How to Get Name Tags in Minecraft
Naming mobs has never been easier.
There are hundreds of items you can find and acquire while exploring in Minecraft, with many rare drops that can be rather tricky to get. Name Tags are one of the tougher resources to get your hands on, so you may need some help finding them.
This rare item is crucial for naming your beloved mob friends, and if you’re an animal lover, you’ll need lots of them. Luckily, the available methods you can use to find them have been increased over the years, so they’re not too tough to find once you know where to look. Here’s how to get Name Tags in Minecraft.
How to Find Name Tags in Minecraft
There are many different methods you can use to acquire a Name Tag in Minecraft, including:
- Opening chests inside Monster Rooms – These rooms have around a 25 percent chance of having Name Tags in chests.
- Opening chests inside Mineshafts – Mineshafts are the best spot to go looting for Name Tags, as they have about a 42 percent chance of having some inside chests, which is much higher than most other locations.
- Opening chests inside Ancient Cities – Chests inside Ancient Cities have about a 16 percent chance of having a Name Tag.
- Opening chests inside Woodland Mansions – Any chest you come across in a Woodland Mansion has around a 27-28 percent chance of having a Name Tag inside.
- Fishing – There’s about a 0.8 percent chance of catching a Name Tag when fishing.
- Trading with a Librarian Villager – The Librarian must be a Master, which means they need to be fully leveled up from lots of trading, to offer a Name Tag as a purchasable item. You can get one by trading 20 Emeralds.
- Crafting – The only guaranteed way to get a Name Tag, as all other methods are based on chance and luck.
The overall easiest way to get Name Tags is by crafting them yourself, since this is the only way to guarantee you obtain one, but this feature wasn’t always available in Minecraft, and was only introduced with the first update of 2026. Because of this, there’s a decent chance you may not know how to make one.
How to Craft Name Tags in Minecraft
You can craft a Name Tage by combining one Paper and one Nugget at any crafting table. The Paper needs to go in the bottom left corner, while the Nugget should go right in the center of the table. There are three different Nuggets you can get, which means there are three possible crafting combinations for this item.
- Paper + Copper Nugget
- Paper + Gold Nugget
- Paper + Iron Nugget
How to Use Name Tags in Minecraft
You can use Name Tags to give mobs custom names in Minecraft. To do so, you first need to bring a Name Tag to an anvil. At the anvil, you can type in your desired name, thus applying it to the Name Tag. Then, bring the name tag to the mob you wish to name and apply it to them to grant them your chosen title.
If you’re not sure which mobs to name first, baby mobs are a great starting point. And if you’re looking for more tasks to tackle after getting your hands on some Name Tags, you might work on taming and riding a Nautilus, getting a Spear, and making some Wolf Armor.
