In some traditions you cannot call yourself of that trad unless you are initiated. Golden Dawn and OTO are a few that are very much via initiation only, I also used to work with a few covens that were initiation only. I actually miss working within hierarchy of covens, because you had to prove you had the knowledge and aptitude to move up a level, it also meant that you had the grounding in the basics before you tried anything "harder". I suppose that has helped me a lot with working with some of the things I do, that I have had many years grounding in basics. But then again I'm hereditary and I've been doing this for as long as I can remember.

Wicca is one of the newer ones (it is only 50 odd years old) that has an "older" trad requisite for initiation. A lot of people are not aware of it, so they call themselves wiccan and then if they ever meet a "true" wiccan they get asked to name their lineage - which they can't. I do know people who can name their lineage.