I have a young character who was taken from her home at a young age. But, as the years go by, she's now seventeen, but has no memory of her name. What would be a good age for her to be kidnapped? I'd want it to be young, but not too young. What do you all think?

I'd agree with Eva, any age under than five, without major trauma, she'd have the possibility of forgetting her name.

Otherwise, with major trauma, she could forget her name even if she was kidnapped when she was eight, though, she probably wouldn't remember anything else before what happened then and when she did remember something it'd probably be foggy and questionable. She'd probably have a few other symptoms like unreasonable fears, unexplained dreams, and maybe headaches (but that depends on the kind of trauma).

From three to four, depending on the person, she may remember her name. My sister remembers some things from when she was as young as three, including our parents saying her name in certain instances, so it's possible that, if she had a good memory, she'd still remember.

Three and under is probably a good range, if you don't want her to go through any major form of trauma, she probably wouldn't remember her name then, if she starts getting called by another name. Most likely, I'd think, if nobody calls her by any name, she'd probably still remember her old one, even if she was only three. But I can't exactly say that's true... That's just an assumption.

In my experience, most babies know their names well before they can even talk, so it's something that is hard to forget. But I'd also think that, if you start being called something else and there are no traces of your original age and you are young, she'd probably forget her name. Though it's an interesting concept, I never thought about somebody just forgetting their name, least not without some head trauma or a couple hundred suppressed memories.

Anyways, excuse my rant. Hopefully that made some sort of sense.

Bethany Faith

That's younger than I thought. I didn't think about it that way.

How would you define trauma? I mean, what sort of things would cause it? For example, Being kidnapped and sold as a slave? (Which is what happens to her)

Well, emotional trauma can cause her to forget things, I suppose. Considering the type of trauma. Usually though, the most traumatic experiences are when all your sense are involved (I.E. Hearing, smelling, seeing, feeling, tasting - though not as necessary - and even emotion, even though that's not a sense)

Considering she was kidnapped, that could be something powerful enough to cause her to lose her memory, but said kidnappers would have to be really cruel and she would have to probably go through multiple different traumatic experiences to forget everything right down to her name.

Specifically, I was thinking of head trauma. I think, even so much as being knocked unconscious could effect her memory to an extent. But head trauma is tricky in the sense that you're never really sure about how the person is going to react to it.

Being sold as a slave, your character, if her personality allows it, would probably be pretty panicked, even if she didn't fully understand what was happening. From what I understand, her kidnapping, her being sold, and her growing up in such a manner combined with her young age (I'd say the highest you could go might be eight, with multiple different scenarios throughout her life sprinkled here and there that traumatized her, but that's just a guess, again) would probably make her lose a lot of her memory as well as the thought of her name.

I'm not sure if that's exactly what you were looking for... But I'm a bit foggy on the science of this concept, it's been a bit since I studied the mind.

Anybody, feel free to come and correct me here.

Bethany Faith

It does help. Would it be possible for her to forget her name (and maybe her life in general), but perhaps she would have nightmares of the event, and seeing her father in the dream?

Yes, that's very possible, in fact, rather realistic.

An interesting fact to remember when you're wondering about how long a memory can last is that you can blind fold a person and then take them into a room with a crowd of people, take off the blind fold for a second (or a twentieth of a second... I think, not sure), blind fold them again, and take them out. Then never have them see the room again. And twenty years later the image of the room and faces of each person will still be in that person's memory, just perhaps not readily accessible.

This means that it's not really possible to entirely forget something, especially your entire life and special events in it. Which means her memories will probably still be ingrained in her subconscious and they come out sometimes (such as, like I said, in irrational fears, nightmares, and such, even sometimes headaches during certain situations, if she has head trauma).

Therefore, she would probably have dreams (or more likely, nightmares) of things she can't exactly remember. Odds are though, the dreams would be foggy and sort of hard to follow. On a rare occasion, a dream might reveal an entire memory, but I would think something would have to trigger that such as an event that came to pass that day or something she was thinking about as she fell asleep.

Also, memories could come in more than dreams. She could remember something while she is awake, perhaps not an entire memory, but a tid bit.

NOTE: If she remembers something traumatic she will probably suffer from physical symptoms too. Such as shaking, sweating, stuttering, light headedness, it's possible she could pass out too, if she forces herself to think or say the memory aloud.

And a final thing (I'll stop ranting after this, promise ) is smell. Scents are even more easy to remember than sight. Why? I don't know, but they are. Your mind will never forget a smell. Which makes them excellent triggers for supressed memories.

Bethany Faith

That's interesting. I think she probably would have instances when she's awake that would trigger something, because her home is invaded when she's kidnapped.

I think I remember my mom saying that same thing about the sense of smell.

Just another comment to add to the discussion-- you could look at how memories are portrayed in Mara, Daughter of the Nile, for similar examples. I don't know how technically correct McGraw wrote it, but the main character is kidnapped from her home and sold as slave to various masters over time. By the time she's eighteen, her memories of life before have been reduced to the memory of someone with blue eyes holding her and laughing, and the vague feeling of a spacious home. It feels convincing, even though her initial age is not told. So, would you even need to tell an exact age?

If she never uses her name she could simply forget it, rather than having complete memory loss. If a person chooses to completely forget something then by the time she's that old she would completely forget unless she really tries hard to remember. And she'd have to want to remember.

I have an MC who forgot her name. She was about five and she witnessed her parents' murder. Afterwards she couldn't remember what had happened, or anything previous to that time, including her name and her parents name.

I would have known my name by 2. No doubt about it. And, as already stated, that would be hard for a child to forget.

What if, while being captured and sold, she had a slight head trama?