History Main / WhoIsThisGuyAgain

* Lovingly {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' with the line: "Your new name is...[[MidBoss Mid-Boss]]!!"

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* Lovingly {{lampshaded}} in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' with the line: "Your new name is...[[MidBoss Mid-Boss]]!!"

* Beauty spends so much time insulting Dandy in ''GhostTrick'' that you only find out his name if you've read the manual.

* In the VisualNovel/AceAttorney fan-comic KristophGavinAceAttorney, we have, uhhh... that detective. The science guy. Simon Taylor. Yeah, him.

* Luigi in MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga. People often seem to forget/not know his name, and what they do call him usually references the color green.

* In the VisualNovel/AceAttorney fan-comic KristophGavinAceAttorney, we have, uhhh... that detective. The science guy. Simon Taylor. Yeah, him.

'''exenefevex:''' Yes. Do we ever fight the Morton who ''is'' Roy? There's no such thing. But that is, in fact, Morton, and not Roy.

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is rather stingy when it comes to even often-seen [[http://gurennlagann.wikia.com/wiki/Minor_Characters_of_Team_Dai-Gurren members of the Team Dai-Gurren]]. Name four of them, not counting Kamina, Simon, Yoko, Nia, Leeron, Rossiu, Kittan and his sisters, [[spoiler:Viral, or Lord Genome]]. Hard, isn't it? Of all of the other characters, five are namedropped exactly twice in the first two ''arcs'', one takes fifteen episodes to get a name, and the rest have their names mentioned once and then left unsaid
** How bad is it for these characters, you ask? The page linked to above has been ''[[UnPerson deleted]]''.

* Genzo in ''OhEdoRocket''.

* [[HalfHumanHybrid Michiru]] in ''NagasareteAirantou''.
** At least five out of all of the inhabitants in the island remembers her ''existence''.
*** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since she's always in her house.

* In ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'' games:
** This constantly happens to Luigi in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga''. Many subjects of the Beanbean Kingdom know the famous Mario, but have no idea who Luigi is. This becomes MyNameIsNotDurwood when they invent names for Luigi, usually referencing the color green, like "[[BuffySpeak Mr. Green Mario Brother Guy]]". A guard in front of Beanbean Castle addressed "the famous Mario and Lui-uh... other guy", forgetting the name in mid sentence. In a later scene, the same guard noted, "A very Mario-esque fellow and a Loo...uh, some other guy!"
** Bowser forget's Luigi's name in all three ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi Mario & Luigi]]'' games.
** The player can invoke this trope, a few times, in the first ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' with [[RecurringBoss Jr. Troopa]] [[spoiler:(and later, the Koopa Bros.)]]. He'll ask if you remember him, and you can answer "No" to tick him off.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' has a few [=NPCs=] that no one seems to be able to remember the name of. For starters, what's the champion of the Imperial City Arena's name? The Grey Prince, yes, but what about his ''real'' name? It's Agronak gro-Malog, for the record. Also, Dar-Ma's mother is ''always'' called just that in the community, but never by her real name. The kicker here? Every NPC's name comes up when they're selected in-game.

* Xykon treats protagonists like this in general, particular Roy and the ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]].'' During their showdown at the battle of Azure City, he eventually recalls Roy from the dungeon with the first gate as "that guy! Who was angry about… something…"
** Although sometimes he can remember Roy's last name, [[TheyCallHimSword Greenhilt]], well enough to make a passing comment about "Bluepommel."
** This is at least in part due to what [[ButForMeItWasTuesday he does on a daily basis.]] When Roy tries to narrow it down for Xykon, he mentions that he killed several unrelated people with the same name in the same city. Xykon remembers well enough once he connects that particular murder to how hard it was to clean out the blood stains.

* ScandinaviaAndTheWorld has the Faroe Islands.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', Bakura is this, many of the characters not recognizing him recognizing him, even though he goes to school with the protagonists and plays a significant role in the entire series.
-->'''Tristan:''' Hey look, it's some random stranger we've never met before!
-->'''Joey:''' 'Scuse me pal, but have you seen any minor characters from season 1 around here?
-->'''Bakura:''' Actually, guys, I was a minor character from season 1! Remember?
-->'''Joey:''' Sorry pal, doesn't ring a bell.
** Also in the other abridged movie when Yugi was asking everyone who the blue-haired girl hanging out with them was. They apparently couldn't even see her.
[[/folder]]

* Canada in ''AxisPowersHetalia''. [[RunningGag Who's he supposed to be again?]]
** '''''Averted''''' since {{Hetaween 2011}} where not only was he the host for the cosplay contest, but people ''congratulated'' him for it. [[NeverLiveItDown The fandom ignored it.]]

* Genzo in ''OhEdoRocket''. Funny enough, he shares [[KatsuyukiKonishi the same seiyuu as Canada.]]

* The terrible lighting and sound quality of ''AxEm'' makes it impossible to figure out who ''anyone'' is, which isn't helped by the fact that some major characters die offscreen and others seem to die onscreen multiple times.
* ''SevenSamurai'' has had at least two sets of English subtitles; in one of them, two of the title characters are never named. This is mostly due to a translation glitch -- in Japanese it's normal for people who are not particularly close friends to each others' names in contexts where English would use "you". Translating directly would result in odd sentences that appear to refer to the addressee in the third person, so the translation uses 'you' -- and in doing so removes the use of the character's name.
* In ''InglouriousBasterds'', some of the Basterds don't get any mention on-screen.

* The love interest in SurfNinjas has her name mentioned only once in the movie. It's mentioned during an action sequence, in panicked dialogue, and because of the way it's said, it isn't even obvious that he's saying her name.

* Canada in ''AxisPowersHetalia''. [[RunningGag Whose he supposed to be again?]]
** '''''averted''''' since {{Hetaween 2011}} where not only was he the host for the cosplay contest, but people ''congratulated'' him for it. [[NeverLiveItDown Fandom ignores it .]]

* "The [[EngagingChevrons Chevron]] Guy" from ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' took many seasons to be identified despite being ever-present--it's actually [[spoiler: Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman]]). For the longest time, though, his nametag said "Davis," as did the nametags of many a random extra.)

* One of the major problems EA's RPG, ''LordOfTheRingsTheThirdAge'', is that the people in your "fellowship" rarely ever say each other's names. In the first with Idrial and Berethor, they're introduced properly, but in all the other cutscenes, playable characters are called by their race: [[TheHero Gondorian]], [[OurElvesAreBetter she-elf]], [[TheArcher ranger]], [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarf]], [[MsFanservice human]]. You can find out their names if you open up the menu, but it's easier to think of them as [[{{Expy}} Not-Aragorn, Not-Gimli...]]

* Canada in ''AxisPowersHetalia''. In fact, he's the ''definition'' of this trope.
** [[RunningGag Who?]]
** Actually '''''averted''''' in recent strips, since in {{Hetaween 2011}} not only he was the host for the cosplay contest, but people ''congratulated'' him for it. [[NeverLiveItDown Fandom ignores it completely.]]
* Poor [[SuzumiyaHaruhi Kunikida]] is so unknown that he hadn't even been mentioned yet. The novels make it a bit easier for him, since his name is mentioned whenever he appears (obviously), but not by much.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrolls: Oblivion'' has a few [=NPCs=] that no one seems to be able to remember the name of. For starters, what's the champion of the Imperial City Arena's name? The Grey Prince, yes, but what about his ''real'' name? It's Agronak gro-Malog, for the record. Also, Dar-Ma's mother is ''always'' called just that in the community, but never by her real name. The kicker here? Every NPC's name comes up when they're selected in-game.

* Happens in ''FullmetalAlchemist'' with Yoki (even in-universe), and it's justified -- he debuts as a HarmlessVillain in the manga's third chapter, and this was one of the two stories skipped in ''Brotherhood'' (though they do set that ChekhovsGun early in episode 4, new viewers were likely left in the dust).

* In ''TheAmazingRace'', teams are usually referred to by the names of both contestants. Because of this, it's easy to forget which team member is which on homogenous teams (such as the second season's Chris & Alex and Osward & Danny).

** This constantly happens to Luigi in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga''. People forget Luigi's name. This becomes MyNameIsNotDurwood when they invent names for Luigi, usually referencing the color green, like "[[BuffySpeak Mr. Green Mario Brother Guy]]". A guard in front of Beanbean Castle addressed "the famous Mario and Lui-uh... other guy", forgetting the name in mid sentence. In a later scene, the same guard noted, "A very Mario-esque fellow and a Loo...uh, some other guy!"

* This happens to Luigi constantly in the ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi Mario & Luigi]]'' games, especially in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]''.
** This can be invoked a few times in the first ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' with [[RecurringBoss Jr. Troopa]] [[spoiler:(and later, the Koopa Bros.)]]. He'll ask if you remember him, and you can answer "No" to tick him off.

* The main character of ''BattlefieldEarth'' is referred to by name over an ''hour'' into the film. Whether this was an attempt at creating a bond with the audience or a simple oversight is anybody's guess.

* In the first arc of the 2010 relaunch of ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', the Birds wind up fighting a mysterious Asian woman dressed [[WomanInWhite all in white]] who identifies herself as the White Canary. The team has absolutely no idea who she is and theorize that she might be either [[{{Batgirl}} Cassandra Cain]] or [[DarkActionGirl Lady Shiva]], two candidates [[OhCrap that do not soothe their thoughts]]. Ultimately, it is revealed that she is the sister of the Twelve Brothers in Silk, a {{reveal}} that came at the end of five issues and after numerous "Who is she?" questions, except the Twelve Brothers in Silk themselves have not been seen, or even ''mentioned'', in several years, appearing in only a handful of issues of ''BOP'' in a self-contained arc. There was also nothing in her appearance or fighting to serve as a hint to the reader, despite BlackCanary claiming to have figured it out from body-language clues, and after her reveal there is no mention of her true identity again for the next two issues, remaining only the White Canary for the remainder of her appearance in the series. If a reader had skipped a bare two pages of Issue #4 they would never have learned her identity at all.

* In ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', Bakura is this, many of the characters not recognizing him recognizing him, even though he goes to school with the protagonists and plays a significant role in the entire series.
-->'''Tristan:''' Hey look, it's some random stranger we've never met before!
-->'''Joey:''' 'Scuse me pal, but have you seen any minor characters from season 1 around here?
-->'''Bakura:''' Actually, guys, I was a minor character from season 1! Remember?
-->'''Joey:''' Sorry pal, doesn't ring a bell.

* ''SevenSamurai'' has had at least two sets of English subtitles; in one of them, two of the title characters are never named.

* ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is rather stingy when it comes to even often-seen [[http://gurennlagann.wikia.com/wiki/Minor_Characters_of_Team_Dai-Gurren members of the Team Dai-Gurren]]. Name four of them, not counting Kamina, Simon, Yoko, Nia, Leeron, Rossiu, Kittan and his sisters, [[spoiler:Viral, or Lord Genome]]. Hard, isn't it? Of all of the other characters, five are namedropped exactly twice in the first two ''arcs'', one takes fifteen episodes to get a name, and the rest have their names mentioned once and then left unsaid

* The ''French'' {{macekre}} of ''DragonBall'' went through this phase on the Saiyan and Namek arcs, as villains, even Vegeta and Freeza, ''respective {{Big Bad}}s of each arc'', would be called almost always the rather generic term "the enemy", confusing the hell out of viewers. Some villains, such as [[EnsembleDarkHorse Zarbon]], were lucky to have their name said on dialogue once or twice, but never on recaps. At one random episode, they started giving people names again.

* In ''YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', Bakura is this, many of the characters not recognizing him recognizing him, even though he goes to school with the protagonists and plays a significant role in the entire series.

** [[BigBad Palpatine]]'s name is never given in the original trilogy; he is only ever refered to as The Emperor (or variants like "Your Highness", "My master" etc.), but he is called Senator Palpatine in his first scene in ''ThePhantomMenace'', which is an EasterEgg for those fans who learnt is name [[AllThereInTheManual from other sources]] and he becomes a DevilInPlainSight for them (and those who looked at the cast credits / knew the actor, of course).

* In ''The Merry Men'', a famous short-story written by Robert Louis Stevenson which went on to inspire Joseph Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' (which in turn was adapted into ''ApocalypseNow''), the name of the protagonist - Charles Darnaway - is only mentioned once or twice, and deep into the book. Unfortunately, this book is also frequently used in Scottish schools for English classes, which leads to many students having to search [[TheOtherWiki Wikipedia]] for the protagonist's name.

* "The [[EngagingChevrons Chevron]] Guy" from ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' took many seasons to be identified despite being ever-present--it's actually [[spoiler: Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman]]). For the longest time, though, his nametag said "Davis," as did the nametags of many a random extra.)

* WilliamShakespeare was often stingy with character names. In ''{{Hamlet}}'', Claudius is never actually named except in the stage directions; the other characters all just refer to him as "the King". In ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', Viola doesn't reveal her real name to the audience until the very last scene (though she has the excuse that she spends most of the play in disguise).

* Lovingly {{lampshaded}} in ''{{Disgaea}}'' with the line: "Your new name is...[[MidBoss Mid-Boss]]!!"

* ''TheElderScrolls: Oblivion'' has a few [=NPCs=] that no one seems to be able to remember the name of. For starters, what's the champion of the Imperial City Arena's name? The Grey Prince, yes, but what about his ''real'' name? It's Agronak gro-Malog, for the record. Also, Dar-Ma's mother is ''always'' called just that in the community, but never by her real name. The kicker here? Every NPC's name comes up when they're selected in-game.

* In the AceAttorney fan-comic KristophGavinAceAttorney, we have, uhhh... that detective. The science guy. Simon Taylor. Yeah, him.

* In the first arc of the 2010 relaunch of ''BirdsOfPrey'', the Birds wind up fighting a mysterious Asian woman dressed [[WomanInWhite all in white]] who identifies herself as the White Canary. The team has absolutely no idea who she is and theorize that she might be either [[{{Batgirl}} Cassandra Cain]] or [[DarkActionGirl Lady Shiva]], two candidates [[OhCrap that do not soothe their thoughts]]. Ultimately, it is revealed that she is the sister of the Twelve Brothers in Silk, a {{reveal}} that came at the end of five issues and after numerous "Who is she?" questions, except the Twelve Brothers in Silk themselves have not been seen, or even ''mentioned'', in several years, appearing in only a handful of issues of ''BOP'' in a self-contained arc. There was also nothing in her appearance or fighting to serve as a hint to the reader, despite BlackCanary claiming to have figured it out from body-language clues, and after her reveal there is no mention of her true identity again for the next two issues, remaining only the White Canary for the remainder of her appearance in the series. If a reader had skipped a bare two pages of Issue #4 they would never have learned her identity at all.

* In ''FiftyTwo'', Bea plays a very important (if minor) role within the series. She consoles [[ElongatedMan Ralph Dibny]], [[WhatTheHellHero confronts]] BoosterGold, and serves as the heart of the hero community, all while only speaking on the phone and later appearing "on-panel" for two small scenes. Unfortunately, she is only ''ever'' addressed as "Bea," and is never called by her superhero name, last name, or shown in her costume. The series does not make it easy to identify which character she is in the DCUniverse.