Locke on Identity - lydgate/mindmeld GitHub Wiki

Probably worth reviewing this.

John Locke considered personal identity (or the self) to be founded on consciousness (viz. memory), and not on the substance of either the soul or the body. Chapter 27 of Book II of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), entitled "On Identity and Diversity", has been said to be one of the first modern conceptualizations of consciousness as the repeated self-identification of oneself. Through this identification, moral responsibility could be attributed to the subject and punishment and guilt could be justified, as critics such as Nietzsche would point out.

In other words, you are named by other people. But by repeating your name, you begin to self-identify.

See Nietzsche on guilt.