It is the path from top-level module down to the object itself.
See PEP 3155, Qualified name for classes and functions.
If you have a nested package named foo.bar.baz
with a class Spam
, the method ham
on that class will have a fully qualified name of foo.bar.baz.Spam.ham
. ham
is the unqualified name.
A qualified name lets you re-import the exact same object, provided it is not an object that is private to a local (function) namespace.