In C#, is "this" keyword required? [duplicate]

No, this is purely optional in almost all cases. The only reason it is required in your example is to disambiguate between local variables and parameters and member variables that happened to have the same identifier name.

You could avoid the use of this by renaming either the parameter or the field to something unique.

Yes, you need it in your code example. C# will always assume you mean local variable, so if a member variable and a local variable exist with the same name, you must use this, otherwise it will be assumed that you are referring to the local variable.

In your code example, if you neglect the this, you are effectively assigning name (or alias)'s value to itself (thus accomplishing nothing).