call names—subject a person to angry or violent attack in words:
- He replied to my innocent jokes by calling names.
name names—mention people (involved in some reprehensible activity) by name:
- Valachi has named names and drawn a master plan of the Syndicate (which the underworld refers to as Cosa Nostra).
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase drop names—(also: name-drop) familiarly mention the names of distinguished people in order to imply one’s own importance:
- The man who shot her, incidentally, is called Lord Lichfield—just one of the names dropped thuddingly at every opportunity.