Named in the Sequel

Published works run on The Law of Conservation of Detail — and not every character that appear in a story will be important enough to get named. But maybe, the work gets a sequel, prequel, spin-off, or some additional installment, and the previously unnamed characters are given more runtime to get developed.

So, what happens? They get a name.

A Sister Trope to Named by the Adaptation, where an adaptation expands the original work's setting by giving previously nameless characters a more established identity. This often goes hand in hand with Ascended Extra if the character has a more important role in the new story.

See also All There in the Script, when a character's name is given only in the ending credits, via Word of God or in auxiliary media.

Compare Unseen No More, for the visual counterpart, where someone who is usually unseen has their appearance finally revealed.

Compare/contrast Given Name Reveal, where someone's "real" name is revealed to other characters, and this is treated as a important/shocking revelation about the character themselves. In this trope, the naming is mostly for the audience's benefit as the other characters usually already know the character's name.

Not to be confused with Named After First Installment, which refers to a series of works that takes the title of its first installment.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Dumb Ways to Die: In the original PSA, the beans were unnamed. Licensed material, like the games and the plush toys, would later reveal their names as Numpty, Hapless, Pillock, Dippy, Dummkopf, Dimwit, Stupe, Lax, Clod, Doomed, Numskull, Bungle, Mishap, Dunce, Calamity, Ninny, Botch, Doofus, Stumble, Bonehead, and Putz.

Anime & Manga

• Bloom Into You: The character who broke up with Sayaka because she thought they were outgrowing their Gay Romantic Phase and deeply hurt her goes unnamed in the main series; Sayaka only addresses her as "Senpai." She is given the name Chie Yuzuki in Sayaka's spinoff "Regarding Sayaka Saeki."
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, we never learn the name of Toji's little sister. Fast-forward to 15 years later, and her name is finally revealed in the third Rebuild of Evangelion movie to be Sakura.
• Pokémon: The Series: Delia Ketchum, Ash's mother, is not referred to by her first name for the very first time until Pokémon 2000.
  • The Kanto region, the main setting of the Generation I games, is named for the first time during the Battle Frontier arc of Pokemon The Series Rubyand Sapphire.
• In Yotsuba&!, Yotsuba's dad is only known by his surname, Koiwai, and even his best friends call him by his last name. It takes about 85 chapters (and more than 10 years in real life) for his given name, Yosuke, to be finally revealed to the audience.

Animation

• BoBoiBoy: In the Season 1 finale, a boy with raven-colored hair leaves the train right as BoBoiBoy boards it to return home, who is only identified as "Mystery Boy". The second season reveals that his name is Fang, who becomes a major character as the series progresses.

Comic Books

• Captain America: In the first issue, there are several stories. The first is Cap's origin, one element of which is a woman secret agent who disguises herself as an old woman when staffing the antique shop that is a front for the secret lab that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. In a later story (in the same issue) a woman named Betsy Ross appears, who the narrator points out is familiar to Cap. She introduces herself as someone he met before but never knew her name. The Marvel Wiki explains the connection, but there's no doubt the readers at the time were confused, especially since she had different hair colors in the two appearances.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Boom! Studios): A couple of years after his debut as a one-time villain in the main series, Psycho Green received a backstory one-shot called "Psychotic", which reveals that he used to be called Trek.
• Zigzagged with Rogue of the X-Men. For over 20 years, her name and past were not revealed in the comics. The 2004 miniseries of the same name gave out her first and middle name as "Anna-Marie". Her real surname has yet to be revealed.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), the G.U.N. Commander who was not named in Shadow the Hedgehog became Abraham Tower. Ian Flynn said that (in answering Question #175 of the linked Q&A) he repurposed the name from a character he created for an unfinished fan-comic, and chose it because "Abraham" is a name often held by influential leaders in biblical and historical contexts, while "Tower" implies a state of a higher rank.

Fan Works

• Junior Officers:
  • In "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes", Shellington mentions that he dealt with a Bully Bulldog in his childhood. In "Happy Birthday, Shellington", during Shellington's drunken prattling, he mentions that this bulldog's name is Cullen.
  • For a good chunk of the chapters, Deborah's father was only known as "Mr. Deer." In "Margaret's Story" (the forty-first chapter), his name is revealed to be Humphrey when Gertrude calls him that.

Films — Animated

• In Aladdin, the captain of the guards is left unnamed, but the sequel Aladdin: The Return of Jafar gives his name as Razoul.
• Annabelle from All Dogs Go to Heaven was originally only known as the Whippet Angel, and it wasn't until All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 that she was given her name.
• Bambi II: The buck who fought with Bambi in the first movie is named Ronno here. They're confirmed to be the same deer in the model sheets.
• The third BIONICLE Direct-To-DVD movie decided to give an unnamed character a name: the high-ranking Keelerak spider that runs errands for Sidorak and Roodaka was suddenly called Kollorak.
• At the end of The Boss Baby, it's revealed that the events were narrated by an older Tim to his daughter before she meets her baby sister for the first time. In the sequel Family Business, their names are given as Tabitha and Tina, respectively.
• Elsa and Anna's parents are not identified by name in Frozen (2013), although a Freeze-Frame Bonus allows the eagle-eyed viewer to read them on their memorial stones. Frozen II confirms their names as Agnarr and Iduna.
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius: King Goobot was originally named Yokian King from the "Runaway Rocketboy" pilot that inspired the film.
• The Jungle Book 2: Shanti was known simply as "The Girl" in the first movie.
• Atlantica, the mermaid kingdom from The Little Mermaid (1989) was not named for the very first time until the Prequel animated TV spinoff The Little Mermaid (1992).
• Lilo & Stitch:
  • The three girls in Lilo's hula class who are friends with Mertle Edmonds were unnamed in the original film, but were given names in the subsequent Lilo & Stitch: The Series; the caucasian blonde girl's name is Elena, the dark-skinned girl with long curly hair is Teresa, and the Asian girl with straight shoulder-length hair is Yuki. However, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch gave all three of them completely different names, though only Teresa's differing name, Aleka, was revealed in that film.
  • In a unique case of "Named in the Non-Canon Prequel", three of the United Galactic Federation officers seen in the first film were named by the late Magic Kingdom attraction Stitch's Great Escape!; the green male alien with the reptilian face is Ensign Getco, the purplish female alien with an armadillo head is First Officer Ombit, and the green hammerhead shark-headed alien who nearly gets shot by the guns in Stitch's cell in the film is Lieutenant Sledge. The 2022 version of the film's Monopoly game, released four years after the ride last operated, affirmed those names.
• Kronk's New Groove: Rudy, the old man from The Emperor's New Groove, has been given a name in his second and last appearance.
• At the end of The LEGO Movie, Finn's father mentions Finn's sister as a Sequel Hook, but doesn't refer to her by name. In The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, she appears in person and her name is revealed to be Bianca.
• Jim Dear and Darling's baby from Lady and the Tramp isn't named until the sequel, where his increased autonomy as a toddler and outgrowing the baby stage necessitate his having a name. In the same vein as the terms of address for his parents, he's called "Junior" - which straddles the trope, since "Junior" could be a generic term of address, but could also be his actual name.
• The Lost Boys from Peter Pan are referred to by their real names for the very first time in Returnto Neverland, where they are named Nibs (rabbit), Slightly (fox), Cubby (bear), Toodles (skunk), and the Twins (raccoons), respectively.
• In Rio 2, the unnamed character referred to in the original movie's credits as "Scaredy Bird" is given the name "Tiny" in the sequel.
• The ogre babies seen at the end of Shrek the Third went unnamed in the movie itself (to the point where Shrek Ogres And Dronkeys simply referred to them as Ogre boy, Ogre Jr and Ogre girl) before Shrek Forever After named them Fergus, Farkle, and Felicia.
• The old hag who works for Rothbart in The Swan Princess is not named in the original film. In the sequel Escape From Castle Mountain, she is given the name Bridget.

Films — Live-Action

• Aliens: In Alien, all the characters had Only One Name. Towards the end of this movie, Ripley, the sole survivor of the original movie, reveals her first name, Ellen, to Hicks, the sole surviving Marine, who reveals his own first name, Dwayne.
• In The Boondock Saints, the character known only as Il Duce is not given a distinctive name, but toward the end of the movie, it's revealed that he is the long-lost father of the MacManus brothers. Come its sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, Il Duce's true name is finally revealed as Noah MacManus.
• Two teams from The Cannonball Run had their members go without names in the first film: the women in the Lamborghini and the two southerners in the stock car. Both pairs receive names in Cannonball Run II. The Lamborghini Ladies are named Jill and Marcie while the stock car guys are named Mel and Terry.
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore reveals the name of Newt's Niffler: Teddy.
• The Matrix Revolutions: The Trainman was first seen in Enter the Matrix as an Early-Bird Cameo but his name is revealed in the third Matrix film.
• Spider-Man: Homecoming Trilogy: While MJ and Ned's surnames (Jones and Leeds, respectively) were previously given in supplementary materials, they were never actually confirmed as such onscreen until Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was given a first name: Hector in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It was actually made-up by Johnny Depp for the DVD Commentary of the first movie, so it stuck.
• The Purge: Anarchy: One of the protagonists, a gun-toting father seeking revenge for his son's death, is unnamed and credited only as "Sergeant." In the following The Purge: Election Year, we see him working as a bodyguard for Senator Roan and learn his name is Leo Barnes.
• The Scorpion King: While the Scorpion King is seen in The Mummy Returns, the Scorpion King we see in the spin-off is named Mathayus.
• Spider-Man 3: The burglar's name isn't heard in the first two films. His name is revealed to be Dennis Carradine in this film.
• Star Wars: In the Original Trilogy, The Emperor was only known by his title. He was named Palpatine in the Expanded Universe novels, but the films referred to him only as The Emperor until The Phantom Menace, which confirms the name Palpatine in the film canon.

Literature

• Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea refers to himself as "the nameless avenger" (Nemo means "nobody"), as he's abandoned his old identity in his quest for vengeance. In the sequel, The Mysterious Island, it is revealed that his name is Dakkar. He was an Indian prince whose family was slaughtered by the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
• Darley, the narrator for most of The Alexandria Quartet, goes unnamed for the first couple of novels, until getting mentioned in passing midway through Mountolive.
• The protagonist from American Gods is known only as Shadow throughout the novel's narration, and at one point has "something" taken from him that is heavily implied to be the knowledge of his real name. However, in the subsequent short stories and novellas (Monarch of the Glen and Black Dog), Shadow's real name is revealed to be Baldur.
• In The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, Seigi's alias "Yamada" in Turquoise was never given a first/personal name. However, because of the Breakout Character popularity of the cover story personas he and Richard had in the case, Nanako Tsujimura added the first name "Seiji" in a much later story, "The Hapless Half-Death of Edward Baxter" years after the first story featuring the alias was published.
• In A Certain Magical Index there were two characters introduced in the 15th light novel volume who were unnamed, only going by the descriptors "Boy with Goggles" and "Girl in a dress". The former was killed in the volume's events and the latter only re-appeared in the 19th volume before fading into obscurity due to the series's large cast, so they were left unnamed for a long while. The name of "Boy with Goggles" was finally revealed as Yobou Banka in the 82nd chapter of the Index canon spin-off manga A Certain Scientific Railgun, 8 years since the Japanese release of the 15th Index novel. As for the "Girl in the Dress", her real name of Gokusai Kaibi was only revealed in the bonus novel included in the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition Blu-ray release of the A Certain Scientific Accelerator anime, which only came out 11-and-a-half years after that novel.
• Danganronpa Zero reveals that the true headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy was named Jin Kirigiri. (Spoilered because it reveals a major plot point in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.)
• The Dresden Files: Skin Game features a violent and sadistic sasquatch-like creature known only as the Genoskwa. In Peace Talks, Dresden has a conversation about him with his Good Counterpart Strength of a River in His Shoulders, who reveals that "Genoskwa" is a term for a faction of the Forest People who want to conquer and subjugate humanity, and the one Dresden encountered is named Blood in His Soul.
• Several characters who are mentioned in The Hobbit only receive names in The Lord of the Rings, including the elf king of Mirkwood (Thranduil) and Lobellia Sackville-Baggins.
• The Hunger Games: The second volume reveals that the male tribute of District One was named Marvel.
• Independence Day: In The Sportswriter, the first novel in Richard Ford's series about middle-aged divorced man Frank Bascombe, Frank is so traumatized by his divorce that he can only refer to his ex-wife as "X". In Independence Day she gets a name, Ann.
• In Little Princess, the majority of characters are only named after their professions. In the spinoff series, The Not-So-Little Princess, set a few years into the future when the Princess is older but not all grown up yet, it reveals that the Maid's name is Buttercup, the Admiral's is Nelson, and the Princess's is Rubella Ovaltina Saliva Ignacia Eglantine (although, she decides to go by Rosie instead since that's what her initials spell).
• Moribito: Guardian of Dreams reveals that the First Queen of New Yogo is named Riano.
• In The Princess Diaries, Mia occasionally describes a quirky schoolmate of hers as The Guy Who Hates It When They Put Corn in the Chili. It wasn't until the seventh book, when Grandmere cast him as the male lead of her upcoming musical (with Mia as the main female lead) do we learn that his name is J.P. Reynolds-Abernathy the fourth.
• Rivers of London: Within the novels, Peter Grant always refers to his mother as "Mum". The readers finally learn her name (Mamusu "Rose") in the short story "A Rare Book of Cunning Device".
• In the first Skulduggery Pleasant novel, Stephanie is attacked by an unnamed minion of Nefarian Serpine. The side story "The Maleficent Seven" mentions that his name was Vindick Leather.
• The Southern Reach Trilogy: Expedition members are explicitly forbidden from using each others' names, referring to each other by role instead. In fact, not one character is named in the first book, Annihilation, though some of their names are revealed in the sequel, Authority.
• The background story of The Star Kings features a race of extragalactic invaders who had tried to conquer the Milky Way two thousand years ago. They are only known as the Magellanians. The sequel has them coming back for a rematch, this time giving their proper name, H'Harn.
• In the third book of the Sword of Truth series, Richard studies an ancient diary of a long-dead wizard. The man never gives his name, so Richard merely refers to him as "Koloblicin" ("strong advisor") or simply "Kolo". A later Distant Prequel taking place in the wizard's time features him under his proper name of Quinn.
• In Tales of the Magic Land, the first book features a wise crow who advises Strasheela to acquire brains. Starting from the next book, she becomes a prominent Ascended Extra and is given the name Kaggi-Karr.
• In Warrior Cats, there are several cases where characters are described only by appearance at first, but whose name is revealed later on. For instance, the kits kidnapped in Into the Wild aren't called by name in the books until they're apprenticed in Fire and Ice and Forest of Secrets (Cinderpaw, Brackenpaw, Thornpaw, and Brightpaw), and the unnamed hostile kittypets who attack the Clan cats in Starlight and Twilight are revealed to be named Jacques and Susan in Secrets of the Clans.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: In "The Coming of the Shadows", the Centauri emperor and prime minister are known, and credited, only by their titles. Subsequent episodes referred to them as Emperor Turhan and Prime Minister Malachi, respectively. (They were named after their respective actors, Turhan Bey and Malachi Throne).
• Cobra Kai: Daniel LaRusso returns to Okinawa in Season 3 and gets reunited with the surviving cast of The Karate Kid Part II. Among them is Yuna, the nameless little girl he saved during the storm in the climax of the film.
• In the first season of Falling Water, the main characters are only known by one name each (Tess, Taka, Burton, The Boy, etc.) in order to preserve a sense of surrealism. The second season, which is more grounded, reveals most of their names - Tess is Tess Brighton, Taka is Taka Matsuyama, Burton is Burton Mann, and The Boy is named James.
• One character from Heroes was originally known only as "The Haitian". A season four episode revealed his name as Rene.
• Oz: Robson is unnamed when he's introduced in Season 2, since he's a minor character who only shows up in one episode. It isn't until Season 3, when he's rapidly ascended in prominence by becoming Schillinger's Dragon that he gets a name.
• Raised By Wolves: The protagonist is known solely as "Mother" during the first season. In the second, after she comes in contact with a new colony arriving on the planet, they christen her Lamia.
• Return of Ultraman: Ultraman Jack was only known as "Shin Urutoraman" (new Ultraman) in his debut. He didn't get his name, "Jack", until the 1980s when Tsuburaya studios created a poll requesting for fans to give him a proper name. But from 2006's Ultraman Mebius onward, his name is officially "Jack".
• Star Trek:
  • In Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain Pike's first officer is only referred to as "Number One". When she reappears in Star Trek: Discovery, her given name is revealed to be Una, and in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, her full name is given as Una Chin-Riley.
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot episode, O'Brien is seen, but he's unnamed. He would be established as O'Brien in "Unnatural Selection", with "Data's Day" later revealing his first name is Miles.
• Supernatural: For his entire run as the show's original Big Bad, Azazel was only ever referred to as the Yellow-Eyed Demon, or simply Yellow-Eyes. His true name was only revealed posthumously in season 3.
• Sesame Street: Elmo initially didn't have a name and was only referred to as "little monster". He got a name once his character was fleshed out more.
• One episode of What We Do in the Shadows (2019) had Guillermo hook up with a team of vampire hunters on a raid which goes very badly. He's forced to rescue them and massacres a family of vampires. The vampire family is not identified then, but the season finale reveals they were known as the Hustle Dynasty.
• The X-Files goes seasons without giving certain characters official names. Cigarette Smoking Man, which was labeled as a character in the background of the pilot, got the alias CBG Spender in season 6 and the official name Carl Gerhard Busch after the reboot in season 11. Others include X, Well-Manicured Man, and Deep Throat.

Video Games

• Annabelle (RPG Maker) has two examples:
  • The title heroine's abusive father was nameless in the original game, but the remake and subsequent games gave him the name Jason Sunray.
  • Melody's mother first appears in The Dreams Of Melody Moonlight, but her name- Tiffany- is not given until The Exorcism Of Annabelle Sunray.
• BIONICLE: The player character in the GBA game Quest for the Toa was originally a Featureless Protagonist but was given a Canon Name (Takua) and appearance at the very end of the Web Game the Mata Nui Online Game, which acts as a direct sequel to Quest for the Toa. Takua would go on to become one of the most important characters in the franchise.
• The Sheriff of Lynchwood from Borderlands 2 is never called anything else, and Deputy Winger admits that he's too terrified of her to ask for her name. She gets Promoted to Playable in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, where her name is revealed to be Nisha Kadam.
• Handsome Jack's Body Double from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! legally isn't allowed to reveal his real name, though he mentions that it rhymes with "Jimothy". By the time of the Borderlands 3 Downloadable Content "Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot", he's able to use his real name, Timothy Lawrence.
• Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: Hoggmeiser's son went un-named in the original release, but Etna Mode in Afternoon of Darkness gave him the name of "Porkmeister", which stuck with him into Disgaea Dimension 2.
• Final Fantasy
  • The ending of Final Fantasy IV sees Palom talking to a girl. The girl appears as a main character in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years named Leonora.
  • In the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII game Before Crisis one of the playable Turks is a woman code-named Shuriken (female). In Crisis Core she becomes a supporting character and, along with more characterization, is named Cissnei (although she says that this isn't her real name).
• In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the noble parents of several characters are known only by their titles. In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, may of the parents actually appear and get names; for example, Ferdinand von Aegir's father Duke Aegir's first name is revealed to be Ludwig.
• Five Nights at Freddy's: While the series' Big Bad William Afton has made appearances throughout the first few games, he was first named in the tie-in book Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes. Disregarding the non-video game media, his surname was only revealed in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, and his first name isn't mentioned until Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel features a side character who simply goes by Lieutenant Muscat, working as a secretary to General Merlot and is the one who discovered about the Taranis tearing the Berman Army a new one over the course of the story. With Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 introducing two new Muscats with Vanilla and Shayne, the Lieutenant of the previous game was given the first name Cannelle to better differentiate her from her younger sister and father.
• Galaxy Angel: During the first trilogy, the names of the Elsior's shopkeeper and the lady running the cafeteria are never revealed, despite often interacting with the heroes. It's not until the final game of Galaxy Angel II that we learn their names are Ecco Frite and Ume Miyazawa respectively. To a lesser extent, the bridge operators in the Luxiole often appear during Mugen Kairou no Kagi but don't have their names revealed until Eigou Kaiki no Toki.
• Henry Stickmin Series:
  • Henry wasn't named until the second game, Escaping The Prison.
  • The Henry Stickmin Collection, a remastered collection of all five previous games plus the Grand Finale, named every single character in the entire series, even background characters who were only on-screen for two seconds.
• Heretic: The first-person protagonist of the original game went unnamed—just an elf fighting against hordes of monsters. Come the third-person sequel, Heretic 2, said protagonist is identified as "Corvus".
• Hidden City: In the Upper City, most of Mr. Black's unseen Security Service agents are given numerical codes rather than names. In "Double Game", an Agent 032 is mentioned as having disappeared in the fog after opposing Violet. In "Playing to Live", it is revealed that his name is Conrad Overback.
• In Infinity Blade, the player character's name was unknown, then the first novel and the second game gave him the name Siris and gave details to the revelations regarding his past.
• Kingdom Hearts: Something of a series tradition when it comes to bonus bosses.
  • In Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Sora encounters and battles a man with red blades of light who wears a black cloak. Come the sequel, his name is revealed to be Xemnas.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+, The party encounter an armored entity at a barren wasteland, who wields a keyblade and does battle with them. This being is called the Lingering Will by the in-game journal, Birth By Sleep revealed him to be what is left of Terra.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep featured another black-cloaked man with light-blades that Terra, Aqua, and Ventus would battle. Come Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], he gives Sora and Riku his name: Xehanort.
• In Knights of the Old Republic, the planet the player party crashes on is known as the "Unknown World", and in later works is given the names of "Rakata Prime" and "Lehon".
• The Player Character of MechWarrior 3 was simply referred to as Lance Leader along with the nameless intelligence officer of the Mobile Field Base. Come the Expansion Pack Pirate's Moon, he's named Connor Sinclair along with Thomas Sorenson for the Mobile Field Base. The names would retroactively carry over to the base game's novelization, Trial Under Fire.
• Max Payne: Max's baby girl, who was killed in the very first game at the same time as her mother Michelle, would not receive a name until Max Payne 3, where Max visits their grave during a flashback to Max's days in New Jersey, and her name is revealed to be Rose.
• Metal Slug: A good number of characters, enemies, mechs, and bosses (most of them after Metal Slug 3) were left unnamed for many years resorting fans to come up with their own names. Names either came from their sprite files, their physical appearance, or a random name that just stuck with the fandom. Metal Slug Defense and Metal Slug Attack would slowly reveal their official names when the particular unit became playable.
• The Other: Rosie's Road of Love names "Girl from Flower Shop" from The Other: Airi's Adventure, as the Steven Ulysses Perhero-type name, "Florence".
• Przygody Reksia: Kretes was only known as "the mole" in "Treasure of the Pirates". After becoming Ascended Extra in "UFO", he is given an actual name.
• Ratchet & Clank:
  • Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: Captain Qwark's full name is revealed to be Copernicus L. Qwark.
  • Qwark's fitness trainer in the first game was only referred to as such in the credits, then was given the name Helga in Up Your Arsenal.
• Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: In the Game Boy Advance port, the Guardian of the Cave of Bad Dreams from Rayman 2 has his name revealed: Jano.
• In Shin Megami Tensei if..., the player can decide both the name and gender of the protagonist. However, the sequel game, Persona, establishes said character as a woman named Tamaki Uchida. This name, gender and appearance also are used in Persona 2, before she vanishes from the series entirely.
• Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves: Fan-favorite Dimitri's last name Lousteau is first shown in this game. In Sly 2: Band of Thieves, only his first name and the first initial of the last name are seen.
• In South Park: The Stick of Truth, the New Kid's parents were unnamed, but the sequel, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, gave them the name Chris and Kelly.
• Spelunky: The main player character didn't have a name, but was unofficially known as "Spelunky guy". In Spelunky 2, he gets a name: Guy Spelunky.
• In Stinkoman 20X6, Homestar Runner's counterpart is given the name 1-Up. The ending also reveals the name of Marzipan's counterpart, Marzi-Mei.
• Beecham from Suikoden III actually appeared in the previous game as a nameless Elite Mook.
• The World Ends with You: In Another Day, after the Erasure of Shinjuku, Joshua and Hanekoma notice there is one survivor, a strange girl with headphones. The fandom quickly began calling her Hype-chan, though a few years later, the trailers for NEO: The World Ends with You reveal her name is Tsugumi Matsunae.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: A flashback reveals that the god Zanza used to be a human named Klaus. The woman who ends up becoming the goddess Meyneth is also present, but is not referred to by name. In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, an expanded version of that flashback is shown, with the woman who would become Meyneth referred to by the name Galea.
• Pocket Circuit Fighter debuted in Yakuza 0 but didn't get a proper name (Fujisawa) until Yakuza: Like a Dragon, his fourth appearance in the series.

Visual Novels

• BAD END THEATER has two Walking Spoiler characters known as TRAGEDY and "you", of whom one goes by a nickname while the other is only referred to with a pronoun. The remake of the Lonely Wolf Treat series includes a hidden cameo of these two characters, where they appear as two witches named Lilium and Orchid, respectively.
• The Great Ace Attorney: The Japanese judge, like all other judges in the series, goes unnamed in the first game, but is given a name — Seishirou Jigoku — at the end of the first episode in the sequel.

Web Animation

• Tankmen: In "Tankmen 1", an unnamed tankman announces he's going to be a father, before being shot in the head by an enemy sniper. In "Tankmen 2", he's given the name Bill in the midst of another tankman's tangent about his death.

Western Animation

• In The Amazing Bible series of Christian animated videos, Revver the mouse has a silent insect friend. For the first two videos, he goes unnamed. It isn't until the third video, "Amazing Miracles", that he is finally given the name Franklin.
• Arthur: Initially, Mr. Ratburn's name was unknown (though Arthur did have a Fantasy Sequence in which it was Emil in "Arthur's Baby"). "Dancing with Fools" would later reveal it's actually Nigel.
• Ben 10: Omniverse:
  • Ben's three monster-themed aliens in the original series were only given the placeholder names of Benwolf, Benmummy, and Benvicktor. In Omniverse, they are all given official names: Blitzwolfer, Snare-oh, and Frankenstrike.
  • Ben's escaped alien Ghostfreak was never given a name during the original series; he was only ever referred to as Ghostfreak. His true name, Zs'Skayr, was revealed to Ben in Omniverse.^note An interesting version as the Zs'Skayr name was featured in supplementary material all the way back in the original series, but the name wasn't used until Omniverse.
• Bluey:
  • Initially, Bluey and Bingo's parents were unnamed, but "BBQ" would reveal their names are Bandit (father) and Chilli (mother).
  • While "BBQ" introduced Socks and Muffin's parents along with them, it wasn't until "Horsey Ride" that their names were revealed as Stripe (father) and Trixie (mother).
  • Bluey and Bingo's grandmother was only referred to as "Nana", until "Fairy Tale" revealed it was Chris.
• Classic Disney Shorts: The ranger who appeared in many Donald Duck and Humphrey the Bear shorts was unnamed. He was given the name J. Audubon Woodlore for his appearances in Walt Disney Presents.
• Fievel's American Tails gives Fievel's father (only known as "Papa" in An American Tail and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West) the name Bernard.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Around 1938, the Warner animators were developing a manic rabbit character, referred to in-house as Happy Hare. For his third appearance in "Hare-um Scare-um", director Ben Hardaway (whose nickname was Bugs) had the character redesigned, and the model sheet called him "Bugs' Bunny". It was this name, minus the apostrophe, that would stick, but while "A Wild Hare" is considered Bugs' official debut, his name wouldn't be made public until his next cartoon, "Elmer's Pet Rabbit".
  • "Hair-Raising Hare" has Bugs pitted against a large, furry red monster with tennis shoes. He was nameless in that cartoon, but on his next cartoon, "Water, Water Every Hare", he is named Rudolph. For his next appearance, the 1979 Chuck Jones cartoon "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th and a Half Century", the monster was renamed Gossamer, and that has been his official name ever since.
  • In 1931, Warner Bros. released three shorts staring a pair of Mickey and Minnie Mouse-like foxes. While the male fox would be given the name "Foxy" in their second short, the female would remain nameless until the pair reappeared in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode ''Tiny Toon Adventures S3 E9, which gave her the name "Roxy".
• The Loud House:
  • In the pilot episode, all of the eleven Loud siblings are seen, but only Lincoln, Lori, Luna, and Lola are named. The series' first proper episode, "Left in the Dark", establishes the names of all the remaining siblings except one (Leni, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lisa and Lily). Lana, the last one to have her name given, had hers first said in the next episode, "Get the Message".
  • The siblings' parents' names weren't given until later in the first season. The mother, Rita, had her name given in "A Novel Idea", while the father, Lynn Sr., had his given in "Overnight Success".
  • For the first four seasons, Lynn Sr.'s father's first name was unknown and he was only seen in flashbacks. When he was finally seen onscreen in the Season 5 episode "Camped!", his name was revealed to be Leonard.
  • "Home of the Fave" reveals that Lynn Sr. has a brother, albeit only seen in silhouette in a flashback. It's not until "'Twas the Fight Before Christmas" that said brother is properly introduced in full and revealed to be named Lance.
  • Clyde's grandma was mentioned back in Season 1, but her name, Gayle, wasn't said until Season 5's "Resident Upheaval".
  • Initially, Bobby and Ronnie Anne's father's first name was unknown, until the spin-off series The Casagrandes gave it as Arturo.
  • In "The Boss Maybe", Scoots starts dating an unnamed man who's considerably younger than her. It isn't until "Resident Upheaval" that his name is given as Tyler.
  • A newswoman voiced by Catherine Taber had appeared several times throughout the first two seasons of the show, but it wasn't until the Season 3 episode "Scales of Justice" that her name was given as Katherine Mulligan.
  • Cheryl's surname was unknown since her introduction, even after the debut of her twin sister Meryl in Season 5, until the Season 6 episode "Save Royal Woods!" gave it as Farrell.
  • Stella Zhau first appeared in "White Hare", albeit with only her hair and bow visible. She's not fully seen (or named) until "Be Stella My Heart". Her last name also wasn't revealed until "Kernel of Truth".
  • The last names of Liam and Zach were unspoken until "Antiqued Off" revealed Zach's was Gurdle, and "Cow Pie Kid" revealed Liam's was Hunnicutt.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Despite appearing in the pilot, Steven Magnet was not officially named until the 100th episode.
  • Zig-zagged with one wall-eyed, klutzy background character who was initially unnamed until "The Last Roundup" confirmed her name was Derpy, which used to be her Fan Nickname. Later, the name was censored out over concern that it was offensive to disabled people, so she remains unnamed, unless you count the credits of "Slice of Life", which lists her as "Muffins" (but this may just be a placeholder name).
  • There was a Recurring Extra whose name was unrevealed until "Slice of Life" confirmed that her name was Sweetie Drops, but that, being a secret agent, she preferred the alias Bon Bon.
  • The bulky pegasus with small wings, introduced in Season 2's "Hurricane Fluttershy", had his name revealed to be "Bulk Biceps" in Season 4's "Rainbow Falls".
  • Pinkie Pie's family, who were seen in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" in the first season, were nameless for four whole seasons until Season 5's "Hearthbreakers", where their names are revealed as Igneous Rock Pie (the father), Cloudy Quartz Pie (the mother), and Limestone Pie and Marble Pie (the sisters). Pinkie also had a third sister during a photo of her first party in "Pinkie Pride", whose name was revealed as Maud Pie in her self-titled episode.
• Ninjago: The cameraman for the Ninjago news channel debuted in season 1 and was first listed in the credits in season 2, where he was simply named "Cameraman". It wasn't until season 10 that he was addressed by his name, Vinny.
• Numberjacks: Initially, all three of the humans who live in the Numberjacks' house were unnamed, but eventually, the mother was heard calling her daughter's name, which is Holly.
• The green ghost that slimes Peter Venkman in the Ghostbusters film was named Slimer in the cartoon spinoff The Real Ghostbusters.
• Justified in Rugrats, for Spike and Fifi's puppies, who literally didn't have names until they were named Spiffy ("A Tale of Two Puppies") and Pepper^note Or Sparky in some releases ("Mutt's in a Name").
• The Simpsons: The Comic Book Guy was first introduced in 1991, and known as only that until 14 years later, where he just casually mentioned that his name is Jeff Albertson. Matt Groening had originally wanted him to be named Louis Lane, as a Shout-Out to Lois Lane.
• South Park: Butters, Craig, Tolkien, and Clyde weren't named until Season 3.
• Steven Universe: Future:
  • While Larimar's name was mentioned and she showed up during the finale of the original series, it wasn't until Future that she was explicitly confirmed to be Larimar.
  • Bixbite debuted in the finale of the original series and wasn't named until the second episode of Future.
• Tangled: The Series: King Frederic and Queen Arianna were nameless in the original movie until their full names were revealed in this series.

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