: How to have a character be nameless for the first few paragraphs of a book? Let me first explain what is going in in the beginning of the story: My main character belongs to a tribal culture

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What about something both direct and indirect, like "theUnnamed", "nameless" or "namelesstwo"...

That way we (as readers) could figure out who it is, but still keep within the rules of the story's universe.

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Depending on what happens in your opening scenes, you may be able to refer to him as "the boy" or "the unnamed person" or some such.

But: How do you suppose that the people in this culture refer to those who don't yet have names? If you're in the person's presence, you could point and say "him", but what if you're not? The fact that you are struggling with this for your narrative may indicate that you have created a society which, to this extent, is unbelievable.

I think this is a common trap for people writing fantasy and science fiction. It's easy to write, "The people in this society all walk on their hands." But really, it's so wildly impractical, how long would such a thing last? Surely sooner or later someone would say, "Hey, it's so much easier to walk on your feet!" and no matter how much the authorities fought it, the advantages would be too obvious. At the least you have to explain away the obvious problems.

Perhaps in this culture unnamed people really do have names, they just don't consider them "real names". The name he's given as a child isn't considered a name, it's just something you call him by until he earns a real name. Depending on what you're trying to do in the story, it might work to say, "He was called Flinghar, but that wasn't his name. He hadn't yet earned a name. He hoped to earn a name in the Trial at the next solstice ..."

Or maybe they're referred to by some description, like "Hamgar's Second Son" or "Boy of the Third New Moon" or some such.

If the society is highly ritualized, I'd think there'd be a formula to such things. You wouldn't just use a random nickname.

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You have a few things going on here:

1) If the story is first-person, your problem is solved. We rarely address ourselves by our given names in internal monologues.

2) If your story is in third person, then you have a cultural issue.

The children may not get official Names (Starfall, Willow, Runs With Scissors) until they do something to earn it. But you still have to address someone before that age, since they have to have some level of competence to hunt and kill food. A mother with three kids under the age of trial is not going to introduce them as Hey You, Thing 1, and Pain In My Butt (even if that's how she thinks of them).

So I think you need a culturally embarrassing placeholder address which is clearly not a name, which the nickname will then supplant.

It could be a cutesy use-name, which is why a warrior of either gender would reject it
(Starlight, Birdsong, Crushed Peony Booger).
It could be a mocking name (Screech, Sewage, Mr. Hankey the Christmas
Poo) because the tribe thinks the gods will steal children who have
fine names, so they give them ugly names until they are old enough to
defend themselves against the gods.
It could be a literal placeholder (Third Daughter of Two Blades).

3) Cultural issues aside, if this is a short story and you really mean five or six paragraphs, using "the warrior" or "the boy on trial" is fine.

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