Talked about, but with the name kept back. If a newspaper says 'an unnamed official', the reporter knows who the person is but is not telling you — usually to protect them. That is the most common use by far, and it is a journalism word you will see constantly: unnamed sources, unnamed officials, an unnamed company, an unnamed country. Feel the difference from 'anonymous': anonymous often means nobody knows who it is, while unnamed usually means somebody knows and is choosing not to say. There is a second, plainer use: something that has never been given a name at all — an unnamed street, an unnamed island, an unnamed star. And in computing you may meet 'unnamed' as a technical label for a thing with no name yet. It sits in front of a noun almost always. When you read news in English, treat 'unnamed' as a small signal: the writer is telling you the information is real but the source is protected, and careful readers weigh that.