"Voldemort,” said Riddle softly, “is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter…”
He pulled Harry’s wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
“You see?” he whispered. “It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course."
E em O Príncipe Mestiço :
Tom Riddle merely smiled as the others laughed again. Harry noticed that he was by no means the eldest of the group of boys, but that they all seemed to look at him as their leader.
Nós também vemos que seus seguidores são abertamente os 'Comensais da Morte' e que ele começou a fazer coisas más quando se candidata para a posição de Defesa Contra as Artes das Trevas, como vemos nas memórias de Dumbledore:
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "And what will become of those whom you command? What will happen to those who call themselves - or so rumor has it - the Death Eaters?"
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, chapter 20
O nome que está sendo temido provavelmente aconteceu gradualmente, à medida que seu reino de terror piorou. Quanto mais coisas más ele fazia, mais as pessoas o temiam, mais pessoas temiam seu nome. Mas provavelmente não foi tudo de uma vez; isso aconteceu gradualmente.