Names
#Names
Names in the Fifth World serve as a vocal gesture to a story. Often, these stories unite people — the story of a relationship between two people, or a story that bonds a family together and the role that a particular individual plays in it. People and places bear many names, used by different people, referencing different shared stories and experiences. To truly know someone’s name, one must know the story — and so, to some extent, one must know the person. Every name thus reflects a relationship.
Even the ancient names, rarely used in the Fifth World — Mary, John, Mohammed, Fatima, or Oliver — point to stories. Once upon a time, these names meant something, too, and spoke to the experiences and personalities of those that bore them (or at least the hopes of their parents). For a time in the civilized past they outlived the memory of their original stories and became arbitrary utterances used to designate a person. In the Fifth World using a name like this tells a powerful story of connection to that ancient past. Perhaps one embodies an ancient ancestor to such a degree that others call you by that nearly-forgotten name. Perhaps you take seriously your burden to heal the damage of the past, to such a degree that others refer to you by an ancient name because ancient thoughts always weigh upon you. Whatever the case, in those rare circumstances where seemingly meaningless names like these survive, they survive precisely because they still refer to the story of a relationship.