History OnlyKnownByTheirNickname / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/AdamTwelve'' has Sgt. "Mac" Macdonald, the guys' superior.

* Very common in ''Series/TheWire'', considering many of the characters are criminals who only go by their street names. Lampshaded by Omar during this exchange at Bird's murder trial:
-->'''ASA Ilene Nathan:''' And do you see the gunman who killed Mr. Gant anywhere in the courtroom today?\\

** The Greek, a crime boss whose real name is never revealed. And he's not even Greek.
** 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). Oddly averted by Marlo Stanfield, the BigBad of the final two seasons; in his first appearance, he's said to have the street handle "Black", but no one ever actually calls him that.

** According to Wiki/ThatOtherWiki, Jamie Hyneman is "James" on his birth certificate.

* ''Series/HighSchoolMusicalTheMusicalTheSeries'': Both Big Red and E.J. are the only characters so far that goes by a nickname who real name hasn't been revealed yet.

* 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.

* 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."

* In ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', the Third Sister of the Inquisitorius is never addressed by her real name - Reva Savander.

* ''Series/ControlZ'': Gerry's full name is Gerardo, though he's only called it a couple times.

* ''Series/{{Impulse}}'': Henrietta is almost always called Henry.

* ''Series/ControlZ'': Gerry's full name is Geraldo, though he's only called it a couple times.

* ''Series/GeneralHospital'': Lucas Lorenzo "Lucky" Spencer, Jr. Mainly to differentiate him from his more famous father, the male half of the [[UrExample original]] SuperCouple. His father himself is only known as "Luke". His nephew Lucas, also named after him, is the only one of the three to avert this. Luke also slightly inverts this, being the only one in town to call the women in his life by their real names rather than the nicknames everyone else uses -- sister Bobbie ("Barbara"), niece Carly ("Caroline"), friend Alexis ("Natasha"), and daughter Lulu ("Lesley Lu") -- and was the only person on the show to do so.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': D.B. Russell -- for obvious reasons, no one calls him Diebenkorn. Except maybe Finn, to tease him once in a while.

* In ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'' Ben Cartwright's second oldest son Hoss' real name is Eric, this is mentioned on a few occasions and he only goes by his real name during formal events.

** The other renegade Time Lords seen, most prominently the Master and the Rani[[note]]according to the TARDIS wiki, her real name may be Ushas[[/note]], also fall under this trope.
** Among the companions, there are Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet, Romanadvoratrelundar, who's only ever called "Romana" once she's introduced herself fully in her first scene, Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown, Melanie "Mel" Bush and Dorothy "Ace" [=McShane=]. Even the surname [=McShane=] comes from the ExpandedUniverse; in the series Ace admits her real name is Dorothy when she's introduced, and is just "Ace" from then on.