Minecraft Name Tags 101

As you may know, Minecraft mobs spawn and despawn randomly as you play the game. But did you know there’s a method of keeping these creatures around? That’s right. Using an item called the Name Tag, you can keep mobs around for as long as you’d like.

This guide will get into everything you need to know about the Name Tag in Minecraft, including how to find Name Tags, how to use Name Tags, the various easter eggs surrounding Name Tags, and so much more.

What Is A Minecraft Name Tag?

Every Minecraft map has a mob cap count. This is the total number of mobs that can appear in a spawn-eligible chunk. For example, there can only be 15 ambient mobs, 20 fish, or five water creatures per chunk.

As a result, if one of these entities is killed or despawned for any other reason, it may be replaced with another category of mob.

To prevent this from happening, you can apply a Name Tag to the mob you want to keep around. A Name Tag applies, well, a name to the mob, classifying them as a named mob.

You can rename hostile mobs, tamed mobs, and any other mob type besides the Ender Dragon.

That said, in most cases, a renamed mob doesn’t act any differently than it does when unnamed. It will just have a new name on top of its head.

However, a few exceptions exist to the mob despawning rule—even if they’re renamed with a Name Tag. One instance is the Wandering Trader.

Wandering Traders will respawn or despawn at random, as is their normal behavior. This means that you’d be wasting a Name Tag on one of these mobs.

Conversely, mobs that change states will keep the same name through these states. A child villager will keep a name after growing into an adult, just as a named Zombie Villager will keep its name after you’ve cured it.

Also, all named hostile mobs will despawn immediately if you switch the game’s difficulty to Peaceful, wasting all of the custom name options you’ve used.

Otherwise, you cannot remove Name Tags from a renamed mob.

How To Use A Name Tag

To use a Name Tag, you must bring it to an Anvil and type in a name. This process costs one level.

From here, walk up to a mob with the Name Tag, right-click them, and it will apply.

Name Tag Easter Eggs

What’s fun about a Name Tag is that you can rename certain mobs, such as the Sheep, with specific names to generate certain effects.

Here are all of the game’s secret names and their effects:

Jeb_

You can rename a Sheep to “jeb_,” and its wool will swap between the game’s various dye colors. This creates a sort of rainbow effect on the Sheep.

Toast

You can name a Rabbit “Toast” to give it a special memorial skin based on Minecraft player xyzen420 and his girlfriend’s missing rabbit.

Grumm or Dinnerbone

Most notable, however, is that you can rename almost every mob to “Dinnerbone” or “Grumm,” and it will be rendered upside down.

Johnny

A Vindicator named “Johnny” will make it attack almost all mobs it can find.

This next easter egg isn’t an effect as much as it is a change in the game.

You can rename the Wither, which will even change how its boss bar displays. This renamed health bar won’t recharge, either.

If you do really want to name the Ender Dragon, you can do so with commands in Java Edition or Bedrock Edition.

Finally, any entity you rename will appear in the death message tab if it defeats you or your friends.

How To Find A Name Tag

Believe it or not, there is no Name Tag crafting recipe. Instead, you must find the item while exploring pre-generated structures like a Monster Room, a Mineshaft, an Ancient City, or a Woodland Mansion. Each of these has a variable percent chance of spawning a Name Tag in a chest.

Finding a fully leveled Librarian Villager can net you a Name Tag for 20 emeralds.

You can also find a Name Tag in Minecraft with a fishing pole (rod).

How To Make A Fishing Rod

Fishing is one of Minecraft’s older mechanics, and it is a great way to find many rare items, such as Name Tags!

Making a Rod requires just three Sticks and two String, organized as follows:

From here, you can fish in most bodies of water by walking up to them, pressing right-click to cast the rod, and then pulling it out when it bobs.

When fishing, there is a 16.7 percent chance you’ll get a treasure catch and a 1 in 6 chance that treasure catch will be a Name Tag.

A treasure catch can be a Bow, a Saddle, a Nautilus Shell, an Enchanted Book, another Fishing Pole, or the coveted Name Tag.

The chance of getting a treasure increases with the Luck of the Sea Fishing Rod enchantment. You can level up this enchantment to level three, with each level increasing your chances of catching something in the treasure category.

Now that you’re aware of how to find and use Name Tags, as well as how to take advantage of Name Tag easter eggs while playing Minecraft, why not get some friends together to enjoy the benefits together?

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