No Need for Names: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"<nowiki>'</nowiki>What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?' <br />

''<nowiki>'</nowiki>Cats don't have names,' it said. <br />

''<nowiki>'</nowiki>No?' said Coraline. <br />

''<nowiki>'</nowiki>No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names."''|'''''[[Coraline (Literaturenovel)|Coraline]]'''''}}

This is when a character or group of characters have no names, and don't see the point in having them. This is not merely [[No Name Given|when their name is never revealed]], but when they actually have never been referred to by a name or assigned a name. Such characters are prone to having a [[Fan Nickname]] assigned to them, since it's kind of hard to discuss characters without a way to refer to them. If the characters in the show feel compelled to call them something, you may run into [[Only Known Byby Their Nickname]], [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]], or he might even be referred to by others only by the name of his nation, tribe, or species. But the character himself will not adopt this as a name.

Compare [[Nameless Narrative]]. [[No Name Given]], [[Only Known Byby Their Nickname]] and [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]] are subtropes. Contrast with [[Planet of Steves]], where all the characters have the same exact names.

** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Men At Arms|Men Atat Arms]]'', Angua is very explicit about the fact that wolves (unlike either dogs or werewolves) don't have names. Gaspode has trouble wrapping his mind around the concept.

** ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]'': Gaspode explains the same thing to Carrot when they "interrogate" a wolf for information on Angua's ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|were]]''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|abouts]]. The book also features a wolf with a name, Gavin, who is an old friend of Angua. It's not so much his name as the name of somebody he ate, but it will do for human interactions.

* The cat in ''[[Coraline (Literaturenovel)|Coraline]]'' does not have a name, as cats don't use or need them.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Farnhams Freehold|Farnham's Freehold]]'', a female slave is assigned to Hugh Farnham, and she doesn't have a name. He ends up calling her 'kitten' after the cute way she curled up in bed when she was tired.

* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel, ''[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Three-Minute_Universe The Three Minute Universe]'', the allegedly [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] "Sackers" have no names. When a human calls them a name, they consider it a compliment and use it as a name, and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* In ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'', the Cat is just called "The Cat", because Cats don't use names. They tell each other apart by their individual scent.