How to keep a main character nameless?

All the way back to A Wizard of Earthsea, the Names-Have-Power trope usually handles this by giving people nicknames for "public" use. Their real names are closely-guarded secrets.

You can definitely give your protagonist a nickname; that's what people would do in the situation, because you have to call her something, and that also solves your problem.

If you want to emphasize her namelessness, you can put focus on how these monikers are nicknames, not her real name. One idea would be for different people to use different names; none of the nicknames "catch on" and become a widely-accepted name for her. You could even have her give a nickname to herself, if you need a name she gives herself from her own POV.

posted over 8 years ago

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Standback‭

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There are two ways you can accomplish not giving a name to your character.

1. Since there is a reason why she isn't given a name, you can simply explain that reason to the reader (e.g. by having the characters talk about it) and have the community handle the problem of a person not having a name in whatever way you think fitting (e.g. by using a nickname [which I wouldn't do, because a nickname is still a name in the magical sense], refering to her by function ["Mr. President", "Doctor", "baker" – think how many family names happened] or status ["unnamed one", "foreigner", "girl", "daughter", etc.]).

2. If you want the reader to remain unaware that the character has no name or don't want the reader wondering about why the character has no name (because you want the reason hidden), then simply tell the story from the first person perspective (people don't think of themselves by name, but by pronoun, so you don't have to give a name in narration) and paraphrase problematic parts of dialog (so whenever you feel that avoiding the name makes your writing awkward, you just do something like: 'The lord called for me to step forward.' or 'The lord pointed at me and waved for me to step forward.' instead of 'The lord shouted: "Step forward, Sarah!").

posted over 8 years ago

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System‭

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If everyone in the town is named by the leader, and a couple adopts her, then most people are going to refer to her as "the Kents' girl." To her face they might cal her "Miss Kent" or "Kent Girl," depending on their level of courtesy.

She can earn a use-name later depending on what she does, what she looks like, or how she behaves, like Carpenter, Red, or Stubborn.

I should also note that the first-person narrator of Rebecca, the second Mrs. de Winter, is never given a name. When we studied the book in high school our teacher said she made every class come up with a name for her just so we could talk about her. (Our class chose "Mandy" from Manderley, the name of the house.)

posted over 8 years ago

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Lauren Ipsum‭

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What are children called BEFORE the leader names them? This is what your character will continue to be addressed as.

posted over 6 years ago

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Laurence Payne‭

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You could always have her decide on a secret name for herself, perhaps one that she wishes she had but never reveals to anyone?

That way, if the story is from her perspective, you could get away with referring to her as such (with constant reminders that it's not her "proper" name).

posted over 8 years ago

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Andy Ross‭

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