In ancient Egypt, when a baby was born, they would give the baby two names. One name would always remain secret and only the mother knew this secret name. The other name was public by which the baby would be known to the world. So why was this? The reason was that Ancient Egyptians believed in magic. They literally believed it…and not like us these days when we say, ‘oh thanks for a magical evening, I hope we can meet again at Starbucks…’ Ancient Egyptians were very serious about magic. We have records of priests being arrested for doing magic against the Pharaoh.
So the way the magic worked was, that if you knew someone’s name you could do magic on them. Stuff like, ‘May Jack spill beer on himself and be most embarrassed at the pyramid picnic,’ or even worse, ‘may Jack’s novel which he has written on papyrus burn in fire because he has not made a copy.’ But these magic spells would only work on a person’s real name. So Jack is safe against magic because his real and secret name is Henry. That’s why he looks so serene and confident. Just look at that face.
