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Say My Name / Literature

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Beware of unmarked SPOILERS as characters tend to say names in poignant moments

  • In And I Darken Lada screams Mehmed's name (while stabbing her knife into a table) after she receives a letter informing her of his imminent death, after parting on terrible terms.
  • Angela Nicely:
    • At the end of “Neighbourhood Watch!”, one of Angela’s friends moans, “ANGELAAA!” when she gets dirt in her face.
    • Mrs. Nicely screams Angela’s name when she steps in the poop of one of the dogs Angela was babysitting.
    • Mrs. Nicely yells, “ANGELA!” when she and her friends make a mess of her kitchen in “The Big Bike Ride!”, then later Maisie does when Angela tastes the lemonade they’re supposed to be selling.
  • Happens all the time in The Bible:
    • In the time of Seth, "men began to invoke the LORD by name".
    • Usually, God initiates some kind of Call to Adventure by calling out a name twice. (Abraham, Abraham; Moses, Moses; Saul, Saul; etc.)
    • Mary didn't recognize the resurrected Jesus until He called her name.
    • Sometimes names are also called as part of a What the Hell, Hero? speech.
  • The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War: After soldiers take Khalid, Adam runs to the door and screams his name.
  • "Clockpunk and the Vitalizer": The Vitalizer shouts for Clockpunk once she's shed her streetlight binding and run out of the condo, right before she jumps off the railing—technically he prods her to do it sooner rather than later.
  • In The Divine Comedy, Dante repeats the name of Virgil three times in three lines when he turns back and sees his foster-father is gone. The moment calls back to Virgil's own use of the trope in his The Georgics when Orpheus' decapitated head calls out for his lover Eurydice three times.
  • Played for laughs in several of The Famous Five books.
    • Five Go Off In A Caravan: When Julian wants his enemy Tiger Dan to overhear him telling Nobby his plans, he yells Nobby's name at the top of his voice.
    • Five On Kirrin Island Again: When the Five arrive on the island and find no sign of Uncle Quentin, they yell his name repeatedly. Aunt Fanny covers her ears, and remarks that Joanna the cook must have heard it at Kirrin Cottage.
    • Five Get Into Trouble: After Richard has made a stealthy escape from Owl's Dene in the boot of the car, his enemy Rooky demands to have Richard, to "learn him a few lessons". As Richard is missing, the others repeatedly yell his name through the open window, knowing full well that he is not there to hear it.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
    • Ron repeatedly shouts Hermione's name as she is being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange.
    • Ginny screams Harry's name when she sees him apparently dead in Hagrid's arms.
    • Snape, Draco and other more villainous chracters have a habit of screaming "POTTER".
  • In The Hunger Games, after the announcement that both tributes from the same district will be declared victors if they are the last ones alive, Katniss calls out Peeta's name, then immediately scolds herself for fear that someone might have heard.
  • Weaponized in Journey to the West by the two treasured tools of the brothers Gold Horn and Silver Horn, namely the Gold-Crimson Gourd and the Grease White Amber Pot: in order to make them work, the brothers aim them at their target and call him by name. If their opponent answers or even nods/react to the call, he's instantly sucked inside the gourd/pot and left to melt in the liquid inside. Curiously enough, as Sun Wukong found out the hard way, even fake names or aliases work, as long as it's a name you associate with yourself.
  • In The Light Jar, Nate yells Kitty's name as he runs around the abandoned mansion looking for her.
  • Oemor from Like a Fish Understands a Tree is a Living Program and video game PC who has been programmed to love his player, Susan. Every time he dies, he screams her name.
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Susan calls Peter's name (he's her eldest brother) in fear when he's battling Maugrim.
  • From May Bird, the villain Bo Cleevil screams May Bird's name when she's escaping him after shooting him in the hand with a magical arrow. It's so loud that it rattles the whole building.
  • The Neverending Story: In the end of the first half, Bastian must say the Childlike Empress's new true name, so that she can be healed, the Nothing can be dispelled, and Bastian can be brought to Fantastica. It takes some doing to get him to actually say it.
  • Noli Me Tangere has Sisa shouting her two sons names, "Basilio! Crispin!" trying to find them and then ends up insane.
  • The Phantom of the Opera there's a whole chapter called "Christine!, Christine!" which is Raoul's says over and over when the titular Crazy Jealous Guy steals her away.
    • Both Christine and Erik say "Erik!" a lot, especially Christine's frightened little "Raoul?" during the climax when she hears him inside the torture chamber.
  • In Shadow of the Conqueror, Lyrah shouts out Daylen Namaran's name when she finally catches him, even using her Charm Person powers to make her voice exceptionally loud and intimidating.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Brienne manages to pull Say My Name off in her sleep in A Feast For Crows. Her "JAIME!" is full of Unresolved Sexual Tension.
    • Oberyn Martell screams the name of Elia, his dead little sister, at the climax of his fight with Gregor Clegane, the man responsible for Elia's murder.
      Oberyn: "ELIAAA!"
  • Warrior Cats has quite a few examples, but perhaps the most notable is Morningflower screaming her dead son's name over and over when battling BloodClan, who killed him to send a message.
  • The Wheel of Time: Rand shouts "RAAAHVIIIN! after Rahvin kills Mat and Aviendha.
  • Jack Higgins's (writing as James Graham) The Wrath of God: Emmett Keogh was already kicking ass in a fight with a bandit. Then he took his eyes off his apparently beaten opponent for a moment, the villain got up with a knife and Emmett's mute girlfriend found her voice for the first time in five years, screaming his name in warning. That gave Keogh such a charge that the bandit threw away his knife before turning and running.
  • Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff calls Catherine's name when he begs her ghost to appear to him when he was told by Mr Lockwood that she haunted him.
    Heathcliff: Come in! come in! Cathy, do come. Oh, do—once more! Oh! my heart's darling! hear me this time, Catherine, at last!

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