The “name” attribute is never allowed on the “span” element.

The name attribute is not a valid attribute for the <span> element in HTML.

The name attribute exists on specific elements like <a>, <form>, <input>, <map>, <meta>, <iframe>, <object>, and <param>. It was never part of the <span> element's specification. In older HTML practices, <a name="section"> was used to create anchor targets within a page, and some developers incorrectly applied the same pattern to <span> elements.

To create an anchor target on a <span> or any other element, use the id attribute instead. The id attribute is a global attribute, valid on every HTML element, and works as a fragment identifier in URLs (e.g., page.html#section-name).

If the name attribute was being used for JavaScript targeting or styling, switch to id, class, or data-* attributes depending on the use case.

Invalid example

<span name="intro">Welcome to the site.</span>

Valid examples

Use id to create a linkable anchor target:

<span id="intro">Welcome to the site.</span>

Use class when multiple elements share the same label:

<span class="intro">Welcome to the site.</span>

Use a data-* attribute for custom metadata consumed by JavaScript:

<span data-name="intro">Welcome to the site.</span>

Learn more:

MDN Reference

HTML span element - MDN

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MDN Reference

HTML name attribute - MDN

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WHATWG Spec

HTML semantics - WHATWG

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