are nicknames used in the Japanese martial arts. The word is composed of the symbols 武 (bu, meaning "martial") and 号 (gō, meaning "name"). In English, the term is sometimes translated as "martial name" or "warrior name" with similar equivalents in other languages. Cultural origin As James George Frazer demonstrated in The Golden Bough, using someone's real name is a taboo common to many countries throughout history, and to circumvent this taboo, pseudonyms are often used. For example, in Japan, the word for true name (諱, imina) is derived from 忌み+名 (also imina), meaning "name to be avoided due to death or other taboos": after death, people are given posthumous names (諡, okurina) to avoid "calling" them via their true name. In China's Southern Song period, Neo-Confucianism combined concepts of reclusion, self-denial and self-effacing humility from Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and these thoughts found fertile ground in Japan.The practice of 実名敬避俗 mjitsumei keihizoku, the avoidance of real names, became fashionable and even de rigueur amongst the educated classes--literati (:ja:文人) poets, artists and monks, as well as courtiers. In modern Japan, it is common practice to call people by their titles instead of their names (even within the family), and online, Japanese people tend to use handles rather than personal names (see also Japanese names). During the Edo period, Japanese people, including commoners, used multiple names. Samurai names changed throughout one's lifetime, depending on stage of life (e.g. coming of age), through titles associated with official positions, allegiance, and finay with Buddhist necronyms after death (q.v. Kaimyō). However, these are not normally referred to as Bugō unless used within a martial arts training setting (dōjō or ryūha). For example, Miyamoto Musashi's various names included 藤原 Fujiwara (lineage), 宮本 Miyamoto (village origin), 新免 Shinmen (name of father's lord), 辨助 Bennosuke (childhood name), 武蔵 Musashi (title; also possibly read "Takezō" as a personal name), 玄信 ("imina", read as Harunobu, Motonobu and/or Genshin), 二天 Niten (mainly in his suiboku paintings), 二天道楽 Niten Dōraku, etc. People still debate which of these names were really used, in what ways, and how they were read. As with patronymic personal names and Yagō, it is common for students to include a character from the teacher's Bugō as a mark of respect and to ensure continuity of the lineage. In many cases the name would not be chosen by the practitioner/student, but chosen for them by the teacher -