Zwat

Name in this case was more than just a label attached to something to give it a definition.

In mysticism, name also has their own weight, fate, and influence.

In some it was a prayer and hope from parents to their children
In some, it merely for convenience’s sake.
In some, there was also the tradition to give a child many names: true name, mortal name, and courtesy name.

this culture was more prominent in Asian countries like China, Japan, Korea, India, Arab, Indonesia, Malaysia (indigenous) (well, those countries were one which culture I understood).

Even at shallow, when a person's name was taken, the usurper/thief could masquerade as the owner of that name.

Case in point were scam calls, phishing, and unverified online account owner. Nothing fundamental would affect the original owner, maybe except a worsening in reputation and some other annoyances.

Also, as you might have noticed, name could also grow. At superficial level, growing name means to let (many) others to know your name -be famous, as you name it.

However, when you linked it with the supernaturals, something worse could happen.
Stolen fate, Luck suppression, Curse, Sacrifice, Misfortune avoidance, Subconscious influencing, etc.

Maybe if you read this novel: Lord of The Mysteries; you could understand it easier.

Back to explanation,

This is why when their name were stolen, the original name owner will no longer be the existence the name was referring to, in almost everything: both in superficial level nor in eidolon level.

let's say...

you know this A person who is your neighbor to your left in your community,
almost every inhabitant in your complex knew A and has good relations with him
then came B, an unknown person to everyone in your neighborhoods
then B stole person A's "name"
the result was:
you know B as A, even in subconscious level -memories, and recognition
people in community also know B as A, their relationship and all
then the confused original A confronted B, making a ruckus
but everyone knowing A, literally everyone... sided with B due to "inherited" name
saying that original A was the unknown newcomer there
even if B sold A's properties, none would find fault
because currently B was A, the legal owner of the properties

Thank you so much! That was a great explanation.

Another question, the constellation had their name erased right? Meaning their existence erased? But they still have their power(?) So their names that got stolen, what benefit did the thief get seeing they still have their power and decades have passed and they seem not to care about reputation? I reread it so many times but still don't get it.

I have to say something that might contradict my explanation before.

Having their name stolen, ripped, or taken from them didn't mean that person cease to exist, but rather... they change to a different entity or their record was reset, like a newborn.

i.e: A's life began with 1, and has grown to having the complete 10 (ordinal 1-10). Later he encountered a thief who stole part of his number, thus A no longer has the complete sequence, but can he still be regarded the (perfect) A?

I speculated that name, in the end, was only a label attached to at least one side of an existence life. Therefore, as long as that person has many "sides" to them (better known only to a few people), even if one of their names got stolen, that person could still retain a fragment of their original life trajectory or that several of their original acquaintances still retained their recognition of that person.

For a non-supernatural case, let's say

Person A was a big influencer in the net world, so A has quite a big "power" in that side.
Almost everything he say, people would just follow it
One day, his main account got hacked and his online identity was used by the hacker
and the hacker imitated how person A's usual habit and demeanor, so none found out that it was a different person altogether.
therefore, the hacker directly obtained big power in social net
Can the original owner take it back? possible but hard
Only a few people actually aware that the account was used by hacker, because
beside the online persona as influencer, person A also has his other side that only those few people were aware of.

as for the purpose of stealing name? In this story, it would mainly about usurping other's power, and to break through a new realm in power/authority.

remember? name also has power, even more name which has experience growth (those that has left traces or imprinted in history). with name, came along power, you may say. However, name also has their own limit.

if you refer to legends, epics, fairytales, myth, etc... some which has tremendous influence and taken root in society, some characters were even deified in some places.

maybe you could also refer to ORV in the aspect of how a human could become a constellation.
perhaps here, when a human got their name ripped from them... they cease to be human.


Also, it was stated that the "master" really want to break through the wall of a maze master using the collected names.