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Only Known by Their Nickname
aka: Known Only By Their Nickname
"Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not "Mr. Lebowski". You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing."
— The Dude (so that's what you call him), The Big Lebowski

This is a character who is primarily, or even only, known by their In-Series Nickname.

Related to Everyone Calls Him Barkeep, but that is about people being referred to exclusively by their jobs or what they're best known for doing. Also related to Stage Names. Does not include Fan Nicknames, secret identities, or explicit pseudonyms. Also doesn't include people who give themselves new names following an act of self-reinvention, and stop responding to their old name (e.g. Voldemort). Exceptionally badass examples of this trope fall into the Red Baron.

Usually, Dramatis Personae will give the full name of such a character first, though the actual script will use the nickname almost exclusively even in the unspoken directions. Pretty much any superhero/supervillain with a secret identity falls under this trope.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Gyro Zeppeli from Steel Ball Run. His real name is Julius Caeser Zeppeli.
  • Kyon and his sister in Suzumiya Haruhi - their real names will likely never be revealed. "Kyon" is just an irritating nickname his aunt once gave him and that his sister spread, that ended up sticking despite all his efforts to discourage it. His sister doesn't even get that much; everyone just calls her "little sister".
  • Ayumu 'Osaka' Kasuga from Azumanga Daioh - her teachers, friends, fans, even the character herself forget her real name.
    • On the class listings for the second year, she initially thinks she is not in Yukari's class, but then sees that her name is listed as "Osaka".
    • To a lesser extent is Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara.
    • Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa is a small example too. Early on in the series, everyone of the main cast switches from referring to her by her last name to referring to her by "Nyamo".
  • Mitsune 'Kitsune' Konno from Love Hina.
  • The top eight members of Ragnarok in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple have codenames based in Norse Mythology. Only three of them have their full names revealed during the story in which they appear. The three others who join the Shinpaku Alliance don't have their names revealed for another hundred or so chapters.
  • Shien Mushanokoji, the quarterback of the Seibu Wild Gunmen in Eyeshield 21, is only called "The Kid" for several volumes before his name is revealed.
    • Additionally, when Sena and Monta set out on the trail of the mysterious third founding Devil Bat, literally all they know about him is his nickname, Musashi, causing them to think he's Jerkass soccer player Muro Satoshi. He's actually Gen Takekura; the nickname is never really explained although Takekura and Musashi are two different ways to read the same kanji (武蔵).
    • "Buffalo" Ujishima of the Seibu Wild Gunmen. Not that it can be helped, since his actual given name, "Baharou", is pronounced identically to "Buffalo" in Japanese.
  • We never find out L's real name in Death Note until the 13th, non-story book that explains everything in detail, which only came out well after the main story was over.
    • Ditto for Matt, although both Mello's (Mihael Kheel) and Near's (Nate River) are revealed late in the story. In fact, many people go by nicknames in the series, since Kira knowing your real name is... problematic, to say the least.
  • Madlax is only known by her Code Name (which has its own sinister backstory), even to her liaisons, the closest thing she has to family. In fact, she doesn't have any "real" name at all, since she isn't that real herself, in the first place.
  • The villain in Gun X Sword is known only as the Claw, sometimes called "Comrade" by his allies. He rejected his real name long ago and it is never revealed.
  • In Monster, there is the mafia boss named The Baby. His real name is given The Unreveal treatment.
  • Ryo Marufuji, the Kaiser, of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
  • C.C. (pronounced "C-Two") in Code Geass is only known by these initials. The only time her real name was spoken out loud the viewer is only treated with the speaker's vague lip-movements.
  • The Gaba Thieves in Doki Doki Densetsu Mahoujin Guru Guru make a deliberate point of only ever using nicknames to protect their identities. When Nike and Kukuri briefly join them, the leader Sly immediately gives them codenames. This is taken a step further with Sly himself, who everyone calls "Ookashira", essentially meaning "Boss".
  • The dub of Digimon Adventure does this to justify the changes in names despite not trying to hide that most of the characters normally live in Japan; the first episode introduces the main cast listing both their full names and the nicknames derived from them (to varying degrees of plausibility) which the characters are referred to thereafter. Becomes sort of ridiculous when their parents use these nicknames for them, especially "Izzy", which is a of shortening the characters last name. The other series don't bother with such a thing.
  • The famed criminal Mister in Coyote Ragtime Show is so called because he has as many aliases and false identities as there are stars in the sky and nobody knows what his real name actually is.
  • Code:Breaker: The head of Re:Code is only ever called "The One Being Sought", which is fine for Ogami who is also his brother but sounds a bit odd coming other members of Re:Code ("'The One Being Sought', what are our plans?").
  • Nobody in GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class calls Miyabi Oomichi "Miyabi". She's mainly referred by the main cast as "Professor," while Namiko calls her by the Alternate Character Reading "Masa," and the Faceless Masses calls her "Oomichi-san".
  • Kasanoda from Ouran High School Host Club. We're given his first name (which is Ritsu), but he's almost always referred to as Kasanoda or some mispronunciation of his name.
  • Accelerator notes that he used to have a real name. A normal name. He even tells how many characters were in it (3?) but doesn't reveal what it was. He's only called Accelerator now.
    • Index too. Presumably she wasn't named Index when she was born, but probably after she was forced to memorize an entire library of knowledge and had the rest of her memory wiped.
    • Aogami Pierce presumably has a real name as well. To us, though, he's just the blue-haired guy with piercings.
  • The hero of Darker than Black is only known by his Code Name, Hei ("black" in Chinese).
  • Tokidoki from Amatsuki is almost always known as Toki both inside and outside the story, mainly because his full name is described as "too weird". (It's Japanese for 'sometimes,' and while the Japanese do sometimes use words for names, just like any other language, that isn't one of them.)
  • Everyone (both in the show and in Real Life) calls the main erm... "heroine"... of Elfen Lied "Lucy". The tail end of the manga reveals her actual name is Kaede.
  • Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist gets known as... well... "Scar" due the one he has on the face. He said he abandoned his name, which is never revealed. The main antagonist is usually known as "Father" or "the Eastern Sage", though his "true name" is Homunculus. More or less. His own 'father' calls him "Dwarf in the Flask".
  • Nodame from Nodame Cantabile rarely gets called by her real name, Megumi Noda.
  • V. T. from Cowboy Bebop runs a pool for people guessing her name. Her real name is Victoria Terpsichore.
  • Several members of Black Lagoon's cast are commonly referred to only by nicknames. The only one of the cast who has a name we actually know is real (and not just a nickname or an alias) is Rokuro Okajima, the main character, whom everyone just calls "Rock". Amongst other examples, "Revy" is a nickname (first name "Rebecca", nothing else known), "Dutch" is a nickname, "Balalaika" is a nickname, and "Hansel and Gretel" are nicknames (but they have no real names anyway).
    • Balalaika is later given a full name: Sofiya Irininskaya Pavlovena.
  • Takeshi Goda in Doraemon is commonly known as Gian. Some of the characters such as Shizuka and Gian's mother still call him Takeshi.
  • Everybody in the Section 9 in Ghost in the Shell save for Chief Aramaki and Togusa, who has a family, only uses a code name or alias; in the Stand Alone Complex episode where their names are shown as suspects to an attempted armed coup their real names have been obscured or corrupted, showing only the familiar aliases.
  • Kazuya Shibuya from Ghost Hunt. If you have seen the show but can't recall who that is, it may be because everyone calls him "Naru" for the entire show.
  • The Oracion Seis of Fairy Tail all have codenames.
    • Hoteye mentions that his real name is Richard,though.
  • Alexander from Seikon No Qwaser is almost always referred Sasha.
  • In Naruto, Yamato's real name is unknown and since his introduction he has just gone by the Code Name Tsunade gave him even after the mission he was given it for ended. Readers often confuse "Tenzo" to be his real name, but it's actually just the Code Name he used he worked with Kakashi.
    • We eventually find out A and Killer Bee don't go by their real names, but rather nicknames that have been used by the Raikage and his partner through their village's history.
  • Kafuka Fura of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is using a false name derived from that of Franz Kafka. At one point there's a flashback to Nami's kindergarten class, and one of Nami's classmates, who looks like a younger Kafuka, is identified by the name An. It seems to be implied that Kafuka's real name is An Akagi, the Japanese title for Anne of Green Gables, in reference to Kafuka's ultra-optimistic personality. The name/book title literally means "Red Anne", but is also a pun on "red end" in Engrish, and in both cases, refers to what Kafuka is likely to ultimately do to her classmates.
  • From the Gundam franchise, Char Aznable (at one time, Quattro Bajeena), Zechs Marquise, and even The Hero Setsuna F. Seiei. (Real names: Casval rem Deikun, Milliardo Peacecraft, Soran Ibrahim)
    • G Gundam has a twofer with "Touhou Fuhai" (Undefeated of the East), AKA Master Asia (which is arguably just a pragmatic short-hand for the former). Quite often, Domon will refer to him by both titles in quick succession ("Touhou Fuhai Master Asia!") The manga G Gundam: Fight 7th gives his original name as Shuji Kurosu.
  • The title character of Beelzebub is simply called Beel, or Baby Beel, by everyone. Justified, as his real name, Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV would be a mouthful... and Oga doesn't remember his full name anyway.
  • Boss from Mazinger Z and the various spin-offs/sequels thereof. He's claimed that even the author doesn't know his real name.
    Boss: Kabuto's close friend Boss. Even the author doesn't know my real name.
  • Daily Lives Of High School Boys:
    • Sanada East's Student Council President is only known as "Ringo-chan."
    • The Literature Girl or "Yassan." Her real name was never released.
  • One Piece: Franky's real name is Cutty Flam. "Franky" was a name given to him by Iceburg.

    Comic Books 
  • James Buchanan Barnes, current Captain America is almost always referred to as Bucky, or Bucky-Cap. Only his girlfriend refers to him by his first name.
  • Jughead Jones in Archie Comics. His real name is Forsythe.
    • Similarly, his sister Jellybean Jones. Real name is Forsythia.
    • Wow, so the nickname's actually an improvement.
    • Pretty much everyone in the comics goes by a nickname, which usually are just shortened versions of their names. Only Veronica gets called by her name often, and even then you'll see it as "Ronnie" just as much.
  • In Death: The Time of Your Life, Foxglove's assistant goes by Boris, but Death calls him by his given name, Endymion. ("I really do prefer Boris, if you don't mind," he tells her.)
  • Katchoo of Strangers in Paradise. Her real name is Katina Choovanski, but those close to her only call her that when they're angry with her or in a very serious mood.
  • In most Batman stories, regardless of medium, the Joker's given name is unknown, even in most stories expounding or referencing his secret origin. One of the few exception is in the 1989 Tim Burton film, and a subsequent episode of Batman: The Animated Series, his pre-accident name is Jack Napier; in the more recent comic book arcs "Hush Returns" and "Lovers and Madmen," only the first name "Jack" appears.
    • In one story his autistic cousin Melvin refers to him as Cousin Ja... but he is interrupted and the Joker tells him "That's not my name anymore, call me Cousin Joker".
    • Melvin's last name is Reipan, Napier spelled backwards.
  • In Transmetropolitan, the first president in the series is known only as The Beast. Even his kids call him that. There's also the ever-lovable Bill Chimpfucker. He only did it once, though.
  • The first time we see Apollo and the Midnighter of The Authority, it is as their civilian names and identities are being erased. (How literally and to what extent this erasure works has been interpreted very differently by different writers: under one writer the Midnighter refers to something his father 'used to say', under another he has no memory of anything before he became a post-human.) When the Midnighter, in his own series, uncovers his old name, it turns out to be fake. He keeps it anyway.
  • Pretty much every member of GI Joe and Cobra alike in G.I. Joe, to the point that even after Grunt had left the service to go to college he was uncomfortable being called by his real name and self-identified as "Grunt".
  • Private Hank the Yank in Adventures in the Rifle Brigade is listed in official documents as "Private the Yank"; this may have something to do with his apparent inability to articulate himself in words other than "GAWD DAMMIT!"
    • Lieutenant Milk is also solely referred to by his nickname, "Doubtful", by Captain Darcy.
  • Agent 355 from Y: The Last Man. She served as the titular protagonist's bodyguard for years before she was comfortable enough to share her old name with him. And she whispered it, so the reader never finds out what it was.
  • Disney's Brer Rabbit comics seem to imply that all the animals have actual names, but everyone seems to just refer to everyone as "Brer <Species Name>".
  • V in V for Vendetta.
  • Alexander "Lex" Luthor.
  • The four main Flashes are known almost exclusively by shorthand versions of their full names, to the point where most fans and writers aren't aware that those names are in fact nicknames.
    • Especially Barry Allen, who actually has the same full name as his grandson (Bartholomew).
  • Green Lantern Hal Jordan, whose real name is "Harold" but is never addressed as such, ever.
    • His friend Tom Kalmaku once had the nickname "Pieface", and he was referred to as such constantly. It was a more ignorant time.
  • For the first two decades of her published existence, Rogue of the X-Men was known just as "Rogue", even to her nearest and dearest (which according to at least one version of her origin published before 2001 was shown to be her nickname before she discovered her powers). Only after the makers of the first movie decided to saddle her with "Marie" did that eventually bleed over into the comics, Chris Claremont eventually naming her Anna Marie Raven. (The surname is almost certainly an assumed name, it is identical with the the first name of her adoptive mother, Raven Darkhölme aka Mystique).
  • The Daredevil villain Bullseye, is only known by that name and when asked for his name, "Bullseye" is what he always responds with.
    • Turns out his first name is Lester. again with the nickname being an improvement.
  • Many characters in Empowered. We learn the real name of the heroine as late as in volume #3. The real name of her boyfriend Thugboy is still unknown.
  • In Youngblood: Judgment Day, Bryce Barstow, formerly the Fisherman, calls his former sidekick Toby King by his old hero name, Skipper - despite being his adoptive father. Toby's a little irritated, but settles the matter by saying he'd prefer his real name in this situation.
  • The real names of the main characters of Mingamanga are Korbinian, Mustafa, Vinh Ngoc and Daniel. They're almost always called Bini, Staffie, Vinnie and Bo.
  • Sonic from his comic only went by his nickname, he was given the embarrassing middle name of Maurice, and Word of God claimed his first name to be Oglivie.

    Film 
  • The Blind Side: Michael, at first anyway. After he reveals to Leigh Anne that he doesn't like to be called "Big Mike", she thereafter always calls him "Michael" instead.
  • The title character of Indiana Jones. Real name Henry Walton* Jones, Jr.
  • The Little Tramp in the Charlie Chaplin movies. Other languages call him Charlot or Carlitos.
    • Chaplin himself referred to the character as "The Little Fellow".
  • Lampshade hung, of course, in Last Action Hero, where a one-note character named Skeezie is actually named just Skeezie; he even gives that as his full name on a police report.
  • Nose Noseworthy in Shorts - apparently not his actual given name (we assume it comes from his last name), yet he is listed as "Nose" Noseworthy on his episode card and Toby says he's 'a kid that everyone calls Nose', completely avoiding stating his real name. Even his father never calls him by name - or nickname, for that matter - the closest we get is 'son'.
  • In Purple Rain, Prince's character is referred to "The Kid" even in the credits. He's never referred to by name, even by his parents. He's still just "The Kid" in the pseudo-sequel Graffiti Bridge.
  • The bartender with Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome in The Boondock Saints is just called "Fuck-Ass", since he says it all the time. He doesn't seem to mind the nickname.
  • All characters in the thriller Exam are referred to by hair colour, ethnicity, or job title, with the exception of the mystical CEO.
  • Although the main character of Falling Down is named William Foster, he is rarely referred to as such, and credited as the name on his vanity license plate, "D-FENS".
  • "The Kid" in Dick Tracy, though at the end he's given a name: Dick Tracy, Jr.
  • "Captain" in The King And The Clown. Might be considered an example of Everyone Calls Him Barkeep, except he gets the nickname of Captain before he gets leadership of the performing troupe.
  • In The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising, the GM's name is Kevin Lodge, but almost everyone calls him Lodge. The newbie player addresses him by his first name, and the rest of the gaming group expresses astonishment at Lodge having a first name.
    Joanna: Thanks, Kevin. I'll look it over. * leaves*
    Mark: Kevin? Who the hell is Kevin?
    Lodge: I'm Kevin!
    Mark: Dude, you have a first name?
  • The Shawshank Redemption has Red, who is never referred to by full name in the movie.
    • The book also has him as an Irishman with red hair, giving him two reasons for the nickname. but the movie version has Morgan Freeman playing the role. Morgan Freeman's version hangs a lampshade on it when asked why he's called Red: "Maybe it's 'cause I'm Irish".
    • You've got to pity poor Fatass from The Shawshank Redemption, who is not only beaten to death his first night in prison, but is stuck with that name in the credits.
  • Dog Soldiers has "Spoon" Witherspoon. His first name is never revealed.
  • GraveRobber, GraveRobber, sometimes I wonder why I even bother...
  • The title character in Hudson Hawk, who is called that by everyone except his best friend Tommy Five-Tone. Tommy calls him his real name: Eddie.
  • Penny Lane in Almost Famous. Her real name is Lady Goodman.
  • Landfill is pretty much only referred to by that name in Beerfest.
    • Including his wife... while having sex with his twin brother, who becomes known as Landfill II or just Landfill.
  • Jeff Lebowski is "The Dude" throughout The Big Lebowski. Mainly because the name Jeff Lebowski is a plot point.
    • Of course it's lampshaded throughout whenever he gets angry at someone calling him by his real name rather than simply "The Dude".
  • The Great Kanaka, Starcat, Provoloney and Yo-Yo from Psycho Beach Party.
  • "The Tramp" from Lady and the Tramp. Subverted, since that becomes his name, minus "The", once he's adopted.
    • This is also an example of Everyone Calls Him Barkeep, because one of his old flames wrote a song about him called "He's a Tramp," and the name stuck.
  • The Man With No Name gets a different nickname in each installment of the trilogy (in order "Joe," "Manco," and "Blondie"). His real name is — obviously — never given.
  • The main characters of Zombieland use the place of their destination in place of their real names to avoid personal attachment. Needless to say it doesn't work.
  • The Bride in Kill Bill is this with respect to the audience—up to a certain point, any references to her by her actual name (Beatrix Kiddo) are censored out.
  • U-571 has Trigger, Rabbit, and Chief, among others. Chief is referred to as such because he's Chief of the Boat, but the others are nicknames.
  • In Ocean's Eleven there is "The Amazing Yen" and Basher Tarr.
  • Thank You For Smoking Nick Naylor's boss, BR. He even has that name on his office door.
    "The name, 'BR', came from his tour in Vietnam. The people who know its meaning are all dead."
  • Most people in the Star Wars universe refer to him as Jabba the Hutt, probably completely unaware of his full name: Jabba Desilijic Tiure. This is never mentioned in the movies, but does appear in the Expanded Universe.
  • The five protagonists of Sucker Punch are referred to only by the nicknames the antagonist, Blue, gives them: Baby Doll, Sweet Pea, Rocket, Amber, and Blondie. Even Sweet Pea and Rocket, who are sisters, don't call each other by their real names.
  • Goose in Top Gun. Everyone, even his own wife, just calls him that. His real name, which was seen on a box, was Nick Bradshaw.
    • This seems to be based on some kind of fact. In the credits about a dozen technical advisors are listed as "<First Name> <Nickname> <Last Name>"
  • In the various incarnations of RoboCop, if you run Omni Consumer Products, then chances are very good your name won't be revealed. The head of OCP in the first two movies, the guy who ran it in the third movie, the man who ran it in The Series, and the woman in charge of it for the first two episodes of Prime Driectives are only referred to the respective nicknames "The Old Man", "The CEO", "the OCP Chairman", and "the Old Woman".
  • In Apocalypse Now, with the exception of Lance and Willard, all the main characters are primarily referred to by a nickname fitting their characters: Chief, Chef, and Clean. Interestingly enough, it's the only two men not referred to by a nickname who make it out of the film alive.
  • In Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blackbeard's real name is mentioned only once near the beginning of the film, and from that point on he's referred to as either Blackbeard or Captain. Probably a case of Truth in Television -A lot more people know the real-life pirate as Blackbeard than Edward Teach.
  • In the film adaptation of La Reine Margot, the titular character is only called Marguerite during her wedding ceremony. At all other times, people call her by the pet name Margot.
  • In Camp Nowhere, 12-year-old Morris Himmel goes by the nickname "Mud." The only people who call him by his actual first name are his father and his love interest.
  • In the Japanese horror film House, the seven girls are referred only by their nicknames, even by family; namely, they're Gorgeous, Fantasy, Prof, Kung Fu, Melody, Sweet, and Mac (that's short for "stomach"). This is the first real clue that these girls are meant to be thought of as more archetypes than actual characters.

    Literature 
  • Foxface from ''The Hunger Games' trilogy. Katniss gives her the name on the basis that she looks like a fox, and we never learn what her real name is.
  • Andrew "Ender" Wiggin from Ender's Game, to the point where he can go around inconspicuously as Andrew Wiggin in Speaker for the Dead. (Granted, that is 3,000 years in the future due to relativistic time travel, but still...)
    • Well, and the fact that Andrew and Wiggin aren't exactly uncommon names. Ender is.
    • People do occasionally recognize his name as being the same as "the Xenocide's" (a banker even accuses him of using a false ID when he sees it), but because it is so far in the future no one makes the connection.
    • Also in the later books of the Ender's Game saga many of the characters are from Lusitania, where long Portuguese names are the norm, and just about everyone goes my a nickname. These may be ordinary short forms of their names ("Liberdade Graças a Deus Figueira de Medici" becomes "Libo"), translations ("Estevão Rei Ribeira von Hesse" becomes "Quim," pronounced "king") or unrelated and based off of personal characteristics (Lauro Suleimão Ribeira von Hesse" is called "Olhado" due to his cybernetic eyes.) The full names are usually mentioned once or twice, and then ignored.
  • The Phantom of the Opera (real name was Erik)
  • There are several cases of this in the Inkheart books: We are told that "Capricorn" is a name he gave himself, but we never know what his real name is. The same with Orpheus (who gets it double since Farid calls him only "Cheeseface"). The Magpie's real name is Mortola, but she is very rarely refered to that way. "The Adderhead" and "the Laughing Prince/Prince of Sighs" are names given to them by their subjects. Also the Barn Owl, Nettle, Firefox, Sootbird, the Piper, Flatnose, Cockerell, Cloud-Dancer, and the Black Prince.
    • Even though it's never mentioned that he might have another name, Dustfinger could easily be an example of this. Since his world is full of regular names like Roxanne, Basta, and Minerva, it's probably safe to assume that this is a nickname rather than what his parents named him.
    • Mortimer is an interesting case of this. While everyone else calls him by his proper name, Dustfinger, Capricorn, and the other characters from Inkheart refuse to call him anything but "Silvertongue", which he doesn't like. He is also known only by a nickname to his daughter, Meggie, who "had never called her father anything but 'Mo'."
  • Winnie-the-Pooh - Edward Bear.
  • In The Once and Future King, the Kid Hero of the first part of the story is known as the Wart. That's what he's called and nobody ever uses his name. Until he becomes king Arthur.
  • Neil Gaiman's short story October in the Chair features a boy who was bullied by his twin older brothers. They had nicknamed him the Runt and everyone called him this.
  • In Zen and the Art of Faking It, San falls in love with a girl named Woody, and only realizes that this isn't her real name when an adult refers to her as Emily halfway through the book.
    • This could also fall under Meaningful Rename since she chose the name herself and rejected the name her mother gave her. This happens again toward the end and reverses the first when she starts going by her real name again.
  • Flick in Jean Shepherd's short stories, of which A Christmas Story is the most famous adaption. He was based on a real-life childhood friend of Shepherd's whose last name was Flickinger.
  • The title character of Encyclopedia Brown. Real name was Leroy.
  • Peekay in The Power of One has some typical English name, but it's never used.
  • Many of Bertie Wooster's cronies go exclusively by nicknames; in Thank You, Jeeves, he is amused to finally learn that the first name of his long-time friend "Chuffy" Chuffnell is Marmaduke.
  • Redwall's vermin are often named with uncomplimentary descriptions of their physical features (possibly reaching its peak in Triss with the briefly-mentioned "Fatty" and "Stinky"). In Loamhedge the fan assumption that these were nicknames was made explicit, as the adolescent Redd is told he will soon receive his "proper vermin name".
    • Urgan Nagru says that he took his official name from the wolf Urgan, whom he claims to have killed and whose pelt he wears. His original name is never revealed. Played with in the Official Fanfiction University, when his wife Silvamord threatens to tell the students what his real name is.
  • From the Star Wars Expanded Universe:
    • Several characters in the X-Wing Series. Rogue Squadron has Hobbie Klivian, whose real name is Derek, but no one ever uses it. Wraith Squadron has the most examples — their full names are in the Dramatis Personae and usually get mentioned the first time they're introduced, but you wouldn't know that Face, Grinder, Piggy, and Runt had any other names, otherwise.
    • Mitth'raw'nuruodo, aka Thrawn. He went with the short version to make it easier, and it stuck. In his culture, core names are only suposed to be used by friends and family, but he doesn't seem to mind; presumably the over-familiarity is preferable to people continually mangling the pronunciation.
  • Despite being Heterosexual Life Partners with him for decades, Fred Colon of Discworld fame apparently had no idea Nobby Nobbs's real name is 'Cecil Wormsborough St John Nobbs', or even just his real first name. Others may know his name (it presumably appears in the Watch pay accounts) but no one ever calls him it, even city nobles knew him as Nobby.
  • One of the main characters in Lord of the Flies is known only as Piggy, a nickname he actually hates. His real name is never revealed.
  • Prince Kheldar is referred to as "Silk" throughout The Belgariad, except by those who don't know him well or want to tease him. Garion and Durnik both call Polgara "Pol" almost exclusively, and Garion thinks of Belgarath only as "Mister Wolf" until well into the third book.
  • Jebe, the Arrow, in Bones of the Hills. His real name is Zurgadai, but in only known as Jebe because of his great skill with a bow.
  • Author Mil Millington says that no-one's called him by his real name since he was small, and when he thinks about, it's slightly odd that his children only know him by a nickname.
  • Cameron "Buck" Williams from Left Behind. This may be because he corrects anyone who tries to use his actual name. One character's insistence on using his real name rather than "Buck, because he bucks against journalistic conventions" is used as evidence of her unsympathetic nature.
    • Legit versions of this trope in that series include Albie (who is named for his hometown Al Basrah) and Razor.
  • In Daniel Pinkwater's Young Adult Novel, the protagonist goes by his nom de guerre, Charles the Cat, and the other Wild Dada Ducks do likewise.
  • Until the 7th book, JP in The Princess Diaries series was known only as The Guy Who Hates It When They Put Corn In The Chili.
  • Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley from the Harry Potter series — when she was taken into the Chamber of Secrets, even the professors referred to her as "Ginny Weasley". For years, fans assumed that "Ginny" was short for "Virginia", but Word Of God later revealed that her real name was "Ginevra". The only person to ever call her this was an elderly relative in the last book.
    • This is common with the Weasleys, although most of the time it's pretty easy to guess their full names, as the rest all have traditional English names.
    • Similarly Voldemort is almost always called "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" by those who fear him, or "The Dark Lord" by those who follow him. Those who neither fear him or follow him actually call him Voldemort... which isn't his real name anyway. It was exactly the desired effect, as Voldemort wanted is real name to be forgotten, and the name he chosen to be feared. Dumbledore and Harry refer to him as Voldemort, but use his real name in front of him to upset him. Dumbledore is pretty much the only person to actually call him Tom. Harry calls him Riddle during their final showdown.
    • The Hogwarts ghosts: Nearly Headless Nick (his real name is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington), Moaning Myrtle (whose first name is Myrtle but last name is unknown), Fat Friar, Grey Lady (her real name is Helena Ravenclaw) and Bloody Baron.
  • In S.E.Hinton's Rumble Fish the Motorcycle Boy is only known by this nickname and even his teachers use it. His younger brother is one of the few in the neighborhood that even knows his, unstated, real name.
    • Ditto Two-Bit Matthews in Hinton's The Outsiders, whose real name is known, but only mentioned once by the narrator when introducing him into the story and never again.
  • In Glen Cook's Black Company novels, all members of the titular mercenary group are given nicknames upon joining, and their real names are never used again. Sometimes overlaps with Everyone Calls Him Barkeep.
    • Taken to the extreme with Croaker. He once is asked for his real name so that he can be promoted, and he has to spend a little bit just trying to remember what his original name is.
  • The strangely familiar road-warrior dwarf in The Last Continent:
    "Most people call me Mad."
    "Just 'Mad'? That's an ... unusual name."
    "It ain't a name."
  • Pumpkin in Memoirs of a Geisha. Chiyo/Sayuri gave her the nickname within a week of meeting her, never mentions her given name, and goes on to mention that it continues to stick even after she takes a new name as a geisha. Which must really suck for Pumpkin, because she spends the latter portion of the book hating Sayuri's guts and deliberately sabotaging her chance with the man of her dreams, since she and Chiyo were forced rivals as girls and Pumpkin's life became very dismal as a result.
  • In Son of the Shadows: Known as the Painted Man to most, Chief to his men, he has forgotten his own name, until Liadan (the only one to give him an actual name) reminds him.
  • In Daughter of the Forest, the other way around - Everyone knows the male protagonist as Hugh of Harrowfield, except for those closest to him, who call him Red. More straightforward in the sequel, when he has moved to Ireland: everyone calls him Iubdan ('the little man'), so that hardly anyone remembers that he's actually a Briton called Hugh.
  • Fudge in the Judy Blume books is actually named "Farley Drexel Hatcher". At one point, his mother even insists on his brother calling him nothing but "Fudge". His first kindergarten teacher insists on calling him either by one of his legal names or his initials, resulting in Fudge refusing to co-operate with her and having to be transferred to another class. His baby sister Tamara Roxanne is more commonly called "Tootsie" they only mention her real name in her introduction.
  • Not really a nickname, but Reuven Malter in Chaim Potok's books seems to use his Hebrew name almost exclusively; his "real" first name is Robert, but he's only seen using a few times, and only when dealing with people who aren't Jewish.
  • In the classic children's novel The Machine Gunners the son of the cemetery keeper is known only as "Cem." (A throwaway line in one of the sequels reveals that he inherited his father's position and was still known as "Cem" a good thirty years later.)
  • Swan and Sister in Swan Song; Swan's real name is Sue Wanda, but Sister doesn't actually remember her real name.
  • Jude's eldest child in Jude The Obscure: his mother didn't bother to christen him and simply called him "Little Father Time." Jude and Sue more or less do the same thing.
  • Sticky Washington in The Mysterious Benedict Society series. His real name is "George," so he insists on people referring to him only by the nickname because he doesn't feel that he can live up to the name of "George Washington." However, none of the officials at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened will use the nickname, because they feel that "if it isn't official, then it can't be real."
  • Yo-less, Wobbler and Bigmac in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy. When Johnny talks to Bigmac's social worker, it takes him a minute to remember that she'd know him as Simon.
  • The main protagonist in American Gods is called Shadow, a nickname he earned when he was young by quietly following adults at the hospital where he spent most of his time. Even in his thirties, he mostly goes by this nickname, occasionally uses an alias, and not once in the entire book is his true name revealed. Toward the end, after he dies but before his afterlife is decided, he takes an opportunity to learn his role in the grand scheme, and has to pay admission with his own name. When the personification of Easter brings him back to life, he remembers what he learned, and remembers having to trade something for that knowledge, but doesn't remember the cost, implying that he no longer realizes Shadow is just his nickname.
    • Though, if any of you really are curious, a follow up short story reveals that his real name is Balder. Which, really, we should've seen coming.
    • His wife Laura's full name is given early in the book; if she took his surname, it implies that it's Moon.
  • Beezus from the Ramona Quimby series isn't actually named Beezus, she's named Beatrice. Many of the books don't even tell you that!
    • One of the books mentions that she got this nickname from Ramona's toddler mispronunciation of Beatrice. She seems to be fine with being called so, although there was one episode in another book where some boys at the park took advantage of the fact that it rhymes with "Jesus".
  • Many characters in the Mistborn trilogy appear to be examples of this trope, but occasionally do go by their real names. Two characters that are examples are Clubs, who is named for his leg injury, and his nephew Spook, a secondary character in the first book. As he develops both as a character and a member of the thieving crew, he's given the name "Spook" because it's easier to say than his real name, "Lestibournes." He eventually stops using his given name in favor of the one he has earned.
    • It's revealed that Lestibournes is a nickname itself, meaning something like unwanted child in his slang.
  • Dwarves in The Lord of the Rings don't tell their names to outsiders (their real names are in the Dwarvish language, which is itself secret). Instead, they all go by use-names borrowed from the nearby humans—like "Thorin" or "Gimli".
    • Elves are first given a "father-name" by their father, a "mother-name" later in life by their mother, and an "after-name" (basically a nickname) later in life by other elves. We usually only know the third.
    • Also Ents; Entish being what it is, an Ent's full name is essentially the story of their life- and since Ents are just shy of immortal, that makes for long names. Most Ents use fragments of their name rendered into other languages for dealing with other races, such as "Treebeard".
    • Another LOTR example: In Bree, Aragorn is known exclusively as "Strider."
  • Most people refer to Percy Jackson as Percy, not his full name Perseus.
  • In Honor Harrington, Prescott David Tremaine apparently started to be called "Scotty" on his first day at Saganami Island, and twenty two years and innumerable adventures later he's still never referred any other way.
  • Ranger in the Stephanie Plum books. His full name is Ricardo Carlos Manoso.
  • Y.T. in Snow Crash. At first you might assume that they're her initials, but they're actually short for Yours Truly.
  • This is the default state for elves in the Quantum Gravity 'Verse. True Names are very powerful, and so an elf will be known by the last part (usually one-syllable) of his or her name to absolutely everyone except close friends, who will use the first half. This is subtle foreshadowing of the fact that Sarasilien is not the elf's real name—even though he only has a business relationship with most of his coworkers, he still tells all of them his "real" name.
  • In the Russian Death Zone series, most characters and anyone else living in the Five Zones goes by a nickname. Occasionally, their real first name may be revealed, but the full name will usually stay hidden. For example, the leader of the Order is known by all as Commander Hunter, which is a nickname (in English, in fact) given to him by a neo-Nazi gang shortly before the Catastrophe. Only his closest advisors know that his real first name is Savva. On the other hand, all members of the rival organization known as the Ark are required to adopt a German name by their leader Heinrich Hister, the former head of the above-mentioned gang. Another interesting case is Titanium Vine, whose name is Darling. She was found in a Human Popsicle tank with no memory of her identity but a tattoo with "DRG" on her shoulder, hence the name.
  • The Finn from William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy.
  • There are a few of these in the Chalet School books, the earliest example being (the) Robin (aka Cecilia Marya Humphries). Later on there's Bifauxnen Tom Gay (real name Lucinda Muriel, and given that she's an extreme Tomboy, it's understandable why she hates her real name) and Polly Heriot (real name Hildegard).
  • In the Sci Fi novel Malevil, La Menou's actual name is never stated and she goes by her nickname which means "tiny".
  • "Mullet Fingers" from Carl Hiaasen's Hoot. He doesn't have egregious amounts of 80s hair growing from his knuckles or anything. He got his nickname by being a Friend to All Living Things and having reflexes fast enough to catch a mullet fish with his bare hands.
  • Arcie in Villains By Necessity, though it isn't until the last chapter that the party learns that Arcie isn't his name, it's his initials, R.C., for Reinheart Corallis MacRory.
  • Almost all of Anne and Gilbert's children in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series are known exclusively by their nicknames. Their first child, Joyce, is called "Joy" during her short life. The next child, James, is known as "Jem". Younger twins Anne and Diana go by "Nan" and "Di", for obvious reasons. Youngest child Bertha Marilla goes exclusively by "Rilla".
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen: Most professional soldiers in the series are known only by their nicknames, typically assigned during basic training. Examples include Whiskeyjack, Fiddler, Hedge, Bottle, Stormy, Halfpeck, Iron Bars and many more.
  • Candlewick (a.k.a. Lampwick in other versions) the troublesome boy Pinocchio befriends from The Adventures of Pinocchio, in his introduction it is revealed his real name is Romeo and he got the aforementioned nickname because he was so tall and thin.
  • The Agent Z books give us a minor character who ended up known as "The Incredible Hulk," as he was overheard slowly reading the words "I... am... The Incredible Hulk" from a comic whilst newly arrived with his family from India and still teaching himself English. What he thought about this nickname is not discussed, but it suck because nobody could pronounce his given name.
  • Almost everyone in The Gift, is known by a nickname, usually based on their regular name: Johanna Josephine "JoJo", Louisa Lively "L.L.", and William "B-4" Bates the Fourth, Guinevere Elizabeth "Lizzi" Bates, William "Bill" Bates the Third, Catherine "Cathy" and Amelia "Amy" Rockford, Lilian "Lily" Huysmann, et al. Only Paul and Dawn Ryan don't, likely because they already have one-syllable names.
  • Kantorka (means: daughter of the cantor) in Krabat. Fortunately, because I Know Your True Name also applies (the villain is an evil wizard).
  • In C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces, the princesses' Greek tutor is known only as the Fox, due to his red hair (which goes completely gray early on in the story). Only once does a character refer to him by his given name, Lysias.
  • The Left Behind book series character Albie, a Middle Eastern black market arms dealer who is only known by the nickname he acquired from his own hometown of Al Basrah.
  • In John Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday, a brothel keeper named Flora is known only as "Fauna".
  • The magicians in The Bartimaeus Trilogy all use nicknames, because they can't control the demons if they know their true name. The demons would prefer their names not to be known either (so they can't be summoned), but use them nonetheless.
  • In the Warrior Cats series, two Tribe of Endless Hunting ancestors named Fall and Slant are mentioned in Sign of the Moon. We never hear their full Tribe names, just their nicknames.
  • Princess Candacis in White As Snow is almost always called Coira, a name her nurse gave her, to the point that her maids instruct a doctor to call her Coira because she won't know who he's talking to if he calls her Candacis.
  • Nearly everyone in Haunted (2005).
  • In The Thirteenth Tale, John-the-dig's legal name is John Digence, but Vida insists that if you really knew him, you knew that John-the-dig was his real name.
  • Many of the characters in I, Claudius are only known by their nicknames (for example, "Caligula" and "Castor"). Roman naming customs were very unimaginative, so several people might have identical or almost-identical names; nicknames make it much easier than trying to figure out which of the eight or nine "Drusus"es someone might be talking about.* In the books, the narrator will usually mention the real name before telling you that that guy will just be known as "Castor" from then on; in the TV series, they generally didn't even do that.
  • Many characters in A Song of Ice and Fire have nicknames, some of which are self-styled and others less so. Peasants generally don't care about the real names of other peasants, which leads to some people being known exclusively by their nicknames, such as Lommy Greenhands, a mook named Shitmouth, and most famously Hot Pie, among quite a few others. Arya becomes this once when traveling to Braavos. She would have invented a new identity at this point, but everyone just called her "Salty", so she went with it.

    Live Action TV 
  • Lincoln Heights: ALL of the main characters are referred to by abbreviated nicknames of their actual names. Edward-Eddie, Jennifer-Jenn, Cassandra-Cassie, Elizabeth-Lizzie, Taylor-Tay. It's a wonder they didn't just give them those names in the first place.
  • On The A-Team, we have Templeton "Faceman" Peck, and John "Hannibal" Smith (interesting in that he almost always introduces himself as "Hannibal Smith", as if it's his actual name).
    • Also, "Howlin' Mad" Murdock. The team referred to him Howlin' Mad pretty consistently in the very first episode, but quickly switched to calling him Murdock for the rest of the series.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Oz, whose full name (Daniel Osbourne) is only mentioned once in the entire series, after he left. Spike, whose name was William before taking on his new moniker. Likewise, Angel's name was Liam, and Xander's short for Alexander.
    • Joss Whedon seems to be fond of this trope (see also Mal, Echo, Captain Hammer, and so on, and so forth).
  • Besides the above-mentioned Angel and Spike, Angel also had Fred, Gunn and Lorne.
    • Justified for Lorne in that "Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan" isn't a very appealing name for a nightclub owner. Previously they called him "The Host", so he has two layers of nicknames.
  • Subverted in Roseanne; Jackie is a nickname, but even she herself wasn't aware of that fact until Bev casually brought it up in conversation. Her real name is either Marjorie or Mary-Jane; Bev can't remember which. Roseanne, as a child, was unable to say the original name and it came out as "My Jackie", which led to her just being called Jackie.
    • Also used for DJ.
    "We've been working so much, I feel like we hardly know our kids. I'm starting to forget what 'DJ' stands for."
  • Turtle on Entourage. His first name (Sal) was not revealed until season five.
  • Benjamin 'Hawkeye' Pierce, Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly and 'Trapper' John MacIntyre from M* A* S* H. Averted with BJ - everyone assumes it's a nickname at first, but he apparently is really named BJ, after his parents Bea and Jay.
    • Maybe. Hawkeye refuses to accept that explanation and demands to know what it really stands for. Instead of standing by his answer, BJ enigmatically replies, "Anything you like."
  • In the 1988 TV miniseries version of The Bourne Identity, the bespectacled leader of the Swiss assassins is simply called "Gold Glasses."
    • In Robert Ludlum's original novel his nickname is "the owl." (Or it is implied when a subordinate tells Carlos "the owl is dead."
  • Hoban Washburn (Wash) and Kaywinnit Lee Frye (Kaylee) of Firefly
  • Coach in Cheers.
    • Somewhat parodied when Coach answers the phone, and when the person on the other end asks for Ernie Pantusso, he asks where that person is. Sam Malone says "That's you, Coach," at which point Coach gets back on the phone and says "Speaking!"
  • Dorothy 'Ace' McShane in Doctor Who; Thomas Hector 'Hex' Schofield and Fitzgerald 'Fitz' Kreiner (to the point a regular character said she'd thought "Fitz" was his surname for a long time, having never heard his full name) in the Expanded Universe.
    • Hell, the Doctor himself. Consider how unlikely it is that "The Doctor" is written on his birth certificate.
    • Even the surname McShane comes from the Expanded Universe; in the series Ace admits her real name is Dorothy when she's introduced, and is just "Ace" from then on.
    • There's also "Dodo" Dorothea Chaplet, Romanadvoratrelundar, who's only ever called "Romana" once she's introduced herself fully in her first scene, and "Peri" Perpugilliam Brown.
    • The Doctor Who Expanded Universe also gives us Isabelle "Izzy" Sinclair, Roslyn "Roz" Forrester, Samantha "Sam" Jones, Beatrice "Trix" Macmillan, Destriianatos (Destrii) and Erimemushinteperem (Erimem). (Bernice "Benny" Surprise Summerfield and Charlotte "Charley" Pollard are arguable cases, since both have their original names used with some regularity.)
    • Subverted with the character of Bannakaffalatta from Voyage of the Damned: he vehemently rejects any attempt to give him a more manageable nickname and insists everyone says the whole thing.
    • Also the Master and most of the other renegade Time Lords.
    • And Amelia 'Amy' Pond.
    • "A Good Man Goes to War" features the Thin One and the Fat One, an Anglican married couple, as part of the episode's Church Militant enemy. "We're the thin, fat, gay, married, Anglican marines. Why would we need names as well?"
    • "River Song" is actually the nickname of Melody Pond, (translated into the language of the Gamma Forest). Even after this is discovered, everyone still refers to her as River. Including Amy and Rory, her parents..
    • Captain Jack Harkness. Stole his name in the 1940's on the grounds that it sounded cool. Even he might not remember his real name. Certainly, no one else does. Except possibly for Gray.
  • Hugo "Hurley" Reyes and James "Sawyer" Ford in LOST.
    • Locke, Ben and Juliet are the only ones who call them by their real names.
    • In later seasons, Sawyer is almost exclusively called James or Jim, when he's working for DHARMA in the 1970's. The fact that he doesn't use the name "Sawyer" there plays into a scene in "He's Our You".
  • Screech was almost never referred to as Samuel Powers on Saved by the Bell, even by teachers.
  • In House, everyone refers to the female in the team as "Thirteen". Her real name was shrouded in mystery, until recent episodes.
  • One Dharma and Greg episode introduced Greg's regular poker buddies, including one who had only ever been referred to by generic nicknames for years because everyone had forgotten his name.
    • If they ever knew it in the first place.
  • Cappie (and many other Kappa Taus) in Greek. The series finale reveals that his full name is Captain John Paul Jones.
  • One-shot character One-nad from Oliver Beene. Real name was Walter.
  • Cory in Boy Meets World. Nobody, not even his wife, knows his real name is Cornelius.
    • Also, the recurring tough-guy character named Harley is revealed in one episode to be really named Harvey.
  • Some say that he couldn't believe we hadn't mentioned him yet, so he wrote this himself, and that if his real name were known, we'd be able to uncover the secrets of the universe. All we know is, he's called The Stig.
    • Some say his first name really is 'The'....
  • The Cat in Red Dwarf is only known as "Cat", but as Lister admitted, he doesn't have a name (or he has one he never bothered to divulge).
    • In the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, it's explained that the Cat can't grasp the concept of needing a name; everyone should just know who he is.
  • Lucas Lorenzo "Lucky" Spencer, Jr. Mainly to differentiate him from his more famous father, the male half of the original Super Couple.
  • A famous one would be Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek. Everybody just calls him "Scotty".
    • Also Dr. Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy.
  • John "J.D." Dorian in Scrubs. Only his brother and (late) father call him "Johnny".
    • Don't forget the Janitor, whose name we still don't know, although that's more because every time he reveals it, the audience is quickly led to believe he was lying.
    • Turk arguably gets it worse than J.D. (Being called girls' names not withstanding), since only his biological family & his superiors in surgery call him Chris or Christopher, but Dr Kelso got drunk at his wedding to Carla (Who still calls him by his last name after the wedding) & subsequently thought his name was Turk Turkleton & called him that for the rest of the series, with some people picking up on it & calling him by that name on occasion.
  • In Arrested Development, the real first names of Gob Bluth, Buster Bluth, and Maeby Funke are given all of once in the entire series, during the pilot (George Oscar, Byron, and Mae, respectively). Most viewers probably forget that the latter two are nicknames.
  • Mr. Big on Sex and the City. We don't learn his first name until the last shot of the series, or his full name until The Movie. John James Preston.
  • "Hello, my name is Fez."
    • Reginald "Red" Forman.
  • Detective Constable Alfred "Tosh" Lines in The Bill. After his first two or three episodes, nearly everybody just refered to him as "Tosh".
  • Seymour of Burn Notice has a henchman whom he only ever refers to as "Jackass."
  • Ned in Pushing Daisies, although as that's the only name we're given for him besides "the pie maker", it's possible that it's actually his birth name rather than an abbreviation.
  • Even in the credits of Mythbusters, Tory's name is given as "Tory Belleci". His real first name is Salvatore.
    • According to That Other Wiki, Jamie Hyneman is "James" on his birth certificate.
  • Hancock's Half Hour featured a story called The Reunion of Hancock's old army buddies, "Ginger" Johnson, "Chalky" White, "Smudger" Smith and "Kippers" Hancock. Smith arrives first.
    Smith: I'd rather you didn't call me "Smudger", it's not the sort of name I'd like to get known at the bank.
    Hancock: But...it's your name! You haven't got another one, have you?
    Smith: Erm, yes...Clarence.
    Sid James: (Characteristic cackle) Clarence!
  • Many characters in The Sopranos are referred to by nicknames (Big Pussy, Junior, etc.).
  • Alluded: We don't know Kramer's first name until season six of Seinfeld. It's Cosmo.
    • Also, in the episode when Elaine finds the "Bizarro Jerry", Bizarro Jerry introduces one of his friends by saying, "And this guy, we just call Feldman."
  • Punky Brewster's real name is Penelope.
  • An episode of Small Wonder revealed that Vicki's legal name was Victoria. (The Lawsons probably had to fudge some papers fast.)
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide has Coconut Head, Backpack Boy, and Crony, who never have real names given. Billy Loomer and Lisa Zemo are usually referred to by their last names (though that changes for Lisa in the 3rd season). Tracey and Stacey are referred to simply as the Oboe Twins (they both play the oboe), until they get their A Day in the Limelight episode. And of course, there's Moze (Jennifer Mosely) and Cookie (Simon Nelson Cook).
  • On Leverage Sophie is this, Sophie Devereaux isn't her real name it is merely her favorite of her many assumed identities. Parker also uses the name Alice White fairly often and is known by this name to Peggy, her only friend outside the team.
  • Nicknames occasionally crop up in reality shows like Survivor, and people who choose to go by these (like Survivor's "Dreamz", "Coach", and "Johnny Fairplay") are usually at least a little full of themselves.
    (We'll give a pass to "Flight Time" and "Big Easy" on The Amazing Race, though, as those are essentially their stage names on their day jobs with the Harlem Globetrotters.)
    • In Survivor: Nicaragua, one of the contestants (Judd) was promptly renamed Fabio, eventually getting Judd replaced with Fabio in the captions and opening credits. If you missed the first episode, you might never know it wasn't his real name.
  • iCarly: Sam never gets called by her real name Samantha, Freddie never gets called by his real name Fredward except by his mother, and Sam when she wants to insult him, and Carly is possibly a nickname/short version of Carlotta, Caroline or some other similar, longer name.
    • Their principal falls into this too, as he goes by Teddy instead of Tedward.
    • In the iCarly movie iDate A Bad Boy, there's a scene where Sam enters the Shays' house and calls for Carly. She says, "Carly? Carly? Carlotta?" So Carly's real name is Carlotta.
  • Everyone calls Nate Archibald's father The Captain... Including Nate.
  • DJ Tanner on Full House. Her real name is Donna Jo.
  • The Fonz, occasionally "Fonzie", on Happy Days is only seldom referred to by his real name, Arthur Fonzarelli.
    • Another Happy Days example: Starting in the second season, "Arnold's" was owned by Matsuo Takahashi (played by Pat Morita). Everyone calls him "Arnold", however; he jokes that it was easier and cheaper to answer to "Arnold" than to buy the letter signs to rename the Malt Shop "Takahashi's".
  • Starburns, one of the other students in Señor Chang's Spanish class from Community. His sideburns are shaped like stars.
  • Alf's real name is Gordon Schumway. Not that anyone on Earth calls him that.
  • C.J. Cregg of The West Wing is only rarely called by her full name, which is Claudia Jean.
    • And Percy 'Fitz' Fitzwallace.
    • Not precisely this trope, but it's interesting to note that almost every single West Wing character is called by either a diminutive or a nickname: 'Jed' is short for Josiah Edward, Leo for Leopold, Toby for Tobias, Josh for Joshua, Sam for Samuel, Donna for Donnatella, Charlie for Charles, Abbey for Abigail, Will for William, Joey for Josephine, Amy for Amelia, Andi for Andrea, Danny for Daniel, Ellie for Eleanor, Mandy for Madeline, Debbie for Deborah, Ed and Larry for Edward and Lawrence, Cliff for Clifford, Matt for Matthew...the list goes on.
    • To be fair, Leo and Toby appear to be their actual names, if the names that they give on in the subpoenas in season 3 are correct. CJ just calls them that.
  • In one episode of Seven Days, Frank runs into a former associate who's referred to only by nickname (can't remember what it is, Bear or something to that effect). At one point when Olga refers to him by his first name, Frank responds by saying that even the character's mother calls him by his nickname.
  • Just about every ProfessionalWrestler ever. Has a trope named after the two Pauls, Triple H and The Big Show, who only go by their ring names.
  • It's not entirely certain whether the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis even had names. They certainly didn't use them around humans, who wound up calling recurring Wraiths things like "Michael", "Todd", and "Kenny".
  • Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver
  • The Greek, a crime boss on The Wire, whose real name is never revealed.
    • There are also a number of characters more commonly known by a street name than by their real name, such as Bodie (real name Preston Broadus), Poot (Malik Carr), Snoop (Felicia Pearson), and Bird (Marquis Hilton).
  • Following Navy tradition, most of the characters on Sea Patrol are referred to by their nicknames - Bomber, Spider, Swain. Some of these make sense in context; RO is the Radio Operator, for example. Some, not so much.
  • On Gilligan's Island, Gilligan, Skipper and The Professor were their names during the run of the show, while Skipper and The Professor had real names which were only said once on the pilot, Captain Jonas Grumby for Skipper and Roy Hinkley for The Professor, while Gilligan didn't even have a name. Sherwood Schwartz has said it's Willy Gilligan while Bob Denver has said it's Gil Egan
  • On The Nanny, C.C. Babcock is known only by her initials, as is practically her entire family (like G.G. and D.D., and mother B.B.). In the finale, her name is finally revealed to be Chastity Claire Babcock.
  • On Criminal Minds, Jennifer Jareau is known exclusively as J.J., and Team Mom Aaron Hotchner is almost always called "Hotch" by his teammates.
  • On Corner Gas the Mayor is "Fitzy" Fitzgerald.
  • In Star Trek: Enterprise, everyone who is on first-name basis with Commander Tucker calls him Trip. His real name is Charles Tucker the Third, the "third" part being where the nickname originated. The Expanded Universe novels indicate that even his parents generally use it, which makes sense given that his father had a prior claim to "Charlie" and three generations of Charles Tucker at the same Thanksgiving dinner table would get confusing. Trip also has a younger brother called Bart, which it's reasonable to suppose is short for something or other.
  • NCIS has Ducky. He occasionally goes by Dr. Mallard or Doctor by those who don't know him (or Palmer, out of respect) but for the most part it's simply Ducky.
    • That's because his full name is Dr. Donald Mallard, by the way.
  • In the Teen Wolf series, Stiles's real first name is unknown, and allegedly very hard to pronounce. "Stiles" is derived from his last name Stilinski.
  • One The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode involved Will and his grandmother sneaking out of the house and meeting up with an unseen character known only as The Captain who would then drive them to a Heavy D concert.
  • In Tin Man, the Dorothy expy is known only by her initials "DG." It's implied in the third act that the "D" really does stand for "Dorothy" as she was named for her great-grandmother, Dorothy Gale.
  • The Shadow Line has Gatehouse. Glickman calls him James, but other than that he's universally referred to as Gatehouse — even by his allies and employers.
  • Staff Sergeant Phillip "Hippy" Roper in Red Cap. Everyone calls him Hippy, including his superiors, thanks to his unruly hair.
  • In Have Gun — Will Travel, Paladin isn't the main character's real name.
    • Even people who'd known him since before the Civil War only used that name!
  • Bulk and Skull from early Power Rangers seasons. With full names like Farkus Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovich, you can't blame them much. Power Rangers Samurai introduces Skull's son, "Spike", whose real name hasn't been revealed yet.
  • Bobby Singer, on Supernatural—a perfectly ordinary nickname, to be sure, but a man in his sixties being referred to by it more or less exclusively is still worth noting. No 'Bob' or 'Rob,' let alone 'Robert' except when someone or something is going 'Robert Singer, I've heard of you,' or similar sentiments.
  • From Glee there's Noah "Puck" Puckerman, who has only been addressed by his first name by his mother, and Rachel while they were dating.
  • Bitchin Kitchen's Yehezkel "The Spice Agent" Mizrahi, only because no-one knows how to pronounce his actual name.
  • "Charlie" Duncan from Good Luck Charlie. her real given name is Charlotte.

     Music 
  • The main character of Savatage's Streets: A Rock Opera is known only by his drug dealer nickname "DT Jesus". The "DT" stands for both "de-tox" and "downtown". The All There in the Manual story provides another nickname unused in the lyrics, "the Savior on Avenue D".
  • Evelyn Evelyn is a performance art duo supposedly made up of Conjoined Twins, both named Evelyn. Their official names are Eva and Lyn Neville, but during their Hilariously Abusive Childhood nobody ever bothered to remember which one was which, so the twins themselves can't remember either.
  • Canadian Synth Rock band The Birthday Massacre have stage nicknames; while some members just use their real names (Owen, formerly O-en Falcore and Nate) some band members' real names are not public knowledge (Rainbow and Chibi, as well as former members Aslan and Dank).

    Newspaper Comics 
  • Pig-Pen from Peanuts. Nobody knows his real name; at his first appearance, he actually says: "I haven't got a name... People just call me things... Real insulting things."
    • In one strip, Pig-Pen says that everyone calls his dad "Pig-Pen Sr."
    • Also from Peanuts, Rerun Van Pelt. When he is introducing himself to his kindergarten class he reveals that he doesn't even know what his real name is.
    • As well: Patricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt.
  • In The Broons, the three youngest kids are called "the twins" and "the bairn". Maybe their parents got tired of naming kids.
  • Thimble Theatre: Scooner Seawell Georgia Washenting Christiffer Columbia Daniel Boom, usually called Swee'pea
    • Popeye, upon finding his long-lost father, asks him what their real names are. Pappy doesn't remember.
  • Doc Boy from Garfield hates being called by his nickname, especially by his older brother Jon, but ironically has no known name.
    • Actually, his first few appearances said his name is Doc.

    Radio 

    Theater 
  • Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, called that because nobody bets higher. In the few moments between "My Time Of Day" and "I've Never Been In Love Before," Sky reveals to Sarah his real name, Obediah Masterson, and says she's the first person he ever told it to.
  • Little Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. Her real name, Mrs. Cripps, appears only in the Dramatis Personae.
  • In The Most Happy Fella, Tony addresses his love letters to "Rosabella" because he doesn't know her name. Nobody in the play calls her anything else, until the final scene where she reveals that her real name is (or was) Amy. (In the original straight play, They Knew What They Wanted, Amy is never called Rosabella.)
  • "Yank", the protagonist of The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill. In one of the later scenes, he gives his name as Bob Smith, "but I been just Yank for so long."

    Video Games 
  • Tails in Sonic the Hedgehog. His real name, Miles Prower, usually isn't mentioned in the games at all.
    • Sonic 2 did, and was the only game to call him "Tails", the quotes representing the fact that it's not his real name.
    • This was a plot point in one of the cartoons. Some two-tailed Foxes show up claiming to be Tails' parents, and Sonic realizes later they must be fake because they called him "Tails" right off the bat instead of "Miles", when that was a nickname that Sonic gave him.
    • Dr. Robotnik gets dubbed by the rest of the Sonic Adventure cast as "Dr. Eggman" (which is actually what his name is over in Japan). It's supposed to be an insult (and Robotnik doesn't like it) but by Sonic Adventure 2, he doesn't seem to care. In fact, he refers to himself as "Dr. Eggman" and has ever since, which earns him a spot on this trope.
  • The Ace Attorney series does this a lot, though in all cases, the character's real name is eventually revealed, or in some cases, revealed first. For example: Apollo Justice in the fourth game is continually referred to as "Forehead" by the prosecution, much to his dismay.
    • They have fun with this in the first game, where a screechy old lady is known only as "old bag" the first few times you speak with her. When she's finally called in to court, she introduces herself as Wendy Oldbag.
  • The Postal Dude in Postal has no other name. When he pays a traffic ticket in the second game, the cop tells him, "And let that be a lesson to you, Mr.... The Dude."
    • The game seems to hint at his full name really being The Postal Dude, Jr.. Same with his dad - his grave is labeled "T. Dude Sr."
  • Most of the cast of The World Ends With You has this to varying degrees.
    • One character, Beat, will be sent into a rage if anyone actually refers to him by his real name.
    • Nearly every major character has a nickname; notable exceptions include Shiki, and usually Sanae Hanekoma ('Coffee Dude') Some characters are referred to by title, such as The Composer or The Conductor, but usually only before you find out who they are. Even Shiki's stuffed cat, Mr. Mew, is given a nickname of sorts by the main character - 'Piggy'
  • The street fighter (no, not that Street Fighter) Shen Woo from The King of Fighters 2003 has an unknown real name; "Shen Woo" (roughly translated, it means God of Fighting) is a nickname he picked up while growing up in Shanghai.
    • Likewise, if K' (pronounced K-dash) ever had a name other than that before the experiments, it's never come up.
  • Double H from Beyond Good And Evil is only ever known by his code name. In one cutscene, he does get addressed as "Hub," but for all we know, that could just be another nickname.
  • "Soap" MacTavish, the British playable character from Call of Duty 4 is never given a real name, and all of his squadmates refer to him exclusively by his nickname. Captain Price even points it out in the training mission, remarking, "What kind of a name is 'Soap', anyway?" Presumably, being a Silent Protagonist, Soap wasn't able to correct him. In the sequel he's just Captain MacTavish, but Modern Warfare 3 confirms that Soap's first name is John.
    • Price still calls him Soap. Which confuses the hell out of the TF141 Red Shirt in the room when you break him out.
      Worm: Who the hell's Soap?
  • Wilhelmina "Billie" Church from Clive Barker's Jericho. She despises her birth name, as her father, who, amongst other things, raped her, was the only person to use it.
  • Nikolai "Sledge" Slidjonovich from Quake IV. Pretty much every character, except for Strauss, refer to him exclusively by his nickname.
  • John-117 and Thel 'Vadam are better known by their rank/titles: Master Chief and the Arbiter.
    • The Master Chief does refers to himself as "Spartan-117" at the end of Halo 2, and Cortana calls him John at the end of Halo 3. Other than that, information pertaining to either of their names is found only in supplemental material.
    • The protagonists of Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach are respectively referred to in-game only as "The Rookie" and "Noble Six"; while the former is at least also known by the initials "J.D.", the latter is simply known as "SPARTAN-B312".
  • Lady in Devil May Cry 3 is only called her real name, Mary, by her father Arkham on three occasions. By the end of the game, she's abandoned her name altogether.
  • Lady in Shadow Hearts: From The New World is actually Grace Garland, Johnny's sister. Killer, from the same game, would probably be closer to Everyone Calls Him Barkeep.
  • Shadow in Final Fantasy VI. His real name is Clyde, with most people believing his last name is "Arrowny", but it's never used outside of flashbacks.
  • The ninja in Final Fantasy IV goes by Edge utterly and exclusively. Considering his real name is Edward Geraldine, one can't really blame him.
  • When you first recruit him in Final Fantasy VII, Red XIII more or less tells you to call him whatever the hell you want. It's not until later on that he tells you his real name is Nanaki, but even afterward he's still called whatever you named him.
  • Similarly to Red XIII's case, Garnet in Final Fantasy IX is introduced by her given name, but once she goes incognito, the player choses a new one, by which she is called almost exclusively for the rest of the game, even long after she's come out of hiding.
  • There's also Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII, her real name is revealed late game to be Claire Farron.
  • Due to Hello, Insert Name Here, the commentators in Backyard Sports only refer to custom players by their nicknames.
  • Likewise, the protagonists of The Elder Scrolls games are only known by their Red Baron nicknames in the subsequent games: the Eternal Champion in Arena, the Agent in Daggerfall, the Nerevarine in Morrowind, the Champion of Cyrodiil in Oblivion, and Dovahkin in Skyrim.
  • Jethro "Jet" Bradley in Tron 2.0. In the spin-off comic, he even insists the psychiatrist call him "Jet."
  • Hub "Megaman" Hikari. Mega Man NT Warrior excised this part of his character.
  • Both Brooklyn Luckfield and Ricarla Borgnine of Super Robot Wars are only ever addressed as "Bullet" and "Carla", respectively. In the case of the former, Bullet prefers people address him as such; for Carla, it's perhaps a case of "it's easier to say your name that way".
  • An unnamed tavern/sauna owner in Little Big Adventure 2 is known in the fan community as "Masher". This is because when the player attempts to enter the women's sauna, one woman yells out "Masher!", which is a little known slang word a sexual pervert.
  • Four of the seven playable characters in Chrono Trigger— Marle, Frog, Robo, and Magus— go by pseudonyms (unless the player gives them their real names instead. They are, respectively, Princess Nadia Guardia, Sir Glenn, R-66Y a.k.a. Prometheus, and Prince Janus Zeal.
  • Virtually every character in the Metal Gear Solid series uses a pseudonym, often a code name chosen by the character or a superior. This phenomenon is referenced explicitly in the first game when Meryl asks Solid Snake his name, and he answers that, after a week on the battlefield, "no one has a name". Several characters' real names have been revealed, but they may also be pseudonyms, such as Big Boss's supposed real name John Doe.
  • Lord Roth from Infinite Space, whose title is bestowed upon him for his accomplishments. His aide Nele calls him "Hartwig" on multiple occasions, but it is never known whether it is part of his real name or just another nickname.
  • La Volpe (The Fox) from Assassin's Creed II. The novelisation Renaissance gives him the name Gilberto, but this has not made it to game-level canon.
  • Lots and lots of these guys in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. To name a few from across the series (retrieved from the STALKER wiki), namely those from Call of Pripyat; Barge, Beard, Grose, Grizzly, Black, Hatchet, Hawaiian, Hook, Jackal, Joker, Knuckles, Skull, Sledgehammer, Ridge, Scout, Owl, Nimble, Nitro, Mace, Splinter, Snag, Bonesetter, Spartacus, Spirit, Sultan, Trapper and Tuna. And that's just one of the so far three games.
  • Very many people in Alpha Protocol. For one, Mike Thorton is stated to be a nickname/alias, and the main character's true name is never revealed. Albatross, Sis and SIE are some other examples.
  • Tales of the Abyss has a few
    • Tear: Mysterica
    • Guy: Gailardia
    • Van: Vandelseca
    • Three of the God-Generals
      • Dist: Saphir
      • Legretta: Giselle
      • Largo: Badaq
  • The Force Unleashed has it's protagonist referred to only as "Starkiller", his code-name. This is a plot point in the novelization, as not even Starkiller himself knows his real name until late in the story, where it is revealed as Galen Marek.
  • Tex Murphy, given his nickname as a kid due to the shape of a hole he left in the ceiling after being ejected off a malfunctioning hobby horse. We never do find out his real first name.
  • In Dragon Age, apparently neither Isabela nor Anders are known by their real name. Word Of God states that Anders is apparently called that because he is from the Anderfels, while Isabela's real name, and the reason she goes by "Isabela", is simply unknown. Fenris from Dragon Age II is only known by a nickname for the bulk of the game; his real name (Leto) is revealed in his personal quest in Act 3, and he subsequently orders everyone not to call him that, because "Fenris" is the only life he can remember.
  • Mass Effect 2 has the head of Cerberus, an elusive and secretive figure only known as "The Illusive Man".
    • The tie-in comic series Mass Effect: Evolution reveals that his name is Jack Harper.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Starlow's name is mentioned maybe three times: the prologue, the ending, and when she runs into Peach almost exactly halfway between. By the time you hear it again, you're probably long into the habit of just calling her "Chippy".
  • Fallout: New Vegas has Rose of Sharon Cassidy, better known as Cass.
  • In Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, the main character is only ever known as 'Stranger', with his real name never being revealed. This is probably intentional on Stranger's part as he's a Steef (a centaur-like creature), and does everything he can to keep it a secret. This includes running around with two legs bound together, and being prepared to undergo (most-likely complicated and unanesthetized) surgery.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ciel in Tsukihime. Her real name is Elesia, which is referenced roughly equally relating to her as to her Nightmare in Kagetsu Tohya: One scene.
  • All the Servants in Fate/stay night continue using only their class names long after their true identities are revealed. It can be a bit awkward to refer to an apparently teenaged girl by the term 'Saber.' The only one who is commonly referred to by name is Gilgamesh, who is often called Archer by Saber.
  • M in Shikkoku No Sharnoth is never called anything but that. He claims not to actually have a name. If he had a name, it would be James.
  • The servants in Umineko No Naku Koro Ni are all referred to by names ending in "-on". Shannon's actual name is Sayo, and Kanon's is Yoshiya. And then there's the servant who is only known as Yasu.

    Webcomics 
  • Redcloak from The Order of the Stick. He gives himself and his one-eyed brother Righteye easy-to-remember nicknames after witnessing their soon-to-be-partner Xykon murdering a lizardman for having an Unpronounceable Overly-Long Name. Sort of evolves into a Meaningful Rename over time.
  • "Fox" Maharassa of Friendly Hostility reacts with violence to being called by his real name — "Kailen". Word Of God is that this is due to years of having to listen to people mispronounce it (it's supposed to be something like "Ka-ee-len", not "Kay-len".)
  • Riff from Sluggy Freelance is actually named "Riffington." No one except his mother has ever actually called him that, except to tease him.
  • Syrus "The Virus" Zuviel in Exterminatus Now is generally only referred to as Virus, unless the person referring to him is either far lower-ranking or far higher-ranking.
    • Ryoushi Nekittou ("Rogue") is only called Ryoushi by other Daemon Hunters.
  • Smic from Jayden and Crusader is known to all, including his girlfriend, as Smic, which is an abbreviation, apparently, of Strange Man in Cupboard. His real name is Sir Reginald Vladimir Gregory Maximillian Augustus Posthumus Alexander Nicholas Derby, the third Earl of Derbyshire. Apprerently the name Smic was adopted for convenience.
  • Path To Greater Good - the mannequin-like creature which apparently saved Tobi writes "3" as its answer to any question... so that's what Tobi calls it.
  • In So Damn Bright, Anxiety's name is actually Ana Cortez, but "only relatives are allowed to call [her] that."
  • 'Crowbar' Benson. His real first name is unknown to readers, due to the fact that he is only ever referred to by his nickname.
  • K from Blip. Her full name is unknown to the readers, and even to her boyfriend.
  • PeeJee from Something Positive, whose real name is Penelope Jennifer Shou. Aubrey and Jason's daughter, Pamela Joycelyn Chorde, is called PamJee or "Little PeeJee" after her.
    • Shazam Wil-Wheaton Dowden-Patel's name is usually shortened either some variant of his first name (usually by his father) or middle name (by his mother).
  • Vauxhall from A Tale Of Fiction is known only as 'Room' to his roommate Harper for a very long time.
  • In General Protection Fault, Jason "Fooker" Barker is initially known only by his nickname to Ki until she interviews at GPF.
  • Vulture of My Lifeat War (at least we think that isn't his given name) and to a lesser extent Big Al.
  • Used as a major plot point when Teddy Weddy becomes a character in 1/0, as speaking his real name will awaken him from the dead. He finally comes alive when Zadok realizes his real name was Theodore.
  • A variation in Homestuck. Jade's penpal ( Jake English) was only known by his initial, J. After his full name was revealed, J itself turned out to be a nickname for him from one of his friends. Similarly, other characters referred to Roxy Lalonde and Dirk Strider by their last names, their initials, Ro-Lal for Roxy and Di-Stri and Bro for Dirk before their proper introductions. This is Lampshaded by the narration.
  • Shroomy is the only Electric Wonderland character whose real name doesn't show up in the official bios.

    Web Original 
  • In Echo Chamber, Porn Girl is always "Porn Girl". For that matter, Mr. Administrator seems to be the only one of the main cast who isn't The Danza.
  • "Hey Sarge!" (Although this later turns out to be a case of His Name Really Is Barkeep.) Also Doc, Sister, and all of the Freelancers.
  • The Red Panda is never referred to by his real name, even in his secret identity.
  • Does Captain Hammer have a civilian name? Who knows?
  • In The Guild, most of the characters prefer to be addressed by the names they use in the game they all play. We, the audience, still don't know the real name of Tinkerballa, a.k.a. Tink.
    • Spoiler! As of season 5, we do. It's April Lou, which is why she hid it.
  • Several Protectors of the Plot Continuum agents work this way, picking whatever sounds cool. Agents adopted from badfics also tend to have to change their names. Within Real Life this is because of copyright issues in case the badfic author sees it and gets annoyed, and within the canon the characters tend not to want to be reminded of their badfic-related pasts.
  • Everyone in The Binder of Shame is known by a Meaningful Nickname, to protect their real-life identities.
  • Calling Yahtzee "Ben" is good way to piss him off.
  • In Philthon Jones, it's always "Jones", never James.
  • The Let's Players of Tipping Forties have all taken to using their real names rather than online handles with the exception of Micheal aka bandunk, who is generally referred to as bandunk with the exception to the Once an Episode greeting.
    • Conversely, the Freelance Astronauts all call each other by their respected handles (Maxwell Adams, Evek, Ferr, and pipes!!). Of course, every once in a while, they'll slip up (either in a moment of Is This Thing Still On?? for Evek or Angrish for pipes!!), and that's when their U Stream erupts in chatter.
  • Epic Meal Time's Muscles Glasses.
  • Abused in the MSF High Forum, with NPCs of Mitchell. There's a good reason, though. He's terrible with names!
    • Examples include Snuggles, the hug-happy Kappa; Apprentice, the apprentice demonslayer; and The Mysterious Deviling, a Deviling cowgirl.
  • The Mallers from We're Alive seem fond of this. Latch, Scratch, Bricks, and Puck are all nicknames or may be nicknames. The Colony also has Gatekeeper who names himself after whatever job he has at the time.
  • On the game music podcast Nitro Game Injection, co-host Suraida never goes by her real name on the air.
  • Odd example in Something Awful's Spring/Summer(/Fall/Winter 2011) Ghost Story Thread: The "Site Kilo-29" (finished on SA) and "Cursed Snoopy" (after the pictures; apparently abandoned?) epics by users 50 Foot Ant andOneWhiteWhisker. Because these eerie stories are framed as actual events, they're always referred to as Fifty or Sgt. Ant and Whisker (son of Mr. and Mrs. White) by characters within the story but only as covers for their real names. Which makes the time when Sgt. Ant actually shouts "I AM THE FIFTY FOOT ANT!" extra hilarious ("Sgt. Ant, are you calling yourself an ant?").

    Western Animation 
  • Krusty, Sideshow Mel and Sideshow Bob of The Simpsons might be borderline examples of this; while they do have full names (Krusty's is Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski, Mel's is Melvin Van Horne and Bob's is Robert Underdunk Terwilliger), they're rarely used on the show (and as far as I know Krusty's FULL name is never used; the most we hear is Herschel Krustofski).
    • We're forgetting the most important one: Bartholomew "Bart" Simpson
    • Margaret "Maggie" Simpson and Marjorie "Marge" Simpson
  • El Toro in Jackie Chan Adventures. "El Toro Fuerte" is the full name, though this may not be his real name. While we're on subject, how about Uncle?
  • In a couple of Disney examples, there are many characters who are never given real names, even in their originally fairy tale format. Snow White, was she given that name at birth or was it given to her because of her beauty as she aged? Cinderella's name was given to her by her step-sisters (she was the cinder girl). On the surface, Scar appears to be named after his scar, but in the novel series, it shows his given name was Taka, though that isn't much better, as it's Swahili for dirt/trash. His parents obviously loved him. Not!
  • "That Guy" from the Futurama episode "Futurestock". Word Of God says his real name is Steve Castle.
    • What, no Nibbler?
    • Bender Bending Rodríguez a.k.a. Bending Unit 22
    • "Clamps" is revealed in "Silence of the Clamps" as Francis X. Clampazzo. It would be interesting if the X is for Xavier, to make him named after the founder of the Jesuits.
  • Frankie (Francis Foster) and Bloo (Blooregard Q Kazoo) from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends are almost always referred to by their respective nicknames by everyone. This is generally self-imposed though, due to their silly names.
    • And justified at least in Bloo's case, since he was made up and given that name by Mac, when latter was three years old. Nobody would stick to a name a very little kid gave him.
    • Notably, Mister Herriman does not abide by this, and calls them "Miss Francis" and "Master Blooregard," respectively.
  • Double-Dee (Eddward) from Ed, Edd n Eddy is referred to that way by everyone bar his parents, due to being best friends with two guys with incredibly similar names.
    • Also Eddy's brother is only referred to as such. Despite rumors, the creators haven't really given him a name as of now.
    • Both Ed and Eddy count too, for the same reason as DD - they're all named "Ed(d)ward".
  • Pickles in Metalocalypse
  • Shaggy (Norville Rogers) in Scooby-Doo
  • Combustion Man in Avatar The Last Airbender, whose name Sokka made up. He has a real name, but it is never revealed. Zuko knows it, but doesn't divulge it; when Sokka calls him Combustion Man, Zuko replies, "Well, that's not his name, but—" before getting interrupted.
    • A lot of the people in Jet's gang (The Duke, Pipsqueak, Longshot, Sneers). Possibly Smellerbee and Jet are the only ones who are known by their real names.
    • Her real name is Smellerbee?
    • The Boulder is angry that you haven't mentioned the Earthbending fighters yet!
  • In Transformers Animated, apparently everyone in the Autobot military goes by a nickname given to them by their drill sergeant. For example, one bot was shown to be good with stingers (small, electric weapons), he was named "Wasp", and when a certain yellow bot fails to show him up with the same weapon, he's considered a bumbler, and from that he gets the name "Bumblebee".
    • Most of the Transformers in Beast Wars are assumed to be going by nicknames they made up based on their alt-modes (Rattrap, Cheetor, Scorponok, etc). This got somewhat confusing when comics were made about them before they gained their alt-modes.
  • Teen Titans: Unlike on Justice League, the heroes never call each other by their civilian names as seen in the comics (which has led to much debate among fans as to which of the many boys who have filled the role of Robin is the Robin on Teen Titans). The only exceptions (unless you count Cyborg using his last name, "Stone", as an alias while going undercover in season 3) are Beast Boy and Starfire, both called their real names by relatives. If you're wondering, their names are Garfield Logan and Koriand'r, respectively. Raven, well, that's actually her given name.
    • Although one could probably speculate that because Larry, the Robin fanboy from another dimension, has a real name of Nosyarg Kcid (Dick Grayson backwards), and he and Robin share DNA...
    • It's actually a little creepy that they never use their real names. Starfire's a translation, fine, and B.B. appears to be fleeing the onus of Garfield, so presumably Dick doesn't trust the rest of the team, and Cyborg has emotionally distanced himself from 'Victor Stone?'
  • Similarly, Batman in Batman The Brave And The Bold is only seen and referred to by his superhero identity. However, this only applies to him; all of the other superheroes are often seen as their secret identities and called by their real names. This is even reflect in the credits, as everyone else is credited as "Superhero name/Secret Identity" (e.g. Jaime Reyes/The Blue Beetle) but he's just credited as "Batman".
    • That is until "Chill of the Night!" when Bats confronts Joe Chill, and declares, "I...am Bruce Wayne!"
  • In Arthur, everyone refers to the title character's sister as D.W., her real name is Dora Winifred (after her grandmother). This is lampshaded in a later episode when she goes missing in the White House.
    Dad Her name is D.W.
    —> White House Guard That's it? Initials? You didn't give the kid a full name?
    • Also, there's the Brain. His real name is Alan. His classmates are often confused when he is called this.
    • There's also Mary Alice "Muffy" Crosswire and Shelley "Binky" Barnes.
  • TJ from Recess. The T is for Theodore; the J apparently stands for an Embarrassing Middle Name.
    • Spinelli is known by her last name, but that's because her first name is Ashley and in the Recess world, the Ashleys are a group of shallow ValleyGirls, and Spinelli is a tomboy who hates girly things.
  • Ferb from Phineas and Ferb. It's short for—oh, there's that thing I was looking for.
    • Given a Continuity Nod later when his sister admits she doesn't know.
  • Presto from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series. His nickname precedes the kids' journey into the Realm.
  • Megan, Christopher and Stewart in Family Guy.
  • South Park has Leopold "Butters" Stotch.
  • King of the Hill has Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt. Lucky got his nickname from an incident at Costco when he'd injured himself tripping on pee-pee in the restroom. He sued the store and received a $53,000 cash settlement.
  • Race Bannon of Jonny Quest fame. In the Real Adventures episode "Race against Danger" he tells Jonny his real name, and Jonny's understandably flabbergasted. "Roger?!"
    • The name "Roger" had been used in the classic series.
  • Kick, Mouth and Emo Kid in Kick Buttowski.
    • Pantsy is presumable not the given name of Mouth's older brother, either. Maybe it's a family thing.
  • Moose (Margaret Rose) Pearson from Pepper Ann.
  • Robin and Superboy in Young Justice, unlike the rest of the team. Robin because Batman insists that his identity is kept secret and Superboy because he doesn't have any other name. Artemis is a special case where her real name is Artemis, but the others (except possibly Robin, who goes to her school) don't know that.
    • Actually, Kid Flash knows Robin's identity, but he's the only one.
    • When Superboy starts school, he takes the name "Conner Kent."
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes has Jamie "Peep" Two-Squirrels.
    • This caused Heloise to get her hopes up when she started recieving love notes from a secret admirer with the initials "J.2.S."...
  • "Piff" from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Billy calls him this because he refuses to speak on account of his high pitched voice.
  • Diane "Didi" Pickles from Rugrats. The babies also all fit. Dylan "Dill" Pickles, Phillip "Phil" Deville, Lillian "Lill" Deville, Charles "Chuckie" Finster, Kimberly "Kimi" Finster, Susanna "Susie" Carmichael, and Thomas "Tommy" Pickles.
  • A character from Combo Ninos is known as "Old Head". It's revealed in one episode that his real name is Bernie.
  • Pinkamena Diane Pie of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. Better known to everyone as Pinkie Pie
  • Steven Anita Smith from American Dad.
  • On Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins, everyone refers to the titular character as "Doc," even her parents. Her real name, Dottie, was only mentioned during the series' first episode.
  • Butthead from Beavis And Butthead

    Real Life 
  • Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath; their real first names are John, Frank and Terence, respectively.
  • George Orson Welles. Even he didn't know his first name was "George" until he was in elementary school.
  • George Herman "Babe" Ruth.
  • Lawrence "Yogi" Berra
  • Denton True "Cy" Young. "Cy" was short for "Cyclone", because he threw real hard.
  • Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jr.
  • Serial killer Donald H. Gaskins Jr. was called "Pee Wee" or "Junior Parrot" so often that he was a teenager when he first heard his real name.
  • Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. Later took the name by deed poll.
  • Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom.
    • Other astronaut examples include Charles "Pete" Conrad and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt.
  • Eldrick "Tiger" Woods.
  • Michael "Flea" Balzary of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
  • James "Big Cat" Williams
  • Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of the Grateful Dead.
  • Orenthal James "OJ" Simpson.
  • Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone.
  • German football player (soccer that is) and contestant for "most gruesome foul of all time" Harald "Toni" Schuhmacher.
  • Adam "Pac Man" Jones. He tried to tell media to stop using it, but no one listened.
  • An interesting case: In many historical cultures it has been custom to call certain things (most especially animals) by euphemism (the Greeks referring to the Erinyes as Eumenides or "The Kindly Ones" is one such example, The Fair Folk is another) to avoid their attention. A particularly interesting case is the word "bear" (and it's variations in other Germanic languages) that is precisely such a euphemism. Only, we have no idea what the original name was. Bears are literally only known by their nicknames.
    • Swedish has another case: The Swedish word for Wolf is Varg which originally meant "murderer", and was used as a euphemism for ulv (which is the same word as "wolf") nowadays ulv is a dead word while Varg is the one commonly used to describe the species.
  • Thomas "Fats" Waller. Not to mention Antoine "Fats" Domino.
  • Salvatore "Sonny" Bono.
  • Paul "Bono" Hewson and Dave "The Edge" Evans of U2.
  • William "Smokey" Robinson.
  • Gordon "Sting" Sumner.
  • John Simon Ritchie Sid Vicious
  • Saul "Slash" Hudson
  • Alvis "Buck" Owens.
  • Charles Hardin Holley aka "Buddy Holly". Without the e.
  • Early Soviet leaders used this quite often:
    • Vladimir Ilych "Lenin" Ulyanov
    • Joseph Vissarionovich "Stalin" Djugashvili
    • Lev "Trotsky" Bronstein
    • Vyacheslav "Molotov" Skriabin
  • Several racehorse trainers have been known to fans only by nicknames, including Grover "Buddy" Delp, Claude "Shug" Mc Gaughey III, and Hubert "Sonny" Hine.
  • There are also several German politicians which are regularly referred to by their nickname instead of their first name, like the governor former first burgomaster of Hamburg "Ole" von Beust and former Minister of Foreign Afairs "Joschka" Fischer. Former German chancellor Willy Brandt was born Herbert Frahm, but exclusively used the name of his undercover identity as a resistance fighter when he returned to Germany after WW 2.
  • A couple of Latin American examples: Luiz Inacio da Silva is always known as Lula - to the point of adding it to his actual legal name - and Ernesto Guevara is much more famous as Che. And one norteamericano example: when was the last time you heard someone refer to President William Clinton?
    • The best Presidential example is James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. He was the first President to officially sign documents with his nickname rather than his full name.
    • Averted, though (at least in his political career) by Barack "Once Called Himself Barry" Obama.
  • One of the most famous Spanish guerrilla leaders of the war against Napoleon was Don Juan Martin Diaz, known as el Empecinado. After the war he got royal permission to use his nickname instead of "Diaz".
  • Destiny "Miley" Cyrus, who later got her first name officially changed to "Miley".
    • From the beginning it was actually "Destiny Hope Cyrus" which she later changed into "Miley Ray Cyrus".
  • All of the characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, since people were known to each other by their courtesy names, and their real names were only used by family members.
  • Spike Milligan (real first name Terrence).
  • Rappers too numerous to mention.
  • Happen a lot on MMORPGs unless the person happens to use their real name. Many times no or little effort is made to learn real names.
    • Also happens with certain subcultures, including online ones, where someone can be known for years just by one's "handle" or "con name."
  • Stefani Joanne Angelina "Lady Gaga" Germanotta
  • Quite a few Christian saints are known by their "nicknames", for instance the apostles (Simon called) Peter, Andrew and Thomas (Greek words meaning "the Rock", "the Manly" and "the Twin"), and St. Francis of Asisi (real name: Giovanni Battista Bernardone, his nickname Francesco means "Frenchy").
  • A number of old families have two names, an older one and another they acquired later (which can be a simplified form of the former), these can be linked by the word "called" (dit in French, genannt in German). Examples are Napoleon's marshal Claude Victor-Perrin dit Victor and the Prussian liaison in Wellington's HQ during the Waterloo campaign, general Karl von Müffling genannt Weiss.
  • Some Minnesänger and mastersingers are known primarily or only known by their nicknames, most famously Tannhäuser (i. e. "the man from Tannhausen").
  • Also quite a few famous painters: Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro die Mariano Filipepi, named after the goldsmith to whom he had been apprenticed), Canaletto (Antonio da Canal), the other Canaletto (Bernardo Bellotto), El Greco (Dominikos "the Greek" Theotokopoulos), three male artists called Tintoretto ("the little dyer", a nickname of the family, whose original name is Robusti) and a female one from the same family called "la Tintoretta".
  • Too many Brazilian football players to list are known only by their noms-de-foot, to name just three: Pelé (Edson Arantes des Nascimento), Tostão (Eduardo Gonzalves de Andrade), and Zico (Arthur Antunes Coimbra). Many may be self-chosen, though. A few enter First Name Basis (Ronaldo Luiz Nazário de Lima).
  • In most Polish video game magazines, all the editors sign themselves, and refer to each other with nothing but nicknames. There are many long-time readers who don't know the names of their favorite writers.
  • Many Black Metal artists' pseudonyms become more well-known than their real names: more people are probably familiar with original Mayhem guitarist's pseudonym "Euronymous" than his real name, Oystein Aarseth.
  • Edward Michael 'Bear' Grylls
  • Dr. John Henry "Doc" Holliday
  • Norman "Boomer" Esiason
  • Most of the cast of Jersey Shore, especially Snooki (Nicole Polizzi) and The Situation (Mike Sorrentino).
  • Barack Obama's daughter Sasha's real name is Natasha.
  • Genghis Khans given name was Temujin Borjigin.
  • Banksy
  • The Ferrett (note spelling), a writer who is currently is best known for his Magic: The Gathering articles and for having been an editor of the popular Magic strategy site Star City Games.com, does indeed go by "Ferrett" in real life.
  • Mistress Matisse. "Her real name--as in the name that she really uses with all her kink, prodom, and kink-writing activities--is really Mistress Matisse. The only reason to want her legal name is because you're a creep."
  • Tre Cool (Frank Edwin Wright III) and Mike Dirnt (Michael Pritchard) of Green Day. Averted by Billie Joe Armstrong, whose name really is Billie Joe.
  • Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who hated his nickname.
  • Alicia Moore, better known as P!nk.
  • Eugene Klein famously had three nicknames: Chaim Witz (his Hebrew name), Lizard Demon, and Gene Simmons. Only the third nickname has become a household utterance for those only passingly familiar with the rock band KISS. Similarly, Stanley Eisen is both "Paul Stanley" and "Star Child."
  • And Henry Ross Perot had this happen to him three times. He usually goes by "H. Ross Perot," but this was soon shortened to "Ross Perot." By the time of the 1992 presidential election, he was so famous that most people confidently referred to him simply as "Perot."
  • Lawrence Feinstein, Morris Horwitz, and Jerome Horwitz...better known as Larry, Moe and Curley.
  • Marvin "Meat Loaf" Aday.
  • Matthew "Monk" Lewis.
  • From UK politics, the former Liberal Democrat leader (1988-99) Jeremy John Durham "Paddy" Ashdown.
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