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alt title(s): He Who Must Not Be Named The phrase is an abbreviation of English proverb, "Speak of the Devil and he shall appear." Deriving from the Middle Ages, this proverb (which was, and to a certain extent still is, rendered as "Talk of the Devil...") was a superstitious prohibition against speaking directly of the Devil or of evil in general, which was considered to incite that party to appear, generally with unfortunate consequences. Its first printed usage in modern English can be found in Giovanni Torriano's Piazza Universale (1666), as "The English say, Talk of the Devil, and he's presently at your elbow." — Wikipedia
You know how when you're in a crowd, you can tell whenever someone says your name? Well, some villains can do that anywhere.
The core trope is that saying the name of the villain summons him. Rarely, though, is he summoned surprised and vulnerable; be assured that saying the name of this guy is a bad thing. Though probably just for you; he'll usually disappear afterward. The question of why everyone in the world often knows this name, despite the massive taboo against saying it, is rarely addressed.
This makes talking about the villain problematic, as he has to be referred to as "The Enemy" or "He Who Must Not Be Named" or " You Know Who", or possibly just by a nickname, as with Satan, who may be called "Old Nick" or "Mister Scratch". Sometimes these nicknames are conspicuously positive, just in case they're listening anyway, as with The Fair Folk, because you do not want to face down a pissed-off faerie. If referring to him by any name summons him, well, then you're just screwed.
If attempting to talk to someone not in the know, this can easily lead to Poor Communication Kills. There also always remains the possibility of someone slipping up (especially when surprised or caught off-guard), or someone not in the know saying it. If you have another enemy you want to deal with, though, perhaps you can trick him into saying the name.
If saying the villain's name doesn't necessarily summon him, but may simply cause something bad, that's The Scottish Trope. If knowing someone's true name instead gives you power over him, that's I Know Your True Name.
Another variation is that the villain's name must be said multiple times to summon him. In these cases, saying the name once is safe, so you probably don't need to worry about summoning him accidentally, or being tricked into doing so (unless you have no idea what's going on and just come across a piece of paper saying "Say Hastur 3 times."). Instead the villain is essentially Sealed Evil In A Can, and he'll be summoned either by someone who has no idea what's going on, or by someone who got his tropes mixed up and thinks he'll be able to control the villain this way, or at least bargain with him. Expect this guy to die horribly. Also expect this villain not to disappear.
The name comes from the old saying: "Speak of the Devil, and he will appear."
Also known as He Who Must Not Be Named. See also Something Wicked This Way Comes. Candle Jack is a recent pop-culture varia
When this is done for humor rather than being a supernatural ability, it's Right Behind Me.
Examples
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- The Rail Tracer in Baccano! is something of a triple subversion. At first, it's pretty obvious that it's a relatively harmless Urban Legend delivered by two Cloudcuckoolanders and a chirpy train conductor that had the misfortune of coinciding with a train hijack. Then episode 6 rolls along and shows the aforementioned hijackers getting picked off by this...thing, proving that it just might be Real After All. And then comes the Wham Episode (Let's just say that it's a really bad idea to give the aforementioned chirpy train conductor/part-time Psycho For Hire a reason for a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge)...
- A subversion and running gag on Dinosaur King: Ursula always knows when someone calls her an "old lady" no matter where they are in the world and immediately, and loudly, takes exception. She won't know where you are, much less be teleported there, but she will be pretty P.O.'ed when she meets up with you. This was once used to determine if the Alpha Gang was in the area.
Comic Books
- In The Sandman, characters refer to the Furies as "The Kindly Ones", as the ancient Greeks did; in this case, it's also to avoid attracting their attention.
- Also in The Sandman, there is one instance of summoning the title character by saying his preferred name (Morpheus). The character Rose Walker is given a piece of paper by her protector, Gilbert, and told that she must read the word aloud if she finds herself in grave danger; she reads it when another character attempts to rape and murder her, causing Dream to appear in the room and come to her rescue. It's not made clear why this works, however; it may be because Gilbert is actually a resident of Dream's kingdom, who has wandered off to do his own thing in the waking world, and is utilizing his own connection to Dream on her behalf. It is equally possible that it worked because Rose herself is the granddaughter of Dream's younger sibling Desire, and thus a blood relative of the Endless.
- Though remember that Glob warns Brute not to say the name "Morpheus", because that could give him immediate entry to their sanctuary. Otherwise, Morpheus needs to take the long way around. Again we have dream creatures involved, so it is hard to say what would happen if a mortal said it under normal circumstances.
- In the spinoff series Lucifer, the eponymous protagonist threatens the queen of the Japanese afterlife who has been using the souls of living dreamers to punish the ignoble dead, which is apparently seen as "poaching" with Dream as the gamekeeper with calling on the Dream King by merely saying his name. Since we know Lucifer doesn't lie but Morpheus died, and Daniel is now King of the Dreaming we know that it's probably true, but not how it works, since Dream claims to no longer be Daniel Hall.
- In Young Avengers, Kang the Conqueror references this trope, and sort of uses it.
- Beetlejuice is summoned by saying his name 3 times.
- He's also sent back whence he came by saying his name three times.
- The full rhyme (from the cartoon, at least) though rarely used goes:
Though I know I should be wary
Still I venture someplace scary
Ghostly hauntings I turn loose
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!
- The Candyman horror films: A tortured murderous spirit is summoned by saying "Candyman" five times in front of a mirror.
- This hearkens back to the childhood myth of Bloody Mary.
- In The Belgariad, saying the name of Zedar allows him to listen in on your conversation. The protagonists eventually get around this by getting lots of storytellers to retell the tales of Zedar, so he won't notice them amidst all the noise.
- In the Cthulhu Mythos, 'Hastur' was originally just a mysterious name, most likely a location, as it's established in Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow. Later, August Derleth started using it as the name of a god, re-appropriating utterly non-synonymous terms such as "The King in Yellow," "Him Who Must Not Be Named," and "The High Priest Not To Be Described" as sobriquets. This spawned the idea in the Expanded Universe that referring to him in by name was a very bad idea. In particular, the 1980 Dungeons And Dragons Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia stated that naming Hastur aloud could result in his sending some Byakhee to kill you. If they failed, he might appear himself to finish the job. Tricking a player into doing so has long been a favorite means of ending a game that has gone sour.
- To clarify the Adaptation Decay: The King in Yellow's specific connection to Hastur, the location, is never explained; "Him Who Is Not To Be Named" in all likelihood actually referred to Azathoth, who's been established elsewhere as having other euphemistic names; the High Priest Not To Be Described refers to a servant of Nyarlathotep in the Dreamlands (who's so vaguely described it may be Nyarlathotep); and the fans have gone from there to almost ridiculous lengths. You can probably tell a couple of Lovecraft-purists wrote this.
- Not a bad thing but in fact quite good: In Persona 2, saying "Hasturcomeforth" instead of your birth month to a fortune-telling girl would freak her out immensely and let you eventually summon him. (Hastur just loves hearing his name, basically.)
- In the Web Comic User Friendly, Kuan is singing the Badger Song and Sid, annoyed, gives him a Lovecraft version to sing, substituting "Hastur" for "Badger". It looks like Kuan was Killed Off For Real as a result.
- Author Ramsey Campbell created a god for the Cthulhu Mythos named Y'Golonac *
You fool! You've doomed us all! , who could possess a host if they merely read his name. Not even out loud; he could possess a person if they sight-read his name on a printed page. Seeing as he's a god that represents every deed that could be viewed as defiling by individuals both sane and insane across the universe, this is not a pleasant fate.
- Well, it's not clear whether merely reading the name or reading out of De Vermis Mysteriis will turn you into a slave of Y'Golonac.
- The accepted version is that reading his name is fine unless you are reading his name from one of the 7 tomes of "The Revelations of Glaaki" which will cause him to appear and either eat or mind rape or enslave you.
- In The Wheel Of Time series, saying The Dark One's true name Shaitan supposedly draws his attention, and certainly gives you a nasty fit of bad luck. He's the dark god, you know. So there exist many alternate names for him too - like "father of lies".
- Heroic example: Chrestomanci, from the book series of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, will appear wherever his name is spoken. Chanting his name three times can summon him to another world. His enemies refer to him as "August Personage" to avoid attracting his attention.
- Used in Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell with the Raven King, a human raised in faerie who is the bringer of magic to England, and who is considered the true ruler of those living Oop North who often make oaths by him. When one Northerner, Childermass swears an oath by him after Viniculus is killed, he is shocked and horrified when the Raven King actually appears at that very moment and brings Viniculus back to life.
- In the Harry Potter series Voldemort is literally called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by those who are afraid of saying (or printing) his name, though those using less formal diction call him You-Know-Who. In the earlier books this is portrayed merely as people being monumentally afraid of Voldemort. In the last book Voldemort uses this to his advantage by placing a "Taboo" magic upon his name which causes the speaking of his name to break any protective charms on the area and reveal the location of the speaker to him. Seeing as the only people with the nerve to speak his name are Harry's group and (probably) The Order Of The Phoenix, this is quite clever.
- It is also kind of stupid. at this point, the cast knows his real name is Tom Riddle so why didn't they just call him that instead?
- Kind of like how someone who's called something "pop" all their lives will instantly switch to saying "soda" when they hear the other name for it? Wait... that doesn't happen.
- In the Young Wizards series, speaking any of the Lone Power's nicknames has the danger of drawing Its attention. Even thinking its true name is guaranteed to get Its attention unless something is keeping It distracted.
- In the Discworld book Lords And Ladies, it is mentioned that mentioning the Elves by name can draw their attention and even help them cross over from Fairyland, especially around certain times of year when crop circles appear. For this reason, the witches of Lancre refer to them by various pseudonyms (such as the Gentry, or the Lords and Ladies), and only feel (barely) comfortable saying their name aloud when in the presence of lots of iron.
- Although if you're close enough to a portal even these pseudonyms will draw them.
- This is actually based on old folk beliefs; there's a reason the trope's called The Fair Folk.
- Another Discworld example is Igor (any Igor). When the master calls him, Igor will appear directly behind to answer. Makes no difference if Igor was in the basement or on the roof at the time, somehow he will also be out of sight behind his master when the master calls. Just part of the Igor service package.
- Yet another Discworld example, especially in the early books such as The Colour Of Magic, was never mentioning the true name of The Lady, the Goddess Who Must Not Be Named, which is Lady Luck. An inversion, since she's the only goddess who only comes when not called and flees when mentioned. The Discworld Companion adds that the Gamblers' Guild once tried worshipping her, and the result was that the building exploded.
- Also in The Colour of Magic, the temple of Bel-Shamharoth. If you utter the cube root of five hundred twelve, he appears. Not for nothing are the Protectors Of The Plot Continuum forbidden to portal Count von Count there, and required to intervene before a crossover takes him there.
- Lord Of The Rings offers a sort of half-example; the words "Sauron" or "Mordor" are often avoided, but it's never made clear what, if anything, the consequences of using them are.
- There is also a case of inconsistent narration, since in the Fellowship of the Ring Aragorn claims that Sauron doesn't use his given name, and forbids his servants speaking or writing it (not really surprising when Sauron is elvish for "Abhorred"), but in the Return of the King we encounter a character called the Mouth of Sauron, who explicitly calls his master "Sauron the Great".
- He might have been using the name for the benefit of the people he is talking to, since that it is the name they recognize for him. His original name of Mairon would not really have meant anything to the people of middle earth. Though it would have been funny to see the mouth refer to "Mairon The Great" only for Aragorn to reply "Who?".
- Sauron was known by that name in Númenor (as the Númenóreans knew him from the Elves) and the Mouth of Sauron was a Black Númenórean, so he might have been using the name out of habit. Also, the taboo about not mentioning Sauron's name seems to be mainly a Gondorian thing ("He who we do not name" or "the Nameless Evil")
- Let's not forget the whole Literary Agent Hypothesis.
- I believe there is also magic involved when Gandalf calls Shadowfax.
- This trope is used often in the books: Gandalf is unwilling to pronounce the ring's verse in the dark, especially in the black speech. There is generally a reluctance from all the characters to use words or names associated with evil things when it is dark.
- Similar to The Lord Of The Rings, the Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant has the Ranyhyn, the wild, free and intelligent horses. They have special magic that days or weeks before you call them, they know it and head for where you will be so that as soon as you whistle for them, they are there.
- A rather literal variant in the Thursday Next series, Acheron Hades can hear his name if it's spoken within a hundred-mile radius.
- In the David Drake fantasy novel The Sea Hag, The Hero is able to defeat the villain by tricking him into naming Serdic, his old (dead) master...who then promptly appears and drags the villain away to a Nightmare Fuel fate, since he had promised the hero earlier this would happen the next time he was named.
- In Snakecharm, the second of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' Kiesha'Ra series, an unfortunate falcon, masquerading as a serpent, asks Zane if the falcons' ambassador, Syfka, is in town. Syfka pops up almost immediately, telling the rogue falcon "You were foolish enough to use my name, not once, but twice." The "...And then you're in deep trouble" aspect is subverted, as Syfka gets into a heated argument with Zane, and when she turns around a moment later, everyone realizes that the man who said his name had run away during the argument.
- In Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao had a tendency to show up whenever his name was being mentioned - so the saying goes, "Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao is at the gates."
- In John C Wright's Chronicles of Chaos, Echinda can detect anyone saying her name; the children resort to refering to "the fishmonger."
- Similar to the Sandman example above in the Percy Jackson And The Olympians series by Rick Riodan, the use names of various mythological figures or places causes bad things like thunder and darkening of the skies to happen, so the characters tend to avoid using them.
- Except Dionysus, who responds to Zeus's thunder with a bored "Blah, blah, blah."
- Mentioning the skinwalker/naagloshii in Turn Coat is a very bad idea, since it grows stronger with fear and infamy. So Harry renames it "Shagnasty," which lacks the same intimidation factor.
- Evie Scelan threatens people who seem like they are about to call the Bright Brotherhood by their proper name, Fiana. For someone who doesn't mind handing out her true name, she seems surprisingly worried about this.
- In Jack of Shadows, by Roger Zelazny, Jack's powers include the ability to hear any person who speaks his name in shadow, and to continue listening in until they move out of it.
Live Action TV
- The Spanish Inquisition, whom nobody expects.
- "Say my name and I appear. Why have you summoned Quagmire here?"
- In an early episode of Supernatural, the boys fight Bloody Mary. Needless to say, this trope comes into effect. They use it to defeat her, by summoning her and smashing the mirror.
- Good Eats; not a villain but a Running Gag:
Alton: All right, which one of you at home said "Nutritional Anthtopologist"?
Deb Duchon, Nutritional Anthropologist: That guy, there... naugahyde chair, green pants.
Alton: Yeah, well, (through megaphone) thanks a lot, Mr. Talks-to-his-television!
- Rick and Neil on The Young Ones once summoned the demon Futumsch to their flat by saying his name, which had been printed in a newspaper article for no readily-apparent reason. Not that they ever noticed Futumsch was there, mind...
- In Brazilian sitcom Toma Lá, Dá Cá, whenever the apartment manager's name is mentioned, she knocks at the door and comes in. At a certain point of the show, the Genre Savvy characters would try to stop whenever someone started saying her name.
- In the song "Black Fox" whose artist varies, some bored foxhunters mention that if the devil himself showed up, they'd "run him such a race." Out of nowhere appears a black fox with red eyes, which the exited hunters chase all over the countryside. Eventually, the fox swims a river, and upon reaching the other side, reveals itself to be Satan, who more or less exclaims "Surprise, ***!" The terrified hunters flee back to town.
Mythology
- As mentioned above, Satan is the Trope Namer.
- Various old folklore: Not only the Devil, as mentioned above, but Cao Cao in Chinese folklore, wolves in France, trolls in Sweden, and various predators in various places.
- An especially interesting case is bears. "Bear" is itself a euphemism for the creature, a word (meaning "the brown one") used instead of their name to avoid drawing their attention. The substitution happened so long ago that we have no idea what the real name was though.
- Actually, we sort of do. Based on reconstructed Indo-European, the old Germanic word for bear would be "rkþos" (or something similar); given that the current word in English has cognates in the other Germanic languages (for instance, the German "Bär"), the change probably occurred at the proto-Germanic stage, and the ancestors of the original English speakers stopped using the old word.
- Similarly, the Slavic term for a bear is medved, meaning "honey-eater."
- And Finnish has roughly fifty different terms for a bear, the euphemisms ranging from "dew palm" to "the apple of the forest".
- This actually continues to this day. In Central America, Mayans will never refer to the jaguar by its name ("balam") for fear of invoking its presence. They refer to it as "chac mool", which means "red paw"
- The fairy Puck will appear if you say his name, in folklore and in Shakespeare's works.
- An unlike in the Bard's play, encountering jolly old Robin Goodfellow in the older folklore tended to get you into far worse fates than growing some donkey ears.
- One old wives' tale is that of Bloody Mary, who supposedly appears and very violently murders anyone who says her name three times while looking in a mirror.
Tabletop RPG
- Dungeons And Dragons: In early editions, saying the name of a demon could cause it to turn its attention to the speaker and attack him if possible, and speaking the name of a devil (which was inscribed on its talisman) would call forth that devil. And although they aren't villains, in the "Forgotten Realms" campaign setting, saying the name of any of the Seven Sisters would allow them to hear the next nine words uttered by the speaker.
- 3.5 has Truenaming, which around level 18 gives a feat that allows a character to do this with a use-name of their choice. Speaking the use-name, afterward, allows the character to know where you are, what the general situation is, and lets them decide whether or not to be teleported into the area. Depending on the character in question, this can either be an example of this trope, or Call On Me. Or, in some cases, both at once.
- Also from Dungeons and Dragons: any good or neutral creature that speaks Pazuzu's name three times will catch his attention. He sometimes offers to aid such a creature if they're in trouble... but accepting a boon from a demon lord is guaranteed to pull you into evil.
- No, just towards Chaos. Evil is only
eventual inevitable.
- also in the 3.X Deities and Demigods Handbook it states that Deities are generally aware if anyone says their name, anywhere or any of their common titles. This generally won't summon the deity to you of course, but that does make it hard to mount an assault on the gods....
- One DnD sourcebook (likely The Book of Vile Darkness) relates the story of a particularly huge prick of a merchant who would take advantage of this rule by selling a parrot to rich-looking individuals. When they got out of town and onto a deserted stretch of road, their new pet would fly away and start shrieking the name of Orcus—a freaking demon lord—who would appear and murder the poor saps. After Orcus had teleported back to the Abyss, the merchant would then gather up his dead victims' gear. That he would pull this trick repeatedly says something horrible about the merchant and a little pathetic about Orcus, who apparently has a lot of free time on his hands.
- Well, he does just sit around on his throne all day.
- Why doesn't Orcus kill the parrot?
- Because if he does, Demogorgon will begin reciting the Monty Python sketch at him.
- More importantly, how did that merchant manage to teach the parrot to say "Orcus" without being killed?
- Although its been referenced in several other tropes, the legend of the Serpent's Coil still (sort of) counts. A 2nd edition myth that made it into 3.0 before being retconned out at the end of 3.5, the myth went that Asmodeus, the king of Hell, was actually a very advanced illusion or perhaps an avatar of some sort; his true shape was a miles-long monstrosity of utter, incomprehensible evil. When he was hurled from the celestial planes into Hell, this form crashed through the dimension's reality - creating the nine levels of Hell - and came to rest in a deep, spiraling crater at the very bottom of The Pit. In an aversion of this trope however, telling someone this story didn't summon Asmodeus: it simply caused the storyteller to die within 24 hours (by unspecified means). Which is about on par for drawing the attention of overwhelmingly powerful evil uberdeities.
- Kibo, mentioned below in the real life section, was used by Mage The Ascension. In the digital web, he set up magic tracers so whenever anyone said his name, he would instantly be able to appear, as a real person, in front of them.
- The Antediluvians in Vampire The Masquerade are like this, or at least their vampiric descendants are afraid that they might be. At various points, it comes up that the names we have for them aren't their real names, just pseudonyms that are used to refer to them without the possibility of drawing their attention via Speak Of The Devil.
- It also shows up in Demon The Fallen. Using a demon's Celestial Name automatically opens a remote channel of communication with them; use it unaware of that connection, and they'll be listening to everything you say...
Video Games
- In the Devil May Cry series, the ruler of the underworld and Big Bad of the first game is named "Mundus". Oddly, he is almost never referred to by name in other products, either being referred to as "the Devil King" or "the Devil Emperor".
- Parodied (and used) in Kingdom Of Loathing: if you select 'Say "Guy Made Of Bees"' five times as a choice when you encounter a bathroom mirror, you will encounter the Guy Made Of Bees. And unless you have a certain in-game item and use it in the first round of combat, the Guy Made Of Bees will hit you with as much force as the Incredible Hulk's weight in bees.
- During a perfect Pacifist Run in Iji, Elite Krotera will mention Vateilika and how he'll deal with her after you're dead. He really should have spent the time saying goodbye to Mr. MPFB Devastator, as his flight off this mortal coil just arrived.
- In Ultima V, the Shadowlords could be summoned to your location by yelling their name (Eg, Yell Astaroth).
- Gaia Online NP Cs sometimes comment their own fanthreads during events. One wonders what they make of all the dirty-minded fans.
Web Animation
Web Comics
- This creature
 (well, the creature this demon is shapeshifted into) in UC: Deviating from Normality.
- This xkcd strip features an abuse of Bloody Mary. Explaining it would ruin the joke.
- Don't say Ironman in Austin, TX as shown why in roosterteeth's webcomics, Michael "Burnie" Burns will be groundpounded.
- In Orderofthe Stick, saying "mind flayer" or "illithid" will bring down copyright lawyers upon the speaker. Actually, pointing out any copyrighted material can do this, as Vaarsuvius realizes to his advantage when confronting a (supposedly good-aligned) drow wizard armed with two swords.
- In Goblins, the "Guide within the Well of Darkness" appears whenever someone says his name and answers a yes/no question. The catch? At the fourth summoning, he kills everyone. Incidentally, his name is Noe. Pronounced as "no".
- In Chasing The Sunset, speaking the name of the evil wizard Malvenicus causes lightning and a crack of [Kra-ka-tow!] thunder. Just like that. Malvenicus [kra-ka-tow!], as it turns out, is not all that evil; he just put an enchantment on his own name back when he was younger because he thought it would be funny.
Western Animation
- Freakazoid had the villain Candle Jack; if you said his name, he wo I would appear from where you wouldn't expect.
- TV Tropes would like to ask for a moment of silence for the four editors lost in the typing this entry.
- Freakazoid also spoofed this in a Credits Gag: "Interesting Fact: If you spin around while saying 'Huggbees' three times real quick, Pierre Salinger will appear. Only he'll have... a beard!"
- The earth quakes whenever Lord Moldybutt's name is said, even by himself.
- In a South Park episode, saying Biggie Smalls' name three times while looking into a mirror will summon his ghost, which really pisses him off when he's got things to do.
- In Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law, saying Mentok the Mind Taker's real name, Mufti, summons powerful magical winds.
Real Life
- Kibo originally became known on Usenet for searching for any occurrences of his name (whether they refer to him or not) and responding to them. Naturally, this became rather less possible once he became something of a Usenet celebrity.
- Google has a tool that lets you track the entire Web for instances of a certain phrase, such as your name. Knowing this does not make it any less creepy when one of its users suddenly materializes in your forum discussion of them.
- Warren Ellis has a tendency to do this when his name is mentioned on the Internet.
- Twitter codifies this, providing you a whole new tab for when your @username appears in someone else's tweet.
- An Angry Video Game Nerd ripoff, who shall remain nameless; he Googles his name and flips out at those who don't love his stuff and proceeds to plug his links.
- The Chinese general Cao Cao (3rd century AD) was so well known for his rapid marches, the Chinese term for this at the time was "Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao will appear." (And this was way before he could Google it. Impressive.)
- A popular internet meme says this of Candlejack, who will appear as s Yoink. Sucker forgot to check the page.
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