Can I use Spotlight to search for files by name? My most common search pattern is to search for files based on their name. When I try this in Spotlight (cmd-space) it rarely works. Is there a way to make Spotlight search for file names, and to place those results on top?
You can use this in your search to search for files with 'query' in their name: name:query

For more info about Spotlight commands, you can take a look at an excerpt of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual.