Why do I see different declension tables for the same noun in different sources?

Question

I debated whether to post this question on Meta but ultimately decided to post it on the main site because at its core it is a question about declension more than it is about dictionaries. Nonetheless, please let me know if it is better suited for Meta.

At my current level I still rely heavily on English-German dictionaries and resources, which means rather than more authoritative dictionaries like Duden I consult such resources as Collins, English Wiktionary a lot more. Curiously I have come across conflicting declension tables on these sites. Often the declension tables I see on Collins and Wikipedia don't agree, leaving me at a loss as to what to do.

The noun Name is the newest instance that I have come across. Collins has 2 declension tables for the same word, with no explanation whatsoever. Neither of those tables seem consistent with what I have seen. I learned the nominative as Name while the dative and accusative should be Namen, and Wiktionary seems to agree.

And this isn't the first time I've been confused by conflicting declensional information. Why does it happen? What's up with Collins' declension tables? I know that sometimes obsolete or dated usage finds its way into declension tables like the dative -e, but this doesn't seem to be the case here.

Answer 1

The problem is that Collins is offering two different words, "der Name" and "der Namen". with one declension table for each word. I've checked in Duden, and it says that usage of "der Namen" is seltener, i.e. uncommon or rare. Your confusion probably arises because most of the rest of the declension is the same for each word.

Unfortunately the way the Collins online entry is written is rather confusing. I've just checked my hard copy Collins German Dictionary and Grammar and that only has "der Name", so that doesn't help either!

I know it seems frightening to tackle an all German dictionary like www.duden.de but I'd strongly recommend it if you have a German word and need to check declensions or conjugations. Just select Wörterbuch, and then search for your word. It will usually list the word you've searched for plus several similar ones (it offered me both Name and Namen when I searched for Name). Select the one you want, then scroll down to Grammatik. It's a great resource!

Answer 2

You stumbled across two similar, but still different words: der Name and der Namen. Some dictionaries describe them as two separate words, other dictionaries describe them as one word that has two possible forms in nominative singular.

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This is the correct declension table for the noun Name:

grammatical case	singular	plural
nominative	der Name	die Namen
genitive	des Namens	der Namen
dative	dem Namen	den Namen
accusative	den Namen	die Namen

This is the correct declension table for the noun Namen:

grammatical case	singular	plural
nominative	der Namen	die Namen
genitive	des Namens	der Namen
dative	dem Namen	den Namen
accusative	den Namen	die Namen

Both nouns mean exactly the same, and they differ only in nominative singular, but they are still two different words. The word der Name is the main form which is much more often used than der Namen, but later is still a correct German noun, it is just used rarely.

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What do different dictionaries say about both words?

• German Wiktionary
  In my personal opinion this is the best dictionary for German words. It has a page for Name and a separate page for Namen, each with a clear declension table.

• English Wiktionary
  Also English Wiktionary has separate pages for Name and Namen, but there is no declension table for Namen and the declension table for Name exists, but is hidden and must be made visible by clicking on a button.

• DWDS (Digitales Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache)
  Technically there are two separate links for Name and Namen, but they have identical contents. But DWDS has only a description of the declension, but no explicit declension table.

• Duden
  Everything said about DWDS is also true for Duden. It has separate links for Name and Namen, but its the same content without explicit declension table.

• OVID
  There are separate entries for Name and Namen, but this site does not provide any information about grammar. Instead it links to Verbformen for that purpose.

• Verbformen
  The links for Name and Namen show the exactly identical content with one combined declension table for both words.

• Collins
  Collins has only a page for Name. The link for Namen immediately redirects to the page for Name. But this page still contains two separate declension tables, one for the word Name and the other for the word Namen. But those tables list the cases in a wired order (there is a canonical order, see next section of my answer). But even worse: It contains wrong entries. Accusative singular is not »den Name« as Collins claims for Name. It is »den Namen«.

  wrong (Collins version): Ich höre den Name.
  correct: Ich höre den Namen.

My personal advice: Ignore Collins. It contains many errors. Why would you use an English dictionary when you want to look up German words? Collins is often wrong and English Wiktionary is nice, but incomplete. Better use German dictionaries for German words. That makes much more sense. My personal favorites are German Wikipedia and DWDS.

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About the order of grammatical cases in declension tables:

German native speakers learn in school these synonyms:

• »1. Fall« (1^st case) = »Nominativ«
• »2. Fall« (2^nd case) = »Genitiv«
• »3. Fall« (3^rd case) = »Dativ«
• »4. Fall« (4^th case) = »Akkusativ«

All textbooks about German grammar written for children in Germany, Austria and Switzerland teach these synonyms (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6 and much much more sources). That is why the majority of German native speakers do not say »Leon verwechselt manchmal den Dativ mit dem Akkusativ.« Instead they say: »Leon verwechselt manchmal den dritten mit dem vierten Fall.« But some English dictionaries don't care about the order that every German native speaker has learned in school. All German dictionaries that provide declension tables use the correct order and so does also English Wikipedia. But Collins does not. Collins ignores the canonical order and uses this very different order, that is very confusing:

1. nominative (1^st case)
2. accusative (4^th case)
3. genitive (2^nd case)
4. dative (3^rd case)