com.vn is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 11 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 62,159 times.
      49 votes - 62%
      Co-authors: 11
      Updated: December 30, 2023
      Views: 62,159
      Categories: Minecraft Mobs
      Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 62,159 times.

      Did this article help you?

      ⚠️ Disclaimer:

      Content from Wiki How English language website. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License; additional terms may apply.
      Wiki How does not encourage the violation of any laws, and cannot be responsible for any violations of such laws, should you link to this domain, or use, reproduce, or republish the information contained herein.

      Notices:
      • - A few of these subjects are frequently censored by educational, governmental, corporate, parental and other filtering schemes.
      • - Some articles may contain names, images, artworks or descriptions of events that some cultures restrict access to
      • - Please note: Wiki How does not give you opinion about the law, or advice about medical. If you need specific advice (for example, medical, legal, financial or risk management), please seek a professional who is licensed or knowledgeable in that area.
      • - Readers should not judge the importance of topics based on their coverage on Wiki How, nor think a topic is important just because it is the subject of a Wiki article.

      Advertisement