notw: The Importance of Names

[Dustin]

How important do you think names and linage are in modern times? In Name of the Wind, there is constant reference to the importance of names and someone's linage. Family honor is a popular theme in many fantasy books dealing with nobility, but still an interesting one.

“I would like you to meet Bastas, son of Remmen, Prince of Twilight and the Telwyth Mael."

“What’s your name?”
“Kvothe,” I said. “Son of Arliden.”

"My father’s stables have longer bloodlines than half you Aturan nobles.”

“My blood goes back fifty generations, older than tree or stone. And I am come to this.”

I would argue this is no longer the case unless you're the descendant of a celebrity and often those who are want to distance themselves from their famous relations, want to create their own name. Create their own legacy.

And then there's the magical element, that says until you understand something, know its name and nature, you have no power over it.

I think this has obvious use in reality. A victorious general needs to understand the battlefield to have any control over a battle. A horse breeder needs to know the history of their stock to produce the kinds of horses they want, and a good investor needs to understand how the stock market behaves and the workings of the companies they invest in. If you don't know its name, then you have as much control over it as I'd have over the wind by yelling at it.

[Phil]

My immediate response was going to be "lineage isn't important at all in North American society." But then I remembered the Bushes and Kennedys in the States and the Trudeaus in Canada and all the legacies at high level universities and fraternities and clubs.
And, in Canada at least, aboriginals get certain rights and privileges in terms of taxes and education and property based on which band they are part of.

[Jack]

This is an interesting question. Does a person's real name include all those who came before him in his ancestry, or is it like they have a true name that is set in stone, as it were?

What about the names of other things? If they all have names, do all those names come from the same language? What if you know that language fluently? Was Taborlin the Great all powerful for knowing the name of all things?