Bash create parameter named array within function

I'm attempting to write a function that writes arrays with a name that's passed in. Given the following bash function: function writeToArray { local name="$1" echo "$name" declare -a "$name" ${name}="does this work?" } Running like this: writeToArray $("test") I get two errors: bash: declare: `': not a valid identifier =does this work?: command not found I am expecting to be able to do this: writeToArray $("test") for item in "${test[@]}"; do echo "item" echo "$item" done This should print: item does this work? How could I properly configure this to write the array (named test in the example, such that this array named test is readable outside the function)?