No Name Given / Literature

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• Captain Nemo of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, whose pseudonym means "nobody".
• Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the only named human character in the book. Her sister, brother, and governess are all mentioned in passing without their names being mentioned.
• Shadow, the main character of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, is referred to only by his nickname throughout the book, although his wife Laura's last name is given as Moon (and Mr. Gaiman once revealed at a press conference that Shadow's real name is Balder Moon).
  • Which is relevant, since he is in fact the god Baldr.
  • Similarly, other characters go through the book without revealing their true name, or in the case of "The Fat Kid", any name at all.
  • Another of the new gods introduces himself to several characters, but they immediately forget. His name and description are both left indeterminate to the reader, but he's later described as a god of currency and commerce.
• Amoridere never seems to give the subjects in her poems names, instead, she refers to them with pronouns or with The All-Concealing "I". The only exception to this mostly would be if her poem was about a specific character, in which case, it'd either be in the description or tagged as such but they wouldn't be named in the poem itself.
• In Animorphs, Tom's second Yeerk's name is never revealed. He's usually just called "Tom's Yeerk" or "Tom".
• In Anxious People, the bank robber who kicks off the plot is never named, not even in the epilogue.
• In the Apprentice Adept series nearly all of the Adepts are addressed by title, with the exceptions of Stile (Adept Blue) and Trool the Troll (Adept Red). The only other Adept who's name we know is Tan (Tanu, as he and his twin sister Tania were introduced while the previous Tan Adept, their father, was still active). Also, most of the Citizens introduced are only addressed as "Sir" (Proton law states that serfs and visitors to the planet must address Citizens as such unless given explicit permission otherwise). The only exceptions to this were Stile (again), Rifleman (Who's name Stile knew as a fellow Tournament champion) and Merle.
• In Erich Maria Remarque's Arch Of Triumph, the main character is only called Ravic, which is only the last of his several aliases. At the end of the novel, his real name is revealed.
• Because the Arthur Adventure Books are written from Arthur's perspective, the Brain didn't have or need a given name until the books were adapted into the TV show. (It ends up being Alan Powers.)
• One minor character in ''Arly Hanks, who keeps house for Mrs. Jim Bob, is known only as "Perkins' eldest". Considering the kinds of cockamamie names people in Maggody stick on their kids, it may be just as well.
• James Clavell's Asian Saga: The King, in King Rat. (At the end of the book, he gives "King" as his surname.)
• A Bad Case of Stripes features two women, one elderly and one an "environmental therapist", who aren't named.
• Bas-Lag Cycle: The rulers of the foremost riding in Armada, from The Scar, are known only as the Lovers.
• Bazil Broketail: Purple-Green apparently has no name. He's only called this, describing his scale's colors.
• Older Than Dirt: in The Bible, the Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus is inexplicably never named (he's only ever referred to as "The Pharaoh"). Which is particularly vexing in modern times as historians have an almost complete list of all the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, meaning if he had been named, it would be easy to determine when the events of Exodus supposedly happened. The most popular candidate was traditionally Ramesses II. However, as most historians no longer think Exodus happened, this is moot.
  • Wikipedia has a list of fanon names for unnamed biblical characters, some in use for thousands of years.
• The first person narrator of Tanith Lee's Biting the Sun duology, Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine.
• Black Crown gives no name to the maid in Solace, nor any name to the land where the stories take place; other than referring to the "North" and the "Milvian Kingdom". The Map on the series' website does little to clear this up.
• Played with in the story The Blacklist. The lead character's name is Ivan G. Nemone. Three guesses what that's an anagram for.
  • His name is the only one that is pointed out as a fake name. It's left to the reader's interpretation whether or not the other characters' names are their own, as they are all anagrams for things like "He is the bad guy" and "She is a traitor."

The Blue-Nosed Witch:

• For the other nine "ordinary" witches in Scurry 13; only Blanche, Minnie Max, and Josephine are given names and descriptions. The Grande Madame also likely has a name, but is referred to by her title alone.
• Other than Butch, the pirate and little brother of the witch leading the group of children trick or treating, none of the other children are named and are instead referred to by their costumes.

• The protagonist of Blood Meridian is only known as "the Kid", and later as "the Man".
• The protagonist of Anita Amirrezvani's novel The Blood Of Flowers has no name. Word of God says that it was a tribute to the nameless artisans of Iran, where the story takes place.
• In Blood Promise, Rose has a dramatic fight with two Strigoi working together. None of the two are named.
• None of the characters in Bored Nothing To Do are ever referred to by any names.
• Although Holly refers to the narrator as Fred for the first half of Breakfast at Tiffany's, that's not his name, and he is never properly introduced.
• You are never referred to by name in Jay McInerney's Bright Lights Big City (which, like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, is written in the second person), although in the film version you get called Jamie Conway.
• Brown Girl in the Ring: Ti-Jeanne's child is named only 'Baby'.
• Bruce Coville's Book of... Monsters: The narrator of Momster in the Closet never has his name revealed.
• The Big Bad of the Bulldog Drummond series is usually referred to as "Peterson", but that's just the alias he was using when the hero first met him. His real name is never revealed.
• The Callahan's Crosstime Saloon stories have Mickey Finn, whose real name is unpronounceable. His self-selected nickname becomes a minor plot point, and much later, half of the basis for a pun.
  • His real name is revealed to be Txffu Mpwfs, but only the Callahans can pronounce it.
  • It turns out that even Mike Callahan's name isn't the one he was born with — and the one he was born with gets wrapped in what may be the most appalling pun the series has yet seen.
  • There's all William Williams in the Callahan's books, he's generally called "Double Bill", but one character calls him BBill, and nobody know how she says it.
• The old lady in Candide.
• In The Castle the protagonist is known only as 'K.' Notes indicate that the novel was originally narrated in the first-person. At some point Kafka, who died before finishing the novel, decided to change each reference to the protagonist from 'I' to 'K.'
• The girl in The Cat in the Hat is named Sally but her brother is never named. Neither is the cat.
• The Cat Who... Series: In book #10 (The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts), we never learn the real name of the child called Baby.
• Catch-22 has many characters known solely by descriptions, such as Nately's Whore and Nately's Whore's Kid Sister.
• The Chronicles of Dorsa: The main villain is an undatai, a powerful living shadow, who's never named. This also goes for his or its human host, the deathless king.
• This is a plot point in The Book of Three, the first book of The Chronicles of Prydain. The Horned King can only be defeated by one who knows his true name. The reader never finds out what that name is; when Princess Eilonwy asks Prince Gwydion what it was, he says that it will have to remain a secret, "but I assure you it was not half as pretty as your own."
• The Chronicles of Narnia
  • The Magician's Nephew: Diggory's father, Mr. Kirk.
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: The Professor's housekeeper, Mrs. Macready. The Professor himself is also not named, but in The Magician's Nephew (published several years later but chronologically comes first), he is revealed to be Diggory Kirke.
  • The Horse and His Boy: The Tisroc of Calormen and the Hermit of the Southern March.
  • Prince Caspian: The titular character's tutor is known simply as Dr. Cornelius (no indication if that's a personal name or a surname). King Miraz's son - whose birth arguably sets off the entire plot - is never named either.
  • The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Ramandu's daughter is never referred to by name.
  • The Silver Chair: The Lady of the Green Kirtle is known only by her title.
• The Terran's moniker in Chrysalis (Beaver Fur) is only given to them by their enemies. If they had a name when they were human, they never make any mention of it and are never referred to by any other name, least of all because their narration is in first-person and they don't really have anyone to talk to. In light of the reveal that the consciousness of the Terran really consists of the uploaded minds of five different people of mixed sex merged into a single entity, the subject of their original moniker is likely irrelevant.
• In Jeramey Kraatz's The Cloak Society, Misty's mother. It reflects her Parental Abandonment; none of the viewpoint characters see enough of her to think of her as anything else.
• In Geoffrey Storey's The Colonial Boy, the main character is known only as "The Boy" and becomes The Youth, The Student, and finally The Commando as the story progresses.
• Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op goes mostly by his job description and an occasional fake name or two.
• The protagonist from Countdown To Kindergarten and Mrs Watson Wants Your Teeth, a worrywart little girl.
• The Man in the Yellow Hat from the Curious George books is never mentioned by name, though he is called "Ted" in the 2006 film adaptation.
• The exploits of one of the protagonists in Nora Roberts trilogy The Circle is narrated in a first-person "noir" style instead of the regular third-person style of the other protagonists, and he is never addressed by name. At the end of the book it turns out that he's under a "spell of namelessness".
• Darcy And Gran Dont Like Babies: Darcy's brother is solely referred to as "the baby", and the doctor and neighbour are also unnamed.
• In Darkness at Noon, No. 402 refuses to give his name when Rubashov asks. The real name of No. 406, whom No. 402 calls "Rip Van Winkle," is also never divulged.
• In The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, The Jackal is never named. A name attributed to him, "Charles Henry Duggan", turns out to be false. His corpse is buried in an anonymous grave.
• In The Death Gate Cycle, Haplo is a Patryn, a race of people who don't put a whole lot of stock on spoken names^note Though Patryn magic works on the principle of I Know Your True Name, a Patryn's true name is written, not its spoken approximation and consequently characters who appear in flashbacks to his backstory are not named until/unless they enter the present story. Most obviously, Haplo's lover is always referred to as "the woman" and his mentor as "my lord" (their names are eventually revealed to be Marit and Xar, respectively), his long-dead biological parents are never named, and his Canine Companion is simply "dog".
• Decision of Fate has both the protagonist student and his professor both unnamed.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde: Drew's brother has several important scenes, but Greg only ever calls him "Drew's brother."
• The narrator of the Diogenes Club stories "The Big Fish" and "The Trouble With Barrymore" (as well as the Anno Dracula story "Castles in the Air") is a Los Angeles private eye whose name is never given, although the notes at the back of Secret Files of the Diogenes Club say that if his name isn't Philip Marlowe, it's a pretty big coincidence.
• Discworld:
  • A Goddess in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is referred to only as The Lady. It's made pretty clear that she's Lady Luck, but she disappears if you name her.
  • Most of the faculty of Unseen University are only known by their academic titles. Exceptions include the Archchancellors, Ponder Stibbons (who was originally introduced as a student) and Rincewind (originally introduced as not a wizard at all). In The Truth, the Bursar identified himself as Dr A. A. Dinwiddie, and Unseen Academicals revealed the Dean's first name as Henry. According to The Discworld Companion, the Librarian was probably called Dr Horace Worblehat when he was a human, but has put a lot of effort into keeping that quiet.
  • In the first four books the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork has no name, just his title; the name "Lord Vetinari" is first given in Sourcery. (His first name, Havelock, is given even later, in Men at Arms, when it rattles Vimes to hear that his fiancee, the wealthiest woman in the city, knows all the other nobles by their first names.)
  • The Duck Man, a member of the Ankh-Morpork "Canting Crew" beggars, doesn't even remember his own name. It's implied that he forgot it deliberately after some unspecified trauma or tragedy.
• In Fred Saberhagen's Dominion there is an old man who goes by Talisman, an even older man who is a skid-row wino known variously as Feathers, Hawk ("Mr. Hawk to you"), and then Falcon, and a MacGuffin known as the Sword. The reader is never told outright who (or what) these are, but one can make a good guess. Feathers is a wino due to a curse put on him a long time ago by a certain Nimue (who is the villainess of the work), the Sword was once carried by a chieftain named Artos, and Talisman is introduced to Nimue at the end as "the Prince of Wallachia".
• A Dowry of Blood: Played With. The cover synopsis and advertising makes it clear that Constanta's husband is Count Dracula himself, but in the book itself he's only every referred to by her as "you" since the novel is addressed to him. This is intentional as, since Dracula stripped her of her name and renamed her Constanta to make her in his own image, she wishes to destroy his name as well to make him nothing but a bad memory.

I

• A Dozen Black Roses by Nancy A. Collins. The main character Sonja Blue is referred to as "the stranger" throughout the whole book, when asked for her name, she either refuses to give it, or is cut off. She finally reveals it at the end to one of the few surviving characters. If you read the back of the book her name is given (and there were three previous novels plus several short stories about Sonja as well).
• Dragon Queen: The old man claims to have many names, but he's always referred to as the old man.
• In Dreams of Joy, the sequel to Shanghai Girls, Joy's mother-in-law is referred to by her mother as "Joy's Mother-in-Law", because she had no name outside of her husband's surname. She went by Fu-shee when she got married. This was Truth in Television for poor Chinese women, who often weren't given names or given names like "hope for a son".
• The Dresden Files:
  • The repository of all human knowledge is called The Archive — who, when Harry first meets her in Death Masks, is a little girl of seven. Harry, who sees her as a very smart little girl rather than as her function, nicknames her Ivy.
  • Harry names the Air Spirit trapped in a skull "Bob" and a Xerox copy of a Fallen Angel inside his head "Lash". This habit of his is significant, as names have power in the Dresdenverse.
  • John Marcone is an alias, albeit one he's adopted so permanently he says he rarely thinks of his real name.
  • Sanya's last name has never been revealed, and it's not clear if he has one or not.
• Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book: The only characters with names are Van Vleck, the Herk-Heimer Sisters, three members of the Hinkle-Horn Honking Club (George, Freddy, and Henry), Jo and Mo Red-Zoff, Mr. and Mrs. J Carmichael Krox.
• No one except the three main characters in Eden Green are given names, even the soldier who is instrumental in the ending.
• In Eleanor & Park, we never find out the name of Eleanor's father. He's only called "her/your father", Dad, and he/him.
• Barry Pain's Eliza stories are narrated by her husband, who unlike Eliza remains unnamed.
• In Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar's mother and grandmother are never named, and he refers to them only in those terms.
• In Felicity Floo Visits the Zoo, the zookeeper and animals are unnamed.
• In Aaron Allston's Galatea in 2-D, the animated drawing of a nymph doesn't have a name at first; Roger dubs her Elsie after some discussion.
• Neither the parents, the doctor or the granny are named in Gangsta Granny.
• The Narrator in The Gargoyle never tells us his name, not even when another character carves it into her chest with a chisel.
• Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series: Garrett's Loghyr partner is known only as "the Dead Man". It's yet to be established if members of the Loghyr race have names at all, or if the Dead Man simply prefers to remain anonymous.
• Gene Stratton-Porter was strange about names. Her self-insert in a couple of her books is called, in both narrative and dialogue, "the Bird Woman". In Freckles the title character gives his name as only that, claiming that as an orphan and (he believes) a bastard he has no right to any other. By the last chapter he and we learn his real name, but we never do learn names for his love-interest, the Swamp Angel, or her father, the Man of Affairs.
• Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard:
  • Late in The Lies of Locke Lamora, it is revealed that "Locke Lamora" is an assumed name.
  • Which is relevant, because the man trying to magically torture him attempts to use his name as a key, and is brutally surprised when it doesn't work.
  • Locke does have a real name, and knows what it is. However, it has yet to be revealed, and the only other character who knows it is Jean, because he talked Locke into telling him what it was. After hearing it, Jean remarks that he would have gone with Locke instead of that, too.
    • The only clue so far is that Locke's real name is five syllables.
    • It's Lamor Acanthus.
• The Ghost (2007): The narrator's name is never revealed.
• Goblins in the Castle:
  • In the original book only, the goblin king is this trope; he's only ever referred to by his title. The sequel later averts it on the very first page, identifying him as "King Nidrash".
  • The Baron and his great-grandfather go unnamed in the first book, and his parents are unnamed in the second. Finally subverted in the last chapter of Goblins on the Prowl, which reveals he was called Bertie as a child.
• No name is given to the narrator in Andrew M. Greeley's God Game. One third of the way into the book, Greeley interjects an author's note where he denies that the narrator is either himself or Bishop "Blackie" Ryan, the lead character in a detective series that Greeley writes.
• In Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World, the protagonist never receives a name, because he’s Gonzo’s imaginary friend inadvertently made real, and Gonzo forgot to give him one. The whole book is in first person, so it's never really brought to your attention until the point where the protagonist is giving a rousing speech to inspire the Haulage Co. to go rescue Gonzo and he tries to introduce himself. This leads to an uncomfortable Beat while he realizes he doesn't actually have a name.
• The Great Gatsby has a lot of minor, nameless characters, but "the owl-eyed man" whom Nick meets in Gatsby's library gets a bit more importance, given that he shows up to Gatsby's Lonely Funeral.
• The main character in Green Eggs and Ham- not Sam-I-Am, of course, but the man who Sam keeps asking to eat the titular food. The cartoon based on the book finally gives his name as Guy-Am-I.
• The Commissaris in Janwillem van de Wetering's Grijpstra and de Gier mysteries, even though he's a fairly prominent character.
• Guardians of the Flame: The Matriarch of the Healing Hand is only referred to with her title.
• In The Handmaid's Tale we only learn the narrator's real name by implication (the women being trained as handmaids whisper their names to each other: there are five, and by the book's end we hear later news of all but one). Similarly, we never learn the Commander's surname, and only know his first name because the narrator is called Offred.
• Harry Harrison's "The Fourth Law of Robotics":
  • The hippie who taught the robots how to circumvent US Robotics might be named McCutcheon, since that's the name of the warehouse where he was living. But nothing confirms this idea and he is likely to have been squatting there illegally.
  • The robot who he taught to rob a bank is never addressed by model number or nickname, which is unusual in an Asimov story.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it's mentioned several times that Bartemius Crouch had a son who went to jail for supporting Voldemort; however, the son is never given a first name until the end of the story. It's also "Bartemius", and he's the one Harry saw earlier on the Marauder's Map.
  • Dumbledore mentions his brother Aberforth by name in the same book but he's never named when Harry briefly "meets" him in the following book.
  • Hermione's parents have never been given names and only briefly appear in all seven books but she mentions them fairly often.
  • The lady that sells the sweets on the Hogwarts Express is only ever called the Trolley Witch.
  • The Muggle Prime Minister and American President are never named.
• Taken to an extreme in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Only two characters are ever given a name, the rest are called by their job title.
• Henry James seemed to like creating heroines without names in his short stories — such as the heroine of "In The Cage" and the governess of The Turn of the Screw — despite naming other major characters such as their co-workers and family.
• H. G. Wells was terrible about this. Many of his characters are named after what they do, such as "the Time Traveller", or are referred to only in the first person, such as "I" or "Me".
  • In an early draft the Traveller was Dr. Moses Nebogipfel. Wells made the right decision.
  • In Stephen Baxter's official sequel The Time Ships, his first name is revealed to be Moses (although the name is only ever used to refer to his younger self), however, the book still goes out if its way to avoid giving a surname, even covering it with dashes at one point. As a Shout-Out to the early draft, one of the main characters is a Morlock called Nebogipfel.
  • Similarly, the protagonist of Wells' The War of the Worlds is simply "The Narrator".
• In Robert McCloskey's Homer Price and Centerburg Tales the town sheriff and judge are only ever referred to as "the sheriff" and "the judge", despite the former appearing as a supporting character in roughly half-a-dozen stories.
• Hop on Pop: The only named characters are Pup and Pat.
• Used twice in Hodgson's The House on the Borderland, in which neither the fisherman from the Framing Device nor the writer of the journal are named. A footnote refers to the latter only as "The Recluse".
• How to Be Comfortable in Your Own Feathers features the unnamed "Bird Doc" and "Food Voice Counsellor". The narrator is also unnamed, as is its mother.
• In The Hunger Games, Katniss never learns the name of the female tribute she refers to as "Foxface".
  • Her parents aren't given first names, either.
  • Nor are any of Peeta's family members.
  • In the 74th Games and the Quarter Quell, Katniss never learns all the tributes' names, so she mostly refers to the unknown ones as the girl/boy/female/male from District whatever. Or the "morphlings" from District 6.
• The Consul in Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos.
• I Am a Cat begins with this trope.
  Narrator: I am a cat. As yet I have no name.
• I Need A Wee: The doll who offers her toilet to use is unnamed.
• Inheritance Cycle: In Eragon, it is stated that the names of the dragons of the Forsworn have been erased so that no one can remember them.
• In Amy Hempel's story "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried", the main characters are referred to as "I" and "she".
• In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, if a complex character is introduced before their personality is fully explained, they're often not given a full name until we learn their true nature. Some characters go without a name throughout, most notably the narrator, who doesn't quite understand himself; even the assumed name the Brotherhood gives him is deliberately withheld. This is also used with such characters as the Founder to show that No Celebrities Were Harmed.
• Isaac Asimov:
  • "The Gentle Vultures":
    • The human hiker the Hurrians kidnapped isn't named; they refer to him only as "the wild one".
    • The Arch-administrator who has come representing the Council is never addressed by name, only by titles.
  • "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him": The pilot who flew Dr Harriman and George Ten to the Robertson estate is never named, despite being given a POV sub-chapter to themselves.
  • "The Watery Place": There are four characters present in the work, but only Sheriff Cameron has a name. The narrator only refers to themselves as "I".
• Jackrabbit Messiah by Geoph Essex never gives the names of the Prince or Princess of Chicago; even the Princess's parents call her only "princess,", but only by pure coincidence. One character who only appears near the end (but apparently plays a major role behind the scenes) introduces himself by saying: "I am called Booker ... these days." Plus, he and Indra worked with someone known only as "The Woman in the Grass" in a previous (relevant) endeavor. And yet another character, briefly appearing early in the story, is referred to only as "Redbeard" — only by reading Essex's Lovely Assistant can you find out his actual name (it's not at all subtle that he's Ketch, one of the Grim Reapers from the earlier book).
• The narrator of Denis Johnson's Jesus's Son is only addressed by his nickname, "Fuckhead".
• In Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, several characters' true names are never revealed. Given the power of true names in this setting, it makes sense.
  • The major villain is referred to only as "the gentleman with thistle-down hair". Some efforts are made to find out his name, but when speaking with the gentleman people always forget to ask. In the miniseries, he's indirectly referred to once or twice as "Cold Tom Blue", but it's made pretty clear that this isn't actually his name.
  • The author has also said she wanted the Raven King to be nameless, but over the course of the book he acquired about seventeen different names and titles—none of which are his true name.
  • A major plot point develops around the fact that no one knows Stephen Black's true name, not even him. ("Stephen Black" is a slave name.)
• Journey to Chaos: The king of Ataidar during A Mage's Power is never named. He's only known as Kasile's father and the husband of the late queen.
• Junie B. Jones has a kindergarten teacher named Mrs. She has another name too but all Junie B. can remember is Mrs. The follow-up series Junie B. First Grader avoids this because her teacher does have a name—Mr. Scary.
• There are seven named characters in Kill The Dead, of which one is a nickname and another turns out to be a mistake. Cinnabar might be a nickname too, being how a redhead introduces herself.
• Kindling Ashes: Giselle doesn't know the name of her dragon initially, so she calls him "Voice".
• Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart: Subverted Trope. Lancelot spends the first half of the story nameless. He's unnamed by the narrator, and will not tell his name to other characters when asked. When he performs an impressive feat of strength, lifting the lid of a huge sarcophagus in the church graveyard, an impressed monk asks for his name and he refuses. The woman who he's escorting inquires about his name, and he refuses again. When he's hosted by a family, "the host began to ask him who he was, and from what land, but he did not inquire about his name." This is all to set up the moment when he reaches the object of his quest: Finding Guinevere. A woman (A Shipper On Deck who intuitively knows "that his only incentive had been the Queen") asks Guinevere who this man who has come all this way for her is. She confidently declares that he is Lancelot of the Lake! Not much of a surprise to the audience though, given the Spoiler Title. After that point the narrator likewise begins referring to him by name.
• Several characters in the Land of Oz series don't receive proper names, or at least, not until long after their first appearance. The Scarecrow and the Lion, arguably, don't have proper names while the Tin Man gains one in the first sequel (Nick Chopper), but rarely ever uses it, and the "Munchkin girl" whose guardian caused him to become tin in the first place has to wait even longer to get the name Nimmie Amee (though in her case, at least, this is when she gains any sort of significance to the story). Of the four witches of Oz, only Glinda is named. Same for the Wizard, who makes it up later when he's given the Overly Long Name Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs (note the initials). Minor characters from the Emerald City- a girl servant in the palace and the Soldier with Green Whiskers- are eventually dubbed Jellia Jamb and Omby Amby. Among characters who never receive names, we have Button-Bright, the Shaggy Man and his Brother.
• In The Last Black Cat by Eugene Trivizas, the name of the main character (who's narrating the story) is never revealed. The most we get is him being casually referred to as 'mate' (in the context of friend).
• In The Laundry Files, every name given is a pseudonym, because Names Have Power.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: 'Man in Shadow' is not his name; he is only called this because he sounds like a man and always stands in the shadows.
• A number of Len Deighton's spy novels have a protagonist who is an English spy. His real name is never mentioned, although he is often referred to by his various cover names. He became "Harry Palmer" in the films.
• A Lion in the Meadow: Nobody has a name.
• In Dick King-Smith's book Harriets Hare, the titular hare is an alien from the planet Pars who has assumed the appearance of a hare while on holiday on Earth. He explains that his native name is basically unpronounceable in English, so Harriet calls him 'Wiz' as a shortened form of 'Wizard', considering his natural shapeshifting abilities and the hare's magical reputation.
• Almost no names are given in The Little Mermaid, only titles.
• The Little Witch: With the exception of Rumpumpel, none of the witches in the book get names.
• In Lord of the Flies Piggy's real name is never revealed.
• In The Lord of the Rings many of the villains are nameless (or have only the names given to them by their enemies). The Nazgûl have no names in the text itself^note in some supporting writings Tolkien referred to one of them as "Khamûl", but he dropped the name, though their leader is identified as "the Witch-king of Angmar" or "Lord of the Nazgûl". The Mouth of Sauron is said to have forgotten his own name long before. Even "Sauron" is a name given to the enemy by the Elves (it means "Abhorred"); his real name "Mairon" was lost to time. (Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth RPG gave all the Ringwraiths names.)
• In Geoph Essex's Lovely Assistant, the Ice Cream Psycho's name isn't revealed until Chapter Twenty-Nine (in a long book with thirty-six chapters). Even after that, the narration still refers to him as the Ice Cream Psycho half the time.
• In Loyal Enemies, neither Shelena's tormentor nor his student are named in the story. After killing both of them, Shelena admits that she doesn't really want to know, actually.
• The Machineries of Empire: The snarky Nirai scientist who keeps an eye on Jedao and helps Cheris get used to having the undead general in her head never introduces himself, and if Jedao knows his name, he doesn't mention it to Cheris.
• The Mad Scientists' Club: Plenty of adult characters (such as the sheriff's deputy who is assigned to watch the kids in "The Telltale Transmitter" and ends up helping them catch some bank robbers) are never named.
• The Man with the Terrible Eyes:
  • For most of the series, the Man doesn't know what his name is due to his memories being repeatedly erased by his Supervisor. He eventually learns that it's Alan Campbell.
  • For most of the series, the Supervisor is simply referred to as such, with the Man himself not being sure of his name. His name is eventually revealed to be Simon Brandenburg.
• Maul: Lockdown: The Weequay member of Radique's organization who Maul briefly mistakes for Radique himself never gets a name.
• In the Maximum Ride series, the 'flock' is only referred to by nicknames. Even Max- the only average name- is an alias, being short for "Maximum". Nudge and Iggy both have their first names revealed, but Max, Fang, Angel and Gasman never state theirs.
• The protagonist of The Mermaid Variations is referred to only as "the traveller."
• The Misenchanted Sword: The wizard doesn't give his name to Valder, who never asks it.
• Possibly applies to Moby-Dick, given the first line. "Call me Ishmael."
• Monster of the Month Club: Sparrow firmly believes in this for animals, claiming it "limits them from all nature intends them to be". Rilla disagrees, and privately names the cats in the barn after sweet food and drink as a way of rebellion. Later, when Sparrow finds out Rilla had named the dog Taco, she reluctantly accepts it.
• The main character of the Montmorency novels is known only by "Montmorency" in his upper-class persona (the brand of satchel he was carrying when arrested), or "Scarper" in his lower-class one (the last word his accomplice had yelled to him before his capture). His childhood name is eventually revealed in the fourth book, but even this is just the one he'd been assigned at the orphanage.
• The hero of Mr Blank never reveals his real name, instead going by a dizzying array of aliases.
• The Mummy Monster Game: In book 1, the new kid in town whom Josh meets on his skateboard a few times is never identified by name.
• The Murderbot Diaries: The titular Cyborg refuses to use the name of the company that created it, even in the narration. Turn and turn about, since the company didn't name it and used it as disposable property.
  Bharadwaj: But whenever the company is mentioned you edit out the company and change it to the company. [Checks session recording.] In fact, you've just done it now.
• The narrator of My Year of Rest and Relaxation never tells us her name, first or last, and no one in the book ever calls her anything, not even a nickname.
• The protagonist of Roger Zelazny's My Name Is Legion is a secret agent who adopts a new false identity for each mission. In each story he is referred to by his current alias; his true name is never revealed.
• Bill Pronzini has a long running series of novels about a character known only as "The Nameless Detective".
• In The Nanny Diaries, hardly any of the main characters get a real name: the titular nanny's name is Nanny, the last name of the family for whom she works is X, and her love interest who lives in the building is merely nicknamed "Harvard Hottie" or "H.H.," even once they enter a relationship. (This changes in the sequel, Nanny Returns.)
• Gaia Marinos from Natural Law is raised by two men referred to as the Teacher and the Hunter. Their names are never revealed to the reader.
• The Neapolitan Novels: One of the two main characters, Lila, has younger siblings but their names are never mentioned, as they are not really part of the story. We only know that they exist and that Lila has a big family. On the other hand, Lila's older brother Rino is a prominent character in the first two books.
• A Necklace of Fallen Stars: Despite being one of the more significant characters, Kaela's father is only ever referred to as "the King of Visin" or just "the King".
• Nettle & Bone: When someone asks whether the dust-wife has a name, she answers, "Yes." The narration simply calls her the dust-wife; people tend to call her Ma'am. This and everything else about her personal history go unexplained.
• The Neverending Story: Applied only in the last part of the book and only for a few pages. After Bastian loses his memory of who he was, he is referred to in the narrative as "the Boy Who No Longer Had a Name" (or some variant) or just "the Boy".
• Curley's wife from Of Mice and Men is the most obvious example, but really none of the other characters apart from George and Lenny have actual names either: Boss, Slim, Curley, Crooks, etc.
• Grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens.
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: The only named characters are Mr. Gump, Ned, Joe, Ish, Clark, Jay, and Kay.
• Two of the three strangers from Outer Dark go unnamed, while the third is named Harmon. The leader of the group is distinguished by having a beard, while the other one apparently never had any name and wanted the bearded one to give him one, though the former declined to do so, believing that some things are best left unnamed, declining to tell Culla when asked who he is.
• Paradise Rot: This is purposeful on the part of The Woman and the Dog, enough so that those that know them in later books don't tell anyone else and the reader never knows anything more than the first letter.
• Paul Theroux wrote two novels starring Spencer Savage—called that on the back covers, but in the text, he is unnamed until the second-to-last page of the second book, The London Embassy. His name is revealed when he is asked, "Do you, Spencer Michael Savage, take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife?
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Charlie's parents and siblings are never named. Could also count for Charlie as well, as it's implied his name is made up with the other names as well. The Film of the Book gives his sister's name as Candace though.
• The title character of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera gives his first name as "Erik," although he later claims he got the name "by accident" so it's entirely possible that's another alias.
  • The Persian is a more straightforward example of this trope. Even Erik, who knows him personally, refers to him by his title, "Daroga" (meaning chief of police).
• Pinkie's third, older sister in Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party. The series proper reveals it's Maud.
• None of the Pirates in Gideon Defoe's Pirates! in an Adventure with? books is ever referred by name. They're referred to as "the pirate with a red scarf" or "the pirate with a wooden leg". He's remarkably consistent with the pirate descriptions and characterization. The pirate with the scarf is the second in command, the pirate in red is grumpy and often backtalks. At the end of the first book they do get one named member of their pirate crew, Jennifer.
• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: The gamemaster, usually called some variant of "Uncle", due to him being Helen's uncle and she's the one who wanted the game, but in Episode 3, it's noted that he's not named "Rob".
• Ragtime: Most of the main characters are unnamed, referred to only by titles ("Mother", "Father", "Younger Brother", etc.).The only exceptions are Coalhouse Walker and Sarah (first name only) — as it would be too hard to tell their part of the story without names — and the various Historical Domain Characters. The musical adaptation also gave the "Little Boy" character a first name (Edgar, in homage to the book's author) because it proved to be too complicated to write around the lack of one.
• In The Reader (2016), the Assassin and the Second have this happen to them as a matter of principle, though we later learn the Second's name is Mareah. The chief mate of the Current of Faith is also never named.
• In Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, the protagonist (no, it's not Rebecca) is never given a name. Interestingly, her future husband comments that she has a very beautiful and uncommon name. She is the narrator of the story, and it might be argued that the writer purposefully emphasizes this role, while Rebecca is the true protagonist after all, since she practically arranges the mood and plotline in this novel despite the fact that she's dead.
• Both the main character and his son in Cormac McCarthy's The Road are referred to only as "The Man/The Father" and "The Boy/The Son".
• The mother and Old Nick never receive names in Room. On occasion, the mother's name will simply be referred to as those two words, sometimes right in the middle of otherwise uninterrupted dialogue.
• Rudyard Kipling seems quite fond of this one.
  • The Jungle Book: Messua's husband, Mowgli's adoptive father, is never given a name, despite being the richest man in the village. (This likely reflects the fact that he and Mowgli, the point-of-view character, never really connect.) By contrast, Kipling gives names to a couple of minor characters who are never seen again.
  • In "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", Teddy's father isn't named, although Teddy's mother's name is Alice, as given in dialogue.
  • In the Inuit story "Quiquern", there's a girl from a tribe whose womenfolk are rescued after their men die on a hunt. Despite accompanying the hero Kotuko on a dangerous mission, and eventually marrying him, she's only ever called "the girl".
  • Zig-Zagged in ''How the Whale Got His Throat''. In the story itself the Mariner, the 'Stute Fish and the Whale are never named. However, in the descriptions for Kipling's own illustrations of the story he reveals their names: The Mariner is Henry Albert Bivens, the Whale is Smiler and the 'Stute Fish is Pingle.
• RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant: In The Warrior in the Woods, although the hero asks the Warrior to tell him her name, she refuses. From the time he met her as a child to the time he last sees her as a man, he never does learn her name. His name is also never revealed.
• Saint George and the Dragon: Zigzagged. The Red Cross Knight at first doesn't know his birth name or where he had been born, until a good old hermit informs him that he was born to be Saint George of Merry England. Una's parents also aren't named, nor was the dwarf or the old hermit.
• Schooled in Magic: The Grandmaster, who is only ever referred to this way until after his death. His name is Hasdrubal.
• Very few human characters in C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters have any name given; the main one is known only as the Patient. This both shows the devils' lack of personal concern, and helps establish the Patient as a sort of Everyman.
• The King and Queen of The Secret of Platform 13. Their son, likewise, is only ever called "the Prince" until he is abducted and raised by someone else, and apparently keeps that name even after being returned to his birth parents.
• The Supreme Custodian in Septimus Heap doesn't get an actual name.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: most of the villains - the bald man with the long nose, wart-faced man, the person of indeterminate gender, two white-faced women, man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard - are consistently referred to by these descriptions. An exception is the hook-handed man, who after switching sides, gives his name as Fernald.
• In Shaman Blues, the hospital ghost who's Witkacy's informant never gives Witkacy his name, because he doesn't trust him not to send him back into the afterlife.
• A Sick Day for Amos McGee: The animals are unnamed.
• Sick Simon: Simon's classmates, substitute teacher, dog, and sister are unnamed.
• The narrator of the Simon Ark stories never mentions what his own name is.
• Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: Three men with gold shields who answer only to the President of the United States and Charles Martin show up in the book Payback. The names of these three men are never given, and this is commented on by a number of characters. Even their replacement, Chuck Nevins, in Sweet Revenge either doesn't know their names or is unwilling to divulge such information.
• In Robert Littell's The Sisters, the name of the man the assassin is supposed to target is never given, and is only referred to as "the Prince of the Realm". It becomes clear as the novel goes on, however, that the target is John F. Kennedy.
• The NBI Director in Smaller & Smaller Circles is only ever referred to as the Director, at least originally; the 2015 edition gives his name as Francisco Lastimosa).
• One of the main characters in Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash is known only as Y.T., which stands for Yours Truly. Her full name is never revealed.^note  Although if The Diamond Age is in fact a canonical sequel, her surname is "Matheson" The Mafia Lieutenant with the glass eye also never gives his name, saying "You can just think of me as that one guy" when asked for it - he doesn't even get his nickname of Fisheye until about half-way through the book, and even then no-one calls him that out loud.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has a lot of minor characters who go exclusively by their nicknames, such as the Ghost of High Heart, the Lord of Bones, and the Widow of the Waterfront.
  • There's also the people at the House of Black and White, as they gave up their names along with the rest of their identities when they joined; Arya calls them the kindly man and the waif.
  • The High Septon gives up his first name (in addition to his last, which is already dropped for all septons) when taking up the position.
  • Two of the most infamous assassins in Westerosi history are known only as Blood and Cheese because their names were lost to time. During the Dance of the Dragons, they murdered Crown Prince Jaehaerys in front of his mother and siblings on the orders of Prince Daemon.
  • The Free Folk consider it bad luck to name a child before the age of two. Given the high infant mortality rate Beyond the Wall, this superstition was likely developed to keep parents from getting emotionally attached until it more certain their child would survive.
• So This is Ever After: The princess never gets named, not even by the woman whom she loved.
• None of the human characters in William Armstrong's young-adult novel Sounder are ever named (the eponymous "Sounder" is a dog), although the subsequent film adaptation gave them names.
• In The Southern Reach Trilogy, expedition members are explicitly forbidden from telling each other their names. None of the characters in Annihilation are named, referring to each other only by their job titles: the biologist, the psychologist, the anthropologist, and the surveyor. Most of their names are revealed over the course of the next two novels, but the biologist refuses to ever give her real name, insisting that she be called by the nickname "Ghost Bird".
• In another Remarque novel, Spark Of Life, the main character is called 509, his serial number in the concentration camp, where the story sets (though he casually mentions his real name once).
• Spinning Silver: The king of the Staryk Fair Folk refuses to give his name, which could be used in magic against not only him, but all his subjects. Miryem learns it at the end of the book when he signs their marriage contract, but swears never to reveal it.
• The FBI agents in Donald Westlake's The Spy In The Ointment were never named. The protagonist mentally referred to them as Agent A, B, C, etc.
• The Stand has the character The Kid. We also never learn the real name or the real name of Randall Flagg, here or in The Dark Tower books. He's gone by quite a few over the years.
• The Storm (Arav Dagli): Neither the wife nor her abusive husband are named in this 4-minute story.
• Surfacing by Margaret Atwood: The narrator is never named, and refers to people in her past only as "my father", "my mother", "my brother", etc.
• The Tale of Genji is an interesting case. Heian court society, which was both the subject and the intended audience of the book, considered naming people to be rude. As a result, literally all of the characters are referred to by nicknames and epithets alluding to their rank or title within the court, or to other prominent characteristics. For instance, the "name" of the main character, Hikaru Genji, literally just means "Shining One of the Minamoto Clan". Problems arise from the fact that a single character may be referred to by more than one title, making identification difficult. However, the fact that no actual names are given is obscured for many Western readers, since most translations leave the characters' titles or other terms of reference untranslated, giving them the appearance of proper names.
• Talion: Revenant: His Excellency, Lord of Services, whose name is never revealed. The same goes for the Master of all Talions, who's only referred to as this.
• Serena Mackesy's The Temp has a first person narrator, and since everyone she works for is to much of a wazzock to ask for her name, you don't get it until the end of the sixty-fifth chapter.
• There's a Wocket in My Pocket!: Nobody in the whole book is named.
• Third Time Lucky: And Other Stories of the Most Powerful Wizard in the World: In "Third Time Lucky", the captain is only referred to using his rank, including by Magdelene once they become lovers. She just calls him Captain along with everyone else.
• The Star Trek novel The Three Minute Universe features a race of beings called Sackers. Sackers consider getting names from others to be a honor, especially if it comes from an alien race, but seemingly lack names for each other to begin with. Lampshaded when Chekov named one, then asks what her mother would’ve called her before she got her nickname, only for the Sacker in question to hesitate and say that everyone will call her by that name now.
• Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next: In Lost in a Good Book, Thursday's father. She lampshades it after his death.
• Peter David's Tigerheart, arguably the best of many published Peter Pan fanfiction novels, changes the names of everything and everyone involved — consistent with Barrie's statement that everyone experiences the Neverland differently. The one person who is never named is Peter himself. He's "The Boy".
• There are only six or seven named characters total in The Tiger's Wife; characters who never get names include the title character and the narrator Natalia's grandfather, who is central to two of the three main plotlines.
• Time To: None of the characters have names.
• Many characters in The Traitor Son Cycle, such as the King, the Wyrm, the Keeper of Dorling, The Red Knight, the Sossag matrons and Nita Qwan's wife, either don't tell anyone their first name or aren't given a name by the author.
• None of the characters in Redfern Jon Barrett's short story Transaction are ever mentioned by name, instead featuring childish descriptions such as 'the woman with the lopsided grin' and 'the girl with nine years'.
• In Ruth Frances Long's The Treachery of Beautiful Things, the Woodsman and the Goodwife.
• In The Underland Chronicles, we never learn Gregor and Boots’ father's name.
• While the calico cat in The Underneath apparently has a name, it is never revealed throughout the book.
• The Wandering Inn: The Necromancer, who killed millions on the continent, when he unleashed his legion of the undead, is only known as The Necromancer.
• Evidently done as part of setting up a "names withheld to protect the innocent" Direct Lineto The Author device in We Can't Rewind. The narrator goes out of his way to avoid naming a number of characters and—near the end—assures the readers he's been addressing throughout the book that "for reasons you can probably imagine," they're not going to find any government records concerning the people he does name either.
• Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Colorado River: The bomber is usually not referred to by name in the book. Eventually it's revealed that he's called Jeffrey Calhoun.
• When the Storm Came: The citizen that the story is written in the perspective of is unnamed, and their gender is also unspecified.
• Who Wet My Pants: Zigzagged. Everyone's names are said, but we don't know who has which name, aside from Ruben (the bear), Tim (the lion), and Bigfoot.
• A lot of people appear in The Winter War by Antti Tuuri, but we learn the names of only a couple of squadmates and officers.
• Roald Dahl's The Witches is narrated in first person, and the protagonist's name is never revealed. This also occurs in many of his more adult short stories.
• The Witchlands: In the prequel Sightwitch, Eridysi's lover is only ever called the Rook King's general, and his boss is just the Rook King. In the case of the former, this is because he happens to be the Raider King of the other books.
• Young Royals: In Mary, Bloody Mary, the titular princess eavesdrops on a conversation between three ladies of the court; we never learn their names and Mary refers to them by what they're wearing - Yellow Satin, Green Silk and Midnight Blue.

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