CNAM (Caller ID Name)
The caller ID name database that supplies the text shown next to an incoming phone number.
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The caller ID name database that supplies the text shown next to an incoming phone number.
CNAM stands for Caller ID Name. It is the short text string — usually a business or person name, capped at 15 characters — displayed alongside the number on an incoming call.
CNAM is not transmitted with the call. The receiving carrier takes the calling number and queries a CNAM database to look up the associated name, then renders it on the handset. Several competing databases exist and they are not synchronised, so the same number can display differently across networks.
This is why caller ID names are so often stale, blank, or plainly wrong. The name is controlled by whoever registered the record, updates propagate slowly, and many mobile carriers now bypass CNAM entirely in favour of their own spam-labelling systems.
Related terms
- Caller ID spoofing — Falsifying the originating number displayed on a recipient caller ID.
- Carrier lookup — Querying network data to find which carrier currently serves a phone number.