Fake names and chosen names are a recurring motif for secrets and lies in The Expats. Most prominently, Kate discovers that Julia Maclean is a name meant to conceal Julia’s purpose in investigating Kate’s husband, Dexter. Once Kate discovers that Julia is not her real name, every detail she has given about her background becomes part of a cover story. The name provides a second layer of concealment, however, when Kate realizes that Julia’s real name, Susan Pognowski, ties her to Dexter through their friendship in college.

This motif is deployed more subtly when Kate moves to Luxembourg and chooses to call herself “Kate” instead of “Kat” or “Katherine.” This change suits her reinvention, burying the past in which she had worked as an agent for the CIA, along with all the sins she had committed in the line of duty. By distancing herself from where she used to work and who she used to be, she believes that she can absolve herself of all the things that continue to haunt her, such as killing the innocent wife of Eduardo Torres. However, Dexter regularly calls her “Kat,” even though she reminds him that she no longer wants to go by that name.