Adults understand when people prefer nicknames. Or if they had reasons to be afraid to share their name. Sometimes people need to keep secrets to protect themselves and they might keep up the habit somewhere new and potentially dangerous.

My bunker, the one I dug for a hiding place, I needed that to be a secret when I was kid. For a long time. It made it feel safer that nobody else knew where it was originally. Later on, I let at least a few of the other trolls find out.

But even now, here, in a new place that was scary at first, I still haven't told everyone where all my boltholes and tunnels are. It feels safer to have a place to escape to.

[He shrugs.]

I think if you shared your real name, nobody would be upset you used another name first. But I also think nobody would think it was wrong if you decided to go on keeping it a secret because it felt safer that way.

[He knows it can be confusing, though, for a child figuring out right and wrong.]

Adults don't like dishonesty, but usually it's because lying can hurt someone somehow. Just hiding your real name isn't a type of lying that can hurt anyone.