Meaning

verb assign a name or title to

verb give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)

verb indicate a place, direction, person, or thing; either spatially or figuratively

originBorrowed from Latin dēsignātus, perfect passive participle of designō, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of design.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0