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

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

The name attribute was never part of any HTML specification for table cells. Some older browsers tolerated it as a way to create anchor targets within a table, but validators reject it because it does not belong on <td>. If the goal is to create a link target so users can jump to a specific cell, use the id attribute instead. The id attribute is a global attribute, valid on any HTML element, and works as a fragment identifier in URLs (e.g., page.html#cell1).

If the name attribute was being used for JavaScript access, switch to id and use document.getElementById(), or use a data-* attribute for storing custom metadata.

Invalid example

<table>
  <tr>
    <td name="cell1">Data</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Valid example

Using id as a fragment target:

<table>
  <tr>
    <td id="cell1">Data</td>
  </tr>
</table>

If custom metadata is needed rather than a link target, a data-* attribute works:

<table>
  <tr>
    <td data-name="cell1">Data</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Learn more:

MDN Reference

HTML td element - MDN

→

WHATWG Spec

HTML table section - WHATWG

→