VMS Help POSIX Threads, PTHREAD routines, pthread_getname_np, Description  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    This routine copies the object name from the thread object
    specified by the thread argument to the buffer at the location
    specified by the name argument. Before calling this routine, your
    program must allocate the buffer indicated by name.

    The object name is a C language string and provides an identifier
    that is meaningful to a person debugging a multithreaded
    application. The maximum number of characters in the object name
    is 31.

    If the specified thread object has not been previously set with
    an object name, this routine copies a C language null string into
    the buffer at location name.