Name
A name was a word or combination of words that identified a specific person or subject. Immediately prior to having sex with a Sex Gas-possessed Carys Fletcher, Matt Stevens noted that he did not even know her name, going on to suggest that names were "overrated". (TV: Day One)
Yvonne Hartman, director of Torchwood One, believed it important to know everyone she worked with by name. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
Historians who had been allowed access to the "Monster Vaults" of the databanks in the Doctor's TARDIS identified that Abzorbaloff "for want of a better name" was a name given to the creatures and that they were not imaginative enough to come up with a name for themselves. (PROSE: The Monster Vault) By another account, an Abzorbaloff identified his son as an Abzorbalovian. (WC: The Genuine Article)
Daleks
In the early days of the Daleks' development on Skaro, some individual Daleks had actual names, as evidenced by the scientist Zeg. (COMIC: Duel of the Daleks) However, by the time of the Dalek Emperor's scheme to isolate the Dalek factor and implant it in all of humanity, it was a mark of the Humanised Daleks' oddness that they took on names — starting with Alpha, Beta and Omega. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) The Tenth Doctor later noted that the Cult of Skaro's having names (Sec, Thay, Caan and Jast) was one of their unusual features. (TV: Doomsday)
In place of names, Dalek soldiers could be designated with a number by their superiors; the newly-created Daleks on Vulcan were referred to by the original three by designations such as "Dalek 9" and "Dalek 10". (TV: The Power of the Daleks) Daleks also referred to each other as such during their invasion of Trodos. (COMIC: The Trodos Ambush)
Several other Daleks throughout history were granted names, not by themselves, but by the Doctor — including Dal (AUDIO: Echoes of War), Rusty (TV: Into the Dalek, Twice Upon a Time) and Lumpy (GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek) The Space Security Service also assigned numbers to captured Daleks. (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek)
Time Lords
Most Renegade Time Lords forsook their birth name and used titles, such as "the Doctor" and "the Master", (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) though some Renegades continued using their birth names alongside their titles. (AUDIO: The End of the Beginning) Time Lords could also be stripped of their names as punishment, as happened to the Woman. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) However, this practice was not exclusive to Time Lords working outside of the Gallifreyan orthodoxy, as evidenced by the Visionary (TV: The End of Time) and the General. (TV: Hell Bent)
The Doctor
- Main article: Aliases of the Doctor
The Doctor kept their birth name a closely guarded secret, (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace, The Shakespeare Code, The Fires of Pompeii) even though they came to consider it unimportant when compared to their chosen title. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
During the Last Great Time War, the Eighth Doctor, previously a conscientious objector was convinced by the Sisterhood of Karn to join the fight. Before he regenerated into the War Doctor, he cast aside the title of "the Doctor", (TV: The Night of the Doctor) coming to believe that the name had "stood for something" and that he was no longer worthy of it. (PROSE: Engines of War) Despite this, and his own objections to being referred to as such, most people continued to refer to him as "the Doctor", (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) the War Ollistra noting that referring to him as such was guaranteed to get the War Doctor's attention. (AUDIO: The Enigma Dimension) The War Doctor introduced himself as a nameless individual, (AUDIO: The Innocent) though he would adopt new aliases when they were granted to him. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage)
After the Last Great Time War ended with the Time Lords lost in a pocket universe, they found a path back to N-Space via a time field. To ensure it was safe to return, the Time Lords called out to the Eleventh Doctor and asked him to speak his true name. After this had resulted in the centuries long Siege of Trenzalore, Clara Oswald convinced the Time Lords that "the Doctor" was all the name he needed, convincing them to grant the Doctor a second life cycle and allowing him to defeat the Parliament of the Daleks. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
In an alternate timeline where the Doctor had died at Trenzalore, their TARDIS became their tomb, the shuttered control room that contained their time stream opening to any utterance of the Doctor's true name. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
