Rumpelstiltskin certainly thought his name was private information. There's actually quite a bit of folklore suggesting that knowing a person's (or creature's)

Rumpelstiltskin certainly thought his name was private information. There's actually quite a bit of folklore suggesting that knowing a person's (or creature's) name gifts you with a kind of power over them. And like most folklore, there's a grain of truth to that. It's a lot harder to gossip about someone in a way where they'd gain a reputation if you don't know their name. People who do shady things don't come up with aliases because it's fun. In the same way, I doubt as many people would donate large sums of money to hospitals, universities, and other institutions if they didn't get buildings named after them in return.