That it is to stop a child's naming that impels the Creature almost accidentally to
kill him is significant in several ways. Most importantly, the Creature is existentially
unnamed, lacking an identity that denominates a particularized selfhood and a socialized
connectedness, the sort of implicit identity by which William himself immediately
commands authority. It was Victor Frankenstein's initial duty as his creator to accord
him that name but he fled from the responsibility. Thus, everywhere else in the novel,
with Victor from his distance actively participating in the process, the Creature
is identified, not by a name but through epithets, as being outside a human sphere.
In a symbolic sense at least, William dies for his naming, for taking on a function
only his brother has the right to perform.