The dropdown with my name; what's that called?

Question

What is the proper name of the dropdown menu that appears at the top-right corner of all SharePoint pages and displays my name until it's clicked?

If you can, please cite a source.

Answer 1

That's the "Welcome Menu". While not an official Microsoft source, that is how the class structure and API defines it, and Heather Solomon's CSS chart covers it here.

Answer 2

That's actually a User Control called Welcome menu

<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="Welcome" src="~/_controltemplates/Welcome.ascx" %>

The menu items can be observed by opening C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES\Welcome.ascx

Answer 3

If you view the source of the page, you can see that it refers to itself as a "PersonalActionMenu".