I Never Told You My Name: Difference between revisions

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Alice has just met a man named Bob, who seems like a perfectly nice ~~person-- until~~ he uses her name. To which Alice realizes and possibly responds, "I never told you my name."

Alice has just met a man named Bob, who seems like a perfectly nice person—until he uses her name. To which Alice realizes and possibly responds, "I never told you my name."

This trope is used to place suspicion on an otherwise ordinary character or to hint that there is more to the character than meets the eye. The person whose name is used does not necessarily have to notice; it could simply be a hint to the audience to pay more attention to the character who knew it without being told.

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* In the ''[[Children of the Red King]]'' series, Alice Angel knows Olivia's name immediately when she and Charlie walk into her shop, and uses it repeatedly. It doesn't say much for Charlie's character that he doesn't think anything is wrong until Alice also says his name. It turns out that, unknown to them {{spoiler|Alice is Olivia's next door neighbour, godmother and self declared guardian angel}} and {{spoiler|a friend of Charlie's Uncle Paton}}.

* ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'': When Artemis first kidnaps Holly, he calls her "Captain Short". When she demands to know how he knew her name and rank, he points out that she's wearing a name tag... except, as Holly next points out, the name tag is written in the fairy alphabet, which Artemis shouldn't be able to read. (As it happens, Artemis had stolen a copy of the fairy Book and deciphered their language.)

** [[Invoked Trope]] since Artemis [[The Chessmaster|did this on purpose]], knowing she'd notice the "slip" ~~-- and~~ that she would understand the significance of ''how'' he knew.

** [[Invoked Trope]] since Artemis [[The Chessmaster|did this on purpose]], knowing she'd notice the "slip"—and that she would understand the significance of ''how'' he knew.

* A variation occurs in [[Nuklear Age]] when Superion mentions the name of Atomik Lad's girlfriend to him, when Atomic Lad had been careful not to mention her name around Superion because he already distrusted him; this incident only heightens that distrust.

* Occurs in the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' short story ''Sector 13''. Cain identifies a Genestealer hybrid when it refers to him by name before he introduces himself; he'd told his name to another hybrid, and 'stealers communicate telepathically.

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{{quote|'''Woman:''' I've been waiting for you, Lisa.

'''Lisa:''' <nowiki>*</nowiki>''[[GASP]]''<nowiki>*</nowiki> How did you know my name?

'''Woman:''' [[Subverted Trope|Your nametag. ]] }}

'''Woman:''' [[Subverted Trope|Your nametag.]] }}