The Magical Power of Names

In this Halloween season of magic, guest author Sara Ricords looks at the power of names in mythology and fairy tales. The right name, says Ricords, can break curses, outsmart enemies, or help you remember who you truly are.

How important are names really? Was Juliet right that names are just arbitrary labels? Or do names actually hold power?

There are a staggering number of stories in which the power of names is undeniable. So apparently names hold more power in the human imagination than we might think.

Tales and Legends on the Power of Names

The most famous fairy tale about names is Rumpelstiltskin. It’s a tale as old as time. A little man ensnares a naïve young girl into a magical contract she later regrets. Only when she learns his real name can she break the contract and keep her firstborn child.

But this is only one example of the power of names.

Dozens of fairy tale heroes defeat foes by learning their true names. Tales all over the world use names as a way to escape bad bargains, save the ones they love, or help a beautiful girl escape an arranged marriage. That’s a popular one.

One specific example I love is the Norwegian tale of Saint Olaf who gets out of a bad deal by learning a magical troll’s name. Mr. Troll offers to build Olaf’s congregation the most incredible church on earth in exchange for the sun, the moon, or Olaf’s life. Take your pick. The only way out of the contract is if Olaf learns the troll’s name, “for one can destroy an evil spirit’s power with his name.”

Over and over again, we see that villains have a special vulnerability attached to their true names.

The Power of Anonymity

This idea pops up in folklore all over the world. But the bigger question is whether the power of names is inherent or if we’re the ones who give names their power. There are certainly stories where the inherent danger of someone learning your name is quite logical.

One of the best examples comes from Homer’s The Odyssey when the hero, Odysseus, hides his real name from a man-eating cyclops. During his adventure, Odysseus claims that his name is “nobody,” and he and his men have to outsmart and blind the cyclops to escape his cave. In a moment of hubris, Odysseus shouts his real name to the monster as the crew sails away. This ends up being a really stupid decision that brings the wrath of Poseidon — the cyclops’s father — directly onto Odysseus’s head. Both he and his crew end up stranded at sea for decades. Nice going.

If you think about it, most examples of villains being undone by their true names can also be traced back to a prideful mistake. It was pretty dumb of Rumpelstiltskin to dance around a campfire singing out his name for any peasant to hear. And really, all these villains chose to make their true names part of the bargain.

But is the power of names only self-bestowed? Or do names carry bigger significance?

The Weight of Symbolism

Because names often represent deeper truths, the power of names also lies in what a name symbolizes.

One of the most widely known examples of this is in the Harry Potter series. J. K. Rowling’s wizarding community is terrified of Lord Voldemort’s name to the point that they won’t even say it out loud. This aspect of the story was likely inspired by ancient superstitions that uttering the name of the Devil can make him appear. Since He Who Must Not Be Named is gone at last, nobody is keen on jinxing that . . .

It’s pretty easy for Harry Potter, the newcomer to his magical culture, to see this fear of a name as silly. But you have to remember that these other witches and wizards lived through the villain’s first reign of terror. To them, Voldemort isn’t just a name. It’s a banner of evil, death, darkness, torture, loss, and chaos. It represents everything they almost didn’t escape. Is it any wonder such a name carries trauma in their community?

The symbolism of names is also in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Plenty of characters from Middle-earth have multiple monikers, but the one that fascinates me the most is the hobbit Sméagol who becomes Gollum. Throughout the story, Sméagol and Gollum become two halves of one person, the loyal friend and the monster. One name represents the life he lost while the other represents his depravity and servitude to the One Ring. Both names carry such significance for him that he becomes a completely different person under each one.

Names Can Also Restore What’s Been Lost

It’s no surprise that names are a powerful source of identity. There are countless stories in which characters who can’t remember their past go on long, harrowing journeys to find out who they are and reclaim their true name. While a true name is a vulnerability to some, to others it’s a prized possession.

For Gollum, the moment when he remembers his own name is quite beautiful. So many years have passed, and the One Ring’s corruption has taken such a stronghold that Gollum no longer remembers his past life. Just hearing his true name — Sméagol — is enough to help him surface from the darkness and recapture the hobbit he once was. Even just clinging to the memory of his own name gives this character the motivation to try to restore what he’s lost.

This is the power of names that I love the most: they represent a life, a person, and a time that can invoke dread or inspire hope. And in some stories, a name alone can be a hero’s salvation.

The Power of Names to Protect

Names certainly have the power to defeat evil or represent deeper truths, but what about names that actually strengthen the bearer?

In changeling folklore, babies are at greater risk of being kidnapped by faeries before they are christened. Receiving a Christian name — and a true identity that goes along with that name — actually protects those babies from malevolent forces eager to tear them away from their mortal lives. In these folktales, names have a grounding quality that links children to their homes.

Another fantastic example of a name becoming a tether is Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. This movie is basically the Japanese version of Alice in Wonderland, and like all Miyazaki films, the animation is stunning. In Spirited Away, the main heroine, Chihiro, is stranded in a strange land of spirits and has her identity ripped away from her. She becomes Sen, but she’s warned not to forget her true name. It’s by clinging to her identity that Chihiro eventually harnesses her inner power to rescue her parents and return home.

I find this to be one of the loveliest story ideas: that names can rescue us by reminding us who we really are and where we came from. In a similar way to Sméagol remembering his past through a name, Chihiro finds her way home by remembering who she truly is. Once again, a name becomes a window to the truth.

Truth, Safety, and Identity

If nothing else, the sheer number of stories in which names matter tells you just how much names mean to the human race.

I do like the sentiment from the famous line in Romeo & Juliet. It’s true that a name isn’t everything you are. The beauty and smell of a rose exist beyond its name, and yet Juliet’s theory that Romeo can simply put off his name and marry her without consequences ended up not being true. His Montague family was part of his identity, and one’s true identity can’t be shed on a whim. Nor should it be.

This article was originally published on snowwhitewrites.com

Happy Halloween!

Explore our collection of Halloween names and take our Halloween Name Quiz to find a suitably spooky Halloween name for communing with spirits, or trick-or-treating round the block.