The getElementsByName() method of the Document object returns a NodeList Collection of elements with a given name attribute in the document.

Syntax

getElementsByName(name)

Parameters

name

The value of the name attribute of the element(s) we are looking for.

Return value

A live NodeList collection, meaning it automatically updates as new elements with the same name are added to, or removed from, the document.

Examples

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Example: using document.getElementsByName</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <input type="hidden" name="up" />
    <input type="hidden" name="down" />
  </body>
</html>

const upNames = document.getElementsByName("up");
console.log(upNames[0].tagName); // displays "INPUT"

Notes

The name attribute can only be applied in (X)HTML documents.

The returned NodeList Collection contains all elements with the given name, such as <meta>, <object>, and even elements which do not support the name attribute at all.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• document.getElementById() to return a reference to an element by its unique id
• document.getElementsByTagName() to return references to elements with the same tag name
• document.querySelector() to return references to elements via CSS selectors like 'div.myclass'