I Have Many Names / Real Life

Things in reality/real life/meatspace/Earth/etc. with many names.

---

• Truth in Television: Before the late 1910s, Chinese men and upper-classed women traditionally had several names, starting from a given name at birth that was reserved for their elders and higher-ups, and a courtesy name bestowed upon them when they come of age that was referred to by everyone else of the same generation^note Addressing an adult man of similar age/position by his birth name was considered disrespectful. From there the list grows longer. For one, Sun Yat-sen, leader of Nationalist China, had eight names, even discounting pseudonyms.
• Revolutionaries and thinkers tend to work with an impressively large number of pseudonyms and noms de plume in order to evade the Powers that Be. They adopt multiple noms de guerre to avoid agents of the government as well as to project certain images of themselves or to disassociate with their pasts. (Leon Bronstein became Leon Trotsky, Iosif Djugashvilli became Josef Stalin, Vladimir Ulyanov became Vladimir Lenin, Nguyen Sinh Cung became Nguyen Ai Quoc then Ho Chi Minh, Saloth Sar became Pol Pot, Kim Sung Joo became Kim Il Sung, to give a few examples.)
  • The Kim Il-Sung one is an interesting example, as Kim Il-Sung was originally the name of another (more well known) Korean revolutionary leader who was recently killed when the other Kim took his name; essentially, creating a Dread Pirate Roberts situation.
  • Before settling on the name Stalin, Iosif Djugshvili took the nom de guerre Koba, after a Georgian folk hero who is also the hero of the 1883 novel The Patricide''.
• Charles III. Without the titles, his full name is Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor. With the titles, he is His Majesty Charles III by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of his other Realms and Territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith
• Romans had a praenomen, nomen (or nomen gentile), and cognomen. Praenomen was the given name (e.g. Gaius), nomen was the clan name (e.g. Julius), of which, potentially, there could be several, cognomen was a name that distinguished an individual based on his characteristics (e.g. Caesar, Tacitus). In addition, accomplished individuals often added an agnomen, based on their accomplishments, such as military victories (e.g. Africanus).^note which is a bit like nicknaming General Eisenhower "German" or calling general Sherman "Atlantan" - of course what is meant is "he of x fame" or "he who beat the y" just like William H. Harrison was known as "Tippecanoe" due to his victory there in addition, there may be additional patronyms based on names of their parents or even grandparents. The other wiki [1] provides multiple examples.
• Tiny Lister's prominent name was Tom Lister Jr. However, he was billed as everything from "Thomas "Tiny" Lister, Jr." to just "Tiny Lister" and many combinations in between.
• Arabic has around 300 words for lion, with certain top estimates counting to 400. The author who compiled the dictionary containing the names had a habit of collecting synonyms for living things and no way indicated everyday use, with a lion's share (pun intended) being used as personal names (the usual Arabic word for lion is "Asad"). Still, you have to wonder how highly regarded the lions are among the Arabs to have so many, mostly imposing, titles, as other usual animals-to-be-respected like wolves don't get the same treatment (and unlike the lions, are very much still present in the Middle East). Samples of the names include Abbas, Feras, Hamza, Haydar, Ifrit, Hasur, Awf, and Mayyas.
• Naoki Maeda, of DanceDanceRevolution fame. He has produced songs for Konami's Bemani franchise under many, many pseudonyms, most of which he only uses once or twice. It's been rumored that "Naoki Maeda" is not his real name, and is yet another pseudonym; "Naoki M" is an anagram of "Konami," and some argue that it's too much of a coincidence that his real name would be an unintentional Shout-Out to Konami.
  • Just to list a few: Naoki, Naoki Underground, De-Sire, RevenG, Z, ZZ, Omega, Crystal Aliens, d-Complex, Factor-X, NM... You can find a full list of them here.
  • Custom stepfile maker Chuck Enck, a.k.a. Family Farce, takes this trope and runs it into the ground. Here we go: Family Farce, Hypernov8, dj foreshanks, F+ F, Nullify, KLiNK, Sidewinder, ASSIMILATION, Yawaraka, The Grind, Tidal Da Wave, Sun Buddha, radiograph, Rampage Superstars, Hulisi-Ska, Nadeshiko feat. H8!, PIPN, PIPN UNDERGROUND, PIPN SPEEDVIBE, Kurio, SideFX, DJ Analytic Hum, E519, 375U, APT.204, Gunhat, Snatcher, Pointy, Radical Minds, Avin, Reigun Overdose, Eversedative, Omega Phlegm, DJ Rezolution, Tri-Umvirate, Ni-MH, Chaarusu, NOMA VAE VICTIS, H.S.M Recovery Team, Miasma, Culture-Slum, Project Anilox, Riksmaal, Agnostix, FL@_line, Devonshire, Nessus, MC Turista, Digital Chaos, Okui Hun, e.n.d, Rick Victims, Magway, DJ Nedved, Victor-E, Mr. Pill, Sound Pressure, Jimmy Presto, Cetro, XY-Cycle, ROBO MOJO vs. EE330, A.B.O.F.A, C&E, EZKL, Final Gasp, Retsu Group, Automatic Allisto feat. Angela, DJ Torq, S.Hazard, Two Faced Trio, Sevensleuth, Tune Out.
  • Kyle Ward of In the Groove fame also goes by Inspector K, KaW, Smiley (actually just a happy face), KeeL, K-Bit...
    • This is actually informative: Each alias writes a different style of music. KaW does trance, Smiley does happy hardcore, K-Bit does chiptune-style stuff...
• The cougar is also known as a puma, catamount, panther, painter, mountain lion, American lion, brown tiger, deer lion, and mountain screamer. Some of the rarer names, only in common use in backwater areas, include ghost walker, ghost lion, screech lion, and purple feather.
• Terrestrial crustaceans of the order Isopoda are variously referred to as pill bugs, roly-polies, woodlice, sow bugs, armadillo bugs, cheeselogs, doodlebugs, potato bugs, chuggypigs, butcher boys, cheesy bugs, slaters, roll up bugs, chunky pigs, gramersows, butchy boys, or wood bugs. Oh, or isopods, for their official name.
• Dogs of mixed ancestry have many generic names: Hybrid, mutt, cur, cross-breed, mix(ed)-breed, mongrel, and simply "dog".
• Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Vatican City State, Servant of the Servants of God, and last, but not least, Jorge Mario Bergoglio. There used to be more — "Patriarch of the West", "Vicar of the Apostolic See", and "Vicar of Peter" were all used in the past, for example. Really, all the ancient heads of state did this, to some greater or lesser extent. See Charles III and the Tsars above, for example.
• Many colleges and universities in the US (and elsewhere) have had multiple names during their history—so much so that we can't list them all here. One extreme example is Oregon State University, which has had 10 official names (plus one unofficial) since its founding in 1856.
• Some college sports teams have more than one nickname. Army is known as the Cadets and the Black Knights. North Texas is the Eagles and the Mean Green. Virginia Tech can be the Hokies or the Gobblers, although Gobblers isn't used much anymore. The LSU Tigers are often called the Bayou Bengals. Sometimes the women's teams will have different nicknames than the men: USC's men teams are the Trojans, while Women of Troy and Trojans are used interchangeably for women's teams.
• In the case of men's and women's teams at a given college, it can be more complicated...
  • Some use a feminized version of the men's nickname for all women's teams. For example, all three Division I schools that use Cowboys as their men's team nickname^note McNeese, Oklahoma State, Wyoming call their women's teams Cowgirls.
  • Others use a feminine nickname for some but not all women's teams:
    • In the case of LSU, it depends on whether a particular sport has men's and women's teams. If so, Lady Tigers is used for the women's team. If a sport is sponsored only for women, it's known simply as Tigers.
    • Tennessee long called all of its women's teams Lady Volunteers, but in 2015 it dropped "Lady" from all of its women's teams except basketball. This was controversial enough that quite serious efforts were made in the state legislature to pass a law requiring restoration of the Lady Vols name. When former Vols football coach Phillip Fulmer returned to UT as athletic director in 2017, one of his first acts was to rescind the 2015 policy, allowing all of its women's teams to use "Lady Volunteers" once again if they so wished.
  • Some schools have very different nicknames for men's and women's teams—for one particularly notable example, Louisiana Tech calls its men's teams Bulldogs and its women's teams Lady Techsters.
    • UNLV is a special case—it uses separate nicknames only in basketball. Men's basketball uses Runnin' Rebels; women's basketball uses Lady Rebels; all other sports are just Rebels.
    • Similar to UNLV, Utah is the Utes for most sports, but men's basketball is the Runnin' Utes, while women's gymnastics is the Red Rocks.
  • The "Lady [X]" construct mentioned above was quite common for women's teams but has largely been phased out, but there have been cases where, for tradition's sake, it's used awkwardly on nicknames that are specifically male-gendered in the first place. The South Carolina Lady Gamecocks dropped the "Lady" in 2008, but Delta State is still the Lady Statesmen.
• There are also quite a few cases of schools having multiple nicknames during their history; only a few are listed here, all in chronological order of use:
  • Arizona State – Owls, Bulldogs, Sun Devils.
  • Arkansas State – Aggies, Gorillas, Warriors, Indians, Red Wolves.
  • Binghamton – Founded as Triple Cities College, an extension of Syracuse University, it originally had no nickname. Upon becoming independent from Cuse, it became Harpur College, nicknamed Donkeys. In 1965, it joined the State University of New York, taking the "Binghamton" name for the first time; the nickname was Colonials until 2000 when the current nickname of Bearcats was adopted.
  • Central Michigan – Normalites,^note CMU started out as a "normal school"—i.e., a college for training teachers. Dragons, Bearcats, Chippewas.^note CMU is one of the few schools with tribal permission to use a Native American nickname.
  • FIU – Sunblazers, Golden Panthers, Panthers.
  • Marquette – Golden Avalanche, Hilltoppers, Warriors, Golden Eagles.
  • Mississippi State – Mississippi A&M Aggies, Mississippi State (College/University) Maroons,^note State became a "University" in 1958, but didn't officially become the Bulldogs until 1961. However, the Bulldogs nickname was used interchangeably with Aggies and Maroons for most of the A&M era and all of the College era. Mississippi State Bulldogs.
  • North Dakota – Flickertails, then Fighting Sioux. After huge controversy over that nickname, UND abandoned it in 2012 and went without a nickname for three years by state law. Fighting Hawks was finally adopted in 2015.
  • North Georgia – Cadets (men), Golddiggers (women),^note It's not what you think... the school is located in the old gold-mining town of Dahlonega. Saints/Lady Saints, Nighthawks.
  • Stanford – Indians, Cardinals (the bird), Cardinal (the color).
  • Stony Brook – Soundmen or Baymen, Warriors, Patriots/Lady Patriots, Seawolves.
  • Syracuse – Hilltoppers, Saltine Warriors,^note Nothing to do with crackers. The Warrior was a Native American caricature, and "saltine" is in reference to the abundance of salt in the Syracuse area, which has many salt deposits and the salt water Onondaga Lake nearby. Orangemen/Orangewomen, Orange. Connected to this is the school using a number of increasingly bizarre mascots for sporting events over the decades, including a live dog, a live goat, a person on stilts called "Big Bill Orange", a student done up in Native American makeup to represent the "Saltine Warrior", a gladiator, and finally an anthropomorphic citrus fruit (Otto the Orange).
  • Troy – Bulldogs, Teachers, Trojans, Red Wave, Trojans.
  • UCLA – Cubs, Grizzlies, Bruins. "Bruins" was adopted in 1928 when UCLA joined the Pacific Coast Conference, a precursor to its current home of the Pac-12 Conference, which then included the Montana Grizzlies.
  • UMass – Aggies, Statesmen, Redmen, Minutemen/Minutewomen.
  • Utah Tech – Dixie College/Dixie State University Rebels, Dixie State Red Storm, Dixie State and then Utah Tech Trailblazers. The current school name of Utah Tech University, adopted in 2022, is its fifth.
  • Washington – Sun Dodgers, Vikings (proposed by the school but rejected by students), Huskies.
• An interesting example that crosses with Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle is with Simon Fraser University in suburban Vancouver. For decades their nickname was the Clan, in the sense of an extended Scottish kinship group, which tied in with the school's namesake, Scottish-American explorer Simon Fraser. When it became the first Canadian university to join the NCAA in 2011, there was added scrutiny over the nickname because, in the United States, "the Clan" automatically leads to mental associations with the Ku Klux Klan, despite the wholly innocent usage of the name by SFU. Following the racial controversies of 2020, the school finally decided to drop the nickname, and went nicknameless for a spell, before adopting the Red Leafs (obviously referring to the Canadian flag) in 2022.
• There's even one Division I athletic program that didn't change its nickname, but went through three different athletic brand names in a two-year span. Through the 2015–16 school year, the Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne athletic program was known as the IPFW Mastodons. Then in 2016, the athletic program became the Fort Wayne Mastodons (though the school name didn't change, and its academic brand was still IPFW). In 2018, the Indiana University and Purdue University systems dissolved IPFW, with each system creating a new Fort Wayne campus. The athletic program went to the new Purdue campus, becoming the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons.
• Another D-I school, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, went from Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (with or without a dash) to Eastern Shore Hawks to UMES Hawks in a slightly longer span from the late 2010s to the early 2020s. The university name stayed the same throughout.
• Over the same period, California State University, Bakersfield has branded its athletic program as the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners, CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners, and starting in 2023–24 Bakersfield Roadrunners.
• This trope in US sports isn't limited to colleges. Quite a few professional teams have had multiple names. (For brevity's sake, we're not counting teams that changed cities but kept their nicknames, and counting only teams with at least three different nicknames.)
  • National Football League
    • Ever heard of the Dallas Steers? Probably not... because they changed their name twice before ever playing a game. They quickly became the Dallas Rangers, then the name they've kept to this day, the Dallas Cowboys.
    • The Washington Commanders began in 1932 as the Boston Braves, named after the baseball team whose stadium they shared (see the MLB list below for that team's naming history). The next year, they moved to the Red Sox' Fenway Park and became the Redskins. The team kept that name through its 1937 move to the nation's capital, only dropping the name just before the 2020 season after a decades-long controversy. They were simply the Washington Football Team in the 2020 and 2021 seasons before becoming the Commanders in 2022. Even afterwards there have been occasional rumors and debates about changing the name again, thanks to the name being a mark of Dan Snyder, their hated former owner.
  • Major League Baseball
    • During their tenure in Brooklyn (1884–1957), the team now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers had no fewer than eight different names. In chronological order: Atlantics, Grays, Bridegrooms, Grooms, Bridegrooms (again), Superbas, Trolley Dodgers, Superbas (again), Robins, and finally Dodgers.
    • In their Boston years (1871–1952), the Atlanta Braves had almost as much trouble sticking with a name as the Brooklyn team. First Red Stockings, then Red Caps, Beaneaters, Doves, and Rustlers before becoming the Braves in 1912. But then in 1936, they became the Bees... and returned to Braves in 1941, keeping that name through later moves to Milwaukee and Atlanta.
    • The Chicago Cubs started in 1876 as the White Stockings (not to be confused with today's White Sox), followed by Colts, Orphans, and finally the Cubs in 1903.
    • The Cincinnati Reds, in their current corporate form, began in 1881 as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, playing in the American Association, a rival to the early National League. In 1890, they moved to the NL and became the Reds, taking the name of a previous Cincinnati team that had been expelled from the NL in 1880. They kept their name until the Red Scare of the 1950s, becoming the Redlegs in 1954. After the end of McCarthyism, they returned to "Reds" in 1959.
    • The St. Louis Cardinals began in the AA as the Brown Stockings in 1882, becoming the Browns a year later. Joining the NL in 1892 as the Browns, they became the Perfectos in 1899 before becoming the Cardinals in 1900.
    • When the American League began major-league play in 1901, one of its eight teams was the Baltimore Orioles. The team moved to New York City in 1903 and became the New York Highlanders. In 1913, they became the New York Yankees.
    • What about today's Baltimore Orioles? Well, they also played in the AL's first major-league season... as the Milwaukee Brewers. After only one season, they moved to St. Louis as the Browns, playing under that name until moving to Baltimore in 1954.
    • Another team from that 1901 AL season, the Cleveland Guardians, began in 1894 as the Grand Rapids Rustlers, playing in the minor Western League. In 1900, the WL changed its name to American League, and the Rustlers moved to Cleveland, becoming the Lake Shores. The next year, the AL declared itself a major league, and the Lake Shores became the Bluebirds. They changed their name in each of the next two seasons, first to Broncos and then Naps, keeping the latter name until becoming the Indians in 1915. The team ditched the "Indians" name after the 2021 season.
    • Still another 1901 AL entry was the first version of the Washington Senators. A few years later, the owners changed the team's name to Nationals. Nonetheless, fans and reporters used the two names interchangeably for decades, with the "Senators" name finally settled on in the mid-1950s. The team moved to the Twin Cities in 1961 as the Minnesota Twins.
  • National Hockey League
    • The Detroit Red Wings have been known as such since 1932, but they spent their first two years of existence as the Cougars and their next two as the Falcons.
    • The Toronto Maple Leafs started in the NHL's first season of 1917–18 as simply Toronto, but commonly referred to as the Arenas. Under new ownership in 1919, they became the St. Patricks before they became the Maple Leafs in 1927 after another ownership change.
    • The New Jersey Devils began in 1974 as the Kansas City Scouts, became the Colorado Rockies in 1976, and the Devils in 1982.
  • National Basketball Association
    • The Atlanta Hawks started out in 1947 as the Buffalo Bisons in the old National Basketball League. After little more than a month, they became the Tri-Cities Blackhawks upon their move to the Illinois–Iowa metro now known as the Quad Cities. The Blackhawks carried that name through the 1949 merger that created the NBA, and moved to Milwaukee in 1951, becoming the Hawks. They've kept that name through their later sojourns in St. Louis and Atlanta.
    • The Denver Nuggets started out in 1967 in the old ABA as the Denver Larks, but changed their name to Rockets before their first game. In 1974, they became the Nuggets, carrying that name over into the NBA.
    • The Washington Wizards were originally the Chicago Packers, later the Chicago Zephyrs, and then the Baltimore Bullets. They kept the Bullets name through their move to the DC area as the Capital Bullets and Washington Bullets, then changed to Wizards in 1997 due to their then-owner's concerns about glorifying gun violence.
  • WNBA
    • The Utah Starzz were one of the league's eight original teams in 1997. After the 2002 season, the league sold off all of its teams; most were purchased by their NBA counterparts. The Starzz... weren't. They were instead bought by another NBA team, the San Antonio Spurs, and moved to that city as the San Antonio Silver Stars. Shortly before the 2014 WNBA season, the Spurs dropped the word "Silver" from the team name. Immediately after the 2017 season, the Spurs sold the Stars to MGM Resorts, which moved the team and rebranded it as the Las Vegas Aces.
• Sports leagues can also experience this. One especially notable example is the rugby competition that started its life in 2001 as the Celtic League, featuring teams in the Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Since then, it's become...
  • 2006–2011: Magners League, thanks to product placement
  • 2011–2017: Pro12 (sponsored at different times by RaboDirect and Guinness), after Italy joined the league to bring its membership to 12
  • 2017–2021: Pro14 (stylized as PRO14; still sponsored by Guinness), after two South African teams joined. Though in the league's final season under that identity in 2020–21, it was an artifact title as one of the SA sides had gone belly-up.
  • 2021–present: United Rugby Championship, after South Africa fully aligned its club rugby structure with that of Europe
• Rudy Ray Moore. The King of the Party Records. The Human Tornado. The Avenging Disco Godfather. Petey Wheatstraw. The Devil's Son-In-Law. Dolemite, muthafucka! Ya heard?
• Many cities around the world have, throughout their history, have accrued a large number of names, many of which have historical or cultural value, and that is not even getting into politically motivated renamings.
  • The city of Jerusalem has seventy names.
  • Los Angeles: La-La Land, Tinseltown, the Entertainment Capital of the World, the City of Angels, the Big Orange, LA, among others.
  • New York City: NYC, New Amsterdam, Gotham, the City That Never Sleeps, The City So Nice They Named It Twice, the Capital of the World, and of course, the Big Apple.
• Voice Actors (especially ones doing anime) often have an alias or two when working on obscene or non-union projects. Some of the most glaring examples of voice actors having many names:
  • Kirk Thornton has also been credited as Ronald Allen, Ron Allen, Sparky Allen, Todd Crump, Donald Lee, Robert Lloyd, Sean Roberts, Spanky Roberts, Sparky Roberts, Kurt Thornton, Sean Thornton, Sparky Thornton, Sparly Thornton, Starky Thornton, Kirk Thorton, Sean Thorton, and Sparky Thorton.
  • Bridget Hoffman has also been credited as Ruby Marlowe, Ellen Arden, Ellen Wilkinson, Jane Arden, Karen Woods, Serena Kolb, and Tessa Ariel.
  • Stephanie Sheh has also been credited as Jennifer Sekiguchi, Stephanie Shane, Stephanie Shea, Tiffany Hsieh, Lulu Chiang, Laura Chyu, Becky Chiang, Saki Shin, and Michelle T. Hseih. In her case, it was because she didn't want to take credit for her early work, and kept changing her name.
  • Kari Wahlgren has been credited as Kay Jensen, Jennifer Jean, Tara Hudson, Renee Emmerson, and Jan Irving.
  • James Carter Cathcart has also been credited as Billy Beach, Carter Cathcart, Nicole Cathcart (for manly female voices), John Dorsey, and especially Jimmy Zoppi.
  • Dorothy Elias-Fahn has also been credited as Dorothy Elias, Dorothy Fahn, Midge Mayes, Dorothy Melendez, Dorothy Melendrez, Jacky Morris, Annie Pastrano, Anna Grinta, and Johanna Luis.
  • Melissa Fahn has been credited as Heather Lee Joelson, Melissa Charles, and Tina Dixon.
  • Barbara Goodson has also been credited as Barbara Larsen, Betty Gustafson, Shirley Roberts, and Bertha Greene.
  • Sherry Lynn has also been credited as Katie Ashley, Roberta Kim, and Shirley Lane.
  • Michelle Ruff has also been credited as Georgette Rose, Jophie Roberts, and Sophie Roberts.
  • Mary Elizabeth McGlynn has also been credited as Melissa Williamson, Anna Top, Lucy Todd, and Charlotte Bell.
  • Daran Norris has also been credited as James Penrod, Justin Shyder, Rob Thomas, and Jack Hammer.
• Babe Ruth, born George Herman Ruth Jr. (his real name), was also known as "The Babe", "The Bambino", "The Sultan of Swat", "Caliph of Clout", "The King of Swing", "Rajah of Rap", "The Terrible Titan", "The Home Run King", "The Colossus of Clout", "The Wazir of Wham", the "Maharajah of Mash", the "Blunderbuss", "the Monarch of Maul" and "Behemoth of Bust". And those are just some of them.
• Japanese names:
  • Like many Asian cultures, Japanese children were generally given an Embarrassing First Name to not attract evil spirits, and then were expected to give themselves a "grownup" name by their first Rite of Passage... but many would also change their names to mark a turning point in their lives or in hopes of changing their fortunes. This doesn't apply to modern-day Japan, as nobody believes in these evil spirits regarding names anymore.
  • The naming system in Feudal Japan is extremely complex. Take the person we usually known as Tokugawa Ieyasu as an example: He was born Matsudaira Takechiyo, "Takechiyo" being the Embarrassing First Name mentioned above. When he came of age at 15, he became Matsudaira Jirōsaburō Motonobu— "Jirōsaburō" is a kana, a name others call him, and "Motonobu" an imina, the name he calls himself. After his first marriage, he changed his name to Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu— the order is the same as above, but "Kurandonosuke" is a title of office—not granted by the Court nor the Shogunate, but by the Imagawas as a badge of honor. This is called a kandomei.
    In 1657, after switching allegiance towards Oda Nobunaga and claiming himself a Minamoto descendent, he again changed his name to Tokugawa Jirōsaburō Ieyasu, as the "moto" in his previous name came from Imamoto Yoshimoto. While the "family name" (myouji) and the imina remained constant afterward, in the subsequent years he received higher and higher official titles of office (kanmei), which he used in place of his original kandomei.
    It should be noted that since he claimed to be a Minamoto (and Tokugawa is merely a branch of Minamoto), and Minamoto (as shi or honsei) is of the Kabane of ason, in some situations he'd call himself Tokugawa [kanmei or kana] Minamoto no Ason Ieyasu.
    This is of course simplified in the reform of 1877, when all the above except myouji and imina were abolished, but the artifact is a lot of people, up to this day, have names that sounds like titles of office (-nosuke, -emon, and -bei), which originates from kandomei.
• Chinese men used to (and perhaps still do) give themselves self-apportioned "style names".
• Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese rulers had multiple "titles" in addition to names (of which there were several already, as noted above—actual names, boyhood names, style names etc). So, the Kangxi emperor of China (17th-18th century) may be known by his reign/era name "Kangxi", his posthumous name, which is very long, complicated, and rarely used, or his temple name, "Shengzu", among others. (but rarely any of his actual "names"—nobody dared call an emperor by his name.)
  • Of course, in case of some Chinese emperors, such as those of Yuan (Mongol) and Qing (Manchu) dynasties, they were also great khans of Mongolia (and in case of the latter, of Manchuria as well) which gave them additional names/titles. For example, Kangxi emperor was also the Enkh Amgalan Khan of Mongolia.
• The Treaty of Westphalia uses up a significant portion of the first paragraph giving the full name of two leaders of the conflict and their two representatives. Look at that mess and realize it's mostly just saying, "X and Y were fighting, and it caused a lot of problems. They sent representatives A and B to this conference for peace. Attached is the treaty."
• Some users◊ on share programs use multiple "tags" to be more recognized and have priority in some downloads.
• Some practitioners of real-life magical traditions will use several names in order to get energy and power from all the name archetypes they tap into.
• In the land of the Internet, people can have numerous nicknames, handles, email addresses, and aliases they might be known by, for whatever reason (changing whims, specific circumstances for being known by a certain name on a certain forum, or just to obfuscate their online identity).
• In Real Life, many people will have nicknames they might be known by amongst certain groups of people. Depending on the people you hang out with, any normal person might collect a variety of names because of this alone.
• Egyptian pharaohs had many names: a Horus name, a Nebty (two ladies) name, a Golden Horus name, a Throne name, and a personal name. So Thutmose III was fully known as:
  • Horus name Kanakht Khaemwaset meaning "Horus Mighty Bull, Arising in Thebes"
  • Nebty name Wahnesytmireempet — "He of the Two Ladies, Enduring in kingship like Re in heaven"
  • Horus of Gold name Sekhempahtydsejerkhaw "Horus of Gold Powerful of strength, Sacred of appearance"
  • Throne name Menkheperre — "He of the Sedge and the Bee, Enduring of form is Re"
  • Personal name Thutmose Neferkheperu — "Son of Re, born of Thoth, beautiful of forms"
• The humble tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). The Convention on Biological Diversity organized a project to list every plant on the planet in a giant catalogue (they're still at it, as of 2010). Most of the plants were erroneously given 2 or 3 names around the world, which is no big deal if you are looking for information on a particular plant. On the other hand, the tomato was accidentally given 790 fricking names, making it the plant with most names in the world.
• A vehicular variation is the World War 2 aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, known as "The Big E", "Lucky E", and "The Grey Ghost", among other titles.
• At Dreamworld, there is a roller coaster currently known as "The Gold Coaster", but was originally called "Big Dipper" when it operated at Luna Park Sydney, and was initially called "Cyclone", upon arrival at Dreamworld. However, the roller coaster was later renamed "Hot Wheels Side Winder", before having its name changed to "The Gold Coaster".
• Chairman Mao's fourth wife went by eight names during her life: she was first called Lǐ Jìnhái (a boy's name) because her father wanted a son; then renamed Lǐ Shūméng; then enrolled in school as Lǐ Yúnhè, a more dignified name; then shortened it to Lǐ Hè; went by the stage name Lán Píng; then adopted the Nom de Guerre Jiāng Qīng; wrote articles under the pseudonym Lǐ Jìn; was called Madame Mao by the Western media; called herself Lǐ Rùnqīng after being released from prison. Her tombstone bears her school name, Lǐ Yúnhè.
• Ramses II had a couple of different names, the most well known being Ramses the Great, then there was Ozymandias, and User-Maat-Re-Setep-En-Re.
• Presenting his Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al-Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular. Note that he gave all these titles to himself. That said, the "Al-Hadji" title was at least earned; all Muslims who complete the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city of Mecca (as he did), are entitled to add that title to their names.
• Germany has many different categories of names in different languages, such as Germany in English, Deutschland in German itself, Allemagne in French, Niemcy in Polish, and a few others.
  • The United States has this in spades, since "the United States" is not so much a name as a title made of actual words, which are often translated: die Vereinigten Staaten, États-Unis, los Estados Unidos, etc.
  • In South Africa it's literally played up to eleven, as the country has eleven official languages and each of them has its own name for nearly every major city. Example: Cape Town, a.k.a. Kaapstad (Afrikaans) or iKapa (Xhosa).
• Prince Rogers Nelson, or simply known as Prince, had quite a few aliases. Among them are The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, The Artist, Alexander Nevermind, Coco, Starr * Company, Christopher, Tora Tora, Camille, and his very own symbol.◊
• Mandarin Chinese has several names in that language. The most common are Putonghua ("Common Speech") and Guoyu ("National Language"), used on the Mainland and Taiwan, respectively. In parts of the diaspora, Huayu ("Chinese Language", Hua being a name for Chinese culture) is common. Finally, the word "Mandarin" is a rendering of Guanhua, "the speech of officials", from a time when it was the language of government functionaries based around Beijing.
• The dinosaur Plateosaurus engelhardti has been named over 20 times (all of them have turned out to be the same species).
• Many Chinese and Koreans who live in Western countries are given two names, so they can feel a part of both cultures. Also, names might be harder to pronounce or look/sound funny in the other language, e.g. 혜나 (HyeNa) looks like Hyena, and Jill (질) sounds like the Korean slang word for the female genitals.
  • Actually, some children who live in China and South Korea are given Western names. Christianity is one of the most common religions so Christian children have an extra name for their religion, but most children who aren't Christian also have Western names as well.
    • And many of those children who do not have a Western name will choose one, usually to use to identify themselves to foreigners, usually because Westerners might have a hard time pronouncing their Chinese names. It is also standard procedure to use Western names in English classes and schools, even if all staff and students are Chinese.
    • These names are never taken seriously as they only apply when you're in an English class and as they grow up it gets forgotten and more people are referring themselves with their original names, at least in Korea.
• The United States of America. Also known as America, The United States, The United States of North America, The States, The Union, US of A, USA, US, 'Murrica, Gringoland(ia), among others. In the late 1700s to the early 1800s, it was sometimes called Columbia as well.
• Seoul had names like Wiyresong, Namgyeong, Hanseong, Hanyang, Gyeongseong or Keijō, and of course, Seoul.
• Similar to its capital city, South Korea has names like Hanguk, Daehanminguk (official name), Namjoseon (used by North Korea sympathizers), and Namhan.
• The Browning Hi-Power is also known as the HP-35, GP-35, the King of Nines or the BAP depending on what country you're in.
• Sports stadiums and arenas can go through several names due to corporate sponsors paying money to have their name on the facilities.
  • NFL:
    • The current home of the Miami Dolphins and University of Miami Hurricanes, for instance, began life as Joe Robbie Stadium in 1987. At various times since, it has been known as Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, New Miami Stadium, and now Hard Rock Stadium (itself amusing to fans of the Florida State Seminoles, due to the irony that Hard Rock Cafe is owned by the local Seminole tribe, but the stadium is actually the home of their rival Miami).
    • Nashville's biggest stadium, Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans, originally opened as Adelphia Coliseum in 1999; the name was dropped in 2002 when Adelphia missed a required payment and subsequently liquidated due to large-scale embezzlement by the company's founder John Rigas and his family (this situation almost took the Buffalo Sabres down, as Rigas bought the team in 1997; some of the money he stole was actually used to fund the Sabres), leading the stadium to be simply called "The Coliseum"^note Sometimes informally called "Nashville Coliseum" to differentiate it from other stadiums that end in "Coliseum", such as the Oakland Coliseum. In 2006, Louisiana-Pacific acquired a 10-year contract to rename the stadium LP Field, which earned the stadium the nickname "The Lumberyard" for the duration of the contract. In 2015, Nissan, whose North American headquarters and largest U.S. assembly plant are located within the Nashville metro area, acquired the naming rights to the stadium.
    • The Denver Broncos' current home field was originally named Invesco Field when it opened in 2001. In 2011, sporting goods chain Sports Authority acquired the naming rights; however, the retailer went bankrupt in 2016, but due to legal issues, the Broncos couldn't rename the stadium until two years after Sports Authority was liquidated, and the stadium took on the interim name Broncos Stadium. In 2019, the stadium took on its current name of Empower Field. Regardless of its corporate sponsor, most, if not all, Broncos fans refer to the stadium simply as Mile High, after its predecessor.
    • The Seattle Seahawks' current home field started simply as Seahawks Stadium when it opened in 2002. From 2004-2011, the stadium was called Qwest Field, renamed CenturyLink Field in 2011 after Qwest Communications was bought out, and renamed in 2020 as Lumen Field, after the sponsor rebranded themselves as Lumen Technologies.
    • The former home of the San Diego Padres, San Diego (now Los Angeles) Chargers, and San Diego State Aztecs underwent several name changes in its half-century of existence. Opened as San Diego Stadium in 1967, it was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium in 1981 following the death of the beloved San Diego-area sportswriter who lobbied for the stadium's construction. In 1997, the Murph became Qualcomm Stadium until the Chargers moved out in 2017, and adopted its final name the same year as SDCCU^note San Diego County Credit Union Stadium. When the stadium closed and was subsequently demolished in 2020, the stadium reverted to its original name. In December 2021, Qualcomm subsequently bought the naming rights to the Murph's replacement, Snapdragon Stadium, named for its brand of system-on-chip semiconductors.
    • The site of the Jacksonville Jaguars' home stadium underwent several name changes. Originally built in 1927 as Fairfield Stadium, the stadium was renamed the Gator Bowl in 1948 after the eponymous college bowl game started two years prior. Following the 1993 Gator Bowl game, the stadium was demolished and rebuilt as Jacksonville Municipal Stadium for the expansion Jaguars in 1995. In 1997, mobile telecom Alltel acquired the naming rights for ten years. After that contract expired, the stadium reverted to Jacksonville Municipal until 2010, when EverBank bought the naming rights. When EverBank was bought by TIAA in 2017, EverBank Field was renamed TIAA Bank Field a year later. In 2023, the EverBank name returned to the stadium, albeit as EverBank Stadium.
    • The Baltimore Ravens' home field started as Ravens Stadium at Camden Yards when it opened in 1998. A season later, local internet service provider PSINet bought the naming rights to the stadium. However, when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, the stadium reverted to simply Ravens Stadium until 2003, when M&T Bank acquired the naming rights and has held the name since.
  • MLB:
    • The San Francisco Giants current home ballpark underwent several name changes, mostly due to acquisitions. Opened as Pacific Bell Park in 2000, it was renamed SBC Park in 2003, when SBC bought out Pac Bell's parent company, renamed only two years later as AT&T Park, when SBC acquired AT&T and adopted the latter name. The park then became Oracle Park in 2019, after the NBA's Warriors moved out of Oakland to return to San Francisco as well as AT&T looking to exit its naming rights agreement. The Giants' first home in the Bay Area, Candlestick Park, underwent several name changes in the latter half of its life, being renamed 3Com Park in 1995, reverted back to Candlestick in 2002 (although the Giants had moved out by then, the 49ers still occupied the stadium), renamed Monster Park^note Named for the high-end audio and video cable manufacturer, not the job search website or the energy drink in 2004, and reverted back again to Candlestick in 2008 until its closure and subsequent demolition in 2014.
    • Even though the Oakland Coliseum has had several name changes over its half-century of existence, many people, both inside and outside Oakland, still refer to it by its original name. The Coliseum took on its first naming rights in 1998 as the Network Associates Coliseum, renamed McAfee Coliseum in 2004, reverted back to Oakland Coliseum in 2008, renamed Overstock.com Coliseum in 2011 and shortened to O.co Coliseum less than two months into the agreement, reverted again to Oakland Coliseum in 2016, renamed RingCentral Coliseum in 2019, but the name was dropped in 2020 due to collusion within the stadium's operating authority and RingCentral, but reinstated later in the year after a new contract was properly negotiated; however, the name was dropped again in 2023.
    • The Texas Rangers' second home field started as the Ballpark in Arlington when it opened in 1994. In 2004, the ballpark became Ameriquest Field in Arlington; however, the naming rights deal was ended after only two years, becoming Rangers Ballpark in Arlington until 2013, when Globe Life bought the naming rights and subsequently transferred the name to the Rangers' new retractable roof stadium when it opened in 2020. After the old stadium was retrofitted for soccer and football, the Rangers' former home took on its current name of Choctaw Stadium in 2021.
  • NBA/NHL:
    • The home ice of the NHL's Florida Panthers opened in 1998 as the National Car Rental Center, it became Office Depot Center in 2002, Bank Atlantic Center in 2005, BB&T Center in 2012, when BB&T bought out Bank Atlantic, the unsponsored FLA Live Arena in 2021, after the successor of BB&T, Truist Financial, declined to renew the naming rights agreement, and currently now known as Amerant Bank Arena, renamed in time for the 2023-24 NHL season.
    • The home court of the Miami Heat was originally called American Airlines Arena from its opening in 2000. Despite American Airlines's contract expiring at the end of 2019, the name remained on the arena until 2021, when cryptocurrency exchange FTX acquired the naming rights. After the highly controversial collapse of FTX in November 2022, the arena was temporarily renamed Miami-Dade Arena until the naming rights were bought by Kaseya, a South Florida-based IT management firm.
    • The current TD Garden (home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins) deserves a special mention; its Wikipedia entry says that it has had 33 different names. It was originally going to be named the Shawmut Center after Shawmut Bank (which had bought the naming rights); shortly before it opened, Shawmut was bought by Fleet Bank and the name changed to the FleetCenter, meaning that it changed names even before its first day! (Hell, the marketing departments of both banks had been competing against each other for the naming rights... while their superiors were secretly negotiating a merger!) In 2004, Fleet merged with Bank of America and the latter decided not to continue the naming agreement. In 2005, a new agreement was reached with TD Banknorth to make it the TD Banknorth Garden, which was later changed to TD Garden after the bank changed names in 2008. During the period when the FleetCenter was searching for a long-term replacement, between February 10 and March 13, 2005, it decided to repeatedly sell the right to name the building for one day on eBay. For thirty days the building had a new name each day, though two names were rejected and changed, one of which was the "Derek Jeter Center", after the New York Yankees shortstop (the Boston Red Sox's most fiercely hated rival). To prevent a riot from taking place, they eventually settled on "New Boston Garden, Home of The Jimmy Fund Champions" for the day. (The Jimmy Fund is a cancer research fund that's heavily supported by the Bosox.)
    • The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia has been this thanks to a chain of deals. Before it was even constructed, it was codenamed "Spectrum II" (as it was to be the replacement for the original Spectrum arena right nearby). CoreStates Bank bought the naming rights and it became the CoreStates Center. Then CoreStates was bought by First Union, First Union became Wachovia, and finally Wachovia was bought by Wells Fargo. And in recent years, the name has been downplayed by the resident NBA team, the 76ers, as Wells Fargo didn't have a sponsorship deal with them; they attempted to minimize the floor name during games by painting it in white and making it really small. This plan didn't work, but they did come to an agreement where they still call "The Center" by the Wells Fargo name, but have a non-signage deal with another bank.
    • Originally, the current home of the Phoenix Suns started out simply as the "America West Arena", named after America West Airlines. However, when America West Airlines merged with US Airways in 2006, the arena went through a rebrand, becoming the "US Airways Center" until that airline company was merged as a part of American Airlines by December 2013, though they kept the arena name until 2015 due to American Airlines already having two branded stadium names in the NBA for Dallas and Miami. Once the Suns' season concluded on that year, they renamed the arena again to the "Talking Stick Resort Arena", named after the local Indian Reservation resort located in Scottsdale. However, due to a combination of the Suns performing poorly during their seasons under that name and the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, the Talking Stick Resort declined to continue its naming rights to the arena, leading to the city of Phoenix themselves briefly naming it the "PHX Arena" for November 2020 before the Phoenix Suns took over the arena name, having it become the "Phoenix Suns Arena" from the start of their 2020-21 season until Game 5 of the 2021 NBA Finals. By that time, a company in suburban Gilbert named Footprint (who's known for material science with the purpose of eliminating single use and short-term use plastic for a better environment) partnered up with the Suns to rename the arena officially to the "Footprint Center" to celebrate their completed renovation for 2021.
    • Another venue within the Phoenix metro area with an identity crisis is the Arizona Coyotes' former home arena in suburban Glendale. Simply named Glendale Arena when it opened in 2003, it became Jobing.com Arena in 2006, then Gila River Arena in 2014, and finally to Desert Diamond Arena in 2022 following the Coyotes' eviction.
    • The Utah Jazz' home court has undergone several name changes since opening in 1991. Originally opened as Delta Center, the arena was temporarily renamed "Salt Lake Ice Center" during the 2002 Winter Olympics due to the International Olympic Committee banning corporate-sponsored names on venues, permanently renamed EnergySolutions Arena in 2006, renamed Vivint Smart Home Arena in 2015, shortened to simply Vivint Arena in 2020, and returned to its original Delta Center name in 2023.
    • The home court of the Oklahoma City Thunder opened as Ford Center^note The naming rights were held by Oklahoma's Ford dealers rather than the Ford Motor Company itself. in 2002, it was temporarily renamed Oklahoma City Arena in 2010, and renamed as Chesapeake Energy Arena in 2011 before adopting its current name of Paycom Center in 2021.
    • The Nashville Predators' home ice has underwent several name changes since its opening in 1996. Starting simply as Nashville Arena, it became the Gaylord Entertainment Center in 1999, as the parent company of the Grand Ole Opry, whose historic home of Ryman Auditorium is located a block away from the arena, held a minority stake in the Predators at the time. When Gaylord Entertainment divested its interest in the hockey team, the arena reverted back to its original name in 2007, only for the naming rights to be bought two months later by the Sommet Group, renaming the arena Sommet Center. Two years into the agreement, Sommet Group failed to make naming rights payments and after their corporate offices were raided by the FBI and IRS, the Predators quickly dropped the Sommet name off the arena as soon as legally possible, reverting again to Nashville Arena until Bridgestone Tire acquired the naming rights in 2010.
    • When the Ottawa Senators' home ice opened in 1996, it started as the unsponsored Palladium; however, only a month after its opening, the arena became the Corel Centre for the next decade. After Corel's contract expired, the naming rights went to Scotiabank in 2006, becoming Scotiabank Place. After the Senators' ownership decided to terminate Scotiabank's agreement early in 2013, the arena naming rights were sold to Canadian retail giant Canadian Tire, becoming the Canadian Tire Centre.
    • The Calgary Flames' long time home of the Saddledome started off as the Olympic Saddledome when it opened in 1983. In 1995, the Saddledome sold its naming rights to Canadian Airlines; however, after Canadian was acquired by their rival Air Canada in 2000, the naming rights went to Pengrowth Management for the next decade. Since 2011, Scotiabank has held the naming rights to the Saddledome.
    • The Los Angeles Lakers' and Los Angeles Kings' former home arena of The Forum has changed names a few times. In 1988, the arena took on naming rights from Great Western Bank. Despite Great Western being bought out by Washington Mutual in 1997, the name remained on the arena until 2003, long after its tenants had moved to the Staples Center (now known as Crypto.com Arena) in downtown LA. In 2014, Chase Bank (who had coincidentally acquired WaMu's assets after the Great Recession) became the arena's sponsor, although the arena would be named "The Forum, presented by Chase". In 2022, Kia Motors acquired the naming rights to the Forum, although the arena will have to revert at least temporarily to its traditional name when it hosts gymnastics events in the 2028 Summer Olympics.
    • Like Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center, the Buffalo Sabres' current arena changed several times due to the bank that holds the naming rights contract keeps changing ownership. The arena opened in 1996 as the Marine Midland Arena, then HSBC Arena in 2000, then First Niagara Center in 2011, and currently called the KeyBank Center since 2016.
    • The San Jose Sharks' home arena started simply as San Jose Arena when it opened in 1993. In 2001, the arena took on its first naming rights as the Compaq Center.^note Confusingly, there was already an arena named Compaq Center at the time, the former Summit Arena in Houston, where Compaq was based. Just a year later, Compaq was bought out by one of their rivals, Hewlett-Packard, renaming the arena the HP Pavilion at San Jose, wittingly sharing its name HP's consumer line of desktop and laptop computers. In 2013, the arena acquired its current naming rights from another IT firm, this time as the SAP Center.
    • San Diego's main sports arena, which previously hosted two separate NBA franchises, the Rockets and Clippers, has been renamed several times. Originally opened as the San Diego International Sports Arena in 1966, the "International" portion of the name was dropped in 1970. In 2005, the San Diego Sports Arena attained its first naming rights as iPayOne Center, which was dropped two years later due to nonpayment by the sponsor. In 2010, the Sports Arena received its first of two sponsorships by Native American casinos, first as Valley View Casino Center, from the San Pasqual Band. After Valley View's contract lasped in 2018, the Pechanga Band acquired the arena's current naming rights.
  • Other:
    • Just across the I-190 from the KeyBank Center mentioned in the previous entry is Sahlen's Field (home of the Triple A Buffalo Bisons), which since it opened in 1988 has been named Pilot Field, the Downtown Ballpark (they didn't have a sponsor for the 1995 season), North AmeriCare Park, Dunn Tire Park, and Coca-Cola Field before adopting the Sahlen moniker^note Sahlen's is a Buffalo-based meat packing company mostly known for its hot dogs in 2019.
    • Major League Soccer isn't immune to this. Houston Dynamo FC^note which went without the "FC" until 2020 moved from the University of Houston campus to its own stadium in 2012. The stadium was originally known as BBVA Compass Stadium, bearing the brand name of Spanish bank BBVA's US operations. In 2019, BBVA dropped "Compass" from its US brand name, and the stadium followed suit. Then in 2021, it became PNC Stadium when BBVA sold its US operations to the Pittsburgh-based bank. After the 2022 season, PNC didn't renew the contract, and it became Shell Energy Stadium in 2023.
    • In college football, the University of Central Florida's on-campus stadium started as Bright House Networks Stadium when it opened in 2007. A decade later, Bright House Networks was bought by Charter Communications, who renamed the stadium to Spectrum Stadium. After the deal ended in 2020, the stadium adopted its nickname, the "Bounce House", so named because of how the stadium sways when fans jump up and down, as its official name until adopting its present naming rights with FBC Mortgage in 2022.
    • A non sponsor-related version was the São Paulo stadium built for The World Cup in 2014: the names Arena de São Paulo (obvious reasons), Arena Corinthians (after the team that kept the arena after the Cup), and Arena Itaquera (the neighborhood the venue is located) were all being used in promotional material, traffic signs and media coverage. The press also kept the nickname coined during construction, "Itaquerão". All this drove away companies that could seek naming rights, making Corinthians lose a profitable opportunity.
• A Japanese painter most commonly called Hokusai was known by at least thirty names in his lifetime.
• The security firm formerly known as Blackwater is an infamous group of Private Military Contractors. They kept changing their name, so who knows what they call themselves today? By 2014, they called themselves Academi, and had an affiliate named Greystone Limited.
• Atlanta's CBS affiliate, WANF channel 46, changes its name at least once every few years: it got stuck with the CBS affiliation as part of the New World/Fox Disaster Dominoes incident of 1994, and due to the history of broadcasting mechanics, stations on the UHF band, let alone major network affiliates on it, are usually not treated as highly as those in the VHF band with lower numbers. As formerly mentioned on said page, WANF has changed branding so many times since 1995, it is an actual miracle when it keeps a logo and news direction for two years in a row.
  • Until 1999, it branded as just WGNX (though with occasional "CBS 46" references after getting the affiliation).
  • Then it changed to CBS Atlanta in 1999, due in part to the fact that on area cable lineups, WGNX wasn't to be found on 46.
  • Then it changed its call letters in 2000 to WGCL, coinciding with the station's unusual "Clear News" format (complete with "I Can See Clearly Now" as its theme music!), and adopting "Clear TV" as its on-air name.
  • Then it went back to CBS Atlanta again in 2002 (this time with a style aping the look of the CBS Evening News at the time) after Clear News didn't work out.
  • Then it went back to CBS 46 for quite a while (until 2009). This era had Early-Installment Weirdness with the short-lived "Atlanta's Newschannel" tabloid era (complete with cheesy vocals on the news intros!).
  • Then they went back to CBS Atlanta once more in 2009.
  • Then they went back to "CBS 46" for the third time in 2014, coinciding with a new set and the same graphics as CBS owned and operated stations (though with a different logo design).
  • They debuted new graphics and a new slogan in late 2017 ("Local. Real. Everywhere."), but the "CBS 46" branding from has persisted, and the station had managed to grow out of its Audience-Alienating Era and produce a significantly more competitive product.
  • Finally, late 2022 saw a large-scale relaunch as WANF, tying into their new branding as Atlanta News First. This was the result of Meredith's TV stations being acquired in 2021 by the Atlanta-based Gray Television, whose roots in the area date back to 1897, making WGCL their flagship station. Alongside the creation of a new TV/film production facility in Doraville on the site of a former GM factory, Gray has invested heavily into WGCL/WANF, and realized that WGCL had no identity whatsoever due to the revolving-door nature of the station. Accordingly, they basically tossed everything out the window to create Atlanta News First. Given Gray's resources and drive towards making their hometown station shine, hopefully WANF will stick for the foreseeable future.
• L. Frank Baum also wrote books as Edith Van Dyne, Capt. Huge Fitzgerald, Floyd Akers, Schuyler Stanton, Laura Bancroft, Suzanne Metcalf, John Estes Cooke, and Anonymous. He also used the names George Brooks and Louis F. Baum^note his first name, which he disliked, was Lyman in his early theater work.
• Binomial nomenclature arose because of this trope and disparate species sharing common names. When discussing species, it's important to be precise.
• Lycaon pictus is a canid variously known as the African wild dog, African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, painted wolf, painted hunting dog, painted wild dog, and various combinations of these words or similar.
• Freeform. When it started up in 1977 it was a spin-off of the Christian Broadcasting Network and was named CBN Satellite Network, later revised to CBN Cable Network at the dawn of The '80s. In 1988 it was revised again to CBN Family Channel before being spun off two years later and now going by The Family Channel, having become too profitable for the nonprofit CBN to keep. In 1997, the channel was brought by Fox, who renamed it Fox Family; however, they didn't know what to do with it and sold it to Disney in 2001, who then gave it the name ABC Family. In 2015, Disney announced that the channel would be renamed again, this time to the more neutral Freeform, due for January 2016, making for a total of seven name changes in the channel's nearly 40-year history.
• Happens whenever a stray dog sneaks into a school. Every group of children will give it a different name unless it gets shooed out on time. Likewise, a class pet that's relatively long-lived, like a rabbit or guinea pig, may accumulate several names if the teacher allows each incoming class to vote on what they'd like to call it.
  • The same thing can happen to inanimate objects, like anatomical models in school biology labs, or dolls and teddy bears kept for children's use at day care centers.
• Shopping malls can get renamed frequently, either as a means of re-identifying the property after a massive renovation or as part of the company's Theme Naming. For instance, Australian-based Westfield Group built many malls named "Westfield X", and if they purchased a mall from another owner, they would rename it "Westfield [part of the former name]". Sometimes, Westfield malls got sold back to another group who would assign a new name not related to the original or Westfield-ized name.
• The McDonald's fast-food chain had picked up a lot of casual nicknames: Ronnie Mac's Steakhouse, Mickey D's, Scottish Food, Golden Arches, McDick's, Macca's, Mackey-D's, Impastato's, McDo / MacDoh, Mekkes / Mekki, Der Schotte, McDonaldos, McDonas, Makku / Makudo, Mak Kee, McDee's, McD's, Donken, Mackid?kan, Meki, Mec, MacDohNo, McDo, Pat Panepinto Mart, Ronchin Ronnies, and The Big M. Also a few derogatory ones: Starchy Arches, Rotten Ronnie Oddo's, Yucky McDucky's, Placcy-D's, DickDonald's, and McDoof.
• The comics division of Magazine Management first used the brand Timely Comics, then Atlas, then Marvel, then Atlas again, before returning to Marvel for good, and that's ignoring the times when they went without any brand. As for the formal stuff, they published their works through a shitload of shell companies: Atlas News Company, Inc., Daring Comics, Inc., Humorama, Inc., Marvel Comics, Inc., Miss America Publishing Corporation, Mohawk Publications Corporation, Timely Publications, Warwick Publications, Inc. and some 100 more. No kidding.
• The 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set used in the Central Processing Units of PCs has picked up many names over the years, owing to its relatively complicated and unusual history.
  • Unlike the previous version of x86, the 64-bit version was developed by AMD and not Intel, since the latter had decided to work on a completely different 64-bit architecture called Itanium that ended up flopping spectacularly. Because of this, it was originally called AMD64 (or amd64). Some operating systems (such as a few Linux distributions) use this name internally to this day.
  • However, AMD64 didn't sit well once other companies, including Intel, started manufacturing processors compatible with it. Rather than agreeing on a standard name, many of these companies came up with their own names. To make things worse, it seems that some of these companies couldn't agree on a single name internally. For Intel, these names included Intel 64, IA-32e (Intel Architecture 32 Extended, because IA-64 was already used for Itanium), and EM64T (Extended Memory 64 Technology).
  • Other, more neutral parties, (chiefly operating system developers) tried to come up with standardized names, but again they didn't get together to agree on anything. The most common of these names floating around are x86-64 (sometimes called x86_64), which was picked up mostly by Unix-like systems, and x64, which is used by Microsoft.
• Anything considered impolite to mention in mixed or formal company - toilets, bodily functions, sexual organs - will invariably acquire a lot of euphemistic names.
• The name "James" has several diminutives that a man might choose based on his personality and social context. There's mature Jim, playful Jimmy, youthful Jamie, goofy Jimbo, or regal and professional James.
• A variant: Muammar Gaddafi technically only had one name, but had numerous different transliterations of both his first and last names. This article lists a total of thirty-two different ways of spelling his full name, as well as claiming he once wrote his name in the Roman Alphabet as "Moammar El-Gadhafi", which is probably the closest thing to a "canon" answer you're going to get.
• Aaron Burr was also known as Aaron Edwards, H.E. Edwards, George Meville, Adolphus Arnot, Mr. Kirby, and according to him, several others.
• A comic storyline has this going on: whenever someone brings up the Batman saga Knightfall, this usually just isn't about Knightfall itself (Bane crippling Batman and Azrael replacing Bruce when he recovers), but also Knightquest (used for two stories: "The Crusade" being about Azrael's time as Batman after he defeats Bane and "The Search" being about Bruce's search for Jack Drake and Shondra Kinsolving, and Bruce's recovery), KnightsEnd (Bruce getting back into shape and retaking the mantle from Azrael); Prodigal (Dick Grayson taking over as Batman as Bruce decides to do some reevaluation); and Trioka (Bruce's permanent return as Batman).
• Make a sandwich out of an elongated loaf of bread, like a baguette. Depending on where you are in the USA, you've just made a submarine, a hero, a wedge, a hoagie, a grinder, a spuckie, or a po'boy.
• Cut a hole in a piece of bread, break an egg into the hole, and fry them. What do you call it? Egg in a basket? Toad in a hole? Bump on a log? Cat's eye? Hole in one? One-eyed pirate? Bird in a nest? Buckeyes? Eagle eye? Any or all are possible, and that's just in the U.S.
• Most steam locomotive configuration types have a single type name, maybe two. Naming rights often go to the first line to use a particular wheel arrangement. The first 4-8-4 went to the Northern Pacific and the type's name became the northern. Over tne next decade or two, many major roads bought similar locomotives of the same basic configuration. The 4-8-4 type eventually ended up with more than a dozen names, mostly based on the preferences of the road that owned them.
  • The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RFP) gave each of its three 4-8-4 classes a separate name, the "General" of 1937, the "Governor" of 1938 and the "Statesman" of 1944.
• The Chinese idea of "rectification of names" causes many Chinese government agencies to be this. The idea is that, there's an expectation that some government acts to be performed in the name of a certain body, despite that particular body no longer exists or even never existed. In addition, despite the Communist Party has been calling the shots since 1949, there was never a complete union between the Party and the State. This means any kind of government body is liable to collect a large number of operating names, inherited from organizational reforms and/or simply by being a dual Party/State organization, and these operating names are expected to be used on specific government functions.
  For example, the Central Publicity^note The cynical might prefer "Propaganda," but there was no intention to mislead—the Chinese language never makes a distinction between mundane promotions and propaganda. Office of the Communist Party directly assumed most media management functions previously operated by several State organs, but the names of all these organs are "retained." This means the Publicity Office is expected to call itself the State Council Information Office, National Press And Publication Administration, or China Film Administration when performing functions previously performed by those bodies. And since the National Copyright Administration, since its founding in 1985, is effectively an operating name of NPPA despite being separately chartered by law, this means the Publicity Office is also expected to call itself NCA when handling copyright affairs.
• Australian Football League example: Essendon's nickname is officially the Bombers, but they're often called the Dons, even by the league's own media outlets.
• Most porn stars use stage names, but male performers that do both straight and gay porn will often use different names depending on the video's target audience. The reasons for this can vary: it can be to keep one side a secret to avoid backlash from the other, or it can just be a courtesy to fans who want to search the performer's oeuvre without having to see what they're not into.
• In its relatively short life (the competition started in 1960), the EFL Cup - an association football competition in England - has, due to Product Placement, been called the Milk Cup, Littlewoods Challenge Cup, the Rumbelows Cup, the Coca-Cola Cup, the Worthington Cup, the Carling Cup and the Capital One Cup, before settling on its current name, the Carabao Cup.
• Another competition with an even shorter life (it started in 1983), the EFL Trophy — a competition for lower-league clubs and the youth teams of larger clubs — has seen even more changes, having started life as the Associate Members' Cup, before becoming the Football League Trophy, the Freight Rover Trophy, the Sherpa Van Trophy, the Leyland DAF Cup, the Autoglass Trophy, the Auto Windscreens Shield, the LDV Vans Trophy, the Johnstone's Paint Trophy,^note the trading name of PPG Industries' British paints operations the Checkatrade Trophy, the Leasing.com Trophy^note but not the Final - the COVID-19 pandemic pushed it beyond its sponsorship contract, so it was named after its next sponsor, the Papa Johns Trophy^note originally the Papa John's Trophy, before losing the apostrophe during the 2020/21 season, and now the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.^note The actual sponsor is car dealership group Vertu Motors, which bought Bristol Street Motors in 2007 but continues to use that name for many of its outlets.
• The chief of the Duwamish people after whom the largest city in the state of Washington is named has his name rendered in a bunch of different ways, because the Duwamish language has some phonemes that don't exist in English and have to be approximated. Seattle is the "official" transliteration, but it's not accurate because the "tt" is in place of a glottal stop (like in the term "uh oh"). 19th century variants included Seathl, Sealth (Chief Sealth High School is a prominent Seattle school) and See-ahth. The modern Duwamish transliteration system renders at as Si'alh, but some tribal elders say that the traditional pronunciation was more along the lines of Sia'lsh or Sia'lch.
• Nation of Islam founder Wallace Fard Muhammad is known to have used at least 58 different names during his life, most of which have some variation of "Wally" or "Fard" or "Ford". In fact, despite many investigations, no one knows for sure what his birth name was, or even where he was born (while often assumed to be American, many researchers now think he was an immigrant from Afghanistan).
• When supermarket chains in North America buy other chains, they generally keep the old banners in use. Some extreme examples:
  • Kroger not only operates under its own name, but also Baker's, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Foods Co., Fred Meyer, Fry's, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, JayC, King Soopers, Mariano's, Metro Market, Pay Less, Pick 'n Save, QFC, Ralphs, Ruler Foods, and Smith's.
  • Albertsons also operates Acme, Amigos, Andronico's, Balducci's, Carrs–Safeway, Haggen, Jewel-Osco, Kings, Lucky, Market Street, Pak 'n Save, Pavilions, Randalls, Safeway, Shaw's, Star Market, Tom Thumb, United Supermarkets, and Vons.
  • Ahold Delhaize, formed by the merger of Dutch and Belgian companies, doesn't operate under either name in the States, but does operate Bfresh, Food Lion, two different chains using the Giant name,^note One based in the DC area, the other in Pennsylvania. Hannaford, Martin's,^note part of the Pennsylvania Giant subsidiary and Stop & Shop.
  • Loblaw Companies, a Canadian firm, has an even more bewildering array of nameplates and concepts. The company's classifications are:
    • Superstores: Atlantic Superstore (Maritimes), Dominion Stores (Newfoundland & Labrador), Maxi (Québec), Real Canadian Superstore (rest of Canada)
    • "Great Food": Loblaws / Loblaws Great Food / Loblaws CityMarket, Provigo / Provigo Le Marché (Québec), T & T Supermarket, Zehrs / Zehrs Great Food
    • Mostly franchised: Freshmart, Fortinos, L'Intermarché, Lucky Dollar Foods, Red & White, SaveEasy, Shop Easy Foods, SuperValu, Your Independent Grocer
    • Hard discount: Extra Foods, Maxi / Maxi & Cie, No Frills
    • And this doesn't go into the company's five wholesale banners, or its liquor operations in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

---