You finally found one. After raiding three desert temples and dodging a dozen skeleton arrows in a soggy dungeon, you’ve got that rare bit of loot sitting in your inventory. But if you try to right-click your favorite wolf right now, nothing happens. It's frustrating. Minecraft doesn't exactly hand you an instruction manual when you find rare items. Learning how to use a nametag in Minecraft PC is actually a two-step process that involves a bit of experience points and a very specific block.
Most players think they can just slap a name on a mob and call it a day. It’s not that simple. Honestly, if you don't do it right, you're just wasting your levels.
The Anvil Requirement: Why You Can't Just Right-Click
You can’t write on a nametag with your bare hands. It's not a piece of paper. To make it work, you need an Anvil.
Anvils are expensive. You need three blocks of iron and four iron ingots. That’s 31 iron ingots total. If you’re early in the game, that feels like a fortune. Once you have the anvil, you place the nametag in the first slot. You’ll see a text bar at the top. This is where you type the name.
Here’s the kicker: it costs 1 unit of Enchantment Experience to rename the tag. If you’re at level zero, you’re out of luck. Go kill some coal or a couple of sheep. Once you’ve typed the name and paid the XP price, pull the renamed tag out of the right-hand slot. Now you’re ready to actually use it.
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Targeting the Right Mob (And What Happens Next)
With the renamed tag in your hand, you just walk up to the creature you want to name and right-click. On PC, that’s your secondary mouse button.
The name will hover over the mob’s head. But there is a massive hidden benefit to this that many people overlook. When you use a nametag, that mob will never despawn.
Normally, if you walk too far away from a zombie or a cow, the game deletes them to save memory. A named mob stays forever. This is how players keep "pet" Creepers or Rare Pink Sheep without them vanishing the moment you go mining. However, there is a catch. If a named mob dies—say, your named dog falls into lava—that nametag is gone. You don’t get it back. It’s a one-time use item.
Why can't I name the Ender Dragon?
You might get the urge to name the big boss. Don't bother. You can’t use a nametag on the Ender Dragon. You also can't use it on the Wither. The game treats "Boss" entities differently. They have their own health bars at the top of the screen, and the developers decided that letting you name the Dragon "Fluffy" would probably break the vibe of the final fight.
The Easter Eggs: Dinnerbone, Grummm, and Jeb
Minecraft has some built-in jokes that only work with nametags. These aren't just myths; they are hard-coded into the Java edition.
If you name any mob Dinnerbone or Grummm (with the capital letters!), the mob will flip upside down. They still walk, eat, and attack, but they do it while sliding around on their heads. It’s hilarious. It works on everything from horses to villagers.
Then there’s the jeb_ trick. If you name a sheep "jeb_" (all lowercase with an underscore), its wool will constantly cycle through every color in the rainbow. It’s a disco sheep. Just keep in mind that if you shear it, you’ll only get the original color of wool the sheep had before the name change.
The most "useful" secret is the Johnny name. If you name a Vindicator "Johnny," it goes into a blind rage. It will stop being part of a team and start attacking every single living thing nearby except for other Illagers. This is a reference to The Shining, and it’s a great way to cause absolute chaos in a village if you’re feeling a bit chaotic.
Where to Find More Tags
Since you can't craft nametags—literally, there is no recipe for them—you have to find them. This is the biggest hurdle when learning how to use a nametag in Minecraft PC. You can't just make a factory for these things.
- Dungeon Chests: Common, but you have to find the spawner first.
- Mineshafts: These are your best bet. Those minecart chests are loaded with them.
- Fishing: If you have a "Luck of the Sea" enchantment on your rod, you can actually catch nametags as "treasure" items. It’s rare, but it’s a renewable way to get them.
- Trading: This is the pro strategy. If you level up a Librarian villager to the Master level, they will almost always sell you a nametag for about 20 emeralds.
Common Mistakes and Fixes
Sometimes it just doesn't work. If you're clicking and nothing is happening, check these three things.
First, make sure you aren't trying to name a mob that already has a specific interaction. For example, if you're trying to name a horse but you aren't holding Shift (Crouch), you might just keep mounting the horse instead of applying the tag.
Second, check your XP. Even if the tag is already named, applying it doesn't cost XP, but creating it does. If you didn't finish the anvil process, the tag is still just a "Nametag" and won't do anything.
Third, remember that on PC, "right-click" can be rebound. If you’ve messed with your keybindings to make a different key your "use item" button, you need to use that instead.
Strategic Uses for Nametags
Beyond just naming your pet cat "Cheddar," there are actual mechanical reasons to use these items.
If you are building an iron farm, you need a zombie to scare the villagers so they spawn Iron Golems. If that zombie despawns, your farm breaks. Putting a nametag on that zombie is the only way to ensure your farm runs 24/7 without you having to constantly catch a new monster.
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In technical Minecraft, nametags are also used to keep track of specific Villagers. If you have twenty librarians and only one sells Mending books, you’re going to lose your mind trying to find the right one. Name him "Mending Guy" and you’ll see his title from across the room.
Practical Steps for Success
To get the most out of your nametags, follow this workflow:
- Secure a Librarian: Don't rely on luck. Get a villager and trade paper until he hits Master rank. Now you have an infinite supply of tags.
- Batch Rename: If you have five dogs, put all five tags in the anvil at once. You can rename the whole stack for a smaller XP cost than doing them one by one, though they'll all have the same name. If you want unique names, you have to do them individually.
- Crouch-Click: Get in the habit of holding Shift when applying tags to entities you can ride (Horses, Pigs, Strider, Llamas). It prevents you from accidentally hopping on their back.
- Check for "Toast": If you name a rabbit Toast, it gets a special black-and-white fur pattern. This was added as a memorial to a player's lost rabbit, and it’s one of the few ways to get a unique skin via a nametag.
Using a nametag properly turns a random world of NPCs into a place that feels inhabited. It prevents your hard-earned rare mobs from vanishing and adds a layer of personality to your base. Just keep an eye on your iron supply for those anvils—they break eventually.