Name Papers

“If that paper should happen to wear out, which some people sweats in the feet aplenty” then, an Algiers worker explained, you simply wrote the judge’s name nine times again and put it back in your shoe (Hyatt 2930 · Algiers, La. · informant 1590).

The name paper is the quiet workhorse of hoodoo. Where hair or a photograph could not be had, a name written on paper could, and Hyatt’s informants used it for nearly everything: love, jobs, court, thieves, moving people out and putting people down.

What it is

A name paper is a person’s name, written by hand, usually a set number of times, on a small piece of paper. The paper is then dressed, folded, crossed with another name, and put to work in a shoe, a bottle, a cup of water or under a light.

The details mattered to the informants, and they gave them with care:

• The count: nine times was the rule, with five, seven and three also used.
• Backwards: the family name first and the given name last (Hyatt 7248 · Norfolk, Va. · informant 488).
• The paper: plain white, or brown paper bought for the purpose (Hyatt 1397 · New Orleans, La. · informant 797).
• The pencil: an indelible pencil, mentioned again and again (Hyatt 2951 · New Orleans, La. · informant 820).
• The fold: folded towards you to draw something in (Hyatt 2153 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 973).

Crossed names

Crossing one name over another tied two people together, or set them against each other. The paper was turned and the second name written straight across the first, forming a cross.

A Mobile woman who wanted her man back wrote his name five times in a column, then hers across it five times (Hyatt 4987 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 692). A thief’s name went under yours, crossed, and down into a cup of clear water beneath a light (Hyatt 2829 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 688).

Crossing could also be used to drive people out. A New Orleans informant wrote the landlord’s name nine times and the tenant’s across it five times, and burned it under a black candle: “that will make the landlord cross with them and he make them move.” (Hyatt 2830 · New Orleans, La. · informant 854).

Names in the shoe

Putting a name in your shoe meant walking on that person, keeping them under your foot all day. It was one of the commonest rites Hyatt recorded.

• The boss: his name written nine times, folded towards you and worn in the left shoe. “Fur that makes the boss patient, you know, puts his mind on you” (Hyatt 2153 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 973).
• A lover: a man could “write her name nine times backward and wear it in his left shoe with a silver dime” (Hyatt 2156 · New Orleans, La. · informant 783).
• Enemies: their names nine times, worn with salt, red pepper and a dime underfoot so they could do you no harm (Hyatt 1533 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 1537).
• The judge: his name nine times in the right shoe until the day of trial (Hyatt 2930 · Algiers, La. · informant 1590).

Under lights and in bottles

Name papers went beneath candles, lamps and plates for all kinds of work. One New Orleans worker set a name under a new white plate holding a black candle, with a knife and fork crossed around it. It was work to run the person crazy in the head (Hyatt 2845 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1568).

A name could also be bottled with bodily matter. A New Orleans man described a woman writing his name nine times, crossing two needles, dropping both in her urine and burying the stopped bottle so that he could be with no other woman (Hyatt 3317 · New Orleans, La. · informant 866).

In their own words

“She’s got me tied up, yo’ see.”

(Hyatt 3317 · New Orleans, La. · informant 866)

“you write their names on there five times.”

(Hyatt 1397 · New Orleans, La. · informant 797)

“Ah put it in mah lef ‘ shoe.”

(Hyatt 7248 · Norfolk, Va. · informant 488)

How it’s worked today

The name paper, often called a petition paper, is still the base of most rootwork. Practitioners write the name nine times, cross it with their own name or with a written command, and write in a continuous hand without lifting the pen.

The paper is folded towards the worker to draw and away to banish, then dressed with oil and placed under a candle, in a honey or vinegar jar, inside a mojo bag or in the shoe. Brown paper, sometimes torn from a grocery bag, is still the favourite.

Learn the work

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Source: Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978. Numbers refer to Hyatt’s own item numbers; the town and informant number follow. Written by Hoodoo Witch in our own words, with short quotations from Hyatt’s informants for reference.