"I Got a Name" is a 1973 single recorded by Jim Croce with lyrics by Norman Gimbel and music by Charles Fox. It was released in 1973 and was the first single from his album of the same title. It reached a peak of #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 after spending 17 weeks on the chart. It also hit #3 on the Cash Box Top 100.

"I Got a Name" was also the theme song for the 1973 movie The Last American Hero. It was also featured in the movies The Ice Storm, Invincible, Django Unchained and Logan.

Croce composed most of his own material, however he did not write "I Got A Name". In an interview with Billboard magazine, writer Norman Gimbel revealed the reason Croce chose to record the song, stating that "Jim liked it because his father had a dream for him but had died before his son's first success."

Someone says "16" at the beginning of the song (0:02), which is likely an engineer calling for take 16. The song features a narrator who is proud of who he is and where he is going in life, undeterred by the naysaying of others. He begins by declaring that like any plant or animal, he has a name of which he can be proud. The narrator acknowledges, however, that not all people take pride in who they are in such a way: for instance, he carries his name with him "like [his] daddy did," but the narrator, choosing to handle life differently, is "living the dream that [his father] kept hid." The narrator, unlike his father, is able to have a proud connection with his name, and live out the dreams that his father was unable to accomplish in life.

In the second verse, the narrator goes on to note that like the wind, birds, or even crying babies, he has a song to sing. Much like he does with his name, he holds his song up as a proud part of his identity, and resolves to sing it no matter what. Even if singing "gets [him] nowhere," by declaring his identity and worth to the world, the narrator can go to "nowhere" proudly.

In the final verse, the narrator declares that he will go forward in life "free," acknowledging that he will forever thus be a "fool." However, he happily chooses this path of foolish freedom, because moving through life this way can only help him achieve his "dream." This dream is clearly as much a part of the narrator's identity as his name or the song he sings, and he holds it up just as proudly to others. He then notes that while others may "change their minds" about him and his dream, their naysaying can never change his identity. Even so, the narrator is willing to "share" his dream with others, and announces that if anyone else is "going [his] way"--i.e. they believe in his dream as well--then he will go forward in life along with them.

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Wikipedia