Editing True Names (section)

{{Short description|Seminal cyberpunk novel by Vernor Vinge}}
{{about||the 2008 story by Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum|True Names (2008 story)|the fantasy trope|True name}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox book <!--See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]]-->
| name              = True Names
| author            = Vernor Vinge
| image         = True_names.cover.jpg
| country           =USA
| language          = English
| series            =Binary Star #5, ed. James R. Frenkel
| publication_type  =
| media_type        = [[Novella]]
| preceded_by       =
| followed_by       =
| genre = [[Science fiction]], [[cyberpunk]]
| isbn = 978-0241975589
| published = 1981 ([[Dell Publishing]])
}}

'''''True Names''''' is a 1981 [[science fiction]] [[novella]] by American writer [[Vernor Vinge]], a seminal work of the [[cyberpunk]] genre. It is one of the earliest stories to present a fully fleshed-out concept of [[cyberspace]], which would later be central to cyberpunk. The story also contains elements of [[transhumanism]].

''True Names'' first brought Vinge to prominence as a science fiction writer. It also inspired many real-life hackers and computer scientists; a 2001 book about the novella, ''True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier'', included essays by [[Danny Hillis]], [[Marvin Minsky]], [[Mark Pesce]], [[Richard Stallman]] and others.<ref>[http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-312-86207-7 True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier review], ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', December 24, 2001</ref> It was a finalist for the [[Hugo Award for Best Novella|Hugo]] and [[Nebula Award for Best Novella|Nebula]] awards in 1982, and was awarded the [[Prometheus Award#Hall of Fame Award recipients|Prometheus Hall of Fame Award]] in 2007.