# Well-known characters without actual names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286 "2008-11-24T18:02:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/121 "2008-11-26T00:56:27Z")
Three pages and nobody’s mentioned the Emergency Medical Hologram (aka the Doctor) from **Star Trek: Voyager**? He did experiment with a number of names, but never stuck with any of them (until the series finale, but that timeling no longer exists). ---
**Author:** ![lexan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/73ab20/32.png) [@lexan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/122 "2008-11-26T02:24:14Z")
How about The Haitian from Heroes? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/123 "2008-11-26T13:33:54Z")
THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG, SORRY! I’m not sure if the discussion was just about the Narrator of Ellison’s “Invisible Man”, so I’ll note The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells is never given a name (IIRC he may be called The Scientist in a few places). “Hawley Griffin” was invented for the Claude Rains film. HERE’S THE REAL INFO: Apparently, Wells did call him Griffin. The Rains character was named Jack Griffin. Alan Moore in LExG named him Hawley Griffin. D’oh! ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/124 "2008-11-26T15:23:26Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > Frankenstein’s monster. I thought his name was Adam. FWIW, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/125 "2008-11-26T17:09:30Z")
> [@SunSandSuffering](#): > > McGoohan denies this and as you say it’s never mentioned in the series. Just convenient that the actor went from one secret agent show for ITV to another, fans put two and two together… > > [http://www.thepennyfarthing.com/articles/drake.htm](http://www.thepennyfarthing.com/articles/drake.htm) > > Quote: > Drake is not Six simply because McGoohan has said so, so many times. In an interview with Barrington Calia (New Video magazine 1985) when asked: “Is The Prisoner John Drake?”, McGoohan replied: “No! People assume that ‘The Prisoner’ is a sequel to ‘Danger Man’ because I began the project closely afterward” Can something be canon against the very wishes of a work’s creator? 😛 Some people actually claim that McGoohan is being coy because he had no legal title to the character of Drake when he went on to create **The Prisoner**. I would just say “if Six wasn’t Drake, he should have been”. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/126 "2008-11-26T18:04:16Z")
Darling from Lady and the Tramp. The baby is never named either. I watch too many kids movies. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/127 "2008-11-26T18:08:51Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Chef from South Park. > > (Yes, he’s got a name too. Anyone remember it without looking it up? I certainly don’t. He’s almost always just called Chef. ) Yes, I do. Without looking it up, I swear. It’s Jerome McElroy. Who wants to touch me? I SAID, “WHO WANTS TO TOUCH ME?” As for “Gilligan’s Island,” Gilligan’s first name was never revealed in the show. On the DVD collection, producer Sherwood Schwartz revealed that he preferred the name “Willie Gilligan.” In the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, Marvin the Martian was referred to only as “Commander X-2.” He didn’t get the name “Marvin” until the 1979 “Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie” in which his name appeared under a portrait of him. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/128 "2008-11-26T18:21:20Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > Baum did not name the Wicked Witch of the West but the later book and Musical WICKED names her Elphaba. Which is meaningless. _Wicked_ is far from canon, in fact just the opposite. She was also given the name Bastinda, Evillene and Momba in various other non-canon sources. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/129 "2008-11-26T18:22:16Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > Darling from Lady and the Tramp. The baby is never named either. > > I watch too many kids movies. In the book they are Mr. and Mrs. Dearly. And the dogs are Pongo and Missis; Perdita is a stray they take in to help nurse the puppies. OH, and the baby does not arrive in the book. They just talk about starting a “dynasty of Dearlys” to go with their “dynasty of Dalmatians.” They acquire Prince to be Perdita’s mate. Super book. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/130 "2008-11-26T18:29:42Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Is that little black kid on _South Park_ really called Token? He is, but that’s his given name, so he doesn’t quite qualify for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/131 "2008-11-26T18:43:10Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > In the book they are Mr. and Mrs. Dearly. And the dogs are Pongo and Missis; Perdita is a stray they take in to help nurse the puppies. > > OH, and the baby does not arrive in the book. They just talk about starting a “dynasty of Dearlys” to go with their “dynasty of Dalmatians.” They acquire Prince to be Perdita’s mate. Super book. That’s _101 Dalmations_, not _Lady and the Tramp_. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/132 "2008-11-26T18:55:47Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > That’s _101 Dalmations_, not _Lady and the Tramp_. OH, crap. Sorry, I mixed them up. Apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/133 "2008-11-26T19:10:53Z")
Quoth **Agent Foxtrot** : > [@](#): > > Several characters from Catch-22 spring to mind for me, namely Major ----- De Coverley, The Soldier In White, and Hungry Joe. Not to mention Nately’s Whore and Nately’s Whore’s Little Sister. Another famous example would be the Three Musketeers: They admit that Aramis, Athos, and Porthos are pseudonyms, but we never actually learn their real names in the book (though they do each identify themselves to duelling opponents in one scene, and we eventually learn Athos’ title). I’m not sure if any of the later books name them. And for the record, I do actually know who Jonas Grumby and Roy Hinkley are without having to look them up. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/134 "2008-11-26T19:39:31Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Right – but I was just going on the internal evidence in the Scottish play. While Shakespeare’s plays dealing with English history and Roman history are tolerably true to their sources, he was so remote from the Macbeth era of Scottish history that it might have well been a legendary story, like Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet. How about the First and Second Murderers in the Scottish tragedy? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/135 "2008-11-26T20:06:03Z")
> [@](#): > > How about the First and Second Murderers in the Scottish tragedy? Eh, they’re just minor walk-on characters… One wouldn’t really expect to know their names, any more than one would expect to know the names of the Two Clowns, Gravediggers from _Hamlet_. A much better example would be the Princess, from _Love’s Labour Lost_. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/136 "2008-11-26T20:06:54Z")
> [@Mbossa](#): > > Janitor in _Scrubs_. Unless his name really is Dr Jan Itor. He plays himself. His name is Neil. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/137 "2008-11-26T20:11:01Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Is that little black kid on _South Park_ really called Token? > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > He is, but that’s his given name, so he doesn’t quite qualify for this thread. What makes it funny is that his last name is Black (originally Williams, but Parker and Stone changed it). So that makes him Token Black. Speaking of South Park, has Kenny’s mother’s name actually been revealed? I know his dad’s name is Stuart, and the other kids’ moms are Sharon (Marsh), Sheila (Broflovski), and Lianne (Cartman), but has Mrs. McCormick’s first name ever been given? ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/138 "2008-11-27T01:08:20Z")
“The voice” in Field of Dreams ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/139 "2008-11-27T03:29:24Z")
The lead character in **Yojimbo** is never given a name. In the sequel **Tsubaki Sanjuro** , he gives Tsubaki Sanjuro as his name, but it’s a joke. He’s looking out the window and the first thing he sees is a _tsubaki_ (camellia) tree. “Sanjuro”, would mean “30th son”. He finishes his line by: “but if you guys don’t hurry up, I’ll be Yonjuro when we get out of here.” “Yonjuro” = “40th son”. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286/140 "2008-11-27T12:45:35Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I’m gonna delve into the world of video games: > **Master Chief** His first name is John. In the books you get some back story and a description of him as a kid. In-game he’s referred to as Spartan-117 and I think one time as John-117, as well as by his rank. In Halo 3 Cortana actually calls him by name at least once, in the after the credits ending, and she might have said it in the lead-in crash scene. The memorial at the end shows John-117 scratched onto the tail section of the crashed frigate. You can’t miss it if you played the last game, though they do keep it pretty mysterious in the first two. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-characters-without-actual-names/474286.md?page=8)