Given Name Reveal

Some people just don't like their names. That's fairly reasonable — you don't exactly get a choice in that matter — but some find a way around that by going by a different name, usually their middle name or by rearranging their names.

This can also be an attempt to avert I Know Your True Name. Mundane or magical, the character in question is not comfortable with someone else holding that power over them, and there won't tell anyone, unless there's a certain amount of trust between them.

In fiction, this can often be used to disguise the true identity of a character, and when their full name is revealed it is generally considered a major plot or character point. Or maybe it's just that Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep", but once you get to know him you find out his friends call him Bob. Also often used as a Shout-Out, a Historical In-Joke, to reveal that Everyone Is Related once again, a character's use of a Full-Name Ultimatum, or to make a point by revealing a Meaningful Name.

Compare Only Known by Their Nickname, Do Not Call Me "Paul", Only Known by Initials, and Embarrassing First Name. See also Named in the Sequel, where an initially unnamed character is only named in a sequel or later installment, and Named by Adaptation, where said character is only named in an adaptation.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• While he only appears in a couple of chapters in Attack on Titan, Eren Kruger's first name isn't given until just before his death, as it's the name of the main character. It's implied Eren Yeager was named after him, as Kruger's the man that saved Eren's father Grisha.
• In Blattodea, Dinoponera's given name is revealed to be "Setsuna", after the Sailor Moon one. Every other assassin's full name is given in a Boss Subtitles box, when in both Arachnid and Caterpillar most of them were left unnamed outside of their bug codenames.
• Black Clover:
  • The Word Soul Magic Devil's name is Zagred. This is only revealed about two arcs after his death.
  • The Anti-Magic Devil's real name is revealed to be Liebe — a name that incidentally was given to him by Licita, Asta's biological mother, after she adopted him.
  • In the final arc, it’s revealed that Yami has been going by family name with the introduction of his sister Yami Ichika. His actual first name is Sukehiro.
• Bleach:
  • When asked the name of his Zanpakuto, Ichigo doesn't take the question seriously at first, thinking that naming your weapons is silly. He's then told that all Zanpakuto have a name, and that it's up to each individual Shinigami to bond with their Zanpakuto until they are deemed worthy to learn it. Justified, since calling out the name of their Zanpakuto grants the Shinigami access to its true power, a process known as Shikai (First Release).
    • After he loses the Shinigami powers that Rukia gave him, Ichigo undergoes training to unlock his own Shinigami powers; the last part of his training is specifically set to help Ichigo learn his Zanpakuto's name (or else Urahara will kill him). Once Ichigo casts off his fear and decides to seriously confront Urahara, the spirit of Ichigo's Zanpakuto finally grants him the right to learn its name. Ichigo's resulting outburst of power is enough to almost kill Urahara, who barely defends himself in time.
      Zangetsu: Cast off your fear! Look forward! Go forward! Never stand still. Retreat and you will age. Hesitate and you will die. Shout! My name is...!
      Ichigo: ZANGETSU!!!
    • Kenpachi Zaraki is notable among the Shinigami for being a Captain who does not know the name of his own Zanpakuto. It is initially assumed that he simply cannot hear the voice of his Zanpakuto because he stubbornly relies on his own fighting strength during combat, and thinks that anyone who relies on their Zanpakuto are pansies. During the final arc, however, it is revealed that ever since his first fight with Unohana, the founding Captain of the 11th Division, Kenpachi has been subconsciously supressing his true strength out of fear that he will never enjoy a fight with a Worthy Opponent if he goes all out. Once Unohana releases all of his mental blocks during a gruelling Duel to the Death at the cost of her own life, Kenpachi is finally able to hear the voice of his Zanpakuto, who happily reveals its name to him.
      Nozarashi: It's nice to meet you, Kenpachi Zaraki. My name is...
  • During the early chapters of the Thousand Year Blood War arc, the mysterious leader of the Wandenreich is introduced and quickly shown to be a vicious sadist who isn't above brutalizing his own subordinates for the pettiest of reasons, but remains nameless until he leads an invasion of Soul Society. Once there, his name is revealed after Yamamoto decides to kill him personally.
    Yamamoto: It's been a thousand years, hasn't it, Yhwach? I have come here to end your life.
• Code Geass: Lelouch "Lamperouge" does this for himself after acquiring the power of Geass. Right before giving his first Geass command to the Royal Guards attempting to execute him — to make them commit suicide — he dramatically addresses himself as Lelouch vi Britannia, revealing his status as a former prince.
  Lelouch: I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you!
• Death Note has L (Lawliet), BB (Beyond Birthday), Near (Nate River), and Mello (Mikael Keehl), and it's a major plot point that Kira doesn't know their names. Or L, in the case of BB. It's confusing.
• In Dr. STONE, Senku's surname is revealed to be Ishigami. In the same chapter, it's also revealed that the name of the village he's been living by for the last six months is Ishigami Village; its inhabitants are descended from Senku's adoptive father, Byakuya Ishigami, and the other five astronauts who were on the International Space Station during the Petrification Incident 3,700 years ago.
• In Fairy Tail, the Big Bad Zeref's most powerful Etherious and Tartaros' guildmaster is known simply as "E.N.D.". At the end of the Tartaros arc, his full name is stated to be Etherious Natsu Dragneel—The Hero of the series.
  • Later on, the full name of Zeref himself is revealed in his Start of Darkness chapter: Zeref Dragneel, Natsu's older brother.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: JoJolion: Josuke, who has lost his memory, finds out his actual name is Yoshikage Kira. ...But is then Subverted, since it turns out Yoshikage Kira was not him, but one of two people who fused to create him.
  • A major moment of character development near the end of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run is when Gyro trusts Johnny enough to reveal his real name, Julius Caesar Zeppeli, something he kept so secret that even some of his siblings didn't know it. Johnny tries to follow up with an equally important revelation, but the only secret he can think of is that he has a bug bite fetish.
• Played for Laughs in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Kashiwagi's boyfriend Tsubasa went unnamed for 103 chapters. When Maki finally reveals it in chapter 109, Ishigami, Shirogane, and the narration treat this as such a major revelation that they lose track of what she was saying.
  Maki: You'd better not say anything bad about Tsubasa ever again!
  Ishigami: (internally) So his name is Tsubasa, huh?
  Shirogane: (internally) I've just been referring to him as "Kashiwagi's boyfriend" all this time. Now I can't stop thinking about it. I can't focus on what she's saying.
  After 109 chapters, it's finally revealed.
• Kimi ni Todoke: Sawako befriends a girl who she only knows as Kurumi-chan. She assumes it's her first name, which is why she's surprised when Kazehaya casually calls her Kurumi and wonders if he likes her. Later she finds out Kurumi is a nickname based on her last name, Kurumizawa; her actual first name is Ume, which she hates and never uses because of how old-fashioned it sounds.
• Moriarty the Patriot: William James Moriarty stole the identity of a boy he killed as a child and erased almost every trace of his original given name—even his biological brother calls him "William" as an adult. But he has revealed it to one person: Sherlock Holmes, when he shared his birth certificate with Sherlock alongside a heartfelt letter explaining his motivations, and which Sherlock even notes as William's "true" name. Whatever the name is, though, has not been revealed to the audience and Sherlock keeps the information entirely private.
• My Hero Academia: Dabi refuses to give his real name when he first introduces himself, and the topic is initially dropped. Then, several arcs later, he reveals his true identity at the worst possible time: Toya Todoroki, Shoto's older brother and Endeavor's first son.
• One Piece:
  • One of the reasons why Corazon (Donquixote Rocinante) tried to keep Trafalgar Law away from his older brother Donquixote Doflamingo was because of his full name, which, had Doflamingo learned of it, would have gotten Law killed. Law himself was instructed by his parents to keep it secret — as it's Trafalgar D. Water Law.
  • It comes to a surprise for Sanji and his crew when Capone Bege reveals his surname Vinsmoke, as it's the name of the ruling family of the Germa 66, AKA the mythical Evil Army. Naturally, Sanji despises his connection to Germa and refuses to be addressed as "Vinsmoke Sanji", unfortunately it ends up on his bounty poster.
  • The Five Elders go unnamed for well over 800 chapters since their introduction, until their full names are formally revealed during the Egghead arc as they finally begin to take a more active role in the plot.
• Briefers Rock from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
• In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, "Kyubey" is revealed to be the shortened name of his species: the Incubators.
• This happens twice during the KCGC arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Early on in the tournament, Seto Kaiba gets suspicious of a duelist named Zigfried Lloyd; upon investigating, Kaiba discovers that he's actually Zigfried von Schroeder, the son of Kaiba's father's rival. After Kaiba deals with him, a young duelist named Leon Wilson goes on to duel against Yugi. After the duel starts, one of Kaiba's mooks discovers that Leon Wilson is actually Leon von Schroeder, Zigfried's little brother.

Comic Books

• In Marvel's ClanDestine, the eldest of the Long-Lived superhuman siblings is introduced by her current alias of Kay Cera, better known within the family as Cuckoo because of her Grand Theft Me body swapping. It's over a decade later when someone mentions that her actual first name is Jasmine.
• After Dracula kills the would-be vampire slayer Hans in Dracula Lives!, his pregnant lover Rachel swears that her son or his children will one day destroy him, and reveals her full name in the process.
  So I swear... Rachel van Helsing.
• In Kid Eternity, the protagonist was only known as "the Kid" for decades, but when DC Comics decided to do some Canon Welding with Shazam! he was revealed to be Christopher "Kit" Freeman, Freddy Freeman's long-lost brother.
• The "Shadowplay" arc in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye reveals the name of the senator who supported Orion Pax and modified him to carry the Matrix of Leadership, setting him on the path to becoming Optimus Prime: Shockwave.
• The "All New, All Different" X-Men had been running for quite some time before we learned Wolverine was named Logan (when he visits his old friends Mac and Heather Hudson). Nightcrawler observes that he had never told him, and Logan says, "You Never Asked."
• Y: The Last Man:
  • Alter has never revealed her real name due to an old Jewish superstition (her elder siblings died as babies, and keeping her name secret would protect her from the Angel of Death). Right before she thinks she's about to die, however, she reveals that it's Yedida.
  • Played With: Agent 355 reveals her name to Yorick, but the reader doesn't know what it is. Word of God says there are hints to it in the series. Fanon usually guesses that it's "Peace," since you see it written on her gravestone.
• When the first issue of Naomi was solicited, it merely refers to the titular heroine as "Naomi (last name?)". Indeed, her surname is not brought up at all until ending of the sixth and last issue of her series, when her adopted mother tells her, "I'm insanely proud of you, Naomi McDuffie."
• The Punisher had been around for 12 years when The Punisher: Circle of Blood revealed his real name was Frank Castiglione/Castle.
• Minor Green Lantern villain the Puppeteer never had his real name revealed in either his first clash with the Green Lantern or when he teamed up with Captain Cold, the Clock King, Electric Man, Getaway Mastermind and Professor Menace under the leadership of Doctor Destiny in the fifth issue of Justice League of America Vol 1, but would eventually be identified as Jordan Weir when he resurfaced as an enemy of the Teen Titans in eighth and ninth issues of New Teen Titans Vol 1.
• Dr. Anthony Druid had been around since 1961, but it wasn't until over 30 years later, in Druid (1995), that it was revealed that he was born with the last name "Ludgate" and legally changed it to "Druid".
• Doom Patrol foe the Brain had his real name unknown for a long time, with the 44th issue of Red Hood: Outlaw revealing that his forename is Ernst.

Fan Works

• Alicorn: In the first chapter, when Celestia reveals that Rainbow Dash is her daughter, she also reveals that Rainbow's birthname is Aurora.
• The Boy Behind The Mask: Hiccup goes by the name "Fjalar" to keep himself hidden, although he has to confess his real name at the Free Folk trial.
• build your wings on the way down: Hughes thinks Edward's blond university friend, Gabby seems familiar until it hits him:
  Hughes: Catherine Armstrong?
• Conversations with a Cryptid: The Reveal is that All for One's real name is Hisashi Midoriya, Izuku's long-absent father.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Chapter 28 reveals that "Page Turner" is a pony-style alias. When speaking to Captain Memorizing Gaze, she gives her name as Lamella. Then, in Chapter 30, it's revealed that her full name is Lamella Armor the Tenth.
• Return to Krocodile Isle: In the post-credits scene, it turns out K. Rool's full name is Keith "Krudd" Rool. The fact that he never told any of his Krew is the reason that he's missed out on multiple Smash Bros. invitations, since they all assumed that they were junk mail and threw them out.
• Spider-X: Rogue — who always kept her real name secret in X-Men: Evolution — finally shares it with her boyfriend, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, telling him that her real name is Anna as they're about to have sex for the first time.
• In Final Stand of Death, Celebrity Deathmatch fic, Fusion Gundam are sometimes called by their "human" names, even to each other. Zatar also called Redd "Melanie". Later, during the backstory, T-Boz and Chili called each other "Tionne" and "Rozonda" respectfully.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes the Movie: Misery Loves Company: Multiple characters have their full names revealed: Beezy is short for "Beeziel", Jez is actually Jezzica Belle, Saffi's last name is Bael, and Jimmy himself is in fact James McClarty.
• one day at a time (Nyame): This is how Jason reveals Helena's biological parentage to Bruce. Initially introducing her as Helena Magdalene Wayne, when Bruce fails to react, Jason amends it and reveals her full name to be Helena Kyle-Wayne, confirming to Bruce that she was the biological daughter of Bruce and Selina.
• Junior Officers: "A Pirate's Tail" mentions a lieutenant that had passed away prior to the fanfic's beginning. "River Riding Adventure" later revealed her name to be Hakara.
• All Mixed Up!: Chapter 10b reveals Mariana Mag's real name to be Maggie Ocean Flounder. The "Ocean" part of the name was the name she went by during her time employed with Odd Squad as an Investigation agent.
• The Flash Sentry Chronicles:
  • At the beginning of Season 2, Flash Sentry discovers the old orphanage he was left at when he was a baby that burned down with the caretakers believing he died in the fire. He learns there that his birth name is actually "Flash Relic". Despite learning this though, he prefers to keep his new name "Flash Sentry" since that is who he believes he is now.
  • Several members of The Cult of Shadow are revealed to be using an allies.
    • Terror Card, a unicorn with Fortune Teller-like magic, is revealed to actually be named "Glitter". It was revealed in flashbacks that when she first joined Shadow Corrupter and Tempera she told them to call her Terror Card, remembering the name some foals gave her tarot cards, believing she would never be respected by them with her real name.
    • Storm Blade is revealed to be the former Royal Guard named "Swift Wind". During his final mission, he stole his former friend Noble Banner's Celestic Gear for himself, and then used it to murder Noble and the bandits they were fighting. Swift faked his own death by using one of the burnt corpses as a substitute for his own body, and he took on the name of his own Celestic Gear as his new name, "Storm Blade".
    • Shadow Corrupter himself is also using an alternate name. When Flash sees visions of Shadow's past, he sees that as a kid he was originally "Gleaming Path", but after undergoing the sacrificial ritual to revive the Corrupted Shadow, he became "Shadow Corrupter", naming himself after his new powers.
  • An "Intended Name Reveal" is given for Spike in Dragon's Awakening. When he, First Aid, and Flicker speak to the spirit of Silverbolt, Spike's biological father, Silverbolt momentarily calls Spike "Pyro" a few times. When he is asked about this he explains that Fira had a list of names chosen for Spike, depending on what gender and element he was born with, and "Pyro" was the one for if he was a boy with the fire element. By the end of the story, Spike adopts the name as his Middle Name, making his full official name "Spike Pyro Dragon".
• Attempted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe fic Spell Me My Alphabet, when she was undercover as Steve's neighbor "Kate", Sharon left a bowl of Alpha-Bits cereal with a message as a Valentine's Day gift for him, but Natasha eats it before Steve can find out the message. After a Time Skip, Steve attempts to gift a bowl of (expired) Alpha-Bits spelling his answer to what he thought was Sharon's message, "Yes", having assumed she was asking him to be her Valentine. Sharon explains what she originally tried to tell him: her real name.
• Vow of Nudity: The captain of the Crimson Corsairs (known only as 'The Jackal'), drops her real name^note Jacqueline DeWitt as part of a Badass Boast before killing the harpy chieftess and her inner circle in a spiteful suicide bombing. Haara, who was secretly watching, later uses this knowledge to bluff herself to the surviving pirates as the Jackal's secret lover.

Films — Animation

• In The Boss Baby, the Boss Baby's name is never used throughout most of the movie; it is only revealed after he becomes a "proper" member of the family. It's "Theodore."
• During the Octan Tower operation in The LEGO Movie, Wyldstyle reveals that she actually uses that as her nickname, as she doesn't like her real name, Lucy. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part's ending elaborates on this revelation, revealing that she had been distancing herself from her past as a pop star famous for the song "Everything is Awesome".
• Subverted in The Sword in the Stone, based on The Once and Future King. In this version Wart introduces himself to Merlin with that nickname, but adds that it's short for Arthur, rather than saving that fact for the end.
• In Tangled, when Flynn and Rapunzel are caught in a flooding cave and it seems they might not make it out alive, Flynn confesses that he took his name from a hero in a book and that his real name is Eugene Fitzherbert.
• In The Angry Birds Movie 2, the Mighty Eagle spends most of the movie staying behind at Bird Island, afraid to confront his ex-fiance Zeta. When he finally gets the nerve to return to Eagle Island and face her, Zeta blurts out the Eagle's real name which is Ethan.

Films — Live-Action

• Happens to most of the main characters in Baby Driver since they go by their heist codenames for most of the movie. It's also a Meaningful Name in the case of Baby who's real name is revealed to be Miles.
• Back to the Future Part III: In the first film, we see that the 1955 Doc has a pet sheepdog like the 1985 Doc's dog, Einstein. In Part III it's revealed that the 1955 Doc's dog's name is called Copernicus, named after another historically-noted scientist.
• In the roadblock scene in Convoy, a federal agent in a helicopter addresses to Rubber Duck by his real name, Martin Penwald. Both Lyle and Melissa have to laugh.
• In The Dark Knight Rises, the closing montage reveals that John Blake's first name is Robin. In this case the name is simply symbolic, since he's a Canon Foreigner and no one in the Batman mythos has that name anyway.^note  The Robins' real names are Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne and Carrie Kelley (sorta), if you're wondering.
• The original Japanese name of Kikujiro is Kikujiro no Natsu, literally meaning "Kikujiro's Summer". One would reasonably assume that Kikujiro is the name of the young child who spends the movie's runtime searching for his mother. However, the child's name is actually Masao, and the movie's final spoken line reveals that Kikujiro actually the name of his travelling companion, the middle-aged ex-gangster who has grown to become something of a surrogate father to Masao.
  Masao: Oji-chan! What's your name?
  Kikujiro: It's Kikujiro! Now scram!
• In Kill Bill, the Bride's name is censored out for the first movie and a half; other than that, she's usually addressed by her old code name, "Black Mamba", and is called "Kiddo" by Bill. Only halfway through the second movie do we learn that her real name is Beatrix Kiddo.
• In Meet the Parents, it's an important plot point that Greg's real name is not Gregory, but Gaylord.
• At the end of Memento, it's revealed that Teddy's real name is John Edward Gammell, meaning that he too is a John G, and therefore a candidate for Leonard's hit list.
• Men in Black:
  • Men in Black: A dying alien tells J that he has to find the galaxy "on Orion's belt." It turns out that in this context, "Orion" is the alien's pet cat, who has a very tiny galaxy in his collar's bauble.
  • Men in Black II: When J is reunited with K, who'd retired to civilian life after the first film, he sees that K's full name is Kevin Brown.
• Pitch Perfect: During a round of telling secrets, Fat Amy reveals that her real name is Fat Patricia.
• A comic example comes from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, during the ceremony to marry the unwilling Marian to the Sheriff. "We are here to witness the marriage of Mervyn, Sheriff of... Mervyn? Your name is Mervyn?" Cue snickering onlookers and an embarrassed Sheriff whenever the Abbot says his name in the context of the ceremony.
• In The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
  Frank: Dr. Scott-—or should I say, Dr. von Scott!
• At the end of Shanghai Noon, Chon Wang learns that Roy O'Bannon's rather embarrassing real name is Wyatt Earp.
• This has happened to Sherlock Holmes three times (-although twice in Films):
  • During the climax to The Asylum's Mockbuster Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Holmes's villainous brother repeatedly refers to him as "Robert". Holmes later reveals that his full name is "Robert Sherlock Holmes" and that he goes by his middle name because "who would remember a detective named Robert Holmes?"
  • In the made-for-TV-movie Sherlock Holmes in New York (starring Roger Moore) Holmes, upon learning that Irene Adler has a young son named Scott, tells Watson that his full name is William Sherlock Scott Holmes. Similarly, in Sherlock, Holmes reveals that to be his name. That is actually a piece of Fanon: Holmes once used the pseudonym William Escott. Sherlockian writers took that as a play on William S. Scott and surmised that he was named after the writer William Sherlock.
  • Another Holmes example from Young Sherlock Holmes. The villain, Rathe, is seen to have survived at the end of the movie and signs into a hotel under the name "Moriarty".
• Played for drama in Star Trek Into Darkness:
  Captain Kirk: I looked up "John Harrison". Until a year ago, he didn't exist.
  Harrison: "John Harrison" was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause. A smokescreen to conceal my true identity. My name is...KHAN.
• The bad guy in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a Darth Vader expy named Kylo Ren. And then it turns out that he's not just a Vader fanboy — he's Vader's grandson, and his real name is Ben Solo.
• Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus: Near the end of the movie, Crystal introduces herself to a man who gives her a ride as Isabel.
• In The Blue Iguana, the boy's name isn't mentioned until the last few minutes of the movie, when he and Vince are brainstorming names for their establishment.
  Boy: We'll call it Yano's Hut.
  Vince: Yano? What's a Yano?
  Boy: That's my name, man!
  Vince: Oh, sorry.

Literature

• The kid novel 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents features a Big Man on Campus called Ace, whose real name is unknown to any of his classmates. Eventually he and the protagonist are both waiting to talk to the principal and Ace gets called in by the name John Smith. The protagonist is rather stunned while Ace seems embarrassed.
• Practically every Animorphs book begins with the Rotating Protagonist giving their first name, then explaining that they can't give their surname or other identifying information, to prevent the Yeerks from finding them. After more than fifty books like this, it's a shock when the penultimate volume begins with the Wham Line "My name is Jake Berenson."
• In Artemis Fowl, Butler is sworn not to tell his given name to his charge unless he's about to die. In the third book, we learn that it's Domovoi. Artemis knowing this subsequently becomes an example of Something Only They Would Say.
• Throughout The Bad Guys series, the heroes are called by either their last names or by code names. By the end of the first arc, all of the characters have their first names revealed, save for Mr. Snake.:
  • Mr. Wolf: Moe
  • Mr. Shark: Lou
  • Mr. Piranha: Pepe
  • Legs: Stevie
  • Agent Fox: Ellen
  • Agent Kitty Kat: Pam
  • Agent Hogwild: Emmylou
  • Agent Doom: Joy
  • Agent Shortfuse: Rhonda
  • In a more diabolical case, Dr. Rupert Marmalade, then thought as simply a mad scientist guinea pig, later has his name revealed as KDJFLOERHGCOINWERUHCGLEIRWFHEKLWJFHXALHW, revealing that he is not from Earth, or even a guinea pig. The others continue to call him "Marmalade" for convenience sake, however.
• In The Bartimaeus Trilogy birth names have power, which is why magicians stop using them and eventually take on pseudonyms. Mrs. Underwood, however, continues to call her husband's apprentice "Nathaniel" long after she's supposed to... which allows Bartimaeus, Nathaniel's unwilling Familiar, to overhear and get a bit of leverage on his master.
• In the Chronicles of the Kencyrath stories, the main heroine goes by the name Jamie, with the few among her people who know that her full name is Jamethiel appalled that she was given the name of the most infamous woman in the Kencryaths' history.They'd be even more appalled to learn that she's named after her mother.
• In Code Name Verity, Queenie does not mention her real name until the end of her section of the novel. Her name is Julie (or more formally Lady Julia Lindsay MacKenzie Wallace Beaufort-Stuart).
• Discworld's Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, or just plain Throat, with his real name being Claude Maximilian Overton Transpire Dibbler.
  • Vimes had previously only known Lord Vetinari by his last name; although it was given to readers beforehand (it's Havelock, which might be unfortunate elsewhere but this is Discworld and it could be much worse), a rather casual example of this trope by Sybil becomes actually unsettling to Vimes. He had never thought of the Patrician having a first name, or of anyone knowing him well enough to call him by it.
  • Vimes' own first name, Samuel, only gets its first mention in the last couple pages of Guards! Guards!, when he introduces himself to a friend of Sybil's who remarks that it's a trustworthy name.
  • Wizards mostly have a case of Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep", like "Lecturer in Recent Runes", "Senior Wrangler" and so forth. In Unseen Academicals, one of the formerly nameless wizards, the Dean, gets named, because he's left to become the Archchancellor of Brazeneck University, Unseen University's rival. Therefore Ridcully has nothing to call him but his name, as "Archchancellor was out of the question, Dean too obvious an insult, Two-Chairs ditto with knobs on." After digging up memories from school, Ridcully loudly greets the former Dean with "Henry!"
• Despite being The Protagonist and the author of The Divine Comedy, Dante's name isn't mentioned until 64 cantos into the poem (out of 100). Fittingly, it is Beatrice, his love, who calls him by name as she shames him for his failings in life.
• The Dresden Files: Battle Ground posthumously reveals "Cujo" Hendricks's first name to be Nathan. Dresden feels a twinge of guilt after hearing this, lamenting that he never bothered to learn the man's real name in the years he knew him.
• The Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden is about young Julius Caesar and his best friend Marcus, who is revealed to be Marcus Brutus in the very last line.
• In The Folk of the Air, anyone who knows the names of the folk can control them, meaning they all have their true names kept hidden. On top of that, Jude's spy comrades also use nicknames to hide their usual identities. Unfortunately, one of their names is discovered by an enemy and revealed to be Larkin Gorm Garrett.
• The climax of the first novel in the Gentleman Bastard series comes from a malevolent wizards' ability to control or kill other people by knowing their true name. The audience doesn't even know that one character has been using a pseudonym for the entire book until Falcon is unable to control Locke. The character's real name is revealed to be Lamor Acanthus. At least, he thinks it is.
• Goblins in the Castle: Late in Goblins on the Prowl, Fauna's real name is revealed, along with her true identity — Gertrude, the long-lost older sister of the Baron of Toad-in-a-Cage Castle.
• Gods and Warriors: While adventuring in Pirra's native homeland Keftiu in Eye of the Falcon, Hylas asks her and their guides what is the meaning of the word Pirákara he hears them using in their native language. Pirra reveals that it's her full name and that she prefers her shorter nickname.
• In the Goosebumps book "A Night In Terror Tower", Sue and Eddie learn that their full names are Princess Susannah and Prince Edward of York.
• This is a big plot point in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Harry comes upon a mysterious book that turns out to be the diary of Tom Riddle, who received an award for services to the school fifty years ago around the same time that students were getting attacked in a series of events similar to those of the present, which Tom tells Harry was for helping to stop the attacks. At the end, Ginny lying unconscious in the Chamber in question and Tom Riddle is right there. What does Tom do? He picks up Harry's wand, uses it to write out his full name (Tom Marvolo Riddle) in midair, and then rearranges the letters to spell out the message "I am Lord Voldemort".
  • Played With in later books: Harry finds a note by left for Voldemort by "R.A.B.," but doesn't know who it is. In this case he already knew of the person, but lacked a middle initial: it's Sirius' brother, Regulus Arcturus Black.
• In Holes, members of the Yelnats family have been Born Unlucky since one of their ancestors stole a pig from an old Gypsy woman named Madame Zeroni. Eventually, the curse sends Stanley Yelnats IV to a juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit. All the boys there use nicknames, though he eventually learns their real names as well. Of particular note is his friend Zero, aka Hector Zeroni, which means nothing to Stanley but a lot to the reader.
• In the Jeeves and Wooster series, Jeeves is known solely by his surname until the penultimate novel Much Obliged, Jeeves, when one of his valet colleagues greets him with a cheery "Hullo, Reggie!" For his part, Wooster is not only thunderstruck to realize Jeeves's first name but by the revelation that he even has a first name at all.
• Johnny Tremain's real name is Jonathan Lyte Tremain. His mother was the Black Sheep of the upper-class Lyte family, and he has a valuable Orphan's Plot Trinket inherited from them. However, when he tries to cash in on this connection, it doesn't go well.
• In KonoSuba it is revealed that Darkness' name is actually an alias. She turns out to be from a high ranking noble family and her real name is Lalatina Dustiness Ford. She uses the alias Darkness for two reasons: to hide her noble lineage from the public, and because she doesn't like the name Lalatina.
• Strider in The Lord of the Rings is revealed early on to be Aragorn the rightful king of Gondor.
• In Many Waters, the protagonists are sent back to Bible Times, though they spend a good portion of the book thinking that they've been transported to some primitive planet with Human Aliens. Readers who are more familiar with the Bible could probably figure out the truth, but the most famous Biblical character, Noah, is only named about 100 pages in; prior to that he was "Lemech's son," "Japheth's father" and so on.
• Old Kingdom: Touchstone cannot initially remember his name after being revived from Human Popsicle status by Sabriel in the first book, and thus begrudgingly adopts the "fool's name" Mogget bestows on him. Only in the third book, Abhorsen, is his real name, Torrigan, revealed, when he mentions it during the binding of Orannis.
• In The Once and Future King, the main character is only known as "Wart" throughout most of the first book, though we're told that this approximately rhymes with his real name. Given that he's tutored by Merlyn and pulls a sword from the stone, it's not much of a twist when the last line names him as King Arthur.
• The main character of The One Who Eats Monsters, usually calls herself Ryn, which is a cute nickname for someone who looks like a slightly underfed five-foot tall, sixteen-year old girl. Her real name? Erynis, as in, the inspiration for the myth of the Furies. When people who know what that name names learn it, they run. Or they die. Since her other name is Adrastreia, 'The One Who Cannot Be Escaped', usually they run and then they die.
• In the first installment of The Queen's Thief series, Gen presents himself to other characters and the reader as a lowly street thief. Part of the reveal of his actual identity as a Guile Hero prince involves the fact that his full name is the aristocratic sounding Eugenides (which in Greek basically means "well born"/"nobly born").
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians has two Surname Reveals. In the fourth book, Percy learns that Luke's last name is "Castellan;" in the fifth, that Thalia's is "Grace." In both cases he's taken aback that he didn't know them before, and because it makes them seem more like normal people.
• The Quorum: Sally is the unwed mother of an infant who she's ambivalent about, and who is referred to throughout the novel as "the Invader" and "it". By the epilogue, she's reconciled herself to her child's presence in her life, and the final paragraph reveals that his name is Jerome.
• Ravensong: From Chapter Fifteen: Stacey asks her Momma's name, but the answer reveals the His Name Really Is "Barkeep" situation::
  "Momma," she whispered hoarsely into her mother's shoulder, "I don't know your name." Momma bent double with laughter so suddenly Stacey resented it.
  "Momma is my name." She laughed so hard the words were hardly intelligible. She recovered enough to finish. "It was the first word your Gramma learned. She thought it was a name. Imagine having Momma for a name." Both broke into hysterics.
• Soon I Will Be Invincible: Since we're dealing with superheroes and supervillains, most of the cast go by code names. We find out that Doctor Impossible's real name is Jonathan about halfway through the book, as that's what Lily calls him in private; likewise, the heroes Blackwolf and Damsel only refer to each other as "Marc" and "Ellen" when alone. Doctor Impossible also notes that he never knew his friend Pharaoh's name (Nelson Gerard) until reading it in the heroes' files.
• Star Wars Expanded Universe:
  • In Queen's Shadow, it's revealed that the reason why most of Padmé's handmaidens have similar names is because they changed them to be more like hers as a symbol of loyalty. Sabé's real name is revealed to be Tsabin, and Cordé, Dormé and Versé's are Cordyn, Dorra and Versaat.
  • In Tarkin, Emperor Palpatine's given name is revealed to be Sheev, courtesy of Grand Moff Tarkin, possibly the only man in the galaxy to be on a First-Name Basis with him.
• Star Wars Legends: In Galaxy of Fear, Uncle Hoole never reveals if he has more than one name until Army of Terror. He accidentally wiped out all life on a planet under his first name, Mammon. When they all went to that planet, the vengeful wraiths chanted "Mammon! Murderer!", to the confusion of the Arrandas.
• In The Traitor Son Cycle:
  • The Red Knight has faked his death and has been going by this nickname for five years until his brother identifies him by name and surname. Red Knight's slow return to his given name marks his character development.
  • The Wyrm of Erch being named as Lot marks the point where the characters finally start to learn something more about the underpinnings of the conflict they're embroiled in.
• In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie goes to a charity Christmas concert where a rich girl named Mary is supposed to give away a doll to any "poor little girl" in the audience who is also named Mary. The announcer asks any Marys to come up onto the stage, but even though there are "at least a hundred Marys in that audience," they're all too proud to accept the title of "poor little girl." Francie can't stand to see the doll go to waste and so she raises her hand and lies that her real first name is Mary, enduring another speech about the rich girl's unselfishness and the contempt of all the other girls, and after getting the doll she feels so guilty she decides that when she makes her confirmation, she'll take the name Mary so she won't be a liar anymore. But when she suggests this to her mother, her mother tells her that although she's called Francie after a friend of the family, she was also named after her grandmother and was actually christened Mary Frances.
• In The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp, Tyke's narration frequently refers to "my real name, the one I hated". At the very end it turns out to be 'Theodora'; the first indication that Tyke is a girl.
• Uprooted: Subverted with the wizard known as the Dragon. Prince Marek and the Falcon address him as Sarkan in their first appearance, but this is later revealed simply to mean "Dragon" in the Language of Magic, a Meaningful Rename he took upon becoming a wizard. His original name is never mentioned.
• The Reanimated Woman in Vic and Frank: Necromancers reveals her name to be Shelly Evans.
• We Can Remember It For You Wholesale: Up until she was ordered to give Douglas Quail a refund, Shirley, the topless receptionist, was never referred to by name.
• In the prologue of the bodice-ripper Romance Novel Whisper To Me Of Love, a dying countess' infant daughter, who she names Morgana, is stolen from her. (Her evil brother-in-law wants to inherit the title/fortune and has thus done away with his brother, her, and now the child.) The action picks up 20 years later with a young girl named Pip as the mistress to a wealthy man. When he asks her what her real name is, she replies, "Morgana". (Not that the reader hasn't figured it out already).

Live-Action TV

• Big Wave Dave's: The character Jack Lord legally changed his name to honor the lead actor of Hawaii Five-O. It is eventually revealed that his original name is Ernest Hemingway, "but that's a whole other story."
• Blindspot:
  • The amnesiac protagonist spends the first season known only as "Jane Doe", as nobody knows who she is. At the start of the second season, she learns about her past, her birth name is revealed to be Alice Kruger, but she had gone by the alias Remi Briggs for most of her life. She keeps going by Jane Doe as a way to distance herself from her past.
  • Also, Dr. Patterson insists on only going by her last name, as she's deeply embarassed about her first name. In the last season, her first name is finally revealed as William.
• Bones: Brennan learns that her parents were con artists who moved around a lot, and that Temperence Brennan isn't her birth name. It was originally Joy Keenan. Interestingly, both of those names seem to describe her well. As a girl, she was, presumably, happy and cheerful. Losing her parents and her brother has resulted in her keeping a lid on her emotions, hence the "temperance".
• In the 1981 TV series Bret Maverick, the editor, publisher, and main reporter of the newspaper in little Sweetwater, Arizona was known as M.L. Springer. It is revealed early on that the initials stand for Mary Lou, and the revelation is used repeatedly (when a young Teddy Roosevelt comes to town, for instance).
• In the Series Finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, while drawing random names to partner people up:
  Jake: Holt will be playing with... "Norm Scully".
  Rosa: His name is Norm?
  Scully: My name is Norm?
• The Brittas Empire: After 7 series of Tim's surname being "Whistler", "Reviewing the Situation" reveals that this isn't his actual surname, having changed it from the Embarrassing Last Name of Göebbels. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in any of his public records and Brittas thus spends the rest of the episode acting as if Tim doesn't exist.
• On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Oz's real name (Daniel Osbourne) is only revealed in passing after he's Put on a Bus.
• Cheers: Three whole times.
  • Carla reveals that her husband Eddie LeBec's first name is actually Guy (pronounced Gee) when one Valentine's Day while he's on the road he doesn't send her any flowers, so the gang buys some and pretends they're from him, signing it "Love, Eddie." If they were really from him it'd be signed "Love, Guy."
  • In season 9, Rebecca discovers that Norm was really named after his grandfather, Hilary.
  • In the final episode, Woody reveals that "Woody" is actually just his nickname, and his real name is Huckleberry.
• Very few characters on CSI know D.B.'s because he doesn't like it — it's 'Diebenkorn.' The audience found out when Julie Finn left him a note about something and deliberately used it to rib him — partly for calling her Jules, which she also hates.
• A major plot thread early on in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was Skye's quest to find her family, with her only clue being that she was left at an orphanage when she was very young. When put under a lie detector to prove her loyalty, Skye mentions that the orphanage gave her the name Mary Sue Poots, which she hates and so insists on going by her nickname. Over the course of the second season, Skye reunites with her parents and learns that her birth name is Daisy Johnson, and by the end of the season she chooses to go by that instead.
• On CSI: NY, it was something of a surprise to Jo when Mac's new girlfriend, Christine, revealed his middle name to be 'Llewellyn', which Jo didn't know despite having been on the team for 2 years. Although, Christine's brother HAD been Mac's partner and picked on him about it relentlessly, and they had both been friends with Mac and Claire, so Christine knowing may be justified.
  Jo: Mac *Llewellyn* Taylor?? Good Lord.
• An episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show discusses the history of their son Richie's Embarrassing Middle Name, ROSEBUD. It's actually an initialism of the various names their relatives wanted Rob & Laura to name him: Robert (Jr.) Oscar Sam Edward Benjamin Ulysseys David.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Doctor has never revealed his true name. This was toyed with for an entire season once, and in the last episode of the season he apparently whispered it into River Song's ear at her wedding.
  • Turlough is only ever called Turlough until his final story, when it is revealed his first name is Vislor.
  • "Timelash": The Doctor accidentally involves a Victorian man called Herbert in an adventure, in which the Doctor takes him for a ride on his Time Machine to meet an invisible man and to prevent an interplanetary war involving Morlocks. At the end, it is revealed that his full name is Herbert Wells.
  • "Utopia": The Doctor, Martha and Jack meet Professor Yana, a kindly scientist who's helping a group of humans at the end of the universe get to the titular location. It's later revealed that the name is an acronym of "You Are Not Alone", the last words of the Face of Boe from earlier in the season, and that Yana is actually the Master pulling a Memory Gambit.
  • In her first appearance, Amy is introduced as seven-year-old Amelia Pond, so she can go by Amy when she's older for a short while without the Doctor knowing.
  • River Song's original name is revealed in "A Good Man Goes to War" to be Melody Pond, taking the other name thanks to a translation from the language of the people of the Gamma Forest. This reveals her as the child of the Doctor's companions, and, later, the Impossible Astronaut. This makes her both the Doctor's murderer and saviour. She was (in between these revelations) also discovered to be Rory and Amy's rebellious childhood friend, Mels (who Amy named her daughter after), who regenerates into the portrayal by Alex Kingston when she gets shot by Adolf Hitler.
  • In "The Zygon Inversion", we finally find out why Osgood is on a Last-Name Basis... her given name is Petronella. Ouch.
• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman:
  • Dr. Michaela Quinn shows up in the small town she's been hired to be the doctor of, and everyone is expecting a male doctor named Michael. Horace the Western Union Man admits he left the "a" off her signature sent over the wire, to save the town a couple cents of fees because no one would care what "Dr. Michael A. Quinn"'s middle initial was.
  • Sully, Dr. Quinn's love interest and later husband, goes by simply Sully. Little Brian once asks him about his Christian name, and he's quite embarrassed to say it's Byron. Brian laughs. Sully hates his name and no one calls him that, not even his family or close friends.
• In the Firefly episode "Shindig," Kaylee's full name is revealed to be Kaywinnit Lee Frye. In The Movie, Wash's full name is revealed to be Hoban Washburne.
• Game of Thrones:
  • In Bran's visions of the past during Seasons 5 and 6, he finds out that Hodor was known as Wylis when he was a child.
  • In Season 7, Bran, who is the Three-eyed Raven now, uses his magical ability to learn the given name of another character, one that the character themselves was unaware of: Jon Snow, whose real name is Aegon Targaryen.
• The first season of Heroes for some odd reason had a big reveal in the final episode that one character's name was really Noah. It's the final stage in the humanization of the character, who started the show as a seemingly absolutely cold-blooded man in black but was gradually shown to be more sympathetic, complex and heroic over the course of the first season.
• In How I Met Your Mother, Ted's kids (to whom he's telling the story of how he met their mother) are never named until the episode "Unpause" in the middle of the ninth and final season, which reveals their names to be Penny and Luke. The children's mother becomes a regular in the ninth and final season, but remains unnamed until the finale reveals her name as Tracy McConnell.
• Inspector Morse (novels and TV show) waited until the penultimate story to reveal his first name was Endeavour.
• In It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mac's full name was kept secret for several seasons. Then in the high school reunion episode, his name was revealed to be Ronald McDonald.
• JAG: Up until the season 4 episode "War Stories", none of the other main characters knew that the full name of their admiral, other than the initials AJ. Which stands for is Albert Jethro.
• Kamen Rider Fourze: After spending most of the show Only Known by Initials, it is eventually shown to the audience that JK's real name is Kaizo Jingu (Jingu Kaizo in Japanese naming order.)
• In an episode of Key West we learn restaurateur Gumbo's real name: Paul Beausoleil. When Seamus reacts with amusement, Gumbo replies, "What, you think my momma named me after soup?"
• In MacGyver, Mac's first name isn't revealed until the last season, in an episode that was probably a dream sequence anyway. It's Angus. He doesn't like it.
• For most of The Mandalorian's first season, both of its main characters (the Mandalorian, aka "Mando", and the Child) are unnamed.
  • In the season finale the newly-introduced Big Bad Moff Gideon shows that he already knows everything about Mando, including that his birth name is Din Djarin. (Cara's full name is apparently Carasynthia Dune, though that's not as dramatic.)
  • In the middle of season two, "the Child" is revealed to be named Grogu.
• In M*A*S*H season 4 episode "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?", the episode ends with Corporal "Radar" O'Reilly, who was known only as that for the first three seasons, telling the titular Captain Chandler his first name is Walter.
• Mimpi Metropolitan:
  • Mami Bibir is known only by her nickname in the early episodes (even Prima who has lived three years in her dorm doesn't know her real name). In episode 6, a purse seller tells Bambang, Alan and Prima that Mami Bibir's real name is Sofia Helena.
  • Juna's full name is Arjuna Renjana, or so he claims. In episode 33, a courier calls him Junedi which is his actual name in his ID as Alan checked.
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024): The protagonists only ever go by their assigned aliases, John and Jane Smith, even to each other. In the last episode, Jane learns that her husband's real name is Michael, from his mother. When prompted by John later on, she admits her real name is Alana.
• In Nanalan', Nana's name is in the title of the show, and Russell is named in the first short, but it's not until the fourth short, "Scarf", that the little girl protagonist gets her name, Mona, dropped.
• In the Grand Finale of The Nanny C.C. Babcock's real name is revealed as Chastity Claire.
• There was an episode of NewsRadio in which Catherine Duke finds out that Bill McNeal's first name is Evelyn, and torments him with it. (Pronounced "Eev-lyn," as he points out.)
• Night Court: In separate episodes it's revealed that "Dan Fielding" isn't Dan Fielding's real, full name. First we learn that he changed his last name from Elmore to his middle name, Fielding. Then later we learn that "Dan" is completely made up: his original first name is Reinhold.
• Northern Exposure: regular guy Holling Vincouer reveals that his family name is actually du Vincouer, and that he's descended from French royalty - but every male in his family is a Jerkass, so he changed it to try to get away from that, which is also why he's decided not to have any offspring.
• In Only Fools and Horses, this is combined with Embarrassing Middle Name at the wedding of Rodney Charlton Trotter.
• Quantum Leap:
  • In an early episode Sam doesn't know the name of the kid with the guitar who hangs out at his veterinarian's office, in mid-1950s Lubbock, Texas. Then Sam hears him sing "Piggy Suey", and realizes both the boy's name and what he's there to do. "Uh, Buddy, why don't you try 'Peggy Sue' instead?" (This is historically inaccurately because Buddy Holly didn't write the song anyway and it was originally to be called 'Cindy Lou'.)
  • In another, horror-themed episode (which may not have actually happened — it's complicated) a supporting character named Stevie turns out to have been a young Stephen King.
• In Rush Hour, Detective Lee does not want to tell Detective Carter his first name but, at the end of an episode, Carter finds out that it is Jonathan, after making several wrong guesses, such as Jackie. In the movies, Lee's first names are Yan Naing, so he could have just picked the closest anglicised name.
• Scrubs: In the Season 8 finale (which was originally intended as the series finale), the Janitor's name was revealed as Glenn Matthews.
• Quite a big deal was made in Seinfeld when George discovered Cosmo Kramer's first name.
• In Sex and the City, Mr. Big was known only by his nickname which was a reference to him being a major business tycoon. It wasn't until the finale that his real name was revealed to be John.
• Near the end of season 3 of Sherlock: William Sherlock Scott Holmes, who reveals his full name in a attempt to get his best friend's baby named after him. (This is actually based on a bit of Fanon, deduced from a pseudonym that the literary Holmes once used, William Escott.) There's also a bit of a flashback that shows Sherlock repeatedly trying to guess John's middle name before giving up and getting his birth certificate from somewhere. (It's Hamish, although this is also Fanon, based on Watson's wife calling him James in one story. Hamish is the Anglicised version of Seumas, the Gaelic equivalent of James.)) However, the audience already knew, since John stated it in a season 2 episode as a possible baby name for Sherlock and Irene. (However, chronologically, the flashback happened before this.)
• Sister, Sister had a Bizarro Episode/Very Special Episode where Tamera, uninterested in studying about black history, time traveled to meet various important African-Americans throughout history. Eventually she meets a boy she can relate to, as he doesn't seem to have any ambition about school or college either, only for her to change her mind when she finds out his name is "Martin King".
• Stargate: "Rodney" is assumed to be McKay's first name throughout his guest appearances in Stargate SG-1 and through the first two and a half seasons of Stargate Atlantis. Then, McKay's sister shows up for an episode, calls him "Meredith", and the rest is (hilarious) history. To be fair, though, Meredith started out as a man's name before transitioning into gender-neutral territory and, eventually, being thought of as mostly feminine.
• Star Trek
  • Defied in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "This Side of Paradise".
  Leila: You never told me if you had another name, Mister Spock.
  Spock: You couldn't pronounce it.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: After starting as a nameless helmsman in the pilot "Encounter At Farpoint", Colm Meaney's character, now working as the transporter chief, is given the name O'Brien and treated as a real character starting in season 2's "Unnatural Selection". In season 4's "Family" his full name is established as Miles Edward O'Brien.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: A plot point with Garak, the only name anyone on the station knows him by. When dying from a mystery condition, he tells Doctor Bashir a number of contradictory tales about why he was exiled from Cardassia. All of them seemed to have one thing in common: a man called Elim who was either betrayed by Garak or who betrayed Garak, depending on the version of the tale. When Doctor Bashir finally tracks down the one Cardassian who can help cure Garak's condition, Bashir asks him whatever happened to Elim after Garak was exiled. The answer is not what Bashir had expected.
    Bashir: Garak mentioned an old friend of his the other day. A member of the Obsidian Order. I was wondering what happened to him.
    Tain: Did he give you the name of this friend?
    Bashir: He said it was 'Elim'.
    Tain: (chuckling) Elim....
    Bashir: Mind letting me in on the joke?
    Tain: I can see that Garak hasn't changed a bit. Never tell the truth when a lie will do. That man has a rare gift for obfuscation. Doctor, 'Elim' is Garak's first name.
    • Also, it's later revealed that Garak is Tain's son, although, as head of the Obsidian Order, Tain couldn't afford to have such a weakness that his enemies would use against him, so he had Garak's mother Mila (Tain's maid) claim that someone else was the father. In a proper world, Garak's real name would have been Elim Tain.
• In Welcome To Orty Fou, Jeremy lies to his crush Angelica that his name is Jerome, which he thinks sounds better. Later in the show, she finds out the truth and he discovers that she made up a more glamorous-sounding name as well (her real name is Anna.)
• On Wings, Fay was going to marry a maitre d' named Lyle Bartlett, but during the ceremony she finds out that his given name is George. This turns out to be a game changer since Fay already married and buried three husbands named George.
• WKRP in Cincinnati: In the first episode we meet Venus Flytrap. Later in the season we find out that that isn't his real name (surprise, surprise), it's Gordon Sims and he's an AWOL fugitive from the US Army. When Mr. Carlson goes with Venus to the Cincinnati army base to clear it up, he doesn't know that Sims is Sims' real name, he thinks that Venus Flytrap is his real name.
• At one point in The 100, a captive Echo needs to stall for time, and chooses to tell her personal Dark Secret, which is that her name is actually Ashe. As a child, she was friends with a girl named Echo, who was supposed to go on an infiltration mission to another tribe. Queen Nia wanted to see if Echo could kill, and forced the girls to fight to the death. Instead, Ashe killed Echo, and as the other tribe was expecting a girl called Echo, Nia had Ashe take up the name.

Myths & Religion

• In The Bible, God tells Moses that His real name is YHWH, which roughly means "I am that I am" (or "I will be that I will be"). He notes that He did not reveal that name to any of Moses's ancestors (though The Book Of Genesis does use it, it's only in narration. Interpretations may vary).
• In Celtic Mythology, Connla is sent to meet his father, Cu Chulainn, but under a Geas not to tell anyone his name. Cu Chulainn asks, Connla politely refuses to answer, Cu Chulainn challenges him to a fight and kills him, with Connla revealing the truth as he lies dying.
• In Egyptian Mythology, all gods had "True Names" that they guarded with their immortal lives. If someone were to find out these True Names, that person could Name the god, and have it do their bidding.

Podcasts

• A common theme in The Adventure Zone:
  • The Adventure Zone: Balance: in the first episode of Crystal Kingdom, Lucas Miller inadvertently reveals Madame Director's real name: Lucretia. It means nothing to the Tres Horny Boys and the listeners, but Lucretia is nonetheless annoyed because she fears it might bring back their memories of her.
  • The Adventure Zone: Amnesty: in Episode 20, Ned's old partner Boyd begins describing One Last Job for Ned: to steal a statue from a local artist named Madeleine Cobb. When Boyd mentions that Cobb runs a nearby hotel, Ned realizes with horror that he means his boss and leader of the Pine Guard, Mama.
  • Also in Amnesty, Duck Newton refuses to divulge his given name, and it's only at the climax of the story that we learn that it's Wayne.
• In the last episode of The White Vault, the narrator, who up until that point had never been called by name in the show and referred to in the credits as "the Documentarian" is revealed to be named Linnea, while her mother, who until that point had mostly been referred to as "Mor" is revealed to be named Agnetta.

Pro Wrestling

• In the WWF two Worked Shoot interviews Jim Ross had with wrestlers who, during the course of the interviews, revealed their real names, which led to angles: Goldust (Dustin Rhodes) and Mankind (Mick Foley). Foley's angle lasted much longer and better.

Puppet Shows

• Nanalan': The little girl's first name is not mentioned until the fourth short, "Scarf", where the titular Nana refers to her as Mona.
• Under the Umbrella Tree: The Valentine's Day special reveals that Mrs. McMertree's first name is Gwendolyn, and the episode "Hear! Hear!" reveals that Holly's mother Mrs. Higgins is named Annabelle. Yet another episode reveals all the middle names of the four roommates: Holly's middle name is Penelope, Iggy's is Julio, Jacob's is Barnaby, and Gloria's are Gladys Grace Gabrielle Gardenia Glenda Gale.

Theatre

• In the musical Guys and Dolls, Sky Masterson reveals his real name (Obadiah) to Sarah Brown, then she reveals it to everyone else just before the finale.
• Ladies in Black: It is made clear at the start of the show that nobody knows Miss Jacobs' first name. At the end of Act II, she gives Lisa a farewell gift with a card, revealing that her given name is Rebecca.

Video Games

• Baldur's Gate III: Shadowheart, one of the playable origin characters, is an Amnesiac Hero who had her memories wiped as a sign of her devotion to the evil Goddess of Darkness Shar. Progressing through her personal questline would allow her to uncover more of her Dark and Troubled Past, eventually learning her real name: Jenevelle Hallowleaf.
• In Cave Story, the Player Character's name is revealed at the end of a long Side Quest filled with Guide Dang It! moments that is required to achieve the game's Golden Ending. It's Quote, which fits in with the typographical Theme Naming of another major character, Curly Brace. Of course, you're likely to have found this out already if you used an online walkthrough.
  • After completing the game's Brutal Bonus Level but before fighting the True Final Boss, you can see the name of The Doctor on a statue of him: Fuyuhiko Date.
• Early into Crackdown 3, the Director is finally named as Charles Goodwin.
• Deathloop: Early on, Colt Vahn finds a photo of a woman in his apartment with the name Lila written on the back. While rooting around for information that can help him break the loop, he finds a correspondence that reveals Lila's full name and that she got pregnant. Her full name is Lila Blake. The name of The Heavy is Julianna Blake. Colt does not take the revelation well.
• The lead protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII is only known by her nom-de-guerre Lightning, which she gave to herself after her parents' deaths to remake herself as a stronger person. Near the end, when one of the villains is posing as her sister, he casually addresses her by her real name, Claire.
• Five Nights at Freddy's and Five Nights at Freddy's 2 reveal the names of the Featureless security guards that you play as via when you see their paycheck after completing the game. The first game's guard is named Mike Schmidt and the second game's guard is named Jeremy Fitzgerald. In FNaF2's Custom Night, you play as a different guard named Fritz Smith. The protagonist of Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, called "Eggs Benedict" by the malfunctioning HandUnit, is revealed in Custom Night cutscenes to be Michael Afton, the son of the child Serial Killer William Afton, a.k.a. Purple Guy. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator implies that Mike Schmidt, Jeremy Fitzgerald, and Fritz Smith are all aliases of Michael Afton.
• In God of War (PS4), Kratos never introduces himself by name in the entire game and is only ever referred to by nicknames, pronouns, and titles like "sir" or "father." The first exception is in a flashback where a figure from Kratos' past calls him by name. Since it's Zeus saying it, the name and Kratos' parentage are fittingly revealed in the same moment. The name is used twice more, but both times its in passing during a chaotic scene, so players are likely to miss it.
• In Guilty Gear -STRIVE- one of Bedman's? (Bedman's bedframe) arcade endings Delilah, Bedman's younger sister, tries to understand why his mechanical bedframe programming is so haywire. As the machine stops, Delilah begs Ramlethal to tell the story about Romeo F. Neumann as Ramlethal had a close relationship with him, before his passing.
• In Overwatch
  • Sombra is the only character whose name isn't given in her biography or in-game. Considering that she deliberately deleted all record of her existence when she became Sombra, it fits. However, she didn't account for people in her hometown still knowing who she is, which leads to Zarya discovering that her name is Olivia Colomar in the comic Zarya: Searching.
  • The New Blood comic and accompanying Cassidy's New Blood in-game event centers around Cole Cassidy, the resident Cowboy, as he attempts to finally break away from his criminal past by shedding his alias and going by his real name.^note That's the in-universe explanation. The out-universe explanation was Blizzard feeling it prudent to remove a Tuckerization of Jesse McCree, Cassidy's former namesake, who had been forced out of the company over sexual harassment.
• In Pokémon Black and White, inspecting N's room reveals his last name to be Harmonia, which is shared by Ghetsis, who later claims he is "not worthy of sharing the name Harmonia", Among other things. Word of God has stated that his full name is Natural Harmonia Gropius, but his full name is never mentioned in-game.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Jedi Knight Companion Doc's name is only revealed at the very end of the original Jedi Knight storyline. To be fair, you'd go by a nickname too if you had a name like Archiban Frodric^*Middle Name is only revealed in official material Kimble.
• Tales of the Abyss: Guy's full name is Gailardia Galan, a Malkuth noble. Van (Vandesdelca) and Tear (Mystearica) also have longer names revealed, but they aren't quite as revealing.
• In The World Ends with You, Beat's true name is Daisukenojo Bito. He doesn't like being called it very much. In the Another Day, he just simply finds it too long to say.
• System U-D, the Unbreakable Darkness of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny, turns out to have once been called Yuri Eberwein after it's revealed that she was once a human.
• BioShock Infinite: Elizabeth Comstock's actual name is Anna DeWitt.
• In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation: Dark Prison, Yong's real name is Gaytoba Sucheka. Apparently her house hold is not that high in the hierarchy, and that explains why she addresses Mekibos so formally, whenever he insists that they talk casually, she is completely bewildered and reject the notion.
• Whereas all the plot you get in Team Fortress 2 proper is "mercenaries killing each other over vague objectives," with the characters only being known their job title, the comics have shown the actual names of some of the characters: Soldier's name is Sergeant-Barrister Jane Doe (although that almost certainly isn't his real name), Demoman's is Tavish Finnegan DeGroot, Engineer's is Dell Conagher, Heavy's first name is Misha (Short for Mikhail), Sniper's last name is Mundy/Mun-Dee, Medic's last name is Ludwig, and Scout's first name is Jeremy. Fittingly, the names of the Spy and the Pyro are unknown.
  • When the Team Fortress Classic characters appear in the "Mann Co. No More!" storyline, we find out the Classic Demoman and Classic Pyro's first names: Greg for Demo, and Beatrice/Bea for Pyro.
• Solid Snake is known only by his code name until the end of Metal Gear Solid, when he reveals that his real name is David.
• In Undertale, it's eventually revealed that the character you named at the beginning isn't the player character, whose actual name is Frisk. While that character's actual name is never revealed, it is theorized that their proper name is Chara, as the game will lock your choice if you choose that name. This also happens right after Flowey returns to his true form. His name is revealed to be Asriel Dreemurr, which makes it clear that he's the lost son of Asgore mentioned in the story at the end of the Neutral Route.
• In Cultist Simulator, the generic Weary Detective is referred to by title rather than name... Unless the player goads him into delving into the eldritch arts himself, at which point he's given the name "Douglas" and becomes much more dangerous to the player.
• Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us were given the surnames "Miller" and "Williams" respectively in early production. These names were scrapped from the game itself, so it was unclear if those names were still canon. The Last of Us Part II confirms that Joel's last name is indeed "Miller" when Abby addresses him as such. Neil Druckmann indirectly confirmed Ellie's last name to be "Williams" in this tweet. The PS5 port of The Last of Us: Part I lists Tess' full name as "Theresa Servopoulos" on her I.D.
• In An Outcry, the playable character is called the Unnamed throughout most of the game by the narration, and none of the characters refer to them by their first name. Near the end of the two branching paths, their name is revealed to be Aster Steinschaden, either after finally introducing themselves to Yildirim and her family in the Follow path, or as Anne begins calling them out on their actions and lies in the Ignore path.

Visual Novels

• In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Celestia Ludenberg's given name of Taeko Yasuhiro is critical to the third case, especially in regards to one of the last Truth Bullets Makoto collects.
• A Date with Death: For the first few days of the story, "Grim" refuses to tell the player character his real name, as it is apparently classified information, which the player character doesn't believe, but is willing to play along with. On Day 5, he finally tells you: it's Casper. Seeing as this reveal happens one day after he has proven himself to be an actual Grim Reaper, this is one of the first signs of him growing more willing to break protocol as he starts falling in love with you.
• In Double Homework, if the protagonist decides that he trusts Morgan most of all, she tells him her real name: Amy. It’s one of two things she has in common with Amy, the other being a birthday. This turns out to be important, as Amy is a princess, and many girls with the same date of birth as Amy were named after her (Morgan being one of them).
• This is a major focus of the Holy Grail Wars in Fate/stay night. Various Heroic Spirits are summoned under classes (etc. Saber, Archer, Lancer) to hide their identity. Thus, learning a Servant's name informs their opponent what their strengths and weaknesses are, especially their Noble Phantasm, a specific weapon or ability tied to their legend (for example, King Arthur as a Saber-class can use the sword Excalibur).
  • A more specific form of this in the reveal of Rin's Archer-class Servant, a version of Shirou from the future determined to kill his past self for a lot of reasons.
• In Slow Damage, many people don't have official birth certificates due to how Shinkoumi operates and therefore go by chosen nicknames, leaving any character's name revealed this way to be given some heavy focus. The protagonist goes by the nickname of as Towa, with it revealed that he can't remember his given name and hearing it is basically a Trauma Button to him, even repressing it if he hears it again. His real name is Sakuragi Haruto. His mother went by the stage name of 'Maya' with her given name being Sakuragi Yuma. And the final, given name reveal comes for Towa's little sister that died of an illness years ago. Her name was Yuzuki Mei, revealing not only her name, but also that she was never related to Towa to begin with — she's actually Fujieda's little sister.
• In Umineko: When They Cry, Gretel's real name (Ange Ushiromiya) is extremely important to the plot. The readers know it from the get-go, but the main character (who's her brother) doesn't. And considering she will die if she reveals her real name to him, she has reason to hide it.
• In Virtue's Last Reward, Tenmyouji is only ever called by his surname, but it becomes apparent that there's more to his inclusion in the Nonary Game than it initially seem with his status as a "garbage collector." His given name reveals his identity: it's Junpei. As in, the protagonist of the previous game. Considering he was only 21 then, it's one of the first indications that the group isn't in the near future like they'd initially thought.

Web Animation

• Minilife TV: In "Of Pancakes And Baseball Caps (PART 2)", Goshua reveals that Death's real name is Gregory, much to Chris and Ian's amusement.
• Red vs. Blue: During the final flashback of the season 10 finale, the Director of Project Freelancer needs someone to watch over The Alpha/Leonard Church, and Counselor Price suggests Agent Florida, but refers to him by his real name: Butch Flowers ^note a.k.a. the deceased former leader of Blue Team.
• Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: Over the course of a year, several episodes had a mysterious entity associated with TVs manipulating events to cause all manner of pain for the cast, including getting Peach's Castle permanently destroyed. However, he serves as an Unknown Character for the events of that video and beyond. He's later given a body reveal seven months later in "War of the Fat Italians 2023", but his name remains unknown. He's only called "Mysterious TV Guy" in the credits of that episode. It's not until the release of "Mario's Mysteries" an entire year later that his name is revealed to be named Mr. Puzzles.

Webcomics

• In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, the titular doctor's first name remains a secret for most of the series. In a flashback episode, it's shown that Dr. McNinja's grandfather used his name as part of a powerful spell to entrap a ghost who'd accidentally been unleashed during a simple assassination mission. Doing so deleted the doctor's name from everyone's minds except his own, and it could never be used again without undoing the spell. During the first part of the final story, Dr. McNinja gave his name to Sparklelord in exchange for help defeating King Radical; the consequences of this are in the midst of being explored. His name, incidentally, is Patrick.
• Inverted Trope in Dumbing of Age, where some time after the introduction of Joyce's apparent brother Joshua, we get a Chosen Name Reveal as a major character point: Jocelyn.
• In El Goonish Shive, Susan's reveal that her first name is Tiffany leads to the first details of her Back Story.
• Played for Laughs in Homestuck; when the post-scratch kids are first introduced, post-Scratch Bro and post-Scratch Mom's names are deliberately obscured as much as possible, with the other two kids using their last names or nicknames such as "Ro-Lal" and "Di-Stri". When it comes time to properly reveal their names, their name plaques are hidden a cat's tail and a tiny live pony. The next few pages later, they are revealed as Roxy Lalonde and Dirk Strider.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Played for Laughs when two Mauve Shirt Azurite soldiers go to hold off the enemy while the heroes escape. Elan laments that they're sure to die, since they don't even have names. As they fight, the female soldier notes that she does have a name, Kazumi Kato. The male soldier is struck, apparently dying, and whispers to her that his name is Daigo... then suddenly gets better.
    Kazumi: Do you have a last name?
    Daigo: Yeah, but I think I should save it for an emergency.
    Kazumi: Good idea.
  • They follow up on it at their wedding, as they've still yet to come to such an emergency and avoid saying his full name. Still later, he tries to reveal his full name when a squad of ninja are trying to assassinate them, but only gets out "Daigo Da—" before being knocked unconscious.
• After spending the majority of Awful Hospital going by a plethora of nicknames, Fern is finally named at the end of the Inert Vessel arc.
  Celia: Uh, who?
  Fern: My name, Celia. Jeez.
• Dresden Codak: In the Hob storyline, dropping a bomb on the villains for once. The superheroes are brutalized and in chains and Number Zero asks whether there are others. Dimitri's reply: "Pray Kimiko doesn't find you.". Closely followed by "That was her name, Number One", and the villains going straight into panic mode.

Web Original

• In the Chakona Space 'Verse, Neal Foster has a reputation. He has hidden his full name in more than one of his stories.

Web Videos

• In Atop the Fourth Wall: The Movie, '90s Kid's reveals that his name is actually Evelyn while talking with Obscurus Lupa, much to her surprise.
• A big Wham Line in If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, when the Adorable Centurion speaks for the first time.
  Centurion: Father... your sweetheart was I, Rogal Dorn.
• Noob has such a thing happen in two different ways to reveal a father-son connection between two of the characaters, depending whether the novels are read in parallel or not. The son's first name is mentioned at some point in the webseries, while the novel mentions his full name. Someone reveals the father's full name in Season 5, revealing the connection for novel readers. However, to keep webseries-only viewers up to speed, the father immediately shows up and brings up the son in conversation, while the following episode has a flash-back that mentions the son's first name and sheds any possible doubt on his identity.
• During People of SMPLive v. Schlattcoin:
  Schlatt: The world is gonna know who Jebediah Schlatt is!
• In the youtube series Sanders Sides, the titular sides are midway through season 1 revealed to have names (previously they were simply called by their function). In the following episodes, their name reveals will often be an emotional, vulnerable moment for them.

Western Animation

• 50/50 Heroes: Mr. Brick's given name (Horace) is revealed in the thirteenth episode.
• It isn't until the third season of The Amazing World of Gumball that Gumball's name is revealed to the audience — and himself — to be Zach. Although by the end of the episode we find this out, "Gumball" becomes his actual name.
• Arthur: Emily, D.W.'s rabbit/monkey hybrid classmate who has existed since even the original book series is only known by her first name. This gets lampshaded in "D.W. Swims with the Fishes," where Buster judges a swimming contest and declares that the winner is "Emily, whose last name I don't know!" In Arthur's First Day, over 30 years after her debut, Muffy is assigned to be her Big Buddy partner and the fact sheet shows her name as Emily Leduc. Arthur's First Day also reveals via the 4th grade/kindergarten class rosters that the previously unknown last names of Alex, the gray Living Prop rabbit boy in Arthur's class, and Brain's cousin Cheikh are "Davidson" and "Diouf," respectively.
• Back at the Barnyard: "Buyers Beware" has the animals fear the farmer is selling the barn when he puts up a sign saying "Welcome, Buyers!" They spend the episode scaring away visitors who they assume to be potential buyers, only to realize they were all here for a family reunion. This reveals the farmer's last name is Buyer.
• Ben 10: Omniverse: At the end of ''Collect This", the Lenopan Sludgepuppy actor who plays Ben in "The Ben 10 Show" reveals his name to be Deefus Veeblepister. Professor Hokestar breaks down laughing.
• Big City Greens:
  • The episode "Remy Rescue" reveals Remy's surname as Remington. Cricket is surprised by this.
  • "Gabriella's Fella" has Gabriella's full name revealed to be Gabriella Carlita Espinosa.
  • "Chipocalypse Now" has several name reveals on Chip's forged petition; Kiki's last name is revealed to be Kitashima, Brett's is Eze, and Community Sue's is Lanemoto; Mr. Grigorian's first name is Alucard; and Weezie's real name is Westley Eastman. The only character whose last name was never shown was Benny.
  • In "'Rent Control", Gloria's last name is revealed to be Sato.
  • "Bleeped" reveals that Cricket's middle name is Ernest (the same as his paternal grandfather) when chewed out by his father for saying "blort".
• Although Blackstar is called "John Blackstar" in the opening credits narration, he just goes by "Blackstar" in the show itself, until the last episode when his old girlfriend from Earth arrives on Sagar. His Sagarian friends are startled when she calls him "John".
• While it is left unspoken in Codename: Kids Next Door, it is confirmed that Mr. Boss' last name is "Fulbright" Due to the fact that his daughter is Fanny Fulbright: Numbuh 86.
• Dora the Explorer:
  • Dora's last name is Márquez, as revealed by Boots as he was talking to Mami in "Grandma's House".
  • Dora's baby brother and sister, who were introduced in Season 4's "Big Sister Dora", were not named until Season 5's "Dora's Jack-In-The-Box" where their names were revealed to be Guillermo and Isabella.
• The Fairly Oddparents:
  • In the ending of "Shelf Life", Sherlock Holmes nearly reveals Timmy's parents' names. Then a book closes on them, muffling the rest of his sentence before their names are spoken.
  • The episode "Odd Couple" revealed the name of Denzel Crocker's mom, her first name being Dolores-Day.
• Futurama:
  • Leela is being interviewed on TV in "The Problem with Popplers" and is introduced as "Turanga Leela"^note Though this actually seems to be her surname.
    Fry: Turanga?!
    Amy: That's her name, Phillip.
    Bender: Phillip?!
    • Fry's full name was briefly shown◊ on a screen in the first episode but it isn't mentioned until season 2's Poppler episode.
  • Bender himself once comments that Bending is his middle name, his full name being Bender Bending Rodriguez.
  • Zoidberg's first name appears in a throwaway gag in "The 30% Iron Chef", on a letterhead reading "From the Desk of John Zoidberg, M.D." The show was fairly consistent about this in subsequent seasons, with Farnsworth and Mom applying First-Name Basis to him.
  • Zoidberg also casually refers to Mom as Carol very late into the show.
• Generator Rex: It's not until Season 2 that we learn that Amnesiac Hero Rex's last name is Salazar, revealed by his previously absent brother.
• Gravity Falls examples:
  • We never learn protagonist Dipper Pines's real name throughout the entire run ("Dipper" is a nickname based on his usually-hidden birthmark). His voice actor, Jason Ritter, apparently wasn't even told. It's only in Gravity Falls: Journal 3 that he tells Ford that his real name is Mason.
  • Season 2 reveals that Grunkle Stan Pines has been living under an assumed name. His real name is Stanley Pines, while Stanford is his twin brother whose identity he assumed.
• In He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021), Teela is a Street Urchin who grew up in the Lower Wards of Eternos, raised by Man-E-Faces. In season three, she learns that she is in fact the magical Reincarnation of Eldress, the Sorcerer of Castle Grayskull. When Eldress gives up the last of her spirit and memories to Teela, she reveals that her full name and identity is Teela Na, Master of the Universe.
• Hey Arnold! made Arnold's mysterious surname a Running Gag. Word of God and (years later) The Jungle Movie revealed Arnold's last name to be Shortman, the Affectionate Nickname his Grandpa had been calling him for the entire series.
• Kick Buttowski's real first name is Clarence. It is revealed late in season one when Kick messes up and risks his friendship with Gunther. Gunther calls him by the real name as an indication of how much Kick has upset him, and it is pretty much used regularly after that — mostly by Kendall, who does it to needle him.
• LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace, set during the prequel trilogy, features an orphan boy who stowaways to Coruscant and hides out with some Jedi younglings on a field trip. Since everyone else is wearing a name tag, he finds some letter decals and puts them on his shirt so that they say "IAN". Nobody addresses him by that name until the end of the episode when he looks down and realizes that he made a mistake: the "I" is actually an "H" turned sideways. His name is Han Solo.
• Lilo & Stitch:
  • In the The Series episode "Fibber", Pleakley's mother reveals that his first name is "Wendy", which apparently means "great warrior" on his planet. Lilo and Nani were amused by this.
  • In the episode "Nosy", Gantu finds out from Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel's journal (which Nosy stole) that Hämsterviel's real first name is "Rupert".
  • In the episode "Shush", Lilo and Stitch learn through the titular experiment's eavesdropping abilities that Mrs. Hasagawa's first name is "Lynne".
• Littlest Pet Shop (2012):
  • Mrs. Twombly's first name is revealed to be Anna in Season 1's "Lotsa Luck.
  • The Season 2 finale "The Expo Factor" reveals the Biskit Twins' butler Monseur LeGrande's first name is Francois.
• The Loud House:
  • The first name of Mrs. Johnson, Lincoln's fifth grade teacher, is revealed to be Agnes in "Lincoln Loud, Girl Guru".
  • "Study Muffin" reveals Bobby's first name to be Roberto Alejandro Martinez Millan Luis Santiago, Jr.
  • In "Roadie to Nowhere", Chunk Munk's full name is Chester Munk.
  • "A Flipmas Carol" reveals that Flip's full name is Phillip Phillipini, when The Ghost of Christmas Future/Lucy shows him the Bad Future in which his store went out of business due to all of his customers being tired of being swindled by him and he died alone and nobody attended his funeral, with his headstone being a giant pizza box.
  • Cheryl and Meryl's last name is revealed to be Farrell in "Save Royal Woods!".
• Madeline: The episode Madeline's Winter Vacation reveals that Miss Clavel's first name is Claire.
• In Miraculous Ladybug, Chloe and Audrey constantly refer to their butler with random compound names beginning with "Jean". It's not until season 5 when Zoe (who, unlike her mother and half-sister, is Nice to the Waiter) reveals that his name is actually Armand.
• Molly of Denali: At the end of the episode "Lights, Camera, Patak," Mr. Patak reveals that his first name is William.
• The Owl House:
  • "Covention" reveals that Eda is actually short for Edalyn. "Something Ventured, Someone Framed" reveals that her last name is Clawthorne.
  • In "Wing It Like Witches", Willow's last name is revealed to be Park.
  • Gus' surname is revealed to be Porter in "Young Blood Old Souls".
  • Even though their names were already revealed by Word of God beforehand, Amity's parents are stated to be named Alador and Odalia in "Escaping Expulsion".
  • In "Hunting Palismen", the Golden Guard tells Luz that his name is Hunter.
  • "Any Sport In A Storm" has a few examples. The Abominations teacher at Hexside is called Professor Hermonculus, the author of The Good Witch Azura books is shown to be Mildred Featherwhyle, and Amity addresses Tiny Nose as Tinella Nosa, which Luz is surprised by.
    Luz: She had a name this whole time?
  • In "Hollow Mind", it turns out that the name of Hunter's cardinal palisman is Flapjack, although like Amity's parents this was also revealed by Word of God beforehand.
  • While it had previously been hinted at in "Any Sport in a Storm", "King's Tide" reveals that Belos/Philip's brother was named Caleb.
  • Played for laughs in "For the Future", where it turns out that Mattholomule's real name is... Matt Tholomule. Everyone has unknowlingly been on a Full-Name Basis with him the entire time.
• Peppa Pig: For most of the series, Madame Gazelle's given name has gone unstated due to her being the playgroup teacher of most of the characters. In the episode "Madame Gazelle's Leaving Party", while being invited to the titular party by phone call, her band-mates and sisters mention in passing that her given name is 'Gigi'.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Candace's middle name is Gertrude — revealed when Linda makes her promise against the Pharaoh's curse.
  • Ferb's real name was about to be revealed to Vanessa when something happened that made her run off. The creators would later reveal that his name was said at some point in the series, with a fan correctly guessing that his full name is simply Ferbs.
  • Season 4's "It's No Picnic" reveals Baljeet's surname is Tjinder.
• The Proud Family's revival The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder does this with Ms. Hightower (whose first name is "Rhonda"), BeBe and CeCe (whose full first names are revealed to be "Benjamin" and "Cecilia") and Suga Mama (whose real name is Charlette Towne).
• Recess: The resident tough girl is named Ashley Spinelli. The Ashleys are the school's resident Alpha Bitches, and when they learn Spinelli's first name in "First Name Ashley" they force her to join their clique and act like them maintain their reputation.
• Regular Show: In "Skips Strikes", Death and the Magical Elements go against the Skips and the park staff in a game of bowling. Skips is their best player, and Death, not wanting to lose, reveals that Skips' true name isn't Skips, threatening to tell everyone his real name if Skips participates in the bowling competition. Skips quits, not wanting his true name to be revealed, but later chooses to help his friends. Skips' real name is revealed to be Walks, having changed it because he got tired of people asking him why he skipped while his name was Walks.
• The Secret Show:
  • Played straight in one episode, when Victor's full name is revealed to be Victor Thomas Jefferson Volt.
  • Defied with regards to Changed Daily, whose real name is NEVER revealed, and is changed daily for "reasons of security." Usually to something ridiculous, like Nincy-Nancy Lala or Hunda Von Lampgurgle. To the point where he has a dream in one episode that his name gets changed to Rock Justice.
• The Simpsons:
  • Homer doesn't know what his middle initial, J., stand for. Then he finds out in season 10's "D'oh-in' In The Wind": it's short for Jay, as a nod to animator Jay Ward.
  • In season 16's "Homer And Ned's Hail Mary Pass", Flanders meets with the Comic Book Guy, who reveals apropos of nothing that his name is Jeff Albertson, "but everyone calls me Comic Book Guy."
  • In "The Great Louse Detective", we meet Homer's mechanic, Junior. Once it's revealed he's Homer's attempted murderer, he reveals his real name; Frank Grimes, Jr., out for revenge for his father's Homer-induced Sanity Slippage-related death.
  • After being introduced in season 2's "Old Money", Professor Frink finally had his name revealed during season 6's "Bart's Comet".
• South Park:
  • The identity of Mysterion is deliberately left vague during his first few appearances. Even when he's unmasked, the rest of the characters immediately recognize him but don't address him by name, leaving the audience in the dark about his identity since the show's art style makes most of the kids indistinguishable from each other if they aren't wearing their usual outfit. In "Mysterion Rises", however, Stan casually calls him "Kenny" for a deliberately anticlimactic reveal.
  • The Goth Kids are introduced in season 7, but only the one girl, Henrietta, is named until season 17's episode "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers". The tall, curly-haired one is named Michael; the one with multi-colored hair is named Pete; and the kindergartener is named Firkle.
  • Kenny's mother had gone unnamed for many years until South Park: The Fractured but Whole revealed her name to be Carol. This itself may be a case of Ascended Fanon, as "Carol" was a popular fanon name for her due to it being a common placeholder name for the mothers.
  • Through the course of the series, Red's last name had remained unknown. The Pandemic Special reveals that her last name is McArthur.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In the episode "Plankton's Army", Plankton's first name is revealed to be "Sheldon". His wife Karen mocks him for this for the rest of the episode.
  • "Friend or Foe" reveals Mr. Krabs' mother's first name to be Betsy.
  • Near the end of the episode "BlackJack", SpongeBob's father's name is revealed to be Harold when the protagonist sponge goes to his titular criminal cousin's home to confront him and rescue his parents, only for him to find they are prepping for a party celebrating his release from jail.
  • In "Rule of Dumb, "Patrick's parents' names are revealed to be Herb and Margie when the seastar minister shows Patrick the family tree scroll.
  • "A SquarePants Family Vacation" reveals that SpongeBob's mother's name is revealed to be Margaret.
  • "Mermaid Man Begins" reveals the first names of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy: Ernie and Tim, named after their respective voice actors, Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway.
  • Earlier in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V", Mermaid Man calls Barnacle Boy Kyle. This obviously got retconned.
  • "Grandmum's the Word" reveals that Plankton's grandmother's name is Lily.
  • Over 20 years after her debut on the show, "Yellow Pavement" reveals Mrs. Puff's first name to be Penelope.
• Steven Universe:
  • In gem harvest it is revealed that Greg Universe’s original last name was DeMayo
  • In "Legs From Here to Homeworld", the Centipeetle (the Gem Monster from "Gem Glow", "Monster Buddies", and "Monster Reunion") reappears, and Steven, Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond use their powers to temporarily restore her mind and original body, at which point the Centipeetle's real name is revealed to be Nephrite. In this case, the reason Nephrite's name hasn't been given for so long is not because of embarrassment, but rather because she was too feral-minded to properly communicate.
• Tangled: The Series:
  • "The Return of Strongbow" introduces Eugene's former partner-in-crime, Lance Strongbow. That turns out to be an alias, just like Flynn Rider, and Lance's real name is Arnwaldo Schnitz.
  • In Season 3, It's revealed that Eugene's REAL real name, given to him before he was sent to the orphanage, is Horace. He finds this name to be even worse than Eugene.
• On Total Drama Revenge of the Island, contestants can get points if they admit that an anonymous secret is actually about them. One of the secrets is that a contestant's real name is "Beverly". Everyone questions why that's supposed to be embarrassing... until B (a guy) reluctantly buzzes in.
• The second season opener of Wander over Yonder reveals the titular hero's name is not his real name. During his argument toward Lord Dominator, he talks about his name and at one point says, "It's not really my...", only to quickly change the subject before he finishes. Later on in the season, he was revealed to have an original nickname, Tumbleweed, but changed his name to Wander after Sylvia called him a "wandering weirdo" upon their first encounter.
• We Bare Bears: In "Citizen Tabes", after Ranger Tabes gives up being a park ranger, she insists that the bears start calling her by her first name, which turns out to be "Dana".
• On Young Justice Robin's real name (Dick Grayson) is never really hidden from the audience, but Batman prefers he keep it hidden from the rest of the Team for security reasons. The fact that Wally knows his real identity demonstrates how close they are. (In a tie-in comic Wally can snap out of a supervillain-induced Heroic BSoD by remembering that Robin trusted him with the information.)
  • In season two, Bart proves that he's from the future by casually giving away Dick and Tim's real names. Gar finds them kind of underwhelming.

---