History Main / NominalImportance

* The other nine witches in Scurry 13 in ''Literature/TheBlueNosedWitch'' are not given any names or even descriptions; they are described as "ordinary" witches who merely add cackling at appropriate moments during the scurry's midnight flights. They are lightly mentioned again at the end as part of the group that Blanche splits her Halloween treats with, with most of her conversation being with the [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Grande Madame]].

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has, since ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold & Silver]]'', assigned names to each trainer you meet and gives you a cell phone so you can call them for repeat battles. No word yet why they call ''you'' every five hours to tell you about their adorable Metapod or a Vulpix that got away. Random Grunts for the local villainous team are typically left unnamed however, with the exception of Cipher Peons in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness''. The ''Manga/PokemonDiamondAndPearlAdventure'' manga makes fun of this by having a recurring mook refer to himself solely by his assigned number: "K-2". (K-2 is pronounced similarly to "''ketsu''", or "''butt''". You can guess what his major identifying feature is...)

* In a Russian pulp-fiction novel, the villain holds the hero at a blank point. He's not a cold blooded killer though and even confesses how relieved he is to know almost nothing about his victim, as killing someone you know even slightly is so much harder. The hero hastens to provide his comprehensive credentials, much to the villain's chagrin from such selfish indiscretion.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': Inverted with the Monarch's henchmen. While the members of the Fluttering Horde have a very low survival rate, Henchman #21 and Henchman #24 manage to stay alive while also taking note of the fact that they've survived in a world where henchmen are as expendable as tissues. The two henchmen who receive names, Speedy and Scott Hall (Henchman #1), are killed in their first episode. #21 and #24 even lampshade the fact that the series does not ascribe to this trope, while managing to invoke HeHadAName at the same time. [[spoiler:Eventually, this trope ends up getting played straight: We learn #21's full name (Gary Fischer) and he's since become the Monarch's top enforcer, Scott Hall ''did'' survive his Brock Samson beating, while #24, who mocked Scott's "inevitable" death, dies in the season 3 finale without the audience ever learning his name.]]

** Notably inverted in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', where most [=NPCs=], even trivial ones, have actual names. The ones that ''do'' have generic names like "Traveler" are the ones you need to look out for, because they're Yiga clan members in disguise.