Headcanon on Wraith Names

[Sandra_1611]

So, I was thinking about the Wraith today and why they never told anyone their names, and then a thought hit me, "What if they did, and we couldn't hear them?"

Here's the thing, the Wraith are descendents from the Aratus bug. Most bugs don't "speak" with words, but high pitched frequencies, human ears cannot pick up most of these sounds. So what if the silence that followed after a character would ask a Wraith for its name, it was telling the given person their name, it was just in a frequency that human ears cannot pick up?

[StargateMillennium]

This was explained in one of the books. Wraiths communicate telepathically and they address each other telepathically. Their 'names' are the unique psychic imprints of each wraith individual.

[The Flyattractor]

Which kind of come off as girly versions of primitive tribal names....

[jelgate]

Which kind of come off as girly versions of primitive tribal names....

Does it really matter? The books matter about as much as the fan fiction.

[Lythisrose]

I'm with The Flyattractor, those wishy washy Wraith names are for the birds. (Or for the bugs, whatever.)

[Falcon Horus]

Wraiths don't have names... that's the beauty of it. They are a collective, a hive mind. Names would mean they are considered individuals. Kinda like the borg have designations instead of names.

[The Flyattractor]

That's kind of the bad thing about "No Name" characters in books. You can get away with that in a visual medium but with books its kind of hard to do and distinguishes which character is in the scene. Not many routes you could take. Only about 3 really. They use the "human names" that John gave them or you go the route they did in the book or make up alien names like calling them Zorg and Zarg or some such.

[Falcon Horus]

Zorg?!?

[The Flyattractor]

< would like to see ^ DO BETTER!

[Falcon Horus]

< would like to see ^ DO BETTER!

I'm watching Classic Who at the moment and see the most ridiculous monster-costumes appear, so when you said Zorg, I simply imagined a funny-looking Wraith.

Zorg, Zarg and Zurg sound like perfectly good names for the Wraith version of The Three Stooges.

[The Flyattractor]

Oh, A Wise Bug !

[RunnerRonon]

Wraiths don't have names... that's the beauty of it. They are a collective, a hive mind. Names would mean they are considered individuals. Kinda like the borg have designations instead of names.

I used to think they lived and thought like a hive, but I changed my mind recently. But some wraith, like Todd and Michael(as well as the Queens, but that is a different story) acted on their own quite often. They betrayed, abandoned, started over and convinced others to join them, because they wanted things to change, or wanted more power. If we continue this comparison to the Borg, this is a big difference. Yes, the Borg queen might fit this description, but none of the actual hive minded borg below her. The suggestion the book StargateMillennium mentions offers a very good possibility in my opinion. Maybe not all of them care about being identified(through a name or telepathic communication), but I would like to believe the queens and commanders do.