A true name (sometimes also real name) is a name of a thing or being that expresses, or is somehow identical to, its true nature. The notion that language, or some specific sacred language, refers to things by their true names has been central to philosophical study as well as various traditions of magic, religious invocation, and mysticism (mantras) since antiquity.
Philosophical and religious contexts The true name of the Egyptian sun god Ra was revealed to Isis through an elaborate trick. This gave Isis complete power over Ra and allowed her to put her son Horus on the throne. Socrates in Plato's Cratylus considers, without taking a position, the possibility whether names are "conventional" or "natural", natural being the "True name" ([τῇ ἀληθείᾳ ὄνομα]), that is, whether language is a system of arbitrary signs or whether words have an intrinsic relation to the things they signify (this anti-conventionalist position is called Cratylism). The Roman goddess Angerona guarded the true name of Rome. 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, the tetragrammaton) and to some extent in Sufism (see 100th name of God). The ancient Jews considered God's true name so potent that its invocation conferred upon the speaker tremendous power over His creations. To prevent abuse of this power, as well as to avoid 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. Also in a Biblical context, in the tale of Jacob's nocturnal wrestling with an anonymous angel, the angel refuses to reveal his own name to Jacob even after the angel's submission at dawn. Thereafter Jacob obtains a new name which signifies his successful struggle to God and man, and names the place to commemorate his surviving an encounter with the Divine. In the neo-Charismatic Christian practice of spiritual mapping, commonly used in the New Apostolic Reformation movement, prophets discover the names of territorial spirits believed to rule over geographic areas and social spheres in order to defeat them through spiritual warfare rituals and prayer. Chinese Daoist traditions such as the Three Sovereigns corpus emphasize the capacity of talismans, charts, and diagrams to depict the true forms (zhenxing 真形) and true names (zhenming 真名) of demons and spirits. These talismanic representations are considered to be windows into the metaphysical substance and immutable essence of things—that is, images of the eternal Dao without form. The true form or name of a spirit inscribed on a talisman is legible only to supernatural beings, and gives a sort of temporary "control" over the entity whose name or form is possessed.
Folklore and literature In Jewish tradition, when several children have died in a family the next that is born has no name given to it, but is referred to as "Alter" (Yiddish: אלטער, literally 'old'), or Alterke (diminutive), the view being that the Angel of Death, not knowing the name of the child, will not be able to seize it. When such a child attains the marriageable age, a new name, generally that of one of the Patriarchs, is given to it. When captured by Polyphemus, Homer's Odysseus is careful not to reveal his name; when asked for it, Odysseus tells the giant that he is "Οὖτις", which means 'nobody'. But later, having escaped after blinding Polyphemus and thinking himself beyond Polyphemus' power, Odysseus – in an act of hubris that was to cause enormous problems later – boastfully reveals his real name; now knowing his real name, Polyphemus was able to call down upon Odysseus the revenge of his father, the sea god, Poseidon. Many later episodes of the Odyssey depict Odysseus facing the relentless hostility of Poseidon – all of which he could have avoided had he persisted in keeping his real name secret. According to practices in folklore, referred to as 'the Law of Names', knowledge of a true name allows one to affect another person or being magically. It is stated that knowing someone's, or something's, 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 yet baptised 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. For the same reason significant objects in Germanic mythology, which were considered to have some kind of intrinsic personality, had their own names too, for example the legendary Sword Balmung. In the folklore of Northern England, there was the belief that a boggart should never be named, for when the boggart was given a name, it could not be reasoned with nor persuaded, but would become uncontrollable and destructive. Giacomo Puccini used a similar theme in the opera Turandot. The plot turns on whether or not Princess Turandot could learn the name of her unwanted suitor. If she does, she could execute him; if she does not, she would have to marry him. Other names were rather avoided rather than used in a usage bordering taboo. For example, Galician has some generic or alternative names to refer to dangerous animals, in the fear that using their actual name would make them appear: becha ("beast") for serpe ("snake"), renarte ("clever", cognate to French) instead of raposa ("fox"), and others for "the wolf" or "the bear".
In popular culture and fiction
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