Chapter Eighty Nine: Name

I was kidnapped by aliens, they came down

from outer space with ray guns, but I fooled

them by wearing a wig and laughing in

a foreign accent, and I escaped.

Neil Gaiman, Coraline

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Jason scratched his head.

"You named him Festus? You know that in

Latin, 'festus' means 'happy?' You want us

to ride off to save the world on

Happy the Dragon?

Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero

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What's in a name? that which we

call a rose

By any other name would smell as

sweet.

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

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Call him Voldemort, Harry.

Always use the proper name for things.

Fear of a name increases fear

of the thing itself.

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and

the Sorcerer's Stone

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You named your sword Fire? Fire?

What kind of a boring name is that?

You might as well name your sword

"Blazing Blade" and be done with it.

Fire indeed. Humph. Wouldn't you rather

have a sword called Sheepbiter or

Chrysanthemum Cleaver or anything 

else with imagination?

Christopher Paolini, Brisingr

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Words are things. You must be careful,

careful about calling people out of their names,

using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives

and all that ignorance. Do not do that.

Someday we'll be able to measure the power

of words. I think they are things. They get

on the walls. They get in your wallpaper.

They get in your rugs, in your upholstery,

and your clothes, and finally

into you.

Maya Angelou

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"Do you really want to know where we

come from?" she said. "In every century,

in every country, they'll call us something

different. They'll say we're ghosts, angels,

demons, elemental spirits, and giving us

a name doesn't help anybody.

When did a name change what someone is?

Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

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"That's a lovely idea, Diana," said Anne

enthusiastically. "Living so that you beautify

your name, even if it wasn't beautiful

to begin with . . . making it stand in

people's thoughts for something so lovely

and pleasant that they never

think of it by itself."

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

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I confuse things with their names:

that is belief.

Jean Paul-Sartre, The Words:

The Autobiography of Jean Paul-Sartre

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Things separate from their stories have

no meaning. They are only shapes.

Of a certain size and color. A certain weight.

When their meaning has become lost to us

they no longer have even a name.

The story on the other hand can never be lost

from its place in the world

for it is that place.

Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing

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The Chapter is made possible by Nike, Inc.