David,

I use the .Name property in my udf used to disable menu items. The SKIP FOR is:
FormRunning( "frmTheFormName" )

* FormRunning.PRG 08-Mar-98

* determine if a particular form is running. 

* It checks the Name property

lparameter pcFormName

local i, llRetVal

llRetVal = .f.
pcFormName = upper( pcFormName )

for i = 1 to _screen.FormCount
   if ( upper( _screen.Forms[i].Name ) == pcFormName )
      llRetVal = .t.
      exit
   endif
endfor

return llRetVal

So yes you can "use" the form .Name property to look for a form. But you can't manipulate the form via it's .Name. The only time .Name is used for anything of consequence is when there is object containership involved. If the form is part of a formset then things change a little. Then the form .Name distinguishes one form from another, just like .txtFirstName is different that .txtLastName inside the same container.

>Anyway, "name" clearly means lots of different things here too.
>Is the name of the scx the name of the form. No!
>When we DO FORM myFormName
>we're talking about the name of the scx. Once instantiated the name of the form can be quite different. (For some peculiar reason my forms are named the same as the SCX with an frm in front)
>I don't really want to reference a form by name, although I often want to know if a form of a given name is running already (and there could be many). I would like to know if you *can* refer to a form by name.