This is not a question of 'how to'. I am trying to understand the role of names of databases in pHpMyAdmin--specifically in relation to how to connect the database(s) to locally installed WordPress.
A lot of instructions on importing databases via MAMP say to create a new database first in PhPMyAdmin (and name it whatever one wants). But when I import a database, it retains its old name, AND (seemingly) exists parallel to the newly created database (which I thought was where the data would be imported into).
While experimenting with re-naming the imported database, I saw some information (such as users) seemed to remain despite the re-naming.
So which name is the database associated with--the name displayed in the pHpMyAdmin? the name of the new database created for importing but empty after the import?
When you create a new WordPress system, you copy the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php and then modify the settings in wp-config.php.
The first settings you come to are the MySQl settings. Here you put in your database name (DB_NAME), database username (DB_USER), user's database password (DB_PASSWORD), the host (DB_HOST) and the character set (DB_CHARSET).
When you save the configuration file and launch WordPress for the first time, it will use whatever database you have specified in the wp-config.php.