What is a witch name?

[LookingForAnswers]

What is a witch name, and how do you know what yours is? Do you pick it, or is it given to you in some other way?

[SpiritTalker]

Ive read of the witch name as being a name adopted by a student-Wiccan that expresses the magical persona they wish to acquire thru their studies. It might also be combined with the name of a Patron. In some cases, an imaginative arrangement & spelling is used so as to numerologically reduce the name to a suitable number (1-9) with the desired qualities. It would be used for all personal references involving their Craft practices as their magical identity. I believe the student chooses the name themselves but that it is then also "assigned" to them at their initiation into the coven after a year-&-a-day study. They might hear themselves being addressed by a name during meditation, or adopt a hero's name, or an animal species (ex. author Silver Raven-Wolf isn't a pen name.) I tend to think of it like a club membership which may be an injustice & that it's seldom done any more since the explosion of solitary, self-dedicated witches. Anonymous like having user-names here. Since I'm solitaire & non-hereditary I cannot vouch for any of this. I do know that taking a new name is a common practice in the Christian-Catholic religion where a saint's name is added to the person's baptismal name at confirmation; & Magical lodges also carry on the new-name upon membership, plus rank.

[Siona]

There are many different ways one might get a name, and many different reasons for it - and there are plenty who never engage in the practice, for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes a name is part of initiation into a tradition, and it is given to you, or you might choose it. Or, in some traditions, you are given a name and choose a 'secret' name. Sometimes a name is a gift from a deity or spirit. You might choose a name to imbue those traits into yourself. It might be a symbol of a goal you want to attain, or a description of your role/practice in some way. It might honor an ancestor. You might take a name to symbolize the new path you are taking. For some, it's a measure of anonymity, or a holdover from days when that might have been more important in some places.

In many cultures names are very powerful. Someone who knows your name could have power over you. You might take a secret name so that no one will be able to work your name against you. (Sometimes a mother gives a secret name to a child when they are born for similar reasons, or to protect from spirits.) So, you might take a name as a form of protective working. The myth of Isis learning Ra's true name is an example of this, but it is found in many places.

It's a very personal thing, and there's not one single way to do it or meaning behind it, and again, it is not something that everyone does. Some never take a name, some won't take one for many years. Some take one and drop it, or change it. All depends on you, and what it might mean to you.