in all but name
in all but name
In every way except for how someone or something is named or described. I schedule the roster, I order inventory, and I hire new staff—I'm really the manager in all but name. If you have kids and a mortgage together, you're pretty much married in all but name.
in all but name
existing in a particular state but not formally recognized as such. 1999 Chris Hulme Manslaughter United He had spent twenty-one out of twenty-five years in segregation (solitary confinement in all but name).