Past Names

All my characters have nickname or code names (Tango,Ghost, Athena, Ace ect.) I'm telling a story framed as someone remembering stuff that happenened to him and his friends.

So here's the thing if say Ghost was talking about a time before they started calling his friend Rebecca "Athena" would he refer to her as Rebecca because that's what he called her back then or would he call her Athena because that's what everybody calls her now?

edited 30th May '12 11:09:21 PM by HistoryMaker

Depends a lot on what he's like as a person. My gut feeling is that most people would use her current name even when talking about her past. At least, that's what I would do, to avoid confusing the person I'm talking to.

I agree, it depends on the audience and the speaker.

When thinking to themselves, the name someone uses can show how they think of the person - using 'Rebecca' might show that Ghost still thinks of her as his old friend, regardless of their current identities. Using 'Athena' might show that he thinks of that as her 'real' identity, and Rebecca as just a name she used to use before she found it.

Quite often when you get a character talking about their past, they'll use the old term but correct themselves based on the company they're in, e.g. "I remember when Rebecca and I used to hang out together - sorry, I mean Athena", and from then on use the new name. I think that's intended to show they're a little nostalgic and not completely comfortable with their new roles, but it's a bit of a cliché especially in superhero type stuff.

edited 31st May '12 5:05:58 AM by Kesteven

Interesting, Ghost is talking to his young apprentice. The kid has met nearly all these people about 3-4 years after they started using their code names.

None of them are super heroes. They're all human agents of the Phoenix organization. Surviving in a semi-postapocaliptc world.