Painterly fantasy illustration of a thin girl in grey robes standing before a dark still pool in a vast pale stone temple of arches and statues, a cloaked figure waiting on the far steps.

Original artwork, not a still

Arya Stark

A girl has no name.

— Game of Thrones ‧ 2011

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The sentence is Arya's Faceless Men training in one line: she speaks of herself in the third person and insists she is nobody, because only a girl with no name can be useful to the Many-Faced God. It is also a lie she is already tiring of, which pays off in the later episode "No One", when she tells Jaqen a girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell and is going home. Fans quote it for anyone who is refusing to say who they are.

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In context

Spoilers for Game of ThronesShow the scene

The line belongs to "Home", the second episode of Game of Thrones season 6 (HBO, 1 May 2016, written by Dave Hill), not to season 5 as the attribution says. Arya, blinded and begging on the streets of Braavos, is approached by the Waif, who asks who she is and beats her when she answers that she is no one. The Waif then vanishes and Jaqen H'ghar stands in her place. He promises that if Arya says her name she will have a roof, food and her sight back. Each time he asks, she says a girl has no name, and Jaqen tells her to follow him: she is a beggar no more.

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