How do you think names work for reapers?
Do they get transfered to their afterlife and reapers just have the option to either go by their name or the number? Or do they get to choose their own names once they get reborn as reapers?
Names aren't really official in the human world, at least they aren't for reapers, since they are just ways to identify each other. It would make sense if the dispatch refused to use names of the reapers from when they were alive.
But that leads me to wonder whether UT could actually be Cedric?? Don't get me wrong, I'm fully on board with Grandpa!UT theory, but if he always went by his ID number, that could mean he never chose a name for himself, which would mean Cedric can't be his name since he has no name! That is of course, in the case that reapers have to name themselves.
I might just be thinking a bit too far into this though hehe 😅
Well, now that I'm reading Scythe by Neal Shusterman, I started to consider that perhaps Kuroverse reapers choose completely new names when they become reapers. Much like how royals can choose what name to use when they ascend to the throne or how clergy can choose new names to go by, "scythes" in that book series do this, usually choosing the last name of a scientist they particularly respect. Faraday, Curie, etc. In Kuroshitsuji we've seen a nod to Shakespeare himself, as well as to a priest who wasn't even born until February 17, 1888 (Ronald Knox).
However, we've also seen a Shakespearean character (Othello), a nod to a serial killer who wouldn't be born for several decades (Sutcliff), and two names (in the manga) that seem random (Sascha and Ludger). We haven't been given Sascha's or Ludger's full names -- or Othello's -- but it's probably safe to assume they have them.
It's entirely possible these are their actual names from before they died. If they go through karmic reincarnation (get reborn as reapers with their old souls), these could be the names they were born with as reapers.
The mere fact that Undertaker's name isn't known to Othello, since he preferred to use his registration number, increases the chances of it being Cedric K. Ros-- (whatever that is, like Rosewood, Rosedale, etc.). This allows Yana-san to make us wait even longer to learn the truth about him. Then, for some unknown reason, Undertaker wanted to cut ties with his old self. Even back then.
And Othello makes it sound like they usually go by names they had before they were registered. More specifically, these are "given names".
This suggests that, wherever the names come from, reapers don't typically choose them for themselves. Undertaker, despite being the epitome of a reaper, was breaking customs right from the start by using his registration number.
I'm curious now why Othello just says "most of our kind" instead of "all of our kind, except this one". What other reaper changed their name, and why?
Of course, this all lines up very well with one of Undertaker's parallels in Mother3. There are 7 Magypsies in the game, just as there are 7 named reapers in the manga. (Eric and Alan's names have never been mentioned in the manga; Anderson hasn't either.) They are all named after musical modes: Aeolia, Ionia, Lydia, Doria, Mixolydia, Phrygia, and Locria. Locria deserts the others and changes their name to Fassad (like a façade). We don't learn that Fassad was a Magypsy until a while after they're destroyed. But this works with how Undertaker uses a given number instead of a given name... and then changes it to something else when he deserts his position.
One way to find Undertaker's given name when he chose to go by 136649? Have someone pull his old registration files. The given name he chose not to use should be there. Othello just didn't know because he never looked. Probably never had access to it. But I bet William does. And Sascha and Ludger might have seen it, too, by now. After all, William is sharing intel with them.
