Named by the Adaptation

There are a lot of characters with No Name Given out there. This trope is where an adaptation is made of the character's story and the character is given a name. This can range from the main character to secondary characters as well. The character may have become an Ascended Extra in the adaptation — before, they lacked Nominal Importance, but have gained it. It often serves to make the character seem more relatable, though whether or not this works is up for debate. Another variation is where the character doesn't have either a given name or a last name and is given one in the adaptation. Doesn't apply to characters whose names are changed in the adaptation.

Naturally, this trope is extremely common in fanfiction whenever the original work has characters that lack a first name, a surname or both; many fanfic writers will take it upon themselves to give those characters whatever missing parts of their full names that they're missing.

This trope can also sometimes occur in novelizations which provide names and insights into characters who were unnamed in the source material.

Compare Canon Name and Named in the Sequel which is about linear installments. This trope can also overlap with Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames in adaptations of comic books. In some instances, these names may become Ret-Canon.

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Examples: (Listed by the medium of the adaptation)

• Fan Works

Anime & Manga

• In the manga of AkaSeka, the originally Hello, [Insert Name Here] heroine is named Amamiya Akari.
• In Astro Boy, Dr. Tenma already had his given name revealed as Umataro, but his rival Ochanomizu was simply left as that. When it came time to focus on what the pair were like as college students in Atom: The Beginning, he was given the first name Hiroshi.
• Breath of Fire I: The manga adaptation of the first game, Ryuu no Senshi, provides names for three nameless characters from the game: Ox/Builder's wife (here called Jane) and the two Wyndian guards escorting Nina (Kalu and Ilu). The sequel manga, Tsubasa no Oujo, presents two Wyndian guards named Sieg and Raifel, whose names were later given to the two guards in the GBA port (only in Japan, though).
• In the Bubblegum Crisis OVA, Genom's chairman Qunicy never had his surname revealed, but in 2040, it was given as "Rosenkroitz/Rosenkreuz".
• Captain Commando: The official manga gives the titular captain the civilian name Mars Carlisle and provides Ginzu/Sho and his rival Yamato with last names (Takegami and Mikagura, respectively). The English UDON translation gives Hoover/Baby Head the full name "Hoover J. Estefan," in turn treating "Baby Head" as a codename.
• Digimon Universe: App Monsters has MiniCometmon, a silver drone-like Appmon related to Cometmon. Until a swarm of them appeared midway through the manga and were named alongside Cometmon, their only appearance was in Cometmon's stock artwork with nothing to indicate that they were even a separate species of Appmon.
• There's a few cases in Dragon Ball, several of which ended up making their way back to the manga at a later point, like Shuu, Mai and Suno. Interestingly, Shuu was actually named "Soba" in his first manga appearance and became Shuu in later ones after it was used in the anime and Suno's name was only used in the manga when she made a single panel cameo a few hundred chapters after her main appearance. The anime also names the captain of Red Ribbon Army Company B "Dock" ("Captain Dark" in the English dub), Dr. Brief's cat "Tama" ("Scratch" in the dub), and Goku's childhood home Mount Paozu,^note Paozu was originally the name of the old woman in Aru Village who gave Goku a Dragon Ball the latter of which made its way into the Dragon Ball Super manga.
• In Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte, the titular Endo and Kobayashi's school is unnamed in the novel. When adapted into anime, it was given the name of "Hanabashi Ikuei High School," probably since it's kind of awkward to adapt some of the school-based scenes without mentioning the school's name.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Some of Erza's Powered Armor goes unnamed in the manga, but the anime and video games give them names: her Sarashi and hakama outfit is called "Clear Heart Clothing" in the video game Zeref's Awakening and the "Crimson Hakama" in the 2020 game, and her armor with sword wings is called Ataraxia Armor in the anime.
  • Cobra's real name, Erik, was revealed in a Filler arc of the anime before being utilized in the manga.
  • The anime identifies Erza's nameless father as General Rung.
• In the original Fate/stay night visual novel, Caster's first Master is only described in her recollections and doesn't get a face, let alone a name. Ufotable's TV version Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] features a lengthy flashback that gives him a name (Atrum Galliasta), appearance, and more characterization, all of it very unpleasant.
• The anime adaptation of Fire Emblem gives Marth the last name Lowell.
• Fist of the North Star: The leader of the Kiba/Fang Clan was never given a name in the manga, being referred by his followers simply as Oyaji ("Pops" or "Father"). In the anime he is credited as Kiba Daiō (Great King Fang) or "Boss Fang" in the English dub. This name has carried over to other adaptations as well.
• F-Zero: GP Legend gives Captain Falcon the real name of Andy Summer, making him the long-lost brother of fellow F-Zero racer and Galactic Federation officer Jody Summer.
• Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics did this for many of the nameless characters in their adaptations of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales.^note As did other adaptations. Examples include: Josephine (Bluebeard's last wife), Joseph (the main character of "The Water of Life"), Phoebe and Griselda (Cinderella's stepsisters), Leonora (the princess in "The Frog Prince"), Rudolf and Rose (the siblings from "Brother and Sister"), Lily (the cat maid in "The Marriage of Mrs. Fox"), among others who are unnamed in the original stories.
• Heavy Object:
  • In the anime, the real name of the Water Strider in the first arc is Prometheus.
  • Also Jesse Montana is the name given to the Forrest Roller Unit member Frolaytia contacts in episode 13.
• The anime adaptation of Inuyasha gives Kagome's modern era friends, who were nameless in the manga, the names Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri. Hojo was the only one named in the manga.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has a Named Earlier in The Adaptation: in the movie, when Tsubasa is introduced, he is greeted by Fujiwara using his name. This is his manga canon name, but the manga spent 100 chapters between his introduction and the revelation of his name besides "Kashiwagi's Boyfriend".
• The 2014 anime adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders called the Runaway Girl Anne. Likewise, the D'Arby brothers, who are simply referred to as "D'Arby the Older" and "D'Arby the Younger" in the manga, are named Daniel and Terence respectively in the anime.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • In Ataru Cagiva's adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Link's uncle is called Zanji.
  • The unnamed Lake Scientist is named "Dr. Mizumi" in Akira Himekawa's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1999).
• Lupin Zero calls young Lupin's unnamed housekeeper from the flashback chapters of the manga Shinobu.
• The Movie adaptation of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's gives the name "NachtWal" to the Book of Darkness's Defense Program.
• In Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Saikawa and her older sister Georgie are never referred to by their first names in the manga. The anime gave them the names Riko and Sanae respectively (though the latter is only ever mentioned on the official website). Season 2 would also give Taketo's grandmother the first name Tsubaki.
• Moriarty the Patriot gives the Moriarty brothers from Sherlock Holmes, who were all only known by the name "James" in original, first names and turns "James" into their middle name, providing "Alert James Moriarty," "William James Moriarty," and "Louis James Moriarty."
• The Persona series has a habit of naming its usually nameless protagonists in anime and manga. The only ones that avert this are Tatsuya and Maya of Persona 2 (though you could change Tatsuya's name in Innocent Sin).
  • The Pierced Boy was given the name Naoya Toudou in his manga.
  • Post-2 games tend to have at least two names attached to their protagonist depending on the adaptation, with whatever names were used in their animated incarnation usually becoming the Canon Name later. This was the case for the protagonists of Persona 3 (Minato Arisato (manga)/Makoto Yuki (anime)), Persona 4 (Souji Seta (manga)/Yu Narukami (anime)), and Persona 5 (Akira Kurusu (manga)/Ren Amamiya (anime)), though the last one was revealed early thanks to its Persona Dancing spin-off showing it in a trailer before the anime came out.
• Pokémon:
  • The player character and his rival in the original Pokémon Red and Blue were respectively named Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) and Gary Oak (Shigeru) in the anime, Red and Blue (Green in Japan) in Pokémon Adventures, Isamu "Red" Akai and Kai "Green" Midorikawa in Pocket Monsters, and Satoshi and Shigeru in Pokémon Zensho.
  • The male and female player characters of Gold, Silver, and Crystal were respectively named Jimmy/Kenta and Marina in The Legend of Thunder, and Gold and Crystal in Adventures, which had also assigned Silver as the rival character's name. Pokémon Golden Boys has them as Gold and Crystal (shortened to "Chris"), with the rival being named Black. The games eventually canonized the male lead as "Ethan" (Hibiki in Japan) while the English box-art for Crystal refers to the female protagonist as "Kris". Pocket Monsters HGSS - Jou's Big Adventure names the rival "Tsubaki".
  • Red's Unnamed Mother's anime counterpart is named Delia Ketchum (Hanako in Japanese), while May's mother and Norman's wife is named Caroline (Mitsuko). Cynthia's grandmother is called Professor Carolina (Dr. Karashina).
  • While the island that the Sinnoh Pokémon League is located on is never named in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the anime's Sinnoh Conference is held on Lily of the Valley (Suzuran) Island. The same goes for the Unova League, which is held in Vertress City (Higaki City in Japanese) in the anime (though it does not appear to be located in a city in the games, Ever Grande City was a city in-name-only).
  • The challenge of the Pokémon League of beating all the Elite Four and the champion is called Champions League in the anime.
• In the anime of Ranma ½, Ranma and Akane's respective duos of school friends are given names: Hiroshi and Daisuke for Ranma's, Yuka and Sayuri for Akane's.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades:
  • Episode 8 of the anime gives the name Evelynn "Speed-Talker" Odets to the originally nameless female first-year who challenges Nanao to a duel at the start of volume 2's Tournament Arc and is swiftly defeated.
    Female student: Her aim's bad and her visualization is lazy, but she fires fast.
  • Joseph Albright's family servant in his backstory whom his parents murdered for beating him at chess is not named in the novels. Episode 11 of the anime gives her the name "Emma" in his Troubled Backstory Flashback.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero:
  • The Pope who leads the Church of Three Heroes is unnamed in the Light Novels, but in the anime, he's named Bisca T. Balmus.
  • The heroes face an arrogant enemy who gets killed without them learning his name, so Naofumi just refers to him as Trash II. The anime names the man Kazuki.
• Saint Seiya:
  • Since the evil Pope was yet to be fully introduced by name in the manga and the anime staff was given full liberty, they named him Arles. This would become a huge Continuity Snarl later on after the manga revealed the Pope's true identit(ies), leaving people wondering just who this Pope "Arles" truly was, and how he fit into the picture.
  • The OVA adaptation of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas gives names to several minor characters who went nameless in the manga, such as the girl that idolized Albafica (Agasha), the three orphans who lived with Tenma and Alone (Anna, Maria and Caro) and Elcid's three students (Lacaille, Tsubaki and Rusk). Some of them (like Lacaille and Agasha) were later used in the manga's Gaiden chapters.
• Street Fighter II V:
  • In the Japanese version, Vega (as in Claw) goes by Balrog Fabio La Cerda. Chun-Li's father is also given the name Dorai.
  • In the Street Fighter II V Retsuden manga, "Dee Jay" is revealed to be a nickname for a so-called Donald Jackson.
• The Urusei Yatsura anime gave names to four classmates of Ataru's that appeared in the early stories, along with increasing their amount of screentime. They became known as Megane, Perm, Kakugari, and Chibi.
• The Japanese cast of YuYu Hakusho gave the name “Jorge Saotome” to Koenma’s blue secretary ogre directly from their recording set midway through the series.

Comic Books

• Batman '66, the official continuation of the old Adam West Batman (1966) show, gave False Face the secret identity of Basil Karlo, a name comic fans may recognize as belonging to the original Clayface in the mainstream comics.
• In Batman: Son of the Demon, the son of Batman and Talia, who only appears as a newborn, is unnamed. And since Denny O'Neill ruled that the story was Canon Discontinuity, he stayed that way. In The '90s, two Elseworlds took the story as part of their setting, and the child became Tallant Wayne in The Brotherhood of the Bat and Ibn al Xu'ffasch (Son of the Bat) in Kingdom Come. Eventually, he would be introduced to main continuity in Batman (Grant Morrison) as Damian Wayne.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike (né William) received his surname "Pratt" in IDW's comics.
• The Cage Marvel MAX series gives Hammerhead the real name Sonny "The Hammer" Caputo.
• Dastardly & Muttley:
  • While nameless in the cartoon, the General is known in this comic as T. W. Harrier.
  • In the Gold Key Comics adaptation of the cartoon (in the series Hanna-Barbera Fun-In), the General is identified as General Gibberish (the story where this occurs was an adaptation of a TV episode which did not name him).
• DC Pride 2022, in bringing in the Music Meister, gave him the alter ego of "Darius Chapel".
• Figment: Unlike in the original version of Journey into Imagination, Dreamfinder is given the real name Blair Mercurial.
• G.I. Joe (IDW): In the 2008 IDW G.I. Joe comics continuity, Serpentor is depicted as a human cultist and given the civilian name Stephen Menasian, when his Marvel comic book and Sunbow cartoon counterparts had no designation other than Serpentor due to both being an Artificial Human who was created to give Cobra a more competent leader than Cobra Commander.
• The graphic novel adaptation of The House on the Borderland calls the two young men from the Framing Device Colin and Edward.
• The Joker:
  • In Batman: White Knight, the Joker's real name is Jack Napier, marking the first time the full name has been used in comics outside of adaptations to the 1989 film or brief Mythology Gags where he's used it as an alias.
  • In the non-canon Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass graphic novel, the Joker turns out to be John Kane, a wealthy and arrogant teen who attends the same high school as Harley and Ivy.
  • In Batman: Thrillkiller, the Joker is a female gangster named Bianca Steeplechase.
  • In Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth, the Joker is a Planetary field agent named Jasper.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:
  • Griffin, the titular character of The Invisible Man, is given the first name "Hawley" as a reference to Hawley Crippen.
  • Dr. Moreau turns up in Volume II, being given the first name of Alphonse.
• In Legion of Super-Heroes (2020), Dawnstar's given the last name Gr'ell as a nod to her co-creator Mike Grell.
• The Leprechaun from the film series of the same name was named Lubdan in the short lived comic book series by Bluewater Productions.
• Mega Man (Archie Comics): Some nameless bit characters from the game series have turned up in the comic book adaptation and received names for the first time: "The Mayor" from the obscure Chinese licensed game Rockman Gold Empire is named Leonard Dorado, and the "Evil Robot" from the intro of Mega Man 8 is named Trio.
• The Power of Shazam: Mrs Bromfield, who raised Mary Batson, is given the first name Nora. Her husband (who is assumed to exist in Earth-S continuity, but never appears) is named Nick, making them a Shout-Out to Nick and Nora Charles.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), the commander of G.U.N. from Shadow the Hedgehog is given the name Abraham Tower.
• Star Trek: Early Voyages:
  • "Flesh of My Flesh" gives Number One's surname as Robbins. Her first name begins with "Eure-" but she interrupts Captain Pike before he can finish saying it. She tells him that she would prefer to be simply called Number One as there is an old family curse concerning her first name.
  • Also in "Flesh of My Flesh", the transporter chief Pitcairn is given the first name Nils.
  • In "Nor Iron Bars a Cage", Yeoman J.M. Colt is given the name Mia. She seemingly prefers to go by her middle name. Neither her first initial nor what it stands for are ever referenced in the series.
• In Star Trek (IDW), "Burly Cadet #1" from Star Trek (2009) (the guy who gets into a fight with Kirk in the bar and later becomes Head Redshirt) is claimed as the reboot verse's counterpart of Lieutenant Hendorff from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Apple". This was subsequently confirmed in Star Trek Into Darkness.
• Star Trek: Untold Voyages: In "Worlds Collide", the Rhaandarite ensign seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture is given the name Omal.
• Superman:
  • Otis (Lex Luthor's henchman from Superman: The Movie has the last name "Berg" in Smallville: Season 11.
  • Supergirl (1984): The adaptation of the Supergirl movie named Zaltar's matter-altering device the Matterwand.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), the musclebound leader of the Purple Dragons is known only as "Hun", which is presumably a nickname. When the character was adapted to the original Mirage continuity, he was given the actual name of Hunter Mason.
• In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Prince T'Challa (as well as his father, T'Chaka, and his brother, M'Baku) has the last name "Udaku."
• As mentioned below, Rogue originally had no real name in the comics until the first X-Men movie called her "Marie," with the comics later adapting that by giving her the first name "Anna Marie." Her surname is still unknown in the mainstream continuity, but in the Marvel Noir series X-Men Noir, Rogue's full name is given as Anna Marie Rankin, as she's a Composite Character with Calvin Rankin, a.k.a Mimic. In Ultimate X Men, meanwhile, Rogue is given the real name "Marian Carlyle."

Comic Strips

• The Scamp comic strip based on Lady and the Tramp names the puppies seen in the final scene of the movie as Fluffy, Ruffy, Scooter and Scamp. This gets contradicted by the sequel Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, which despite being something of a Recursive Adaptation of the strip calls the three spaniel pups Annette, Danielle and Colette (and thereby enforces the Gender Equals Breed that Scooter averted).

Films — Animation

• In The Brave Little Toaster, the "Master" is named "Robert McGroarty" and the "Pirate" is named "Elmo St. Peters".
• In a rare case where a character with (part of) an already revealed real name gets an alias instead of the other way around, Catwoman: Hunted gives Oyabun Noguri (a minor character who's best known as one of the yakuza involved in the origin of Katana) is given the codename of "Mr. Yakuza".
• The animated Curious George movie refers to the originally unnamed "Man with the Yellow Hat" as "Ted".
• The Disney Animated Canon has named several Fairy Tale characters who did not have names originally:
  • The Snow Queen of Hans Christian Anderson's tale became Queen Elsa while the Robber Girl became Kristoff when they made Frozen (2013).
  • The dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This is lampshaded in a Saved by the Bell episode where one of the questions on a quiz is about the names of the dwarves. Lisa answers the Disney names, only for the other team to correct her saying that they had no names in the original fairytale.
  • The stepmother Lady Tremaine and stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella in Cinderella. Though one stepsister was named Javotte in the Perrault story.
  • The fairies in Sleeping Beauty. The good fairies are named Flora, Fauna and Merriweather while the wicked fairy becomes Maleficent. The princess's name is also different in many versions of the fairytale, most famously "Briar Rose" in the Brothers Grimm version and "Aurora" in Tchaikovsky's ballet, so Disney offered a compromise — Aurora was her true name while Briar Rose was her alias the fairies gave her while she was in hiding.
  • Everyone in The Little Mermaid. The original only identifies the characters as "the little mermaid", "the sea witch", "the prince", and so forth.
  • Beauty and the Beast is an odd case. The heroine was originally referred to as "Beauty". However, "belle" is the French word for "beautiful", so the original French versions would call her "belle", but not as her name. Conveniently, it happens that "Belle" is a real first name, so Disney made it the character's actual name. Additionally, Beauty/Belle's father is given the name "Maurice".
  • Disney gave the Grand Vizier character the name "Jafar" in Aladdin.
  • The talking cricket became Jiminy Cricket, the Fox and Cat became "Honest" John and Gideon, Fire-eater became Stromboli, and the Terrible Dogfish became Monstro in Disney's Pinocchio.
• The 2000 adaptation of The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus by Mike Young Productions named the Awgwah King Mogorb, when he was nameless in the original book.
• While the original book and 1971 adaptation of The Lorax didn't give the boy who visits the Once-ler a name, the 2012 adaptation names him Ted Wiggins.
• In the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, Wilbur's friend, who narrates the story, goes unnamed. When expanded into Meet the Robinsons, he is given the name Lewis. He also turns out to be known also as Wilbur's father, Cornelius Robinson.
• The Prince of Egypt identifies the unnamed Pharaoh of the Book of Exodus as the historical Rameses II, as have other screen versions of the story. Also, his priests are given the names Hotep and Hoy.
• The princess from William Steig's Shrek was unnamed. The film adaptations named the princess Fiona.
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: When Spider-Byte debuted in the comics, only her first name Margo was mentioned for her civilian identity. This movie gives her the full name Margo Kess.
• Superman: Red Son:
  • Superman's civilian name in the Superman: Red Son comic wasn’t revealed. It is given here as "Somishka" in the film.
  • Bizarro didn't have an official name in the comic. The film calls him "Superior Man".

Films — Live-Action

• In the stage version of 12 Angry Men, none of the jurors are named. In the film, the eighth and ninth jurors introduce themselves as Davis and McArdle, respectively, before parting ways at the end of the film.
• The 2010 Alice in Wonderland (2010) movie gives proper names to most characters that were only known by nicknames, titles or species names in Carroll's book, such as the caterpillar being called Absolom.
• Aquaman is an interesting cross between this and Adaptational Name Change. The comics had long established that Black Manta's first name was "David," but he had no surname; the movie came up with "Kane." While it was in production, however, the comics instead settled on "Hyde." Also, the movie gave his unnamed father the first name "Jesse."
• Batman:
  • The Joker's name has never been revealed in the comics but in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) he is named Jack Napier. This was then also used for Batman: The Animated Series for Joker's original identity.
  • In Batman & Robin, Bane was a diminutive criminal named Antonio Diego before the Venom got into his veins. Retroactively, it's now Adaptation Name Change as Bane's father was revealed to be King Snake (real name Edmund Dorrance) years after the film came out.
  • Joker gives The Joker the real name Arthur Fleck. Or at least, that's the name his mother gave him when he was adopted. His birth name is stated to be unknown (if he even had one).
• Bicentennial Man: While expanding from "The Bicentennial Man", more information about some of the character's names is added. In the original, Andrew was a model-serial number NDR-? robot, and is now identified as an NDR-114 model with serial number 583625. Miss's first name is revealed to be Grace, although Ma'am real first name is still unsaid.
• In the film version of Bright Lights, Big City you^note  the book is written in the second person are called Jamie Conway.
• In the play Cactus Flower, Harvey compares his girlfriend's beauty to Sandro Botticelli's Primavera, and so "Botticelli's Springtime" is the only label the script gives her, though she does appear in more than one scene. Her name in the movie is Georgia.
• Casper, in providing a backstory for the title character, also gives him the surname "McFadden." In most adaptations he has Only One Name.
• The narrator for The Cat in the Hat went unnamed. The 2003 film gives him the name Conrad.
• The unnamed boy (Sally's brother) who narrates The Cat in the Hat is named Conrad in The Film of the Book and Dick in the "Cat in the Hat's Learning Library" series of books. (However, in The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, he is absent and replaced by Nick (who's Sally's neighbor and best friend). The fish, meanwhile, gets the name Carlos K. Krinklebein in the TV special.
• Charly (2002): In the book the romantic rival, Mark, is only referred to by his first name and his last name is never revealed. In the film adaptation the screenwriters give Mark the last name Randolph.
• The various film versions of A Christmas Carol often do this with the unnamed supporting characters:
  • Mrs. Cratchit is named Ethel in Scrooge (1970) and its animated remake Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, Emily in The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Mary in A Christmas Carol (2019).
  • Fred's wife (or fiancée, in some versions) is named Bess in A Christmas Carol (1938), Janet in A Christmas Carol (1984), Clara in The Muppet Christmas Carol, Emily in A Christmas Carol (1999), Sally in A Christmas Carol: The Musical, and Hela in Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, which portrays her as East Indian.
  • Bob Cratchit's youngest daughter is named Mary in Scrooge (1951).
• The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy says her mother's name is Helen. Georgie Henley, who played Lucy, ad libbed her own mother's name. Interestingly, that means that Mrs. Pevensie shares a name as the first Queen of Narnia.
  • The Witch's dwarf servant is named "Ginabrik". Word of God says that it's supposed to imply that he's related to Nikabrik from Prince Caspian, another dwarf who wants to resurrect the Witch.
  • The Voyage of the Dawn Treader film cuts out Ramandu to give his daughter an expanded role, as well as the name "Lilliandil." Word of God says it's a Mythology Gag referencing the lilies from the book.
• Cinderella (2015):
  • The Prince. In the animated film he goes unnamed; here, we learn his name is "Kit".
  • Lady Tremaine's former husband is also referred to as Sir Francis Tremaine in this film.
• The 2020 movie adaptation of Color Out of Space calls the unnamed surveyor who narrated the original short story Ward Phillips.
• The movie adaptation of The Color Purple gives Celie's husband the last name Johnson. In the book we only learn his first name (Albert) and Celie usually refers to him as Mr. ___.
• In the original graphic novel of The Crow, Eric and Shelly's last names went unmentioned. The film gave them the surnames of 'Draven' and 'Webster' respectively.
• In Danny, the Champion of the World, Danny's surname is not revealed. In the film, it's Smith. The film also gives Danny's father the first name William.
• The Kingpin's right-hand man, known only as Wesley in the comics, is Wesley Owen Welch in Daredevil.
• In the original Death Wish (1974) the three criminals who start Paul Kersey on his path to vigilantism are never named, referred to in the credits as "Freak #1," "Freak #2" & "Spraycan." In the remake they are given actual names- Knox, Joe Gannon & the Fish.
• Dracula movies:
  • A variation comes with Bram Stoker's Dracula where Dracula's real name was never revealed in the book but the film makes him into the vampirised corpse of Vlad the Impaler from history.
  • The Brides of Dracula had no names in the original novel. In Van Helsing where their roles are greatly expanded they are named Marishka, Verona and Aleera.
• Emma. (2020): Robert Martin has two sisters. In the book, we only know that one is called Elizabeth. This movie mentions both sisters' first names: they're Elizabeth and Catherine.
• The 1982 film adaptation of Evil Under the Sun gives Mrs. Castle the name of Daphne.
• The live-action film of Gatchaman gives Jun and Jinpei the surname of Ohtsuki.
• Offred, the protagonist of The Handmaid's Tale, is never given a real name in the book (some dialogue in the first chapter suggests through the process of elimination that it may be June, but this is never confirmed). In the film version her real name is Kate.
• Harry Potter:
  • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Lord Voldemort's deceased grandparents are not given first names. In the movie version, their gravestone identifies them as Thomas and Mary Riddle. Apparently, the filmmakers got these names from J. K. Rowling, making this weirdly double as Word of God.
  • This applies to a building instead of a character, but the books never give a name to the orphanage Voldemort lived in as a child. In a flashback from the sixth film, the sign out front reads "Wool's Orphanage". It's unclear whether this name came from Rowling or if the filmmakers invented it.
  • The Hogwarts lake is never named in the books. The films call it "the Black Lake" and this name is recognized by the Harry Potter Wiki.
• In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Beetee is given the last name of "Latier".
• Inspector Gadget (1999): Inspector Gadget himself is given the civilian name of John Brown. This name was dropped in the sequel.
• Averted in Into the Woods itself, as nobody who didn't have a name in the play gains one here. However on set the Baker and his wife were referred to as Geoff and Margery by crew members. Although Lucinda is the official name of the other stepsister, it's never said in the play and only All There in the Manual. Here it's said on-screen a couple of times.
• The eponymous Invisible Man was never identified past the surname of "Griffin" in H. G. Wells's original novel, however the 1933 adaptation instead gave him the given name of "Jack", which has since been accepted as canon by most subsequent adaptations.
• The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, and their sequels are based on a series of spy novels by Len Deighton. In Deighton's novels the hero has no name; in the films he is given the name "Harry Palmer".
• Miss Moneypenny's first name was never mentioned in any of the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming (or novels by any subsequent author, save for Samantha Weinberg's spin-off series The Moneypenny Diaries, in which it's Jane). In Skyfall, she's named Eve.
• The Nijimura patriarch from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is never referred to by his first name in the manga and the anime adaptation. However, the live action adaptation film gives him the name "Mansaku Nijimura", which also ties into the Numerical Theme Naming that the Nijimura family has in the source material (the "man" (万) in "Mansaku" means 10,000).
• In Living Dark, Ted's companion (known only as "B" in the original story) is given the name Brad.
• In the 1998 live-action Madeline, the eleven other girls at the boarding school are named Aggie, Vicki, Chantal, Lucinda, Beatrice, Serena, Lolo, Elizabeth, Sylvette, Veronica, and Marie-Odile. Notably, these are completely different names than the previous animated adaptation gave them, clearly establishing the film as an Alternate Continuity.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In Iron Man 3 the Mandarin is revealed to be called Aldrich Killian, since he's a Composite Character with a scientist of the same name from the comics. It gets more complicated when All Hail the King reveals that Killian is merely The Usurper of the title. The real Mandarin, as per Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is named Xu Wenwu, and for the record, he doesn't actually think highly of that moniker.
  • Black Panther gives Erik Killmonger's father the name N'Jobu.
  • In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ghost's real name is Ava Starr, as she's revealed to be the daughter of Hank Pym's old nemesis Elihas Starr, a.k.a Egghead.
  • Inverted in Spider-Man: Far From Home. In the comics, Mysterio is named Quentin Beck. The movie also identifies him as such, but the name is heavily implied to be entirely fabricated by Team Mysterio's writer. The character is only referred to as "boss" by his cohorts subsequent to The Reveal.
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings gives the titular hero’s mother the name Ying Li. Originally, in the comics, Shang-Chi's mother was an unnamed white American, though this got retconned with the more recent introduction of Shang-Chi’s biological mother, whose name, Jiang Li, is directly inspired by the film version. Shang-Chi himself is also given a family name, introducing himself to his mother's village as "Xu Shang-Chi" — in the comics, he never showed any sign of having any other name.
• Matilda did not give first names to Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, so the film came up with Harry and Zinnia.
• Disney's Mary Poppins names the mother Winifred Banks. Originally, the film was going to call her "Cynthia", but P. L. Travers thought that didn't "sound English enough".
• In Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, the wight who had been stalking Jacob throughout most of his life goes unnamed in the book, but uses several aliases. These including "Mr Barron" when posing as Jacob's fifth grade bus-driver and "Dr Golan" as Jacob's psychiatrist; the later of which the other characters continue to refer to him as, even after The Reveal. The film adaptation uses the former alias as the wight's actual name.
• La Nona: In the original play, la Nona remains an unnamed character. In the film, however, she becomes Carmen Racazzi. Meanwhile, her relatives get the Spadone surname (implied to have been inherited from la Nona's husband). Finally, Don Francisco's last name is revealed as being Colauti.
• The 1994 NHK adaptation of Botchan names the titular character Kinnosuke Natsukawa^note never mentioned in dialogue, instead written on his inauguration paper, after the real name of the novel's author Sōseki Natsume.
• The titular whale in Orca: The Killer Whale is never given a name by the human characters. In the novelization, he's called Nickfin.
• Oz the Great and Powerful gives names to the Wicked Witches of East and West, Evanora and Theodora respectively.
• In Parking (1985), the goddess Persephone is given the first name Claude.
• In the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower Charlie's sister, though a somewhat important character, is never given a name. In the film adaptation she is named Candace.
• The Phantom (1943) was made before the comic strip had established that the Phantom's real name was Kit Walker, so the filmmakers made up their own name for him: Geoffrey Prescott.
• The protagonist of PHD has No Name Given in the strips. In the movie adaptation, he's named "Winston".
• The Prince of Persia was named Dastan in the film based on the "Sands of Time" trilogy. The games never gave him a name beyond 'the Prince'.
• The female survivor in The Quiet Earth is unnamed in the book, but the movie gives her the name Joanne.
• The East German film Rapunzel and the Magic of Tears gives Rapunzel's Prince the name Matthias.
• The 1971 film adaptation of Ratman's Notebooks not only gave the notebooks' author a name, but they made his name the title of the movie (Willard).
• An unnamed Crank, nicknamed "Blondie" by Thomas in The Maze Runner, is given the name Marcus in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.
• Shredder Orpheus gives Hades and Persephone the last name Hecata, while Orpheus is given the last name Hellenbach.
• Wasp Woman/Bee Woman had no civilian name in Kamen Rider, but Shin Kamen Rider (2023) gives her one by virtue of making her a Composite Character with Ruriko's best friend Hiromi.
• The two principal characters in Vercors' novel Le Silence de la mer are known only as "the uncle" and "the niece", but were given the names André (Michel Galabru) and Jeanne (Julie Delarme) Larosière, respectively, in the 2004 TV film adaptation.
• Every single character in Snow White: A Tale of Terror. The notable ones are that Snow White is renamed Lilliana (or just Lilli for short), the wicked queen is Lady Claudia, the father is Friederick Hoffman and the prince is Dr. Peter Guttenberg.
• In Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife, unnamed in the Book of Genesis, is named Ildith, while his daughters, likewise unnamed in the source material, are called Shuah and Maleb.
• In the novel Sounder, Sounder the dog is the only character that has a name. The Academy Award-nominated film gives names to all the characters: the sharecropping family is the Morgans, husband Nathan Lee and Rebecca, with son David Lee.
• Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy named Uncle Ben's supposed killer Dennis Carradine. In the comics he's completely unnamed, but has an estranged daughter named Jessica Carradine.
• In Stardust the Lillim's names were lost when their kingdom sank beneath the waves. In the film they are Lamia, Mormo, and Empusa.
• In Star Trek (2009), Uhura is given the first name Nyota (Swahili for "star"). Note that this name was Fanon for a long time before the film came out, but already had the approval of both Gene Roddenberry and Nichelle Nichols and had popped up plenty in the Star Trek Expanded Universe, so it was mostly making it official at that point. More fans were surprised that that's indeed the first time we've heard that name onscreen. Her full name is sometimes given as Nyota Upenda Uhura.
• A number of examples in Star Wars, who had names in the script that were only known by people who read novelizations and Legends spin-offs. Mon Mothma, Emperor Palpatine, Ewoks, Sabe, and more. Palpatine was later officially named in the prequels.
• As mentioned in the Video Game section, Chun-Li from Street Fighter has no set surname in the games. In Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, her name is given as "Chun-Li Xiang," and in the original live-action movie, it's "Chun-Li Zang." The 1994 film also gives Guile the full name "William F. Guile" and Ryu the surname "Hoshi."
• The Suicide Squad:
  • The Thinker is specifically based on the New 52 version of the character introduced in Forever Evil (2013). Despite being unnamed in the comics, his real name is Gaius Grieves in the film.
  • Due in part to his immense obscurity, Javelin's real name has never been revealed in the comics. While not mentioned out loud in the movie, a Freeze-Frame Bonus and some supplementary material confirm that his real name is Gunter Braun.
• In Super Mario Bros. (1993), Mario and Luigi's last name is Mario, giving an in-universe explanation for why they're called the Mario Brothers.
• The Ten Commandments (1956) identifies the unnamed Pharaoh of the Book of Exodus as the historical Rameses II.
• Sort-of example from the infamous Thunderbirds- though the names of The Hood and Tracy Island were in the original show, they weren't actually spoken on screen. They were only referred to by name in the various books and magazines the show had at the time. In the 2004 film, both names are actually spoken in dialogue.
• The unnamed protagonist of The Time Machine was named George in the 1960s film and Alexander Hartdegen in the 2002 film.
• In The Tomorrow Series, Lee is the only main character not given a surname. In the film, he's credited as "Lee Takkam".
• In West Side Story (2021), Bernardo and Maria are given the surname Vasquez.
• In William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Lord and Lady Capulet are given the first names Fulgencio and Gloria, while Lord and Lady Montague are given the first names Ted and Caroline. In keeping with the Setting Update, these first names replace their aristocratic titles.
• In the original novel The Witches the protagonist isn't named (he's the narrator), his grandmother is called "Grandmamma" by him and the Grand High Witch is referred to as... well, the Grand High Witch. In the 1990 film, the boy is called Luke, his grandmother Helga and the Grand High Witch is called Eva Ernst though it's never said if this is her real name or an alias she uses when checking into the hotel. In the 2020 film, the boy and grandmother (here African-American rather than Norwegian-British) are named Charlie and Agatha.
• At the time the first X-Men live action film was released, Rogue's real name had never been revealed in the comics. The films give her the name "Marie."^note The comics subsequently adopted the movie-given name and combined it with the name of the actress who played her, Anna Paquin, officially establishing Rogue's birth name as "Anna Marie" in the first arc of her 2004-2005 self-titled series.

Literature

• In the 1942 novel The Adventures of Superman, Clark Kent's then-unnamed foster parents are Eban and Sarah Kent. They wouldn't be named in the comics until 1948, when they were called John and Mary, before changing to Jonathan and Martha in the fifties.
• After Alice:
  • Alice's unnamed sister is named Lydia.
  • Alice and Lydia are given the last name of Clowd.
  • Alice's bit character friend Ada is a protagonist. Her surname is given as Boyce.
• Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg's The Positronic Man: While expanding from "The Bicentennial Man", more information about some of the character's names is added. Andrew's original serial number is NDR-113. Ma'am and Miss's first names are Lucie and Melissa. The judge and opposing attorney from Andrew's battle for freedom are given the names Harold Kramer and James Van Buren.
• The Worlds of Power novelization of Bionic Commando (1988) renames Rad Spencer into Jack Markson. Presumably this was because unlike the Japanese manual, the U.S. manual never mentions his name, effectively turning him into a nameless protagonist until the very end, so it's an easy fact to overlook. And even then, they only use his first name and they spelled it Ladd.
• The Clever Princess: The witch who gives Arete a magic ring is named Wysel in the Japanese translation by Group Women's Place.
• The novelization of Dirty Harry gave the Scorpio Killer an origin, and the real name "Charles Davis."
• The Disgaea Novels gave Laharl's late mother the name Gwen. Although most readers would probably be more familiar with her other name, Guinevere.
• Doctor Who:
  • The spin-off novels have given names to several Time Lords previously only known by nicknames: the Master (Koschei), the Rani (Ushas), the Meddling Monk (Mortimus), and the War Chief (Magnus). (The last of these is a continuity patch: Doctor Who Magazine once ran a comic strip with a young First Doctor [refered to as "Thete"] arguing with a contemporary named Magnus. At the time this was clearly meant to be the Master, but when the books revealed the Master's real name as Koschei, Magnus had to be someone else...)
  • The novelization of "The Silurians" names the characters who appear in the cast list as Old Silurian, Young Silurian and Silurian Scientist as Okdel, Morka and K'to.
  • The Mutt in "The Brain of Morbius" is given the name Kriz, and his species — which had been a mistake — is not mentioned.
  • The novelization of "Shada" gives a name to the man Skagra murders to steal his knowledge of 1970s Earth — David Taylor. It also expands on his character and gives him a small role in the ending.
  • In "Battlefield" Ace befriends a Chinese girl named Shou Yuing, but the serial doesn't make clear if 'Shou Yuing' is her full name, or a double familiar name like 'Sarah Jane'. In the novelisation it's stated to be the latter; her full name is Li Shou Yuing.
  • Two separate short stories gave Professor Marius's dog (the one he couldn't take to space, so built K9 to replace) entirely different names. According to "Tautology" by Glen Langford, published in Doctor Who Magazine in 1992, the dog's name was Toby. But according to "One Man and his Dog" by K9 (and Marius) creator Bob Baker, published in The Essential Book of K9 in 2015, it was Kelso.
  • "One Man and his Dog" also gives Marius the first name Frederick, making him The Danza in tribute to his late actor Frederick Jaegar.
• The "mangy, bedraggled gynosphinx" in the Dungeons & Dragons adventure White Plume Mountain is named Enid in Paul Kidd's Novelization, and subsequent Greyhawk Classics novels by Kidd.
• The Enchanted Files: A couple of cases in Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, which was expanded from the short story "Clean as a Whistle".
  • In "Clean as a Whistle", the brownie was a case of No Name Given. In Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, he's given the name Angus Cairns.
  • In "Clean as a Whistle", Jamie's parents are simply known as Mr. and Mrs. Carhart. In Diary of a Mad Brownie / Cursed, they're given the first names Dennis and Ellen.
• Final Fantasy: In the game itself, the player chooses names and classes for the four "Warriors of Light." They were given the names Toy, Romu, Malek and Gia in the gamebook written by Enaomi Inoue.
• The novelization of Final Fantasy II names the Emperor as Mateus. Dissidia Final Fantasy references this in the name of his exclusive Infinity +1 Sword, Mateus's Malice.
• The novelization of Home Alone reveals that Buzz's pet tarantula is named Axl.
• The Worlds of Power novelization of the NES version Metal Gear, Solid Snake is the codename of a certain Justin Halley, although his unit in the book are called the Snakemen, instead of FOX HOUND like in the game. The book itself is based on the localized backstory given in the US version's box and manual instead of the actual in-game story (meaning that Big Boss is now two separate characters named Vermon CaTaffy and Commander South).
• MonsterVerse: This happens for a lot of minor characters (and for Rodan's volcano in King of the Monsters) in the films' novelizations.
• Mortal Kombat: The first Mortal Kombat novel gave Scorpion the name Yong Park^note His canon name, Hanzo Hasashi, wouldn't be revealed until Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and his nameless son was named Tsui Park. Years later in Mortal Kombat: Legacy, Scorpion's wife and son are named Kana and Jubei. Though these names were also picked up by the official Mortal Kombat X comic book, the game itself calls them Harumi and Satoshi, respectively.
• The main protagonist of Mother was named Ken in the novelization Mother: The Original Story by Saori Kumi.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • The Pie family receives official names in Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party, as does Davenport.
  • The novelization of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, the background students who are part of the CHS team, named Micro Chips and Sandalwood by fans, are actually named "Poindexter" and "Cecil". How canon that is is up for debate.
• While Ryu Hayabusa's mother is unheard of in Ninja Gaiden (NES), its Worlds of Power novelization has her as a side character. There, she's given the name Asami.
• Famously, the player character in the game Planescape: Torment has no name, and is known just as The Nameless One. The 1999 novelization (which most fans ignore) has him choose the name "Thane".
• The Avatar universe novel, The Shadow of Kyoshi, gives Avatar Yanghchen's previously unnamed predecessor the name Szeto. He'd long been known as "Avatar Jafar" due to his resemblance to the villain of Aladdin.
• The Lestrade novels by M.J. Trow give Lestrade's first name as "Sholto", despite the original Sherlock Holmes stories establishing he had the first initial "G".
• In the Silent Hill novelization by Sadamu Yamashita, Harry Mason's deceased wife is named Jodie. The novel goes into history of how they met, but also changed the cause of her death: rather than dying from an unspecified illness, she was killed in a car crash.
• In the tale that would be the basis for the Grimm Brothers' "The Six Swans" and other stories, the female protagonist went unnamed. When Hans Christian Andersen wrote his own version, The Wild Swans, he called her "Elisa"; in Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe's retelling, "Twelve Wild Ducks", they called her 'Snowy-white and Rosey-red".
• The Star Trek Novelverse names "Number One" from the original pilot as Una in Star Trek Legacies. (The Star Trek: New Frontier novels have a character named Morgan Primus who is probably her, but even if it is, this isn't her original name.) She would later be given the full name Una Chin-Riley in The Autobiography of Mr Spock, which would go on to be used in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
• The Terminator: In the Randall Frakes' novelization, the three punks who the T-800 attacks for their clothes are named Johnny, Mark, and Rick.
• The novelization of West Side Story gives the main characters surnames. They are Tony Wyzek, Maria and Bernardo Nunez, Riff Lorton, Chino Martin, and Anita Palacio. The dance organizer, known only as "Glad Hand" in the stage version, is given the name Murray Benowitz.
• In Wicked, the Wicked Witches of the West and the East are named Elphaba and Nessarose Thropp. The musical adaptation followed suit, although it ommitted their surname.

Live-Action TV

• It wasn't until The Addams Family came to television that cartoonist Charles Addams needed to give his characters names. For the father he was torn between the Spanish "Gomez" and the Italian "Repelli" and allowed John Astin, the actor who was to play him, to make the final call. He also favored "Pubert" for the son but network censors told him that wasn't going to fly, so he suggested "Pugsley" instead. ("Pubert" was eventually used for the third Addams child in the 1990s films.)
• Arrow: In the comics, Prometheus has never had his real name revealed, not even in the flashbacks showing his childhood. Thanks to the TV show making Prometheus a Composite Character, his name turns out to be Adrian Chase, though this later turns out to be an alias. His actual name turns out to be Simon Morrison, a nod to Grant Morrison, co-creator of Prometheus.
• In the Inhumans comics, Lash is known only by that name. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lash is just an alias, and his real name is Andrew Garner. The show also gives Yo-Yo Rodriguez from Secret Warriors the first name "Elena".
• The 60s live-action Batman (1966) show gave minor comic book character Mr. Zero a new name in Mr. Freeze, as well as the real name Dr. Otto Schivel. The villain name stuck but the real name would later be replaced by "Victor Fries" in Batman: The Animated Series (see below).
• The Boys (2019): A few characters Only Known by Their Nickname are given at least personal names.
  • Mother's Milk: Marvin.
  • The Female: Kimiko.
  • The Deep: Kevin.
  • Popclaw: Charlotte.
  • Robin: Robin Ward.
  • Mr. Edgar: Stan Edgar.
  • Janine's mother: Monique.
• The Chosen:
  • The Bible mentions Simon Peter's wife but never names her. In the show her name is Eden.
  • The unnamed, paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda is given the name Jesse and made into Simon the Zealot's brother.
• The 1978 TV adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Dain Curse gave the previously unnamed "Continental Op" the moniker of Hamilton Nash. The name was described as Dashiell Hammett "spelled sideways".
• Daredevil (2015):
  • Like the movie did, Wilson Fisk's right hand man is named Wesley. This time though, he's renamed as James Wesley.
  • Vanessa's surname prior to marrying Wilson Fisk was never revealed in the comics. Season 1 of the show first introduces Fisk as he begins his courtship with Vanessa, so she is renamed Vanessa Marianna. This was later adapted into the comics.
  • Grotto, a recurring low level thug from the comics, is given the real name Elliot Grote.
  • In a small variant, for over 50 years, the "P." in Foggy Nelson's name didn't stand for anything in the comics. That is, until the second season of the show revealed it stands for "Percy", as established when Fisk is threatening Matt in jail.
  • When Bullseye is introduced in season 3, his legal name is Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, which in the comics was just one of several alias names that Bullseye operated under (with his legal name never being revealed).
• Dickensian gives first names to Miss (Amelia) Havisham and (Merriweather) Compeyson from Great Expectations and Miss (Frances) Barbary from Bleak House.
• In the Doctor Strange pilot from The '70s, Clea is reimagined as a human woman named "Clea Lake."
• Doom Patrol (2019):
  • Mr. Nobody in the comics started out as former Brotherhood of Evil member Mr. Morden and never had his forename revealed. In this continuity, his given name is revealed to be Eric, making his full name Eric Morden.
  • The two-part episode "Cult Patrol"/"Paw Patrol" adapts the Cult of the Unwritten Book arc of Grant Morrison's run on the original comic, naming the titular Unwritten Book Elliott Patterson when he was unnamed in the original arc.
• Elementary gives Inspector Lestrade the given name of Gareth.
• The Flash (2014) has instances of this that overlap with Composite Character.
  • Earth-2's Hunter Zolomon becomes the original Black Flash, who in the comics was the first in a line of Black Flashes.
  • The otherwise nameless Savitar is identified as Barry Allen due to his nature as the Flash's time remnant.
  • Hunter Zolomon's parents are unnamed in the comics, but given the names James and Ashley in the show. In Ashley's case, this is a Mythology Gag to Hunter's wife in the comics.
• From Dusk Till Dawn:
  • Along with a completely different characterization, Carlos also gained a last name: Madrigal.
  • Meet Aiden Tanner, professor of archaelogy at the Alamo State University. Also know as Sex Machine.
• Game of Thrones universe:
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Wildings don't name their children until they're at least two in the books. Gilly names her newborn son Sam in the show. However, in the books she'd planned to name Mance's son (swapped for her own) Aemon, in honor of the maester of Castle Black, when he turns two.
    • The actor in the Braavos theater troupe who plays Joffrey is named Clarenzo, whereas he had no name in the books.
  • House of the Dragon: Otto Hightower's older brother, the Lord of Oldtown, has the given name Hobert here, whereas he was unnamed in Fire & Blood.
• The Gifted (2017): Dreamer is given the name Sonya Simonson.
• Gotham:
  • The Joker is given the real name Jeremiah Valeska.
  • Bane didn't really have a birth name in the comics due to his, ah, unusual upbringing. This version has the legal name Eduardo Durance (for the record, derived from the name of Kingsnake, his long-lost father in the comics).
• The Handmaid's Tale: The Commander's last name is never given in the novel. Here it's Waterford (as one theory in the book's epilogue had it). His wife is officially Serena Joy Waterford, rather than "Serena Joy" being her stage name from her days as a televangelist, and which in the book it's said Offred possibly made up anyway as a spiteful nickname. Offred's name from before is June (also theorized in the book), while her daughter is given the name Hannah after going unnamed in the source material. Ofglen's real name turns out to be Emily. June's last name turns out to be Osborne. Nick's is revealed to be Blaine.
• When Terry Pratchett took the role of the toymaker in Sky1's adaptation of Hogfather, he decided the character's name was Joshua Isme and the shop, therefore, was Toys Is Me. While these names don't appear in the script, labels to this effect were added to the toys.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022):
  • In the original novel, the journalist Louis de Pointe du Lac talks to is only called "the boy," only getting a proper name in later books. In this version, he's introduced as Daniel Molloy from the beginning.
  • The names of Louis' sister and mother are never mentioned in the source material. Their TV incarnations are named Grace and Florence, respectively.
  • Antoine, the musician who was turned into a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt in the The Vampire Lestat novel, remained unnamed until Prince Lestat. His Gender Flipped TV counterpart Antoinette Brown announces to the crowd at the Azalea her full name in her introductory scene in "Is My Very Nature That of a Devil".
  • There's no vampire named Bruce (whom Claudia meets in "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart") in The Vampire Chronicles, although their dialogue hints that he's Killer, The Leader of the Fang Gang.
  • The identical twins that Claudia offers to Lestat for feeding in "The Thing Lay Still" gain names in the TV adaptation: Matthew and Mark MacPhail.
• Jupiter's Legacy:
  • Unlike in the comics where he never took up a superhero identity, here Brandon Sampson operates as Paragon.
  • Neutrino and Shockwave are given the civilian names of Gabriella and Jacinda respectively.
• LazyTown: In the original Latibær plays, the mayor was simply known as "the mayor" (bæjarstjórinn). In the series, he is given the name Milford in English, and Baldur in Icelandic.
• Legend of the Seeker: Richard's mother is never once named in the original books (they oddly seem to go out of their way so she's unnamed). Here, she's given the name Taralyn.
• The Legend of Xiao Chuo: Yan Yan's second sister's name has been lost to history and she's known only as Lady Xiao. The series gives her the name Wuguli.
• Loki: Though not explicitly said so onscreen, He Who Remains' real name is presumably Nathaniel Richards thanks to being turned into a Composite Character with Immortus.
• Lost in Austen takes Mr Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and gives him the first name Claude.
• In Luke Cage (2016):
  • Black Mariah is given the real name of Mariah Dillard^note STOKES. Mariah Stokes.
  • Comanche never had a legal name in the comics. Season 2 of the show gives him the legal name of Darius Jones.
  • Shades had no name in the comics, and is here given the legal name of Hernan Enrique Salazar Alvarez.
• In M*A*S*H, Radar, who in the book and the movie, is only known by his nickname, eventually revealed his real name to be Walter.
• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon gives names to Ami's mother (Saeko) and Rei's parents (Takashi and Risa). Naru's mother, Mrs. Osaka, is also given a first name (Mayumi).
• In Riverdale, Veronica Lodge's mother Hermione is given the maiden name "Gomez."
• Sesame Street: Big Bird has an actual name in some versions of Sesame Street in countries other than the U.S. E.g. in the Netherlands the main Big Bird character is a blue bird named Pino, and the American yellow Big Bird is Cousin Jan.
• Greg Lestrade in Sherlock who was only given the inital "G" in the books.
• A sort-of example in the TV series B.A.D. Boyes, written by Jim Ellridge. The main character is Brian Arthur Derek Boyes. However Ellridge's novelisation (and not the series itself), establishes that Brian is also the author of the "Diary of X" segments in Ellridge's How to Handle Grown-Ups series.
• The name of the historical Spartacus' wife/lover isn't stated in historical findings, so Spartacus: Blood and Sand decided to name her Sura.
• Supergirl (2015):
  • Lex Luthor's henchman Otis is given the last name "Graves", as he's the brother of Mercy Graves in this continuity.
  • Neither woman called Menagerie (sisters Pamlea and Sonja) had their last names revealed. Here, Pam's given the surname "Ferrer".
• Stargate, the movie never gave a name for Ra's species. Stargate SG-1 identifies them as the Goa'uld.
• Stargirl (2020):
  • Virtuoso's name was never revealed in the comics. Her analogue in the show, Fiddler II, is named Anaya Bowin.
  • Likewise, Dragon King is given the civilian identity of Dr. Shiro Ito.
• The Tick (2016) gives Arthur and his sister Dot the last name "Everest".
• Alibe Silver, Long John's wife, in SkyOne's adaptation of Treasure Island. In the book she's an unnamed, Unseen Character. In the 1977 BBC adaptation, she's Louisa Silver.
• The Twilight Zone (1959):
  • In "Perchance to Dream", the girl in the dream and the psychiatrist are named Maya and Dr. Elliot Rathmann, respectively. Neither character is given a name in the short story by Charles Beaumont.
  • In "The Four of Us Are Dying", the con man who can voluntarily shapeshift is named Arch Hammer. In the short story "All of Us Are Dying" by George Clayton Johnson, his name is not given. He has spent so much of his life imitating other people that he has forgotten his real name.
  • In "Third from the Sun", the people who escape their planet before a nuclear war begins are named William, Eve and Jody Sturka and Jerry and Ann Riden. The short story by Richard Matheson is a Nameless Narrative.
  • In "The Chaser", the potion seller is named Professor A. Daemon. In the short story by John Collier, he is not given a name.
  • In "Shadow Play", the dreamer's name is Adam Grant. In the short story "Traumerei" by Charles Beaumont, he is not given a name.
  • In "It's a Good Life", Anthony Fremont's mother is named Agnes. In the short story by Jerome Bixby, her first name is not given.
  • In "Little Girl Lost", Chris, Ruth and Tina's surname is Miller. In the short story by Richard Matheson, their surname is not given.
  • In "Four O'Clock", the protagonist is named Oliver Crangle. In the short story by Price Day, his first name is not given.
  • In "Death Ship", the respective first names of Captain Ross and Lt. Mason are Paul and Ted. In the short story by Richard Matheson, their first names are not given.
  • In "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", the stewardess' name is Betty Crosby. In the short story by Richard Matheson, she is not named.
  • In "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross", Albert's surname is Rowe. In the short story by Henry Slesar, his surname is not given.
  • In "Number 12 Looks Just Like You", Marilyn Cuberle's father's name is Jack. In the short story "The Beautiful People" by Charles Beaumont, his first name is not given.
• The Twilight Zone (1985):
  • In "Examination Day", Dickie Jordan's parents are named Richard, Sr. and Ruth. In the short story by Henry Slesar, their first names are not given.
  • In "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium", the young woman whom David Wong meets in the emporium is named Melinda, at least in the script. In the short story by William F. Wu, she is not named.
  • In "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", Gus Rosenthal's parents' names are Lou and Sarita. In the short story by Harlan Ellison, their first names are not revealed.
  • In "The Star", the protagonist's name is Father Matthew Costigan. He is unnamed in the short story by Arthur C. Clarke.
  • In "To See the Invisible Man", the names of the man sentenced to a year of invisibility and the blind man who briefly talks to him are Mitchell Chaplin and Bennett Gershe respectively. In the short story by Robert Silverberg, their names are not given.
  • In "Dead Run", the protagonist is named Johnny Davis. His surname is not given in the short story by Greg Bear.
  • In "A Saucer of Loneliness", the protagonist's name is Margaret. She is not named in the short story by Theodore Sturgeon.
  • In "Voices in the Earth", the leader of the ghosts of the dead Earth is not named. In the short story adaptation by Alan Brennert, his name is given as Blaine.
  • In "The Cold Equations", the captain of the Emergency Dispatch Ship is named Thomas Barton. In the short story by Tom Godwin, his first name is not given.
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • The show names Carol's husband and Sophia's father Ed Peletier, who in turn gave the two women surnames by default.
  • Likewise, Glenn is given the surname Rhee.
  • Each members of the Marauders are given names and characterizations when they appeared in season 4.
• The Worst Witch:
  • In the books, Maud's last name wasn't revealed until "The Worst Witch All At Sea" where she is called Maud Spellbody. The TV series gave her the last name "Moonshine".
  • Drucilla was also given the last name "Paddock".
  • The girls Gloria, Dawn and Harriet are only mentioned in passing in the books and are featured extras in the series but they get last names — Gloria Newt, Dawn Raven, and Harriet Goodcharm.
  • All the teachers are also given first names that they didn't have in the book. Miss Cackle's becomes Amelia, Miss Hardbroom is Constance, Miss Bat is Davina and Miss Drill is Imogen.
• All Creatures Great & Small (2020): Neither the original books nor the previous adaptation gave a first name to Mrs Hall, Skeldale House's Old Retainer. In the 2020 adaptation, however, she not only gets an expanded backstory and much more rounded characterization, but also a first name — Audrey.
• In the television series of The Mysterious Benedict Society, S.Q. states his full name as being "Shepard Quaid." In the books, his name was S.Q. Pedalian (wordplay on sesquipedlian) and it was never specified what S.Q. was short for.

Multiple Media

• BIONICLE:
  • Sidorak's lieutenant Keelerak spider was just a nameless Keelerak, until he called it "Kollorak" in the movie Web of Shadows. Many suspected that the voice actor simply mispronounced the spider breed's name, but the subtitles also cited it as Kollorak, and Word of God later accepted the name into canon.
  • Many characters in the original Mata Nui Online Game were nameless because the creators only had a set amount of named characters to work with. Most have been named later on, either in the sequel game, through toys, or Ascended Fanon. Most famously: the astrologer is called Nixie, the evil bazaar trader is called Ahkmou, and the Onu-Matoran living at the "Taxi Crab" station is called Midak.
• Doom: The unnamed protagonist is called Flynn Taggart in the spin-off novels and John Grimm in the movie.
• Double Dragon:
  • Marian (Billy Lee's girlfriend) has several different last names in the various tie-in works based on the series. She goes by Marian Steele in the comics, Marian Martin in the animated series, and Marian Delario in the live-action movie. Marian Kelly seems to be the most commonly used full name as it's used in Return of Double Dragon (the Japanese version of Super Double Dragon), a flyer for Double Dragon Advance and the River City Girls continuity, and she is listed as such in fan communities such as boorus and wikis.
  • Linda is known as Linda Lash in Battletoads & Double Dragon, a crossover game that was developed with minimal involvement from Technos. This full name was used again in the live-action movie.
  • Abobo is named Bo Abobo in the live-action movie.
• Resident Evil:
  • Media adaptations had tried to secondguess the last name of Ada Wong's dead fiancee from the first Resident Evil game. The Wildstorm comics went with John Fay, the S.D. Perry novelization went with John Howe and George Romero's unfilmed movie script went with John Marcus (no relation to James Marcus, the antagonist from Resident Evil 0). However, a prototype version of the game that has since surfaced has revealed that his full name was meant to be John Clemens.
  • The Mayor of Raccoon City and his daughter were also given different names in various media adaptations. In the S.D. Perry novelization of Resident Evil 2 (City of the Dead), they're named Devlin and Beverly Harris. This later created a contradiction in the games, when Resident Evil 3: Nemesis revealed that the Mayor is actually named Michael Warren (S.D. Perry reconciled this contradiction in the Nemesis novelization by claiming that Warren himself was actually Mayor Harris's predecessor). In the Biohazard 2 manhua, the daughter is named Amy Chan, with the Mayor himself remaining unnamed. Eventually, Darkside Chronicles (a rail shooter that retells the story of RE2 in one level) named her Katherine Warren, which is what the RE2make went with.
  • Tyrant (T-103) has been given multiple names in adaptations. The toyline (see below) gives him the name Mr X, which the the SD Perry novelization also uses alongside other nicknames by Claire such as Frankenstein's monster, Terminator and Dr. Evil. Darkside Chronicles has Leon call him Trenchy which was the closest to him having an offical name before Capcom (as a nod to the fans) made Mr X his canon name in RE3make's multiplayer Resident Evil: Resistance.
• This often happens in Shin Megami Tensei games:
  • Devil Survivor's protagonist is called Kazuya Minegishi in the manga.
  • The protagonist of Devil Survivor 2 is named Hiro Kageyama in the manga, and Hibiki Kuze in the anime.
  • Persona:
    • The manga adaptation of the first Persona names the hero Naoya Todou.
    • The Protagonist of Persona 3 is called Minato Arisato in the manga, Makoto Yuki in the anime movies (which seems to have been adopted as canon by Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight), and Sakuya Shiomi in the stage adaptation.
    • The Protagonist of Persona 4 is called Yu Narukami in the anime (which became his Canon Name in most of the games from Persona 4: Arena onward) and Souji Seta in the manga.
    • Persona 5's Comic-Book Adaptation gives the nameless protagonist the given name of Akira Kurusu, while the anime gives him the name Ren Amamiya (which seems to have been made canon by Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight).
• Street Fighter:
  • Ryu and Ken's sensei was originally nameless^note aside for the English manual for the SNES version of Street Fighter II, which assumed that Sheng Long was his name based on a mistranslated win quote from the arcade version about Ryu's Shoryuken. until he was introduced in a Street Fighter II manga adaptation by Masaomi Kanzaki, where he is killed by Vega / M. Bison / "Dictator" and given the name Gouken. Capcom later incorporated the character into Gouki's (aka Akuma) backstory and would eventually introduce him as an active fighter in Street Fighter IV. Incidentally, Goutetsu (Gouken and Gouki's sensei) got his name from an unused name for Ryu and Ken's sensei from Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.
  • Ken himself originally had no last name until they needed something to distinguish him from Barbie's boyfriend (Ken Carter) for the merchandizing in the U.S. So he became Ken Masters. This actually created a contradiction in the lore at the time, since Ken's official bio in Japanese sources (as seen in Street Fighter II: Complete File) established that Ken was actually an expatriated Japanese with a quarter American heritage from his maternal grandfather's side, so he really should be having a Japanese surname, not an English one.
  • Certain full names for Chun-Li include Feng Chun-Li (used in the Street Fighter Zero novel) and Wang Chun-Li (used in a drama CD). However, a Gamest-published guide to Street Fighter II Dash seems to imply than "Chun" is actually her family name, as she is referred as the "young daughter of the Chun family." Toys made by Hasbro around the time of the first live-action movie called her "Chun-Li Xiang."
  • The live-action movie gave us such full names as Ryu Hoshi, Chun-Li Zang, Victor Sagat, and William F. Guile. Almost none of them stuck around beyond the tie-in games based on the movie and the USA animated series. The exception is Guile’s full name “William F. Guile” which appears on the dogtags for his alternate costumes in Street Fighter V.
  • Cammy's last name is White according to Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and Street Fighter II V. While Cammy White is often assumed to her canonical full name among fan communities, in reality the only time it's ever been used in a game was in Cannon Spike.
  • Chun-Li's otherwise unnamed father goes by Dourai in Street Fighter II V, a name later used in the UDON comic series. Other names for him include Huolong (used in a Street Fighter Zero novel published only in Japan) and Kaishin (used in a Drama CD).
• Suikoden:
  • The first two games had official novelizations written by Shinjiro Hori where the protagonists were named Tir McDohl and Riou respectively. These names were also used in the 2009 drama CD adaptations and are often used in fan communities (like the Suikoden Wikia) as pseudo-official names, despite the fact that Konami has never used them as such in any of their guidebooks. In the manga adaptations by Yu Hijikata, the authors went with the names Louie McDohl and Tao instead.
  • The protagonist of Suikoden IV was named Razro in the novelization by Mie Takase. This name was later used for the Pachislot adaptation. Unlike other Suikoden protagonists, he has no alternate names.
  • The protagonist of Suikoden V is known as Freyjadour (or Frey for short) in the novelization by Shinjiro Hori and Ardil in the manga adaptation by Mizuki Tsuge.

Myths & Religion

• The Bible never specifies the names of the Magi (i.e. The Three Wise Men) that went to see Jesus, nor even how many of them there were. The belief that there were three of them comes from them bringing three gifts, and they've become traditionally known throughout the Western world by the names of Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. (Eastern church bodies have a variety of names of their own for the Magi).
• Robin Hood: The bride wasn't given a name in the old ballads, and originally neither was her chosen spouse but later ballads named him Alan a Dale. The bride's been given several names by later authors often a variation of Ellen. Pierce Egan the Younger's name for her, Lady Christabel, has also been used in several other adaptations.

Puppet Shows

• Paz, a series of shorts that aired on TLC's "Ready Set Learn" block, featured a young penguin named Paz who originally appeared as a nameless penguin in a couple of picture books by Mary Murphy.
• In The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, the baby elephant-bird from Horton Hatches the Egg is named Morton.

Radio

• In the radio adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll's father is given the name Edward, while in the book he was unnamed.
• The cops who try to stop Crowley's Bentley in Good Omens are named in the Audio Adaptation as Neil and Terry; since they're Creator Cameos, why not make them Danzas?
• Lux Radio Theatre did this on May 6, 1940, when staging Our Town. In the original Our Town play, the Stage Manager is nameless; in the Lux radio version, he is "Newton Morgan."
• TwinBee: Deta na TwinBee!: The pilots of TwinBee and WinBee were originally unnamed in the video game. The names Light for the boy and Pastel for the girl were given in the radio drama series TwinBee Paradise, which later games in the series used for them.
• X Minus One:
  • In episode eighty-three, the woman who receives the telepathic message from the Flying Saucer is named Janet Boyce while the man who prevents the woman from committing suicide is named Jason Bernaides. This is adapted from Theodore Sturgeon's "A Saucer Of Loneliness", where the two characters are not named at all.
  • In episode thirty-seven, the ship wasn't named in the original tale, but is now named Starfire.

Tabletop Games

• Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer never had a last name in the TV series but was given Lehane as a last name in the role playing game. It's now treated as canon. Kendra was also given Young as a last name.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Ringwraiths were never named, although Tolkien did give one a name (Khamûl the Black Easterling) in a piece that made it into Unfinished Tales.
  • The other eight were given names for the role-playing and trading-card games from Iron Crown Enterprises. Aside from the Witch-King of Angmar (here named Mûrazôr), their names are Dwar of Waw, Ji-Indûr Dawndeath, Akhôrahil the Blind Sorcerer, Hoarmûrath of Dir, Adûnaphel the Quiet, Ren the Unclean, and Ûvatha the Horseman.
  • Games Workshop gave them titles, though not names, when they adapted them for their LOTR strategy tabletop. Aside from the Witch King and Khamûl, there is the Betrayer, the Knight of Umbar, the Dark Marshal, the Shadow Lord, the Undying, the Tainted and the Dwimmerlaik.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny: The INNOCENT card game names "Lord" Dearche's Super Mode "Lord" Dearche TRINITY.

Theatre

• The protagonist of the original American Idiot album is known only as "Jesus of Suburbia", even in story notes in the booklet. The stage version, however, names him "Johnny", after John Gallagher Jr., who originated the role on Broadway.
• The Apple Tree: Frank R. Stockton's short story "The Lady, or the Tiger?" was a Nameless Narrative. When it was adapted into the second act of The Apple Tree, the principal characters gained names: King Arik, his daughter Princess Barbara (pronounced like "barbaric"), her lover Captain Sanjar, and the lady behind one of the doors, Nadjira. The Passionella act of The Apple Tree also gave the name of Ella's old employer, Mr. Fallible, and had Flip finally reveal his real name, George L. Brown.
• In the musical version of Candide, Cunegonde's brother, who doesn't have a name in the novel, is called Maximilian. (The musical also gives him slightly more of a personality: he is both gay and narcissistic!)
• In the Concept Album Chess, the main two chess players are referred to as simply 'The Russian' and 'The American.' The first stage adaptation in London gave them the names 'Anatoly Sergievsky' and 'Frederick Trumper', which have become standard in all other adaptations. In the revision Tim Rice debuted in Sydney in 1991, The Russian's full name is clarified to be Anatoly Valeriovich Sergievsky.
• In Maurine Dallas Watkins's play Chicago and its film adaptation, Roxie's rival Velma had no last name. It was the musical Chicago that named her Velma Kelly.
• Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol gives Jacob Marley the middle name Quimby.
• Mrs. Doubtfire's Screen-to-Stage Adaptation gives Mrs. Sellner the first name Wanda along with an African-American Race Lift.
• In Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade, the protagonist and his female counterpart from Portable are reimagined as the siblings Sakuya and Kotone Shiomi.
• Prince Kaguya names the wife of the bamboo cutter Akahoshi.
• In The Musical of Ragtime, as in the novel, all the members of the white family are known as "Mother", "Father", etc, except for The Little Boy, who is given the name Edgar, as it proved too difficult to address the character without using a name. They named him after E.L. Doctorow, who wrote the novel.
• Professor Moriarty was given the first name Robert by William Gillette in Sherlock Holmes (1899), four years before Conan Doyle named him James in "The Adventure of the Empty House". The play also names Holmes's page boy as Billy, which Sir Arthur did use in later stories.
• The 1912 adaptation of Snow White was the first to name the seven dwarves, beating the Disney version by about 25 years. They were Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick and Quee. The latter was also the youngest (at about 99). In the same play, the wicked queen is named Queen Brangomar, the prince is named Prince Florimond, and the huntsman is named Berthold.
• In Noah Smith's stage version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll's maid is given the name Valerie.
• Aside from Nessarose and Elphaba (see Literature above), Wicked names the Scarecrow and the Tin Man by respectively fusing them with characters Fiyero and Boq.
• Like with the 1990 movie, the National Theatre's stage musical adaptation of The Witches gives the originally-unnamed protagonist the name Luke. Unlike the movie, his grandma and the Grand High Witch are left without proper names.
• The Wiz, an all-African-American adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, gives all of the witches names, instead of just Glinda (the Good Witch of the South). The Wicked Witches have Names to Run Away from Really Fast, Evamean (the Wicked Witch of the East) and Evillene (the Wicked Witch of the West). The Good Witch of the North goes by Addaperle in the stage and NBC versions, and Miss One in the movie.
• The Wizard of Oz (1902) gave Dorothy the surname Gale, and also named the Tin Man as Niccolo Chopper. These would be canonised in later books. It also named the Good Witch of the North as Locasta, which wasn't.

Toys

• In The Incredible Hulk (1996), the Leader used the Hulk's DNA to create a group of monsters known as the Gamma Warriors. Most of the Gamma Warriors were unnamed, but two of them, Chainsaw and Two-Head, were given names in ToyBiz's tie-in action figure line.
• Almost all of the background ponies in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic are unnamed in the show, since they're used mostly just to crowd scenes. But since this is a Merchandise-Driven cartoon, they are eventually produced in the toyline and receive official names (in rare cases, contradicting with a few of the names given in the show. Mostly due to trademarking issues).
  • (In approximated chronological order) Cheerilee^note For about one year, before her name was finally mentioned in the show, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Rainbowshine, Goldengrape, Sea Swirl, Cherry Berry, Lyra Heartstrings, Noteworthy, Minuette, Royal Riff, Merry May, Sassaflash, Peachy Sweet, Twilight Sky, Amethyst Star, Twilight Velvet, Shoeshine, Sunny Rays, Lotus Blossom, Lemony Gem, Banana Fluff, Lilac Links, Cherry Fizzy, Misty Fly, Berry Dreams, Lucky Clover, Apple Stars, Lily Valley, Comet Tail, Octavia Melody, Lyrica Lilac, Steven Magnet and Manny Roar were unnamed in the show and received their canon names in the toyline.
  • Mayor Mare, Aloe and Berry Punch^note Who had also been mentioned by name previously in the book "Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell", but kept unidentified. received their canon names from a collection of Trading Cards.
  • "DJ Pon-3" was a Fan Nickname chosen in a poll among the early fans. It was later used in a TV commercial and in the toyline.
  • Sweetie Drops got this name from the toyline, and the name "Bon Bon" from a licensed mobile game, the closed captions of a DVD, and the Trading Cards.
  • Golden Harvest was named in the toyline, after she received the famous Fan Nickname "Carrot Top". Some time later, "Carrot Top" was stated as an In-Series Nickname of her in the trading cards.^note (It helps that the cards were written by fans, thus being full of Ascended Fanon and [[Shout-Out Shout Outs)
  • One pony got multiple names from multiple sources: Time Turner^note From Enterplay's Trading Cards and Gameloft's mobile game (formerly, Dr. Hooves^note From licensed clothes from WeLoveFine and Gameloft's mobile game (after an update and Dr. Whooves^note From Funko's vinyl figurine.
  • Jeff "The Dude" Letrotski, Jesús Pezuña, Magnum, Apple Cobbler and Fleur Dis Lee became Ascended Fanon thanks to a mobile game by Gameloft licensed by Hasbro.
  • Three ponies went through somewhat of a Double Subversion of No Name Given: "Crescent Pony" was called "Crescent Moon" in a couple of posts^note By the Facebook page of the game and in the news feed section of the official Gameloft My Little Pony mini-site. (as well as in the game's internal code, which also called him "PAPERMOON"), and "Bowling Pony" and "Teacher's Pet" were called "Walter" and "Truffle"/"TRUFFLESHUFFLE" in the game's internal code.
  • Hoops was named in the book "Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell" (Berry Punch was first named in this book too, but she was unidentified until she got a Trading Card).
  • Ms. Peachbottom got her name revealed in the closed captions of a DVD.
  • Holly Dash, Wild Fire and Midnight Strike are three Author Avatars^note Midnight Strike not exactly. She was an Original Character made by the daughter of art director Ridd Sorensen who was later ascended to the show who were unnamed in the show, but had their names given by Word of God. Holly Dash was later adopted in the toyline and trademarked.
  • Flower Wishes (Daisy), Mrs. Dazzle Cake (Mrs. Cup Cake), Chance-A-Lot (Caramel), Apple Dazzle (Apple Bumpkin) and Crimson Gala (Red Gala) are considered Adaptation Name Changes, since they contradict with their respective show names. Roseluck (Rose), Trixie Lulamoon (Trixie), Mosely Orange (Uncle Orange), Diamond Dazzle Tiara (Diamond Tiara), Flim Skim (Flim) and Twist-a-loo/Peppermint Twist (Twist) may be as well.
• In Resident Evil 2 the T-103 Tyrant has no name. The ToyBiz RE2 action figure line gave him the name of "Mr X", which quickly struck a cord with fans and has been used by pretty much by everyone since, despite having no basis in canon. Capcom eventually threw up their hands and made Tyrant's toy moniker official with Resident Evil: Resistance referring to Tyrant as Mr X in both the English and Japanese scripts.
• A Venom storyline in the 90's introduced five new symbiotes, none of whom were named. The "Planet of the Symbiotes" toyline by ToyBiz named three of them ("Scream," "Riot" and "Lasher"), and these subsequently filtered back into the comics.

Video Games

• In American McGee's Alice, Alice's surname is Liddell. Her unnamed sister is Elizabeth "Lizzie" Liddel. Their surname comes from the actual girl Alice was inspired by, however Word of God is that Alice's surname is "Pleasance" (the middle name of the real Alice).
• Batman: Arkham Origins: Branden, the corrupt SWAT officer from Batman: Year One, is given the full name of Howard Branden in his bio. However, the DLC "Cold, Cold Heart" caused a Continuity Snarl as according to a radio transmission the player can pick up on the Cryptographic Sequencer, his first name is "Scott".
• Bionic Commando:
  • The original 1987 arcade game, released as Top Secret in Japan, initially had no named protagonist and wasn't meant to be a sequel or spinoff to anything. Since Top Secret couldn't be used outside Japan due to an unrelated comedy film, the game was retitled Bionic Commando overseas, after Capcom's 1985 top-down shooter Commando (Capcom). The sales flyer for the U.S. version, in particular, would go on to claim that the protagonist of the game is none other than Super Joe from the original Commando after being given a bionic arm in order to justify the title, despite the fact that the so-called "bionic arm" was simply a grappling hook attached to the player character's otherwise normal arm.
  • A completely reworked version of the game would be released for the NES in 1988 (titled Hitler's Revival: Top Secret in its Japanese release). This time the protagonist was given his own identity, Rad Spencer of the FF Battalion, although in the English localization of the game his name is never mentioned in the manual and his first name is only brought up once in-game (where it is spelled Ladd). The 1992 Game Boy version (which is titled Bionic Commando in every region, even Japan), his full name Rad Spencer is mentioned in the opening. Super Joe also shows up in both versions as a supporting character that Rad must rescue in the beginning.
  • In 2009, Capcom attempted to revive the franchise with Bionic Commando: Rearmed, a remake of the NES version, and a new installment simply titled Bionic Commando. In these newer games, Rad was now a nickname for a certain Nathan Spencer and Super Joe's true name was revealed to be Joseph Gibson, who was one of the player characters in Mercs, the 1990 CPS-based sequel to Commando. Likewise, the recurring tall grapple-armed cyborg boss, known as "Giant Soldier" in the NES manual, is named Gottfried Groeder in the remake and its sequel.
• Black Mesa gives names to several of the previously unnamed Black Mesa facility personnel of Half-Life. To name a few, the security guard at the front desk of the Anomalous Materials lab is named Murtaugh, the scientist in the bathroom stalls in the same area refers to himself as Harold, the guard you meet at the Lambda Supply Depot is named Hunter, and the guard who rushes the Tentacles in the rocket test silo is fittingly named Leeroy Jenkins.
• Deltarune, as an Elseworld to Undertale, has a graveyard with four graves, one adding Boom as a surname to Gerson, and naming three characters who are implied to be parts of Undertale's Amalgamates, Crystal as Snowdrake's Mother, Shyra who is likely Shyren's sister and was part of Lemon Bread and Muttler, who was likely one of dogs from Endogeny.
• Downwell never gave the player character a name. With guest appearances, starting with Indie Pogo, the character was given the name Welltaro.
• Conspicuously averted in Disney Magic Kingdoms. During a Turning Red sidequest, Priya does not name the goth girl she danced with at Tyler's birthday party but refers to her by her Online Alias "PurplHairGrl1989".
• Final Fantasy VII:
  • Cloud's dead friend Zack was never given a last name in the original game. It was only in the prequel Crisis Core that due to Zack being the main playable character, he was given the last name Fair (in contrast to Cloud's last name of Strife).
  • The game's own remake, rather bluntly titled Final Fantasy VII Remake, expands on some of the members of AVALANCHE. In particular, the character originally only known as Jessie is given the surname Rasberry.
  • Mrs. Strife (Cloud's mom), despite appearing in flashbacks and Crisis Core, was only known as "Cloud’s mom" for a decade and half until Final Fantasy VII Remake finally gave her the first name Claudia (fun alliteration with her son's name). "Claudia" comes from her character design documents in the original FFVII.
  • Likewise, Mr. Lockhart (Tifa's dad) had no name in the original game either despite appearing prominently in the Nibelheim flashbacks. Remake officially names him Brian (like Claudia, based on his concept art) and the Remake novel Trace of Two Pasts even gives Tifa’s mom a name as well: Thea.
• Final Fight: Cody and Belger became known as Cody Travers and Horace Belger in the PS2/Xbox spin-off game Final Fight: Streetwise. While Capcom appears to ignore the events of Streetwise, it should be noted that Cody's surname is once again referenced in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, which also canonized the long-rumored surname of Final Fight 3's Lucia (Morgan).
• Golden Axe: Ax Battler is named Tarik in the Master System port and Golden Axe: Beast Rider.
• Gradius: The title originally referred to the player's spacecraft when the game was originally released for the arcades. When the Famicom version was released later on, the ship was renamed the Vic Viper (or the Warp Rattler in some localizations) and "Gradius" now referred to the player's home planet.
• Grimms Notes: Many characters who went unnamed in their fairy tales of origin got a made-up name in this game. For example: Kodjia (the leader of the forty thieves), Han, Esel, Katze, Hund (the Bremen Town musicians), Noemi and Dorothée (Cinderella's stepsisters).
• Heroes of the Storm gives Canon Names to some of the Player Characters from the Diablo franchise, including Cassia (Amazon) and Xul (Necromancer) from the second game and Sonya (female Barbarian), Nazeebo (male Witch Doctor), Johanna (female Crusader), and Kharazim (male Monk) from the third. The game also names the Memetic Badass probe from the opening cutscene of StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void as Probius.
• In the original PC version of I Spy Spooky Mansion, the skeleton had no name, he's called "Skelly" in the Wii version.
• LEGO Jurassic World:
  • The game reveals that Gerry Harding named the Triceratops depicted in the first film's events "Sarah" after his daughter.
  • It also names the "Young Raptor Handler" as Leon.
• In Max Payne, the titular character's late daughter, unlike his wife Michelle, is never name-dropped. It isn't until Max Payne 3 that her name, Rose, is shown on the Payne family gravestone.
• Metal Gear:
  • Meryl mentions her father (Roy Campbell's dead younger brother) several times but he never gets a name. A non-canon bonus story in Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance names him Matt Campbell and goes into detail about his job and relationship with his brother.
  • The official Brady's guide to Metal Gear Solid 2 gives Fortune's dead husband the full name of Colonel Reginald Jackson, but the character is only referred to by his last name in the game and the name "Reginald" has never been used in any other Metal Gear Solid media except for the comic adaptation drawn by Ashley Wood.
  • In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Hal Emmerich's father is given the name "Huey", but this turns out to be an Embarrassing Nickname thought up by his colleague, Strangelove, herself only known by an embarassing nickname. Neither of their real names are ever revealed.
• Pokémon:
  • While he did receive a different name each in The Legend of Thunder and Pokémon Adventures, the lead male in Pokémon Gold and Silver was officially named Ethan/Hibiki in the Gen IV remakes.
  • For minor characters, all enemy Trainers from Red/Blue would fall under this as of FireRed/LeafGreen, as per a feature introduced in the aforementioned Gold/Silver.
  • Red and Blue were unnamed until Gold and Silver. Early interviews and info suggested Red was going to be named "Satoshi", which happens to be the Japanese name of the protagonist of the anime, but they eventually changed it prior to release.
• Raiden Fighters: In Viper Phase 1, the player's red Space Fighter and the second player's blue Palette Swap were both nameless. As Guest Fighters in the Raiden Fighters games, they became known as the Judge Spear and Blue Javelin.
• Ivan, a boss from River City Ransom, is named Ivan Popov in the GBA remake River City Ransom EX.
• In The Sims 4, MySims canon immigrants Travis, Liberty, Summer, Candy, and Yuki are given the last names Scott, Lee, Holiday, and Behr respectively.
• The snowboard salesman in Snowboard Kids, an anthropomorphic dog, became an unlockable character named Mr. Dog in game 2.
• Spider-Man (PS4) gives Hammerhead (whose surname has never been revealed in the comics) the real name Joseph Martello.
• In the Super Mario Bros. series, Kamek technically does not have a name in Japanese; "Kamek" is simply the name of the Magikoopa species. In the Western localization, the name "Kamek" is instead used for the specific recurring Magikoopa who acts as Bowser's caretaker and right-hand man.
• Tom and Jerry Chase features in its cast of playable characters several characters that were never given names in their original appearances in the Tom and Jerry cartoons, which are now named by the game.
• TRON: The ENCOM computer world in the movie was never given a name, in contrast to The Grid in the sequel.^note The "gaming grid" that Kevin Flynn was sent to was just one part of the world in the original movie. In Kingdom Hearts II, a copy of the unnamed world was dubbed "Space Paranoids."
• Wardner: The Japanese arcade game originally named only the titular antagonist, and asked players for their own name. The hero and princess were named Pyros and Erika in Romstar's promotional materials for the US arcade release retitled Pyros. The Sega Genesis localization named them Dover and Mia. (The evil mage who turns the princess into a crystal was also named Terragon in this version.) The Japanese Famicom Disk System version went for Edible Theme Naming (Prince Alamode and Princess Pudding respectively) instead.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom, the three Harpie Lady Sisters are given the names Airo, Ocupete, and Keraino (different spellings of the names of the Harpies from Greek Mythology) while the three Blue Eyes White Dragons are named Azrael, Ibris, and Djibril. There's also Scott Irvine, who was a nameless Kaiba Corp engineer in the manga and anime (the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions movie would later call him Chief Kuwabara instead)
  • In the Dungeon Dice Monsters game, the Rare Hunter who uses an Exodia deck is named "Seeker".

Web Animation

• The boy from the old Tootsie Pop commercial was never given a name, but Mongolian Erectile Dysfunction, a mature parody of the commercial, has Mr. Turtle refer to the boy as "Timmy".

Webcomics

• In Kaja Foglio's comic adaptation of "The Cat on the Dovrefell", the nameless traveler is given a name (and a gender flip): Lena.
• Erstwhile, for some of the Nameless Narratives of The Brothers Grimm. For example, in "The Farmer's Clever Daughter," the title character is Velinda and the king is Lennart. In "Maid Maleen", the prince is Orland.
• In the fan webcomic Five Kids at Freddy's, based on Five Nights at Freddy's, the missing childrens' names are given as Shelley, Tracey, Jack, Molly and Billy.
• In Kid Beowulf, Grendel's mother is named Gertrude.
• Yellow Brick Ramble, based on The Marvelous Land of Oz, gives Tip and Mombi a last name (Tryfle, as a reference to The Wizard of Oz (1902)), and the Saw-Horse is named Logan.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 gave the Koopalings names that were different from the ones used in the actual NES game. It is unknown whether these names were decided on before or after Nintendo of America decided to name the Koopalings, as the Koopalings were not originally named in Japan (as explained above).
• Scarface's mate doesn't have a name in the original book versions of The Animals of Farthing Wood while in the TV series she is called Lady Blue.
• Arcane: The show gave League of Legends character Caitlyn the surname Kiramman.
• Batman: The Animated Series gave Mr. Freeze the real name "Victor Fries," which later became canon in the comics.
• The Batman gave the original, real name unknown Wrath the alter ego "William Mallory".
• In Costume Quest, most characters have Only One Name. The animated series gave Wren and Reynold the surname Carver, while Everett's surname is Nichols and Lucy's is Chu.
• The Animated Adaptation of Dilbert names the company where all the characters work for a brief gag (though one that implies it's the latest iteration of a Constantly Changing Name): formerly known as Path-Way Electronics, it merged with E-Tech Management to form the combined company "Path-E-Tech Management."
• DuckTales (1987) gave the Beagle Boys, who are usually just referred to by the prison numbers they're wearing in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, not only distinct appearances and personalities, but also names, with Big Time, Burger and Bouncer being the most common in the show. However, this names don't sound like real names either, but it is however a step up from just being called by numbers.
• DuckTales (2017):
  • Magica's Shadow never had a proper name in DuckTales (1987) and acts as a minor flat antagonist. Here, Magica's Shadow is given the name Lena and has more focus.
  • In Darkwing Duck, Negaduck's civilian name was never known, though there was the possibility it was Drake Mallard since he's his Evil Doppelgänger from a parallel universe. In the episode "The Duck Knight Returns!", he is finally given a proper civilian name: Jim Starling.
  • Another Darkwing Duck example is Professor Waddlemeyer, Gosalyn's grandfather who dies prior to her introduction. While he has no given name in the original series, the DuckTales reboot names him Thaddeus. The name is shown on a trophy earned by him and Taurus Bulba and later spoken aloud by Bulba himself.
• In DC Super Hero Girls, Aqualad's real name is Garth Bernstein, unlike in the comics, where he's simply known as Garth and has no surname.
• The Netflix series Green Eggs and Ham (2019) names Sam-I-Am's foil as Guy-Am-I (for the record, he’s the tall orange man in the hat). Previous names for that character were merely vague descriptions, such as "Grouchy Guy" and "Sam's Friend".
• HBO Storybook Musicals: Is the case for many specials. For example, the heroine of The Little Match Girl was named Angela, while the cat in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was named Timothy.
• Hilda:
  • In the original graphic novels, the title character's mother is never named. The Netflix adaptation calls her Johanna.
  • The troll mother who plays a pivotal role in Hilda and the Stone Forest and Hilda and the Mountain King goes unnamed in the books. Her name isn't directly given in the animated version, but the subtitles and end credits refer to her as Trylla.
• Hit-Monkey: The assassin that became Hit-Monkey's spirit advisor never had a name in the comics. He is given the name Bryce in the show.
• The Sour Kangaroo from Horton Hears a Who! is named Jane in the animated adaptation. This name was carried over to The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (but not the 2008 movie, where she's just the Sour Kangaroo... but her son is named Rudy).
• In If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the boy that gives the mouse a cookie goes unnamed, and the same is true for the spin-off books such as If You Give a Pig a Pancake. The Animated Adaptation on Amazon, however, gives them names. For example, the boy who gives the mouse a cookie is Oliver.
• While the Mandarin has used various aliases in the comics (including Zhang Tong and Tem Borjigin), his true name is still unknown. In Iron Man: The Animated Series, his real name is Arnold Brock, while in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, it's Temugin "Gene" Khan.
• The little girl in the short subject The Itsy Bitsy Spider was unnamed. When it became a series, she was named Leslie McRoraty.
• Donald's double from "Donald's Double Trouble" was unnamed, but in Legend of the Three Caballeros, he's named Dapper Duck.
• All of the locomotives in the animated version of The Little Engine That Could. The Little Blue Engine is named Tilly, the Broken-Down Engine Georgia, the Shiny New Engine Farnsworth, the Big Strong Engine Pete, and the Rusty Old Engine Jebediah.
• In Llama Llama, Grandpa Llama's "Linty Llama" plush toy appears in the book Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa, but isn't referred to by the name "Linty Llama" until the television story "Forgotten Fuzzy" adapted from the book.
• While the initial Madeline books did not name the other 11 girls, the animated series gave them all names, though it was not always consistent with one girl: "Chloe", "Danielle", "Nicole", "Monique", "Yvette", "Nona", "Lulu", "Anne", "Sylvie", "Ellie"/"Simone", and "Janine". The names given to the girls vary in other adaptations, such as the live-action film and the play adaptation of "Madeline's Christmas".
• Screwball's real name is unknown in the comics, but in Marvel's Spider-Man, she's Peter's former classmate Liz Allan.
• Minor Intergang member Rough House has never been named in the comics, but in My Adventures with Superman, he's given the name Albert.
• In Muppet Babies (1984), the babies only ever refer to the woman who runs the nursery as "Nanny". In Muppet Babies (2018), both because the nursery is presented more as a kindergarten, and because the whole concept of nannies is a bit old-fashioned, they address her by name: Miss Nanny, short for Nancette.
• Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Special gives the original book's protagonist Wilbur the full name of Wilbur J. Molerat, Jr.
• The Little Red-Haired Girl in Peanuts is called Heather in several of the animated specials. This is carried over to The Peanuts Movie where her name is shown to be Heather Wold on the list of test scores. Much later, You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown gave last names to Marcie (Johnson) and Franklin (Armstrong).
• The Perils of Penelope Pitstop: On Wacky Races, five of the seven members of the Ant Hill Mob were unnamed on screen (a publicity drawing did name them but were never officially used). On the spinoff The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Clyde retained his name while Ringading became Dum-Dum, and the others became Snoozy, Pockets, Zippy, Softy and Yak-Yak.
• Pinocchio's Christmas: The Fairy with the Blue Hair in The Adventures of Pinocchio is never given a name, but in the Rankin/Bass Productions 1980 holiday special, Pinocchio's Christmas, she's aptly named Lady Azura.
• Polly Pocket: With the exception of Polly herself, her friends, which only have a first name in the toy line, were given surnames in various media.
  • In the early 2000s specials, Ana's surname was Leeth.
  • In the 2010s webisodes, Lea was given the surname Torney, Crissy's was Maxwell, and Shani's was Mayne.
  • For the new rebooted TV series for 2018, Lila, the only one who had no surname to date, was finally given the surname Draper. Shani's was changed to Smith.
• Robot Chicken gives Slenderman the real name "Stewart".
• Saturday Supercade:
  • The show gave names to the kangaroos (K.O. Katie and Joey) and monkeys (Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Fred) from Kangaroo.
  • While it's a common fact that Nintendo considered several names for the game's protagonist (such as Jumpman, Rescue Man, and Mr. Video) before deciding on Mario after Mario Segale, the game's heroine was originally an unnamed "lady" (although one ad for the Game & Watch version named her Louise) until the name Pauline was given in the show's Donkey Kong shorts.
• Schoolhouse Rock!: The CD-ROM games released by Creative Wonders give names to many of the characters. For example, the Noun Girl became Connie, the Backpack Girl became Molly, and the pool mouse became Elroy.
• In the Skylanders games, Kaos' mother was never referred to as anything other than simply "Kaos' Mom". Skylanders Academy gives her the name Kaossandra (pronounced the same as the name Cassandra).
• The nameless lord of the castle in The Smurfs comic book story "The Hunger of the Smurfs" was named Mr. Poppery in The Smurfs (1981) cartoon show adaptation "Haunted Smurfs", and was also given an Adaptation Dye-Job from black hair to gray.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012):
  • The series sees Lord Dregg from the 1987 series given the first name "Vringath."
  • The Rat King was an unnamed homeless drifter in the original Mirage comics. The 2012 cartoon reveals that he was once a scientist named Victor Falco.
• The Merrie Melodies character Foxy appeared in three shorts alongside his unnamed girlfriend before being discontinued as shameless rip-offs of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. When they appeared in Tiny Toon Adventures, the girl was dubbed "Roxy".
• The U.S. Acres cartoons from Garfield and Friends gave the names Mort, Gort, and Wart to Orson's bullying brothers who had originally only appeared in the first three weeks of the original comic strip.
• Young Justice (2010):
  • The series gave Lagoon Boy the first name "La'gaan," which Word of God admits was chosen to justify his code name.
  • None of the Canon Foreigner superheroes from Super Friends had their real names given except for Samurai. El Dorado and Apache Chief's Young Justice analogues were given the real names Eduardo Dorado, Jr. and Tye Longshadow, respectively. The Samurai analogue underwent a Gender Flip, and thus went from being a guy named Toshio Eto to a girl named Asami Koizumi. Ed stopped being a mere analogue and became a case of Steven Ulysses Perhero in the revival when he took up "El Dorado" as a codename.
  • While Mal Duncan and Bumblebee had a baby during Titans Hunt (2015), no name was given. The show adapted that plot point in the third season, giving the child the name Rhea.

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