How to Name Amines

  1. Make sure you have an amine, and not an amide (an amide has a C=O attached right beside the N)
  2. Find the longest carbon chain that has N attached to it. Number it so that the N is the lowest number possible.
  3. Create the root of your molecule name: An eight-carbon chain with the N attached at Carbon #3 will be octan-3-amine.
  4. Add substitutents as required.  If there are extra carbon chains on N, you'll use "N" as the number.
Amine
No C=O beside the N
Amide
C=O beside the N

Examples

The longest carbon chain here is five carbons long, and the N is attached to the second carbon in the chain.  The root of the molecule name is pentan-2-amine.

There are no side chains, on the 5-carbon chain OR the N.  So, the molecule name is already done.  It is pentan-2-amine.
The longest carbon chain here is five long, and N is attached to the very end of it.  So the root of the name is "pentan-1-amine".

Then, we have two 3-carbon chains (propyl groups) attached to the N.  So, we have to add N,N-dipropyl to the front of the molecule name.

The molecule is N,N-dipropylpentan-1-amine
The longest carbon chain here is six long, and N is attached to the very end of it.  So the root of the name is "hexan-1-amine".

Then, we have:
  • two 1-carbon chains (methyl groups) attached to Carbon #4
  • two F atoms (fluoro groups) attached to Carbon #5.
  • two Cl atoms (chloro groups) attached to Carbon #3

We have to add all of this to the front of the molecule name, remembering to put "methyl" "fluoro" and "chloro" in alphabetical order.  This molecule is 
3,3-dichloro-5,5-difluoro-4,4-dimethylhexan-1-amine