The Sword and Laser discussion

What do people think about the usage and importance of names in the book? We don't learn Alif's birth name until the last few pages, and we never learn the convert's name. The emphasis on names made me think of how names can shape, label and influence a person. I thought the book did a decent job of exploring this, but could potentially have done more. Thoughts?

I just finished reading Tigana, which is a book that has a lot to say on this.
Regardless, I was thinking a lot about how the convert isn't named in the book. The most straightforward explanation for this (in my opinion) is to establish her foreignness. By calling her "the convert", the author makes it clear that to society, she'll always be a convert, first and foremost.
I might be simply projecting from my experience, but I understand that. I've been called "the Jew", or "the Homo" many times in my life, and it has such a powerful (negative) effect reminding you that whatever else you do, you're always just that one thing.

One particular scene comes to mind, a conversation between Alif and the convert:
"The corners of Alif’s mouth twitched. He thought of half a dozen veiled insults, and despite himself, the worst one came out. “Why did you become Muslim?” He found himself elongating the pronoun with a hostile sneer, forgetting for a moment that he shared some of her foreignness, some of her skepticism. The convert seemed unsurprised by his implication.
The convert seemed unsurprised by his implication. “Islam was presented to me as a system for social justice,” she said carefully. “I converted in that spirit.” “God never came into it, then.” “Well, of course God came into it, but as a— as an—” “A side issue? A thought experiment? Or something for one of your papers?” The convert jerked as though she’d been slapped. “That’s not fair,” she said in a quieter voice. “That is really, really not fair.”

It was an interesting rumination on the nature of names in the internet age-- our "True Names" can disappear, and there's a danger that we can be caught up in the names we choose for ourselves. Alif is often so immature as to be barely a person, and his name is almost itself a blank. Just a letter. It's only after his entire transformative experience that we get his True Name. NewQuarter01' is defined largely by his social position. Etc.

What did everyone make of Vikram taking the name of his human victim?

(and fantastic analysis of the convert by Barak!)