True Names in Popular Culture - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

In fantasy works where magic works by evoking true names, characters often go to great lengths to conceal their true names; this may be a rule for all characters, as in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, or for those of magical inclination, as in Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away, where a wizard is revived from the dead only by another who found his name, with great difficulty.

In the Inheritance Cycle, magicians can take over someone by learning their true name, as well as make binding contracts or deals with them by using their name in the deal. In the third book of the cycle, it is thought that Eragon has found his sword's true name, Brisingr. By doing so he has a strong hold over the sword and can manipulate it easily.

Such true names are often the name given at birth. Patricia Wrede, in her novel Snow-White and Rose-Red, had a character not succumb to a spell because the caster did not know the name he was baptized by. In Operation Chaos, Poul Anderson had the doctor who delivered a baby not only issue a regular birth certificate, but a secret one, with the newborn's name; the hero, born before such precautions were routine, is glad to hide his daughter's true name. In the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, a magician cannot have full control over a demon if the demon knows the magician's true name; as a result all magicians have records of their true names destroyed during childhood and take a new name around adolescence.

In David Gemmell's Rigante series, tribesmen have a true name, or soul name, which ties them to the earth. This name can be given by the father of the child at birth, by a wise woman, or by deep reflection by the individual. Such examples are: Sword in the Storm, Midnight Falcon, Ravenheart, Stormrider, Hawk in the Willow, Flame in the Water, Cloud in the Night.

More arcane means may be needed to find a true name. In Earthsea, a wizard must listen for and give the hero his true name; this is performed in both Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. In Lawrence Watt-Evans's The Wizard Lord, animals are described as having simple names of only a few syllables, while humans can have almost endless ever-changing names.

In the story line of Superman, the character Mister Mxyzptlk is introduced in the 1940s. The first incarnation of this character is described as a little imp who suffered from the vulnerability that if he was tricked into speaking or writing his name backwards, he would be involuntarily transported back to his place of origin.

A character remembering their true name may be an important means of maintaining mastery of their own life. In Hayao Miyazaki's movie Spirited Away, the witch who runs the bathhouse, Yubaba, ensures loyalty by stealing the names of her subjects. For example, one of the witch's most loyal subjects, the spirit of the Kohaku River, has his name taken and is given a slave name: Haku. He forgets his name, and it is in this way 'taken' from him; he warns Chihiro Ogino against the dangers of forgetting her own name. She frees him when she recognises him and he then remembers and 'takes back' his name and is freed from the clutches of the witch.

In the series Death Note finding one's true name is essential to murder them.

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, certain spells are more powerful if the target's true name is known. The Tome of Magic supplement presents a number of classes, feats and magical abilities which interact with true names.

In the cyberpunk genre following Vernor Vinge's 1981 True Names and the work of William Gibson, much of the plot involved interactions between people's virtual selves in cyberspace. Learning a fellow hacker's real-world name (i.e., their "true name") could allow you to turn them in to the government or otherwise blackmail them, conveying a kind of power that could be considered analogous to the equivalent concept of myth and legend.

In the video game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the character Doopliss has the ability to use unlimited magic, however, this magic stops working if his name is spoken to him.

In Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, and the musical based on it, each cat has – in addition to his common name ("that the family use daily") and his more dignified particular name ("that never belongs to more than one cat") – a "deep and inscrutable, singular Name" that "no human research can discover, but the cat himself knows and will never confess".

In the Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code" the Doctor encounters an alien species called the Carrionites who uses words instead of numbers as a science to manipulate the universe. They can take control over other people by saying their name and can be chased away by usage of their species' name.

In the Nintendo 64 video game Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage, the storyline is centered on the main character's quest to earn a true name.