map(&:name)

What does it mean?

This is a short hand notation for the regular map function. What map initially does is to transform Arrays and Hashes into new values.

Here is a basic implementation of Map:

['a' , 'b', 'c'].map { |x| x.upcase }

=>
['A', 'B', 'C']

Now let’s see an implementation with shorthand:

[1,2,3].map(&:upcase)

This returns the same result as before, but it for more experienced programmers with knowdlege of PROC and how it works.

The beginning of & calls to_proc and passes in the block to be evaluated.