What's in a name?

[fajrdrako]

Names aren't much matter, unless they're the right name. - Elizabeth Bear, in Ink and Steel

This quote charmed me, because it made me think how many of my heroes use names that are not their own. Sometimes (as with Captain Jack Harkness), these names are more theirs than any other. At other time, the chosen name reveals a facet of the personality that doesn't normally show - say, the young Miles Vorkosigan becoming Admiral Naismith, or the young Francis Crawford becoming Thady Boy Ballagh.

And there are heroes with no name at all, like the Doctor in Doctor Who , or the eponymous hero of Stingray - several layers of irony, there, in a show named after a man with no name but only a symbol.

Sometimes the pseudonym is an irony, such as Aral Vorkosigan being the Butcher of Komarr.

Sometimes the name is a cover whose hidden nuances reveal changes in form and perception to be reveale in a greater truth i a greater name - like Shakespeare's Prince Hal becoming King Henry V, or Meagan Whalen Turner's Gen becoming Eugenides.

And then there's the secret identity - examples where the name is known to the reader or viewer but not the other characters. The interrelationship of Batman and Bruce Wayne, or Spider-Man and Peter Parker - where the one identity hides another. And even cases (again, in comics) where the name is not a secret, but the differences between Gambit and Remy LeBeau (or between Wolverine and Logan) are clear.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think most people who have never seen the show think the Doctor's name is "Who" and are generally surprised when they learn it isn't. Which in its way is kind of cute. The mark of a fan is to know what his name isn't - like an initiation process. Congratulations, you've passed the test!

I love the scene in "The Empty Child" when Rose says, "How do you handle, all this time, not having a name?" and he says, "Nine hundred years, I'm coping." And then there's the whole business of his 'real' name being known to River Song, which brings the thing psychologically to another level - the 'real name' being a secret known to none or only a few, with a 'used name' - in this case, the Doctor - which anyone can use.

They played with this nicely in "The Sontaran Stratagem", too, when Luke Rattigan told the Sontaran General he didn't know the alien's name, though the Sonatarans too would have known him as "the Doctor".

Many layers of silliness and gamesplaying. Like "Frankenstein" not being the name of the monster in the original novel, but we all think of the monster when we hear the name. There's a whole series of mystery novels about a detective hero who has no name - the story's all in the first person. Or another series in which the protagonist has a name that could be the name of either a man or a woman and the series never indicates which he (or she) is.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

There's a whole series of mystery novels about a detective hero who has no name - the story's all in the first person.

Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective. Sometimes the pretension gets a bit tiring.

Or another series in which the protagonist has a name that could be the name of either a man or a woman and the series never indicates which he (or she) is.

by Sarah Caudwell.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the other DD reference.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective. Sometimes the pretension gets a bit tiring.

Which is maybe why I never read more than one of them. A protagonist without any kind of a name seems very incomplete. Spencer has only one name, but it fits him well.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the other DD reference.

Do you mean Johnson Johnson, the man who has one name twice?