Why Is Atreus Called Loki? The Name Explained

Atreus is called Loki because that was the name his mother, Faye, wanted to give him, and the name the giants used for him in the prophecy they painted long before he was born. Kratos persuaded Faye to name the boy Atreus instead, after a Spartan he had fought beside. The truth comes out in the last chapter of God of War (2018), and God of War Ragnarök is the story of Atreus growing into the name. (God of War (2018); God of War Ragnarök)

How God of War (2018) reveals that Atreus is Loki#

The reveal waits until the final stretch of the game. Kratos and Atreus have spent the whole story trying to carry out Faye's last wish, to scatter her ashes from the highest peak of the Nine Realms, and that peak turns out to be in Jötunheim, the land of the giants. (God of War (2018))

Inside the mountain they pass through a cave lined with the stone faces of giants. As they reach the far end, the walls crumble at Atreus's touch and reveal murals that had been hidden behind them. The first shows Faye arguing with the giants. The rest show the whole of the trip Kratos and Atreus have just made, painted before they ever set out. This is the start of what the site covers as the Prophecy of Loki. (God of War (2018))

Two things land at once. Faye was a giant, which makes Atreus part giant, and she knew all along what her son and husband would go through. And in the giants' runes the boy is named Loki, while the figure of Kratos is labelled Fárbauti. (God of War (2018))

Back in Midgard, Brok and Sindri admit they knew Atreus was part giant, and Mimir works out who Faye really was: Laufey the Just, a giant famous for helping the weak against the Aesir. (God of War (2018))

Why Kratos named him Atreus instead#

After the ashes are scattered, Atreus asks his father why the giants called him Loki. Kratos tells him Faye had wanted to name him Loki, and guesses that this is the name she gave the giants. But Kratos convinced her to name him Atreus. (God of War (2018))

Kratos then tells the story behind the name. Atreus was a Spartan he fought beside, a man unlike other Spartans because he was full of life and lifted his comrades' spirits in war. When he died in battle, Kratos carried him back to Sparta on his shield and buried him with honour. Kratos wanted his son to carry that name. Atreus, who has spent the game getting one-word answers, is impressed that his father actually told a good story. (God of War (2018))

So the boy has two names from two parents, and that fits the rest of the game. The name from his father ties him to Sparta and the past Kratos is trying to bury. The one from his mother ties him to the giants and a future she had already seen. The page on Eis covers what else is known about the soldier. (God of War (2018))

Loki, Laufey and Fárbauti in Norse mythology#

The name isn't random. In the Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century handbook of Norse myth, Loki is the son of the giant Fárbauti, and his mother is called Laufey or Nál. Snorri often calls him Loki Laufeyjarson, son of Laufey. (Prose Edda)

God of War copies that family exactly. Faye's real name is Laufey, the mural writes Kratos as Fárbauti, and their son is Loki. It's the series' way of telling players who Atreus has been all along. (God of War (2018); Prose Edda)

The myths also give Loki three monstrous children with the giantess Angrboda: the wolf Fenrir, the World Serpent Jormungandr and Hel. At Ragnarok, Snorri says, Loki fights Heimdall and each kills the other. Ragnarök plays with several of these threads, which is why the name worried Atreus so much. (Prose Edda; God of War Ragnarök)

What being Loki means in Ragnarök#

Three years later, the name is the centre of the sequel. During Fimbulwinter, Atreus searches the giants' shrines for what his role as Loki is meant to be, without telling his father. Odin is interested in him for the same reason. (God of War Ragnarök)

In Ironwood he meets Angrboda, a young giant who calls him Loki and has been expecting him. She shows him the rest of the giants' prophecy and tells him he is the one their prophecy foretold, then gives him a bag of marbles holding the souls of the giants who hid from the Aesir, for him to keep. (God of War Ragnarök)

Some of the myth comes true in the game's own way, and some doesn't. Heimdall dies, but at Kratos's hands, not Loki's. When Atreus's pet wolf Fenrir dies, the boy holds on to his soul and later places it in the body of the giant wolf Garm, so Loki does end up giving the world the great wolf Fenrir. (God of War Ragnarök)

Does Atreus accept the name Loki?#

Yes. After the war in Asgard, Atreus tells Kratos he wants to leave the Nine Realms and find the giants who scattered, carrying their souls with him. Kratos lets him go. Atreus leaves as Loki, the role the giants and his mother had in mind for him, though by then he has shown that the prophecy doesn't control everything he does. (God of War Ragnarök)

The series never says outright why Faye chose that name. A reasonable reading, and it is only a reading, is that she had seen the giants' prophecy and named her son for the part it gave him, while doing what she could to stop it trapping him. Ragnarök shows she destroyed part of the prophecy so that her family could make their own choices. (God of War Ragnarök)

The full story of how father and son get there is in the God of War (2018) story and the Ragnarök ending explained. (God of War (2018); God of War Ragnarök)