Bash Dynamic (variable) Variable Names
Answer : If you want to reference a bash variable while having the name stored in another variable you can do it as follows: $ var1=hello $ var2=var1 $ echo ${!var2} hello You store the name of the variable you want to access in, say, var2 in this case. Then you access it with ${!<varable name>} where <variable name> is a variable holding the name of the variable you want to access. First of all there can not be any space around = in variable declaration in bash . To get what you want you can use eval . For example a sample script like yours : #!/bin/bash i=0 for name in FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH FIFTH; do eval "$name"="'$(( $i + 1 ))q;d'" printf '%s\n' "${!name}" i=$(( $i + 1 )) done Prints : 1q;d 2q;d 3q;d 4q;d 5q;d Use eval cautiously, some people call it evil for some valid reason. declare would work too : #!/bin/bash i=0 for name in FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH FIFTH; do declare ...