A CS2 item name is a fixed string built from a few tokens in a fixed order. Steam uses that string to group items on the Market, and every shop copies it. Once you can read the string, you know what a listing claims. Once you know what the string leaves out, you know what still needs checking.
The full pattern
Take the longest kind of name the game produces:
★ StatTrak™ Karambit | Doppler (Factory New)
Read left to right, the tokens are the star, the StatTrak prefix, the weapon, the pipe, the finish, and the wear in brackets. Not every item uses every token, but the order never changes. Here is each one.
The star
A star at the front means the item is a knife or a pair of gloves. Nothing else carries it. Knives and gloves are the gold items in a case, the Rare Special Item, and the star is how the name tells you that before you read another word.
StatTrak or Souvenir
Next comes one of two prefixes, or neither. StatTrak, with the trademark symbol as part of the string, means the item carries a kill counter. Souvenir means it came from a Major Souvenir package with gold stickers. An item can be StatTrak or Souvenir, never both, and most items are neither. Souvenir items never carry a star, because knives and gloves do not come from packages.
The weapon
Then the weapon or item model. AK-47, M4A1-S, AWP, Desert Eagle, Karambit, Butterfly Knife, Sport Gloves, Hand Wraps. Two rifles that look related are separate weapons with separate skin pools: M4A4 and M4A1-S share nothing, and neither do USP-S and P2000. A finish that exists on one does not exist on the other unless it was made twice.
The pipe and the finish
A vertical bar separates the weapon from the finish, the name of the paint job: Redline, Asiimov, Doppler, Case Hardened, Vice. Vanilla knives have no finish and no pipe. The name is just the star and the model, ★ Karambit, and no wear label follows because a bare blade has no paint to scratch.
The wear
Last comes the exterior in brackets. It is one of five labels, and each label is a slice of the float scale.
| Label in the name | Float range |
|---|---|
| (Factory New) | 0.00 to 0.07 |
| (Minimal Wear) | 0.07 to 0.15 |
| (Field-Tested) | 0.15 to 0.38 |
| (Well-Worn) | 0.38 to 0.45 |
| (Battle-Scarred) | 0.45 to 1.00 |
The label is the only wear information in the name. It says which band the float sits in and nothing about where in the band. Not every finish exists at every wear, because many finishes have their own float floor and ceiling. So a wear that never shows up on the Market can be a fact about the skin, not a gap in supply.
Names for other item types
- Stickers: Sticker | followed by the name, with the variant in brackets, such as (Holo), (Foil) or (Gold). Tournament stickers add the event after a second pipe.
- Agents: the character name, a pipe, then the faction.
- Music kits: Music Kit | artist, title, with a StatTrak prefix on the version that counts MVPs.
- Cases and packages: the plain container name, no pipe, no wear.
What the name leaves out
This is the part that costs people money. The string groups every copy with the same tokens under one heading, so two listings with identical names can be very different items. None of the following is in the name.
| Missing from the name | Why it matters | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Float value | A 0.071 and a 0.149 are both Minimal Wear. They do not look alike or price alike. | Inspect link, in-game inspect, checker |
| Pattern index | A blue gem and a plain copy of Case Hardened share a name. | Inspect link, checker |
| Doppler phase | Phase 1 and Sapphire are both Doppler in the string. | Paint index via a checker, inspect image |
| Fade percentage | A full fade and a low fade share a name. | Pattern index via a checker, tier tables |
| Stickers | A bare skin and a four-sticker craft share a name. Souvenir sticker sets are invisible in the string too. | Inspect view, checker |
| Name tag | A custom name shows in the game, not in the Market name. | Inspect view |
| StatTrak count | The prefix says the counter exists, not what it reads. It resets on trade anyway. | Inspect view |
| Source | Case, collection, trade-up or drop. Not in the name. | Item description |
Reading a few real names
- AK-47 | Redline (Field-Tested): a rifle, a case finish, mid wear. No prefix, so no counter. The name says nothing about where the float sits inside the wide Field-Tested band.
- StatTrak™ AWP | Asiimov (Battle-Scarred): counter present. Asiimov cannot be Factory New or Minimal Wear, so the label alone says less against it than it would on another finish.
- Souvenir AWP | Dragon Lore (Minimal Wear): a collection skin from a Cobblestone package. The Major, the match and the stickers are not in the string, and they set the price.
- ★ Sport Gloves | Vice (Minimal Wear): gloves, no StatTrak because gloves never have it, and a wear label that hides a wide range of how worn the pair looks.
- ★ Bayonet: a vanilla knife. No finish, no wear label.
How to use this when you buy
The name tells you what a listing is. The inspect tells you which one it is.
Read the tokens first to make sure the listing is the item you think: right weapon, right finish, right prefix, right wear. Then go past the name. Open the inspect link, read the float and the seed, confirm the phase or the stickers if they apply. Prices on PrefireSkins are in EUR, and each lot shows its exterior and, where known, its float from inspect data, so the number the name leaves out sits next to the name. Use both.
