What's in a name

[taotrooper]

I've been working on some plotbunnies that involved Chinese names. If you've been reading me, you know what I mean. So in laurus_nobilis' flist a link to Mandarin Chinese resources came up, and I was reading this article about how Chinese people get their names.

And it made me think about CLAMPverse, and the importance of naming. And I returned to reread XXXHOLiC volume 1. This rant is mostly about Clow, but also mentions Yuuko and Fei Wang. Behold a long rant.

Yuuko: If you tell someone your name, they can control your soul. If you tell them the day you were born, they can control your life and destiny.
Watanuki: Er, yeah, sure... hey...
Yuuko: Do you want to know my name?
Watanuki: I don't care.
Yuuko: Yuuko. Ichihara Yuuko.
Watanuki: I said I didn't care.
Yuuko: Naturally, it's a fake name.
Watanuki: And in top of that, a fake name?!

XXXHOLiC volume 1, part 1. Loose translation from Japanese-Spanish-English.

Considering Yuuko's job, and this premise, it's so understandable she wants to protect herself from hexes and soul-controlling. Can you imagine if, let's say, Fei Wang or other creep would know her true name and try to control her? DISASTER. In that profession, you have to cover your back. No wonder Eriol in manga has this badass kekkai of defensive magic. Probably an habit he got from Clow.

And Clow, that's where I want to get at. I've been thinking about it all morning long.

According to this place, it is/was common for Chinese folks to have several nicknames and sobriquets, besides their real name.

In dynastic times naming was far more complex, and occasionally traces of the older system are still used. Chinese are far more likely than Americans to have pen names, nicknames, and so on, which have a respectability in China that they lack here.

And they give a list of possible names a Chinese could have. It's just so confusing. Emperors had their own name protocol.

And something that made me think about Yuuko and her manga.

Traditionally personal names were selected with attention to their meanings, but also to the numbers of strokes and the elements that made up the characters. Fortune tellers were often consulted about this to make sure that a child's name accorded well with his moment of birth. Children were sometimes given one or more derogatory nicknames designed to make them seem unattractive so as to avoid their being targets of attack by envious or malicious spirits. These names were, of course, rarely used past childhood, since they were temporary expedients. It was perfectly possible to find small children named "dog-face" and the like. Little boys were sometimes given girls' names for the same reason, since girls were thought less susceptible than boys to spirit attack.

But I digress. We know Clow Reed is half-Chinese, and it's more than likely he was raised in China by his mother's family (as we see his illustration are high on Chinese art, and in Eriol's comfy clothes he wears at home, and let's not forget he left documentation and the board at his mother's.) Also, he was a really strong sorcerer, and people should be trying to attack him almost every day, like we see with Eriol's protection. My point is, I firmly believe my new theory: Clow Reed is not his real name. It just CAN'T be his real name. Clow Reed is totally a nickname.

What's his birth name, then? I bet it was Chinese. Purely Chinese. Maybe he had several Chinese names, also. The Lis wouldn't allow Clow's father to give him an English name; they'd find an astrologist and get him a fine Chinese name. I think Clow came up with his name, and also that he made it up. Clow as a word and a name doesn't exist. Reed might have been his father's last name, and as Clow embraced his father's countryland's culture, he would've liked to use his last name in the name that would make him famous in other countries. Or could've been made up as well.

Also, I think he used Li as a last name in his real name, and not Reed or his father's last name if it's something else. Why? Apart from Fei Wang, we see his descendants (or at least great great great grandnephews and nieces) are still called Li. And Kero said the mother's family was Li. This looks like the huge-ass clan that makes even the daughters' children to be Lis and not whatever last name their husbands have. I don't know if it's common in China, but in Japan a man can change his last name to his wife's if she's from an important family. Is it possible Clow's father, if he did marry his mother, had to get a new last name? But I digress. It's the only way the last name could've lasted over the centuries.

And now we get to Fei Wang Reed. I'm convinced that's a Chinese nickname, with the Reed part attached to it. Fei Wang means flying king in Chinese.

And returning to the name essay, I find that...
Another title that tends to bleed into English is wáng 王, which means "king" and is sometimes left untranslated as a suffix to the name of a king.

I don't know about you, but I'm dubious someone in China would name their child something with the wang character. It'd be the last part of the name they'd use, you know, and it'd sound pretencious. Meanwhile, Fei Wang is the leader of the "evil" group. What if he's literally their king? The king of the mystery world x?

Again, we can only make suppositions. and I call first dibs on the Clow's true name plotbunny because I just made one up for him, a perfect one

Edit: of course, it makes me wonder if names such as Eriol Hiiragizawa or Fai D. Flowright are real names or not... I'm sure Clef is real, though. You know, it follows the car name pattern.

Comments

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

You know, I've thought about that too, because I think way too much about HOLiC and names. But there's something that doesn't quite convince me about Clow being just a nickname: he put it all over everything. And if you want your Cards/book/whatever to work for you and only you, you better use your real name.
On the other hand, I've toyed with the idea that he did have a Chinese name (with a SPESHUL meaning and everything), and he switched from English to Chinese depending on where he was and who was he hiding from.

But yeah, there's nothing to *prove* it's his real name. And I'd so read that plot bunny.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

But what if he permanently changed his name in a certain period of time. Better yet. In some fantasy stories, wizards get a new name when they either come of age or are declared to be masters or non-apprentices anymore. What if in Li clan it's normal to get your own magician name when a certain time or event happens? And let's assume they "abandon" their childhood name forever, with all the implications and probably with ceremonies beyond saying a few words and drinking afterwards? It's just that Clow decided to get a strange, invented name instead of something Chinese, and when he created the cards his old name wasn't his anymore so it wouldn't work if he used that one. Maybe it's been decades, even centuries since he used his real name, so it's not his anymore. He thinks of himself as Clow, hence that's the name that would work in the spells.

I'm thinking about this way too much.

It's interesting how his last name is nowhere to be found in his magic. Granted, in the canon magic they use first names. Still, you know... who knows.

Oh, you're going to love the name I got for him! It's so polar.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

In some fantasy stories, wizards get a new name when they either come of age or are declared to be masters or non-apprentices anymore.
Point. And I just noticed that LeGuin ate my brain too, and I had that classified as "real names". Hmmm.

Dude, and then people wonder why I like Clow! You can theorize and theorize and theorize, and argue for ages, and you don't even have to agree. And then everyone writes with their own interpretation, and it's just so cool to see what you agree with and what's different but makes sense anyway. [/fangirl mode]

I also have these plot bunnies of young Clow wandering through Europe and using his Chinese name because it's easier to explain (and because in my bunnies he's always running from a lot of people, heh). But I never wrote them, because I didn't think of a good name anyway. :( And because the OCs threatened with taking over the world...

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

But in LeGuin names work different. I'd think Clow as a name, in my theories, would work more like "Gavilán" than Ged, because if we assume all people have a "secret name" like in LeGuin or Paolini books, then which one is Sakura's real name, and why does her sorcery work with with her mundane name? Ah. It's not compatible with the CCS magic system. Unless Sakura was her real name and Fujitaka had known somehow and give it to her, but then I remember that Nadeshiko named her and the theory is dead. Argh, this is getting confusing. No secret names here.

Yeah, he's such a headache it's a riot! I think I'm starting to understand Madoushi and Yuuko, because yesterday I was all "fuck you, Clow, I hate you and your plotholes of doom!" while I was still loving him anyway. Really, it has the love-hate effect even in real-life women! But yeah, we all have our own sandbox, and we see the theories of each other, and it's fun. But honestly, do you think my theories are really that farfetched?

I think the opposite. In my mind, Clow would use his Western name and not the Chinese one because Europeans would have troubles memorizing/pronouncing the other one (although it depends on the kind of name he had, as some are easier). I still think he'd use Clow Reed in Europe and everywhere-but-China. Like his artistic name or something XD But yeah, in the times he was hiding himself, he'd totally switch names and pretend to be somebody else. Maybe even using the Illusion so people he knew wouldn't recognize his face.

[sui.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about xxxHOLiC or Tsubasa (don't know who Fei Wang is at all, but one of my [many] Chinese "xiao ming" [little name/nicknames] is Fei) and well, if you put last name first, it's Wang Fei. My last name is Wang and maybe it's just one of his surnames (maiden or something?)? Not sure about the man changing his last name part, but I was supposed to be born under my mother's surname, and usually married women keep their maiden name, and children don't necessarily take the name of the father.

*probably a useless comment since I don't know much of the context, but yeah*

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

No, Fei Wang is all his first name (made with two characters.) Reed is the last name.

Hmm, that's cool to know. Still, I'm talking about a guy who was born centuries ago, from a Chinese woman and an Englishman. Clow is complicated, and I'm trying to complicate him more.

[chibiyuuto.livejournal.com]

TOTALLY OFF TOPIC:

I know you recently got X Zero so maybe you can help me ! ^^

My friend is planning on mailing me X Infinity by mail so he's asking me for it's weight... you know, for the mail service.

So, since X Zero and X Infinity has the same number of pages, I think they have about the same weight (don't know if it has a hard cover too o.O)

So, do you happen to have some kind of balance that shows the weights of things? ^^"
I found a site saying it's 900g, and I believe it's right but who knows ^^

Thanks anyway !

[chibiyuuto.livejournal.com]

>mailing me X Infinity by mail

Ignore that... I meant, "sending me" ¬¬

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Um, we don't have a balance here u_u No clue how heavy it is. This one is a hardcover so it can't be so light.

I'm sorry I couldn't help ;_;

[shirasakura.livejournal.com]

It could be that he has two names. That both his mother's family and his father's family were so stubborn that he had both a Chinese name and a Western name. I have a Japanese name and a Western name.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Remember, though, he was born centuries before Chinese-British half-blood were common. I don't know if we can apply today's society normality to him.

Then again, I have a newest theory I like the most. This one is obsolete already for me.