This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Seven Seals: Used in the Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code". The baddies are kept at bay by naming them, and they, like the fans before them, fail to uncover the Doctor's real name. (I can never tell when Doctor Who examples can be safely added, so I'll stick it here.)
Kilyle: ROFL! "long and difficult to pronounce"... you just reminded me of a dear story from my childhood. Apparently in China it was the custom to give the first child a long and important name, and later children short and serviceable names (because they weren't as important). So the one boy in this story gets named "Rikki-tikki-tembo-no-se-rembo" (and I think several more syllables), while his younger brother gets named "Ching." And when Rikki-tikki-tembo-no-se-rembo falls in the well, Ching runs to find his mother... and I think he has to tell like three people what's going on, or repeat himself for some other reason, or maybe he stuttered, but anyway the name's length became an issue that made it very, very hard to get the help he needed. So when they finally got the boy out, he was ill for a good week or more. And after that, all Chinese mothers named their sons something short and serviceable, like "Ching."
David Harmon: I'm pretty sure that Zelazny's Amber does not use this trope. It does appear somewhat in his lesser-known book(s) Changeling and Madwand (really one story in two volumes), where a daemon (created spirit) can't come into his full power until he learns his own name.
Seanette: Who in the [bleep] put Contributor index markup on this one? Duly removed with prejudice.
Does Etrigan the Demon from DC comics fall under this trope ?
choco: Another case of name power is someone forgetting or not learning his/her real name and thereby being controllable/weak/misled. Sorta opposite to this trope in that the Name would increase rather than decrease power, and also opposite from Speak of the Devil in that it refers to keeping the named powerless by not revealing its true Name to itself. Would this be a separate trope?
Kizor: I'd say no. This trope is about magic based on names, and that's about magic based on names. The article isn't defined much further than this. Feel free to add examples of people not knowing their true names into this article.
