Lord of the Flies

In Lord of the Flies, Piggy’s real name is never revealed. From his very first appearance, he admits that “they used to call me Piggy” at school and begs Ralph not to tell the others—but Ralph immediately does, and the nickname replaces his identity for the rest of the novel.

That omission matters. Other boys are introduced with proper names—Ralph, Jack, Simon—but Piggy is defined by a humiliating label tied to his body and weakness. Once the group adopts it, he is never called anything else, even in moments when he is clearly the most rational and insightful voice among them. His real name, whatever it is, disappears under the weight of the group’s ridicule.

This erasure reflects the boys’ shifting values. Piggy represents intelligence, reason, and civilization, yet those qualities earn him mockery instead of respect. As the boys drift toward savagery, they strip away the markers of identity and dignity that civilization provides, and Piggy’s lost name becomes one of the earliest signs of that process.

By the time order collapses completely, Piggy is reduced entirely to what the group sees—a target, not a person. His missing name underscores how, without the structures of society, even something as basic as a person’s identity can vanish.