How can I select an element by name with jQuery?

You can use the jQuery attribute selector:

$('td[name="tcol1"]')   // Matches exactly 'tcol1'
$('td[name^="tcol"]' )  // Matches those that begin with 'tcol'
$('td[name$="tcol"]' )  // Matches those that end with 'tcol'
$('td[name*="tcol"]' )  // Matches those that contain 'tcol'

Any attribute can be selected using [attribute_name=value] way. See the sample here:

var value = $("[name='nameofobject']");