We know he has a name. We don't know what it is. We should never, ever know what it is. This is something of a no-brainer. There is no name that could be good enough for the Doctor. Ergo, we can't and shouldn't learn what it is. Moffat has teased us a time or two, but thankfully has been smart enough to not follow through. Besides, given the Time Lord names we've seen so far (things like Straxus, Goth, Flavia, Darkel, Spandrel, Vansel, Maxil, Irving Braxiatel, Chronotis, Romanadvoratrelundar, Omega, Rassilon, etc), perhaps it's best that we haven't ever learned the name. That said, we do know at least once where the Doctor was referred to as something other than "The Doctor". When he was on Gallifrey in "The Deadly Assassin", a reporter he knew while in school referred to him as Theta Sigma. Now there's a fan-theory out there that says "Theta Sigma" was a nickname designed to refer to someone of less-than-exceptional skills. It's like how we might refer to someone as an alpha and someone else as a beta. Under this logic, Omega, one of the developers of time travel technology, was someone who was regarded as especially exceptional. It's an interesting theory, but it isn't canonical. There was also one time, just once, on screen, where the Doctor was actually called "Doctor Who". This came during the First Doctor story, "The War Machines". In that story, a power-mad computer by the name of WOTAN has a moment where it starts spouting off, "DOCTOR WHO IS REQUIRED". This was odd, and confusing, and thankfully, never happened again.
Chris Swanson is a freelance writer and blogger based in Phoenix, Arizona, where winter happens to other people. His blog is at wilybadger.wordpress.com
