Name Theory

[Baysiderulez]

Not quite serious for the MD, but I'm still rather interested to know what you all think.

Do you believe there is power in your name?

I guess I am mostly relating this to the story of Eragon. Where when one knows one's "true name" he has the ability to have complete control over them.

Now I don't want to go too far into the fictional world. But rather lets stick with our everyday names. Kind of when Mom or Dad pulls out the middle name and you know they mean business sort of name. And maybe not "complete control" but rather some other un-natural or for that matter natural response that you wouldn't give any other nickname.

I've found in my experiences that when someone refers to me as Johanna I am more likely to take them seriously then when they call me Jo or any other nickname. I find this most true with my husband as well as my family and close friends. I suppose it isn't really true for the people who don't normally call me by a nickname but rather by my proper name all the time.

So I'm curious what y'all think. Feel free to share your opinions and experiences with us

 

[kokirion]

I don't think it has to do with something un-natural but yes I think there is some power in a name.

If you choose a name/nickname you probably really like that name. Because it tells something about you, what you like and what kind of person you are. If someone uses your name/nickname you feel special because that name links to who you are/who you want to be (I mean the person inside you). So if people call you with that name they link the name to you and that's what you want, so that's why people prefer there name/nickname.

 

[athenian200]

Well, according to Numerology, there is power in a name. They even tell you how to calculate it.

As for myself? I'm not so certain. I think that it has a certain power from being a part of our identity and self-image, but I don't think the power comes from the name itself. Just from the association we draw from it.

 

[13foxes]

I don't want to come off as rude, but I think there's no such thing as special powers in names. A name is just something your parents gave you, so that people can call and address you more easily (Of course it'd be very hard to distinguish you from billions of people with only numbers, like '85927-51234-5674') It's as simple as that, nothing more.

Many people have the same names. If your name has some power, doesn't that makes other people who share the same name also have that power? That makes no sense, because I haven't seen much people who have special abilities.

Also, people can change their names easily. Will they lose their jobs if they change it? Will they get ill and end up in a hospital? Will they lost all their abilities? I really don't think so.

Personally, I think my name has no power, nor makes me become unique/special. It's just a name.

 

[kokirion]

I don't want to come off as rude, but I think there's no such thing as special powers in names. A name is just something your parents gave you, so that people can call and address you more easily (Of course it'd be very hard to distinguish you from billions of people with only numbers, like '85927-51234-5674') It's as simple as that, nothing more.

Many people have the same names. If your name has some power, doesn't that makes other people who share the same name also have that power? That makes no sense, because I haven't seen much people who have special abilities.

Also, people can change their names easily. Will they lose their jobs if they change it? Will they get ill and end up in a hospital? Will they lost all their abilities? I really don't think so.

Personally, I think my name has no power, nor makes me become unique/special. It's just a name.

None of us said a name has magical powers, it's not the name but the person (I'm not saying everyone has magical powers )

 

[Baysiderulez]

I was actually aiming far more basic then that....

Nothing supernatural per say, but rather just a power. Once again I'll re iterate the idea of your parents using your middle name when you are in trouble. It automatically might make your heart skip a beat or make your stomach drop. In a way that if they had called you "Honey" or "Hey You" wouldn't have.

 

[badmuffins]

Uhhh... Would this count?



I just found out what my name means

Austin - from the name Augustus which means "great" or "venerable", derived from Latin augere "to increase".

Hah, cool. I'm venerable. (Whatever that means.)

 

[Mr.Verto]

Well i agree you fell different with your name, but the way people say your name is what affects for example when my Mom tells me Gabriel i know i am in trouble but when she tells me Son i feel alright, other example, in school they tell me GV cause my best friends name is also Gabriel (He is GR) ,when someone tells me Gabriel even they are mad or they want something from me.

It depends who and how they say it.

 

[Xinnamin]

I'm not sure about names having "powers" in any supernatural sense, but there's definitely meaning in a name.

My real name...literally no one uses, for the simple reason that it is Chinese and no one can pronounce it. It's English spelling is also really unorthodox, and so it's rare for people to use it when communicating with me online in casual conversation. My parents are the only ones who ever say my real name correctly, and they rarely do, so when I hear it from them, it really catches my attention. A few people here who know my real name may type it occasionally, and that is a sign that they are really serious about something.

My parents usually call me by a nickname, which I will not share because it's too difficult to explain why they use it, but that's not a name I react to since it's so normal for me. However, it does have a "power" in that when I hear my extended family members (who I see only once every few years) use it, it really brings up nostalgic familial emotions.

I've also gotten seriously used to mispronunciations and misspellings of my name. For that reason, I always feel really good when people get it right on the first try, or just when they can pronounce it right eventually. That's sort of a power in the name I suppose, that it's so unique that just getting it right makes me smile. It's something I love about my name at any rate.

An interesting thing I sometimes see; a name is an identity, even if not unique per say, but because it is an identity, unwanted corruptions of a name can be really powerful. For example, for me, because of the various accidental mispronunciations/misspellings, few things can annoy me faster than when people do it deliberately, and there are people here who can attest to that. At the same time, certain nicknames that other people create, not with the intent of corruption but with the intent of intimacy/friendliness, can also be really powerful in bringing out happy emotions.

Final note, before I go off too far on a tangent, in literature, a name holds a LOT of meaning to the character, expressing some hidden quality, irony, purpose, etc unique and perfectly suited to the person. Though that doesn't always happen in real life, when people make a conscious choice to call people close to them by certain names, it really says something about the relationship. It's not so much a "power" in the name, but an identity, which is a power in itself.