True Names as a Magic System

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Even the best armour can't protect you from the mortifying ordeal of being known.

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[TheTaleFoundry]

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[zaprowsdower]

There's no more powerful word of command than a mother shouting the full name of her child.

[Jhaldmer]

In Turkey, people used to give their new born child a hidden name only the parents knew. Because you need to know a persons name to cast a spell on them, this practice was to protect the child from evil eye and magic that might be cast on them.

[MNSweet]

What is a name but how people perceive you:
Some people call me the space cowboy
Some call me the gangster of love
Some people call me Maurice

[LuciusDidus]

It's started all by one day when author was called by full name

and when you hear your mother go out her way to call you full name which consists of 15 total ["words"] names - you in trouble

[misspinkpunkykat]

Makes me think of Spirted Away when Haku gets his REAL form and memories back when Chihiro tells him is real name is "Kohaku River"

[o_loner]

There is a book series that I loved reading as a kid called "Fairy Oak". The narrator is this tiny glowing fairy whose job is to babysit the protagonists, a pair of twin sisters who grow up to become sorcerers. Her name is (get ready) Ifjoyfulyoushallbeyoushallwishtotellittome, or Telli for short. The reason for such a name is that, in this universe, fairies like her are physically obligated to do whatever humans or magicians order them to do as long as they say their full name without mistakes. In the past, this led to fairies being constantly abused by them, forcing on them too many tasks of all kinds of degree and importance, encouraging human laziness and little regard for the fairies, until one day they came up with the idea of naming fairies with long and complicated tongue-twisters. This way humans had to create a strong bond of trust with a fairy in order to know their name and use it carefully, for the tasks that in fact do matter. It's such a cool worldbuilding detail that I haven't forgotten since and I thought it would be fun and appropriate to share here. Cannot reccomend the series enough. Thanks for the new video!<3

[mementomori]

"We become our names" as someone that picked an online nick and started treating it more and more as part of me, I agree so much. I picked the name in reference to some character, then started reinterpreting it and it became my own and I try to live by what that name means to me know. I'm changing it again but trying to keep what it was in a way

[miguelcardoso]

Ever since I read "The Inheritance Cicle" I've given a lot of tought to the idea of knowing your own true name, knowing yourself that well could actually be extremely helpful, being able to know who you are down to every last detail would be amazing for self-improvement

[xLoLRaven]

This topic reminds me of a scene from the Dresden Files, which also has the concept of Names. Specifically in Ghost Story, where Dresden is talking with Uriel. Dresden flippantly refers to Uriel as "Sunshine" and Uriel loses his shit. Then he goes on to explain how Names DEFINE beings like him. And watching humans casually throwing around names was like watching children throw around live hand grenades.

[superawesomegoku]

Imma be honest, when he mentioned a VPN I was so ready to skip the add that I shot up from sitting in my chair, only to ber phantomly haunted by the names of SurfShark or Nord

[siraaron]

Going back further, in Egypt your name and/or identity was part of your literal soul and in the journey to the afterlife you had to give the Devine sentinels their names before they would allow you to pass.

[HOLDENPOPE]

Bleach somewhat does this, with names being called out to use abilities, but only true names calling out the truest forms of those abilities. Two of the strongest characters in the series have various levels of control over names.

[jessicajayes]

Naming kids with dead relatives is something done in my family, well as middle names. My niece's middle name is after my dead sister and one of my nephew's is after a dead uncle. This is so a part of them will live on! So far so good for these kids!

I know of an Egyptian myth where a god couldn't be saved without his true name being revealed. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong tries to use a fake name to evade a trap but it doesn't work. He still got out!

[J.Soffer]

I love this. Names are powerful because once named, one becomes known! And villians have more power the less you know about them. It's deep in my culture, ala king Solomon

[Deathnotefan]

“[Names] are given to you when you’re a baby, often before you were even born”

This is actually a modern thing, historically, babies were rarely named before their first birthday, because infant mortality was so high parents would often not give a name until they were reasonably sure the child would survive

[dylanmagoiofthethalasso]

I've been a witch for 12 years and it is an extremely common practice to have a witches/magickal name to keep you protected from any spellwork. I love this channel so much.

[Warrior-Of-Virtue]

DC kind of played with this idea. Mxyzptlk might be the most stupidly overpowered character in the entire DC Universe, which is really saying something. And yet, all you have to do to defeat him is trick him into saying his name backwards.

[Jaqoum_The_Wizard_King]

Skulduggery Pleasant’s power system has a whole thing around names. You have your given, taken, and true names. Given is your birthname, taken is the name you choose (sorcerers live longer and age slower than mortals, so they change names every few decades) and your true name is in a magic book of names first shown in the first book, and then becomes very relevant later. The knowledge of a True Name allows you absolute power over the person, and they must obey the user’s command.

[raedev]

Ages ago I read some kind of story about a world where no one has names, and the few people who do rule the world. The main character is being hunted by... something I can't remember. Either way later in the story one of their friends (possibly love interest, unclear) sacrifices themselves in order to let the main character escape, and in a heart-wrenching scene they give the MC a name, and with that, the power to fight back. I've been trying to figure out what this story is, what type of media it even is, at this point I'm not even sure if this was actually something I read/watched or if I dreamed it. I have an extremely vivid mental image of that scene with the sacrifice and name, both of them crying.