What's in The Name?

For all the Harry Potter fans out there, here's a million dollar question: What is this Lord Voldemort's weird obsession with names?

Born as Tom Marvolo Riddle, he wanted to change his name. I can understand that. The only reason he escaped getting beaten every day at school, was that he was such a powerful wizard.

So then, he goes and changes his name to Lord Voldemort. Still not pretty, but since he wasn't aiming for beauty, we can forgive him that.

But why go to all these lengths to get an anagramic name and all, and then prevent everyone from saying it out loud? If he wanted to stop people from saying his name, he could have easily kept his old name, and put the taboo on it, right?

(SPOILER ALERT:) Not to mention, he died getting called "Riddle". Talk about wastage of effort.(END OF SPOILER)

I am sure someone somewhere is writing a fan-fic about what would have happened if Lord Voldemort would have stopped obsessing over his name, and would have invested that time learning about things he didn't know.



P.S. OK, you didn't actually think I was going to pay a million dollars if you answered, did you?