gistfile1.txt

  $source          = "puppet:///modules/sitefiles/ipmiserver/"
  $conserver_files = ['/etc/conserver.cf', '/etc/conserver.passwd', '/etc/console.cf']
  file { $conserver_files: 
    source  => "$source/$name",    #<---would like to use $name here
    ensure  => present, 
    require => Package['conserver'], 
  }

that was a bad example

This is a better example, actually using a resource instead of just a function:

% puppet apply -e 'define foo () { notify { "foo": message => "$name, $title"; } } foo { "bar": ; }'
notice: bar, bar
notice: /Stage[main]//Foo[bar]/Notify[foo]/message: defined 'message' as 'bar, bar'
notice: Finished catalog run in 0.04 seconds