

Magicians show that they are serious by shouting their magical names. Poster
child of this behaviour is shown in Endymion no Kiseki, when

> Touma is still unsure of what is going on, when Stiyl shouts Fortis583 right
> before going all out. Touma's expression changes radically, as he
> understands that Styil is an enemy, at least for the moment.

Is there any rule in making the magical names, or are they intended to look
like forum/internet nicknames?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-18T19:38:36.227
37936
2019-09-27T15:15:16.220
2808
question
a-certain-magical-index
Why those "magical names" sound so much like forum handles?


Well, I assume that this particular system is to prevent name clashes.

The church probably has a registry of names; a magician chooses​ a Latin word
that fits their ideals and a number is added on to indicate that they are the
nth person to have chosen that name.

It's out of necessity that they sound like that, since their magical name is
something that defines them, the same way as a person's username on a forum
defines their membership of that forum.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-11T18:12:41.233
39352
2017-03-11T18:12:41.233
24023
37936
answer


This is explained in the fourth novel (angel fall arc; chapter 2 part 5) by
Motoharu:

> “The term ‘magician’—especially the modern magicians that were established
> in the tenth century, will carve their wishes onto their souls. This is the
> magic name. Carving the reason why they want to learn magic or give up their
> entire lives for the one goal by writing it out it in Latin. Like for me,
> I’m Fallere825, Kanzaki nee-chin’s Salvare000. **The numbers behind are used
> to prevent others from repeating the word, so this is like an email
> authentication.** ”

(This is not from the official English translation because I don't have access
to it.)


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-11T08:40:03.053
39802
2017-04-11T08:40:03.053
122
37936
answer


The magic names are Latin and they are chosen to represent the wishes of the
magic user. The numbers at the end serve as unique identifiers in the case
that the term has been used previously as a magic name.

This is a quote from Tsuchimikado from page 112 of volume 4 of the Yen Press
translation of _A Certain Magical Index_ :

> "Sorcerers-particularly the kind who assumed a foothold in the nineteenth
> century, or 'advanced sorcerers'- engrave our own desire upon our souls. I'm
> talking about magic names. We carve into our hearts the Latin for the reason
> we study magic, the one wish for which we would give our lives for. For me
> it's Fallere825, and Kanzaki's is Salvere000, nya~. The numbers afterwards
> are in case there're doubles of the same term. It's kind of like an email
> domain in that respect."

This is the same quote used by looper in his answer, but the official
translation differs significantly. The official translation compares the
inclusion of the numbers to an email domain rather than to email
authentication. This means the two translations are offering completely
different explanations for the numbers. In one case, the numbers are for the
purpose of authentication so that others cannot repeat the name. In the other
case, the numbers are simply for differentiating magical names that use the
same Latin term.

It's easy to just offhandedly say the official translation is the correct one,
but we'd have to check the original Japanese to be sure. Thanks to senshin's
comment, we have this: the original Japanese is:「そこらへんはメールの登録名【ドメイン】と同じだぜよ」.
The phrase "登録名" means literally "registered name", and refers to a type of
name used for persistent and ideally-unique identification (a la an email
local-part); he then adds furigana ドメイン _domein_ "domain". (Again, thanks to
senshin for the original text and translation)

So it turns out the Yen Press translation is more accurate to the original
Japanese and makes the most sense.

Kamijou hears the full magic names, so there is a flaw in using the numbers
for authentication. If the purpose of a magic name is to tell opponents, then
it doesn't make sense to give them the authentication as well. Also, at the
point I've read to in this series, there hasn't been any mention as to why it
would be bad that someone knew your magic name, so I question why
authentication would be needed in the first place.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-05-20T18:43:31.973
40454
2019-09-27T15:15:16.220
2019-09-27T15:15:16.220
19307
19307
37936
answer