Nominalism holds significant importance in The Name of the Rose and is intimately connected to language. During the Middle Ages, there was a vigorous debate about the nature of reality. Realists, such as the character Jorge in the novel, believed in the existence of universals. They argued that every name and term corresponds to a real entity outside the mind. Therefore, a universal concept like “rose” would have a real existence beyond mental perception, with individual roses varying only in minor aspects rather than in their fundamental nature.

Conversely, Nominalists, including William of Ockham and William of Baskerville, contended that only individual entities exist. They viewed universals as mere mental constructs created to understand the world, lacking any external reality. Although this debate might seem theoretical, it is crucial to the novel. The final Latin words, when translated to English, emphasize this point: “yesterday’s rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.” Consequently, The Name of the Rose explores the concept of an empty sign, concentrating on the name of the rose rather than the rose itself.