History Main / NoNameGiven

* In the ''Radio/BelieveIt'' episode "Party", a recurrent theme is that Creator/RichardWilson (and Creator/JosVantyler, and Creator/DavidTennant) all despise a certain actor, much-married, recently knighted, and apparently slept with Creator/ArabellaWeir and Creator/IanMcKellan, but who Richard only ever calls "Golden Boy", explaining that he wants to keep working. On the one occasion he does have to use Golden Boy's name, it's bleeped out.

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' has Finn, the Leafman with the orange beard. His name is only in the closing credits.

%%* NoNameGiven/RealLife

* NoNameGiven/RealLife

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', Mulan's horse is never named until near the end of the movie. However, during gameplay of ''VideoGame/DisneyInfinity'', Mulan's horse (on one of the power discs) is named Kahn.

* The [[SpoiledBrat bratty boy]] who eventually learns to do things for himself in ''Animation/TheKey'' has no given name, in contrast to the boy's parents, his grandfather, the scientist, and even a little RobotGirl, whom all have names.

* None of the all-animal cast in ''Animation/TheGoatMusician'' have names.

** The Grimm Reaper is a legendary Huntress who was active on Remnant when Qrow was a student. The only thing anyone ever knew about this enigmatic Huntress was that she never revealed her name and always hid her identity behind a decorative skull mask. When she mysteriously disappeared, everyone eventually accepted that she had died. Qrow based his SinisterScythe on her dual kama. [[spoiler:Maria reveals in Volume 6 that she was the Grimm Reaper; she hid her identity because her father realised Silver-Eyed Warriors were being hunted to extinction for unknown reasons. Despite her precautions, Salem was still able to track her down, although her subordinate only succeeded in blinding her. Maria went into hiding out of fear that assassins would reappear to finish the job.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': DiscussedTrope: Untold years ago, two gods lived on Remnant, whose actions in their lifetime affected humanity for centuries to come. Despite his importance to the show's plot, the male's name has been lost to history. [[spoiler:Jinn reveals that [[BigGood Ozma's]] first [[ResurrectiveImmortality reincarnation]] triggered a mistake that led to the [[SecretWar secret]] ForeverWar being fought between him and [[BigBad Salem]], which included the pair [[GodGuise faking gods]] to try and unite humanity. Ozma's [[LegacyOfTheChosen current host]], [[FarmBoy Oscar]], is horrified to realise that Ozma [[BodySnatcher never learned]] the name of his first host. Jinn confirms that it took Ozma a long time to learn how to [[SharingABody live in harmony]] with his hosts, leaving the heroes [[DemonicPossession assuming the worst]] about Oscar's [[LossOfIdentity eventual fate]].]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''
** DiscussedTrope: Untold years ago, two gods lived on Remnant, whose actions in their lifetime affected humanity for centuries to come. Despite his importance to the show's plot, the male's name has been lost to history. [[spoiler:Jinn reveals that [[BigGood Ozma's]] first [[ResurrectiveImmortality reincarnation]] triggered a mistake that led to the [[SecretWar secret]] ForeverWar being fought between him and [[BigBad Salem]], which included the pair [[GodGuise faking gods]] to try and unite humanity. Ozma's [[LegacyOfTheChosen current host]], [[FarmBoy Oscar]], is horrified to realise that Ozma [[BodySnatcher never learned]] the name of his first host. Jinn confirms that it took Ozma a long time to learn how to [[SharingABody live in harmony]] with his hosts, leaving the heroes [[DemonicPossession assuming the worst]] about Oscar's [[LossOfIdentity eventual fate]].]]
** In the fairy tale ''[[Characters/RWBYWorldOfRemnant The Warrior in the Woods]]'', the hero of the story tries to learn the name of the titular warrior, but she refuses to tell him. Although they interact with each other for years, she never does tell him her name. [[spoiler:The fairy tale is implied to be a true story acting as a hidden warning that [[MagicalEye Silver-Eyed Warriors]] have been hunted to near-extinction by a mysterious enemy. [[RetiredBadass Maria]] was successfully targeted even though she'd been forewarned and hidden her identity for years; [[TheHero Ruby]] only learns about the danger after it's too late to hide her existence from the BigBad.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'': As expected, the Prince is not given a name, but neither is his father (the King), or the king's second-in-command, known as the Grand Duke in other media.
** Similarly, ''[[WesternAnimation/Aladdin Jasmine]]'s father is only referred to by his title of 'the Sultan'.

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* The members of Music/{{Xera}} are only known by their first names.

* Abraham's Daughter in Music/{{Arcade Fire}}'s "Abraham's Daughter".
-->''"Then the angel asked her what her name was''
-->''She said, I have none''
-->''Then he asked, how can this be''
-->''My father never gave me one"''

* On ''Radio/TheVinylCafe'', Stuart [=McLean=] went out of his way to not give Dave and Morley's family a last name, hilariously twisting himself out of situations where it would be expected for the last name to come up, to his audience's delight.

* The only characters whose full names have been mentioned in ''Animation/FengLingYuXiu'' are Bai Yuxiu, Chen Feiyan, who [[TheGhost has yet to make an onscreen appearance]], and some members of a performing troupe who serve as minor antagonists.

Compare TheTropeWithoutATitle, YouKnowTheOne, and IKnowYourTrueName (which may be a reason for this). Contrast OnlyOneName, EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep, and IAmNotShazam. Compare and contrast TheScottishTrope, for where characters know a name, but actively avoid saying it. See also NamelessNarrative and TheAllConcealingI. When a character genuinely has no name whatsoever (as opposed to it not being given in the work), then they are TheNameless. If the character's parents never named them, then they were NeverGivenAName. When a character is literally given the name "Nobody", then they are SomebodyNamedNobody.

A major character is never referred to by their actual or full name, instead being addressed by a [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep title]], [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname nickname]], OnlyOneName or none at all. Reasons for this vary, but it often serves the function of making a character seem more mysterious or eccentric.

In older (pre-1900 in North America; pre-1970 in the UK) fiction, a narrator may refer to a character (especially an older or more socially prominent character) by his or her [[LastNameBasis surname]]. This is because at that time given names were much less commonly used socially than they are now; a young character may not even know the given name of an older character he or she is not related to. It was also common in that time to [[SpellMyNameWithABlank blank out]] the names of real people to avoid lawsuits and the like. This is often true in Japanese media set in the modern day as well, as given names are seen as being incredibly personal and sometimes not even used by close friends who still opt to use the surname. Interestingly, the reverse is true if the work is set in some periods of Japanese history where the size of many of the clans that dominated society meant that it was hard to figure out whom one talking about if one just used the surname, so given names were used more instead. In other Asian media, however, one will often hear people referred to by their given names, but almost never by their surnames - partly because of the low diversity of surnames in many Asian languages.

A common joke is to do TheUnReveal on the full name.

* Classified from ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar''. He tells Skipper that his real name is classified, but Skipper [[{{WhosOnFirst}} takes it literally]] and calls him Classified for the rest of the film.

* NoNameGiven/{{Webcomics}}

* The titular character in WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby is never given a name onscreen, everyone called him "The Baby" or "Boss Baby". [[WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyFamilyBusiness The sequel]] gives him the name Theodore "Ted" Templeton Jr. And the Triplets are never addressed by their individual names in the "Boss Baby" franchise.

* The titular character in WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby is never given a name onscreen, everyone called him "The Baby" or "Boss Baby". [[WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyFamilyBusiness The sequel]] gives him the name Theodore "Ted" Templeton Jr.