What is the Doctor's Real Name?

[Kal-El]

No I meant Legion from the bible thingy

"My name is Legion, for we are many"

[docballen]

I really like the idea of The Doctor's name being a string of math symbols. Here on Earth, our names have meanings (i.e. 'Margaret' means 'pearl'), so why wouldn't a Gallifreyan name have the same cultural meanings?

Were all presuming that his name is "The Doctor" (or "Doctor Who"). And by that I mean, that his name is the letters arranged so that in the English language it refers to "a medical professional". But that may be his name in Gallifreyan-- the letters arranged as "The Doctor" ( or, again, Doctor Who) might mean something totally different in native Gallifreyan.

My name is Brenda, and it means "flaming sword" or "torch". Now, in the Gallifreyan language, "Doctor Who" might mean "blessed by Rassilon" (or one of their old deities-- if you are of the opinion that the Doctor was one of the "big three" with Rassilon and Omega... then it wouldn't be that exactly), or "firstborn son", or "defender of faith", or "way hot cutie" (my defenition...), or "traveller" or anything that names can mean.

I always took the name "the Master" to mean that he wanted everyone to see and deem him "their" Master... or the Master of all things. (The Rani means "the red" but I forget in what language...)

[Battera]

The doctor's real name is David Tennant!

*waits*

What, no applause?

[General David Niemi]

His name os Frank Burns If your a M*A*S*H fan, you'll understand.

[orii7]

His name os Frank Burns If your a M*A*S*H fan, you'll understand.

Rofl! I watch that show, and if his name was Frank Burns, he would have Margret as his companion all the time and they would try their best to forget about other things and stay in the TARDIS making out.

Then that'll make The Master as Hawkeye Pierce and Davros as B.J. lol

BTW The Rani's name means "The Queen" in Hindi

[creed462]

You know it whould be cool if his grandaughter reappeared and gave his name

[orii7]

Somebody already said that but, That would be great to have her reappear. But how or why?

And why would she reveal The Doctor's name? What good will it do for and to the Series and the mystery of The Doctor?

Ya never know. Besides, its a Sci-Fi show! Anything is possible!

[General David Niemi]

Very nice Orii7. Bout the M*A*S*H thing.

Anyway I have figured his name out. It's... Gumpy.

[orii7]

Very nice Orii7. Bout the M*A*S*H thing.

Anyway I have figured his name out. It's... Gumpy.

Gumpy? ya mean Forest Gump?

[Merlin's_Legacy]

You know, if you really think about it, the word "Doctor" has several meanings in our language. One who heals the sick, One who is educated to the highest possible level, and colloquially as one who makes repairs. I'd say "The Doctor" is all of those things. We saw him heal the sick/wounded in The Doctor Dances. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about almost every subject. He has phenomenal genetic knowledge, and he travels through time setting things right that went wrong. (Maybe his name is Sam Beckett... We know HE never returned home and the leaping does swiss-cheese one's memory. ) But then we have the example of "The Master" Master = one who rules, one who is superior to others... Maybe Time Lord names/designations are either given or chosen based on the person's characteristics and they just don't transfer well into our language. Time Lords are sort of the Gallifreyan Elites, and they are Tardis Pilots. Maybe "The Doctor" and "The Master" are English translations of the Time Lord equivalent of call signs like "Maverick" and "Ice Man".

Remember what The Doctor said about the Carrionites... Names have power. Once you know somethings true name, you have power over it. If "The Doctor" truly was "The Other" then his true name would be an incredible source of power for any who knew it, thus the girl in the fireplace telling him that his name was "more than a secret". It's entirely possible that The Doctor doen't even consciously remember his true name anymore given all that he has been through.

[ecchi]

When Roger Delgado was still alive, the plan was to revel that he and The Doctor were brothers, but this was shelved when RD died. I have always sort of assumed that they had an entire back story worked out to go with this, as not even JNT would have thrown in a "oh by the way, he's my brother" type line, let alone the production team back in Delgado's day. I would guess that the 'Theta Sigma' thing was left over from then, may have been intended as his name, or the start of it, or how it translates into English, or whatever. They may have even been going to give us the full story.

As to the theory offered somewhere that he 'was someone evil' before he was The Doctor, that would tie in with the fact that he has had more than 12 regenerations (Brain Of Morbius).

However reading this thread, and the suggestion that his name is a "deep dark secret, so dreadful that he will never speak it", plus someone's theory that heroes names always begin with J, I guess his real name is John Nathan Turner.

P.S. don't you just love Google. I was not sure how to spell Morbius, but was fairly sure that my attempt, Morbious, was wrong, so I typed "Brain Of Morbious" into Google and got back;
Did you mean: "Brain Of Morbius"
Great tool, not just for searches (they also email me links to all new news articles on Dr Who and Torchwood every day).

[Cycrow]

Specifically, most male hero characters have a name starting with 'J'. Off the top of my head I can think of James Bond, Jack Sparrow, Jack Bauer, John Sheppard, James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Jason Bourne, Jack O'Neill, Jayne Cobb, John MaClaine...

and of course, the 2 main leads in Babylon 5, John Sheridon and Jeffery Sinclair

[dragongild]

We all know he must have an original name. So far he has been called, Doctor, Grandfather, and Professor. He has even been called "idiot" in Kinda. In the Armageddon Factor, the other Time Lord called him "Theta Sigma".

any ideas?

The Doctor's "real" name in the television series is Peter Sigma. His real name is revealed to viewers in "The Armageddon Factor: Part I" (1979), when Tom Baker played the Doctor. In that episode, an old school chum reveals that the Doctor's name is Peter Sigma, and calls him "Pete" several times in the episode. I just watched that episode again today. This information also is in the Internet Movie Data Base.

[memnarch]

There's a conversation between the Doctor and the Master in one of the last three episodes of series 3 that I think provides a plausible explanation about Time Lord names:

The Master: Doctor.
The Doctor: Master.
The Master: I like it when you use my name.
The Doctor: You chose it. Psychiatrist's field day.
The Master: As you chose yours. The man who makes people better, how sanctimonious is that?

It seems like both of them chose their names. Whether or not they had names given to them by their parents beforehand is anybody's guess but if they aren't given names at birth, perhaps they only get names after their initiations. It seems to fit, at least as far as the Master's concerned. If his insanity began after looking into the vortex, then the name "Master" probably came afterwards. Either that or his parents had really high hopes for his future...

The fact that the Doctor chose to be known as someone who makes people better is certainly fitting with his personality. It's not as if he does much medicinal doctoring. Rather he travels the universe fixing things. But not just "things" but people too. If he just wanted to fix things, he might be called the Tailor or the Repairman. Rather, the fact that he makes people feel better and inspires them to do further greatness is what makes him the Doctor.

And I just looked down at Merlin's_Legacy's post and realized it's similar to mine. I realize both of our ideas are similar, but they're different enough that I'm still posting this since it adds to the conversation. Cheers.

[ecchi]

The Doctor's "real" name in the television series is Peter Sigma. His real name is revealed to viewers in "The Armageddon Factor: Part I" (1979), when Tom Baker played the Doctor. In that episode, an old school chum reveals that the Doctor's name is Peter Sigma, and calls him "Pete" several times in the episode. I just watched that episode again today. This information also is in the Internet Movie Data Base.

No, I'm pretty sure it is Theta Sigma he calls him, and Then "Thete", not "Pete" later on.