History OnlyKnownByTheirNickname / RealLife

*** This isn't restricted to football in Brazil—many people in other sports are known by single names. To name just three examples, volleyball player Gilberto Amauri de Godoy Filho[[note]]"Filho" is not a family name, but rather the equivalent to "Junior" in English[[/note]] is better known as Giba; women's basketball legend ''Hortência'' de Fátima Marcari entered FirstNameBasis; and men's basketball player Maybyner Rodney Hilário became known as Nenê, and eventually adopted that as his ''full legal name.''

** Hockey rarely does it ever since the 1960s, but there is no dearth of early players who qualify, like King Clancy, Phantom Joe Malone, Ace Bailey, and Toe Blake.

* Creator/{{Rumi}}, whose real name was Muhammad bin Muhammad bin al-Husayn al-Khatibi al-Balkhi al-Bakri. The sobriquet means "from Rome," because he resided in what used to be the Eastern Rome Empire (i.e., the Byzantines). The Persians and Turks know him as "Mawlawi" (our master) instead.

** Too many Brazilian football players to list are known only by their ''noms-de-foot'', to name just three: Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento), Tostão (Eduardo Gonzalves de Andrade), and Zico (Arthur Antunes Coimbra). Many may be self-chosen, though. A few enter FirstNameBasis (''Ronaldo'' Luiz Nazário de Lima and ''Marta'' Vieira da Silva).

* From the moment his birth was announced, [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Henry Charles Albert David]]'s parents declared that he would be informally called "Harry". He's never been referred to as anything else, not even at his wedding (although his full name was used on the invitation, the program, and at the beginning of the ceremony, "Harry" was used for the exchange of rings/recitation of vows/declaration of marriage/nuptial blessing). This even extends to his son Archie, whose middle name is Harrison, which means "son of Harry" rather than "Henry". His wife herself is an example of this, having long gone by her middle name of "Meghan" rather than her first of "Rachel", and their daughter Lilibet Diana will be called "Lili".

** Averted, though (at least in his political career) by UsefulNotes/BarackObama, who once called went by "Barry".

** Bugsy Siegel (Benjamin Siegel)

* Jemima Redgrave, an award-winning English actress best known as Kate Stewart on ''Series/DoctorWho'' and Bernie Wolfe on ''Series/HolbyCity'', is known to all and sundry as "[[Creator/JemmaRedgrave Jemma]]".

* Jemima Redgrave, best known as Kate Stewart on ''Series/DoctorWho'' and Bernie Wolfe on ''Series/HolbyCity'', is known to all and sundry as "[[Creator/JemmaRedgrave Jemma]]".

* Creator/ChuckJones: Nobody refers to him as "Charles M. Jones."

** Lawrence Jones, Hall of Fame baseball player, is more familiarly known as "Chipper".

** Averted, though (at least in his political career) by [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Barack "Once Called Himself Barry" Obama]].

* From the moment his birth was announced, [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Henry Charles Albert David]]'s parents declared that he would be informally called "Harry". He's never been referred to as anything else, not even at his wedding (although his full name was used on the invitation, the program, and at the beginning of the ceremony, "Harry" was used for the exchange of rings/recitation of vows/declaration of marriage/nuptial blessing). This even extends to his son Archie, whose middle name is Harrison, which means "son of Harry" rather than "Henry". His wife herself is an example of this, having long gone by her middle name of "Megan" rather than her first of "Rachel", and their daughter Lilibet Diana will be called "Lili".

** Serial killer Donald H. Gaskins Jr. was called "Pee Wee" or "Junior Parrott" so often that he was a teenager when he first heard his real name. "Pee Wee" or piss, referring to his shot stature which leads him to become bullying victim.

* From the moment his birth was announced, [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Henry Charles Albert David]]'s parents declared that he would be informally called "Harry". He's never been referred to as anything else, not even at his wedding (although his full name was used on the invitation, the program, and at the beginning of the ceremony, "Harry" was used when he recited his vows). This even extends to his son Archie, whose middle name is Harrison, which means "son of Harry" rather than "Henry". His wife herself is an example of this, having long gone by her middle name of "Megan" rather than her first of "Rachel", and their daughter Lilibet Diana will be called "Lili".

* From the moment his birth was announced, [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Henry Charles Albert David]]'s parents declared that he would be informally called "Harry". He's never been referred to as anything else, not even at his wedding (although his full name was used on the invitation, the program, and at the beginning of the ceremony, "Harry" was used when he recited his vows). This even extends to his son Archie, whose middle name is Harrison, which means "son of Harry" rather than "Henry". His wife herself is an example of this, having long gone by her middle name of "Megan" rather than her first of "Rachel".

* From the moment his birth was announced, [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Henry Charles Albert David]]'s parents declared that he would be informally called "Harry". He's never been referred to as anything else, not even at his wedding (although his full name was used on the invitation, the program, and at the beginning of the ceremony, "Harry" was used when he recited his vows).

* Creator/MurasakiShikibu is just her pen name; her real name might've been Takako Fujiwara, be we don't know for sure.

* Many outlaws of any kind can known by their nicknames instead of their real name as they gain notorierity.

** Lucky Luciano (Charles Luciano)

* There are a lot of royals from the Antiquity until the 18th century who share similar first names like Henry, Charles, Edward, Philippe, Maria, Mary, Gustav, George, John. To keep them apart ancient historians came up with self-invented nicknames for these people that usually describe their characters (UsefulNotes/RamsesII the Great, UsefulNotes/CyrusTheGreat, UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, UsefulNotes/PompeyTheGreat, Philippe the Good, Charles the Bold, John the Fearless, Louis the Pious, Akbar the Great, UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart, Suleiman the Magnificent, William the Conqueror, Ivan the Terrible, UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, UsefulNotes/RobertTheBruce, UsefulNotes/FrederickTheGreat, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler,...), mental state (Johanna the Mad), race or ethnicity (Philippe the Arab, UsefulNotes/ShakaZulu, Louis the German,...) or a notable physical appearance (Pippin the Short, Charles the Bald, Charles the Fat, Frederick Barbarossa (''Red Beard'')) or age (UsefulNotes/WilliamPittTheElder, UsefulNotes/WilliamPittTheYounger, Louis the Child,...). These names were definitely '''not''' used during the royals own lifetime. In many cases the epithet ''the good'' or ''the bad'' is now contested by modern historians, because they were often applied to judgments and standards of people in later centuries. For instance, UsefulNotes/MaryTudor, nicknamed ''Bloody Mary,'' may have executed a lot of people during her reign, but [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Elizabeth I]], who was often called ''Good Queen Bess,'' didn't shy away from executing people either.

* Similarly, no one refers to country music icon Hiram King Williams by anything other than the name he used in the business: Music/HankWilliams.

** Lev Bronstein - "UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky" (he supposedly took the last name of one of his jailors).