Characters without names.

[jaF0]

There have been a lot of threads here about names of characters. I and a few others have mentioned not naming some at all. We are not alone.

Number 6
Agent 99
The man with no name.



Others?

 

[Bramblethorn]

The protagonist of Len Deighton's "The IPCRESS File" and sequels. The film adaptations named him Harry Palmer for convenience, but he's never named in the books aside from some aliases.

IIRC, also the Jackal in Frederick Forsyth's "Day of the Jackal". At one stage the investigators think they have a name for him, but that turns out to be stolen from somebody else.

 

[KeithD]

I occasionally (and purposely) leave protagonists without names--usually when writing in the first person. This only becomes a nuisance when trying to include them in a headline or story blurb. Some years ago we had a poster to the board who determinedly insisted the protagonist had to be named in the first paragraph. I always blew them a raspberry on that.

In mysteries I also often delay naming a character engaged in action to make it possible that it's more than one already-named character engaged in that action (actually doing that in a Hardesty mystery build right now--building in a reader misunderstanding on which cop is a bad guy).

 

[TheRedChamber]

The Emergency Medical Hologram aka Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager
And equally Doctor Who.

I've had a few stories where I haven't bothered to name 'I'.

 

[AlinaX]

I, too, often go unnamed.

 

[shelleycat1]

One of my favourites, Rebecca. We never know the narrator’s name except by her title.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've written two stories I can think of where the main character is not named. One of them is in first person POV, and the other is in second person POV.

Norman Rush somehow got through hundreds of pages of his novel Mating without once saying the name of his first person POV female protagonist.

 

[TheLobster]

The Emergency Medical Hologram aka Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager
And equally Doctor Who.

Seems like when it comes to sci-fi, it’s often that the girl doctor has no name.

 

[OffNSFW]

Fight Club comes to mind.

And, taking a hard turn in another direction, Jim Carrey's character in The Cable Guy.

 

[lovecraft68]

Half the comments go under anonymous, and there are some real characters there.

 

[StillStunned]

I have two whole series where the narrator has no name. Plus individual stories. Sometimes I don't even specify the gender. People are people.

 

[jomar]

Seems like a lot of people do it. Me too.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I have a story where the only two characters in it are referred to as she and he.

Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly had no name. They called him blondie because he was unnamed but he had no name in the script. He's probably the most famous unnamed character in cinema.

Wasn't there also some apocalyptic movie from the 80s where the main tough guy character was unnamed and only credited at the end as Nada?

 

[MrHereWriting]

https://mrhere.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F754559253595979776

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I have a story where the only two characters in it are referred to as she and he.

Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly had no name. They called him blondie because he was unnamed but he had no name in the script. He's probably the most famous unnamed character in cinema.

Wasn't there also some apocalyptic movie from the 80s where the main tough guy character was unnamed and only credited at the end as Nada?

That trilogy is aptly nicknamed 'The man With No Name' trilogy for that reason.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Two series of mine are told from the 1st person POV and none of the characters in either series have names. Every character other than the MC/narrator is identified by her/his relationship to the MC/narrator. In fact, somebody left a comment under one of those chapters which read:

"My son", "My son", "My son". Jesus Christ, he hasn't got a name?!

 

[Voboy]

Reservoir Dogs.

As a matter of fact, the disclosure of a few of the characters' actual names is a significant plot point, and the film is immersive enough that it seems very jarring, toward the end, when Nice Guy Eddie is talking to to the guy we think of as Mr White and calls him "Larry."

The immediate reaction is "who the fuck is Larry?"

 

[THBGato]

Withnail & I.

My story, Coda, didn't name either of the two main characters (but if you read The Third Date you can work out who they are).

 

[Priscilla_June]

God

 

[TarnishedPenny]

My House of Feathers series named only the secondary characters. MFC and MMC were unnamed throughout.

 

[12oclocktales]

Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate is not given a first name.

 

[Britva415]

Blondie

 

[NotWise]

I wrote a story without naming the characters--there were only two. I was experimenting with anonymous sex, but an astute reader pointed out that--names or no names--the characters knew each other pretty well, and the reader knew the characters pretty well, before the sex. It didn't really tickle the anonymous sex kink.

 

[Arr2]

My series Lines of the See-Through Man is about a young man who's ignored by the world — "invisible," in the sense that he's (generally) unable to be perceived. It's told in the first person, and I've deliberately withheld naming him to heighten the sense that the reader also cannot fully realize who he is.

 

[RetroFan]

Curly's wife from "Of Mice and Men'.