History NoNameGiven / AnimeAndManga

* Played for laughs with Hokuto's lackey from ''Manga/CromartieHighSchool''. The running gag throughout the whole series is that he gets cut off before he can say what it is. The background and author notes in the manga finally does reveal his name to the reader, but the whole cast of the series admits that it's better that he just continues to go by "Hokuto's Lackey" because they've built up their friendships and familiarities with him around it. Learning his name would be a rather jarring change to that relationship.

* L in ''Manga/DeathNote'' orders the police officers aiding him to call him Ryuzaki, but his real name is never shown. In a book of extras entitled "How to Read", his name is revealed to be [[spoiler: L Lawliet. If you watch the live action movie ''Film/LChangeTheWorld'' you see his name written in the death note. Also, you can just barely catch that his first name is just "L" in the second movie.]]

-->'''Trowa:''' Battle Record 001, pilot's name... let's go with Trowa.\\

** ''Manga/PhantomBlood'':

** In ''Manga/BattleTendency'', Santana's actual name is never given, with Santana being a name given to him by Stroheim. However, he's later referred to as Santana by Kars, despite Kars being one of the few people who would know his real name, [[{{Namedar}} so perhaps Stroheim was actually right]].
** ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'':

** ''Manga/DiamondIsUnbreakable'':

** ''Manga/GoldenWind'':

** Jolyne's Mother from ''Manga/StoneOcean'' [[UnnamedParent is never given a name]].
** None of the Eleven Riders from ''Manga/SteelBallRun'' are ever given names, leading them to often being called the "Eleven Nameless Men" by fans.

* Trowa Barton from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' was separated from his family as a baby and raised by a band of mercenaries, who never named him. He remains nameless his entire life until the eve of [[ColonyDrop Operation Meteor]], when he lifts the moniker of the man originally trained to pilot the Gundam Heavyarms. After [[TheMovie Endless Waltz]], he considers himself nameless once more, until his friends convince him to keep it.
** Of course, early on in the show, it's demonstrated that he still hasn't fully accepted the new name:
-->'''Trowa:''' Battle Record 001, pilot's name...let's go with Trowa.\\

** Each of the bijuu bears a name given to them by [[spoiler: the Sage of Six Ways]] but because of the general belief that they're little more than mindless energy, few humans bother to learn a name beyond their title. As of Chapter 572, [[spoiler: the names of the nine Tailed Beasts have been revealed, most notably Kurama (Nine-Tails) and Son Goku (Four Tails)]]. It is worth noting that Shukaku is the real name of the One Tail so it is the only Bijuu actually referred by real name before this event.\\
\\
This is just one of the many reasons that Bijuu hate humans: instead of calling thinking, indeed very intelligent animals by their proper names, they've assigned them numbers. Nine-Tails seems annoyed that Naruto never even took in the possibility that he had a name and Four-Tails is outright furious.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Done brilliantly in the ''Mystery Dungeon'' anime specials, in which the protagonists are only referred to by the Pokémon they have turned into (Squirtle and Piplup, respectively). In the games, the player's partner asks for their name and they go by thus in the games, rather then their species name. They go so far as to keep calling the protagonist Piplup in the third special, which is well after the point in the story where, according to the games, the player's true name is a major plot point.
*** Awkward is more like it. It seems like their names are [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude "Squirtle" and "Piplup"]], or they've gone through some mega amnesia compared to the games.
*** Not likely. Upon waking up and meeting their partners for the first time, they seem confused to be addressed as "Squirtle" and "Piplup".

* Interestingly used in ''Manga/SamuraiX: Trust and Betrayal'' where Kenshin explains to Tomoe that he doesn't hesitate to kill his enemies because he does not know them, and if he knew their names it would be harder for him to kill them, sometime later we see at least a pair of mooks yelling their names before confronting him, to which Kenshin answers "shut up and die anonymously"

* In ''Manga/BloomIntoYou'', Sayaka's ex-girlfriend is never named; she simply calls the older girl "[[SenpaiKohai Senpai]]." The same goes for the boy who confessed to Yuu a month before the first chapter and ended up getting rejected.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', this has since been averted for the Five Elders of the [[TheGovernment World Government]]. However, they were stand out examples since they remained that way for ''21 years!'' Unlike other characters that were never named within the story and had their names revealed in [[AllInTheManual databooks]], the Five Elders had deliberately remained unnamed during that entire time. One could attribute this through their status as [[MinorMajorCharacter overarching villains that made spare appearances throughout the years]], first debuting in Chapter 233 back in 2002. Fans and wikis used to call each of them “the scarred one”, “the tall bearded one”, “the forehead birthmark one”, “the bald one with a sword” and “the blonde one”. It has since been revealed that they each follow a StellarName theme, with Chapter 1073 revealing that the scarred one is named St. Jaygarcia Saturn. Chapter 1086 reveals the names of the four remaining members. The tall one is St. Marcus Mars, the birthmarked one is St. Topman Warcury, the one with a sword is St. Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, and the blonde one is St. Shepherd Ju Peter.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'' despite literally hundreds of chapters going by, the Five Elder Stars of [[TheGovernment World Government]] deliberately remained unnamed. Fans and wikis call each of them “the scarred one”, “the tall bearded one”, “the forehead birthmark one”, “the bald one with sword” and “young blonde one”. Averted finally in chapter 1073 where the scarred one is revealed as Saint Jay Garcia Saturn.

* Every single character in ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' is only ever referred to by some kind of [[RedBaron title]], something to do with their race, gender, skills, and/or occupation, the most prominent example being the titular Goblin Slayer himself. They presumably do have real names, as it's part of the adventurer application, but nobody ever uses them from the audience's perspective. It gets so ridiculous that some characters are only given awkward titles in the narration itself, such as the busty farm girl naturally known only as Cow Girl.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* In ''LightNovel/{{Maoyu}}'' and its anime adaptations, the characters are only referred to [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep by their job titles.]] So the hero of the story is called TheHero, the demon lord is The Demon King, etc.

* ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'' begins with the story of the protagonist just before his death as a Japanese man and {{reincarnation}} as Rudeus Greyray. His Japanese name is never revealed and the one time it is spoke by [[spoiler:his future self]] the word is censored.

* Katarina in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' woke up to a past life that has a major influence on her behavior, but despite a section or two from her POV and one from her best friend, we never learn what her actual name was.

** This was revealed to be the case with [[spoiler: Tobi]]. The one notable name he went by was a lie to lend him credibility; he prefers to remain nameless and focus only on his end-game. On chapter cover simply refereed to him as "The Masked Man". [[spoiler: He's actually Obito Uchiha.]]