Identity is a major theme of The Nargun and the Stars. It is primarily an issue for Simon, but it relates in some way to all the characters in the story. At the beginning, Simon is "a stranger even to himself." His sense of personal identity was lost along with his home and family when his parents died in a car crash.

Edie and Charlie Waters, a sister and brother who are his distant cousins, volunteer to be his guardians. Simon, who does not care where he lives, leaves the orphanage and goes to their ranch, Wongadilla. At first he cannot bring himself to call them by name, and he is startled and displeased when they call him "Simey." When he meets the Potkoorok, a mischievous spirit that lives in the swamp, Simon asks, "Is that your own name? Or is it what you...