> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Weekend Words: Name
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/weekend-words-name/
- Published: 2013-07-21T13:00:51.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:34:57.000Z
- Description: In light of J.K. Rowling's undercover success, Weekend Words wonders, what's in a name?
- Author: Weekend Editors
- Tags: Opinion, Weekend, Weekend Words, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

![Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, "Angelica Carving Medoro's Name on a Tree" (1757), fresco, 20 x 160 cm, Villa Valmarana, Vicenza (image via Web Gallery of Art) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/tiepolo-name.jpg)

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, “Angelica Carving Medoro’s Name on a Tree” (1757), fresco, 20 x 160 cm, Villa Valmarana, Vicenza (image via Web Gallery of Art)

Two excerpts from [“Rowling Book Skyrockets to Instant Hit”](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/business/media/rowling-book-skyrockets-to-instant-hit.html?%5Fr=0&ref=hyperallergic.com) by Julie Bosman (The New York Times, Wednesday, July 16, 2013):

“’It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name,’ she said.”

“In the meantime, the book has risen to No. 1 on Amazon’s best-seller list. And copies of the first edition of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” in hardcover are floating around eBay at considerable markups: on Tuesday afternoon one copy in Britain had risen to more than $2,300, with 67 bids. Another copy in the United States was available for a more modest $41, with shipping costing $3.99.”

As [Juliet Capulet](http://www.bartleby.com/70/3822.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) wondered, what’s in a name?

> “The devil’s name is dullness.”  
>  
> **—Robert E. Lee**

> “What surrounds us we endure better for giving it a name – and moving on.”  
>  
> **—E. M. Cioran**

> “The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.”  
>  
> **—William Butler Yeats**

> “Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.”  
>  
> **—Hannah Arendt**

> “The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them.”  
>  
> **—W. Somerset Maugham**

> “What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”  
>  
> **—Desiderius Erasmus**

> “Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.”  
>  
> **—George Santayana**

> “The name Sissy came because my brothers called me that.”  
>  
> **—Sissy Spacek**

> “‘I have no name;  
> I am but two days old.’  
> What shall I call thee?  
> ‘I happy am,  
> Joy is my name.’  
> Sweet joy befall thee!”  
>  
> **—William Blake, “Infant Joy”**