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Document: getElementsByName() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨January 2018⁩.

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 up_names = document.getElementsByName("up");
console.log(up_names[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

Specification
HTML> # dom-document-getelementsbyname-dev>

Browser compatibility

	Desktop					Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`getElementsByName`	1	12 Before Edge 79, this method returns an `HTMLCollection`, not a `NodeList`.	58 1–58 Only supported for `HTMLDocument`, not all `Document` objects.	5	4 1–4 Only supported for `HTMLDocument`, not all `Document` objects.	18	58 4–58 Only supported for `HTMLDocument`, not all `Document` objects.	10.1	3.2 1–3.2 Only supported for `HTMLDocument`, not all `Document` objects.	1.0	4.4	3.2 1–3.2 Only supported for `HTMLDocument`, not all `Document` objects.