As most of us probably know, ASP.NET controls do not use an exact copy of a
control's ID for the HTML element's name or id attribute. When generating
JavaScript as part of a control or event, we need to have a way to reference
the HTML elements. The only way I have found to reference the HTML elements
in my generated Javascript is the following:

"document.getElementById('" & Me.ctrl.ClientID & "')"

However, this seems like a lot of extra code for each element. Why do the
controls have a ClientID property but not a ClientName property? If there
were a ClientName property, wouldn't it make the code a lot less complicated
and shorten the amount of JavaScript that had to be included with each
control? Or is this just one of those Microsoft things where they are trying
to get people to use the id attribute rather than the name attribute?

You can potentially have two objects using the same ClientName - i.e.:

Form
+MyLabel
+MyUserControl
  +MyLabel

Thus the Form can have a MyLabel and a MyUserControl MyLabel... so if you
were to refer to MyLabel, which label is it? :-)

But in anycase, you *could* refer to objects by name ... if you know the
exact layout of the page. If you take a close look at the element IDs,
they're generated the same each time (provided the control nesting does not
change).

Do you have specific example where this behavior is causing you a
problem? Maybe there is another way to approach it.

I mostly use the "this" keyword with function copying or pass in "this"
with function referencing.

..Attributes.Add("onclick", "return doSomething(this);")

ID is unique, name isn't so I am not sure what name buys you except
more complexity, unless you have some reason to be using
getElementsByName.

Moreover, to generalise the routine that might hold the code above,
perhaps pass in the control ID you are interested in working with.

Button1.Attributes.Add("onclick", string.Format("return
doSomething('{0}')",AnotherControl.ClientID))

Or pass in a direct reference to the other control.

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