Does the protagonist need a name?
Does the main character in a short story need a name? My story gives lots of other details about the character.
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2 answers
You can manage without one, but I'd recommend against it, unless you have a compelling reason.
A protagonist without a name is often awkward to write, and certainly awkward to think or speak about. A character's name is a pretty basic, fundamental aspect of their identity; there's something weird and forced about deliberately avoiding revealing his name. There's also the simple fact that the reader expects to get a name; if the reader doesn't get one, he's going to think that's a little odd.
These are all things you can overcome, certainly in a short story that can stand a little weirdness. That might be worth doing - if you have a good reason for it.
That's what's happening in the examples some of the others have given:
- In Rebecca, the protagonist has no name; she's only known as "the second Mrs. De Winter." That emphasizes how her own name has become unimportant; her identity is being subsumed in her marriage, how she's constantly being compared and contrasted to Rebecca.
- In Fight Club, there's good reason to conceal the protagonist's name - there's a major twist involving it at the climax. It also represents how the character feels hollow, fading away, a nobody.
Those are good reasons to leave a character nameless. If you have a good reason, a short story can certainly bear that weight. But if you just don't have a name for them, or if having a nameless character is just an arbitrary decision, then you're probably better off choosing some name and avoiding the issue.
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It's a lot easier to think of the character if s/he has a name, but it isn't strictly required. In Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca, the first-person narrator is never named, and is only known as "the second Mrs. De Winter."
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