A named route has a stable identifier assigned with the name method, such as Route::get('/profile', ...)->name('profile'). The name is independent of the current URL, so application code can refer to the route without hard-coding paths.

Laravel can generate URLs with route('profile') or route('posts.show', $post), and redirects can target route names as well. Named routes make URL changes safer because the route definition can change while callers continue to use the same meaningful name.