Somebody Named "Nobody"

"Fear names. Names have power in identity. Remain nameless, and you shall remain safe. I am The Nameless One."

— The Nameless One, Planescape: Torment

The Nameless may come from many reasons, always with authorial intent. This trope is only in effect when the nom de guerre of a character reflects their lack of a name. This may or may not be something the character is aware of. The author is trying to make the character more mysterious by hiding parts of the character from the audience, creating the illusion that there is much more about the character that cannot be known. A name is used to grant characters an identity, but their lack of name makes it hard to identify the character.

"Nemo" is a commonly used variant, as it's Latin for "no one", but also sounds more like an actual name. Sillier examples tends to exploit this ambiguity for a Who's on First? situation.

For similar tropes, please refer to the supertrope, The Nameless. Closely related is Withholding Their Name (when the character refuses to share their name, sometimes offering "Nobody" as an option). Compare My Hero, Zero. Not to be confused with No Name Given. "Untitled" Title is essentially the same concept as applied to titles instead of characters.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• A derogatory version is used in DearS. Ren's name, in her own species language, means "nothing".
• Nadie (Spanish for nobody) from El Cazador de la Bruja.
• Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: Mumei likes her name, as it was given to her by her beloved adopted brother. Ikoma doesn't have the heart to tell her it means "nameless", though by the end of the first season she remembers her original name.
• Nanashi from Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru, due to having no other name to remember.
• The mysterious host in Our Dreams at Dusk is called "Dareka-san" ("Someone") by everyone, since she deliberately keeps a veil of mystery around herself. No one knows what her real name is.

Comic Books

• Doom Patrol villain Mr. Nobody, an ex-Nazi two-dimensional shadow person thing with the ability to drain people's sanity (but only at the expense of his own sanity) and leader of the Brotherhood of Dada. He later renames himself Mr. Somebody.
• In Hellblazer, the Beast was a denizen of Eden who refused to be named by Adam. It hated the idea of being defined, and thus limited, by man. As a result, the Beast became a powerful spirit who lacked a body to call its own who is dedicated to wiping out humanity.
• Little Nemo: Nemo is Latin for "Nobody".
• Tin's girlfriend in Metal Men wasn't given a proper name, and was often called "Nameless".
• In the Planet Hulk storyline, one of Hulk's group of True Companions is a Brood queen, who don't have names. Since she (uniquely for her species) lives among non-Brood and even befriends some of them, a "name" of some sort becomes necessary. She becomes known as "No-Name of the Brood."
• Wolverine gets an arc in Marvel Comics Presents where he meets a daughter named Reine du Rien, French for Queen of Nothing. She was deliberately conceived by her family with Wolverine to combine his mutant abilities, particularly his longevity, with their sorcerous heritage for an indefinite solution to a demon of apocalyptic power that periodically returned to Earth.
• In X-Men Red (2022), one of the leaders of the mutant nation of Arakko is the immensely powerful shapeshifter Nameless. She's never portrayed in her own form.

Fanworks

• In The Duskyverse story, Evil's Twilight, the antagonist is a very ancient, body-snatching spirit. As far as Celestia and Luna can tell, it has no name, so they just call it Nameless.
• Enlightenments interprets "Wander" this way. It isn't a name so much as what the locals call a nameless person, and what the nameless man in question gives as a nickname in a sequel short to the fic when someone protests that they can't just call him "hey you" all the time.
• Fate/Long Night: The Stranger's Champion says she gave up her name a long time ago and to just call her "No One". It is heavily implied her true identity is Arya Stark.
• Pony POV Series:
  • The being most characters know as "Makarov" or the "Shadow of Chernobull" is actually a nameless entity, and uses the names of his assimilated victims. Most characters who learn his true nature then start referring to him as "Nameless".
  • The criminal who murdered Cupid is now known as the Nameless Filly, after Venus asked Pandora to erase her name from existence.

Film

• Blood Work. The code left behind by the Code Killer is a clue to his surname. The code has almost all numerals from 0 to 9 but "no one". The Code Killer is James Noone in the book and Buddy Noone in the film.
• In Dead Man, the dying William Blake (no, not that one) is rescued and guided through the wilderness by a Native American man who digs the bullet out of his gut and sees to it that he dies well. The man's name, of course, is Nobody.
  Nobody: My name is Xebece, He Who Talks Loud, Saying Nothing.
  William Blake: 'He Who Talks'... I thought you said your name was Nobody.
  Nobody: ...I prefer to be called Nobody.
• The titular fish in Finding Nemo is this, though this seems more likely a nod to the underwater adventures of Captain Nemo (see above) than to the Latin word’s meaning of "Nobody".
• The head of the agency featured in Furious 7 is known only as Mr. Nobody in the film. ^note  He has a canonical name, but it's not used in the film. This only adds to the mystery surrounding him. The follow-up, The Fate of the Furious, introduces a new member of the agency he refers to as Mr. Little Nobody. This adds to his mystery, but he doesn't like it. ^note  He also has a canonical name, but it's not used in the film either.
• The viewpoint character of Hero (2002), played by Jet Li, goes by "Nameless". In this case, it is a sign of humility.
• John Wick: Chapter 4: The Tracker introduces himself as "Nobody". From then on, he is referred to as "Mr. Nobody".
• Nemo Nobody, titular character of the film Mr. Nobody is a twofer, because Nemo is Latin for "Nobody".
• The Trope Namer is the 1973 film My Name Is Nobody, an Affectionate Parody of Spaghetti Westerns (particularly the "Man with No Name" Trilogy) focusing on a man whose name is "Nobody".
• Se7en has a variant with the Theme Serial Killer who goes only by John Doe.
• The main character of They Live! is referred to as "Nada" ("nothing" in Spanish) in the credits. Within the story he is an example of No Name Given.
• The title character of Nobody, natch, although he does use a perfectly ordinary full name (Hutch Mansell) in his civilian life; "Nobody" is his codename.

Literature

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, has Captain Nemo (Latin for "Nobody"), the charismatic superscientist-slash-submarine captain-slash-anglophobic undersea terrorist with a Mysterious Past.
• In And Then There Were None the 10 guests each received letters from a mysterious benefactor named U. N. Owen, or "unknown".
• In The Avatar Chronicles, one mysterious character - only seen through his game avatars, and known to be somewhere on the isle of exiled criminals - introduces himself as "Anonemuss".
• The Blacklist: All of the characters have anagrams for names, like "He is the bad guy" and "She is a traitor", but the main character is Ivan G. Nemone, an anagram for No Name Given.
• Bleak House: One of the book's subplots involves the death of a law-writer who called himself "Nemo". Several characters lampshade that it means "no one".
• In the novel DawnThief, one of the founding members of the mercenary band of protagonists goes by "The Unknown Warrior" ("Unknown" for short), a nickname given because he refused to speak of his birth name or upbringing.
• In Deverry, Prince Galrion is stripped of his rank, wealth and even his name by his father. His father issues a decree that ever after Galrion is to only be called "Nevyn". That's not a name. It's a word that quite literally means "no-one".
• In the Earthsea series, the Nameless Ones, formerly the main deities of the Kargad religion, are manifestations of Earth's more malevolent aspects. Some reside in the labyrinths on the island of Atuan.
• In Farworld, the orphaned and unknown Markus is given the surname "Kanenas" (Greek for "None")
• Fate/strange Fake: False Assassin gave up her name long ago. She is referred to as False Assassin, the Beautiful Assassin, the Zealot, or No-Name Assassin.
• In The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, the main character is called "Nobody Owens" for punny reasons. He's also being raised in a graveyard so... Mystery!
• In Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, there are two characters called "The Nameless Slave". Due to I Know Your True Name magics, this makes things rather confusing when spells meant to address the latter Nameless Slave accidentally affect the former Nameless Slave. Neither enslaved man was given a name by their mother at birth, so the magics consider any other name to be false.
• French spy James Nobody from Les Merveilleux Exploits de James Nobody (The Marvelous Exploits of James Nobody).
• The Lotterys More or Less: One of the Lotterys' neighbours is a guy named Harry No Name. Back when he lived in Southern Saskatchewan, the Indian Agent couldn't spell his ancestor's name, and just wrote "No Name". He's gone by Harry No Name ever since.
• Robert Kraft
  • Mr. Nobody, the eponymous reporter from the German adventure novel Nobody - 30 Jahre im Dienste einer Weltzeitung (Nobody - Thirty Years in the Service of a Newspaper).
  • Detective Nobody, featured in Detektiv Nobody's Erlebnisse und Reiseabenteuer (Detective Nobody's Experiences and Traveling Adventures).
• The Machineries of Empire: The man who serves as Willing Channeler to Nirai Kujen only calls himself Inhyeng, meaning "doll" or "puppet", because he doesn't want his old life linked to Kujen's misdeeds.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • The Faceless Men are so called because of their Voluntary Shapeshifting abilities and they gave up their original names when joining. There's no way to identify any of them individually, so the characters have only been identified by ''ad hoc'' titles from Arya's POV.
  • The High Septon officially gives up his name on assuming the post and is known only by his title. This is lampshaded as making it difficult to distinguish historical High Septons, especially in a tumultuous time like that of the story, which has seen three people come and go from the position — "the fat one," "the one after the fat one," and "the High Sparrow".
• The poem "Nobody" in Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic is about someone with a friend named "Nobody".
  Nobody loves me, nobody cares,
  Nobody picks me peaches and pears.
  Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,
  Nobody listens and laughs at my jokes.
  Nobody helps when I get into a fight,
  Nobody does all my homework at night.
  Nobody misses me, Nobody cries,
  Nobody thinks I'm a wonderful guy.
  So, if you ask me who's my best friend, in a whiz,
  I'll stand up and tell you NOBODY is!
• Fin U. Lanu of The Map to Everywhere is extrapolated from the acronym FNULNU - First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown.

Live-Action Television

• An episode of CSI had a Serial Killer wearing a latex suit who targeted publicly upstanding people with dark secrets (an adulterous housewife, a engineered paramedic). He went by the pseudonym Ian Moone, an anagram of "I Am No One".
• John Doe: The title character of a 2002 FOX series was built entirely around the premise of not having a name/identity.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Odo is a member of a shapeshifter race that sent him out into space at a young age. When he was found near Bajor, he was called an "unknown sample" in Bajoran. The Cardassian overseeing the project renamed it the closest approximation in Cardassian instead; "odo'ital", which translates literally as "nothing".
• White Collar: Mozzie is admitted to the hospital under the alias Ivan Bliminse, an anagram of "Invisible Man".

Music

• America wrote the song "Horse with No Name" involving a journey through the desert on a horse who has no name, or on a horse, without you having a name. Either way, the song is famous for its juxtaposition of having no identity and being able to maintain your identity with no one around to influence you.
• The band Ghost has the singer named Papa Emeritus, while the rest of the band wears identical masks and robes on stage and are referred to and credited as "Nameless Ghouls".
• Used in "Nemo" by Nightwish (Nemo means "Nobody" in Latin):
  This is me for forever/One of the lost ones
  The one without a name/Without an honest heart as compass
  (...)Once and for all and all for once/Nemo my name forevermore
• The Sylvia song "Nobody" is about a romantic rival who is always referred to by the singer's love interest as "nobody".
  Well your nobody called today
  She hung up when I asked her name
  Well I wonder, does she think she's being clever? (Clever, ohhhh)
  You say nobody's after you
  The fact is what you say is true
  But I can love you like nobody can, even better.

Mythology and Religion

• In The Odyssey, Greek hero Odysseus briefly assumes the identity of "Outis" (Greek for "Nobody") as part of a ploy to outsmart the cyclops Polyphemus. When Odysseus stabs the cyclops in the eye, Polyphemus calls out to his siblings that "Nobody has blinded me!" and so they don't come to help.

Puppet Shows

• The Floating Face, a surrealistic, nightmare-inducing Muppet appearing on Sesame Street in the form of a disembodied mouth and pair of eyes made of white string hovering in front of blurred video footage, is sometimes identified as Nobody or No Body.

Other Media

• Played with at length by the satirical political campaign "Nobody for President", which can alternately be read as promoting a candidate named "Nobody" or the idea that nobody should be president.
  "Nobody will keep his election promises.
  Nobody will listen to your concerns.
  Nobody will help the poor and unemployed.
  Nobody cares!
  Nobody tells the truth."

Radio

• John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme: When professional male impersonator Gallie tries to get her parents' blessing to carry on a music hall career with her partner Susanna, she announces Susanna's surprise private wedding to a "Captain Noone" (pronounced 'noon') of the Coldstream Guards, whom none of them have ever met. After their parents have left, her sympathetic brother starts poking holes in the story:
  Newt: Unusual name, 'Noone'. Does he spell it with an e?
  Gallie: Yes, as a matter of fact, he does!
  Newt: I thought he might. And a hyphen?
  [tense pause]
  Gallie: ...You little beast. I suppose you think you're awfully clever?
  Newt: Not really. I'm not sure it's as subtle as you think it is...

Tabletop Games

• In Pathfinder, one of the sahkil tormentors is known as Nameless, Upon an Empty Throne. Its worshippers often use its title rather than its lack of name to refer to it. While most sahkil take on terrifying forms to feed on fear, Nameless also doesn't manifest tangibly and is detectible only as a lingering thought, misheard sound, or sense of movement in the corner of the eye. As its favored prey is those who seek power, it's presumably invoking Nothing Is Scarier against rulers who might feel too protected to be impressed by more conventional horrors.

Theatre

• In the morality play Everywoman: Her Pilgrimage in Quest of Love by Walter Browne, Nobody is a Lemony Narrator who frequently uses his own name and harbors a Villainous Crush on the title character.

Video Games

• Assassin's Creed: Altair Ibn-La Ahad, the protagonist of the original Assassin's Creed. has a name that translates into, "The Eagle, Son of No One."
• Blazblue: Mai Natsume in the past fused herself with a grimoire named "No Name". It gives her a power of getting information and perceiving another person's thoughts with her taste, and later, the ability to do wide varieties of magic if certain "magical codes" are "written" into her.
• In Dark Souls III, one of the hidden bosses is called the Nameless King. It's heavily implied that he is the firstborn son of Gwyn whose identity was stricken from history by Gwyn himself as a punishment for some grave sin.
• Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten: Judge Nemo, because Nemo is Latin for "Nobody". He refuses to use his birth name because That Man Is Dead.
• Fate/EXTRA: The Playable Archer has long discarded his original name of Shirou Emiya, so he is referred to as Nameless.
• Forgotten Worlds: Both player characters are only known as the "Nameless Ones". This is kept in their cameo appearances, usually going by the moniker of "Unknown Soldier" followed by 1P/2P to identify between them. The Japanese sources have slight variations at times, like "Nameless Super Soldier". The Mega Drive Japanese manual also refers to the 2P soldier as "Mohawk Man".
• In Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star you encounter a bird who calls himself Nemo (Nemo is Latin for "Nobody") and says that he has lost his real name.
• In Hatred the protagonist says his name is "not important" during his opening monologue - in the credits his voice actor is credited with voicing the character "Not Important" making it his actual name.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • The Nobodies, most of which are Faceless Mooks whose name means they have no heart (in contrast to the Heartless, who are the darkness of the heart with no body). But when a person with a strong heart becomes a Heartless, they may leave behind a strong Nobody as well. These form Organization XIII, and face the existential crisis of not knowing if they are real people or not, because they have no feelings. Their personal names usually involve Xtreme Kool Letterz (generally speaking, a Nobody's given name is an anagram of their original's name with an X added), but they still identify as Nobodies, and seek Kingdom Hearts to become real.
  • There are two Keyblades with the name "No Name" in the series: one is used by Xehanort, and the other is awarded to players who beat the "Unknown" in Birth by Sleep. In the former's case, it was never given a name, so when the Master of Masters told Luxu it had "no name", Luxu promptly called it that, much to the Master's exasperation.
• The King of Fighters has a character literally named Nameless, presumed the last clone made by NESTS, and thus didn't have enough time to develop a legitimate name.
• La-Mulana: "MU is the name of the nameless one, the one who climbs to the sky." This is a bit of wordplay: the Japanese word for "nameless" is mumei.
• Nobody Saves the World works as a Pun-Based Title, as the Amnesiac Hero player character is simply referred to as "Nobody" in their base form.
• Ōkami has a minor character who lives next to Hana Valley whose text boxes say "Nameless Man".
• In An Oriental Alphabet Primer, one of the characters is a monk who goes under the name "Muna", which (as the narration explains) means "no name". He apparently considers it hilarious.
• In Phantom Dust, if you reject all the name choices you're given at the start of the game you will be called Nanashi (Japanese for "nameless") instead.
• The Nameless One from Planescape: Torment is an immortal amnesiac, with no knowledge of his past apart from what he can piece together from the clues tattooed on his body and the journals his past selves left behind. He can eventually relearn his name, but the player can't.
• A character named Unknown in Tekken. She's revealed to be a dark incarnation of Jun Kazama, Jin's mother.
• Given its popularity with pieces involving wandering samurai, this trope shows up in Way of the Samurai, where 'Nameless' is the default name given to the player's ronin character. You can always choose to change it, but seeing as how the player is apparently some kind of amnesiac swordsman, it fits.
• XBlaze: Lost Memories: the character Nobody calls herself that because she has forgotten her name, due to being trapped in a strange dimension called Phantom Field. She explains it to our heroine who similarly loses her memories. Late in the game, Nobody's true identity is revealed: she's Es from the previous game.
• The protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse was named Nanashi, which literally means 'Nameless' in Japanese, by his adopted father. He can legally change it, but his adopted sister (the more conventionally-named Asahi) will always call him Nanashi in voice-acting.

Webcomics

• In Earthsong, the leader of Haven's Guard is unique for remembering her entire past except for her name. She goes by Nanashi, which is Japanese for "no name."
• Follower: Geedy, in the beginning is only known as Subject 23-3, and even then only to the scientists who he doesn't understand. He is later given a name by Dia.
• In Get Medieval, a man turns up in prison who is unable to identify himself—he pretends to have amnesia, but really he's a traveler from another planet. He ends up going by Sir Edward Sans-Nom (Sir Edward the Nameless), after his rescuer Edward the Black Prince.
• In Harkovast, the Nameless are an army of warriors who lack not just names but also cannot speak and always have their faces covered by helmets. They are so anonymous that they are the only creatures in Harkovast who cannot be identified with a real world animal.
• xkcd gives us Gnome Ann, as in "Time and tide wait for Gnome Ann". (Homonym for "No Man".)
• I Love Yoo: When Nolan(better known as Yeong-Gi) was younger, he shortened his name to"Nol"- which his brother made fun of him for, noting the similarities it had to "null" and "net operating loss", along with stating that it means "nothing" in several languages.
  • In addition, throughout the story "nobody" is used to refer to Nol.

Web Original

• One of the beings featured in Bogleech's Nightmare Beings posts is identified only as *TV Static Noise*. Within the narrative of the nightmare from which it originated, it believes that if it is given a name, it can escape into the waking world, and attempts without success to coerce the dreamer into naming it. Upon hearing the story, Bog immediately names it Dorothy.
• Finding Hope is a Spaghetti Western tribute, so one of the characters goes by "Nobody" as a Shout-Out to several films which use No Name Given for the protagonist.
• On 4chan and similar imageboards, stories about Anonymous (the faceless Audience Surrogate) sometimes have him literally be someone named Anonymous (or Anon, or A. N. Onymous, etc.)
• hololive's Nanashi Mumei, which roughly translates to "Nobody Nameless". It's not her birth name, just the most recent one she can remember.
• Homestar Runner: In the first installment of Marzipan's Answering Machine, Strong Bad claims to be "Mister Nobody from the Toilet Patrol" in order to try to convince Marzipan to give herself a swirlie.

Western Animation

• In one Betty Boop Cartoon where she runs for president, there is a candidate named "Mr. Nobody."
• The antagonists of Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys are known as the " ".
• In The Smurfs, there's a Smurf character named "Nobody" who got his name from his low self-esteem and has a whole episode dedicated to him (aptly named "Nobody Smurf"). This trait, however, proves crucial in defeating the episode's villain (because he's literally named "Nobody", said villain is unable to curse him based on his name as he did with the other Smurfs), at which point he ends up being renamed to "Somebody Smurf" after defeating the villain and gaining confidence in himself.
• In Spider-Man (1967), Spidey had an invisible adversary named "Dr. Noah Boddy"
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), there is a Batman-expy superhero named Nobody.

Real Life

• When K2, the second highest mountain on earth, was first surveyed, the mapping team learned that it had never been given a local name due to its remoteness. Therefore the label applied to the peak on the survey sketch, K2, became the one most commonly associated with it. Many climbers feel that the mountain is so harsh and challenging that it defies any attempt at being humanized with a proper name.
  Italian climber Fosco Maraini: It is just the bare bones of a name, all rock and ice and storm and abyss. It makes no attempt to sound human. It is atoms and stars. It has the nakedness of the world before the first man — or of the cindered planet after the last.
• The 13th Century Hungarian chronicler who wrote the book Gesta Hungarorum is only known as Anonymus (Nameless) or as Master P.
• The author of the oldest Polish chronicle, Gesta principum Polonorum, is known only as Gallus Anonymus. It's unknown whether "Gallus" is a proper name or a reference to the author's nationality.
• No Name, Colorado. When the town was first being settled its inhabitants were given questionnaires to fill out by the state, and one of the categories was "Name of Town". The majority of people filled in "No Name", and the rest is history.

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