Video Games / Everyone Calls Him Barkeep

Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" in Video Games.

Very common in Arknights:
- Almost all characters use a codename and that us where the game adresses them with ('Gravel' for Senomy and 'Cliffheart' for Encia SilverAsh). Some of them tend to use their last name, or just their first name (like Angelina does).
- A case that's somewhat more Played for Drama is the little girl Ifrit, who is named 'Ifrit' because... that's probably the only name she ever got. Several Unlockable Content on the lore heavily imply that she is an Artificial Human.
Ashes 2063: The Player Character is a Disaster Scavenger that is referred to as Scav by everyone he talks to, because when asked, he refers to himself as "just a scav" or "some scav". Hell, even when he adds his credentials to a pre-war computer in an abandoned bunker, he lists his name as "S. Scavenger" along with some other funny credentials, just to be cheeky.
Aspire: Ina's Tale: All the characters in the game (besides Ina) are known by titles such as "Joker", "Thief", and "Architect". Joker states that his real name was taken from him long ago, but he prefers being called "Joker" either way.
The player characters of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer seemed to have this at first. There's the Priest, Courtesan, Hunter, Doctor etc. Then the beta revealed that they do have names after all.
In Azur Lane, the commander of the Azur Lane fleet (aka you) is simply called the Commander.
In Baldur's Gate, Big Bad Sarevok is at first known only as "Armoured Figure".
The protagonist of Bastion is referred to only as "The Kid" by the narrator Rucks.
In Batman: The Telltale Series, when Bruce first meets The Joker in Arkham Asylum, it is explained that he never gave his name to anyone. As a result, everyone knows him only as "John Doe".
Downplayed Example in BlazBlue: Konoe A. Mercury's real name is known, but only to a small number of people and most of them don't use it. Her preferred name, and to most of the cast the only one they know, is 'Nine' of the Ten Sages.
White Bomber from Bomberman is simply called Bomberman to some people.
In Borderlands, every playable character is referred as "Vault Hunter" by others.
The Doctor, this one in Cave Story. His real name, not readable before passing through the Bonus Level of Hell, is Date Fuyuhiko.
Prince Alexander from Codename Eagle is referred exclusively as "Agent Red". Same goes for his superiors, "Agent Goggles", and "Agent Mortar".
Chzo Mythos: Trilby. A trilby is a type of hat and the character is always wearing one, the other characters are never told Trilby's actually name, but Word of God says that his first name is Malcolm.
In Citizens of Earth, this applies to every character. The baker, the conspiracy guy, Mom, the cop, etc. You can rename them, though.
Club Penguin has Puffle Handler or PH for short. Her real name is Paige, but nobody calls her like that in-game.
In Crusader, the Silencer is usually just referred to as "Captain" (his rank) or "Silencer" (his old unit). A few people give him nicknames ("Tin Man", "Red", etc.), but they aren't used more than a couple times.
In Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, the Warriors of Hope’s servant is only referred to as, well, "Servant". However, anyone who has played Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair would immediately know his real name is Nagito Komaeda.
The player character of the Dark Parables is addressed solely as "Detective", although later games in the series sometimes identify her as "the Fairy Tale Detective," which is how she has become known by reputation.
The Player Character in each of the Dark Souls games is able to give themsleves a real name, but when spoken to (mainly by the woman who levels them up), they are known only by a title: "Chosen Undead", "Bearer of the Curse", and "Ashen One", respectively. Demon's Souls started the trend by referring to its protagonist as "Slayer of Demons".
The Commander in Dawn of War II is only referred to as such by his fellow Space Marines. His Canon Name, according to the novel, is apparently Aramus.
In Deep Rock Galactic, the dwarves are only known by their classes, even to each other. Mission Control is also only referred to by his job title.
Destroy All Humans!: The winner of the town of Rockwell's Beauty Contest is only referred to by her title, Miss Rockwell. Her actual name is never revealed.
Disgaea:
- Straight examples of this trope are all over Disgaea 2. Immediately obvious are Mom and Dad, but only slightly less noticeable are the Director and Cameraman who follow Axel around. And don't even get us started on "Fake Zenon". According to the Disgaea 2 art book, their names really are Mom and Dad.
- Disgaea 3 also features a character only known as the School Board President.
- Vyers from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is never called anything other than Mid-Boss by the other characters, to his great frustration. Any attempts to bring up his name are usually shot down before he can even say it.
Happens to three characters in Dissidia Final Fantasy. The Onion Knight from Final Fantasy III is only referred to by his title with no indication of what his real name is (in accordance with the fact that the Warriors of Light from FFIII — not to be confused with the Warriors of Light from the original Final Fantasy — weren't assigned names until the DS remake). His title is also rarely used by characters in the game, except for the voiceover intro at the start of the chapter — he is generally just referred to as "the kid." The Emperor of Final Fantasy II does have a name, Mateus, but it is only used for his final weapon and never in the dialogue. The Warrior of Light also has a name but in accordance with the story of Final Fantasy he has amnesia and cannot remember it. Cloud of Darkness, also from Final Fantasy III, seems to invoke this trope, but although it appears as a humanoid female, the Cloud is not really human, and the name is a simple description of the entity — it doesn't actually have any other name.
The only given name for The Red Prince in Divinity: Original Sin II is... The Red Prince, despite other Lizard Folk getting more normal names (Saam and Stingtail for example). It is possible that that's his real name, however.
In the original Donkey Kong, Pauline was this at first. Until the NES version was released in North America, she was only ever referred to as "the lady".^note
The Doomguy in Doom³ is only ever called "Marine."
Commonplace in the Dragon Age series:
- The Qunari in general use ranks as names, at least to other races. Some of these are obvious, like "the" before Arishok, implying it's a leadership title. Saarebas ("dangerous thing") is a word/rank/name for a mage, which are treated a thousand times worse than human mages (their mouths are sewn shut, and they must wear chains and collars).
- Dragon Age: Origins:
  - If the Player Character is from the Human Noble or Dwarf Noble Origins, they are occasionally addressed as Lord/Lady Cousland/Aeducan, respectively, but the rest of the time they are simply called "the Warden". If they hail from any other origin, they are the Grey Warden, period. This is a bit strange considering your character has a set, unchangeable last name regardless of which origin you pick. Chances are you forget what it was before getting through the prologue, seeing how it is hardly mentioned anywhere again after the character creation screen (unless you made a noble, as pointed out). Even stranger, Alistair is always an available party member for at least three-quarters of the game, and is a (slightly) more senior Grey Warden than the player character, yet it is the PC who is always addressed as "Warden".
  - Sten isn't the resident Qunari party member's real name, but a rank, as his real name cannot be pronounced by a non-Qunari.
- In Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, it's likely that most of your party will go through the Joining, becoming Grey Wardens, so the PC is now known as "Warden-Commander" or simply "Commander" to distinguish them from everyone else. This trope gets a bit of a lampshade as a result:
  Oghren: You. Hey, you!
  Warden: That's "Commander Hey You", by the way.
- In Dragon Age II, this trope is probably why the new Player Character now has a static last name, allowing everyone to simply call you Hawke. Conveniently, your siblings, mother, and uncle will use every pronoun and substitute word imaginable to avoid saying your first name (which you can pick), as it wouldn't make sense for them to call you Hawke. However, Cassandra consistently calls you the "Champion of Kirkwall" in the Framing Device. With most Origins import options, the Warden from the first game will be known as "The Hero of Ferelden" by most NPCs in Dragon Age II.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition does something of a mix of the two above: your character does have a static family name (which changes according to the species you chose), and does get called by it earlier in the game, but most characters will just refer to you as "The Herald of Andraste", and later "the Inquisitor". Your name still gets some mentions however, such as Iron Bull mentioning in a conversation that a Qunari Inquisitor's name, "Adaar", means "weapon" in Qunari tongue.
Subverted in the Homestar Runner game Dungeon Man 3:
"Wait, the Pub Barkeep's name is actually Pub Barkeep?"
Dungeon Siege:
- The protagonist is simply called "Farmer." The third game, however, gives the character the name of Lady Montbarron.
- Similarly, the Player Character from DS II is often referred to as "Mercenary" in dialogue, sometimes even when the text uses the name given by the player.
In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, your character usually gets called "the Dragonborn" or "Dovahkiin," regardless of the name you gave to yourself. You can get other designations by joining and progressing through the ranks of various Guilds (Harbinger, Legate, Listener, etc.), but you will never be called by your name except in letters and other documents.
Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle has both the Duchess of Elstwhere and the Good Dwarf. While the former does have a name, it is only mentioned in a handful of the Multiple Endings, otherwise referred to only as Duchess; and the latter also has a name (or names, rather) but no one could understand him, so they compromised.
Very few characters in the Enigmatis trilogy have their names given. The player is only ever called "detective," and the acolytes of the demon Asmodai are known by Names to Run Away from Really Fast.
The protagonist in Fable and Fable II. You can choose his(/her) title but most of them are exactly like this trope. All other characters have actual names, although there is also The Guildmaster and The Archeologist. The expansion pack reveals that the Guildmaster's true name is Weaver.
The Masters of the Bazaar in Fallen London are known only by appellations related to their primary trade goods — Mr. Wines, Mr. Stones, Mr. Iron, etc. Nearly every other character you encounter has a similar non-name: the Repentant Forger, the Comtessa, the Revolutionary Firebrand, and so forth. This may have been a fashion started by the Traitor Empress, who no longer allows her real name to be spoken after she traded London itself to the Masters in order to save the life of her husband.
- Carries over to Sunless Sea, which gives us the Blind Bruiser, the Irrepressible Cannoneer, the Bright-eyed Sequencer, etc.
Fallout:
- In the series you have always been allowed to name your player character, but how you are referred to by other characters has been different from game to game. In the first two games this trope is mostly averted since the majority of the dialogue is in text only, and as such you are frequently referred to by your given name. In any of the voiced dialogues, they typically avoided referring to you directly or occasionally by some sort of title (like "Initiate" by the leaders of the Brotherhood Of Steel in Fallout and "Chosen One" by the people of your home village in Fallout 2). However, from Tactics onward all dialogue became fully voiced and this trope came into full effect. In all the later games your character (and retroactively, the protagonists of the first two games as well) is referred to only by a title: "Vault Dweller", "Chosen One", "Warrior," "Lone Wanderer" and "Courier". This is an Acceptable Break from Reality so the radio shows can refer to you by name. Somewhat subverted in Fallout 4, as the game has a long list of names that will recognized as names and spoken in game, including the characters' canon names Nate and Nora. Unfortunately, only one character (Codsworth) will refer to you by your name, and some others resort to a nickname (Preston and the Minutemen will call you "General", Piper will call you "Blue", and Travis will call you "that Vault Dweller") — presumably because it was far too expensive to have the voice actors record thousands of names. Most fans use "Sole Survivor" to refer to Nate and Nora as a collective player character.
- "The Lone Wanderer" apparently is Three-Dog's Fan Nickname for the protagonist that ended up becoming an in-universe Ascended Meme, since his original description of them as "That Kid from Vault 101" sounded terrible on radio.
- In New Vegas, the protagonist can introduce themselves simply as "The Courier," due to the fact that most people have heard of your miraculously survival from being shot in the head and buried alive and that to be in your chosen profession, you are badass enough to walk across post-apocalyptic wastelands for a living. As Cass so eloquently puts it;
  Cass: Rule of the Caravan Wastes: Don't fuck with the guy who delivers your mail!
In the Far Cry series the character you play as usually has a proper name, but in Far Cry 5 the protagonist, a junior deputy of the Hope County Sheriff's Department, is simply known as the Deputy. This also comes into play in the immediate sequel, Far Cry: New Dawn, as your character is only referred to as Captain of Security, or just Captain.
Fate/Grand Order:
- While true names aren't as big a deal as they are in other Fate/ media, some plot-relevant characters will go by titles until a big reveal so as to keep their abilities a surprise. This even applies to their appearances in other events; until they've been unlocked, they go by title in the side stories too. A particularly interesting example is Caster of the Nightless City, Scheherazade. Since she plays a major role in a couple of holiday events but her relevance to the main plot is an important secret, she goes by a second title during side stories, Caster of Storytelling. What makes this notable is that the Dead Heat Summer Race event (in which she plays a speaking role) debuted in the west a full year before the story caught up with her initial appearance, meaning Scheherazade's smokescreen title is better-known to English speakers than her actual one.
- Various characters refer to Dr. Roman as simply Doctor. Notable in this regard are both Gilgamesh and David who quickly figure out his true identity but decide he must have his reasons for keeping it a secret and call him Doctor like everyone else. After Romani's death, no one ever dares mention his name, which appears to be a sign of mourning.
Fight'N Rage has a surprisingly dark example of this trope with its female fighter Gal, given that her incredibly voluptuous figure and Stripperiffic outfit is what the game is best known for. She's an escapee from being sold into slavery for sexual service, and all women who are sold into slavery to the mutants are called "gals", making it highly probable that she has no name of her own.
Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy X has Brother, Rikku's brother. There are several hints scattered throughout the game that Brother might actually be his name.
- Final Fantasy X-2, in addition to featuring Brother from the first game, contains the Trope Namer. Barkeep is the Hypello barkeep of the airship Celsius, and everyone calls him "Barkeep" because they don't know his real name (not even he knows his real name).
- Played with in Final Fantasy XIV in regards to the Ascians. The names that they introduce themselves with are actually their job titles. Only a select few know of their true names. Some people who know of their true names will still address them by their titles anyway.
Fire Emblem:
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has the Demon King, always referred to as such in the game's dialogue. Only his stat screen reveals that his name is Fomortiis.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
  - While dialogue in previous Fire Emblem games that featured customizable, nameable avatars were mostly text-based and could easily accommodate any name chosen, this entry is fully voice-acted. As a result, the nameable protagonist (Canon Name Byleth), who gets a job teaching at the Military Academy at Garreg Mach Monastery at the beginning of the game, is always referred to as "Professor" by supporting characters; The Nicknamer Claude refers to them as "Teach."
  - The gatekeeper from the same game always goes by his title, even when he was elected as a Brave Hero for Fire Emblem Heroes.
- Although Fire Emblem Engage doesn’t as much voice acting as its predecessor, there is still quite a bit of it. Since Alear can be named by the player, most of the characters just call them “Divine One.” When Alear introduces themself, they do so as “The Divine Dragon.”
First Encounter Assault Recon loved this trope in the first "generation". The Point Man is only really addressed by Betters, as "Buddy" when called directly, and "my man" or "my point man" when he's talking to others about him. The Sergeant from Perseus Mandate fits squarely into this trope, being called exactly that by his squadmates Chen and Raynes. Nobody else even gets close to saying a vocative to them.
The Silent Protagonist in FreeSpace 2 is always Alpha 1, or occasionally "pilot," at least as far as all the other characters are concerned.
Gacha World:
- Demon Hunter hunts demons. It's revealed in Gacha Resort, a game released after Gacha World, that his actual name is David. But as far as Gacha World is concerned, his name is Demon Hunter inside the cutscenes.
- The Final Boss is just named Final Boss. In a previous game called Anime Gacha, there exists a character that looks exactly the same but is named Phantom instead. It's confirmed by the creators that Phantom and DJ Phantom are not the same character.
- Green Jester is a green jester.
- Naito is a knight unit.
- Scythe Ripper rips her enemies up with her scythes. It's revealed in Gacha Resort, a game released after Gacha World, that her actual name is Jackie. But as far as Gacha World is concerned, her name is Scythe Ripper inside the backstories.
Mors' Right-Hand Attack Dog in the Game of Thrones RPG is just 'dog', sometimes 'my dog' when Mors is talking about him.
In Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the elderly matriarch of Champa is called Obaba, which is just Japanese for "grandmother". Presumably, this makes her an Honorary Grandma to everybody, of the sort with whom you should never mess.
For a while throughout the Guilty Gear series, the original Big Bad was known only as "That Man", his true identity unknown to the rest of the cast excluding Sol. By the end of REVELATOR, his real name has been revealed: Asuka R. Kreuz.
The G-Man from Half-Life. In fact, "gman" was just the name of his character model. Nobody in the game calls him anything, except for Eli Vance, who refers to him as "our mutual friend." In the manual for the Opposing Force expansion, however, Shepard writes about a G-Man watching him during his training and, indeed he can be seen during the tutorial mission. And he is listed as "GMan" (no hyphen) in the credits for Half-Life 2 and its Episodes.
Halo:
- The Arbiter's true name is never mentioned in the original trilogy, while the Master Chief is referred to only by his rank (or occasionally his designation number "117") until the very end of Halo 3. However, the books had already revealed that their true names were, respectively, Thel 'Vadam(ee) and John. One post-Halo 4 comic◊ had Lord Hood commenting that the Chief could easily be promoted to admiral. The Chief quips that "the Admiral" doesn't have the same ring to it as his current rank.
- Most pre-Halo 4 Covenant characters are never addressed by their names in-game; the names of the Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret, the half-jawed Shipmaster, and the Halo Wars Arbiter have only been revealed in non-game material^note.
- The Expanded Universe reveals that many high-ranking Forerunners were referred to only by their titles; the two main examples would be the Librarian and the Didact, who called each other as such even though they were married^note.
Harvest Moon:
- The Doctor in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town/More Friends of Mineral Town is just called "doctor", no matter what. Even if you marry him, he continues to go by just "Doctor". (However, in Harvest Moon DS, he gains the name "Trent".)
- The Witch and Wizard in Animal Parade are referred to as just that by most of the town, though they'll reveal their actual names when married — Vivi and Gale, respectively. The Harvest Goddess and King turn out to have proper names as well under the same condition. Theirs are Sephia and Ignis.
In A Hat in Time, the main character is known only as "Hat Kid", or on the Dead Bird Studios invoice as "Weird Lil' Girl", referred to as "me" in the instruction manual since she wrote it, and signs Snatcher's contracts in an illegible alien font leaving it unknown if she even has a name or if "Hat Kid" actually is her name. Similarly, Mustache Girl and Bow Kid are only ever referred to as such, and Bow Kid's signature, while different than Hat Kid's, is also in that illegible alien font.
The Right Hand Man from the Henry Stickmin Series is only ever called by his title. Nobody has any idea what his real name is.
- Averted with Dmitri Petrov. Even though he is officially described and named as The Warden, a diploma certificate seen in his office during the Presumed Dead route of Fleeing the Complex and his official bio in The Henry Stickmin Collection fully gives out his name as Dmitri Johannes Petrov.
A lot of characters in Hidden City are simply referred to by their profession, such as the Detective, the Conductor and the Mayor. Some of them have their names revealed elsewhere (e.g. the Inspector's real name is Charless Dipp), but the rest of them are Only Known by Their Nickname.
Linda from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 gets the moniker "Underling" from Nepgear and company, and the name at the top of the text box whenever she speaks is replaced with "Underling" from then on out.
Despite being the title character, Iji's brother is the only one to call her by her real name. All the aliens call her "(the Human) Anomaly" (even the friendly ones!) The only exception is Ansaksie in a pacifistic run, right before Iji confronts Tor.
The protagonist of I-Ninja is named... Ninja. Yup. His sensei is similarly only called Sensei.
Kingdom Hearts:
- In the first game, the off-screen Mickey Mouse is only ever referred to as "The King" — up until the penultimate scene just before the credits, where he finally shows up in person. Goofy calls him by name, and Sora echoes it in the post-credits scene.
- This continues into Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, with Journal entries for him and his Friend Card only using "The King." At the end of Riku's half of the game, Mickey tells him he can drop the pretenses, whereupon Riku uses the king's name.
Meta Knight from Kirby.
In The Last Remnant, the Conqueror is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. He also looks like a 50/50 mix between Sephiroth and a Viking, but that's another story...
In Left 4 Dead, the Church Guy is only known by the name he is given in the code, as he is never named in the game except as "that guy."
Left 4 Dead 2 has Coach. If Coach gets killed, Rochelle lampshades the trope by asking "Do you think Coach was his first or last name?" When the survivors introduce themselves to each other, Coach states that all his friends call him as such and that they (the other survivors) may as well do the same.

The Legend of Zelda has the Postman as a character in several of the games. Both Nintendo 64 games also feature the Happy Mask Salesman.
LEGO Legends of Chima Online: Despite a name being selectable at the beginning of the game, the player is only ever referred to by their rank of Commander by dialogue and text.
In Live A Live, this is literal, as the Barkeep in the Sundown Kid's chapter is literally named "Barkeep"
- Sundown himself is also an example of this trope, with one of the characters not even caring to learn Sundown's real name.
- There's also the Earthen Heart Shifu. You get to name the Martial Art school but the Shifu's name is never revealed.
The hero's team members in The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age don't call each other by names but races and occupations, which is strange, since every character's name is fixed and they shouldn't had any problem with dubbing.
The Illusive Man from the Mass Effect series is a one-man Omniscient Council Of Vagueness. Nobody knows who he is, where he came from, where he is currently located, and what he actually wants. The only thing that can be said about him for sure is that he looks like a human male about 60 years of age and apparently has almost unlimited resources at his disposal. He does get an origin story in the comic miniseries Mass Effect Evolution, which reveals, among other things, that his name is Jack Harper.
Master of the Monster Lair: Many, many examples.
- Among Owen and Kate's fellow townsfolk only the furniture shop employees (Woody and Frau) are actually given names. The rest are all caled by their professions: the Mayor, the Trader, etc. Justified as Owen probably hasn't actually asked any of their names; he actively dislikes the ethically questionable Mayor and the obnoxious Magic Shopkeeper, is too shy to carry on a real conversation with the beautiful Trader, etc.
- Owen, likewise, is referred to as Dungeon-Digger by most of his fellow townsfolk. Shovel just calls him Buddy.
- Many of the boss enemies in the game are referred to by their species or title instead of by a name. Notable examples include the Devil Lord and his children, who even sign their letters to Owen this way.
- The talking, magical shovel, as well, is most often just called Shovel. Possibly subverted as Shovel even refers to itself this way, implying that might be its actual name.
An odd example in Mega Man Legends. The main character is Mega Man Volnutt, but everyone calls him Mega Man. Later in the game, you encounter other Mega Men, with the implication that "Mega Man" is more of a title than a name.
Subverted in Medieval Cop adventure series: (Drunken) Captain is a recurring character, and everybody refers to him as "Captain". One of the later episodes reveals that it had been his nickname long before he joined the police force. He grew up as boy without a name in the orphanage, a while he was leading other orphans, caretakers there gave him the name "Captain".
The Space Pirates in the Metroid series refer to the heroine as The Hunter. When her Evil Twin shows up, they logically name it The Dark Hunter. The benevolent characters use her real name, though. The Chozo, who raised her, sometimes refer to Samus as Hatchling or Newborn.
The Monkey Island series has the Voodoo Lady, the proprietor of the various Voodoo shops seen throughout the series, from the International House of Mojo to Voodoo 'n Things (formerly just Voodoo), and Guybrush's primary source of advice throughout the series (with a five-game contract with LucasArts). She insists that while her real name isn't important, names have power over people, and refuses to share hers. At least until Return to Monkey Island, where she drops her first name (Corina) almost casually, as part of the game's Central Theme that sometimes knowing something is a lot less interesting than imagining what it could be.
Every human character in Monster Hunter, with the exception of the Player Character. The only story-relevant characters to have actual names are the two story-relevant Shakalakas Cha-Cha and Kayamba. Some characters have names listed All There in the Manual, then Monster Hunter: World plays with it all the way. A character who appeared in a previous game {4 Ultimate's Ace Cadet) shows up in World under an entirely different name(Excitable A-Lister), then in the ending cutscene of the final Post-game hunt of the Iceborne expansion, it finally breaks tradition by saying his actual given name(Aiden).
Mystery Case Files:
- The protagonist in the series is referred to as "Detective" or "Master Detective", even when Cassandra Williams leaves her a voicemail at the beginning of Shadow Lake. Apparently the Master Detective paid extra to get her phonebook listing under her nickname.
- Played with a couple times in Escape from Ravenhearst, when the game inserts the name you used for your current profile — a gravestone and a note to you from Charles will both have your profile name.
The various NPC field agents of the Mystery Trackers series are known only by code names, even to each other. The only confirmed exception is Agent Brown, who is Promoted to Playable in the Detectives United series; that is his actual last name.
- It's possible that the player character is also an exception, as her name is revealed in the eighteenth MT game to be "Amber." We don't know if that is her birth name or if she is Agent Amber, but since several of the other agents have color-related code names, it could be either or both.
Neverwinter Nights referred to the player by name in the text of conversations, but the voiceovers just say "You".
Neverwinter Nights 2:
- The game has your party calling you "our leader" and "our fearless leader" at various points. When you get promoted, it becomes "Captain" or "Knight-Captain" in most cases.
- The real name of the King of Shadows (as in, the name he had when he was a human) has been lost to the ages. Even the ghosts in the Illefarn ruins don't remember it.
In the sixth installment of New Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the Pharaoh is only ever called "Pharaoh." According to his character profile, his real name is Hotepsekhemy, but no one ever calls him that because no one knows how to pronounce it.
The Ninja Warriors (1994) features a playable roster of android ninjas. One of them is simply referred to as "Ninja", while another modeled after a woman is called "Kunoichi", which is the Japanese term for a female ninja. This is averted with the remaining members, as Kamaitachi is named after a Youkai and with the inclusion of Raiden and Yaksha in the 2019 remake Once Again, both were named after deities.
The assassins in the first No More Heroes mostly go by codenames (with the exceptions of Rank 6 and, as clarified in the sequel, Rank 5). Their character cards give the real names of all but the last three. The sequel averts this, as every assassin uses his or her real name save New Destroyman and possibly Rank 9.
The main characters of the Overlord series are simply known as Overlord, with the exception of Lord Gromgard of Overlord: Dark Legend.
Crosses over with a Double Subversion of Earth All Along in Phantasy Star Zero — the planet the game takes place on is simply called "the earth" and its moon "the moon", both in lowercase. These celestial bodies do have names, but they had been forgotten due to the Great Blank. In the mission "Mother's Memory", your party discovers pre-Great Blank records which reveal that "the earth" is really Coral, the homeworld from Phantasy Star Online.
Path of Exile: The Exile is only ever referred to as 'Exile'. After killing most of the pantheon of gods, some people starts calling them 'Godslayer'.
Persona:
- The voiced dialogue in both Persona 3 and Persona 4 only refer to the protagonists as "Leader", "Partner", or "Senpai". Persona 3's MC is named "Minato Arisato" in the manga and "Makoto Yuuki" in the movie, and Persona 4's MC is "Souji Seta" in the manga and "Yu Narukami" in the anime and most of the canon spin-offs.
- Most of the NPCs wandering around school or town in Persona 4 and Persona 5 tend to be called something like "X student" or "Y girl/boy" with X and Y being their most obvious feature. Prominent examples in 4 are Funky Student and Spacey Girl. You can talk with these people all year long, but you never learn their real names.
- Also in Persona 5, characters In-Universe usually call Sojiro Sakura, the owner of Cafe LeBlanc and your guardian, "Boss."
Odds are very good that you won't name every single one of your Pokémon, leaving them with their default names which just amounts to their species. Mercifully, if you do this, their name will update as they evolve; you won't still be calling your Blastoise "Squirtle." Unless you go out of your way to do so, of course.
In Pokémon Red and Blue, all NPC trainers are only called by their character archetype/class (Bird Tamer, Lass, Gambler, Biker, etc.) Only the player character, the rival, Professor Oak, the gym leaders, and the Elite Four have names. Later games would give all NPC trainers actual names along with their class/title and the remake would also give everyone names. The villain team grunts aren't given names and are referred as "X Grunt" with X being whatever team they're in. Only high ranking members and team leaders are given names.
In Postal, the Dude's wife is just called "[The] Bitch". Nothing else.
Primal Carnage: The human team members are only referred to by their profession or role in the team (like the Scientist or the Trapper), rather than their names. Although their actual names are revealed in the loading screens and supplementary information.
The titular character of Prince of Persia is referred to only as "[The] Prince". This is particularly egregiously in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, when the Prince talks with his own brother, and yet still never has his real name revealed.
The witch from Puyo Puyo is always referred to as simply "Witch". A factoid in Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary states that she won't get a proper name until she's finished with her training.
The Sheriff from Reality-On-The-Norm.
There’s a recurring stranger you meet in Red Dead Redemption 2 who’s looking for his best friend Gavin. Every time you run into him, the chat function refers to him as “Gavin’s friend”. However if you hogtie him with the lasso and loot his body, you’ll find out his name is Nigel.
The merchant in Resident Evil 4. Inversely, the merchant refuses to know Leon's name, only referring to him as "stranger" — or strain-jah if you will.
The Class Representative of the main characters' class of Taiyo High from Rival Schools, who prefers to be addressed as "Chairperson" instead of her actual name.
The main antagonists of Shadow Hearts: From The New World are called Killer (a wanted Serial Killer) and Lady (a stoic mute). Lady is eventually identified: Grace Garland.
In Shadowverse, the Princess' actual name is not given. Erika simply refers to her as "princess" every time she calls her attention.
The setting of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is (as revealed in supplementary materials) named "Chiron", but every in-game quote acts as though "Planet" were its proper name. The ball of stone that everything lives on is Chiron. The entity formed of the miles and miles of xenofungus that covers Chiron named itself Planet, when it first learned to speak to humans, before it had a good understanding of English. The xenofungus entity is named Planet. The ball of rock is also called Planet (though it is named Chiron) — e.g. University of Planet, "Planet's atmosphere", "Planet's industry", "Planet's primary". Said supplementary materials when talking about Chiron at one point says, paraphrased, "the proper name of the planet the Unity crew arrived on is Chiron, but everyone calls it Planet."
Doc, a doctor character introduced in the remake of Skies of Arcadia, may or may not be a case of this.
The Pirate from Slime Forest Adventure is actually named Silverbeard II. You'll only find this out if you talk to him directly, though, since everyone else just calls him "The Pirate".
In Snapimals, the captain is only referred to as "The Captain".
Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic Unleashed. Every NPC in the game has a name, except for The Ice Cream Man and Professor Pickle's Assistant.
- There's also the G.U.N. Commander in Shadow the Hedgehog, who is only known as the Commander.
- On a more gradual level, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. What started out as a Dub Name Change (Robotnik in the west, Eggman in Japan) was canonized as an Appropriated Appellation in Sonic Adventure (Robotnik introduces himself as Robotnik, whereupon Sonic mocks him for being "A Giant talking egg!" and all the heroes just call him Eggman). In the years following that, Robotnik has been confirmed as his canon name, but absolutely no one calls him that, not even himself. One of his audio diaries in Sonic Frontiers confirms that it was originally an insulting nickname from Sonic that he chose to embrace and turn into a name people all over the world fear.
  Eggman: It was Sonic who named me "Eggman". Except the joke's on him! I embraced the name! I made it my own! His mockery is now a name feared across the ages! ...I'm not going to adopt "Baldy McNosehair" though. My dignity has limits.
In Shepherd's Crossing 2, the hunter who lives in town is only ever called Hunter. Even if you decide to marry him, he's still only referred to as Hunter.
In the South Park games The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, whatever name is inputted for the player character, Cartman will just refer to them as "Douchebag" and "ButtLord". Everyone else just call them New Kid as even his parents never say his real name.
In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the main villain is a Sorceress who is simply referred to as "The Sorceress".
Played as straight as can be in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. — Shadow of Chernobyl, in which a well-known trader and owner of a local bar is known only as "Barkeep". Funnily enough, this is in a game where even the less important random thug has a unique name.
The Wizard from Stardew Valley has a real name — M. Rasmodius — but everyone (including the game's dialogue box and menus themselves) just calls him "Wizard".
Star Wars Legends:
- The pilot of TIE Fighter is only named in the supplemental material (his name's Maarek Stele, in case you wondered). Officers and wingmen in-game will only address you by your callsign, or occasionally as "pilot".
- The hero of Rebel Assault can be either a male or female, but is always and only called "Rookie One".
- Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords:
  - The player character is commonly referred to (in-universe and out) as the Jedi Exile. Atris' handmaidens all apparently go by Handmaiden, including the one who joins the party if the Exile's male (her real name, revealed late in the game, is Brianna). Her counterpart character for a female exile, whom you meet in the Jedi ruins of Dantooine, is known as "Disciple" (his real name is Mical).
  - There's an interesting case with Mandalore, who is referred to by name only once in the whole game; Mandalore is his title. He spent the whole of the previous game being referred to by his name Canderous.
  - The Jedi Exile is eventually given a Canon Name — Meetra Surik — by Revan, a prequel novel to TOR.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic actually has a few cases of this in its own right. Each one of the classes picks up an appropriate nickname. The Imperial Agent, for example, is given the code name "Cipher Nine". The Bounty Hunter is simply called "Hunter" (in the case of a male Hunter, Mako will sometimes call you "Big guy"). A couple of the party members also fall into this. Jedi Knight companion Doc prefers being called that to his Embarrassing First Name, and Consulars get the terrorist turned politician who goes only by "Zenith".
Strange Flesh: The character you control is only known as "The Bartender".
The Street Fighter series has an interesting example of this. In the original Japanese Street Fighter II, the black boxer was named "M. Bison" (an obvious reference to Mike Tyson), the masked Spaniard was named "Balrog", and the final boss was named "Vega". Fearing a Tyson lawsuit, Capcom changed the names around when bringing the game over internationally. Thus M. Bison became Balrog, Balrog became Vega, and Vega became M. Bison. Since this tends to cause a lot of confusion whenever Japanese and non-Japanese players interact, such as in fighting game tournaments, many players have come to use nicknames to identify them, naming Balrog "Boxer", Vega "Claw", and M. Bison "Dictator".
The protagonist of Strike Commander is only ever referred to as "The Commander" in the game's dialog, and his real name does not appear in the manual either. The player is asked to give him a name and callsign when starting a new game, but the name is not used anywhere and the callsign is only ever displayed on the kill board.
Super Smash Bros. has a few characters in its roster given titles rather than proper names, due to originally being either blank-slate avatar characters that can choose between male and female variants (Villager, Pokémon Trainer^note), a collective group of characters that fight as a single unit (Duck Hunt), the names of their species rather than the individuals (Inkling, Piranha Plant), a collective title given to multiple individuals in lieu an official name (Hero), or simply an NPC guide without a particular characterization of their own (Wii Fit Trainer)
Team Fortress 2: Everyone Calls Them Scout, Heavy, Engineer, Sniper, Spy, Soldier, Demoman, Medic and Pyro respectively (and occasionally they further nickname each other in voice clips), leading to Fan Nicknames such as "Engie" or "Solly", or headcanon names for the purposes of writing fanfiction or participating in roleplaying groups.
- However, the comic that introduced the WAR! update revealed that the Demoman's name is Tavish DeGroot and the Announcer's name is Helen, the Loose Canon comic revealed the Engineer's name to be Dell Conagher and Meet the Director revealed the Sniper's last name to be Mundy. However, the WAR! comic also indicates Soldier has No Name Given because he's referred to as "Jane Doe" indicating even his employers don't know his name, and one item describes him as "a nameless man." Finally, as of "A Cold Day in Hell", the Heavy is called Mikhail or "Misha" by his sisters.
The various friendly NPCs in ''Terraria are typically named after their professions - the Guide, the Wizard, the Nurse, and so on. They have unique names, which are randomly assigned when they spawn in, but since NPCs can get killed and will respawn with new names, it's somewhat pointless to keep track of. The Guide is always the Guide, whether he's named Jack, Joe or Steve.
Tooth and Tail: The Quartermaster (and Player Character) of the KSR faction is known simply as 'The Quartermaster'.
Touhou Project has the Dragon, the single most powerful being in Gensokyo, which isn't known by anything else. However, given that it is never seen, it might not even be a dragon at all.
Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon: Admiral Evar is never referred to by his name during the campaign, instead he is always called the Procyon Ambassador or Mr. Ambassador. His name is only revealed in the expandable crew log and the game files.
The nation in which the MMORPG Tree of Savior takes place is simply known as "The Kingdom." History books say that the Kingdom is comprised of all known nation-states that existed before it, and so neither its founder Emperor Zachariel nor his successors or the common people have felt the need to give it a more specific name beyond that.
"El Presidente" in Tropico.
The Unfinished Swan: The King is only addressed by his title, even though he is heavily implied to have once been named Milton Finch.
In Valkyrie Profile, mortals refer to Lenneth simply as "the Valkyrie". This is played with to great effect in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria when the fact that Rufus knows the given names of all three Valkyries is the first big hint that he's more than he seems.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: While your character does get several nicknames from various characters ("Kid" from Nines, "Demon" from Yukie, "Boss" from Gary...), you never get referred to by whatever name you chose at the beginning of the game, and are most commonly called "The Fledgling", a common term used by vampires to design someone who has been recently turned.
Wing Commander: In addition to most pilots usually being referred to by their callsign only, the first game has a bartender named "Shotglass" (his callsign from his pilot days), and the second and fourth games have mechanics named "Sparks" and "Pliers", respectively. The latter was lampshaded in the novelization when Blair, initially unsure if he was hearing a nickname or an actual if unlikely name, has to ask if they really had a mechanic named Pliers.
World of Warcraft:
- The game includes a minor NPC named Mankrik who tasks you with finding his wife, whom he fears has been killed. Sadly, he's right. Her body, when you find it, is named "Beaten Corpse".^note
- Crosses between Real Life and Video Games — players in World of Warcraft frequently fall victim to this too, when in pickup groups. "OK, the rogue will sap that one, the mage will sheep this one, and the tank (not even the class name) will hold the other two." "Tank, are you there?" "Rogue, do this and that."
- For some time, there was a human NPC named Captain Placeholder running around. Sadly, he was later replaced by somebody with an actual name.
- Because the game lets you choose your name, audio has to go out of the way to avoid names when addressing you. Whenever a character is talking, expect to be referred to as "hero", "champion", and a variety of others. Warlords of Draenor standardizes it with "Commander" and later "General".
While most duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum address Yami Yugi as Yugi, Marik and Yami Marik refer to him exclusively as "Pharaoh."
ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: The White Druid is only referred to by that title. He states outright that he abandoned his human name when he moved to Zanzarah.

Everyone Calls Him Barkeep / Video Games

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