Etymology From Middle English namely, nameliche, namelike, equivalent to name + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian nämmelk, West Frisian nammentlik, Dutch namelijk, German Low German nämlich, German nämlich, Danish nemlig, Swedish nämligen, Icelandic nefnilega.
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Specifically; that is to say.
Some of the students — namely Paul, Alice and Jake — seem to have trouble with geometry.
There are three ways to do it, namely the right way, the wrong way and the Army way.
1 more example
“The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas.[…].1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
THus was sir Tramtryst longe there wel cherysshed / with the kynge and the quene / and namely with la beale Isoud / So vpon a daye / the quene and la beale Isoud made a bayne for syre Tramtryst / And whan he was in his bayne / the quene and Isoud her doughter romed vp & doune in the chamber1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book VIII:
[…] and certainly there was no namelier king in Scotland for building churches and developing the communities of the land into free towns or burghs.1915, Thomas Ratcliffe Barnett, The Makers of the Kirk, page 93: