Your shortcode name ('$name' ) is invalid. If you want to use the variable, it should be `add_shorcode( $name, ...`. Also, the function name is invalid. Since you want to make it "dynamic" (I'm assuming you want it to be {$name}_sc, then maybe you should use an anonymous function. What you have is somewhat unconventional (IMO), so I don't know if this will work, but try this: $shortcodes = array("foo", "bar"); foreach ($shortcodes as $name) { add_shortcode( $name, function ( $atts ) { remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' ); $content = apply_filters( 'the_content', '<div class=con>[block slug=' . $name . ']</div>' ); add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' ); return $content; }); }