Quotes / I Know Your True Name

Anime and Manga

"LISTEN! Elves, spirits, and whatnot have a secret name they can never tell people! That's your true name! Your true name governs your true form. You went back to this form because you chanted it! And if somebody finds out your true name, it means he'll have control over you! So never tell anyone! Unless it's someone you can really trust!"

— Ivalera (to Isma), Berserk episode 324, "Merrow, Part 1"

Comic Books

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?

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

"A long time ago, when the world was so new nothing had a name, something woke up. It learned all about what was and what would be... but most of all it learned what couldn't be, what shouldn't be. And it gave those things names, names it wrote on indestructible pages, because a namer has mastery of the named."

— Diabolique, Darkhold #10

Film

I have crossed the horizon to find you...
I know your name.
They have stolen the heart from inside you...
But this does not define you.
This is not who you are...
You know who you are...
Who you truly are.

— Moana

"Yes, Oroku Saki. I know who you are. We met many years ago... in the home of my master: Hamato Yoshi!"

—Master Splinter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Literature

"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

"My name is Kvothe. Conjure by it at your own risk."

— The Name of the Wind

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

— The Rule of Names

"The magic of Egypt that was knew the names as the essence of the world, in a way few have ever known it. To know the truth of a name, was to be able to command gods."

— Sword Aariel, A Net of Dawn and Bones

"Once you have courage to look upon evil, seeing it for what it is and naming it by its true name, it is powerless against you, and you can destroy it."

— Prince Gwydion, The Chronicles of Prydain

Haliax: Ferula. [Cinder staggers in pain] You are a tool in my hand. Say it...
Cinder: [crumpling to his knees] I am a tool in your hand, Lord Haliax.
Haliax: Who knows the inner turnings of your name, Cinder?
Cinder: You, Lord Haliax.

— The Name of the Wind

"Whatever your name is, you don't give it to anyone you meet here. Promise me ... Promise me. Your name is your heart, and you don't give your heart away. Promise."

— Moon in the Goblin Market, In an Absent Dream

"I know your true name, Natty boy. That means I have some power over you. It's not all one way anymore, is it?"

— Bartimaeus to Nathaniel, using the trope name word for word, The Amulet of Samarkand

Live-Action TV

[a Macbeth-esque witch/Carrionite alien howls and vanishes]
Martha: What did you do?
Tenth Doctor: I named her. The power of a name. That's old magic.

— Doctor Who, "The Shakespeare Code"

"Look, my name, my "real name", that is not the point. The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like a promise you make."

— The Eleventh Doctor, "The Name of the Doctor"

Tabletop Games

In exchange for sponsorship from the Children, the first tribe became their acolytes; the mortals accepted the burden of remembering their masters' existence when They vanquished them from mortal memory. The first tribe accepted the bargain in bad faith, however, believing that by knowing the true names of these malignant creatures they would have true power over them. Such is the ignorance of primitive people. Knowing something's true name gives it sway over you as well. Power is never free for the taking or for the giving.

— Vampire: The Masquerade - Clanbook: Baali

Video Games

Geralt: You're clearly not human. What are you? A demon? A djinn?
O'Dimm: Do you truly wish to know?
Geralt: Yes.
O'Dimm: No, Geralt, you don't. This one time I will spare you and not grant your wish. (...) All who have learned my true name are dead, mad, or both. But I still need you.

— The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Hearts of Stone

"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."

— Planescape: Torment

...through the torrent of regrets, you feel the first incarnation again. His hand, invisible and weightless, is upon your shoulder, steadying you. He doesn't speak, but with his touch, you suddenly remember your name... and it is such a simple thing, not at all what you thought it might be, and you feel yourself suddenly comforted. In knowing your name, your true name, you know that you have gained back perhaps the most important part of yourself. In knowing your name, you know yourself, and you know, now, there is very little you cannot do.

— Planescape: Torment

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

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

" Lilith. Screech owl. I bind you. By your seventeen names, I bind you. By your hidden eighteenth name, I bind you. Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke, I bind you!"

— The Nephilim, The Secret World

"Fear, once named, controls no one."

— Yone, the Unforgotten, League of Legends

"There is a great power in names. Just like Source is the language of creation, a demon's true name is the core of its existence. Its be-all... or end-all."

— Jahan, Divinity: Original Sin II

Webcomics

"Clifford. I claim that name for my own. Clifford is mine."

— Zulime, Wilde Life, p.286

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