How can I determine the name of a brick?

Question

Over the vast years of collecting bricks of various sizes and sets, I find that during my free builds I run low on a specific type. How can I go about identifying what the brick is named and what resources are available for this identification process>

Answer 1

The problem here is that fans started to name parts way before LEGO started to make its internal part names a bit more public. As such, there are various naming conventions around, including:

• LDraw — the oldest, used by peeron and in all LDraw-based CAO programs (which is to say, most of them);
• BrickLink — Generally uses the same names as LDraw, with a few exceptions;
• LEGO itself.

If you know which set your part comes from, the easiest way is to look at the inventory of that set on Peeron or BrickLink (depending on which name you're after — for building or illustrating, use peeron; for buying or selling, use BrickLink).

If you don't know... just take a pic of it and ask here, we'll find it :-)

Almost all parts have their part number embossed on them which can be used on these services to search for part, however it's often quite small and hard to read ;)