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 always thought he was related to the character in A Wrinkle in Time.

He should have been!

my mother is the only person who calls me by my first name anymore, too

My mother never could manage to call me Elizabeth. She just couldn't. We found a happy compromise with Lizzie.

I've actually been going by that name for over twenty years now -- when the heck did that happen?

Time. It goes by. It gets faster and faster, and we're all left thinking, "huh?"

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I suspect Dr. Who and Mrs. Who would have gotten on like a house afire.

What was your childhood name, just out of curiosity? Or would you rather not share? I always liked Beth as a nickname for Elizabeth, but if I couldn't have Beth I'd want the whole thing, too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to tell you my childhood name but not on a public forum. It's a fairly common nickname for Elizabeth.

I like Beth, too. I work with a woman whose name is Beth - and not as a short form of Elizabeth. I like that. (Though sometimes people confuse us, by name alone.)