Lavender Unicorn Syndrome occurs when, instead of using a characters name or a pronoun, you repeatedly use other descriptors for them, such as "the baker," "the ninja," "the dragon."

Common in Fan Fictions, the term spawned from the Friendship is Magic /fic/ board where writers would refer to Twilight Sparkle as "lavender unicorn" rather than using her name to describe when she was doing something.