History Main / NamelessNarrative

** “[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E66Two Two]]”: The last two survivors of an unnamed war (played by Creator/CharlesBronson and Creator/ElizabethMontgomery) never say their names, nor does the narrator name them.
** In the episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit "Five Characters in Search of an Exit"]], an army major wakes up to find himself trapped in a circular room with a clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a bag piper. None of the characters have names that they can remember. TheProtagonist is known simply as The Major.

* ''WebVideo/ScreenRantPitchMeetings'' stars a Screenwriter and a Producer, neither of whom are referred to by name, as they discuss the former's movie pitches.[[note]] Though it's mentioned in one video that Screenwriter Guy and Producer Guy are their actual names[[/note]]

* In ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'', no one has a proper name used for them. Everyone is known by either their occupation (such as the titular Goblin Slayer, Cow Girl, etc.), their class (like the Priestess, Spearman, Witch, etc.), or their species plus an attribute (like the High-Elf Archer, Dwarf Shaman, and Lizard Priest). This gets PlayedForLaughs in volume 9 when Harefolk Hunter tells her mother to "look after Brother and Sister and Brother and Brother and Sister and Brother and Sister!".

* ''Manga/GoblinSlayer'' has no names, only class and descriptor, such as "Elf Archer," "Dwarf Warrior," "Guild Girl," and of course, "Goblin Slayer." His love interest? "Farm Girl."

* In ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'', no one actually is named. Everyone is known by either their occupation (such as the titular Goblin Slayer, Cow Girl, etc.) or their class (like the Priestess, Spearman, Witch, etc.) PlayedForLaughs in volume 9 when Harefolk Hunter tells her mother to "look after Brother and Sister and Brother and Brother and Sister and Brother and Sister!".

* ''Manga/GoblinSlayer'' has no names, only class and descriptor, such as "Elf Archer," "Guild Girl," and of course, "Goblin Slayer."

* ''Futari Escape'' is about a pair of friends and roommates- a manga artist and a {{NEET}}. The former addresses the latter as "Sempai," but their names are unknown.

* The only names given in ''WebOriginal/ElfslayerChronicles'' are Bali and Baldin, ThoseTwoGuys. The main protagonist is 'OP' (short for Original Poster), his accomplice is 'the [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Orc]]', the DM is simply 'The DM', the player who opposed OP is 'the Weeaboo' (an insulting term for a Japan fangirl/boy), the [[PlotTriggeringDeath victim]] is The Prince, and the prince's lover (who OP framed) is just 'the Royal Guard' (his position).

* No character in ''WebOriginal/NothingLikeTheSun'' has a name revealed. Fortunately, the story [[FirstPersonNarration is narrated in first person]] and has a MinimalistCast.

* * Being an [[SilenceIsGolden dialogueless]] webcomic, none of characters in ''Childhood Friend Yuri'' is given a name.

* In ''Literature/TheLadyOrTheTiger'', all the characters- the king, the princess, the youth, the lady and the tiger- are identified by their roles and are never named.

* In ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Five Characters in Search of an Exit", an army major wakes up to find himself trapped in a circular room with a clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a bag piper. None of the characters have names that they can remember. TheProtagonist is known simply as The Major.

* The characters in Creator/JoseSaramago's ''Literature/{{Blindness}}'' are referred to by their roles or, ironically, physical descriptions (given the fact all of them are stricken by blindness).
** Saramago does this frequently, in whole or in part, for example in ''Seeing'', ''Death with Interruptions,'' and (ironically) ''All the Names''.

* Appears ''everywhere'' in ''The Heptameron.'' Most stories HandWave it as "I won't name this guy because I used to know him once" or "I forgot her name, but anyway." Titles of characters abound, and proper names are few.

* ''Kokoro'' by Natsume Soseki.

* ''Phantastes'' by George [=McDonald=] has very few names revealed.

* Lucy Sweeney's ''Slummy Mummy'' column (and novel). The title character is called "[[AuthorAvatar Lucy]]" by others, but everyone else is named by description: Youngest Son and Husband on a Short Fuse, Alpha Mum and Alpha Mum's daughter, Smouldering Teacher, Celebrity Dad, and so on.

* Jessica Day George's "Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow" (based on "Literature/EastOfTheSunWestOfTheMoon") has the main character known only as 'Pika' (girl) or 'Lass' because her mother refused to name another girl, and only a mother can name the daughters. She's given a name by the white reindeer to protect her from trolls, but it isn't until late in the story that she reveals it. The prince in the story also remains nameless for the majority of the story, but mostly because he never did get a chance to tell the Lass his name.
* ''Surfacing'' by Margaret Atwood has a nameless narrator.

* ''There Is a Happy Land'' by Keith Waterhouse.

* ''Futari Escape'' is about a pair of friends and roommates- a manga artist and a {{NEET}}. The former addresses the latter as "[[SenpaiKohai Sempai]]," but their names are unknown.

** This is plausibly true in-universe as well; the Traitor Empress has forbidden the use of her name, and it seems likely that, 30 years after the Fall, society has imitated this, with all remotely-fashionable individuals being referred to by role. All of those who have names are either on the margins of society or businesspeople (possibly aping the Masters rather than the Empress). Assuming you count semi-suicidal as being the margins of society.
*** Notably subverted in the prequel game VisualNovel/MaskOfTheRose, which is set immediately after the fall and before this rule was implemented. Indeed, it actually provides names for a few characters from the first game if you can figure out who's what.

* ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'' only refers to characters by descriptors that reference their jobs or crimes, such as Brawler, Cutthroat, Pupil, and Boss. Even the protagonist is only known as "Ordinary Person" or [[spoiler: Swindler]].

*** Notably subverted in the prequel game VisualNovel/MaskOfTheRose, which is set immediately after the fall and before this normal was implemented. Indeed, it actually provides names for a few characters from the first game if you can figure out who's what.

* ''WebVideo/ScreenRantPitchMeetings'' stars a Screenwriter and a Producer, neither of whom are referred to by name, as they discuss the former's movie pitches.

* There was a trend for a while for ''Literature/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' stories to be told first-person or singular-viewpoint by minor characters who never really got a full explanation of what was going on. Frequently, they wouldn't even learn the names of the other characters, although they would note that one of them claimed to be a doctor.

* This is actually a plot point in ''Manga/IllBoyIllGirl'', where the main characters suffer from a disease that obscures everything related to a person's identity, including their names. Even the protagonists' names aren't reveal, and they are simply referred to as "the boy" and "the girl".

* Nobody has names in ''VisualNovel/DraKoi''. There's the dragon, the dragonslayer, the protagonist's mother and the protagonist, [[spoiler:who later becomes the hero by attacking the dragonslayer, which was just a suit of armor than now recognizes him as a worthy hero.]] It's metafiction, so names would just get in the way.

* Many Creator/TexAvery cartoons feature one-time characters whom Avery never bothered to give a name. This includes many anonymous cats, dogs and mice and even the infamous wolf character who, despite being a recurring character, always has NoNameGiven.

* Nobody has names in ''VisualNovel/DraKoi''. There's the dragon, the dragonslayer, the protagonist's mother and the protagonist, [[spoiler:who later becomes the hero by attacking the dragonslayer, which was just a suit of armor than now recognizes him as a worthy hero.]] It's metafiction, so names would just get in the way.

* The only names given in ''WebOriginal/ElfslayerChronicles'' are Bali and Baldin, ThoseTwoGuys. The main protagonist is 'OP' (short for Original Poster), his accomplice is 'the [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Orc]]', the DM is simply 'The DM', the player who opposed OP is 'the Weeaboo' (an insulting term for a Japan fangirl/boy), the [[PlotTriggeringDeath victim]] is The Prince, and the prince's lover (who OP framed) is just 'the Royal Guard' (his position).
* ''WebVideo/ScreenRantPitchMeetings'' stars a Screenwriter and a Producer, neither of whom are referred to by name, as they discuss the former's movie pitches.
* No character in "WebOriginal/NothingLikeTheSun" has a name revealed. Fortunately, the story [[FirstPersonNarration is narrated in first person]] and has a MinimalistCast.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov:





* Creator/StephenKing's short story ''The Man Who Loved Flowers'' (published in the collection ''Literature/NightShift'').
* In ''Literature/{{Maoyu}}'' the characters are referred to by their titles and positions even by each other, such as Hero, Lady Knight, Demon King, and Lone Winter King. "Ruby Eyes" is the closest anyone has to a proper name, and that's more of a title or epithet.
* Cormac [=McCarthy=]'s novel ''Literature/TheRoad'', and its film adaptation has a DoubleSubversion. None of the characters are named (the two main characters are known simply as "the Man" and "the Boy"), but at one point, they meet an old man named Ely. However, it's shortly after revealed that Ely is just a pseudonym, and he doesn't give his real name.
* E.L. Doctorow's ''Literature/{{Ragtime}}'' starts out only mentioning the names of real people who figure into the plot while the fictional protagonists remain nameless, so "Mother" meets Harry Houdini. About a third of the way through, the pattern is subverted when the fictional Coalhouse Walker Jr. shows up.
* ''There Is a Happy Land'' by Keith Waterhouse.
* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart'', which makes the old man's murderer's identity and relation to him ambiguous. Other examples from Poe are ''Literature/ThePitAndThePendulum'' and ''Literature/TheBlackCat''.
* Appears ''everywhere'' in ''The Heptameron.'' Most stories HandWave it as "I won't name this guy because I used to know him once" or "I forgot her name, but anyway." Titles of characters abound, and proper names are few.
* In several stories by Creator/HansChristianAndersen, such as ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid'' or ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'', the characters are not named and only referred by their titles, e.g. 'the mermaid' and 'the prince' in ''The Little Mermaid''.
* ''Kokoro'' by Natsume Soseki.
* Lucy Sweeney's ''Slummy Mummy'' column (and novel). The title character is called "[[AuthorAvatar Lucy]]" by others, but everyone else is named by description: Youngest Son and Husband on a Short Fuse, Alpha Mum and Alpha Mum's daughter, Smouldering Teacher, Celebrity Dad, and so on.
* ''Literature/{{Beachwalker}}'' doesn't have a single named character. Instead, the characters are named after their roles, or after figures from the protagonist's favorite childhood story.
* Skirted by ''Literature/TheIncredibleJourney'' - the two dogs and cat do have names, but they're only used when their owners are around. Considering most of the book is about them trying to ''find'' their owners, this amounts to the introductory and concluding chapters, with the rest of the book using species, breed, and age to distinguish them.
* In the first book of ''Literature/TheSouthernReachTrilogy'', the main characters are forbidden to tell each other their names. Throughout the narrative, they are referred to only by their job titles: the psychologist, the biologist, the anthropologist, and the surveyor. The later books in the series reveal the characters' names, except for the biologist, who insists on being called by a nickname instead.
* Lampshaded in Creator/NeilGaiman's fairy tale pastiche ''Literature/TheSleeperAndTheSpindle'', which states that "Names are in short supply in this telling." None of the characters in the story are referred to by name, instead being referred to by occupation or physical appearance, although it's pretty clear who [[Literature/SnowWhite the queen]] and [[Literature/SleepingBeauty the princess]] are.
* No one in ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'' is named, though the narrator is apparently supposed to be the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, himself. (The story was based on a real incident when he crashed his plane in the desert and, according to legend, [[BasedOnADream hallucinated a young boy]] who inspired the Little Prince.)

* In ''Literature/TheLadyOrTheTiger'', all the characters- the king, the princess, the youth, the lady and the tiger- are identified by their roles and are never named.
* In ''Literature/GirlWhoAreYouAlienErImAnAlien'', none of the characters are given specific names.
* In ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'', no one actually is named. Everyone is known by either their occupation (such as the titular Goblin Slayer, Cow Girl, etc.) or their class (like the Priestess, Spearman, Witch, etc.) PlayedForLaughs in volume 9 when Harefolk Hunter tells her mother to "look after Brother and Sister and Brother and Brother and Sister and Brother and Sister!".

* ''Series/{{Fleabag}}'' employs this trope widely but not universally. TheProtagonist goes nameless (the title of the show is understood to refer to her and it is how the character is listed in the credits, a nickname borrowed from creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge's own family nickname - but no one in the series actually calls her that). Many if not most of the other characters lack names too: they are just credited as Godmother, Dad, Bank Manager, Arsehole Guy, Bus Rodent, Priest (or Hot Priest), Counsellor and Hot Misogynist. In fact, all the characters with whom Fleabag has any kind of significant relationship are nameless with just a few exceptions: her sister, who is named Claire, her brother-in-law Martin, her late best friend Boo, and her on-agan-off-again boyfriend Harry. There certainly seems to be some significance around naming and not-naming in ''Fleabag''; perhaps most obviously that this is a story being told from Fleabag's point of view. People are referred to by the labels that are most significant to how she relates by them - including herself.

* In the concept album ''Music/TheWall'', none of the characters except for Pink, the main character, have names.

* Music/TheSpinRoom: We don't know the name of the singing man, the woman of his dreams, or other mentioned characters.

* The Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca's tragedy ''Blood Wedding'' leaves all but one character without an 'official' forename -- they are denoted in the script by their archetype or role, for example "The Mother" or "The Bride".
* Carl Orff's one-act opera ''Der Mond'' includes only one named character, who doesn't appear until the second half. In the SpiritualSuccessor, ''Die Kluge'', none of the characters have names.
* In the Spanish children's play ''El Principe Que Todo Lo Aprendio De Los Libros'' (Theatre/ThePrinceWhoLearnedEverythingInBooks) all of the characters are called only by their role ("The King", "The Ogre" etc.) The only seeming exception is the protagonist, Principe Azul, which literally means "Prince Blue" -- however, Principe Azul is the Spanish equivalent of saying "PrinceCharming" so it doesn't really count as a name either.
* About half of the characters in the fairy-tale-based ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'' are nameless (e.g. the two princes). Most of the rest are named because they are familiar fairy tale characters (Cinderella, Jack, Rapunzel, etc.); only Cinderella's stepsisters get somewhat gratuitous names (Florinda and Lucinda).

* In Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''Theatre/{{KA}}'', the characters are called the Twin Brother, Twin Sister, Counselor, Nursemaid, etc. This makes sense as the show has no real-language dialogue anyway.

* The titular characters of ''Theatre/TwelveAngryMen'' are [[YouAreNumberSix only known by their juror numbers]]. No names are used for any of the jurors, the witnesses, the victim, or the defendant. The film added an epilogue that gives last names for Juror #8 (Davis) and Juror #9 ([=McCardle=]), but the original play didn't name anyone.
* ''Theatre/TheSoldiersTale'' has no named characters in its DramatisPersonae. The Soldier's name is revealed to be Joseph in one scene where he returns home and addresses his fellow villagers by name... but none of them recognizes him.
* Much like the book it was based on, very few of the non-historical characters in ''Theatre/{{Ragtime}}'' have no names. The exceptions are Coalhouse and Sarah, which is in keeping with the book, and the Little Boy, who is [[NamedByTheAdaptation given the name Edgar]] for the musical. In the latter case, WordOfGod says that the scriptwriters gave him a name because they found it too difficult to have other characters address him without one (the character's role in the musical was significantly expanded from the book).

* ''VideoGame/TheGirlAndTheRobot'': Not one single character in the game is ever identified by name.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' is completely nameless, save for a few secondary pilots towards the end.

* None of the characters in ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'' are given names of any sorts. While there are {{Fan Nickname}}s such as "Jacket" or "Richard" for the protagonist, officially he is never addressed by anything (although the developers have taken a liken to "Jacket" and other fan nicknames and have started referring to them as such). Averted with most of the new characters in [[VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber the sequel]], though characters that were nameless in the original, like Jacket, remain unknown.
* Every single character in ''VideoGame/CitizensOfEarth'' is named by their profession, such as Vice-President, Photojournalist, or Bodybuilder. Subverted in that once you recruit them, you can [[HelloInsertNameHere name them whatever you want]].
* The [=NPCs=] in ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games never seem to have real names, instead using job titles or simple descriptions to designate characters. As for you, despite [[HelloInsertNameHere whatever name you choose for yourself]], you're never referred to as anything other as Hunter. Averted with the Pub Manager in ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterGenerations Ultimate'', who so far is the only character in the entire series to actually call the player Hunter by their name. This trend is only dropped by ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterRise'', which is the first mainline game in the series to give every member of the cast actual names.
* Due to the use of pictures instead of dialogue, the only named character in ''VideoGame/{{Dropsy}}'' is the eponymous clown.
* Not one character is given a name in ''VideoGame/HauntTheHouse''. The tutorial is told in the second person, which is why the player character is never named.
* Aside from protagonist Gordon Freeman and a few names on the lockers in the locker room, there are no named characters in ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' whatsoever. Other named characters were introduced in the expansion packs and the sequel though.
* ''VideoGame/HelloNeighbor'' gives neither of its characters (the protagonist and their neighbor) names.
* None of the bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'' are ever given a proper name, only a title revealed [[AllThereInTheManual during the credits]]. This convention is also shared with the main character The Stranger[[spoiler:/The Rider, who may not even have a name]], and his guide The Voice[[spoiler:, aka The Architect, which is how he addresses himself]]. The only exception is the {{DLC}} {{Superboss}} named [[AerithAndBob Bernard]].
* ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'': Most of the characters are referred to with titles or descriptors, with the exceptions being [[{{Yandere}} Queen Vanessa]], The "murdered" Owl Express member (who is revealed to be named Robin), [[TheGhost Steve from accounting]] and possibly DJ Grooves. The "possibly" comes from that it could be his stage name.
* ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'': All of the original characters are only referred to by their role in the narrative: the player character is The Boyfriend, his girlfriend is The Girlfriend, and her parents are The Father and The Mom (Also known as Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest, respectively). While Monster breaks the trend of being named "The [X]", its name is still just ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* ''VideoGame/JustShapesAndBeats'': The closest things we get to names for any characters are the titles of certain boss levels, which many fans have indeed adapted into their respective characters' names.
* ''VideoGame/EscapeLala'' has very few characters, and none of them have names. The achievements for ''2'' use descriptors for some of them, though. ("the snake," "the pearl," etc.)
* ''VideoGame/PaperChase'': Bluto is the only character with a name. Everyone else is referred to by their job/position.
* Neither the proagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Gorogoa}}'' nor the dragon he seeks are given names, fitting into the game's [[SilenceIsGolden complete lack of dialogue]].

* ''VideoGame/SuperNinjaMeowCat'': Downplayed. The only named character is King Cobra, the boss of level 5. All the other bosses, as well as the protagonist, remain unnamed.