I Know Your True Name/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Snip out their tongues before they speak your name.

Creature FeatureHere There Be Witches

"Fear names. Names have power in identity. Others can use names as weapons. Names are a hook that can be used to track you... Remain nameless, and you shall be safe.
I am The Nameless One."

Only I know your true purpose in this world, Lombax. Only I know your true name!

—Emperor Tachyon, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

(A Macbeth-esque witch/Carrionite alien howls in pain/rage and vanishes}
Martha: What did you do?
The Doctor: I named her. The power of a name. That's old magic.

The Doctor: …I know who you really are.
The Dream Lord: 'Course you don't.
The Doctor: 'Course I do. No idea how you can be here, but there's only one being in the universe that hates me as much as you do.

Doctor Who, "Amy's Choice"

Rose:I know your true name, Baba Yaga. Do you wish me to shout it now, so that all of the animals of the forest, all the birds of the air, every passing nixie and boggart will know it too? Your name will be as common as crab-grass. Would you like that, Baba Yaga?
Baba Yaga: You're lying. You do not know my name.
Rose: Perhaps. Do you wish to find out how loudly I can shout?

Books of Magic, "Land of Summer's Twilight"

You know enough not to look in my eyes, but you do not know not to ask me my name?

Constantine, Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Names, capital N, have power. If you know something's name, you automatically have a conduit with which you can reach out and touch it, a way to home in on it with magic. Sometimes this can be a really bad idea. Speak the Name of a big, bad, spiritual entity and you might be able to touch it, sure--but it can touch you right back, and the big boys tend to do it a lot harder than any mortal.

Harry Dresden, Small Favor

The name is the thing, and the true name is the true thing.

Wizardry lies in naming the true names of things -- in knowing what they are, and what they were. Sometimes when one learns the true name of the thing one seeks to Summon, one loses all desire to meet it face-to-face.

—Gantre Silvas, in Dog Wizard by Barbara Hambly

This is me for forever
One without a name
These lines the last endeavor
To find the missing lifeline
Walk the dark path
Sleep with angels
Call the past for help
Touch me with your love
And reveal to me my true name

Nightwish, "Nemo"