History Main / WhoIsThisGuyAgain

* Averted in ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'': Whenever a character appears who has not been onscreen for a while, his/her name is shown in the subtitles. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Sometimes it isn't enough.]]

* The rebooted ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' had this problem with the Cylon clones, especially the Sixes, which frequently had, but didn't use distinct names. It was important to know which you were watching (as they were distinct characters), but there was frequently very little way to tell. Of course, the fact they all impersonate each other anyway all the time didn't help. Avoided for the most part with the Eights when [[spoiler: Sharon Agathon took the callsign "Athena"]], and names didn't matter as much with the other models as they had less differentiation. And they never even named the hallucinations, which got the FanNicknames Head!Six and Head!Baltar.

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is rather stingy when it comes to even often-seen 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 first film of ''TheMummyTrilogy'' doesn't seem to mention Ardeth Bay's name anywhere. His first speaking scene in the sequel comes complete with two characters greeting him by name, as if to make sure you know what it is.

* ''WebComic/AxisPowersHetalia'': "Who are you?" "I'm Canada!" Cranked UpToEleven in fandom, with people replying to any comment with Canada in it with: "Who?"

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' has a weird version in the episode "Future-Stock," where a character central to the plot is only ever known as "That Guy," to the point where people use it like a real name. It seems like a NoNameGiven joke, but the DVD commentary says that his name is supposed to be Steve Castle.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' has a weird version in the episode "Future-Stock," where a character central to the plot is only ever known as "That Guy," to the point where people use it like a real name. It seems like a NoNameGiven joke, but the DVD commentary says that his name is supposed to be Steve Castle.

* ''Film/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.

* Pierce Aogami (translation: "guy with piercings who has blue hair) in ''Anime/ACertainMagicalIndex'' never has his real name used, even by his friends. This isn't exclusive to the anime adaptation either, he's called this in the original novel too.

* Marceline's Dad in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. For his first episode, after being summoned from ''The Nightosphere'' where he rules, he's referred to as either "Marceline's Dad" or "The Lord of Evil" while he's roaming the earth and sucking out people's souls. [[spoiler: We later find out his name, Hunson Abadeer, when Finn and Jake go to the ''The Nightosphere'' in season 4.]]

* In ''WingsOfHonneamise,'' Riquinni Nonderaiko is one of the two main characters, but her name only actually gets spoken once, and quickly at that; since it's a made-up fantasy name, it's possible to watch the film multiple times and still walk away not sure what she's called.

[[folder:Comics]]
* One of the things The X-Axis criticised ''Nick Fury's Howling Commandos'' for:

* "Future Guy", the recurring one-man OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. They never did give him a name, or even come up with one. Eventually, the StarTrekNovelVerse offered answers; see StarTrekDepartmentOfTemporalInvestigations.

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

* The main character in ''Film/FightClub'' is never named through the entire movie and in the credits is only called "narrator."

* ''Series/The Sentinel'' has Detective Rafe. Is that his first name of his last? Fanon has given him the first name "Brian", but. . .

* In ''Anime/WingsOfHonneamise,'' Riquinni Nonderaiko is one of the two main characters, but her name only actually gets spoken once, and quickly at that; since it's a made-up fantasy name, it's possible to watch the film multiple times and still walk away not sure what she's called.

* In ''Anime/WingsOfHonneamise,'' Riquinni Nonderaiko is a wonderful character and one of the most prominent in the cast, but her name only actually gets spoken once, and quickly at that; since it's a made-up fantasy name, it's possible to watch the film multiple times and still walk away not sure what she's called.

* In ''WingsOfHonneamise," Riquinni Nonderaiko is a wonderful character and one of the most prominent in the cast, but her name only actually gets spoken once, and quickly at that; since it's a made-up fantasy name, it's possible to watch the film multiple times and still walk away not sure what she's called.

* "VideoGame/GhostRecon Future Soldier'': Your commanding officer Mitchell is never referred to by name at any point in the game. You need to read the game's publicity material to realize he's the main player character from the previous games in the series.

* Played ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2''? Yes. Remember Visa's master, the awesome [[NegativeSpaceWedgie negative Force wedgie]] with the graveyard battleship? Of course. Do you remember his name? No. Because he was only named once, in cut content (Darth Nihilus). What about TheDragon, with his fractured body and ability to survive everything you could throw at him? Of course. Do you remember his name? No. Because he was only named once, by the player character before they even knew the name (Darth Sion).
** Are there any players of that game who do NOT know these names? At the very least, they show up above the person's head when you fight them.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has a certain classmate of Touma's referred to as Pierce Aogami, called such after his piercings and blue hair (the literal translation of "aogami"). Not even Touma is entirely sure what his actual name is.