Moments where somebody realizes that "I Never Told You My Name" in Live-Action TV series.
- In Angel this happens when Lilah propositions Faith to kill Angel. This is a bit of a Subverted Trope, because Lilah wasn't necessarily trying to hide her knowledge of Faith's identity, she simply hadn't gotten to that point in the conversation yet when Faith interrupted her.
- Batman (1966): In "The Bookworm Turns", Batman and Robin realize that a woman is a Decoy Damsel and use truth serum to find out her identity and the plans of her employer. Then, they use amnesia gas to make her forget what just happened so that they can take the villain by surprise. Unfortunately, she realizes that they're wise to the deception when Robin addresses her by name, even though she doesn't remember telling him her name.
- In Battlestar Galactica, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace realizes that Simon knows more than he should when he calls her Starbuck — she had only told him her real name, not her call sign. It doesn't end well for Simon (though being a Cylon, He Gets Better).
- The Beauty Queen Of Jerusalem has a variant. Luna is getting ready for her date with Tzachi, only for her sister Rachelika to ask about him by name. She never told Rachelika his name, but Rachelika knew because they already dated and Tzachi dumped her for Luna.
- A variation on an episode of The Blacklist. Liz confronts Raymond with Florina Campo, the leader of an anti-slavery organization. Red reveals to Liz that Florina is in fact the head of the biggest slavery ring on the planet using her cover to take out the competition. Liz (who idolizes Florina) doesn't believe it. However, when Florina calls Raymond by his first name, Liz realizes only someone who's a major criminal could be so familiar with Reddington. Red comments "Ooooh, that was a mistake."
- A more straightforward example is in Season 9 when Red attends the funeral of former "business partner" Barney. He meets his wife, a seemingly innocent woman unaware of her husband's illegal dealings. But Red confronts her on how the woman, who claimed to know nothing of Barney's business, somehow knew the name of his partner. It turns out she was more ruthless than Barney and killed him when he wanted a divorce.
- A variation in one episode of Bones — one victim is an old friend of Hodgins (who married Hodgins' former fiancée), and both parties agree to hide their former relationship. However, Booth catches that she knew Hodgins' first name was Jack despite Booth not using said name. The defense attorney for the killer finds out too, and it nearly gets the case thrown out for evidence tampering, because someone with a personal interest in the case had been involved with each step of the evidence gathering.
- A variant occurs at the tail end of the Castle episode "Sucker Punch". Beckett realizes a suspect she has just released was in fact the killer of both the victim of the week and her own mother, because he used "her" in reference to her mother. Beckett had mentioned a Death by Origin Story during an interrogation, but not the gender of the person she lost.
- Happens in Criminal Minds, when the woman who's been stalking Maeve the whole time comes out and calls Reid "Doctor". He doesn't realize until later that he was not introduced to her, either as "Agent" or "Doctor".
- Doctor Who:
- "Father's Day": The Doctor addresses a younger Jackie Tyler (Rose's mum) by her name while arguing with her after the arrival of the Clock Roaches. Jackie is unnerved and asks him how he knows her name, but never gets an explanation before the timeline is restored and she forgets everything that happened.
- "The Idiot's Lantern": The Doctor undergoes a police interrogation:The Doctor: ...the thing is, Detective Inspector Bishop-
DI Bishop: How do you know my name?
The Doctor: It's written inside your collar. - "Listen": Clara has returned to her date with Danny Pink after storming out. During conversation, she ends up mentioning that he used to be called "Rupert", which he hadn't told her, causing the date to go downhill again. Clara found this out because she and the Doctor had gone back in time and met Danny as a child.
- The Facts of Life: A Halloween Episode had a client of Edna's Edibles disappear with the implication that Mrs. Garrett killed him while possessed by a ghost. After she's confronted about it, the client reappears alive and reveals that the whole thing was a psychological experiment. He addresses Natalie by name as he leaves. It turns out she was in on it.
- In the Firefly episode "Trash", Mal is introduced to a pilot friend's new wife - a con artist with whom Mal has previously had a rather severe run-in. They commence fighting, and the pilot demands to know what's going on. Mal shouts accusations at her on her con artist past.Saffron: You're a liar, Malcolm Reynolds!
Monty: Now, I ain't never got to telling you his name. - Game of Thrones: Jaqen H'ghar refers to Arya by her full name as he departs, though she has never told him.
- A variation appears in the BBC miniseries Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, when one character realizes that his girlfriend is a spy for King James. He's been told not to refer to Guy Fawkes by his real name, but instead to call him "Johnson". He slips up in front of her, accidentally using the name 'Fawkes', and she doesn't call him on it. A few scenes later, when Fawkes reminds him to use the alias, he catches his - and the spy's - mistake.
- A variation on Hawaii Five-0 when a yacht of rich kids are kidnapped. The abductors kill one crew member but leave a younger woman alive. The kidnappers call and demand that the woman they read about in the papers be the one to hand over the ransom, and if "anyone but Susan" shows up, they'll kill the hostages. Susan goes to hand off the ransom... and grins at the leader, revealing she's been part of the scam. However, the bag is filled with newspaper as the police rush in to arrest everyone. Asked how he knew Susan was in on it, Steve explains that the newspapers never mentioned her name for her own protection.
- In Hollyoaks, India Longford goes to meet up with her internet boyfriend, who unknown to her is actually serial killer Silas Blissett. Silas waits for her at the place where she'd agreed to meet Cameron; and asks her to help him carry something to his car. He then says "Thank you, India." An alarmed India says that she didn't tell him her name, at which point he reveals she did tell him - as Cameron. He then strangles her.
- How I Met Your Mother:
- A variation occurs in when Lily is complaining to the Mother about some of Ted's road trip habits.
Lily: I can't believe Ted dragged me to the childhood home of some stupid bucklesmith no one's has even heard of.
The Mother: Yeah, who cares about Florian von Otterloop?
Lily: I never told you his name.- Later the Mother gives Marshall a ride and scares him by knowing facts about him that a stranger should not know. She explains that she met Lily the day before and Lily told her about the issues she and Marshall were having.
- In the pilot for Ironside (1967), this trope is quoted by the girlfriend of the suspect after Ironside thanks her for providing information on his location.
- Law & Order: McCoy is prosecuting a young woman who claims she was kidnapped and forced into a crime spree by her abductors—"I completely freaked out when he shot Willie and that other guy!" McCoy pounces on this, pointing out that although the man's name was indeed William, she couldn't possibly have known that "Willie" was the nickname he used unless she already knew him, thus revealing that she was indeed a willing participant.
- The Mighty Boosh: From Howard's encounter with The Spirit of Jazz.Spirit of Jazz: Baby, I'll make ya famous. Ya wanna be famous?Howard: Yeah.Spirit of Jazz: You wanna be on the wall? Look at this guy. Blind Bonnie Shortbread. What a player, I seen him play with my own eyes. Man was a genius. What about this guy? Hot Wee Wee Jefferson, the Cystitis Kid. Man, when he was playin', both pipes was on fire. I could make you like that. You wanna be on the wall, "Howard Moon"?Howard: How did you know my name?Spirit of Jazz: It's on your trumpet case, asshole.
- One episode of NCIS features a variation. A potential love interest of McGee visits him at work ... except he never told her he was with NCIS.
- Double Subversion in The Librarians 2014 "...And the Tears of a Clown": The Amazing Mysterium calls Charlotte by name, and when she questions this, he points out she's wearing a nametag ... except the viewer already knows that he was specifically looking for her.
- Once Upon a Time:
- Snow White figures out that Lancelot isn't who he claims to be, when he knows the name of Emma's son, Henry.
- Later Snow saves a woman and tells her how she herself was once saved, too — but she doesn't say Regina the Evil Queen was her savior. The woman actually is Regina in disguise, and this trope is how she unintentionally reveals herself.Snow: I never said it was her.
- In The Outer Limits (1995) episode "Lithia", the leader of a village in a post-apocalyptic all-female world who's witnessed tragedy when 12 men let out of cryofreeze caused tragedy due to their aggressive nature, puts the main male character back in stasis, and says "Goodbye, Jason" even though he never told anyone his first name. It turned out that she was his fiancee before being frozen.
- Power Rangers: Dino Thunder has a rare example of a protagonist doing this; when the Rangers rescue Trent the first time he gets attacked by Mesogog's minions, Kira accidentally refers to Trent by name despite him ostensibly not hanging around superheroes. Trent catches this.
- On Psych, this is how one killer gives himself away.Killer: Al Mooney is insane! Nobody will believe what he says.Lassiter: Hang on a minute! I don't believe anyone said the witness' name. You're under arrest.
- Sherlock has a "Eureka!" Moment in the episode "The Sign of Three" when a client refers to John as "John Hamish Watson" and wishes him to have a nice wedding, something she shouldn't have known. Only a select group of people would have seen John's middle name on his wedding invitation, leading Sherlock to realize that the Mayfly Man would be at John's wedding.
- Spaced played with this in their Homage (of sorts) to The Matrix. With the agents grilling Brian at the front door when they were looking for Daisy.Agent 1: Can you tell us where she [Daisy] is, Mr. Topp?
Brian: How do you know my name?
Agent 1: It's written on the doorbell.
Brian: ... All right.
Agent 2: Where is she, Brian?
Brian: ... "Brian" isn't on the doorbell. - Stargate:
- In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Window of Opportunity", Jack confirms that Malakai is also in the time loop when the latter uses Carter's name, despite not having been introduced to her in the current loop.
- In the Stargate Atlantis episode "Common Ground", Sheppard is captured by Kolya, who allows a captive Wraith to repeatedly feed on him. When Sheppard is thrown back in his cell, the old man in the next cell tries to make some idle chat until Sheppard realizes that he never introduced himself. The "man" admits that he heard his name when he fed on Sheppard.
- In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Friday's Child", the Enterprise is lured away by a distress call. After failing to find the supposed distressed freighter, Scotty replays the call and realized that it had addressed the Enterprise by name and that a random freighter captain would have no way of knowing that a particular starship happened to be nearby.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Last Outpost", an away team meets an ancient warrior named Portal 63 who addresses Riker by name. It turns out he can read minds.
- The Twilight Zone (1985): In "The After Hours", Marsha Cole is surprised and confused when she is in the toy shop "Play's the Thing" and is approached by a strange young boy who knows her name and asks her to "come back". His mother says that Marsha must have misheard him and that he actually said "ma'am." Marsha doesn't buy it. She later learns that she, the boy and his mother are all mannequins from the department store Satler's.
- Vagrant Queen: In the past while trapped inside of an escape pod, Elida realized a man she'd been talking with on the comm wasn't just some passing cargo ship pilot when he addressed her by name (not having used it with him). He's revealed to be with The Republic, hunting her down.
- Played with in What We Do in the Shadows (2019)—Laszlo, disguised as human bartender Jackie Daytona, encounters a vampire acquaintance (Jim) who's been hunting him down. Since his disguise works so perfectly, Jim gives him a business card to call if "Jackie" ever sees Laszlo. Laszlo thanks him by name, which makes Jim suspicious...until Laszlo points out he put his name on the business card.
- On one episode of The X-Files a character gives himself away with this trope but he's talking so fast that the audience might not notice until Mulder stops him, saying, "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute here... when did I say my name was 'Agent Mulder'?"
