History Main / SecretPublicIdentity

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', [[TheArcher Artemis Crock]] uses the superhero name of...Artemis. Somewhat {{Justified|Trope}} because her work on the Team is covert ops, so she's not well-known publicly, and because [[StevenUlyssesPerhero her name fits]] her gimmick rather well, assuming that you're familiar with Myth/ClassicalMythology.

* Barnaby Brooks Jr. from ''Anime/TigerAndBunny''. He constantly expresses disdain whenever he gets called "Bunny", as the public quickly latched onto his partnership with Tiger as the titular "Tiger & Bunny" duo.

* Inverted with Weld in ''Literature/{{Worm}}''. His superhero name is his ''only'' name, because he's [[ChromeChampion literally made out of metal]], so it would be impossible for him to maintain a secret identity, and he [[IdentityAmnesia has no memory of his life before gaining his powers]].

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as one villain referred to them as Darkwing's Fan Club, so people think they just follow him around. Considering that DW's a bit of a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold glory hound]], this is not surprising.
** Played with in the new comic series. [[spoiler:Negaduck]] finally figured it out, but only after he saw Launchpad leaving the dry cleaners with Darkwing's costume ''and'' Drake Mallard's [[LimitedWardrobe usual outfit]].

* The eponymous crime fighter of ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonQueen'' doesn't bother with a secret identity. Rather, the Dragon Queen acquired a private investigator license and turns over all criminals to the police for the arrest.
* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', [[TheArcher Artemis Crock]] uses the superhero name of...Artemis. Somewhat {{Justified|Trope}} because her work on the Team is covert ops, so she's not well-known publicly, and because [[StevenUlyssesPerhero her name fits]] her gimmick rather well, assuming that you're familiar with Myth/ClassicalMythology.
** This leads to an important bit of foreshadowing in "Targets" when [[DarkActionGirl Cheshire]] refers to her as "Ar--chery girl." This hints at the fact that Cheshire knows Artemis's real name, but not her codename. The reason, of course, being that [[spoiler:they are sisters]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Steven and the Crystal Gems make no effort to hide who/what they are, and Steven willingly tells people about his powers if they ask. No one has ''ever'' made a big deal out of this (with a few exceptions). Then again, most of the Gems' activities are done out of the public eye or only in Beach City (which is established multiple times to be a small tourist town).
* Unlike later series, the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers first]] [[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated two]] ''Franchise/TheTransformers'' cartoons showed the Autobots regularly walking around and/or fighting Decepticons in public. They made no effort to hide what they were or why they were there. The people who met/saw them didn't seem too unnerved by their presence (or at least got over it fast enough).
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle Super Chicken]]'', Henry Cabot Henhouse III drinks his supersauce to become Super Chicken, while Henry's faithful sidekick, Fred, doesn't drink anything and becomes SC's faithful sidekick, Fred. But then, he knew the job was dangerous when he took it.
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/SuperPresident'', where his super name is his ''real job,'' but he still manages to preserve a secret ID, somehow...
* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls have no secret identities. A few times, villains came straight to their house to attack.
* Manny in ''WesternAnimation/ElTigre''. Granpapi also doesn't bother hiding the fact that he is Puma Loco. Played with his father White Pantera. He actually hides his identity, [[ClarkKenting with glasses]], [[PaperThinDisguise over his mask]].

* ''Series/TheBoys'': ''None'' of the superheroes in this series have secret identities; their hero lives/careers are all they've ever known. This is shown several times to be a bit of a bad thing, as it makes their loved ones targets for terrorist organizations (or other supes if they get ticked off), keeps them in the limelight all their lives, and means that they can never truly have a normal life.

'''Watch:''' Ahh, going with the real name then. Very ComicBook/LexLuthor of you.
-->--''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''

* WesternAnimation/KimPossible is quite obviously this. Not only is she a BadassNormal who can hold her own against a superpowered villainess Shego, but everyone knows it. They are all so calm about it too. It also helps that her villains rarely (if ever) [[EvenEvilHasStandards go after her family just to get to her]]. The few times it happened were because said family member was involved in the villains plot somehow.

Normally justified with their real name being common and their civilian identity being fairly nondescript, but not always. Or maybe they simply don't see a reason to bother with a secret identity (maybe their [[BadassFamily family is capable of protecting themselves from villain attacks]], maybe they look so different as heroes that no one [[ClarkKenting recognizes their civilian identity]], maybe they [[DarkAndTroubledPast lost everyone they love and don't have anyone left to protect]], etc.

Normally justified with their real name being common and their civilian identity being fairly nondescript, but not always.

* WesternAnimation/KimPossible is quite obviously this. Not only is she a BadassNormal who can hold her own against a superpowered villainess Shego, but everyone knows it. They are all so calm about it too.

* A number of characters in both ''Franchise/KamenRider'' and ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' don't have any secret identity, wether this is because they work for organizations with public operations (such as the [[Series/TokumeiSentaiGoBusters Go-Busters]] or the Riders from ''[[Series/KamenRiderRevice Revice]]''), they don't particularly care (like [[Series/KamenRiderWizard Wizard]] or the [[Series/KishiryuSentaiRyusoulger Ryusoulgers]]), or other reasons (like [[Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger the Shiba clan]] already being well-known or many [[Series/KamenRiderGaim Armored Riders]] wanting attention to begin with).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' had a DVD extra feature with background information about the other supers who didn't get much screen time. One of these is Universal Man, who approaches this trope from the opposite direction and has ''no civilian identity''. He wears his crime-fighting costume at all times, he insists that Universal Man is his legal name, and he gets offended when people ask him to take his mask off.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', [[TheArcher Artemis Crock]] uses the superhero name of...Artemis. Somewhat {{Justified|Trope}} because her work on the Team is covert ops, so she's not well-known publicly, and because [[StevenUlyssesPerhero her name fits]] her gimmick rather well, assuming that you're familiar with Myth/ClassicalMythology.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
!!DC
* Franchise/{{Batman}} has several foes who, despite their gimmicks, choose to go by their real names. Hugo Strange, Cornelius Stirk, Victor Zsasz, Philo Zeiss, David Cain [[spoiler:and James Gordon Jr.]] Mister Freeze might also count, since his legal name is Victor Fries ([[FunWithHomophones pronounced exactly like "freeze"]]), so spoken out loud, his code name is just his real one.
* Discussed in an issue of ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' that opens with Superman fighting a guy in a power suit who identifies himself as "Gabriel Van Daniken." Superman tells him that it's the worst name for a super villain and he's ever heard, and Gabriel's reply is "You mean just because I build a containment suit and try to [[WaterSourceTampering poison the water supply]] I have to give myself a stupid alias? Get a grip, Superman. I'm thirty-five years old!" A bystander watching the battle remarks that he has a point. After all, Bonnie and Clyde never had code names, and they were criminals anyway. He says it's actually kind of cool for villains to introduce themselves by their real name, instead of calling themselves "Toxic-man" or "Pollutus".
* ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' has Scott Fischer. Apparently, they gave him the codename ''Blaze'' but he never got around to actually using it.
* During the [[DarkerAndEdgier Mike Grell]] run, ComicBook/GreenArrow and ComicBook/BlackCanary largely dropped the costumes and codenames. Later, Canary would all but abandon a civilian life, and Green Arrow's status would change DependingOnTheWriter.
* ComicBook/MaryMarvel is a borderline case, as Mary is her real first name.
** Because Captain Marvel is now called ComicBook/{{Shazam}}, Mary no longer has a codename.
* ''The New Titans'' (formerly the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'') had:
** Mal Duncan, who later went through an ever changing series of codenames: ComicBook/{{Guardian}}, Hornblower, Herald, and now Vox.
** Danny Chase did not have a codename, nor any form of costume. He temporarily came up with the "Phantasm" identity while pretending he was dead shortly before being written out of the series.
** ComicBook/{{Raven}}, who's from a magical other dimension, operates by her ([[OnlyOneName singular]]) real name. As of late she's used the civilian identity "Rachel Roth" , but ''that'' name is the made up one.
** ComicBook/{{Starfire}}'s identity is public knowledge, although she has taken on "[[SueDonym Kory Anders]]" as a legal name.
* In ''ComicBook/YoungJustice2019'' [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim Drake]] came across an evil alternate that had given up his ties to the Robin name and was just going by his own name in costume. Tim, who has a long history of trouble coming up with aliases for himself, decided that if his elder alternate couldn't come up with a name he probably wouldn't either and started going by Drake.
* After the various CrisisCrossover-induced {{Continuity Snarl}}s in her back-story, the first ComicBook/WonderGirl called herself Troia for a time, but eventually settled on just using her civilian name of Donna Troy.
* ComicBook/WonderWoman's identity as Diana the Amazon princess has been public knowledge since at least the '80s. Many of her villains operate without code names even if they do use gimmicks, including Mona Menise, Circe, Veronica Cale, Paula von Gunther (who has spent more time as a reformed villain and loyal ally to Diana than she has as her opponent), and Zara.

!!Marvel
* [[ComicBook/BuckyBarnes Bucky]], ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] {{sidekick}} and later Captain America, was actually called Bucky Barnes, as a nickname based on his middle name, Buchanan. What's different, and very odd, about this is that "Bucky" was treated as a code name, and nobody knew that Bucky Barnes was the same person as Cap's sidekick Bucky.
** This sort of thing happened a lot during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks. This includes sidekicks Roy the Super-Boy [who worked with The Wizard], Mickey Mathews [The Deacon], Tommy the Amazing Kid [Amazing Man], Rusty [Flagman], Sandy the Golden Boy [Sandman] and Mickey [American Crusader].
*** Speaking of Roy the Super-Boy, his Secret Public Identity was lampshaded in one story, where, when calling his friend's mother, he identified himself as Roy. When she asked him whether he was her son's friend, he insisted that no, he's Roy the Super-Boy. For some reason, she buys it without question.
*** Black Terror's sidekick, Tim Ronald, is something of a twist on this trope. He was initially known as Tim in his superhero identity, but around the late 1940s, he became known as Kid Terror, amending the problem somewhat.
** General Glory, DC's parody of Captain America, of course had a sidekick called Ernest E. Ernest, aka Ernie the Battling Boy.
*** Subverted with the revelation that there have been more than one "Ernie".
* In ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica #289'', Cap's girlfriend at the time, Bernie Rosenthal, spends a backup story daydreaming about being a superhero called "Bernie America", leading to this exchange when she meets her reinterpretation of Steve:
-->'''Steve:''' Uh, ''B-B-Bernie?'' I have to t-talk to you...\\
'''Bernie:''' Please, Steve--call me Bernie ''America!'' You wouldn't want to jeopardize my double identity, would you?\\
'''Steve:''' No, ma'am.
* ComicBook/DoctorDoom. Everyone knows who he is (what with him being European royalty and all), and considering his status as an OmnidisciplinaryScientist, he lives up to his self-appointed title as "doctor" even if he was expelled from college.
* While the ComicBook/FantasticFour have code names, they've never had secret identities, and are frequently called by name. In particular, Mr. Fantastic is universally known as "Reed" or "Dr. Richards".
* ComicBook/LukeCage hasn't been called "Power Man" in years. But then, he doesn't have a secret identity, either-- even calling himself Power Man was just [[StageNames for publicity purposes]]. Granted, "Luke Cage" isn't his birth name. He got his name changed after breaking out of prison.
* Supervillain example: Moses Magnum. A [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Name to Run Away From Really Fast]], but not a terribly MeaningfulName relative to his powers.
* ComicBook/ThePunisher is often recognized by friend and foe alike as Frank Castle, which he does nothing to dispel...well, except [[MoreDakka with bullets]] on occasion.
* The ComicBook/{{Runaways}} tried giving themselves cool codenames when they started out, but everyone pretty much stopped using them as soon as the first volume finished, with the exception of the CuteBruiser, who insists on calling herself "Princess Powerful."
* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** ComicBook/JeanGrey went without a codename for some time in comics, and has been codenameless in most screen adaptations ([[WesternAnimation/XMen 1990s series]], ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', [[Film/XMenFilmSeries movies]]). This is because, by the time she came BackFromTheDead in UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks, code names for adult characters ending in "Girl" had gone out of style, so she couldn't use "Marvel Girl" anymore, and "Phoenix" was attached to a different concept. ("Marvel Woman" was tried out for a while, as did continuing to call her "Phoenix" even when the actual CosmicEntity wasn't around. Neither stuck.)
*** Jean eventually started using the Marvel Girl name again in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen.
*** Her KidFromTheFuture Rachel is also usually just Rachel (though she also went by Marvel Girl for a while.)
** Similarly, it turns out Zaladane's name is Zala Dane. ([[RetCon We think. At one point. Maybe.]]) It was intended that Zaladane have powers because she is related to Lorna Dane. Claremont forgot, however, that Lorna is adopted. (Source:X-Men danglers list)
*** And the name Polaris was first given to her by a mind-controlling villain after a ''long'' run being just "Lorna Dane," then ''retiring,'' then being dragged back in by this incident (although Classic X-Men incorrectly had her using it before this.)
** This was also lampshaded in a commercial for ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', where the other members were introduced by their names and code names (for example, "Scott Summers ''is'' Cyclops"), but hers was simply, "Jean Grey ''is''... Jean Grey".
*** Discussed in the tie-in comic. "How come everyone has a codename but Rogue is just Rogue?" "Same way Jean is just Jean." "But why is-" [alarm sounds, everyone runs off, subject is never brought up again]
** ComicBook/EmmaFrost, since joining the X-Men, dropped her codename "White Queen". Justified in that "White Queen" isn't just a name, it's a rank in the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, which she left to join the X-Men. Also, considering her past non-supervillain criminal activity, it's not like the name "Emma Frost" is associated with an innocent civilian SecretIdentity she wants to protect. It's probably ''better'' to have people know that Emma Frost is both [[HeelFaceTurn on the side of the angels now]] and [[PsychicPowers not to be]] [[NighInvulnerable messed with]].
*** Like Jean, Emma also started using her name again in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. She's actually back in the Hellfire Club again, but this time the organisation is allied to the X-Men.
** The whole Hellfire Club falls under this, especially because the members change, and many have operated independently before/after their time in the Club. It's just easier on the characters ''and'' the reader to say "OhCrap, it's Sebastian Shaw!" instead of "OhCrap, it's the Black King! Uh... the first one. Wait, [[RetCon who's Ned Buckman]]? I mean the ''other'' first one... [[RetCon Quentin who? What do you mean there's a London branch?]]..." and so on.
** Cecilia Reyes never chose a codename because she didn't want to be a superhero. But she had the X-Men Bumblebee Suit and she was considered one of them after she was outed as a mutant.
** Dani Moonstar, formerly Mirage and Psyche, eventually dropped her codename and just went by "Moonstar". Admittedly, people who don't know her secret identity might well assume that Moonstar ''is'' her codename. [[spoiler:Also, her "civilian" identity is an agent of SHIELD, rendering the "secret identity" somewhat moot.]]
*** She's back to being Mirage again as of ComicBook/UncannyXMen2018.
** X-Women tend to lose or not have code names (or have code names that are for all intents and purposes their real name, like Rogue and X-23), possibly because their creators really like the real names (Pryde, Frost, Grey) or introduced them as civilians who eventually chose half-hearted codenames that never really stick. Storm may be the only major female X-Man who hasn't operated for a significant length of time without using her codename (Psylocke has used hers pretty consistently since she got it, but started out as "Captain Britain's sister Betsy" and briefly "Captain Britain." Jubilee is a borderline case - it's short for her real name, Jubilation Lee, but it ''sounds'' like a codename).

!!Misc
* Another [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] example, Doctor Hugo Strange [the heroic Nedor Comics version] was known as Doc Strange while adventuring. His costume was basically the 1940s version of CivvieSpandex and he had no secret identity. This was preserved when Creator/AlanMoore revived him in his America's Best Comics universe as ''Tom Strange''.
** ComicBook/TomStrong himself is also an example.
* ''ComicBook/{{Madman}}'' goes by his real name, Frank Einstein. He was called "a madman" during his first appearance but [[IAmNotShazam no one actually calls him that as a codename or otherwise]].
* Dragon is the real legal name of the eponymous character in ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon''.
* The Justice Force's Ananda (''Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'') goes by her real name; her mother Bernice, also a super-hero, went by "Battling Bernice".
* In the first-published issue of the ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'' comics, the pilot Tycho Celchu goes to an Imperial-held planet, puts on a captain's uniform, and reports for duty at pilot barracks in one of the cities, all in order to get intel and be in place to [[TheMole betray them]]. He does this, however, under his real name and homeplanet. Tycho Celchu, of Alderaan, who defected to the Rebellion after his planet was destroyed, helped keep [=TIEs=] off Wedge during the run on the second Death Star, and became part of the core of Rogue Squadron. What's worse is that it worked completely.
[[/folder]]

This is ''not'' a character using a family or given name that is snazzy ([[EmbarrassingMiddleName or not]]) as his or her heroic name (for example, former surgeon [[Comicbook/DoctorStrange Stephen Strange]] continuing to go by "Doctor Strange"). Compare StevenUlyssesPerhero, where the MeaningfulName has something to do with the character's powers.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', [[TheArcher Artemis Crock]] uses the superhero name of...Artemis. Somewhat {{Justified}} because her work on the Team is covert ops, so she's not well-known publicly, and because [[StevenUlyssesPerhero her name fits]] her gimmick rather well, assuming that you're familiar with Myth/ClassicalMythology.