The role of the ventral anterior temporal lobe in language processing remains unclear. Specifically, electrical disruption along the ventral temporal cortex has been shown to affect naming. We present intracranial electrophysiology, direct cortical stimulation, 7T fMRI, and neuropsychological results describing a new word sensitive region near the anterior tip of the fusiform, which we dub the anterior temporal naming area. In 5 epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial EEG, electrodes near the left anterior fusiform exhibited word sensitivity over five other categories of visual stimuli (faces, bodies, houses, hammers, and phase-scrambled images). For 2 patients, those same electrodes also displayed sensitivity to letter strings and pseudo words. Direct cortical stimulation was administered to 2 patients (P1 and P2), disrupting word and picture naming when applied to the word sensitive electrodes in both individuals and eliciting circumlocution in P1. This word selectivity pattern was consistent with 7T fMRI findings in healthy controls, displaying preferential orthographic sensitivity anterior to the visual word form area, near the anterior fusiform. Additionally, neuropsychological testing performed with P1 following left ATL resection that included this region revealed surface dyslexia, which is characterized by “over-regularization” of exception words (e.g., “sew” read as “sue”). Anterior temporal lobectomy is standard surgical treatment for refractory epilepsy, and to our knowledge, this is the first reported case of surface dyslexia following the procedure. Taken together, these results suggest the presence of a word sensitive patch near the anterior tip of the fusiform that is critical for naming and language, but not conceptual knowledge.