Moments where somebody realizes that "I Never Told You My Name" in Anime and Manga.
- Ayakashi Triangle:
- Matsuri calls Suzu's little brother Ritta by name and acknowledges how he's grown in the years since they'd last met. This confuses Ritta, because Matsuri had since been changed into a girl, so Matsuri pretends they'd only met briefly before. Then Suzu calls Matsuri by name, making Ritta remember him—but assume Matsuri was always a girl that he just mistook for a boy.
- When Matsuri first encounters Mei's omokage, he assumes she's a regular human he's never met before. That she identifies him by name (or at all when he's supposed to be Invisible to Normals) is one hint otherwise before she starts viciously beating Matsuri.
- In Bakemonogatari, Mayoi Jiangshi arc, Koyomi runs up to the six year old Tsubasa and yells out her name after meeting her by sheer coincidence. As the Tsubasa of this timeline hasn't met Koyomi yet, she mistook him for a pervert and asks how he know her name. He then tries to bail himself out by claiming that he knew through her name tag.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Goku greets Bulma's baby son by addressing him as Trunks, as well as mentioning that Vegeta was the baby's father, having met Future Trunks a few years ago. Bulma is surprised by his knowledge and asks how Goku knows this. Goku then realizes he wasn't supposed to reveal this due to possibly jeopardizing Trunks' existence, and covers up by saying he's psychic.
- In Episode 3 of Granblue Fantasy, Sturm and Drang attempt to approach Gran and Lyria to offer them a spare airship. However, Drang ends up name dropping Katalina by name and rank, the latter of which he'd definitely only know if he was associated with the Erste Empire.
- Horimiya: Hori is naturally confused when some punk looking guy who escorted her injured little brother home starts addressing her by name, leading him to have to point out that he's her classmate Miyamura who just happens to dress differently outside of school. Of course, Miyamura wasn't trying to hide his identity, he just didn't realize that Hori failed to recognize him.
- In the Hoshiyomi filler arc of Inuyasha, demons manage to get a photo of three of Kagome's friends from her backpack, and use it to create puppets of them in order to trick Kagome and Hojo (ancestor of the Hojo from the present) into handing over the magic blade that their master needs. Kagome is suspicious to begin with, but her suspicions are confirmed when one of the three addresses them by name — which no one had mentioned to them.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- In Stardust Crusaders, Enya Gail, one of DIO's most loyal followers, pretends to be an innkeeper in order to lure Jotaro and company in to be killed by the effect of her Stand, Justice. However, she inadvertently gives herself away by addressing Jotaro by his correct name, when in fact he had registered to the inn under a false name since he was already suspicious of her because she almost called Joseph by his full name despite just meeting him.
- In Diamond Is Unbreakable, Kira tries to get Josuke to heal his wounds by posing as a victim in one of his own explosions. Josuke, however, quickly points out that it's incredibly odd that Kira would ask him to fix him up personally rather than call an ambulance.Josuke: Anyone can see I'm a high school student. How the hell am I supposed to fix you? I can't even play pachinko dressed like this, which is a fucking pain. Do I look like a licensed medical professional to you? Huh? Or maybe ... You can see Crazy Diamond.
- In Stone Ocean, Jolyne knowing Star Platinum's name gives away that she's merely a figment of Jotaro's subconscious and he's been lulled into a hallucinatory dream by White Snake.
- Kaiju Girl Caramelise: When Kuroe Akaishi first runs into Manatsu Tomosato in a sleeping bag on a street outside her apartment, she's surprised that Manatsu knows her full name already. The two of them had never interacted before then, and everyone else at school calls Kuroe "Psycho-tan" instead. Turns out Manatsu found out her name from Arata Minami, Kuroe's crush and the only other person at school to use her real name. Kuroe had seen Manatsu and Arata talking earlier that day and assumed that they were dating, but Manatsu was actually trying to find out more about her real crush: Harugon, the Kaiju who first appeared suspiciously close to where Kuroe and Arata were walking after their "date". Manatsu learned Kuroe's name believing that the latter might know more about Harugon, which is certainly truer than she realizes.
- In King of Thorn, one of the things that shakes Kasumi's trust in Marco and tips her off to the fact that he's not a regular patient like the rest of them is when she realises that he had referred to her by name, back before anyone had properly introduced themselves.
- Mob Psycho 100: Mob and Reigen go to the house of a rich man who has gathered many psychics to help with his possessed daughter, who is locked in an adjacent soundproof room with a one way mirror. Reigen gets the first chance to talk with her. When he does she claims that her father has gone crazy and is locking her up for no reason, begging "mr psychic" to take off her shackles. When he comes out, most of the gathered psychics get mad and assume that the father is some sort of crazy abuser. That is until Reigen points out that he never told her he was a psychic, prompting the spirit to reveal itself.
- A variant in Monster: Tenma realizes that a couple of policemen aren't what they seem when they address him as "Dr. Tenma" after he only told them his name and not that he was a doctor.
- In NEEDLESS, Mio sneaks her way into Cruz's team. Though he doesn't find out for sure she's a mole until Mio turns on them, Cruz quickly becomes suspicious of her when she calls him "Cruz" as opposed to "Yamada" (his nickname, which everyone in the team uses instead of his real name).
- At the end of the English version of Pokémon 4Ever, the gang tell Professor Oak about their most recent adventure (which involved Time Travel) and Professor Oak notices Ash is unusually subdued. Ash tells him about the boy he befriended who went back to his own time and how Ash is worried they'll never meet again. Professor Oak reassures him that true friendships stand the test of time and that "I'm sure you and Sammy will be friends forever." After the video call is over and the group is rushing to catch a boat, Misty realizes they never mentioned Sammy's name to the Professor... Cut to Professor Oak in his lab looking through his old sketchbook and saying, "It seems like it happened only yesterday."
- In one of the most awesome examples of this trope, during the third season of the original Sailor Moon series, Arc Villain Mistress 9 tries to trick Sailor Moon into giving her the Holy Grail by disguising herself as Hotaru Tomoe. Problem is, she refers to Sailor Moon by her real name, who then promptly asks how Hotaru knew this. The thing is, it's one of the few times Sailor Moon has ever gotten the best of a bad guy by being smart.
- In Tiger & Bunny, during Jake and Kotetsu's fight, in a fit of rage, Jake calls the latter by his real name, something that he shouldn't have known. It clues in Kotetsu that Jake also happens to be a mind-reader.
- Time Stop Hero: Kuzuno Sekai freezes time and uses this to steal from Swordmaster Leafa and strip her naked. In the process, he learns her name from a signed receipt she was carrying. She is left humiliated when the time freeze ends. When Sekai runs into Leafa later, he calls her by name without thinking. She asks how he knows it, and he nervously tries to claim she is famous, but she sees through it and realizes he was the one who stole from and humiliated her, prompting her to draw her sword and attack him.
- At the end of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, Laura and Manatsu invoke this on each other, when Manatsu tells Laura off by name for having her lipstick, for Laura to tell Manatsu this exact trope... when they're meant to not know each other at all. Moments later, the device that caused it explodes from the backlash of their memory returning.
