Why is the possessive pronoun for "имя" "мое", even though "имя" is a feminine word?

Question

I don't quite understand the reason for why мое instead of моя is used. Could somebody explain it to me?

Answer 1

Имя is a neuter noun, not feminine.

There's a set of similar neuter nouns: имя, вымя, пламя, семя, время, темя, стремя, знамя, племя, бремя etc.

All of them originate from PIE words with the suffix -men. Such words were neuter in PIE as well. In Proto-Slavic, -en and -n̥ became the nasal vowel -ę and later -я.

Thus

PIE e̯neo̯mn -> имя

PIE see̯mn -> семя

PIE ĝneo̯mn -> знамя

PIE bhermn -> бремя

etc.

You still can see the -мен- part in oblique cases and the plural: времени, временем, времена etc, as well as in adjectives: временный, беременная.

Answer 2

Имя belongs to a special group of 11 nouns ending in -мя, all of which are of the Neuter gender:

бремя, время, вымя, знамя, имя, пламя, племя, семя, стремя, темя, голомя

All of them also decline in a special way:

       sing.       plur.
_____________________________       
Nom.   врéмя       временá
Gen.   врéмени     времён     (but: семя́н, стремя́н)
Dat.   врéмени     временáм
Acc.   врéмя       временá
Instr. врéменем    временáми
Prep.  врéмени     временáх

All the 11 nouns (including имя) have the same case endings as время, except that:

• семя and стремя differ slightly in the genitive plural