The first question the speaker asks the raven is what is his name. Here is the direct line from the poem:
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
The poem is about a sad and miserable narrator who has just lost the love of his life and he is mourning her, and realizing that he will never see her again. The Raven is a symbol of her death, and his inability to be with her once more.