True name

For the novel, see True Names. For the term as used in civil law, see true name (legal).

A true name is a name of a thing or being that expresses, or is somehow identical with, its true nature. The notion that language, or some specific sacred language, refers to things by their true names has been central to philosophical and grammatical study as well as various traditions of magic, religious invocation and mysticism (mantras) since antiquity.

Philosophical and linguistic contexts

Socrates in Cratylus considers, without taking a position, the possibility whether names are "conventional" or "natural", that is, whether language is a system of arbitrary signs or whether words have an intrinsic relation to the things they signify.

Bhartrhari, a Sanskrit grammarian, and his followers advocating the sphota theory argued for an identity of word and meaning in spite of the outward (phonetic) form of a word taking various shapes.^{[citation needed]}

Early modern efforts towards a philosophical language were the quest to recover the language that refers to all things by their true names, focusing on constructs from first principles that often entail a strong claim of absolute perfection or transcendent or even mystical truth.^{[citation needed]}

In contemporary scholarship, the notion of a "true name" is related to the field of phonosemantics, the study of a possible intrinsic relationship between sound (the spoken word) and the thing referred to. The opposite position is known as conventionalism. This is the default position of modern linguistics at least since Ferdinand de Saussure (l'arbitraire du signe), although some scholars, such as Otto Jespersen and George Steiner, take an intermediate position, and there is some renewed research in sound symbolism notably by Margaret Magnus and Vilayanur S. Ramachandran.^{[citation needed]}

Religion and ritual

Hellenistic Judaism emphasized the divine nature of logos, later adopted by the Gospel of John. The true name of God plays a central role in Kabbalism (see Gematria, Temurah, YHWH [the tetragrammaton]) and to some extent in Sufism (see 100th name of God). The ancient Jews considered God's true name so potent that they believed its invocation conferred upon the speaker tremendous power over his creations. To prevent abuse of this power, as well as to avert blasphemy, the name of God was always taboo, and increasingly disused so that by the time of Jesus their High Priest was supposedly the only individual who spoke it aloud — and then only in the Holy of Holies upon the Day of Atonement.

Much of Renaissance demonology is based on the idea of achieving power over a demon by knowledge of its true name.^{[citation needed]}

Contemporary primitive peoples guard secret names which are only used in solemn rituals. These names are never mentioned and kept from general knowledge.

Folklore and fantasy

According to practises in folklore, knowledge of a true name allows one to magically affect a person or being. It is stated that knowing someone's, or somethings', true name therefore gives the person (who knows the true name) power over them. This effect is used in many tales, such as in the German fairytale of Rumpelstiltskin - within 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.

A legend of Saint Olaf recounts how a troll built a church for the saint at a fantastic speed and price, but the saint was able to free himself by learning the troll's name during a walk in the woods. Similarly, the belief that children who were not baptised at birth were in particular danger of having the fairies kidnap them and leave changelings in their place may stem from their unnamed state. In the Scandinavian variants of the ballad Earl Brand, the hero can defeat all his enemies until the heroine, running away with him, pleads with him by name to spare her youngest brother.

In Scandinavian beliefs, more magical beasts, such as the Nix, could be defeated by calling their name.

This belief is employed in many fantasy works. Bilbo Baggins, in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, uses a great deal of trickery to keep the dragon, Smaug, from learning his name; even the sheltered hobbit realises that revealing his name would be very foolish. Likewise, in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea canon, and specifically in her seminal short story "The Rule of Names", power over dragons, and additionally, men, is conferred by the use of a true name. True names and speech are the basis for magic in Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, where indeed, it is simply referred to as "The Speech". The concept is also prominently present in Vernor Vinge's famous story "True Names", the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, and The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss.^{[citation needed]} Though never a bedrock element of the game, multiple variants of magic utilizing or grounded in the power of true names have appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. In Jim Butchers' The Dresden Files a wizard or other magical being can gain power over anyone by knowing their name. This requires the invoker to have heard the name spoken by its owner. Human names change with their nature so they generally decay after a time.

In cryptography

The term "true name" is sometimes used in cryptography and computer security to refer to a name that is assumed to uniquely identify a principal in a global namespace (for example, an X.500 or X.509 Distinguished name). This usage is often critical, with the implication that use of true names is difficult to enforce and unwise to rely on.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Adamic language
• Bouba/kiki effect
• Enochian
• Ineffability
• Logos
• Magic word
• Mantra
• Names of God
• Phonosemantics
• Satnam
• Shabda
• True names in popular culture

References

Sources

• John Clute and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "True Name" p 966 ISBN 0-312-10869-8
• Umberto Eco, The search for the perfect language, 1993.