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Secret Public Identity

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Watch: And here's your temporary Guild ID. We'll issue your permanent one once you've decided on a villain name.
St. Cloud: Augustus St. Cloud.
Watch: Ahh, going with the real name then. Very Lex Luthor of you.

A Super Hero who does not actually have a hero name, despite maintaining a generally low-profile Secret Identity. These heroes are simply called by their "real" names in the heat of battle.

This is not a character using a family or given name that is snazzy (or not) as their heroic name (for example, former surgeon Stephen Strange continuing to go by "Doctor Strange"). Compare Steven Ulysses Perhero, where the Meaningful Name has something to do with the character's powers.

Normally justified with their real name being common and their civilian identity being fairly nondescript, but not always. Or maybe they simply don't see a reason to bother with a secret identity (maybe their family is capable of protecting themselves from villain attacks, maybe they look so different as heroes that no one recognizes their civilian identity, maybe they lost everyone they love and don't have anyone left to protect, etc.)

It might backfire on them if a villain decides to learn more about them and targets their close friends and family, showing exactly why many heroes bother with a Secret Identity.

Compare Overt Operative, a secret agent who never bothers keeping low. Contrast Real Name as an Alias.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Both Todoroki and Iida decided to go with their given names (Shoto and Tenya, respectively) as their hero names. Todoroki for showing his individuality and to distance from his father Endeavor, while Iida thinks he is not worthy enough to take over his crippled brother's role.
    • Tomura Shigaraki doesn't hide himself under an alias. Subverted later when it is shown that his real name is Tenko Shimura.
  • Barnaby Brooks Jr. from Tiger & Bunny. He constantly expresses disdain whenever he gets called "Bunny", as the public quickly latched onto his partnership with Tiger as the titular "Tiger & Bunny" duo.

    Fan Works 
  • In Fly or Fall, everyone who's a member of the Winx Club operates this way.
  • The Secret Return of Alex Mack: Azure Crush, Tsurara and Victor Cready are all publicly known to be metas. Crush's mutation rendered her permanently blue, while Tsurara requires a constant source of heat so that she doesn't freeze to death... while Victor is just open about it because he's a supervillain.
  • Thaumaturgic Awakening: Saber uses her Servant class as both her codename and her public identity, seeing no particular reason to go any further than that to conceal who she is. Much to the dismay of Taylor, especially when she tries introducing her to her father.

    Film - Animated 
  • The Incredibles had a DVD extra feature with background information about the other supers who didn't get much screen time. One of these is Universal Man, who approaches this trope from the opposite direction and has no civilian identity. He wears his crime-fighting costume at all times, he insists that Universal Man is his legal name, and he gets offended when people ask him to take his mask off.

    Literature 
  • Worm:
    • Inverted with Weld; his superhero name is his only name, because he's literally made out of metal, so it would be impossible for him to maintain a secret identity, and he has no memory of his life before gaining his powers.
    • The above applies just as well for most of the Case 53s, for pretty much the same reasons (they look very obviously nonhuman, and have no memory of previous life).
    • Played straight by New Wave, a group made up of two nuclear families who happen to be related. They believe that superheroes shouldn't keep secrets and should be held completely accountable for their actions, which is why they revealed their identities... which worked against them when somebody trying to get into the Empire Eighty-Eight gang targeted and murdered the girlfriend of one of its members. New Wave proceeded to violate the Unwritten Rules by attacking Marquis while he was out of costume and relaxing in his home, which turned out to have further consequences for all involved...

    Live Action TV 
  • The Boys: None of the superheroes in this series have secret identities; their hero lives/careers are all they've ever known. This is shown several times to be a bit of a bad thing, as it makes their loved ones targets for terrorist organizations (or other supes if they get ticked off), keeps them in the limelight all their lives, and means that they can never truly have a normal life.
  • El Chapulín Colorado: His real name really is Chapulín Colorado, and he is never seen without his superhero clothes, he has no civilian identity.
  • A number of characters in both Kamen Rider and Super Sentai don't have any secret identity, whether this is because they work for organizations with public operations (such as the Go-Busters or the Riders from Revice), they don't particularly care (like Wizard or the Ryusoulgers), or other reasons (like the Shiba clan already being well-known or many Armored Riders wanting attention to begin with).
  • In the TV series My Secret Identity, the lead character doesn't actually have a secret identity.

    Radio 
  • In practically all versions of The Green Hornet, Britt Reed's Japanese/Filipino houseboy, Kato, goes into action with his boss as Kato.

    Webcomics 
  • Alex Rayne of the webcomic Wright as Rayne is public about his identity as a hero, and is a minor celebrity in his hometown of Atlanta.

    Western Animation 
  • Launchpad McQuack is often seen with Darkwing Duck as his sidekick ... yet none of the myriad villains, criminals, police officers or autograph hounds seem to care enough to look him up in the Saint Canard phone book. Except one time, when Launchpad was mistakenly reported to be Darkwing himself. Similarly, no one seems to pay attention to Gosalyn or Honker; neither of them uses a code name often.
    • Justified as one villain referred to them as Darkwing's Fan Club, so people think they just follow him around. Considering that DW's a bit of a glory hound, this is not surprising.
    • Played With in the new comic series. Negaduck finally figured it out, but only after he saw Launchpad leaving the dry cleaners with Darkwing's costume and Drake Mallard's usual outfit.
  • The eponymous crime fighter of The Dragon Queen doesn't bother with a secret identity. Rather, the Dragon Queen acquired a private investigator license and turns over all criminals to the police for the arrest.
  • On Justice League, Wonder Woman is never "officially" given the name Wonder Woman. She is addressed as such on only extremely rare occasions and only by people who are not very close with her (e.g., a bouncer at a nightclub, the obnoxious host of a talk show actively slandering the League, and Lex Luthor in the midst of battle); in every other situation she is simply "Diana". J'onn J'onzz is addressed as the Martian Manhunter only once in the entire series, in the briefing for Task Force X in the second season of Unlimited. These two characters do not have a Secret Identity or any life outside heroics, so they have no need for code names or hiding. Wonder Woman was shown to be an ambassador in one episode, so a secret identity would be all kinds of impossible.
  • Kim Possible is quite obviously this. Not only is she a Badass Normal who can hold her own against a superpowered villainess Shego, but everyone knows it. They are all so calm about it too. It also helps that her villains rarely (if ever) go after her family just to get to her. The few times it happened were because said family member was involved in the villains plot somehow. The show even deconstructs the Secret Identity trope on occasion by showing how Kim doesn't struggle with things like hiding a double life from her romantic interest or keeping secrets from her parents (who support her hero work and offer advice/help whenever they can.
  • Phineas and Ferb has Perry the Platypus/Agent P, who lives a double life as a secret agent for OWCA while also having a cover as the Flynn-Fletcher family's pet. His arch nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, knows that Agent P also goes by Perry the Platypus, but never does anything about it because he's not THAT evil. In The Movie, when Perry shows up in his civilian cover with Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doof does get suspicious about meeting another platypus named Perry, but doesn't put 2 and 2 together until he wears his signature hat later.
  • The Powerpuff Girls have no secret identities. A few times, villains came straight to their house to attack.
  • SheZow: Superhero-turned-supervillain Tara is never seen using an alias or having a secret identity ever. She's just Tara, even having the letter "T" emblazoned on the chest of her costume. It's just as well, since having her name be forgotten is one of Tara's many Berserk Buttons.
  • Steven Universe: Steven and the Crystal Gems make no effort to hide who/what they are, and Steven willingly tells people about his powers if they ask. No one has ever made a big deal out of this (with a few exceptions). Then again, most of the Gems' activities are done out of the public eye or only in Beach City (which is established multiple times to be a small tourist town).
  • In Super Chicken, Henry Cabot Henhouse III drinks his supersauce to become Super Chicken, while Henry's faithful sidekick, Fred, doesn't drink anything and becomes SC's faithful sidekick, Fred. But then, he knew the job was dangerous when he took it.
  • Played with in Super President, where his super name is his real job, but he still manages to preserve a secret ID, somehow...
  • Unlike later series, the first two The Transformers cartoons showed the Autobots regularly walking around and/or fighting Decepticons in public. They made no effort to hide what they were or why they were there. The people who met/saw them didn't seem too unnerved by their presence (or at least got over it fast enough).
  • Manny in El Tigre. Granpapi also doesn't bother hiding the fact that he is Puma Loco. Played with his father White Pantera. He actually hides his identity, with glasses, over his mask.
  • In Young Justice (2010), Artemis Crock uses the superhero name of...Artemis. Somewhat Justified because her work on the Team is covert ops, so she's not well-known publicly, and because her name fits her gimmick rather well, assuming that you're familiar with Classical Mythology.
    • This leads to an important bit of foreshadowing in "Targets" when Cheshire refers to her as "Ar—chery girl." This hints at the fact that Cheshire knows Artemis's real name, but not her codename. The reason, of course, being that they are sisters.

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