Quotes or Italics in Regard to Names Referred To

He's been called a meany, a miser, a jerk, a backstabber and a charlatan.

Am I right in saying that if there were no "a" in front of any of those names that they would get quotation marks or italics because they would then be adjectival words referred to as words, whereas now, with the "a" in front of each of them, they are merely nouns that he's been called, so the "a" takes care of there being any need for any quotation marks or italics?

Thanks.