"I don't have a name. If you must call me something, call me Trowa Barton."
— Trowa, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
"Names are arbitrary in such an existence. I didn't leave one out just to sound mysterious."
— The Stranger, The Devourers
32. People’s names are assigned at birth.
33. OK, maybe not at birth, but at least pretty close to birth.
34. Alright, alright, within a year or so of birth.
35. Five years?
36. You’re kidding me, right?
33. OK, maybe not at birth, but at least pretty close to birth.
34. Alright, alright, within a year or so of birth.
35. Five years?
36. You’re kidding me, right?
"It is just the bare bones of a name, all rock and ice and storm and abyss. It makes no attempt to sound human. It is atoms and stars. It has the nakedness of the world before the first man or of the cindered planet after the last."
— Mountain climber Fosco Maraini on K2
Then the angel asked her what her name was
She said, "I have none"
Then he asked, "How can this be?"
"My father never gave me one"
She said, "I have none"
Then he asked, "How can this be?"
"My father never gave me one"
— "Abraham's Daughter", Arcade Fire
"My name is Solveig," she told him, pressing a hand to her chest. “So what is yours?”
“Solveig,” the cecaelia repeated slowly, testing the alien word on his tongue. “Are all your kind called Solveig?”
She shot him a strange look. “Er, no. I’m the only Solveig. My parents gave me the name when I was born. What did your parents call you?”
“Ah, I understand! They called me Child, or sometimes Troublesome One. My brother calls me Brother, or Sick One, or Fool, or when he’s very cross with me, he calls me Pest.”
“You don’t have names,” she said cautiously, “only titles?”
The cecaelia’s hands wrung faster. He feared that he’d made some kind of mistake, had offended her, yet he was already learning so much so quickly.
“I don’t know the difference,” he admitted.
—Looming Gaia, "Ocean Returns to the Sea"
