True name

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the novel, see True Names.

A true name is a person's real name. This term is used, with very different meanings, in two contexts:

[edit] Civil law

A person's true name is generally considered to be the name given at birth or changed by a statutorily prescribed process (such as petitioning a court (available in all States) or specifying a new name on the marriage certificate (in those with such a statute)). A name assumed under the common law method (i.e. through use for a non-fraudulent purpose in those States which have not specifically abrogated common law names) may be used as one's true name. See, for example, 10USC1551; US v Cox, 593 F2d 46; Natale, 527 SW2d 402. The most ubiquitous example of the latter are women who marry in most States and simply assume their husband's name (a custom derived from the days of the Theory of Coverture).

[edit] Fantasy

In folklore and fantasy, a character's true name is the name by which they can be magically affected.^[1] Such names could give the person who knew them power even over gods in some beliefs, and the effect is used in many tales.^[2] In Rumpelstiltskin and all its variants, the girl can free herself from the power of a supernatural helper who demands her child by learning its name.^[3] Similarly, the belief that unbaptized children were in particular danger of having the fairies kidnap them and leave changelings in their place may stem from their unnamed state.^[4]

This belief is employed in many fantasy works. Bilbo Baggins, in The Hobbit, uses a great deal of trickery to keep the dragon from learning his name, it being very foolish to tell a dragon one's name.^[5]

In fantasy works where magic works by this rule, characters often go to great lengths to conceal their names; this may be a rule for all characters, as in Ursula K. Leguin'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.

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. 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 Leguin's A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. In the Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini, most magic is performed by using the true names of objects, and occasionally person's true name. 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 Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, a magician cannot have full control over a demon if the demon knows the magician's true name. Janny Wurt's Wars of Light and Shadow feature a similar concept, with the order of wizards known as the Fellowship of Seven deriving much of their power from knowing the identity of each thing in creation, and using that to obtain the consent necessary for them to work magic. In Clamp's xxxHolic, the Dimension Witch uses the alias of Ichihara Yuko, telling protagonist Kimihiro Watanuki that the knowledge of a person's true name and birthday grants the power to control their destiny. In Holly Black's novel Tithe : A Modern Faerie Tale, learning the full true name of a fairy makes it unable to resist one's commands.

A character's remembering, or learning, his true name, may be an important means of mastering his life. In Hayao Miyazaki's movie Spirited Away, Haku can not escape because he has forgotten his true name in the control of the mistress of the bath-house; he warns Chihiro Ogino against the dangers of forgetting, and she frees him by identifying him.

[edit] References

^ Philip Martin, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest, p 134, ISBN 0-87116-195-8
^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 260 W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
^ Maria Tatar, p 128, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3
^ K. M. Briggs, The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature, p 115 University of Chicago Press, London, 1967
^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 261 W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4