Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"

"Cecil Portesque: My first question has got to be, "Do you get tired of being called Millionaire?" The Deranged Millionaire: Would you? I enjoy being a millionaire very much. Mainly on account of the millions of dollars that I own. It reminds me of my wealth. Cecil Portesque: The other question I've gotta ask you... "Do you feel offended when people call you a Deranged Millionaire?" The Deranged Millionaire: Yeah, well, I once had a real traditional first and last name like most normal people back when I was a...a Sane Thousandaire."

- They Might Be Giants, Podcast 3A

A Sub-Trope of No Name Given in which a character who is not just a "victim" of Only One Name, but is only known by his job title or an obscure or odd word that functions as an unusual nickname.

Different from Only Known by Their Nickname, in that it is actually describing what they do. If the character initiates it, it's Spell My Name with a "The". May be the result of a Nameless Narrative. For parents, see Unnamed Parent. Compare with No Name Given. Related to They Call Him "Sword".

When it's not just a moniker but their actual name, it's a case of His Name Really Is "Barkeep".

Anime & Manga

 * In Ranma ½, Principal Kunō's first name is never mentioned. Even an anime-only episode where a copy of one of the principal's old high school report cards is the keystone doesn't give it to us. Some people have taken "Kōchō" to be his name, but this is just Japanese for "Principal".
 * The Jusenkyō Guide pushes this to the extreme of everyone calling him simply "Guide" (or "Mr. Guide" if they're polite.) Plum, his daughter, calls him "Father", but that's it.
 * There's also the Dojo Destroyer, a Giant Mook whose only claim to fame is to travel the country challenging dojos for their signs... and then using the conquered signs as weapons. Since he's just a very minor (and nearly harmless) Diabolus Ex Nihilo, he didn't even deserve a name.
 * In an incredibly minor example, Mousse receives a letter from his mother. Instead of her name above the return address on the envelope, it simply reads "Mousse no haha" -- "Mousse's Mommy".
 * Cafe owners in anime are regularly addressed exclusively as "Master" (the english word), most notably in Witch Hunter Robin where the Master of Robin's local cafe is a fairly important supporting character. It's apparently the standard in Japanese culture.
 * Kimagure Orange Road and Maison Ikkoku do the same.
 * In Code Geass, the empress of China HAS a name, but in the series she's only ever called the traditional title of "Tianzi". Her actual name, Jiang Lihua, is mentioned in artbooks and magazine articles.
 * This is because in Imperial China, it was illegal to call the emperor by his given name.
 * Miami Guns has the Hot Scientist "Kaken Musume", which roughly translates as "Science Lab Girl".
 * Eiken features "Komon-sensei" ("Ms. Advisor"; officially translated as "Teacher" or "Professor"), the Dojikko faculty advisor for the titular Eiken club. Though she has shown to be depressed that no one can remember her name.
 * Prospector, the accountant from Nergal aboard the Nadesico in Martian Successor Nadesico, is somewhere between this and No Name Given, since he never gets an actual name.
 * The Captain, The Doktor and The Major from Hellsing. While there are Fanon names for The Captain and The Major (Hans Gunsche and Montana Max respectively), they have never been officially named by Hirano within Hellsing canon.
 * Seras was originally only supposed to be known as "Police Girl" until the editors forced the writer to give her a name. Most people still only called her ''Police Girl, though.
 * In Ghost in the Shell, everyone calls her just ''the Major". Which is exactly what it says on her shoulders.
 * Her name is known to both the reader/viewer and her team-mates however. It's Motoko Kusanagi. It's described as an "Obvious Alias" in the manga however. According to the creator, an English equivalent of her name would be something like "Jane Excalibur". Obvious alias indeed. Appropriately enough, the creator's own last name (Masamune) is also a type of famous sword.
 * While his superiors call him by name, Chief Aramaki is mostly just "Chief", or "that old ape-face" to his employees. Then there are the Redcoats who also never get their names mentioned, the Operators who have no real names, being androids, and Proto, whose name is more like a description,
 * Hokuto's lackey in Cromartie High School is known just like that. While he DOES have a name, every time he tries to say it, he is interrupted somehow. So, no one really knows his name. According to the DVD extras, even the original Japanese recording scripts only refer to him by this designation.
 * The same thing happens to Mendo's butler in Urusei Yatsura.
 * King Nikochan's sidekick from Dr. Slump is never referred to by name.
 * A demon encountered early in the Berserk manga is a noble simply referred to as "the Count."
 * The Medicine Seller (Man/Peddler, depending on the subtitles), even calls himself 'Medicine Seller'!
 * In a skit of Zodd and Phil of Berserk Abridged, when Zodd is asking the barkeep to change the T.V. to G4, he takes offense to the fact that everyone calls him Barkeep.
 * Similarly, the Medicine Seller from Mononoke is only ever known as that, despite the fact that he also doubles as a badass demon hunter!
 * In The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon's younger sister is only known by, well, Kyon's sister. Not even the original light novels give her an actual name. The more minor character, the president of the computer club, is also invoked by this trope. Kyon himself is affected, though it's currently guaranteed as a possible plot point.
 * Even during the baseball game her name is humorously put down as Kyon's sister.
 * The Sankt Kaiser (Saint King) in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is only known as the "Sankt Kaiser". The Sankt Kaiser's clone has a name which the Sankt Kaiser might share, but whenever people talk of the original Sankt Kaiser, it's always as the Sankt Kaiser.
 * Nanoha Vivid reveals that her name is Olivie Segbrecht.
 * In Fate Stay Night, the Servants are called by their character classes to disguise their true identities (and thus, their legendary weapons, abilities, and weaknesses) from their opponents.
 * The "Mr. Newspapers" of every nation in Axis Powers Hetalia.
 * In Naruto most of the Kages are only addressed by their title preceeded by their place, and it's often shorten to the place (e.g. Third Hokage, shortened to "The Third"), though Tsunade is still called by name occasionally. We eventually find out what the other four Hokage's names were, in order, (both sort of a spoiler), Hiruzen Sarutobi (who's family name was referred to by Orochimaru, but his given named wasn't revealed until the release of a databook that came out nearly a decade after the series started and isn't used in series until even later), and
 * Soul Eater has Spirit, who is Shinigami's current Death Scythe. Almost everyone just calls him Death Scythe (apparently it's down to him being Shinigami's personal Weapon as opposed to 'just' a Weapon who has the rank of Death Scythe), including the other Death Scythes.
 * Except Stein (who calls him 'senpai') and, interestingly, Shinigami himself (who calls him Spirit).
 * Oddly seeing as he is Maka's (Spirit's daughter) partner, even Soul Eater didn't know Death Scythe's real name until Maka pointed it out during their battle with Stein.
 * Pani Poni Dash! in the dub. While the original Japanese version has him go by his rank, all the aliens refer to their captain as "alien captain." Also, the second episode starts out this way because Rebecca's too lazy to learn the names of her classmates, calling them by a significant trait they possess...except in the case of Kurumi Momose, who's distinguishing characteristic is that she has no distinguishing characteristics.
 * Happens quite a few times in Mahoujin Guru Guru. All but a few characters call Nike "Hero". Udberg Eldol is known almost exclusively as Old Kita Kita Man after his Kita Kita dance. Sly, already using a codename, is always called Boss. A slight subversion is Runrun, who Kukuri and Nike only know as the "Dark Magic Society Lady" because Runrun deliberately tries to keep them from learning her Embarrassing First Name.
 * The eponymous Index from To Aru Majutsu no Index is a living library who has memorized thousands of magical texts and can repeat them verbatim. Even her passport is signed as "Index Librorum Prohibitorum" (approx. "Forbidden Books' Index", in actual Latin) but no one ever questions what Touma points out to sound like an obvious fake name.
 * Interestingly, said passport reveals that Librorum Prohibitorum is actually her given name. Therefore, everyone's on Last-Name Basis with her (except Misaka who's on a Hey, You-basis).
 * Most people in Hidamari Sketch have Only One Name already, but the principal and the landlady are just "the principal" and "the landlady."
 * Master Asia from G Gundam, which is a Pragmatic Adaptation of his title, Touhou Fuhai (Undefeated of the East). His real name is never given in the anime, but the prequel manga Fight 7th gives it as.
 * In Prince of Tennis Momoshiro tries to invoke this trope with Tachibana An, only ever calling her "Tachibana's Little Sister" ("Tachibana-imouto"). It isn't until she that he actually calls her An. He then corrects himself, calling her "Tachibana's Little Sister", and she tells him to just call her An.
 * Hell Teacher Nube. Nube's actual name is Meisuke Nueno. Nobody calls him that except Minako-sensei and.
 * An episode of Gintama featured Kondou playing a barkeep known only as "Master" (roughly the Japanese equivalent of, well, "Barkeep"). It turns out that the nickname is actually short for "masturbation", due to his pelvic thrusting while mixing drinks.
 * Black Butler has Undertaker who works as... you guessed it, an undertaker. His name is Gratuitous Englishriffic.
 * Earl Ciel Phantomhive (Or Phantomhive-hakushaku in Japanese) is often referred to as simply Hakushaku by some characters. He's also just called "young master" or "bocchan" by all his house staff.
 * Ouran High School Host Club has Tamaki's grandmother, who for the longest time was only known as Obaa-sama, President Suou, or Suou Headmaster (the last two depend on the translators). Chapter 75 finally gives us a first name for her.  We're also given the Suou company's lawyer, Kousaka-san's, first name in chapter 75, over 20 chapters after her debut.
 * The most mysterious of the Five Dragons in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is usually referred to by fans as the "Fifth Dragon", because it hasn't surfaced as a card yet, and its true name still being a mystery. In series, it hasn't been mentioned at all, but did make an appearance in a flashback and in the credits. Because of this, fans often poke fun at it by giving it wacky and unusual nicknames.
 * Similarly, though he is a very prominent minor character, plot device, and a sort of spiritual mentor whenever we need some Plot enhancement, Yusei's father,, is never referred to as anything except Fudo Hakase. It means Doctor/Professor Fudo, but some fans less versed in Japanese think its actually his given name.
 * The Class President in Seto no Hanayome, who is never referred to as anything but "Class President".
 * In the same series, Lunar's dad is almost always just referred to as "Lunar's dad".
 * Similarly, The President of South Island in the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA.
 * Kaede's mom and dad in Ninin ga Shinobuden, who are never referred to as anything other than "Kaede's mom" and "Kaede's dad".
 * In Pokémon 2000, the Collector has a name—Jirarudan. But it's only given in the program book given out at Japanese theaters. The English closed captions refer to him as Gelarden, an acceptable romanization of the original, but it's still not said aloud and he still only ever refers to himself as "a Collector".
 * Uranai Baba of Dragon Ball. The name means "fortune-telling crone". Guess what she is and what she does.
 * Dragon Ball loves this trope. Muten Roshi, "Invincible old master". Kami-sama, "God". Kaio-sama, "Lord of the Worlds".
 * Android 17 and Android 18 were once human, but their real names are never revealed.
 * In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Tsuna's mom is referred to by almost everyone as "Mama".
 * In Death Note, Light is known to the world only as Kira. It's from the English word "killer". Because he kills people. Yeah.
 * A far more literal example is poor Watari, whose name derives from watashiyaku (渡し役), meaning "handler"—because he manages and takes care of L.
 * Jyu-Oh-Sei has Third who is named such because he's third in command in his tribe. A bit of a subversion in that he actually insists that people call him this, and never discloses his real name (until the end), claiming that he had forgotten it.
 * Medabots has Mr. Referee. It even goes so far that he calls himself Mr. Referee everytime he pops up.
 * The bus driver from Rosario + Vampire is only ever called the bus driver.
 * In Penguin Revolution, the president of Peacock's name is Hidemitsu Torii, but everyone - even his son and adopted son, who are both employed by Peacock as talents - calls him "President."
 * In Hekikai no Ai ON, Seine is frequently called a witch instead of her real name.
 * THE iDOLM@STER - The Producer
 * The Professor in Nichijou is only ever referred to as that. Her family name seems to be Shinonome, but her given name has never been revealed.
 * In Saiyuki, 'Sanzo' is technically the name of the priestly order appointed bearers of the Sutras from the Dawn of Time, not the given name of one of the main characters. His Buddhist dynastic name, the closest thing he has to a first name, is "Genjyo" but it's rarely used except as part of his title or to distinguish him from other past or present members of the Sanzo priesthood (i.e., Koumyou or Ukoku). Goku was the first person to use "Sanzo" as if it were a personal name instead of a rank, because that was the only part of Sanzo's long-ass full title he could easily remember. Hakkai and Gojyo later picked up on this habit of Goku's when they met Sanzo.
 * Daily Lives of High School Boys"
 * Tadakuni's little sister Mei is always referred as "little sister" (imouto), even by people other than Tadakuni.
 * Sanada North Prefectual's Student Council President and Vice-president, and their counterparts in Central Prefectual, are only referred by their titles.

Comics

 * From Nextwave, the Captain. According to Aaron Stack, if the Captain ever had a real name, he's forgotten it. (He is not actually the captain of anything.)
 * It is later revealed he'd tried everything, including Captain ☠☠☠☠ ('☠☠☠☠' being an unspecified but extremely rude word), but been sued and/or beaten up by Captain America until he settled on The Captain. And he still had to pay "some Marine-looking melon-farmer" royalties.
 * The book's theme song, when describing each character's notable trait, includes the words "The Captain! / ...HIS NAME IS THE CAPTAIN!" (while describing, for instance, that one other character "Is going to microwave your ass").
 * In the Transformers comic series "The War Within: The Dark Ages", a character is introduced who is only ever referred to as "the Fallen," as his name was taken away from him by his fellow Transformers after he betrayed Primus and sided with Unicron.
 * His name used to be Megatronus Prime, and he was one of the original Thirteen before becoming The Fallen.
 * The Beano extends this to relatives of the characters so named - The teacher of the Bash Street Kids is called "Teacher" and his wife is "Mrs. Teacher". Similarly, one strip features the headmaster's brother - Mr. Headsbrother.
 * The Drummer. First name the, second name Drummer.
 * Tintin's constant companion is known only as Captain Haddock until the second last comic in the series, and Tintin rarely refers to him by anything else than simply Captain. In said comic, the Captain's first name is revealed to be Archibald.
 * The Reach Negotiator from Blue Beetle.
 * The Smurfs don't have names, but refer to one another as Brainy Smurf, Handy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, etc. This gets taken to the extreme in the live-action movie with the mention of Passive-Aggressive Smurf.
 * Used in a significant manner in V for Vendetta. The Head is only referred to by title for the bulk of the story...
 * In Calvin and Hobbes, the character of Uncle Max was short-lived because Bill Watterson realized it wouldn't make much sense for him to never refer to Calvin's parents by name (during his appearance, he referred to Calvin's dad as "bro").
 * Much of the cast of The Wizard of Id are referred to only by their title or job description: the King, the Wizard, the Duke, Turnkey, Lackey...
 * In The Katzenjammer Kids, the Captain and the Inspektor were are only known by their titles.
 * In WITCH, everyone refers to the Oracle as Oracle. Which leads to trouble while asking who was elected Oracle. ("What's the Oracle's name?" "You just said it"). A fallen Oracle is even unable to remember his name.
 * The Beast from Transmetropolitan. He presumably has a name but it's never shown on-screen, and claims everyone just calls him "The Beast"—including his own kids.

Films -- Animation

 * In The Polar Express, the credits list the main characters as "Hero Boy" and "Hero Girl."
 * A bit of a Genius Bonus from Mulan is that if one cross-references the storyline with history and myth and accepts that the "Huns" in the film are actually the Xiongnu, the Big Bad is in fact never referred to by his name but by his TITLE, as Shan Yu means "Majesty Sun of Heaven".
 * Doctor Facilier, the main villain of The Princess and the Frog for some reason, is always referred by everyone in the film as "The Shadow Man."
 * Also, according to Word of God, Evangeline (the Evening Star and Ray the firefly's love interest) is actually the Blue Fairy's real name.
 * The Big Bad of Disney's Dinosaur for some reason, is always referred by everyone as "The Carnotaurus." Guess what dinosaur he actually is! (hint: it's not the one you expect)
 * In Kung Fu Panda 2, the villain's second-in-command is simply referred as the Wolf Boss.
 * The Pirates!In An Adventure With Scientists takes this trope to its extremes by applying it to the entire main cast. The Pirate Captain leads a crew consisting of The Albino Pirate, The Pirate With Gout, The Surprisingly Curvacious Pirate, and various others. Assuming they have actual names, we never learn what they are. The only crew member with a revealed name is Polly, their pet Dodo.

Films -- Live Action

 * In Kill Bill the protagonist is known as The Bride. Later, she is called by the nickname Kiddo. Only later do we discover her real name is, but she is still called The Bride in the credits.
 * Which then add a.k.a. Black Mamba a.k.a.
 * The Producers: The Bartender is called 'innkeeper' by Bialystock while he and Bloom celebrate the expected failure of Springtime for Hitler.
 * In The Matrix, some programs are named after their function (e.g. the Oracle, the Trainman, the Keymaker, the Architect).
 * In the original Star Wars trilogy, The Emperor was never named (although the Star Wars Expanded Universe and later the prequel trilogy would specify his name as being "Palpatine.")
 * In That Thing You Do, not only is the bass player never referred to by any other name, but he is listed in the credits as T. B. Player.
 * The heroine in Sullivan's Travels is never referred to as anything but the girl, and is referred to as such in the credits.
 * The same is true of "The Girl" in the play and movie The Seven Year Itch.
 * Lucky Number Slevin has major characters named The Rabbi, The Fairy and so forth. When anyone asks why they are called what they are, the answer invariably is "because he is one".
 * In the Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World, when the Tyrannosaurus rampages through the streets of the city, one poor man makes a failed attempt to get into a building and becomes lunch. He's forever memorialized in the credits as "Unlucky Bastard." Talk about truth in advertising...
 * This character is played by David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay and therefore named this character as well as playing him.
 * Repo! The Genetic Opera abounds with these characters—Grave-Robber, Single Mother, Band Leader, News Reporter, and the Repo Man all count.
 * Hugh Grant's character in Love Actually does have a name—his sister calls him David. However nearly every character refers to him simply as "the Prime Minister", as do the credits.
 * In Australia, Hugh Jackman's character is only called the Drover.
 * The main character of Uwe Boll's In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is called "Farmer" because he was an orphan raised by the village (presumably, before actually becoming a farmer, he was just called 'Kid'). He tells his son that he believes people should "become" what they do.
 * Actually, the magus reveals his birth name when he.
 * Sarah Silverman's character in The Way of the Gun is credited simply as "Raving Bitch".
 * Withnail and I: The main character, played by Paul McGann, is credited as "...&I" (arguably his job, since he is the narrator of the film, and the entire thing is told from his POV) and his name is never mentioned during the film. In the screenplay he is identified as, taken by the fandom to be his surname (just as "Withnail" is a surname) and has been dubbed due to a misheard line of dialogue, although this has never been confirmed by anyone associated with the film.
 * His name however does appear in the film although it is not spoken. He receives a telegram towards the end which does have written on the envelope, although it is not particularly legible without pausing the film and zooming in carefully.
 * The Feast series rarely gives the main characters actual names; no names are ever mentioned in the dialogue and the in-film bios and the credits just use nicknames ("Hot Wheels", "Shitkicker", "Secrets", etc.) or just refer to the characters by what they are ("Heroine", "Bartender", "Bossman", etc.)
 * During Freddy's rampage at the pool party in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge one of the partiers tries to reason with him, and we're treated to a sequence of the guy treating Freddy like some kind of animal while trying talk him down ("It's okay, nobody's gonna hurt you"); Freddy hurls the guy at a barbeque, which blows up when the kid hits it. The credits just list the character as "Do-Gooder".
 * The credits of The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation refer to a character the protagonists are involved in a car crash with as "I'm Not Hurt".
 * None of the characters in The Driver have names. In the credits they're listed as The Driver, The Detective, The Player. etc. Also see the film Once, where the leads are simply referred to as "Guy" and "Girl".
 * Hilariously used in Rock N Rolla, with the Councilor, to the point when another character gives him something and says "It has your name on it", it actually says "The Councilor".
 * Many of the characters are not named fully. Tank, The Czar, Cookie, One-Two and Mumbles must be nicknames, and plenty of them don't have last names that we hear.
 * Many of the characters in The Fall, including the Indian, the Black Bandit, and "the actor with only one leg".
 * In Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress, the title character is always referred to as the Little Seamstress.
 * The character Charlie Chaplin played in most of his films was usually just called "The Tramp", as well as being an example of The Tramp.
 * Minor characters in The Naked Gun movies are identified only by their lines (e.g. "You Dumb Broad!", "It's Enrico Palazzo!")
 * The majority of characters in Cemetery Man refer to Francesco as "Engineer". Nobody calls him by his first name, except perhaps Franco.
 * The coffee shop owner in Pulp Fiction is credited as "Coffee Shop" due to his only line in the film being "I'm just a coffee shop--" before being interrupted.
 * The Butcher and the Postman in Delicatessen constantly refer to each other as "Boucher" and "Facteur" (it's a French movie).
 * In the Russian film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky the three main characters are Stalker, Writer, and Professor, each named for his profession. The viewers are never told their "real" names.
 * In RoboCop, the head of OCP is simply referred to as the "Old Man." No, not that Old Man.
 * Though they are given names in the film proper, marketing for Inception referred to the main characters by their role in the heist (The Extractor, The Architect, The Tourist, The Mark, The Shade, The Point Man, and The Forger).
 * In The White Ribbon, children have names but adults only referred as The School Teacher, the Doctor, the Baron, etc.
 * The Champ from Ricky 1.
 * In Bicentennial Man, the robot butler Andrew calls his human owners Sir, Ma'am, Miss and Little Miss. The characters are also listed that way in the credits. Everyone except Ma'am has their name said out loud at some point, but it's easy to miss.
 * In Waterworld, the main character is known only as the Mariner. Subverted in the extended edition, wherein after the heroes reach Dry Land, Helen gives the Mariner a real name just before he heads back out onto the ocean.
 * This trope is used to powerful effect in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance, causing the characters to become allegorical and thus universal (although some of them are historical figures).
 * The Professor, the spymaster in Hitchcock's North by Northwest.
 * "Oh, Stifler's Mom!!"
 * Zombieland: all the main characters call themselves after the city they are from instead of their names.
 * Hocus Pocus: Max is repeatedly called "Hollywood" by Salem, Massachusetts, delinquents Jay and Ernie (sorry, Ice) because he has recently moved to Salem from Southern California - and in Jay and Ice's minds, the only important thing about Southern California is Hollywood. (And the fact that "Holly" is a girl's name might also be a factor, in humiliating Max.)
 * Lady from The Quick and the Dead. She has a real name, but nobody in the town knows it and the audience doesn't learn it till quite late in the movie.
 * In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the two zombies are referred to only as "Quartermaster" and "Gunner".
 * In Snow White and the Huntsman, the Huntsman is exclusively known by his job title, though his real name is supposedly Eric.

Literature
""One of us must know his name, surely? Good grief, I should hope we at least know our colleagues' names. Isn't that so..." he looked at the Dean, hesitated, and then said, "Dean?""
 * Fagin from Oliver is named, but almost solely referred to as "The Jew".
 * The Berenstain Bears are merely called "Mama," "Papa," "Sister," and "Brother." Lampshaded when another girl makes fun of Sister's name.
 * Before Sister was born, Brother was just called "Small Bear."
 * The "man in the yellow hat" from the Curious George books. In The Film of the Book, he's named Ted.
 * In The Silver Chair, the fourth (or sixth) Narnia book, the Big Bad is merely called "the Witch," "the Queen," or "the Lady of the Green Kirtle."
 * The White Witch actually gets a name—Jadis.
 * Caspian's wife is never called anything but "Ramandu's Daughter."
 * The entity who created the Land in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is only ever referred to as "the Creator" or as
 * Of Mice and Men's "Curley's Wife" is a classic example.
 * Subverted in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. When Harry meets The Archive in Death Masks, a little girl who possesses the sum of all human knowledge, he insists on giving her an actual human name: Ivy.
 * Small Favor reveals that some in the White Council believe this to have the potential for some dangerous consequences.
 * Given the power that names have in the Dresdenverse, the White Council might be right. Stating a person's true name (and pronouncing it exactly as that person would) grants absolute power over the person whose name is being spoken. Now, Harry has named three extremely powerful entities in the Dresdenverse: . The first  ; the second  . It will be interesting to see if Harry's naming of Ivy has any impact in the future.
 * At this point he has also named . That one has been more or less explicitly stated by the Gatekeeper to have been a really stupid move.
 * At first glance, the Gatekeeper himself also seems like this, but at one point someone mentions that his name is Rasheed (or did they spell it Rashid?).
 * Again, at first glance, there's Chauncy, a demon Harry summons for information on occasion. The demon's True Name is actually Chaunzagorath (Or something along those lines), which is a bit of a mouthful, so Harry probably calls him Chauncy for the sake of not having to pronounce his name.
 * And we also have Mac, the proprietor of Mcanally's Pub (Which is Accorded Neutral Territory), who, according to Harry, brews the best damn beer this side of the Nevernever (Though there is something to be said about not drinking anything from the Nevernever), and Harry has wondered, on occasion, whether or not his name actually is Mac.
 * Conrad's Heart of Darkness only has three characters that have names (Marlow, Kurtz, and a minor character called Fresleven). Others include the Narrator, the Accountant, the Manager, the Director, the Director's Uncle, the Pilot, Kurtz' Mistress, Kurtz' Intended, Marlow's Aunt, the Russian, etc.
 * Terry Pratchett's Discworld has the Librarian of Unseen University, simply named "The Librarian". In his case, he actually takes great pains to hide his real name in order to keep the staff of Unseen University from turning him back into a human, since he prefers his current orangutan form. Just don't call him a monkey.
 * Most of his faculty colleagues just go by their job descriptions as well, such as The Dean, The Lecturer in Recent Runes, and the Bursar. The Bursar's real name has been given as Arthur A. Dinwiddie ("That's Dinwiddie with an o."), but it's rarely used. This was lampshaded in The Last Continent.


 * According to the latest (2009) Discworld novel, Unseen Academicals, the Dean's first name is . Ridcully at least has the excuse with regard to the Librarian that he was away from the University for 40 years and didn't know him before his accident. The Dean even uses his title to refer to himself. In Soul Music he monogrammed onto a leather jacket.

"Stupid Looking Kid: I think it's Keith. Maurice: You never said you had a name!
 * There are a few in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents: Rat Catcher 1, Rat Catcher 2, the piper and the Stupid Looking Kid. At least until:
 * Anthropomorphic Personifications tend to be "named" after whatever they're personifications of, for example Death and Time. Although"


 * In The Alchemist, almost every character is referred to by their occupation (the titular alchemist, the crystal salesman, etc.), and only a select few characters actually have names (including the main character, Santiago the shepherd, but even he is victim to this trope; his name is only mentioned in the first line of the book and he is simply referred to as "the boy" afterward).
 * It could be an allusion to Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, for the main character's name was also Santiago, but he is almost strictly referred to as 'the old man' throughout the novel.
 * "The Old Man", erstwhile owner of "The Tell-Tale Heart" in the Edgar Allan Poe's story of the same name.
 * The two main characters of Cormac McCarthy's The Road are only ever refered to as the Man and the Boy.
 * In one of Rick Cook's Wiz Biz novels, the main character asks his wife "What's his name, anyway? Everyone calls him Dragon Leader." His wife replies "Ardithjanelle. It means 'Shy flower of the woodlands.' It seems his parents were expecting a girl." The main character decides just to call him Dragon Leader.
 * In Jose Saramago's novel, The Blindness, none of the characters have a name. They are referred to by their profession or physical appearance.
 * In the classic Japanese novel The Tale of Genji (which is considered by some to be the first modern novel), characters, especially women, are only referred to by titles, descriptions, and honorifics; their actual names are never mentioned. (Doing so would have been considered very rude.)
 * Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales are never given names. They're merely identified by their position (The Pardoner), Occupation (The Miller), or status (The Wife of Bath, The Knight). There are only two exceptions:
 * Lady Eglantyne (which is only a title).
 * The Miller's name is Robin.
 * Older Than Feudalism: The Pharaoh in the book of Exodus in The Bible is referred to only as Pharaoh. (Which has led to no end of confusion for modern scholars trying to figure out exactly which Pharaoh it was... so far none of them have owned up to it.)
 * Everyone in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
 * Diane Duane's Young Wizards books have the Lone Power—the other Powers we meet seem to have actual names, but the Lone Power is only ever referred to as such or by the name some specific culture calls It.
 * Justified Trope. Naming a Power, any Power, in the Young Wizards books seems (probably a deliberate move on Duane's part) to be like naming a god in certain real cultures: even if you can obtain and pronounce Its true name the sheer extra-dimensionality and, well, power that comes with invoking such a name will probably kill or injure you in the process. However, the two main characters manage to speak the true name of the Lone Power once, while at the peak of their power as wizards. Mainly because being able to speak someone's truename allows them to alter it;
 * The main Caucasian family in Ragtime are only referred to by their designation within the family -- "Mother", "Father", "Mother's Younger Brother", "Grandfather". When this was adapted to musical theatre form in 1998, "The Little Boy" was given the name of Edgar (named after E.L. Doctorow, who wrote the novel).
 * Similarly, the Jewish immigrant family is referred to as "Mameh", "Tateh", and "The Little Girl," the former two being Yiddish for "Mother" and "Father." Aside from the Walkers, almost everyone in the novel with a name is an actual person.
 * In Mickey Zucker Reichert's Renshai series, there is a character that goes by "Captain" who is, in fact, a captain of a ship. When other characters ask for his real name, he says that "Captain" is his real name, because it's the name he uses for himself. Although Frey does eventually reveal Captain's original name.
 * H. G. Wells' The Time Machine has a framing story of the Traveller telling his tale to a group of men. Apart from Filby, all are identified by their description: The Editor, The Provincial Mayor, The Medical Man, The Time Traveller and so on.
 * In Stephen Baxter's authorised sequel, The Time Ships, the Traveler refers to his friend the Writer ... who is clearly H. G. Wells, but never named as such.
 * The Kzinti in Larry Niven's Known Space universe do not have names until they earn them through acts of heroism or importance. Until then, they're known by their rank or role, or familial relations until they've gained a role of some sort: Short-Son of Chiirr-Nig, Flyer, Engineer, Telepath, Speaker To Animals (diplomat to aliens). Speaker earns his name (Chmeee) after returning from the Ringworld.
 * Also from Larry Niven, the Warlock was so powerful that his nickname became a name for all wizards.
 * Much like Harry Dresden above, names in the Magic Gone Away world had power, so he took steps to prevent it. He was so powerful and so old that he had induced mutations in humanity such that no-one was even able to pronounce his real name anymore.
 * The Rostov children's uncle in War and Peace is only referred to as Uncle.
 * Kyrie's boyfriend in House of Leaves is only ever referred to as "Gdansk Man", Gdansk being the city in Poland he was born in.
 * The Ellimist in the Animorphs books has three names: his real name, his "chosen" name, and his "game" name. Ironically enough, his game name is the one we're familiar with; his chosen name is rarely-used Toomin, and his real name is the even more rarely used Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down-Messenger Forty-one. Makes sense, huh?
 * The Redwall book The Bellmaker features a baby mouse who is only ever referred to as "mousebabe". Brian Jacques, when asked what the mouse's real name was, responded "Didn't you ever know a family who always referred to the baby as just 'the baby'?"
 * In most likely every book in the series, there's also at least one otter character whose title is "Skipper of Otters", and is referred to throughout the book as "Skipper", though they all probably have their own names. There are also the Gousim Log-a-logs, which have their own names but are normally referred to as "Log-a-log So-And-So."
 * All the characters in The Hunting of the Snark, except one who has No Name Given.
 * Fool by Christopher Moore has a royal food taster whose actual name is Taster. Several of the nobles are also referred to solely by their titles as well.
 * In Stanislaw Lem's novel Eden, the characters (the crew of a spaceship) are only referred as the Captain, the Engineer, the Doctor, the Chemist, the Physicist, and the Cyberneticist.
 * Lem subverts his own convention halfway through the book, when in the only scene dedicated to character development, The Doctor gets a name - Henry.
 * Lords of the Bow includes a nameless assassin and spy who infiltrate the Mongol camp during the siege of Yenking. The spy goes by the name Ma Tsin, though this is a pseudonym, and the sections told from his Point of View only ever refer to him as 'the spy'. Bones of the Hills features the Old Man of the Mountains, imam of the Assassins.
 * In the original novel The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, there is a rather plot-central character known only as the Persian. He was unfortunately cut from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical based on said book, with Madame Giry somewhat taking over his role.
 * Done frequently and hilariously in Catch-22: Nately's whore, Nately's whore's kid sister, Nately's whore's pimp, the Texan, the Soldier in White, the Soldier Who Saw Everything Twice, the C.I.D. Men, the Maid in the Lime-Colored Panties, and Dreedle's Girl.
 * In Shogun, only the ruling class have actual names: everyone else is called things like "Old Gardener" (except prostitutes who take the names of flowers.) The protagonist ends up being called Anjin-san, which is a polite way to refer to his job as Pilot of a ship.
 * The alien subject named "Subject" from Blind Lake. Done deliberately by the scientists who named it, to avoid the temptation to anthropomorphize it.
 * The Mouth of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings is only ever referred to as the Mouth or the Messenger (both titles descriptive of his role in Sauron's hierarchy—he's the one who takes Sauron's words and relays them to both minions and enemies). This is justified because he gave up his real name so long ago that even he has forgotten it.
 * Gandalf is another example. He revealed his real name (Olorin) to very few people in Middle Earth, so he's mostly known by the the descriptive names he's been given in various languages: Mithrandir ("Grey Wanderer") and Gandalf ("Wand Elf"). At a few points, people who're asked whether they know Gandalf say that they don't know his real name, and just call him what everybody else does.
 * At the beginning of Fellowship, Aragorn is known to most as "Strider"
 * Some Elves' names are their profession or skill: e.g., Lindir of Rivendell ("singer" or "bard").
 * Farmer Maggot's wife is never referred to by name.
 * In The Hobbit, neither the Elvenking or the Master of Lake-Town are named. In The Lord of the Rings the former's name is revealed to be Thranduil.
 * In the Warcraft Expanded Universe novel Lord of the Clans, one of the few good humans is called only "Sergeant".
 * The man in the yellow suit from Tuck Everlasting is always referred to as such.
 * Gabriel from the Wicked Lovely series. The leader of the hounds is always the Gabriel. It's a name of rank, not birth.
 * Not always, or at least, there's a Distaff Counterpart. When Ani talks about wishing to succeed Gabriel, she says she wants to be "Their [the hounds] Gabrielle." Gabrielle being the female form of Gabriel.
 * There are three characters in Alice in Wonderland with names; Alice herself and the White Rabbit's servants, Pat and Bill. (There's also the Rabbit's maid, Mary, and Alice's cat Dinah, but they don't actually appear). The rest are only known by their species (the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle etc.), their title (the King, Queen and Knave of Hearts, the Duchess) or their profession (the Hatter, the Cook, the Footmen).
 * Daemon gives us The Major, who is never known by any other name.
 * In Andy Hoare's White Scars novel Hunt for Voldorius, an in-universe example: Voldorius refers to Skall solely as "the equerry".
 * In The Sea of Trolls and the sequels, The Obi-Wan is only referred to as "the Bard" or "Dragon Tongue."
 * "The Bane" from The Underland Chronicles, though in Book 4,
 * At the end of the first Inheritance Cycle book, Eragon gets a telepathic message from someone called "The Weeping Sage," or "The Cripple Who Is Whole."
 * The Big Bad of the Fablehaven series is always called "the Sphinx" (or "the Ethiopian" at one point). He's not really a sphinx, he's just called this because he's full of riddles and mysteries.
 * In Robert A. Heinlein's All You Zombies, the narrators is only referred to as "the barman."
 * The emperor in Detectives in Togas is mentioned several times, but never by name. From the dates given in the story, we can conclude it's Tiberius, second Roman emperor.
 * In CS Lewis's Till We Have Faces, the King is known only as the King, except for once in the beginning when his name is given as Trom. Similarly, the first priest of Ungit is only ever the Priest.
 * The Consul in Dan Simmons's Hyperion.
 * Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy has The Fool.
 * The characters in The Annals of the Chosen are either known by their profession or a meaningful nickname. For example, the titular Chosen are generally known by nicknames based on their role, such as the Leader being Boss and the Swordsman being Blade or Sword.
 * In Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club the main character never gives his proper name. He is referred to as one of the many aliases he uses in his support groups and later in the film/book he is referred to as, but his true name is never told to us. In fact, he is only listed as The Narrator in the credits for the film.
 * The main character and narrator of The Diving Universe is known only as Boss, neither giving nor using her real name.
 * The woman in yellow in Dirge for Prester John, called Theotokos, which is clearly not her real name. She is an authority figure, but how literally we should take this title is unclear as yet.

Live Action TV

 * Pilot from Farscape.
 * IIRC, Pilot (and other members of his race) have names the translator microbes couldn't cope with.
 * The Janitor from Scrubs—he even calls himself that..
 * But unfortunately as soon as J.D. leaves, . That is, until Word of God confirmed that the Janitor was telling the truth for once.
 * Star Trek: Voyager has the Emergency Medical Hologram, but since that was too long, they just called him The Doctor, which he kept for the entire series despite frequent prodding by other crew members to come up with a name (and the occasional Reset Button when an episode had him adopt one on his own). In his case, it was because he had a computer's knowledge of languages, and everything he liked the sound of tended to mean something offensive in some language or another.
 * He did eventually decide on a name for himself in the series finale: However, the timeline in which he decided on this name was negated by Voyager coming home.
 * For that matter, The Doctor from Doctor Who. As well as several other Time Lords like The Master, The Rani, The War Chief, and The Meddling Monk. Most known Time Lords do have names, but losing the right to use it seems to be an intrinsic part of becoming a Time Lord Renegade.
 * Drax seems to get away with using his real name, but then again, he isn't nearly as big a troublemaker as the other Renegades.
 * The Doctor Who Expanded Universe has given names to all the renegades... except the Doctor. . All we know about the Doctor is that he used to be called Theta Sigma, or Thete - but that isn't his actual name.
 * However, it's not exactly clear weather the above mentioned names are the characters' real names, or nicknames that they gained in the Time Lord Academy.
 * It's also worth noting that.
 * When the Doctor encounters a woman from his own future whom he has not yet met,, she convinces him that he will one day trust her implicitly by whispering his true name in his ear.
 * Also from Doctor Who, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is almost always referred to as simply The Brigadier.
 * The episode "Midnight" lampshaded the fact that one character was only known as "the Hostess".
 * In "The Doctor's Wife", the Doctor receives a message from a Time Lord named the Corsair.
 * In fact, it has been revealed that the oldest question in the universe, the one the Doctor has been running from his entire life is
 * In the first Star Trek: The Original Series pilot, "The Cage", Captain Pike's second-in-command is only addressed as "Number One" (i.e. first officer).
 * A novel by D.C. Fontana claims she hails from a planet where everyone is genetically engineered, and her name actually is "Number One".
 * Gilligan's Island had the Skipper and the Professor. (And Gilligan, too, although that at least was the character's actual last name.)
 * Technically, they have names. It's just that they aren't used outside the pilot. The Professor is "Roy Hinkley", and the Skipper is "Jonas Grumby". There is no official word on Gilligan's first name, but the fan rumor is "Willy".
 * Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica Reimagined wasn't referred to by his full name until well into the series—even his lover, Sharon Valerii, calls him "Chief". Word of God was originally she was going to use his name when but his name had not been mentioned before and they didn't want people suddenly being jerked out of the moment by his being referred to as Galen for the first time. Even after he is later demoted several people call him Chief, probably by force of habit.
 * Similarly most of the pilots are rarely if ever called by anything except their call signs; even Helo's lover (... also Sharon Valerii, but a different one) calls him Helo. Hence the subtle power of the scene where she is given the call sign Athena. It shows that the pilots now understand she is a different person to Boomer (the origonal Sharon Valerii) and have accepted her as one of them despite the fact that they know full well she is a Cylon.
 * Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide has a few, such as Backpack Boy and Coconut Head.
 * Possibly also has aversions, as Martin Querly was originally described by the adjectives Smart and Squirelly, and Billy Loomer was Bully (possibly Bully Loomer, not sure).
 * The Waitress and The Lawyer on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
 * Government ministers on Spooks are consistently referred to by their titles, even semi-regular characters like the Home Secretary.
 * Ned from Pushing Daisies is always referred to by the narrator as "The Pie Maker" (and "Young Ned" in childhood flashbacks), although most of the characters in the show do call him by his first name. His last name hasn't been given.
 * Frequently in the series, Ned's love interest Chuck is referred to as "Dead Girl" by Emerson Cod.
 * Mall Cop from Naturally, Sadie.
 * Chef in Star Trek: Enterprise. (No, he was not Will Riker.)
 * In Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sabrina always calls her Quizmaster... Quizmaster. She later finds out in one episode that his name is Albert, and she remarks that she always thought his name really was Quizmaster and the fact that it was his occupation was just a happy coincidence.
 * Earl always refers to Darnell on My Name Is Earl as "Crab Man", and his relatives (or pets) as "Crab Man's (insert position of relative or pet)".
 * Lieutenant Murtagh from Family Matters had his first name name legally changed to "Liuetenant." When he told this to Carl, and Carl asked him what his name was before the change, he answered that it was "Sergeant."
 * Nursie in Blackadder II, sort of. She certainly goes by her title, even though it's not even role she properly fills anymore (granted she continues to do so anyway) but she does admit her real name as being Bernard.
 * "The Host" had been appearing for nearly a full season on Angel before we learned his name was Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan, Lorne for short.
 * Not only the audience, but the main characters as well. They never bothered to ask.
 * The One-Armed Man, in The Fugitive.
 * In The X-Files, the Cigarette Smoking Man's first name was never revealed, and he didn't even get a last name or initials until midway through the sixth season. Many other significant characters are only given descriptive names like "the First Elder" and "the Well-Manicured Man."
 * "Daddy's assistant" (also The Ghost) in The Latest Buzz.
 * In Yes Minister, the Prime Minister is only referred to by his title. Extraordinarally, this is kept up when Hacker gets promoted into Yes Prime Minister: he only gets referred to as "His/Your/My Predecessor".
 * The main antagonist for the first two seasons of Supernatural is known only as "The Demon" for the first season, which is expanded to "the Yellow-Eyed Demon" for the second (out of necessity after other demons started showing up). His real name, Azazel, was only revealed
 * In the Leverage episode "The Bottle Job", the villain Mark Doyle's two henchmen are repeatedly introduced as "Liam" and "Liam's Brother".
 * Mike Chang from Glee, despite actually having a name, is known both in-universe and out almost exclusively as "Other Asian."
 * Not anymore. Since he an Tina got together in the second season, he's been given more screen time and more character development.
 * Mystery Science Theater 3000 gave us "Brain Guy", whose official name was actually "Observer", even in the credits, for quite a while. Eventually "Brain Guy" stuck, though, especially when he was forced to confront his former fellow Observers in favor of humanity.
 * The Duke of Cornwall in the 1998 Merlin series. His name in the actual legends is usually Gorlois or Hoel, or sometimes not mentioned. In this series, however, he is simply referred to as "Cornwall". Made even stranger in the novelizations, where the name Gorlois was attributed to him, but many characters continued to call him Cornwall.
 * Starburns in Community. His real name is Alex Osbourne, but good luck getting anyone to remember that.
 * Agent 99 in Get Smart is always referred to as 99.
 * In the episode where she and Max get married, her real name is presumably said during the wedding vows. But a wedding guest gets bored and falls asleep and his snoring drowns out that part of the vows
 * In season one, The Chief's first name is revealed to be Thaddeus. But he's usually just called "The Chief" or "Chief"
 * The main characters of Backup all work closely together in one police response van. Thus Sergeant Parkin is just Sarge, Susan Li is called Bruce, ditto Token, Oz, Thug, Flub, Dippy etc etc. When Bruce has been temporarily in command, she is called up over an incident involving PC Barrett. If it wasn't for the scene immediately afterward when Thug is being asked questions about the same incident you'd probably never guess who Barrett was.
 * In the TV adaptation of James Clavell's The Children's Story, the new teacher explicitly tells the children to call her "Teacher" when they ask her name. (In the original book, the narrator refers to her throughout as "the new teacher", but she does tell the children her name when asked—the narrator just doesn't say what that name is. Clavell wanted her to represent an idea without being specifically tied to a particular nationality or ethnicity.)
 * Several characters on The Muppet Show are known by their titles/professions only. Famous examples are the Swedish Chef and the Newsman. (An Overly Long Name was given for the Swedish Chef by the guest star in one episode, but it was very possibly a joke.)
 * La Femme Nikita: Apparently by official policy, the head of Section 1 is referred to as Operations and addressed as "Sir", except sometimes by Madeleine and George.
 * In Entourage, Ari's wife is always referred to as "Mrs. Ari Gold" and her first name is never mentioned until the final season (it's ).
 * Batman TV Series: Miss Iceland from Green Ice / Deep Freeze is never known by his real name.
 * Subverted in the Wizards of Waverly Place episode "My Tutor Tutor", which introduces a tutor whose name is Tutor. Apparently this is a common practice in the wizarding world, where parents name their children what they hope them to be. This doesn't always work, though, in the case of Dr. Butcher.
 * For the longest time in {Heroes}, Noah Bennet's mysterious associate was known simply as "The Hatian". Claire later reveals that his real name is.
 * The first barkeeper on Cheers was Ernie Pantusso, better known as "Coach" because he was Sam's coach when he was a major-league pitcher.
 * And he got this trope so bad that when someone called asking for Ernie Pantusso, he had no idea that was his name. His status as a Cloud Cuckoo Lander probably helped though.

Music

 * The Deranged Millionaire from the Venue Songs project by They Might Be Giants.
 * He has a name. He has an unlikely name.
 * The One-Hit Wonder "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains Of Wayne.

Mythology

 * The Lady of the Lake from the mythology of King Arthur
 * From the same comes the Burning Dragon Knight and The Green Knight
 * Irish Mythology gives us Cuchulainn, which is actually a title for the character, meaning "Chulainn's Dog." It's more badass than his real name.

Pro Wrestling

 * A given with most of the fantasy-based wrestlers, particularly those that originated before the Attitude Era. The real name of 1960s villain Gorilla Monsoon, for example, was Robert Marella - but very few people knew of this fact for years, and to this day it's still obscure enough that WWE has been able to recycle the surname for the "fictional" Santino Marella. To this day, interestingly, it is considered poor etiquette - even outside of Kayfabe - to refer to a wrestler or wrestling personality by his or her real name if a stage name is used instead.
 * ECW wrestler Kevin Thorne was referred to simply as "The Vampire", and had a couple of matches without any ring introduction that might give away a name, before his name was finally revealed. This may be because the writers simply hadn't figured out what to call him...or because "Kevin" is a really stupid name for a vampire, even if Thorne is a good one.
 * Same with Hornswoggle. When Fit Finlay's leprechaun companion and  was first introduced in 2006, he did not have a name - but Michael Cole took to shouting: "Look! It's that little bastard!" whenever he'd show up, so the nickname "Little Bastard" stuck. Nearly a year would pass before Finlay finally revealed that the leprechaun's "real" name was Hornswoggle.

Tabletop Games

 * The name of The God-Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40000 has never been revealed. He is always referred to as the Emperor. Ostensibly, The God-Emperor is a transcendent being who has had tens of thousands of lives (although Sigmar's origin story is very similar to the post-Age of Strife God-Emperor). His backstory is given as being the final reincarnation of thousands of amalgamated shamans 48,000 years before the main storyline: which would give him an innumerable quantity of possible names—and no need for any of them.
 * It's heavily implied he was a lot of important historical figures, including Jesus.
 * There is also the Scarlet Empress in Exalted, and both the Death Lords and the Abyssals are reqired to go by title and not name.
 * For Dungeons & Dragons we have the Lady of Pain and the Raven Queen (Goddess of Death). Some demons try to learn the Raven Queen's true name to depose her of her power and attain godhood.
 * The Red Knight is the Forgotten Realms demigoddess of tactics and strategy. Only her superior Tempus knows her real name. Faiths & Pantheons states that if anyone else were to learn it, that person would be privy to all the plans and intrigues of everyone in the entire universe.
 * One of the named (such as it is) characters in the Anima Tactics game is The Colonel, a man implied to be feared over and above others even in his own kingdom (that is made up of badasses and demons). In his description, it is stated that the number of people who know his actual name can be counted on one hand.
 * The Naga in Legend of the Five Rings use this trope in similar way to the Qunari: Their titles are their names. Their telepathy keeps it from getting confusing when a Naga's rank or job changes.

Theater

 * Although actually named Vincentio, in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure The Duke is refered to exclusively by his title.
 * Claudius of Hamlet is just credited as King
 * Escalus of Romeo and Juliet is just called Prince.
 * All the characters are named except the maniac in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist.
 * Wallace Shawn's The Hotel Play had over 20 characters, all identified with names like "The Girl Who Broke the Bowl", "The Man Who Looks Like a Walrus", "The Hotel Clerk".
 * The narrator of The Drowsy Chaperone is billed as "Man in Chair"
 * In the musical The Phantom of the Opera, the title character (who also goes as "Opera Ghost") is never called "Erik" or by any other proper name.
 * The Mayor in the Latibær plays is just called "Bæjarstjórinn" which means "The Mayor", "the" and all.
 * The Arbiter from Chess has had a few names over the years—Constantine Stannos (Broadway), Jean Jacques Van Boren (Swedish), Kobe Obe (US tour). Most adaptations only refer to the character as "The Arbiter", and the ones that name him generally just call him by his title.
 * Many characters in Into the Woods, such as the Baker, the Witch, and the Mysterious Old Man.
 * The Fool from King Lear.
 * The Jester from Once Upon a Mattress.
 * The Duke from The Merchant of Venice.
 * In a somewhat meta example, Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream. His name is technically Robin Goodfellow (taken from folklore), but he's referred to as "Puck" several times by Oberon and in many of the speech prefixes. Scripts of the time commonly used descriptive terms instead of names in the speech prefixes, so Puck is not necessarily his name, any more than, say, Feste's name is "Clown", or Shylock's name is "Jew". "Puck" was a word more in line with "pooka", or "sprite". So Puck is what he is, and Robin is his name. The one time he refers to himself as Puck is when he says, "As I am an honest Puck..."
 * In Blood Wedding, only one character, Leonardo, has a name. Everybody else is referred to as "the bride", "the bridegroom", "the mother-in-law", etc.

Video Games
""Wait, the Pub Barkeep's name is actually Pub Barkeep?""
 * In Postal, the Dude's wife is just called "[The] Bitch". Nothing else.
 * Final Fantasy X-2 This trope's name is based on the character Barkeep. Characters refer to this Hypello crewmember as Barkeep because they inexplicably don't know his real name. He doesn't even know his real name.
 * There's also Brother, one of the Al Bhed airship pilots. Brother might actually be his name.
 * Many minor NPCs in many RPGs. Few companies go the extra mile to name every guard, shopkeeper or random civilan. Although even fewer are addressed directly anyway.
 * World of Warcraft includes a minor NPC named Mankrik who tasks you with finding his wife, who he fears has been killed. Sadly, he's right. Her body, when you find it, is named "Beaten Corpse".
 * Fanon Choose Your Own Adventure Parody Fanfiction You Awaken in Razor Hill finally gave her a name, over five years later.
 * Players in World of Warcraft frequently fall victim to this too, when in pickup groups. "Tank, are you there?" "Rogue, do this and that."
 * In Baldur's Gate, Big Bad is at first known only as "Armoured Figure".
 * In the Halo series, the Arbiter's true name is never mentioned, while the Master Chief is referred to only by his rank (or occasionally his designation number "117") until the very end of Halo 3. However, the books reveal that their true names are respectively and.
 * The Judge in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. In Justice For All, he gives Phoenix a business card, but Phoenix is unable to make out the name on it.
 * Likewise, the bellboy in the first game is always referred to as "the bellboy" or "that creepy bellboy."
 * Wing Commander: In addition to most pilots usually being referred to by their callsign only, the first game had a bartender named "Shotglass" (his callsign from his pilot days) and the second and fourth games had mechanics named "Sparks" and "Pliers" respectively.
 * The latter was Lampshaded in the novelization when Blair, initially unsure if he was hearing a nickname or an actual if unlikely name, has to ask if they really had a mechanic named Pliers.
 * The main antagonists of Shadow Hearts: From the New World are called Killer (a wanted Serial Killer) and Lady (a stoic mute). Lady is eventually identified:
 * In Crusader the Silencer is usually just referred to as "Captain" (his rank) or "Silencer" (his old unit). A few people give him nicknames ("Tin Man", "Red", etc.), but they aren't used more than a couple times.
 * The Doomguy in Doom 3 is only ever called "Marine".
 * Or Doomguy by the fans.
 * In both the novel adaptation (Which eventually drifted towards Planet Eris territory) and the movie he has a name (Flynn "Fly" Taggart and John "Reaper" Grimm respectively).
 * Played as straight as can be in STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl, in which a well-known trader and owner of a local bar is known only as "Barkeep".
 * The Legend of Zelda has the Postman as a character in several of the games.
 * The G-Man from Half-Life. In fact, "gman" was just the name of his character model. Nobody in the game calls him anything, except for Eli Vance, who refers to him as "our mutual friend".
 * In the manual for the Opposing Force expansion, however, Shepard writes about a G-Man watching him during his training and, indeed he can be seen during the tutorial mission. And he is listed as "GMan" (no hyphen) in the credits for Half-Life 2 and its Episodes.
 * Lampshaded and subverted in the Homestar Runner game Dungeon Man 3:

"Ohgren: You. Hey, you! Warden: That's "Commander Hey You", by the way."
 * The player character of Knights of the Old Republic II is commonly referred to (in-universe and out) as the Jedi Exile. Atris's handmaidens all apparently go by Handmaiden, including the one who joins the party if the Exile's male (her real name, revealed late in the game, is Brianna). Her counterpart character for a female exile, whom you meet in the Jedi ruins of Dantooine, is known as "Disciple" (his real name is Mical).
 * There's an interesting case with Mandalore, who is referred to by name only once in the whole game; Mandalore is his title. He spent the whole of the previous game being referred to by his name.
 * The Jedi Exile is eventually given a Canon Name - Meetra Surik - by Revan, a prequel novel to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
 * Doc, a doctor character introduced in the remake of Skies of Arcadia, may or may not be a case of this.
 * From The Last Remnant, The Conquerer is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. He also looks like a 50/50 mix between Sephiroth and a Viking, but that's another story...
 * Despite being the title character, Iji's brother is the only one to call her by her real name. All the aliens call her "(the Human) Anomaly" (even the friendly ones!)
 * Except
 * Vyers from Disgaea is never called anything other than Mid Boss by the other characters, to his great frustration. Any attempts to bring up his name are usually shot down before he can even say it.
 * Straighter examples of this trope are all over Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. Immediately obvious are Mom and Dad, but only slightly less noticable are the Director and Cameraman who follow Axel around. And don't even get us started on . According to the Disgaea 2 art book, their names really are Mom and Dad
 * Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice also features a character only known as the School Board President.
 * In the Fallout series you have always been allowed to name your player character, but how you are referred to by other characters has been different from game to game. In the first two games this trope is mostly averted since the majority of the dialogue is in text only, and as such you are frequently referred to by your given name. In any of the voiced dialogues, they typically avoided referring to you directly or occasionally by some sort of title (like "Initiate" by the leaders of the Brotherhood Of Steel in Fallout and "Chosen One" by the people of your home village in Fallout 2). From Tactics and onwards however, all dialogue became fully voiced and this trope came into full effect. In all the later games your character (and retroactively, the protagonists of the first two games as well) is referred to only by a title: "Vault Dweller", "Chosen One", "Warrior", "Lone Wanderer" and "Courier". This is an Acceptable Break From Reality so the radio shows can refer to you by name.
 * The Doctor, this one in Cave Story.
 * Happens to three characters in Dissidia Final Fantasy. The Onion Knight from Final Fantasy III is only referred to by his title with no indication of what his real name is (in accordance with the fact that the Warriors of Light from FFIII - not to be confused with the Warriors of Light from the original Final Fantasy - weren't assigned names until the DS remake). His title is also rarely used by characters in the game, except for the voiceover intro at the start of the chapter—he is generally just referred to as "the kid". The Emperor of Final Fantasy II does have a name, Mateus, but it is only used for his final weapon and never in the dialogue. The Warrior of Light also has a name Cloud of Darkness, also from Final Fantasy III, seems to invoke this trope, but although it appears as a humanoid female, the Cloud is not really human, and the name is a simple description of the entity—it doesn't actually have any other name.
 * The Space Pirates in the Metroid series refer to the heroine as The Hunter. When her Evil Twin shows up, they logically name it The Dark Hunter. The benevolent characters use her real name, though. The Chozo sometimes refer to Samus as Hatchling or Newborn.
 * The merchant in Resident Evil 4. Inversely, the merchant refuses to know Leon's name, only referring to him as "stranger"—or strain-jah if you will.
 * Though he is occasionally referred to as King Mickey in later games, Mickey Mouse is only ever referred to as "The King" in the first Kingdom Hearts, up until the penultimate scene just before the credits (and the final After the Credits scene {and the scene for 100% completion on Hard Mode}.
 * This continues into the sequel (Chain of Memories, not Kingdom Hearts II), with Journal entries for him only using "The King"..
 * Team Fortress 2: Everyone Calls Them Scout, Heavy, Engineer, Sniper, Spy, Soldier, Demoman, Medic and Pyro respectively, leading to Fan Nicknames such as "Engie" or "Solly".
 * However, the comic that introduced the WAR! update revealed that the Demoman's name is Tavish DeGroot and the Announcer's name is Helen. The Loose Canon comic reveal the Engineer's name to be Dell Conagher and Meet the Director revealed the Sniper's last name to be Mundy. However, the WAR! comic also indicates Soldier has No Name Given because he's referred to as "Jane Doe", indicating even his employers don't know his name, and one item describes him as "a nameless man".
 * The Doctor in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town/More Friends of Mineral Town is just called "doctor," no matter what. Even if you marry him, he continues to go by just "Doctor." (However, in Harvest Moon DS, he gains the name "Trent.")
 * The Witch and Wizard in Animal Parade are referred to as just that by most of the town, though they'll reveal their actual names when married -- . The Harvest Goddess and King turn out to have proper names as well under the same condition..
 * Cross between Truth in Television and Video Games; this often happens in online adventure games like World of Warcraft... "OK, the rogue will sap that one, the mage will sheep this one, and the tank (not even the class name) will hold the other two."
 * The setting of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is (as revealed in supplementary materials) named "Chiron", but every in-game quote acts as though "Planet" were its proper name.
 * The ball of stone that everything lives on is Chiron. The entity formed of the miles and miles of xenofungus that covers Chiron named itself Planet, when it first learned to speak to humans, before it had a good understanding of English.
 * The xenofungus entity is named Planet. The ball of rock is also called Planet (though it is named Chiron) -- eg. University of Planet, "Planet's atmosphere", "Planet's industry", "Planet's primary"...
 * Said supplementary materials when talking about Chiron at one point says, parahrased, "the proper name of the planet the Unity crew arrived on is Chiron, but everyone calls it Planet".
 * The Overlord. All of them.
 * Averted by Lord Gromgard.
 * In Left 4 Dead, the Church Guy is only known by the name he is given in the code, as he is never named in the game except as "that guy".
 * Left 4 Dead 2 has Coach. If Coach gets killed, Rochelle lampshades the trope by asking "Do you think Coach was his first or last name?"
 * From Dragon Age: Origins, Sten isn't The Big Guy's real name, but a rank, as his real name cannot be pronounced by a non-qunari.
 * If the player character is from the human noble or dwarf noble origins, they are occasionally addressed as Lord/Lady Cousland or Aeducan, respectively, but the rest of the time they are simply called The Grey Warden. If the player character is a mage, dwarf commoner, or elf of any sort, they are The Grey Warden, period. Which is a bit strange considering your character has a set, unchangeable last name regardless of which origin you pick. Chances are you forget what it was before getting through the prologue, seeing how it is hardly mentioned anywhere again after the character creation screen (unless you made a noble, as pointed out).
 * It's more strange in that Alistair is always an available party member for at least three-quarters of the game, and is a (slightly) more senior Grey Warden than the player character, but it's the PC who is always addressed as "Warden".
 * In Awakening expansion pack the Warden is instead called Commander. This trope gets a bit a of a lampshade as result:


 * In Awakening, it's likely most of your party will be Warden recruits if you put them through the joining. "Warden-Commander" distinguishes the player character from everyone else.


 * This is probably why the Player Character in Dragon Age II has a static last name, allowing everyone to simply call you Hawke. Conveniently, your siblings, mother, and uncle will use every pronoun and substitute word imaginable to avoid saying your first name (which you can pick), as it wouldn't make sense for them to call you Hawke. However, the Chantry lady in the Frame Story does constistently call you the "Champion of Kirkwall". With most Origins import options, the Warden from the first game will be referred to as "The Hero of Ferelden" by most NPCs in Dragon Age II.
 * The qunari in general use ranks as names, at least to other races. Some of these are obvious, like "the" before Arishok, implying it's a leadership title. Saarebas ("dangerous thing") is a word/rank/name for a mage, which are treated a thousand times worse than human mages (their mouths are sewn shut, and the must wear chains and collars).
 * The Illusive Man from the Mass Effect series is a one man Omniscient Council Of Vagueness. Nobody knows who he is, where he came from, where he is currently located, and what he actually wants. The only thing that can be said about him for sure is that he looks like a human male about 60 years of age and apparently has almost unlimted resources at his disposal.
 * He does get an origin story in the comic mini-series Mass Effect: Evolution, which reveals, among other things, that his name is.
 * Neverwinter Nights referred to the player by name in the text of conversations, but the voiceovers just say "You".
 * Neverwinter Nights 2 has your party calling you "our leader" and "our fearless leader" at various points. When you get promoted, it becomes "Captain" or "Knight-Captain" in most cases.
 * The real name of the King of Shadows has been lost to the ages. Even  don't remember it.
 * The assassins in the first No More Heroes mostly go by codenames (with the exceptions of Rank 6 and, as clarified in the sequel, Rank 5). Their character cards give the real names of all but the last three. The sequel averts this, as every assassin uses his or her real name save and possibly Rank 9.
 * Wait, what about Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii? Isn't that his real name?
 * The protagonist in Fable I and Fable II. You can choose his(/her) title but most of them are exactly like this trope. All other characters have actual names, then again, although there is also The Guildmaster and The Archeologist.
 * The expansion pack reveals that the Guildmaster's true name is Weaver.
 * The Silent Protagonist in Free Space 2 is always Alpha 1, or occasionally "pilot", at least as far as all the other characters are concerned.
 * Chzo Mythos: Trilby. A trilby is a type of hat and the character is always wearing one, the other characters are never told Trilby's actually name, but Word of God says that his first name is Malcolm.
 * The Commander in Dawn of War II is only referred to as such by his fellow Space Marines. His Canon Name, according to the novel, is apparently Aramus.
 * The Class Representative of the main characters' class of Taiyo High from Rival Schools, who prefers to be addressed as "Chairperson" instead of her actual name.
 * The Nurse in Katawa Shoujo who says his name is The Nurse.
 * The player characters of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer seemed to have this at first. There's the Priest, Courtesan, Hunter, Doctor etc. Then the beta revealed that they do have names after all.
 * The Monkey Island series has the Voodoo Lady, the proprietor of the various Voodoo shops seen throughout the series, from the International House of Mojo to Voodoo 'n Things (formerly just Voodoo), and Guybrush's primary source of advice throughout the series (with a five-game contract from Lucas Arts). She insists that while her real name isn't important, names have power over people, and refuses to share hers.
 * The Masters of the Bazaar are known only by appellations related to their professions—Mr. Wines, Mr. Stones, Mr. Irons. Every other character you encounter has a similar non-name: the Repentant Forger, the Comtessa, the Revolutionary Firebrand, and so forth.
 * F.E.A.R. loved this trope in the first "generation". The Point Man is only really addressed by Betters, as "Buddy" when called directly, and "my man" or "my point man" when he's talking to others about him. The Sergeant from Perseus Mandate fits squarely into this trope, being called exactly that by his squadmates Chen and Raynes. Nobody else even gets close to saying a vocative to them.
 * Embric of Wulfhammers Castle has both the Duchess of Elstwhere and the Good Dwarf. While the former does have a name it is only mentioned in a handful of the Multiple Endings, otherwise refered to only as Duchess, and the latter also has a name but no-one could understand him, so they compromised.
 * Meta Knight from Kirby.
 * Touhou has the Dragon, the single most powerful being in Gensoukyou, which isn't known by anything else. However, given that it is never seen it might not even be a dragon at all.
 * Perfect Momento in Strict Sense describes it as a serpent with hands and horns, and large enough to block sunlight. A stereotypical Asian dragon.
 * An odd example in Mega Man Legends. The main character is Mega Man Volnutt, but everyone calls him Mega Man. Later in the game, you encounter other Mega Men, with the implication that "Mega Man" is more of a title than a name.
 * In Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the elderly matriarch of Champa is called Obaba, which is just Japanese for "grandmother". Presumably, this makes her an Honorary Grandma to everybody, of the sort you never mess with.
 * The protagonist in Dungeon Siege is simply called "Farmer". The third game however gives the character the name of Lady Montbarron.
 * The protagonist of Bastion is referred to only as "The Kid" by the narrator Rucks.

Web Comics
"His real name is unknown, which kind of shows what his friends are worth."
 * Scary Go Round has a character named "The Boy" (only recently named as 'Eustace Boyce'). His parents are eventually revealed to be named "The Father" and "The Mother", naturally. There is also an enigmatic character who has not properly been introduced to any of the cast or the public, whom the media have dubbed "The Child". One of the main characters remarks to The Boy that it's suspiciously similar to his name.
 * Near the end of Scary Go Round, The Child was revealed
 * In 8-Bit Theater, the main cast's ACTUAL NAMES are Fighter, Thief, Red Mage, Black Mage, White Mage and Black Belt.
 * The eventually-revealed surnames aren't any better: Fighter McWarrior and Black Mage Evilwizardington are given, and the author has apparently decided on Red Mage's being Statscowski. As for Thief, his other name is Prince Elf of clan Khee'bler.
 * They also technically subvert it by going through a class change and not changing their names to Blue Mage, Mime, Knight, and Ninja.
 * Secondary characters also face this like Dragoon, Onion Kid (an in-series newspaper suggested his named was "Rex Crockett", but Word of God suggested that's not really his name), Archer, or The Other Warriors: Cleric, Rogue, Berserker Axinhead, and last but not least Generic Half-Elven Dual-Class Ranger. Later on we learn that the onion kid's true name is
 * The main villain of ConScrew has somehow kept the rest of the main cast from learning her real name, so they all just refer to her as 'Fan Girl' after her always using 'Rabid Fangirl' as the name on her Con IDs.
 * TC (Theater Clerk) in El Goonish Shive, though he calls himself "The Playah".
 * The GM in Darths and Droids.
 * Jayden and Crusader's character Third officially has no name. He is called Third because he was the Third Character. No one seems to think this is odd...
 * Perhaps a more fitting example of this trope is Cinema Guy, of the same webcomic. His real name has been revealed to be Kevin, but everyone calls him Cinema Guy much to his annoyance.
 * All the Deaths in Irregular Webcomic are refered to by what they are the death of ("Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs" is usually called that, although it's been shortened to just "Fireballs"). If they're assigned to be the death of something else, the Death's name changes, too.
 * Van Von Hunter has an unnamed sidekick. She suffers from overlapping cases of amnesia and can never remember what her name is, so everyone calls her "Van's sidekick/associate/partner/whatever" or just don't call her anything.
 * The bartender in Corner Alley 13 is just called bartender. The supplemental material even acknowledges it:


 * Hero from RPG World.
 * Homestuck:
 * The Exiles: Wayward Vagabond, Peregrine Mendicant, Aimless Renegade and Windswept Questant. They are more commonly referred to using their initials (WV, PM, AR, WQ) both in and out of the comic. The Exiles collect these: WV is also Warweary Villein, Wizardly Vassal and Wastelandic Vindicator; PM—Parcel Mistress, Prospitian Monarch; AR—Authority Regulator, Armaments Regent; WQ—White Queen.
 * The Guardians: John's Dad and Nanna, Rose's Mom, Dave's Bro, Jade's Grandpa. The only one with an actual name is Becquerel, and he's a near-omnipotent dog.
 * Well sort of. In the Alpha Universe we know that, at least in this version,  John's Dad is still just Dad in this universe though.
 * The troll's ancestors: only Redglare, Mindfang, Darkleer and Dualscar are given names; the Handmaid, the Summoner, the Helmsman, the Disciple, the Dolorosa, the Grand Highblood and the Condesce are all known by their titles. Then the Sufferer sort of has a name, Signless, but it's not used as often and isn't his original name (if he had one).
 * Arguably Crowbar. You would assume his parents didn't name him that.
 * Subverted in PvP: Robbie and Jase hire a butler named Butler. They later (briefly) hire a "maid" named "Suitecannes" (but she's not really a maid, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more).
 * In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, although the Pirates of Ipecac, a married couple, do have names, they almost always address each other as "Captain" and "Technician."
 * In Adorable Desolation, Shopclerk is only known as Shopclerk or sometimes The Shopclerk.
 * Barkeep from Turn Signals on a Land Raider. Even when he conquers the Fantasy empire with the Land Raider he traded his tavern for, he becomes "Emperor Barkeep".
 * In Flaky Pastry, the main characters' neighbour, who is himself of the main supporting cast, is known simply as "the neighbour." Lampshaded in multipe strips.
 * No Rest for The Wicked features "the Boy", whose real name might be Jack, or maybe Hans. Most every lad back in his village is a Hans or a Jack.
 * Security from The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred.
 * The barmaid in Jesus and Mo.
 * Almost everyone in The Whiteboard is known only by a nickname; "Doc", "Rainman", "Bandit", etc. The few characters with a "real" name don't have a last name; Jake, Sandy, Pirta, Gino, etc.
 * An initially nameless character in Bittersweet Candy Bowl was dubbed "Final Fantasy Cat" by fans. Although Word of God has since declared his name to be Augustus, the author still frequently refers to him as Final Fantasy Cat.
 * Every character of The Way of the Metagamer 2: In Name Only is named "The Occupation". Including "The Victim".
 * The kobold oracle of Tiamat in Order of the Stick is only know as "The Oracle of Sunken Valley", or the Oracle for short.
 * Played in the straightest way possible in The Pig's Ear; the barkeep of the titular pub is, indeed, solely addressed as "Barkeep". It may well be his real name.
 * Meta-example: Other than the title character and a handful of others no one in Minus has a name. Outside the comic, characters have to be referred to by one of their aspects, such as "the green-haired girl".
 * Hero's team members n Lord Of The Ring The Third Age don't call each other by names but races and occupations, which is strange, since ever character's names are fixed and they shouldn't had any problem with dubbing.
 * Mistress in Oglaf. No one calls her by name. No one seems to know her name, and, frankly, no one would be brave enough to ask.
 * The Captain assigned to the central mystery in Kaspall.

Web Original

 * In Echo Chamber, the Administrator of TV Tropes is referred to only as "Mr. Administrator". No one taking orders from him has any idea who he is.
 * The french-speaking MP3 series Le Donjon De Naheulbeuk (The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk) never gave the names of its main protagonists, even when it got adapted into comics or novels. Being typical parodies of standard RPG playable characters, they're only identified by their race or class (the Ranger, the Dwarf, the Elf, the Barbarian...).
 * The Leet World has The Producer, the mysterious owner of the Leet World Reality Show. Another example is the unnamed Mysterious Mercenary Pursuer, who the housmates call the Domination Guy after his apparent obsession with domination (no, not like that.)
 * In Robot Ninja and Gay Guy, that's what the three main characters call each other.
 * Kslnah Wryzyon in Chaos Fighters II-Cyberion Strike is called the representative because her name is hard to pronounce.
 * Half the main cast of Lego Pirate Misadventures are referred to by their rank, not that rank means much to them. In Captain's case, at least, it's because of his Embarrassing Middle Name:
 * The Nostalgia Critic's real name is "Doug" but everyone just calls him Critic. It makes Alternate Universe Fic where he doesn't review anything and is still called that slightly odd.
 * Same thing goes for The Nostalgia Chick. Apart from Nella who calls her Lindsay, everybody calls her Chick. But she's not The Chick.
 * Red vs. Blue has a medic introduced with the name DuFresne. It's decided by the other characters that his name is too hard to pronounce and he is christened "Doc" for the remainder of the series.
 * The Red Team Sergeant is an example for most of the series, known only as Sarge, however it is eventually revealed his name is actually Sarge.
 * Sister is another example. Her real name is stated by the DVD profiles to be Kaikaina (which is Hawaiian for "younger sibling of the same sex", which counts as a Stealth Insult to Grif), but all characters, including her older brother, only ever call her Sister.
 * The private detective in the 3D Movie Maker film-noir parody Pamela has the first name "Detective", giving him the name plus title of Detective Detective Joe Peterson. (So when another character calls him "Detective", he thinks she's on a first name basis with him.)
 * Often used for comic effect in Homestar Runner.
 * The person interviewing Valentine in Last Mage is only ever referred to as "the Writer".
 * We're Alive has Gatekeeper who names himself after his current job. No indication on what his name is now
 * Slender Man, whose real name (if he has one) is unknown because that makes him scarier.

Western Animation
"Judge Hiram Mightor: State your first name, last name, and occupation. Lizardman: Lizardman, Lizardman, and uh... Lizardman."
 * Beauty and The Beast: The Beast is only ever called well, "the Beast" (the optional), except for his servants, who call him "the Master".
 * The Brave Little Toaster: Except for Kirby (who is a vacuum cleaner), all of the characters are named after what they are, and the owner of the objects is only known as "The Master". "Kirby" is actually the name of a brand of vacuum cleaner, however, so this trope still applies.
 * Cow and Chicken features this trope, most commonly with the parents being known as 'Mom' and 'Dad.' Perhaps the most blaring example is when we see Cow and Chicken's school-teacher at her home, where the mailbox is marked 'Teacher.'
 * The Simpsons: Notably, Comic Book Guy and Sea Captain, both of whom have real names that are rarely used (Jeff Albertson and Horatio McAllister, respectively); the latter had a name (Captain Alastor) before gaining the more popular nickname. There are also a number of other examples who show up less frequently, including the Squeaky Voiced Teen, Bumblebee Man, Blue Haired Lawyer et cetera.
 * One of Springfield's tourist attractions is Carl's Dad Caverns, with a sign stated they've been discovered by "Carl's Dad". Lenny's grandmother has a tombstone labeled "Lenny's Grandma".
 * The Critic: I'm pretty sure the kid's name is actually "Pizzaface" on his name tag at some point
 * That's "Pizza FAH-Chay"
 * South Park: Chef, although a throwaway line in "Chef Aid" revealed his full name: Jerome "Chef" McElroy.
 * Family Guy: Evil Monkey, Greased Up Deaf Guy, etc., etc.
 * "Man-At-Arms" from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is only referred to by his actual first name (Duncan) a handful of times.
 * Hey Arnold! has several examples: Chocolate Boy (chocolate addict, who's still referred to as such without object even after he stops eating chocolate), and Peapod Kid (appeared in a peapod costume in the first episode), Stoop Kid (guy who sits on his stoop at all times).
 * Timmy's parents on Fairly Oddparents
 * Recess does this a lot, with most of the kids outside the main gang known by descriptions such as "Swinger Girl" or "The Diggers". In one episode it was revealed that, to kids other than her close friends, TJ was "Crazy Monkey Boy", Gretchen was "Smart Girl", Mikey was "Large Thoughtful Boy", Vince was "Kid Who Always Wins", Gus was "Friend Of Smart Girl", and Spinelli was "Girl Who Runs With Fists".
 * The Eager Young Space Cadet in Duck Dodgers. Though his name is probably "Porky Pig".
 * The Fat Controller in Thomas the Tank Engine is hardly ever referred to by his real name (Sir Topham Hatt) in the original (British) version of the series, although he is always called Sir Topham Hatt in the North American version.
 * The following line from Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law:

"Porky: Name? Killer: Shropshire Slasher. Porky: Occupation? Killer: Shropshire Slasher."
 * Though immediately after his testimony, the other Lizardmen in the courtroom call him "Bill".
 * The Earth King of Avatar: The Last Airbender is never called anything other then "The Earth King". According to Nickelodeon site he was born "Kuei", but was never referred as anything other than his title after being crowned at age four, which apparently was the same with all of the other kings. If a previous monarch needs to be mentioned specifically, they're simply referred to by number.
 * Avatar actually does this for quite a few people; Longshot, The Foamy Mouth Guy, Sparky Sparky Boom Man, The Cabbage Guy, The Mechanist.
 * For that matter, the spirit the Avatar is the host for has never been called anything but "The Avatar Spirit" even though all the other spirits have names. As it's been described as the spirit of the planet itself, a name wouldn't exactly be necessary.
 * From the Looney Tunes short Deduce, You Say, a Daffy Duck/Porky Pig cartoon parodying Sherlock Holmes:


 * Experiment 625 from Lilo and Stitch: The Series was never given a "true name" until the very end of the series, when Lilo finally "caught" him and then helped him decide on a name.
 * On Jackie Chan Adventures, nobody knows what Uncle's real name is. Or, for that matter, whose uncle he is. For example, Jade's father believes Uncle to be his cousin and he's not sure of it either.
 * Dora the Explorer: "SWIPER, NO SWIPING!!!"
 * Superjail: The Warden, The Doctor, The Mistress
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) characters native to the Battle Nexus are all referred to in this manner--"Daimyo", "Gyoji", "Healer", etc.--and it's not clear if they even have proper names.
 * Total Drama Island's Chef. His full name seems to be Chef Hatchet, though. So it's a very convenient first name?
 * Also Ezekiel, or "Homeschool".
 * Bravestarr has Shaman, the title character's adviser and father figure.
 * Blackstar's Big Bad is The Overlord.
 * Dungeons & Dragons has Dungeon Master and Shadow Demon. For that matter, Dungeon Master almost always addresses the heroes by the titles he gave them, rather than their names: "Fear not, Ranger! Barbarian! Magician! Thief! Cavalier! And Acrobat!"
 * In Jane and the Dragon we have Jester and Smithy. And Pepper and Rake are only known by nicknames related to their occupations (which are cook and gardener respectively).
 * The Berenstain Bears: Brother, Mama, Papa, and Sister. Both family and friends refer to them as such, which—if you consider the fact that Mama and Papa are husband and wife—makes things decidedly Oedipal.
 * Many parents will refer to each other as "Mom" and "Dad" especially in front of the kids. When everyone from your kid's teacher to the man at the grocery store does it, however...
 * Schnookums and Meat's owners are only know as Husband and Wife.
 * In Disney's Aladdin, Aladdin's genie is known only as Genie, or sometimes The Genie. In the sequels and series this becomes particularly strange, as Jafar is also a genie and another named genie is introduced.
 * One episode also features a character that's only known as Wazir. It makes more sense than the genie example, as the king he works for is not only a child king, but moody and egocentric, i.e. not the type to be bothered with learning his wazir's name.
 * The Big Bad Duumvirate of Invader Zim are referred to exclusively in the show as The Almighty Tallests, or The Tallests for short. Their names (Red and Purple) are only shown in the script.
 * Snack Shack from Stoked!, nicknamed after where he works.
 * The Ah Guy from Jimmy Two-Shoes, a Recurring Extra whose sole purpose is to be a one-man Cherubic Choir. Lucius explicitly calls him this in canon.
 * The Mayor from The Nightmare Before Christmas (though some of the merch gives him the name Hizzonor).
 * The mayor of Ponyville, in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.
 * Futurama gives us "Mom", a company CEO with a lovable sweet image who is in fact a Corrupt Corporate Executive, her real name was not revealed for much of the series..
 * Also That Guy, a cryogenically frozen stock-broker from The Eighties whose name only appears in the credits (Steve Castle), through the episode he's just called That Guy.
 * The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Billy's Dad's name is Harold and that was already stablished before a flashback episode showing him as a kid wearing a shirt with "Billy's Dad" written on it.
 * Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Velma apparently had an acquaintance known only in name by her body odor: Hot Dog Water.
 * The General from Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. A comic book story (Fun-In #2's "It's Flop And Go-Go," an adaptation of the TV episode "Camouflage Hoparoo") identifies him as General Gibberish.
 * Inspector Gadget.

Real Life

 * People are expected to always refer to their parents as "mom" and "dad" or similar nicknames. Referring to your parents by name is seen as disrespectful, as it denies the filial bond.
 * This is not always the case, as some people want their children to refer to them by their name, as being referred to by a title or description seems awkward to them.
 * Also, stepparents are often referred to by their first names, especially if the children are no longer 'children' (that is, they're teenagers or older).
 * One frequently awkward moment with in-laws can be deciding on what one should call one's spouse/partner's parents.
 * This is how many common last names originated. English examples include Smith, Miller, Baker and Taylor. Many other languages have equivalents. Quite often such names were used to differentiate between two or more people having the same first name. (In Wales, where certain surnames are very common, you might also have "Jones the Butcher" and "Jones the Taylor" as nicknames).
 * Also Cooper, Carpenter, Gardiner, Bowman, Fletcher, Chandler... any respectable profession.
 * And in a similar vein names ending with "son" such as Davidson, Johnson, Gleason, or Coulson simply mean that at some point an ancestor was the son of someone with that name; "I am Greg, Son of David" eventually becoming Greg, David's son and finally just Davidson.
 * In the Wild West, people tended to be known by nicknames, often referring to their occupation. Just ask Doc Holliday—he was a dentist as well as a gunfighter.
 * Once a historical figure becomes a legendary figure, sometimes within their own lifetime, they often end up going by a title. Some examples are Augustus Caesar, The Buddha, Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Genghis Khan, and any Chinese philosopher whose name ends in "Tzu".
 * Quite a few Middle Eastern historical figures are prone to this. Generally such-and-such "al-Din" would be a title or name adopted or given to a person later, as it refers to "the Faith," and people would take on such names as a result of exceptional piety or success at defending Islam. The Crusades tended to produce people known as things like Nur al-Din and Salah al-Din, neither of whom were born with those names.
 * Inverted by Julius Caesar and Augustus. After them, Roman emperors and their heirs were known as "Augustus" and "Caesar" respectively. The person history now refers to as Caesar Augustus was especially fond of this. He was born Gaius Octavius, but as that name had no historical connections or grandeur, he dropped it entirely after his adoption, referring to himself solely as Gaius Julius Caesar like his uncle when custom was that he would retain his original family name as his cognomen(familial nickname). Evidence shows that from his adoption till he defeated Mark Antony, he took advantage of the fact that Julius Caesar had been deified and started calling himself Gaius Julius Caesar DIVI FILIUS (son of a god). After he beat Antony, he just went crazy with the titles and started calling himself Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus. Imperator in Ancient Rome meant General and Augustus meant Revered one, so his first name was General and his nickname was 'revered one'. In fact all the names used for Autocracy and power for the next 1800 years can be traced to him. Later Emperors used Augustus and Caesar as titles, and the Kaiser of Germany and the Tsar. Imperator became Emperor later in european history and the word prince was derived from the name he loved to be called the most, Princeps (first citizen). Augustus was the literal embodiment of this trope and he loved it.
 * A similar case would be El Cid. Who remembers his real name, ?
 * The Dalai Lama is a title held by (so far) 14 people/incarnations of the same person. They are usually just called "The Dalai Lama".
 * Not only are their personal names not used, but by the above logic they don't really apply; therefore, the Dalai Lama doesn't actually have a name as such (at least, culturally; his passport does).
 * The Sun and the Moon. Every other moon in our solar system is given a name, but the Earth's moon is just called the Moon, and our Sun is the only one that we know of that we haven't given a name.
 * Then again we generally refer to other stars as stars, but rarely call the Sun "the Star"...
 * In Spanish "sol" is both the name for it and the direct translation of the word "sun".
 * The official names (in English at least) are "the Sun" and "the Moon". Boring but true. Some people use "Sol" (Short for "Solaris") and "Luna", but these are just the Latin words meaning "sun" and "moon" respectively. Also: "sun" and "moon" are lowercase unless your referring specifically to our solar system's sun as "the Sun" and Earth's moon as "the Moon", in which case you're supposed to capitalize them; however, the word "the" should not be capitalized. Now it's boring and confusing!
 * Works of science-fiction will often use Sol and Luna to make things more interesting or futuristic, or possibly to avoid being ambiguous (people on another planet with a single moon would likely casually refer to it as "the moon", so calling Earth's moon "Luna" helps).
 * "Sun" and "Moon" should be considered real names, especially as in many languages their equivalents are also used as names for deities connected to them and by extension as personal names, e. g. the Indian first names Chandra (Moon) and Surya (Sun). Also, in poetry it is not uncommon to address them by the names and bynames of lunar and solar deities, for instance English poets of the 17th and 18th century would commonly call the Moon "Cynthia" (another name for Artemis, after her birthplace) or Selene. By the way, "sol" is Latin for "Sun" - "solaris" is the adjective meaning "pertaining to the Sun, solar".
 * 'Buddha' is a term referring to one who has become 'enlightened' or, more broadly, anyone who attained Nirvana. It is often mistaken for the name of the deity Buddhists worship. Even more inaccurately, this deity will almost always be Budai (commonly known as the Laughing Buddha), a character in Chinese folklore, who is often incorporated into Buddhist and Taoist folklore traditions. Although to their credit, Budai is often treated as an incarnation of Maitreya, the future Buddha.
 * The expression "Jesus H. Christ" implies people think Christ is his family name. It's his title and the Greek word for "Messiah". He probably didn't have a family name. H is also not his middle name.
 * The initial H may (or may not) come from the original Greek "Jesus Ho Christos" - Jesus The Christ. "Christos" was an attempt to translate a Hebrew honourific meaning "annointed one" - when someone became a king, the ceremony involved annointing them with oil.
 * The Street Bible calls him "Jesus Davidson" - in extension that the actual Bible refers to him being from line/family of David through his consistant referrals as "Jesus, Son of David"
 * The President of the United States is addressed as Mr./Madam President.
 * The students in east Asian countries are expected to call their teachers by their title. For example, "laoshi" in Chinese, and "sensei" in Japanese.
 * Actually, the title is used a suffix to the family name just as often as it's used on its own, e.g. Tanaka-sensei. Furthermore, this is not exclusive to teachers. Many people are referred to by their job title in this manner, such as Kouchou (Headmaster/mistress), Shachou (company president), etc. etc.
 * The ancient Greek philosopher Aristocles is better known by his nickname, meaning "Broad" from his stocky build. Plato.
 * In informal groups of friends, one member of the gang who conspicuously differs from the others is often given a nickname that unimaginatively plays on that trait. This convention often runs afoul of Fridge Logic (and Unfortunate Implications) if many people within the individual's own family or community also possess the trait, making the nickname worthless outside of context. It once wasn't uncommon for a Native American man to be nicknamed "Chief" by non-Native friends, even if he wasn't actually one. And any woman who ran for public office back in the days when almost all candidates were men also fell victim to this trope. Since the woman was the only one of her kind in the race - and since it was assumed she wouldn't win anyway - media coverage would introduce her simply as "Woman," and then maybe supply her individual name as an afterthought.
 * It is customary in some parts of High Fantasy fandom to refer to JRR Tolkien simply as "the Professor", both because it actually was his academic title and in recognition of his contributions to the genre.