Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme

[james anderson]

David Mertz wrote:
> 
> ...
> 
> |a function NEEDS a name in order to call itself recursively
> 
> Nope.  That's the point of the Y combinator; you don't need a name to do
> this (just first class anonymous functions).  See, for example:
> 
>     http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_combinator
> 

please bear with me on something which i have evidently misunderstood.
what are the symbols 'h' and 'x' in the referenced exposition on the "y
combinator" if they are not names?
is the essential distinction, that one does not "need" free "names"?

?