Overview
A Name Tag makes a mob permanent. Rename the tag on an anvil, use it on any mob except the ender dragon, and that mob will never despawn — not when you walk away, not when the chunk unloads, not on a difficulty change. That is the whole point: a tamed cat, a horse you spent a morning breeding, a villager in a trading hall, or a captured witch in a farm all survive only because a name tag anchors them. The tag also names the mob visibly above its head, which turns a wall of villagers into a readable trading hall. It cannot be crafted, so supply comes from chests, fishing and one villager trade, and every tag must be renamed on an anvil before use — an unnamed tag does nothing at all. A few names trigger easter eggs: "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" flips a mob upside down, "jeb_" makes a sheep cycle through every wool colour, and "Toast" gives a rabbit a special skin. Name tags do not stop a mob dying, so a named animal still needs a fence, and they do not work on the wither or the dragon.
Keeping a specific mob alive forever — a trading villager, a bred horse, a farm mob — and labelling mobs so a trading hall or an animal pen can be read at a glance.
Name Tag is a miscellaneous item in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot. Look for it in the loot of Abandoned Mineshaft, Dungeon (Monster Room), and Ancient City.
It is not used in any crafting recipe.
How to get it
Not craftable. Master-level librarians sell 1 name tag for around 20 emeralds, dungeon, mineshaft and woodland mansion chests contain them, and fishing yields them as treasure at about a 1.7% chance with an unenchanted rod.
Tips
- Rename the tag on an Anvil first: an unnamed tag is inert and using it on a mob simply does nothing.
- Name every villager in a trading hall with its trade, and finding the Mending librarian again stops being a hunt.
- A named mob still despawns from the world if it dies, so pair the tag with a fence, a boat or a wall.
- See villager trading and cheap Mending for why librarians are worth 20 emeralds a tag.
Properties
One inventory slot holds 64, so a double chest holds 3,456.
- Stack size
- 64
- Category
- Miscellaneous
Found in
Name Tag is in the loot tables of Abandoned Mineshaft, Dungeon (Monster Room), and Ancient City.
- Abandoned Mineshaft — Long branching wooden corridors with rails, minecarts, support beams and floating sections over ravines and caves.
- Dungeon (Monster Room) — A small cobblestone-and-mossy-cobblestone room with a mob spawner in the centre and one or two chests against the walls.
- Ancient City — A vast deepslate ruin buried in the deep dark, built around a central sculk-covered structure and a frame of reinforced deepslate that leads nowhere.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you make Name Tag in Minecraft?
Name Tag has no crafting recipe; it is obtained from mobs, chests or trading.
What is the stack size of Name Tag?
Name Tag stacks to 64.
