This paper compares several lambda-calculi extended with records and/or operations on names. An operational semantics framework based on the observation of error generation is used to formalize (in)equational laws about record operation in a common setting. The calculi studied here are classified in two clearly distinct groups. The richest structure is exhibited by both the calculus of extensible records and the "λ-calculus with names", which are closely related but not equivalent. By contrast the calculi of record concatenation and weak record extension have a simpler structure, and in particular do not support width subsumption (the fact that a record with more fields can replace a record with fewer fields); both can be translated into the former calculi.