How to Get a Name Tag in Minecraft

I’ve always liked giving names to things. Not just pets and people, but just various things I see and interact with. There used to be a cockroach living in the clock on my oven; I named him Gavin. Names make things feel much more personal and familiar, and in a game like Minecraft that’s all about building stuff yourself, that personal touch can go a long way. Here’s how to get a name tag in Minecraft.

I’m trying my hardest not to make a Spongebob reference.

Okay, so bad news out of the way first, if you were hoping to just craft a name tag for yourself, then that ain’t happening. There’s no crafting recipe for name tags in Minecraft, at least not without mods; you can only find them out in the world. Luckily, since they’re relatively simple objects, they’re not especially difficult to track down.

How to Get a Name Tag in Minecraft

The first place to look for name tags is in chests. As with all rare, non-craftable objects in Minecraft, chests found in deep, dark places are a great place to hunt them down. You can hunt for chests in dungeons, mineshafts, woodland mansions, and buried in the ground or underwater. Of course, the location of the chest will affect your likelihood of getting a name tag; your best bet for finding one will come from mineshafts, where a chest has a 42.3% chance of containing one name tag.

You can also obtain name tags by going fishing, though unlike hunting for name tags in treasure chests, your odds of finding one in this matter are significantly lower. Name tags are considered a part of the treasure category, which you only have a 5% chance of getting to begin with, and even if you do get a treasure catch, there’s only a one in six chance it’ll even be a name tag.

If you’ve got some disposable income lying around, the fastest way to get a name tag would be to visit your local village library. Librarian villagers will usually keep name tags in their trade stock, and will fork them over for 20 emeralds a pop.

Just a friendly reminder: once you’ve got your name tag, remember to assign a name to it at an anvil before you try to use it on something. What would the point of a blank name tag even be?