History RedBaron / RealLife

* UsefulNotes/ElCidCampeador, one of the national heroes of Spain. "El Cid" is the Hispanicized version of ''al-Sīdi'', which is the Northern African rendition of the Arabian ''al-Sayyid'', which means "Lord". "Campeador" is trickier, coming from a Medieval Spanish word for a military champion translating literally as "battlerfielder" or more poetically "battlefield master"[[note]]It was once believed to come from Latin ''campidoctor'', the Roman word for a drill sergeant, but this is now considered DatedHistory.[[/note]] ''The Lord Master of Battlefields'' is so badass it hurts.

* The greatest military man in Brazilian history, the UsefulNotes/DukeOfCaxias, had two: one he shared with UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington: "O Duque de Ferro" ("The Iron Duke") (though unlike Wellington, his was entirely due to prowess in battle), the other was "O Pacificador" ("The Peacemaker"), because of his career crushing rebellions and destroying foreign threats in a way that would cause peace.
* Another Brazilian was Manuel Luís Osório, the Marquis of Erval, he was nicknamed "O Legendário" ("The Legendary").

* Field Marshal August von Mackensen of the German Army during WWI, who led his soldiers to a very hard-fought and brutal victory over Serbia in 1915 picked up nicknames [[FourStarBadass like he picked up medals]]. During WWI, he was known as "Hindenburg's Brain" for his contributions to German theory and his actions under Hindenburg (who he later replaced) in smashing the Russian invasion of East Prussia. Due to his wearing of the uniform of the Prussian Death's Head Hussars, he was also called "the Last Hussar".
* Võ Nguyên Giáp, the redoubtable North Vietnamese general who led his soldiers to victory over Japan, France, and then the United States, was called "the Red Napoleon" for his military genius. Most notably, Giap had no military experience prior to joining the Viet Minh, working only as a history teacher during his adult life. Everything he knew about military strategy, he taught himself using military manuals (including Sun Tzu's work) and the accounts of famous generals from history (including the real Napoleon).
* Generally speaking, one of the main reasons this trope is so particularly prevalent in much East Asian culture and fiction (particularly from Japan and China) is because, historically, successful generals or other heroes in conflicts in Sino-influenced cultures were formally granted such titles by their lords and governments after particular achievements, and often got many more from their soldiers and from the citizenry besides. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu Guan Yu]], for example, had a bunch of them even in ''life'', before he was made into basically a deity. These include "Mei Ran Gong", or "Lord of the Magnificent Beard" and "Changsheng", or "[[TheLeader The True Leader]]".
* [[UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel Erwin "The Desert Fox" Rommel]]. Rommel's son Manfred said that he was glad of the compliment because he knew the British had learned to appreciate foxes from hunting them, but he would have liked lion even more than fox.

* [[UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler Vlad Dracula]] was also known as Vlad Tepes, Tepes meaning "[[TheButcher Impaler]]" cause, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin well, that is what he did]]. The Turks were very frightened of him, calling him "Kazıklı Voyvoda" ("[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Impaler Prince]]"), [[DeadGuyOnDisplay and mounted his head on the walls of Istanbul, to assure people that he was really dead.]] Consider the fact this man saw the Turks invading his land, turned to the Turkish prisoners and said 'Well, they aren't doing anything', and created a forest of roughly 30,000 impaled Turkish soldiers.
* Polish king Jan III Sobieski was known as "The Lion of Lechistan" in Ottoman Empire.

* UsefulNotes/SirFrancisDrake was known to his arch-enemies, the Spanish, as simply 'El Draque': the Dragon. Considering that he most famously "singed the King of Spain's beard" with a fire-ship raid on Cadiz in 1587 that fried a significant chunk of the so-called Invincible Armada, which would sail in 1588, this is rather appropriate. "Drake" is an archaic English word for "dragon", as in "firedrake".
* Henryk Dobrzański, first guerilla commander of WWII, was nicknamed "Mad Major" due to his impossible victories.
* A Finnish example: UsefulNotes/SimoHayha, the sniper or [[OneManArmy the single greatest killing machine in human history]]. He achieved over 500 kills in less than 100 days during the Winter War, also known as the "White Death". The cutest thing about the name is that "the white death" also means sugar.
* Harry Järv, a Finno-Swedish officer during the Winter War, who due to his many successful behind-the-lines missions was given the nickname "Järven" (The Wolverine). Remind you of [[Comicbook/XMen someone?]] His name is nearly a pun in itself since "Djärv" (pronounced identically) means "Bold"...
* The Finnish front of Winter War had a lot of legendary guys known by their nicknames. One of them was the commanding officer of the aforementioned Simo Häyhä, captain Aarne Juutilainen, also known as "The Terror of Morocco". Yes, Morocco. "The Terror" had earlier served with the French Foreign Legion in Morocco for years before returning from the desert to the frosty battles of the Winter War. The Terror was a national hero of the Battle of Kollaa, and was able to hold the almost impossibly thin lines with his men (such as The White Death). There's still a Finnish saying "Kollaa kestää" (Kollaa will hold), meaning that you will resist and fight back, no matter what it takes.
* Another WWII example is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches Die Nachthexen]] (the Night Witches), the Soviet all-women 588th Night Bomber Regiment; their old wooden adapted cropdusters were hard to shoot down because they were [[RockBeatsLaser slower than the stall speed of the German Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulf fighters]]. This meant that whenever someone managed to get near them, they'd have to slow down to a point where the plane stalls and becomes unable to fly anymore.
* Lydia Litvyak. A [=WW2=] Soviet fighter pilot with the 586th IAP, later with the 73 GvIAP. The highest scoring female fighter ace in history with 12 solo victories and 4 shared over 66 combat missions. Her nickname? "The White Lily of Stalingrad", sometimes (mis)translated as "White Rose".

* Henri I, duc de Guise, was called ''le balafré'', meaning Scarface.
* UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible. In Russian, "groznyi" really means something closer to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_the_Terrible#Sobriquet "fearsome" or "formidable"]]. Which is just as awesome.
* A lot of medieval Vikings had fantastic nicknames, some more fearsome than others: Erik Bloodaxe, Ivar the Boneless, Erik the Priest-hater, Sigurd the Crusader, Sweyn Forkbeard, Erik the Red, Harald Bluetooth, Harald Wartooth, Ragnarr Lodbrok, etc. Though these were made up by English historians who needed an easy way to separate historical vikings from each other. It didn't end with the end of the Viking Age though. During the later middle-ages we still have names like Erik Lisp and Lame, Valdemar the Victorious, Magnus Barefoot...
* [[WarriorPrince Edmund Ironside]], so named because he was a capable military leader.
* Arthur Wellesley, the UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington, was known as ''the Iron Duke'', one of many 'Iron' titles popular at the time. This was mostly because of his war record, but wags and embittered reformists/radicals used it to refer to the iron shutters he installed over his ground-floor windows to keep them from getting smashed during the numerous riots during his term as Prime Minister.
* UsefulNotes/OttoVonBismarck was known as the "Iron Chancellor". True, he wasn't a soldier, but he was such a supreme political genius that the moniker was well earned. Bismark also gave a very important speech which convinced the Prussian [[strike: Reichstag]] ''Abgeordnetenhaus'' (House of Deputies) to make their military stronger, eventually leading to the unification of the German states. It was called the 'Blood and Iron' speech. On 30 September 1862, when he said "The great issues of the day are not decided by speeches and majority decisions - that was the error of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and blood." However, the massive expansion of the Prussian Army was at that point already going on for two years.
* UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher gained the title "The IronLady" after a strong anti-Communist speech. ''Red Star'' (the newspaper of the UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets) gave her that name, and it wasn't intended as a compliment. She was not yet PM at this point.
* The Soviet Union's first SecretPolice organisation was founded by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Dzerzhinsky "Iron Felix" Dzerzhinsky]], a hardliner who was zealous and ruthless enough to impress even Stalin.
* Golda Meir, first female Prime Minister of Israel, also got the "Iron Lady" title.
* Napoleon's Marshal [[FourStarBadass Louis Nicolas Davout]], Duke of Auerstaedt and Prince of Eckmuhl, was known as the Iron Marshal.
* The French king [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_IV_of_France Philip IV "The Fair"]][[note]]"The Fair" as in the beautiful[[/note]] was also called the "Iron King". His most memorable achievements were: planning and carrying out the arrest of the [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar Knights Templar]] all across the kingdom in the span one day[[note]][[ThirteenIsUnlucky Friday 13 October 1307]][[/note]] in what was arguably the most complex police operation of all time, getting his grandfather Louis the Ninth [[PatronSaint canonized]], imposing his rule on his pretty much autonomous vassals, [[BadassFamily fathering the She-Wolf of France (see below)]] and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu getting the fricking pope arrested!]][[note]]The relevant pope, Boniface VIII, greeted his men with "Here is my head, here is my neck, [[FaceDeathWithDignity at least, I shall die pope!]]" He then died a month later of old age and his (French) replacement moved the Holy See to Avignon in France. Incidentally, Creator/DanteAlighieri, who positively ''hated'' Boniface VIII, consigning him to the Eighth Circle of Hell in the ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]'' (for simony), saw Philip's arrest of the Pope as being so egregious that he said in the ''Purgatorio'' (through Philip's ancestor Hughes Capet) that Philip was destined for Hell just for this act.[[/note]]
* Miriam Defensor Santiago, the Philippines' longest-serving senator and one of its most accomplished politicians, was called the "Iron Lady of Asia". This was alongside her other titles of "Dragon Lady", the "Platinum Lady", the "Incorruptible Lady", the "Tiger Lady".
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cid El Cid Campeador]], the national hero of Spain. "El Cid" is the Spanified version of Arabian ''as-Sayyid'' or ''as-Sīd'', which means "Lord", while "Campeador" is a term for a military champion or notable warrior that comes from the Latin ''campi doctus'', "expert in battle." ''The Lord Master of Battles'' is so badass it hurts...
* Muhammad Ibn Abi Aamir, who is still known in Spain as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mansur_Ibn_Abi_Aamir Almanzor]], from Al-Mansur, "The Victorious One".
* Perhaps the best known (at the time anyway) Roman example of this trope was Scipio Africanus. He was born Publius Cornelius Scipio and the "Africanus" was added after he kicked ungodly amounts of Carthaginian ass in the Second Punic War, including defeating Hannibal (who had already crushed the better part of a dozen Roman armies, usually when badly outnumbered) with more or less even odds at the battle of Zama.
* Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne. His name means "Charles the Hammer."
* Judah Maccabee (''makkab'' = hammer), whose byname was also applied to the dynasty he founded.

* UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}} himself. The name means 'Charles the Great'.
* Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, meaning Red Beard. Not a terribly badass nickname, but he's still considered one of Germany's great heroes, and [[WorthyOpponent greatly respected even by his enemies of the Italian city-states]] (indeed, "Barbarossa" is Italian-''they'' gave him his nickname) and their descendants.
* King Henry V of England (the one Shakespeare wrote [[Theatre/HenryV a play about]]) was called 'TheButcher of Agincourt'... though not by the English.
* Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, is generally referred to as 'Warwick the Kingmaker' for his actions during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses, in which he raised and deposed monarchs from both competing dynasties before ultimately being killed at the Battle of Barnet.

* Several "Black" nicknames:
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward,_the_Black_Prince Edward, Prince of Wales]], is known as "the Black Prince" today - though apparently not to his contemporaries, since the first recorded use of "Black Prince" occcurred in Grafton's Chronicle (1569), two centuries after his death. Historians can't agree on whether the title refers to his black shield or his reputation, either.
** The French General Thomas Dumas (the father of Creator/{{Alexandre|Dumas}}) was know as the "Black Devil": the irony is, while he gained this name thanks to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin his black skin]] and his very [[FourStarBadass authentic badassery]] ([[YouShallNotPass holding a bridge]] [[OneManArmy against the Austrian army]] while being [[MadeOfIron shot six times]] and emerging alive and victorious), he was perhaps the [[OfficerAndAGentleman most honourable general]] of the French Revolution (refusing to participate in [[RapePillageAndBurn pillage]], denouncing the slaughters in Vendée, remaining [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified faithful to the ideals of the Revolution]]).
** Eugene James Bullard, the first African-American fighter pilot in the world (though he flew for the French) earned his nickname of 'The Black Swallow of Death' as an infantry soldier in the infamous French Foreign Legion where he won he Croix de Guerre. He later worked as a spy for the allies when France was taken over by the Nazis, and fought in the defense of Orleans.
** Duke Frederick William of Brunswick, the "Black Duke". He and the free corps he raised in 1809 to fight against Napoleon was dressed in black in [[YouKilledMyFather memory of his father, duke Charles William Frederick, mortally wounded at Auerstedt in 1806]].
** Famed Spanish guerrilla leader Juan Martín Díez (1775-1825) was better known as ''el Empecinado'', the "pitch-man", because of the black earth of his home. In 1814 a royal decree gave him permission to use Empecinado as his name instead of Díaz.
*** Interestingly enough, nowadays "empecinado" means "really stubborn" in Spain (and it's even got a verb counterpart, "empecinarse", "to dig one's heels").
** General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing got his nickname from his tenure as commander of the 10th US Cavalry, a unit of African-American soldiers who are more well known as the legendary 'Buffalo Soldiers'. This one was somewhat bowdlerized by newspapers and history books: Pershing's original nickname was "Black-Assed Jack."
** Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, better known as the "Black Baron", was a Russian general from a Baltic German noble family who earned his moniker due to his love for wearing black, Cossack-style uniforms. Unlikely many of his contemporaries, he was among the RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething and earned a well-deserved reputation for military and political acumen during the Russian Civil War.
*** The Bolsheviks feared him so much they ended up using him as a bogeyman in their marching song "White Army, Black Baron".
** Another example of a menacing nicknamed flying ace is the highest scoring ace of all time, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Hartmann Erich Hartmann]], the 'Black Devil', who flew for the German Luftwaffe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and had a staggering ''352'' victories. Nearly all of these were against Soviet pilots on the Eastern Front, however, so he never gained much notice amongst the Americans and British. He got the name from the black tulip painted on the front of his plane, which he eventually had to remove because all his potential targets tended to run once they saw it.
*** Hartmann was also called [[PrettyBoy the Blonde]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Erich_Hartmann.jpg Knight]] and [[FluffytheTerrible Bubi]], an affectionate version of 'little boy' in German, by his allies.
** Not to be outdone, the armored subdivision of the ''Waffen-SS'' also has a Black Baron of their own: tank ace [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittman Michael Wittman]].
** And of course, the king of pirates himself, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach.
** [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_the_Black St. Moses the Black]] was senior abbot at the Paromeos Monastery, and was known for his [[GeniusBruiser enormous build and sharp wit]] and was rightly feared by bandits and troublemakers for his [[FormerTeenRebel criminal past]]

* Imperial General Matthias Gallas was known as "The army destroyer". Unfortunately, they weren't talking about the armies of his ''enemies''...
* Many of the bynames that monarchs tends to acquire fit into this. Everything from the standard "the Great" to ones like "plowpenny".
** UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart, who remains to this day the only King of England to be known by their byname rather than regnal number (Alfred the Great was only King of Wessex).
** Alfred the Great.
*** His daughter, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians and de facto Queen of Mercia.
** Alfred's Welsh contemporary Rhodri Mawr, Mawr meaning 'Great' and Rhodri meaning 'King' (part of it also, puzzlingly, means 'wheel'). This broadly translates as 'Great King'.
** Hywel Dda, Hywel the Good, who came to prominence just afterwards and whose law code stuck around for approximately five hundred years.
** The Mughal sultans: The names they are usually remembered under (Babur, Akbar, Aurungzib, Shah Jahan...) weren't their actual names but more like descriptions. Akbar[[note]]real name Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad[[/note]] is especially funny as he is in western sources often called "Akbar the Great", which is redundant because Akbar * already* means "The Greater" (the comparative form of the Arabic adjective "kabir" = "great"). Shah Jahan[[note]]Shahabuddin Muhammad[[/note]] means "emperor of the world". Babur[[note]]real name Zahir-ud-din Muhammad[[/note]] means "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the tiger]]".
* UsefulNotes/SanadaYukimura. After an impressive display of valor and one mighty FoeTossingCharge, Shogun UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu, who was his target, honored him with the title "Japan's Number One Soldier".
** He's also known as "Demon of the Crimson Lotus" (due to his and his troops' trademark red armor), which is seriously cool. There was even a folk song comparing him to a demon (in a good way).
* [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan Chinggis (Genghis) Khan]] is an excellent example, as the name he is best known by is a title taken after he united Mongolia, not his birth name, which was Temujin. The exact meaning of his title is unknown, with numerous translations proposed, from 'Oceanic Ruler', to 'Ruler of All People Who Live in Felt Tents'. The other style of this trope, similar to the Norse and Medieval examples, was (and still is) common in Mongolia, with most people's 'last' names being monikers like 'the Brave', 'the Wrestler', and so on.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_ibn_al-Walid Khalid ibn al-Walid]] (Immortal Son of the Newborn), also known as Sayf Allāh al-Maslūl (the Drawn Sword of God), FourStarBadass extraordinaire. How much more badass can your name and nickname get ?
* One that's so common it's often overlooked, Mohandas Gandhi is commonly known as UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi, an honorific meaning "great soul" in Sankrit. Ask about "Mohandas" Gandhi, and most people will just give you a blank stare. (In everyday speech in modern India, he is referred to as Gandhiji, i.e. "honourable Gandhi".)
* The Air Force of the [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles Israel Defense Forces]] is sometimes affectionately (or not so affectionately) referred to as "The World's Largest Distributor of [=MiG=] Parts".
* Ask about T. E. Lawrence and most people have no idea what you mean, but everyone has heard of Film/LawrenceOfArabia.

* Another Vietnam War example, the entire Australian SASR were known to the Viet Cong as "The Phantoms of The Jungle" due to them using the same guerrilla tactics as the Viet Cong, as well as achieving an average kill ratio of 500 to 1.
* [[FourStarBadass Russian general]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Skobelev Mikhail Skobelev]] was known as the "White General" (and by the Turks as the "White Pasha"). The Turkmen's would later call him "Bloody Eyes".
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur Timur]], founder of the Timurid Empire, possible descendant of Genghis Khan, "Tamerlane" to some, "The Scourge of God" to everyone else.
** UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun was known as the Scourge of God nearly a millennium earlier, but in a different part of the world.
*** While "Attila" itself apparently was not his real name but one given to him as a title of honour. It is generally believed to be a diminutive of the Gothic word ''atta'', "father".
* William the Marshal, a knight who rose out of obscurity to become the right hand man of three Kings of England (four if you count Henry the Young King) and the Regent to a fourth (fifth), being at points the most powerful man in England. He was considered the greatest knight that ever lived and an excellent general, becoming FamedInStory in RealLife thanks to bards making up songs about him. He was also a genuine badass, fighting in the front lines at the age of 70 at the Battle of Lincoln and, in a less obvious but perhaps more astonishing display of badassery, reissuing the Magna Carta. Without him, it might very well have fallen into obscurity.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Astiz Alfredo Astiz]], El Ángel Rubio de la Muerte (The Blond Angel of Death). This moniker may or may not have stood as inspiration for [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Dragunov's]] (The White Angel of Death).
* Another English example: [[Film/{{Braveheart}} King Edward I, 'Hammer of the Scots']]. Needless to say, the Scots weren't very fond of him. At 6'2", Edward was extremely tall for his era, earning him another badass nickname, Longshanks.
** "You, Scot! [[MemeticMutation Hammertime!]]"
** Edward's daughter-in-law was no less formidable, eventually tiring of her husband Edward II's laziness, incompetence and habit of lavishing favours on his favourite, Piers Gaveston, a man widely hated by just about everyone besides the King, and masterminding a ruthless and effective coup d'etat which put her son on the throne under the Regency of her and her lover, Roger Mortimer. For this, she earned the nickname 'the She-Wolf of France'. Unfortunately for her, Edward III was quite as capable as his grandfather and not the sort to be anyone's puppet.
* Sir James Douglas, a.k.a. 'The Black Douglas' who led a contingent that pursued the fleeing English army back across the border and went on to wreak havoc in the North of England with his fast raiding force of mounted infantry
* A number of Ottoman Sultans had such monikers. For example, Mehmed II is better known as Fatih (The Conqueror) and [[UsefulNotes/SuleimanTheMagnificent Suleiman I]] is known as Kanuni (Lawmaker?) in Turkish and as the Magnificent in English.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud Ahmad Shah Massoud]], [[LaResistance the Afghanistan resistance leader]] against the Soviet Union and later on, the Taliban. Earned the name ''Lion of Panjshir'', which also puns as ''Lion of Five Lions'' in Persian.
* Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Born Ali Rıza oğlu Mustafa, given the nickname Kemal (perfection) by his math teacher, later given the last name Atatürk (father of the Turkish people) by the Turkish parliament, establishing it as a unique surname that no one else may ever use.

* Another famous example is William the Conqueror, who only achieved that title after he conquered England. Before that, he was just the Duke of Normandy and had a slightly less badass nickname "William the Bastard" due to his father having never married his mother.
* Przemysl II Ottokar, King of Bohemia was nicknamed the "Iron and Golden King" because of his military power and wealth.

* The Spanish explorer who got shipwrecked in Texas and explored much the American southwest and northern Mexico was Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, whose family name translates into "head of the cow". He was not a minotaur. Back in the 1200s during the Reconquista (711-1492 AD), as the Spanish were trying to drive the Arabs out of Spain, one of Cabeza de Vaca's ancestors, Martín Alhaja, helped the Spanish army defeat a large force of Arabs by marking a secret mountain trail with a cow's skull. The king was so grateful that he awarded "Cabeza de Vaca" to the family as both a title and name.
* Before becoming an astronaut, John Glenn was a military pilot and was nicknamed the "[=MiG=] Mad Marine" for shooting down three.
* Alan Shepard, meanwhile, was dubbed the "Icy Commander" for his often bad moods while helping run the NASA office during the years he was grounded with Meniere's disease.
* General UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, after his slew of victories against the South in the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, wound up with the nickname, "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.[[note]]Amusingly enough, he only ended up with the initials "U.S." to make the nickname work because of [[AccidentalMisnaming a clerical error in his appointment to West Point]], with Congressman Thomas L. Harner accidentally listing him as Ulysses Simpson Grant instead of his actual birth name Hiram Ulysses Grant when nominating him for West Point, and in childhood, he was informally known as Ulysses by his father, with Simpson being his mother's maiden name. He liked the new name better and kept it, preferring to keep the middle initial S.[[/note]] While attending West Point from 1839 to 1843, he was also nicknamed "Sam", since the initials U.S. also stood for Uncle Sam.
* During UsefulNotes/TheWarOf1812, the employees at the E & S Wilson meat packing plant in Troy, NY (owned by Ebeneezer and Samuel Wilson) had the barrels of packed meat rations stamped E.A. - U.S., with Elbert Anderson as the co-partner in the contract to supply rations. When someone asked a barrel stamper what the letters U.S. stood for[[note]]They actually stood for Elbert Anderson - United States[[/note]], one of them jokingly replied [[UncleSamWantsYou "Uncle" Sam]], and the nickname stuck, with the joke circulating that all government property belonged to Uncle Sam, and even the employees called themselves "Uncle Sam's Boys". During the Civil War, Thomas Nast caricatured him as tall and lanky with a beard, based on UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, and the famous UncleSamWantsYou recruiting poster which originated in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI is based on a self-caricature of James Montgomery Flagg, which was also inspired by an earlier "Lord Kitchener Wants You" recruitment poster published throughout Great Britain a few years earlier.
* [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine emperor Basil II]] is more commonly known as Basil the Bulgar-Slayer for being the man to finally conquer the empire's long time foes, the First Bulgarian Empire. While he did crush them, and was capable of ruthlessness, the story of him ordering [[EyeScream 15,000 Bulgarian prisoners blinded in lots of 100, with one man in each lot left with one eye to guide the other 99]] after the Battle of Kleidon is at best a vast exaggeration and at worst a complete fabrication - though it wouldn't have been entirely out of character, either...
* Prince Eugene of Savoy was known as "The Great Captain". In his time, captain was practically the same as 'general'... And, as the Turks and the French learned at their expense, he was the best of all. This was a particular embarrassment to the French, as Eugene, due Savoy being allied with France, had originally tried to join the ''French'' military, and immigrated to Austria after being turned down on account of being seen as too small and his mother having been exiled.
* Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy-Aosta, 2nd Duke of Aosta and Italian general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI was known as the Undefeated Duke, and his Third Army as the Undefeated Army, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin because nobody could defeat them]]. He cheated during the Battle of Caporetto by retreating from his positions, now impossible to defend due the collapse of the Second Army, before being engaged, but got his revenge one year later, when, during the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, the Third Army's cavalry units would transform the Austro-Hungarian ordered retreat in a ''total'' rout and [[ShockingDefeatLegacy trigger the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire]].
* Austrian general of Croatian origin, Svetozar Boroević von Bojna, was nicknamed "Lion of Isonzo". He managed to cleverly utilize the terrain and stalemate almost the entire Italian military might with what was the smallest and weakest Austro-Hungarian army in the field. And once he did receive reinforcements after Russia collapsed and German and Austrian troops could be transferred westwards, he pushed Italians from Isonzo on the Slovene border all the way back to Venice.
* The kings of Italy of the House of Savoy all had such a nickname:
** Victor Emmanuel II (the one who reigned when the Kingdom of Sardinia became the Kingdom of Italy)) was known as the "Gentleman King" for not abolishing the constitution when he could have with Austria's support and "Father of the Fatherland" for being the first king of united Italy in over ''one thousand years'';
** His son Umberto I was known as the "Good King" for a number of liberal reforms in the penal code (including the first abolition of the death penalty) and personally helping the victims of a number of natural disasters (two volcanic eruptions, a devastating downpour and a ''[[ThePlague cholera]] outbreak'') and "Cannon King" for approving and praising [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bava-Beccaris_massacre the repression of Milan's famine-motivated riots with artillery]] (the latter caused [[BombThrowingAnarchist two attempts on his life from anarchists]], the second of which actually succeeded);
** His son Victor Emmanuel III was nicknamed "Soldier King" and "Victorious King" for reigning during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and "Little Sabre" for his 'impressive' height of 153 cm (exactly ''five feet'');
** His son Umberto II, last King of Italy, was nicknamed "May King" for reigning for about one month, most of which was in May 1946.
* From México (or rather, New Spain and then México), Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu, Agustín de Iturbide for short. As a brilliant royalist Dragoon during the war of Independence, in four years of heavy action he never lost a single battle, except for once, when commanded by others, and personally dealt defeat to the insurgent's greatest General, José María Morelos. Iturbide is often referred to as the greatest horseman to ever exist in his home country, and paired with his swordsmanship (he was prone to laughter typical of Flynning during battles) it earned him the nickname of "El Dragón de Hierro", translated: "The Iron Dragon" (in Spanish, "dragón" and "dragoon" are spelt the same). He would go on to create his own plan to liberate México from Spain, and achieved it within 7 months. His fame after that earned a host of other nicknames by the eager press, too long to write here, but just two of those would be "Jupiter's Lightning" and "Neptune's Trident".
* General George Crook, also known as "Grey Wolf", had a distinguished career fighting against the Shoshone, the Apache, the Sioux and the Cheyenne in the Indian Wars of the 1880s. He ironically later became an activist for the rights of the defeated Native Americans and spent years speaking out against the United States' unfair treatment and failed federal policies. [[WorthyOpponent Three guesses who gave him that nickname]].

* Pier Gerlofs Donia was a Frisian pirate and [[LaResistance resistance leader]] against Holland. He had two particularly badass nicknames: "Grutte Pier" (Great Pier), earned for his absolutely [[LargeAndInCharge massive size and strength]] ([[https://i.imgur.com/3V9c8WF.jpg just check out]] [[{{BFS}} his sword!]]), and "The Cross of the Dutchmen", which he earned after a naval battle where he sunk ''28 Dutch ships in a single day.''
* Hungarian aristocrat and politician István Széchenyi got the nickname "A Legnagyobb Magyar" (The Greatest Hungarian) for his continous efforts to improve Hungary's wealth and innovations throughout his life. [[OneManIndustrialRevolution He succeeded.]]
** Széchenyi's close friend and fellow politician Miklós Wesselényi was widely called "Árvizi Hajós" (Sailor in the Flood) after he personally saved lives using a rowboat when River Danube flooded the city of Pest in 1838.

* 15th century Austrian military captain John Haugwitz, better known by his nickname Haugwitz the Black. He served in the Black Army of Matthias Corvinus, a definitely badass military formation which may have been nicknamed after him.
* The (alleged) first Fighter Ace of the 21st Century became quickly known as "The Ghost of Kyiv".
* The former [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot]] were known as "The Die Hards", and the phrase "die hard" actually comes from them. During the Battle of Albuera in [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars The Peninsular War]], the 57th saw hard fighting. At one point, their commander, [[ColonelBadass Colonel William Inglis]], was badly wounded by grapeshot (think a shell used to turn a cannon into a giant shotgun). He refused to be carried to the rear, laying by his regiment's Colours, and when the fighting got particularly fierce, he could be heard [[StiffUpperLip calmly]] saying "Die hard, 57th, die hard!". Despite massive casualties (''422'' out of 570 rankers, and ''20'' out of 30 officers), they managed to [[HoldTheLine hold long enough]] that they broke the French advance.
* Richard Samet "Kinky" Friedman has used his stage name for so long that when he ran for governor of Texas, he received permission to officially put "Kinky" on the ballot.
* Real-life {{Pirates}} sometimes acquired badass nicknames. Examples include "Arch Pirate" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Every Henry Every]], "Lioness of Brittany" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_de_Clisson Jeanne de Clisson]] and "Blackbeard" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard Edward Teach]]. It's no surprise that Creator/EiichiroOda was inspired by this to base some characters from ''Manga/OnePiece'' on said real-life pirates.
* UsefulNotes/{{Albania}}n [[FolkHero national hero]] UsefulNotes/{{Skanderbeg}} was known by a number of nicknames. Among his countrymen he was "The Dragon of Albania", to the Pope he was "Defender of Christianity" and to the Turks he was "Dread of the Ottomans". "Skanderbeg" itself could qualify since his real name was Gjergj Kastrioti, but after being taken hostage by Sultan Murad II, he named him "Iskander Bey" which meant "Lord Alexander" as in UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat. The name was slightly altered to Skanderbeg and that is what he is better known.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_N%C3%A1dasdy Ferenc Nádasdy]], the husband of infamous Elizabeth Báthory, was called the Black Knight of Hungary because of his victories over the Ottoman Empire and cruelty to his enemies. In fact, in both aspects he was very similar to Vlad Țepeș, mentioned above.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_II_of_Kakheti George II of Kakheti]] has the well-deserved nickname "Av-Giorgi" -- translated as "George the Bad", "George the Mad", or "George the Evil". He's famous for murdering his father, blinding his brother, invading his neighbours twice, and eventually being captured and killed when his second invasion failed.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_II_of_Georgia Demetrius II of Georgia]], [=AKA=] "Demetrius the Self-Sacrificing". His nickname might not have been meant as a compliment -- he went to the Mongol ruler's residence, ignoring warnings that the Mongols planned to kill him, and was arrested and beheaded.
* Demetrius II's son, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V_of_Georgia George V of Georgia]], has the much more impressive title of "George the Brilliant". [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething He earned that title]]: he defeated the Mongols and ended their control of Georgia, defended his country from the Ottomans, created two law codes, and established diplomatic relations with the Byzantine Empire, Genoa, Venice, and Egypt.
** Earlier in his life he was nicknamed "the Shadow King of Tbilisi". This wasn't as awesome as it sounds; it just meant Tbilisi was the only place where he had any authority.
* In WWII, the Soviets had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko Lyudmila Pavlichenko]] - known and feared by the Germans as "Lady Death". During her time as a sniper, she had racked up 309 confirmed kills, granting her the title of the ''deadliest'' female sniper in recorded history. Starting from taking up sharpshooting in her early days as a hobby, she became known to play cat and mouse with her targets and use several tricks to catch them off-guard. Her history has been written into a comic by Rejected Princesses, [[https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/lyudmila-pavlichenko here]].
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Sing Billy Sing]], Australia's greatest sniper in WWI. Dubbed 'The Assassin' and 'The Murderer', Sing's official record lists 150 kills [[note]]an official kill was recorded only if the spotter saw the target fall[[/note]], but his actual tally was estimated to be closer to 300. General William Birdwood, commander of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), told Lord Kitchener that "if his troops could match the capacity of the Queensland sniper, the allied forces would soon be in Constantinople." Sing's skills were so feared, the enemy forces specifically assigned a champion Turkish sniper to assassinate the man. When said sniper had Sing in his sights, [[AssassinOutclassin Sing shot first]], and was the only one of the two to walk away alive.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Garibaldi Giuseppe Garibaldi]] is called "The Hero of Two Worlds", due to his military and revolutionary experiences in both Europe and South America, more specifically the UsefulNotes/WarsOfItalianIndependence and his role in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragamuffin_War Ragamuffin War]] against the Empire of Brazil.

* In UsefulNotes/ProfessionalGaming (including the UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity):

*** And the recent hero, Mohamed Salah. He plundered 44 goals in 52 club games in his debut season, nabbing the Golden Boot, PFA Player of the Year, PFA Player's Player of the Year, and Football Writer's Association Player of the Year as well, before in 2021 becoming the first Liverpool player since Ian Rush - and only the 5th ever in the club's c. 130 year history - to score 20 plus goals in 4 successive seasons. He's usually known as 'the King of Egypt'/'the Egyptian King', or simply, 'the Pharaoh'.

*** Other nicknamed players include former midfielder Joe 'Welsh Xavi[=/=]Welsh Pirlo' Allen. Originally, it was a joke by manager Brendan Rodgers — Xavi and Pirlo are two of the most skilled midfielders of their generation, both World Cup winners and key players for clubs such as Barcelona, AC Milan and Juventus. Allen is a moderately talented and hard-working midfielder on his best days. While his {{determinat|or}}ion eventually won over the Liverpool faithful, no one really saw him as being on that level.

On Defense:

** Monsters of the Midway, the Chicago Bears defense during the 1980's. The name was originally applied to the University of Chicago Maroons of the 1940's, whose campus is located on the Midway Plaisance on the city's South Side.

** Clay Matthews, "The Claymaker".

** Magic Johnson. If you just say "Magic", you know exactly who everyone is talking about, and it's not the team in Orlando. Incidentally, his real name is Earvin.

** Some foreign players are nicknamed after their native country, like "The Polish Hammer" Marcin Gortat, "Air Congo" Serge Ibaka, "[=AK47=]" Andrei Kirilenko (and yes, he played with the number 47), "Captain Canada"/"Hair Canada" Steve Nash - the latter being another pun on the original Air Canada, Vince Carter (when he was playing in Toronto), or "The Greek Freak", Giannis Antetokounmpo.

** 'The King' is a common moniker for the widely-accepted greatest player of all time in an English football team's history. Two of the most famous include King [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Kenny Dalglish of Liverpool and Denis Law of Manchester United - note that Manchester United also has a King Eric, a.k.a. Eric Cantona.

*** Related to Maradona - or perhaps, because of what he ''did'' to Maradona - Athletic Club's Andoni Goicoechea was nicknamed "The Butcher of Bilbao".

*** Also, as mentioned below, Jürgen Klopp contrasted himself with José 'The Special One' Mourinho, by dubbing himself 'The Normal One'. Of all the managers that The Special One has faced more than twice, The Normal One is the one he has the single worst record against - in fact, a 3-1 defeat by Klopp's Liverpool when he was in charge Manchester United actually got him ''sacked''.
*** Other nicknamed players include former midfielder Joe 'Welsh Xavi[=/=]Welsh Pirlo' Allen. Originally, it was a joke by manager Brendan Rodgers - Xavi and Pirlo are two of the most skilled midfielders of their generation, both World Cup winners and key players for clubs such as Barcelona, AC Milan and Juventus. Allen is a moderately talented and hard-working midfielder on his best days. While his {{determinat|or}}ion eventually won over the Liverpool faithful, no one really saw him as being on that level.

*** WildCard Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez has been affectionately dubbed 'Captain Chaos', 'the Agent of Chaos', or even 'the God of Chaos', simply because no one's quite sure what he'll do next - and frankly, that probably includes him - what with his propensity for footballing ConfusionFu and somehow missing chances that would be easy, and casually tucking away goals that are borderline impossible. His energy, enthusiasm, cheery smile, and this x-factor have made him instantly popular.
*** The team itself has been dubbed 'the Comeback Kings/Europe's Comeback Kings' owing to their propensity for mounting comebacks that border on unbelievable. The nickname came after a particularly ridiculous stunt in their Europa League tie against Borussia Dortmund in 2016. Dortmund, one of the most highly rated teams in Europe, were 3-1 up with less than thirty minutes to go. Liverpool, technically outclassed, had to win outright, and did, winning 4-3. This is arguably not as dramatic as another incident, however, the Champions League final of 2005. After going 3-0 down before half-time, instead of scoring three goals in half an hour, they did so in ''six minutes'', and won on penalties. Unsurprisingly, it's known to this day as 'the Miracle of Istanbul'.
*** Then, they arguably topped that in 2018/19 with what is coming to be known as 'the Miracle on the Mersey'/'the Miracle of Anfield': going into the second leg of the semi-final against Barcelona, having lost 3-0 in the first leg, needing to score 3 goals just to take it to extra time, four to win outright, and (thanks to the away goals rule) ''five'' if Barcelona managed to score even ''one'' (which with Lionel Messi, widely considered to be the greatest player in footballing history, was almost guaranteed) no one really gave them a chance. And that was ''before'' two of their three star strikers were ruled out through injury, forcing them to turn to Divock Origi, a striker who'd scored a total of four goals all season, and Xherdan Shaqiri, an attacker who hadn't played since January, and their title rivals all but confirmed the title the night before. And yet, Liverpool promptly ''annihilated'' Barcelona, winning 4-0 - two of those goals being scored by Origi, and in a further twist, the other two being scored by Gini Wijnaldum, only on the pitch in the second half because one of the Barcelona strikers had accidentally-on-purpose injured Liverpool's star left back, forcing a reshuffle.

** Legendary English midfielder and captain David Beckham, meanwhile, was referred to as either 'Becks' or 'Golden Balls'. It is up for debate whether this had more to do with his gifts with a football or [[{{Hunk}} his modelling career.]]

** American forward Christian Pulisic, formerly of Borussia Dortmund and currently of Chelsea, widely considered to be the first genuinely world-class player the US has produced, has been nicknamed 'Captain America' by Chelsea supporters after a barnstorming hat-trick early in his first season with Chelsea.

** Sébastien Chabal, French Number 8 was known for his beard, long hair and ferocious tackling, being nicknamed ''l'Homme des Cavernes'' — ''the Caveman'' by French fans.

* In Boxing:

** Mirko Filipovic: Cro Cop (he was a Croatian counter-terrorist police officer).

*** Earlier than all of these, third world champion Jose Raul Capablance was often known as 'The Machine', for his ability to play with such precision and accuracy and almost never make a mistake. Very impressive considering that this was in the era before even the most primitive chess computers. Even the top engines of today evaluate Capablanca's play as being some of the most accurate in history.

** "The Nigerian Nightmare" Christian Okoye.
** Patrick "Magic"/"Showtime"/"The Kid" Mahomes.

** "The Freak" Randy Moss.

* Confederate general Thomas Jonathan Jackson was nicknamed "Stonewall" Jackson for standing like a stone wall in the midst of the battle. The nickname was first used by fellow general Barnard Elliott Bee Jr., though he may not have meant it as a compliment (some think Bee was criticizing Jackson for not advancing).

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cid El Cid Campeador]], the national hero of Spain. "El Cid" is the Spanified version of Arabian Al-Sidi, which means "Lord" and Campeador comes from the Latin "campi doctus," "expert in battle." ''The Lord Master of Battles'' is so badass it hurts...