People known only by their titles in anime and manga.
- Invoked in Aruosumente. Jasmin Fiorella would love to be called Strategist to make everyone forget his embarrassing first and last names, but Lante enjoys pulling Jasmin's strings way too much to let that happen.
- Defied in Asteroid in Love. During the fifth chapter (adapted as part of the second episode). Moe finds the entire Earth Sciences Club calling Mari and Mikage "President" and "Vice-President" a bit too formal, and asks Mira to give them nicknames.
- Berserk:
- A demon encountered early in the 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 TV to G4, he takes offense to the fact that everyone calls him Barkeep.
- Black Butler:
- 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.
- Bleach: Who and what the Spirit King was before he was transformed into the Spirit King is unknown, but Yhwach refers to him as his father and is very angry at what was done to him. It is implied that the Spirit King is a construct that was created by the Shinigami out of a dead being to control the boundaries that keep all the different worlds separated from each other. If he had a name before he became the Spirit King, it's never stated. He is simply known as the Spirit King and the "lynchpin between worlds", and nothing else.
- In Bloom Into You, Miyako Kodama, the manager of a local café, is usually called "Manager" by her patrons. The only person to call her by her first name is Riko, Miyako's friend since college as well as her girlfriend.
- The manager/store owner in Café Kichijōji de is usually called "the boss" by his staff.
- Cells at Work: Platelets!: None of the individual platelets have proper names; they are addressed only by their position or a distinguishing trait. Thus, the characters have names like Leader, Vice Leader, Gazer, Glancer, and Backwards Hat.
- In Code Geass, the empress of China HAS a name, but in the series she's only ever called the traditional title of "Tianzi" ("Your Majesty" in the dub). 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.
- Cromartie High School:
- Hokuto's lackey 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.
- Maeda's Mom and Gorilla are simply called what they are.
- 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 to by their titles.
- 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.
- In Death Parade, a character credited as simply "Black Haired Woman" because of her amnesia. She works as Decim's assistant and begins the series as an Audience Surrogate to understand the setting. The credits even call her "Black Haired Woman", but her name is revealed to be Chiyuki.
- D.Gray-Man has the "Head Nurse" of the Black Order.
- "The fourteenth" also qualifies. He is called like this because he is the fourteenth member of the Noah family to have appeared. His real name is Nea D. Campbell . It is later revealed that this nickname was given to him by the previous Noahs out of contempt.
- Everyone in Dog Days calls Millhiore princess. This would make sense if it was just her subjects, but people from Galette and Pastillage call her that even when their own princesses are present. The only people who call her by name are the other two princesses, since they're her childhood friends.
- Doraemon: Nobita's class teacher, Sensei, is solely referred to as such.
- One of the movies, Doraemon: Nobita and the Galaxy Super-express, introduces a new character, the Galaxy Super-Express Conductor who's never named onscreen, despite being a major character having a Big Damn Heroes saving Doraemon and gang halfway into the film. The credits even calls him "conductor".
- Dragon Ball:
- Uranai Baba introduced in the original Dragon Ball. The name means "fortune-telling crone." Guess what she is and what she does?
- Kami-sama, "God." Kaio-sama, "Lord of the Worlds."
- Muten Roshi, "Invincible old master." (This is actually a case of His Name Really Is "Barkeep".)
- Android 17 and Android 18 of Dragon Ball Z were once human, but their real names weren't revealed until 2014. In case you're wondering, they're named Lapis and Lazuli respectively.
- King Nikochan's sidekick from Dr. Slump is never referred to by name.
- 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. And is an alias as well.
- 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, with him being a Bioroid prototype, and all.
- 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.
- Girls Go Around: Hagiyama Miyabe is usually just referred to as Class Rep.
- Goblin Slayer may as well be called Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Series, as the narration, the characters, and even the monsters only ever refer to each other by title or occupation.
- 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. Even during the baseball game her name is humorously put down as Kyon's sister. The more minor character, the president of the computer club, is also invoked by this trope.
- In Hekikai No Aion, Seine is frequently called a witch instead of her real name.
- Hellsing:
- The Captain, The Doktor and The Major. While there are fanon names for The Captain and The Major (Hans Gunsche and Montana Max respectively — both taken from prototype characters from Hirano's earlier works), 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.
- Henkyou no Roukishi Bard Loen: The "Witch" never reveals her name, only asks that she be called by that title, regardless of Bard's protests about being a terrible way to refer to oneself. She's called this way for being a herbologist misblamed for a plague and currently knows some actualy magic.
- The "Mr. Newspapers" of every nation in Hetalia: Axis Powers.
- Most people in Hidamari Sketch have Only One Name already, but the principal and the landlady are just "the principal" and "the landlady". As of Hoshimittsu, we know her name is Tsumugi, though nobody uses this name.
- We never learn the names of most characters from Humanity Has Declined, so this trope is pretty much expected. Oddly, it applies more to the side characters, as Assistant is the only one of the three main characters to have a consistent 'name'.
- I Can't Believe I Slept with You: Subverted. The first time that Chiyo and the Landlady go out on a date together, a former classmate addresses the Landlady by her family name, Hara.
- Hajime of I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying is never called by name; it's always "husband", "darling", "anija", or (for some reason) "Takashi".
- In I Think Our Son Is Gay, basically everyone calls Daigo "President." Hiroki is the only person who's First-Name Basis with him.
- The Idolmaster — The Producer, which is what the characters will call the player character in the games. As a side effect and subsequent running gag, in the rest of the franchise, be it show, or comic, he's still always called Producer even when having an actual name would be justified and make more sense.
- Inazuma Eleven double subverts this with Li Kobun("kobun" is Japanese for "lackey"). Introduced in Ares no Tenbin, he claimed that "Kobun" was his real given name in addition to his profession (that of being Zhao Jinyun's lackey), but in episode 15 of ''Orion no Kokuin", his real given name turns out to be Hao.
- 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.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
- Most characters usually refer to Shirogane simply as "President" (likewise with his predecessor in flashbacks to the previous year, though his name has yet to be revealed). After his term as president ends it's revealed that Ishigami and Fujiwara are both on a First-Name Basis with him, though Kaguya can't bring herself to call him anything other than "President" (in fact, the main reason why she asks him to run for a second term is so she has an excuse to avoid calling him by name). The final chapter still has everyone calling him this despite him having already left for Stanford several months prior (something that Iino expresses minor annoyance over since she's the current president). This is averted in the English translation, where everyone is instead on a Last-Name Basis with him.
- Kashiwagi's boyfriend is almost exclusively referred to as such, even by the narration. This continues even after his Given Name Reveal.
- In Kuro, the doctor is just called Doctor.
- The master of the Café ABCB in Kimagure Orange Road is just called "Master".
- The Sankt Kaiser (Saint King) in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is only known as the "Sankt Kaiser." The Sankt Kaiser's clone has a name, but whenever people talk of the original Sankt Kaiser, it's always as the Sankt Kaiser. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid eventually reveals that her name was Olivie Sägebrecht.
- 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.
- In Maiden Rose, Klaus and Taki spent a fair chunk of the Luckenwalde doujinshis at a bar in the town. Despite usually being his only customers, the owner is never referred to as anything but "barkeep."
- Maoyu, much like Goblin Slayer above, uses this for everybody, to a point where even a character who is disguised, promoted, or undergoes a similar lifestyle change will similarly change their name. By Word of God, everybody does have a real name, but they're never used since they're not important to the story.
- 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.
- Medabots has Mr. Referee. It even goes so far that he calls himself Mr. Referee every time he pops up.
- Sometimes, a character in Japanese media takes the name "Nanashi", which literally translates to "no name". The most prominent of these Nanashis is from Märchen Awakens Romance, who apparently came from another world with Name Amnesia and adopted "Nanashi" for himself. El Cazador de la Bruja has main character Nadie, the Spanish version of "no name".
- Miami Guns has the scientist "Kaken Musume". which roughly translates as "Science Lab Girl".
- Master Asia from Mobile Fighter 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 Shuji Kurosu, meaning he's actually Japanese.
- Similarly, the Medicine Man from Mononoke, who always introduces himself as such and is never asked for his real name. Despite the fact that he's the main character and also doubles as a badass demon hunter!
- The Underworld of The Morose Mononokean are ruled by three officials called the Legislator, the Justice and the Executive, and they are always referred to by their titles.
- My Bride is a Mermaid:
- The Class President, who is never referred to as anything but "Class President." It's even a minor point of characterization for her, as she's a bit depressed that no one actually knows her name.
- Lunar's dad is almost always just referred to as "Lunar's dad" (Lunar-papa in Japanese).
- In The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Esteban's father is just referred to as "The Travelling Prophet".
- Naruto:
- The Kages are addressed primarily by their title, which is often shortened to the ordinal (e.g. "Third Hokage" becomes "Third"), though they're still occasionally called by their actual names. Even the Kages themselves refer to each other primarily by title; apart from Tsunade and Gaara, we don't find out the names of the other post-Time Skip Kages until quite some time after their initial appearance. We eventually find out the names of the first four Hokages; Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju (both sort of a spoiler), Hiruzen Sarutobi (his family name was revealed fairly early, but his given name 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 Minato Namikaze.
- This also holds true for the tailed beasts. Everyone refers to them by the number of their tails (Ex: Naruto's tailed beast is the Kyuubi/Nine-Tails); the sole exception to this is Gaara's tailed beast, introduced as Shukaku. Much later, it turns out that all tailed beasts have names; the only one that still adheres to this trope is the Juubi/Ten-Tails.
- The Professor in Nichijou is only ever referred to as "The Professor." Her family name seems to be Shinonome, but her given name has never been revealed.
- Kaede's mom and dad in Ninja Nonsense, who are never referred to as anything other than "Kaede's mom" and "Kaede's dad."
- In No. 6 Inukashi's name literally means 'dog lender' and they're called Dogkeeper in the dub. They run a hotel and lend out dogs as heaters to prevent customers from freezing to death in the winder.
- In One Piece, the battle axe-wielding Sentomaru tries to defy this trope when Franky calls him "battle axe" upon meeting him, to which Sentomaru replies that one shouldn't randomly call a man by the name of his weapon.
- 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. It's Shizue. We're also given the Suou company's lawyer, Kousaka-san's, first name in Chapter 75, over 20 chapters after her debut. It's Yuki.
- In Oyaji, the titular man himself is almost never called by his actual name Takeshi Kumada, he is simply Oyaji, and the series’ true theme heavily relies on Takeshi being mostly called as such.
- 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.
- 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."
- Pokémon: The Series
- 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." The novelization however, calls him Lawrence III.
- Every parent in Sun & Moon has a name...except Sophocles' parents. When they properly debut, Sophocles' dad outright calls his own wife Sophocles' mom when complimenting her cooking.
- The minions from the first and third continuity of Pretty Cure franchise suffer from this. Most of the time, the heroines don't mind that the villains have names. Nagisa and Honoka just call them "the guys from the Dotsuko-Zone" (except Kiriya), and the Yes! 5 team is really bad with this, they call the villains just by the name of their respective organization. The villain Bunbee is called both "Nightmare" and "Eternal" in the respective seasons, and in DX2, they call Hadenya just "Nightmare," as it would be her actual name. In both series, even if they do not call them like that, they hardly call them by their names either. The second continuity is less as bad, though Saki has problems with their names. And in the other continuities, the heroines call them by their names more often than their organization names. Especially the recent continuities avert this trope.
- In The 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 almost beats him in a game of tennis in order to snap him out of his angst at being dropped from the regulars 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.
- 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 Reborn! (2004), Tsuna's mom is referred to by almost everyone as "Mama."
- In The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, Tougo prefers to have others simply call him by his Ranger name, Red. He's actually a little disappointed that Rosie still addresses him by his full name.
- The bus driver from Rosario + Vampire is only ever called the bus driver until his name was revealed in the final chapter.
- In Ryu, King Najah XIV is called by name exactly once in the beginning of the story and then never again.
- In Saber Marionette R, everyone calls Virrey Jr. just "Junior". Overlaps with Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?, as his name is Spanish for "viceroy".
- 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.
- In The Seven Deadly Sins, King's name is just a title used by others as a reference to him being the Fairy King. His real name is actually Harlequin, though it is rarely used by most characters.
- Mr. Narrator and Mr. Caption from the Gag Dub of Sgt. Frog.
- Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Kyoji's boss. Kyoji/Yotaro calls him "boss", Yakumo calls him "Mr Boss Man".
- Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle:
- The eponymous princess does have a name (Syalis), but she's only ever referred to as "the princess".
- Virtually everyone calls the Demon King by his title, apart from his older brother Hades, who calls him Twilight.
- Demon Cleric is known to almost everyone as... "Demon Cleric", mainly because he's embarrassed that he shares his real name (Leonard) with another demon who's infamous for his misbehavior.
- The President of South Island in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie goes unnamed.
- Vanilla the Rabbit, Cream's Mother, in Sonic X is called exactly that.
- 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.
- Upotte!!: Funco realizes she doesn't know the name of the Japanese teacher, and her classmates assume it is just "Japanese Teacher."
- Mendo's butler in Urusei Yatsura.
- 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.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! invokes this trope in a unique way during the Millennium World Arc. In the rest of the manga, the spirit of the nameless pharaoh is referred to as "the other Yugi," since his real name has long since been forgotten, even by him. In this arc, the pharaoh is sent back 3,000 years to relive the events of his reign, where he is only ever referred to as "Pharaoh." Though there would be people in the ancient past who know his real name, this trope is in play because one, the world of the past is reconstructed from his own memories that he's slowly in the process of trying to unlock, and two, remembering his name is a key plot point towards defeating the Big Bad.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V:
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds:
- The most mysterious of the Five Dragons is usually referred to by fans as the "Fifth Dragon," because it hasn't surfaced as a card yet, and its true name still remains a mystery. In-series itself, 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. It was later revealed to be "Life Stream Dragon", the true form of Lua's "Power Tool Dragon."
- 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, the creator of the Momentum system and designer of the first Momentum Reactor, the person who is said to have caused Zero Reverse, and yet saved Yusei Superman-style, 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.
- Justified in Yuusha Gojo Kumiai Kouryuugata Keijiban. The entire manga is told through heroes from various stories that range in setting and genre from different universes all interacting through a special forum that can be accessed from different worlds. Everyone is referred to by their usernames. Not only that, the forum etiquette actually discourages users from revealing their real names, which result in one person being quite chastised when she freely reveals and uses her real name on the forum.
