History OnlyKnownByTheirNickname / LiveActionTV

* On ''Series/{{Coach}}'' there's Micheal "Dauber" Daubinsky. If you refer to him by his given name in the presence of his boss, Hayden will have no idea who you're talking about.

** The Doctor, of course. The new series has confirmed [[SexShifter they]] ''have'' a real name, but only they (and River Song, when she was around) know what it is, and that's exactly how they like it.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar "A Good Man Goes to War"]] features the Thin One and the Fat One, an Anglican married couple, as part of the episode's ChurchMilitant enemy. "We're the thin, fat, gay, married, Anglican marines. Why would we need names as well?"

* Skye from ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' initially doesn't even know her real name, since she was left at an orphanage when she was very young. She does eventually mention that the orphanage gave her the name Mary Sue Potts, but she hates it and insists that Skye is her name. Slowly subverted over the course of the second season, where she learns that her birth name is [[spoiler:[[CanonCharacterAllAlong Daisy Johnson]]] and chooses to go by that instead.

* Similarly, Mac Taylor's full name has never been used on ''Series/{{CSI NY}}''. Everyone just calls him Mac. WordOfGod says it's [=McCanna=].

** 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.

* The neighbor in the next building over from Monica's apartment in ''Series/{{Friends}}'' is only known as "Ugly Naked Guy" or "Fat Ugly Naked Guy" by the main characters since he's fat and ugly (while his gut is shown at one point, his face is never shown) and lounges around his place naked. In a flashback where he was more fit, he was known as "Handsome Naked Guy".

-->'''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.\\

** The Fonz, or "Fonzie", is only seldom referred to by his real name, Arthur Fonzarelli. Richie's mother is the only person allowed to call him Arthur.

** Starting in the second season, "Arnold's" was owned by Matsuo Takahashi (played by [[Film/TheKarateKid 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 MaltShop "Takahashi's".

* In ''Series/{{House}}'', '''everyone''' refers to the female on the second incarnation of the team as "Thirteen", which she kept from when House assigned numbers to the doctors competing to be hired. Her real name was shrouded in mystery, until later episodes when her name was revealed to be [[spoiler:Remy Hadley]].

** Gibby's name is Orenthal Cornelius Hayes Gibson. His friends didn't know his real name until "[=iStill=] Psycho". Even his mother calls him Gibby.

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': Up until the season 4 episode "War Stories", none of the other main characters knew that the full name of their boss, Rear Admiral A.J. Chegwidden, is Albert Jethro.

* In ''Series/KimsConvenience'', Jung's friend is only known by the name Kimchee which is almost positively a nickname. All that's known is his surname, thanks to his mother being mentioned in-series as Mrs. Han; otherwise, everyone from his boss/work clleagues to his elders call him by that name.

** In later seasons, Sawyer is almost exclusively called James [[spoiler: 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".]]

** Even in the credits, Tory's name is given as "Tory Belleci". His real first name is Salvatore.

* ''Series/{{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. ''[[DonaldDuck Donald]]'' Mallard, by the way. The Mallard is also a species of wild duck.

* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' has Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson, Galina "Red" Reznikov, Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren, and Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett. It also took a few episodes for Mendez's name to be revealed. Even the captions call him "Pornstache".
** Taystee is this so such an extent that a friend doesn't learn her real name until the fourth season, and even the guards know her only as "Taystee".

** [[ThoseTwoGuys Bulk and Skull]] from early seasons. With full names like Farkus Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovich, you can't blame them much. ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' introduces Skull's son, "Spike", but it isn't clear if that's his real name or a nickname.

* Ned in ''Series/PushingDaisies'', although as [[NoNameGiven 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.

** The Cat in is only known as "Cat", but as Lister admitted, he doesn't have a name (or he has one he never bothered to divulge).

* Much like the head of OCP in the first two movies, the head of OCP in ''Series/RoboCopPrimeDirectives'' is known by what everyone calls her, in this case, "the Old Woman".

** 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.

*** It's "David Jacob", though it almost never comes up after David Healy is introduced (who's also an example, as his name is actually Kevin).

* John "J.D." Dorian in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. Only his brother and (late) father call him "Johnny." [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep The]] [[AlmightyJanitor 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. ([[RunningGag 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 [[LastNameBasis 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 and calling him by that name on occasion.

* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode when Elaine finds the "Bizarro Jerry", Bizarro Jerry introduces one of his friends by saying, "And this guy, we just call Feldman."

** It's not entirely certain whether the Wraith even have names. They certainly don't use them around humans, who wind up calling recurring Wraiths things like "Michael", "Todd", and "Kenny". Strangely, the Wraith sometimes use the human-bestowed names in each other's presence as well. The ExpandedUniverse says that Wraith have names based on how their minds "feel" to each other, which kind of makes sense for a telepathic race. Amusingly, they're under the mistaken impression that human names have a similar meaning.
** Puddle Jumpers. After Sheppard christened it in the pilot, (in reference to a light aircraft and the event horizon of the Stargate), everyone refers to them by that name. The Ancients actually referred to them as "Gate-Ships". Which is what [=McKay=] initially called them as well, with no knowledge of the Ancients' name, because [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin they're ships that go through the gate]], but Sheppard vetoed this for not being cool enough.

* A famous one would be Commander Montgomery Scott on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. Everybody just calls him "Scotty". Also Dr. Leonard H. "Bones" [=McCoy=].

** Season 2 continues the ''DND''-inspired ThemeNaming for the monsters by having the EldritchAbomination trying to invade Hawkins get nicknamed "Mindflayer".
** Eleven was born [[spoiler:"Jane Ives"]] but was unaware of this until Season 2 when she was thirteen due to spending most of her life as a lab rat, by Season 3 she has a legal name in [[spoiler:"Jane Hopper"]] yet everyone including the girl in question act as though her name is still "Eleven" mostly sticking with "El", a nickname Mike gave her in Season 1.

** Nicknames occasionally crop up in reality shows like this, 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 ''Series/TheAmazingRace'', 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 nicknamed "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.

* In the Series/BBCHistoricalFarmSeries ''Tales from the Green Valley'', archaeologist and presenter Peter Ginn is called by his real name in the first episode. After that, everyone - including the narrator - refers to him as "Fonz" or "Fonzy".

** There's also shirtty Bill, who's never given a last name (like almost all the characters on the show sans the Leahey clan), and mostly goes by shirtty.

* ''Series/WhiteCollar'' has Neal's partner in crime, "Mozzie". It's not until season five that we learn his real name: [[spoiler:Teddy Winters.]]

* ''Series/AnimalKingdom'' Four of the six family members are; Smurf, Pope, Baz, and Jay.

* Charlotte "Charlie" Duncan from ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie''.

* Eleven was born "Jane Ives" but was unaware of this until Season 2 when she was thirteen due to spending most of her life as a lab rat, by Season 3 she has a legal name in "Jane Hopper" yet everyone including the girl in question act as though her name is still "Eleven" mostly sticking with "El", a nickname Mike gave her in Season 1.

** Season 2 continues the ''DND''-inspired ThemeNaming for the monsters by having the EldritchAbomination trying to invade Hawkins get nicknamed "[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessalmonster the Thessalhydra]]".

* In one episode of ''Series/SevenDays'', 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.

** Starburns, one of the other students in Señor Chang's Spanish class. [[CaptainObvious His sideburns are shaped like stars]].

* ''Series/benchinKitchen'''s Yehezkel "The Spice Agent" Mizrahi, only because no-one knows how to pronounce his actual name.

** The [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] companions give us Roslyn "Roz" Forrester, Christopher "Chris" Rodonanté Cwej, Samantha "Sam" Angeline Jones, Fitzgerald "Fitz" Michael Kreiner, Beatrice "Trix" Macmillan, Thomas Hector "Hex" Schofield, Philippa "Flip" Jackson, Isabelle "Izzy" Sinclair, Gabriella "Gabby" Gonzalez, Destriianatos (Destrii) and Erimemushinteperem (Erimem). ([[Franchise/BerniceSummerfield Bernice "Benny" Surprise Summerfield]] and Charlotte "Charley" Pollard are arguable cases, since both have their original names used with some regularity.)
*** A regular character once told Fitz, upon hearing his full name, that he'd thought "Fitz" was his last name.
*** Then there's Frobisher, who takes on that name when he starts travelling with the Doctor. His original name is never given, and he's noted to have taken multiple names in the past (likely including the one on his office door in his first story).

* ''Series/BitchinKitchen'''s Yehezkel "The Spice Agent" Mizrahi, only because no-one knows how to pronounce his actual name.

** There's also Shitty Bill, who's never given a last name (like almost all the characters on the show sans the Leahey clan), and mostly goes by Shitty.