People who are Only Known by Their Nickname in comic books.
- Adventures In The Rifle Brigade: Private Hank the Yank is listed in official documents as "Private the Yank"; this may have something to do with his apparent inability to articulate himself in words other than "GAWD DAMMIT!"
- Lieutenant Milk is also solely referred to by his nickname, "Doubtful", by Captain Darcy.
- Ant-Man:
- Dr. Henry Pym is generally called Hank by everyone, with only his former wife calling him Henry.
- The Wasp aka Janet Van Dyne is frequently called just “Jan” especially by Iron Man, Captain America and Hawkeye.
- Aquila: Aquila, the main character's gladiator name, is just Latin for "eagle". His 'brother', another warrior who serves the same hungry goddess, is known simply as The Spartan from his area of origin.
- Archie Comics:
- Jughead Jones' real name is Forsythe Pendleton Jones III.
- Similarly, his sister Jellybean Jones. Real name is Forsythia.
- Pretty much everyone in the comics goes by a nickname, which usually are just shortened versions of their names (Archie is named Archibald, Betty is named Elizabeth, Moose is named Marmaduke, etc) Only Veronica gets called by her name often, and even then you'll see it as "Ronnie" or "Ron" just as much.
- The Authority: The first time we see Apollo and Midnighter, it is as their civilian names and identities are being erased. (How literally and to what extent this erasure works has been interpreted very differently by different writers: under one writer the Midnighter refers to something his father 'used to say', under another he has no memory of anything before he became a post-human.) When the Midnighter, in his own series, uncovers his old name, it turns out to be fake. He keeps it anyway.
- Batman:
- In most stories, regardless of medium, the Joker's given name is unknown, even in most stories expounding or referencing his secret origin. One of the few exceptions is in the 1989 Tim Burton film, and a subsequent episode of Batman: The Animated Series, his pre-accident name is Jack Napier; in the more recent comic book arcs "Hush Returns" and "Lovers and Madmen", only the first name "Jack" appears.
- In one story his cousin Melvin refers to him as Cousin Ja... but he is interrupted and the Joker tells him "That's not my name anymore, call me Cousin Joker."
- Melvin's last name is Reipan, Napier spelled backwards.
- Richard Grayson only goes by Dick. If someone actually calls him Richard there's something seriously wrong, unless it's Damian who sometimes calls him Richard when he drops his Last-Name Basis habit or it's Barbara Gordon who loves him.
- Timothy Drake goes by Tim.
- Several Red Robin villains never have their real names revealed, including "Promise", "The Daughter of Acheron", and most members of the Council of Spiders, who are only ever addressed by their code names.
- Brothers and martial arts masters the Legless Master and the Armless Master started going by those names as youngsters on the underground fighting circuit. Their true names are never revealed, even though the first has a cabal of very devoted students including Catwoman and the second stops going by that name with his students including Tim Drake calling him the Master of the Iron Hand.
- The Boys: The Frenchman and The Female of the Species. The former is an insane Unreliable Narrator, while the latter was kidnapped and experimented on as a child and likely doesn't remember. To their teammates they're just "Frenchie and The Female".
- Captain America:
- Steven Grant Rogers is frequently known as just “Cap” both in-universe and out of it, there’s only a few close friends such as Bucky, Tony, Natasha, and Sam who call him by his real name of Steve.
- James Buchanan Barnes is almost always referred to as Bucky, or Bucky-Cap (when serving as Captain America). Only his girlfriend Black Widow refers to him by his first name. He returns the favor, being one of the very few characters to call her Natalia, rather than just "Natasha" or “Nat” like the rest of her friends.
- Daredevil:
- Daredevil aka Matthew Murdock himself is commonly known as Matt by everyone from Kingpin to Punisher. Only a couple of people have addressed him as Matthew such Elektra and his mother in Spider-Gwen.
- Bullseye is only known by that name, and when asked for his name, "Bullseye" is what he always responds with. His legal name is "Benjamin Poindexter", but this is likely a false identity. Turns out his first name is Lester (again with the nickname being an improvement).
- In The Punisher MAX, Bullseye's real name is Shelton Pendergrass, but since the Noodle Incident that turned him from an army lawyer into a Psycho for Hire, he won't answer to anything but Bullseye.
- El Marvo: 8-Ball is Sokrates' second-in-command. No one know what his real name is.
- Empowered: Many characters in the series. While the real name of the heroine is revealed as late as volume #3, the real name of her boyfriend Thugboy is still unknown.
- The Flash: The four main Flashes are known almost exclusively by shorthand versions of their full names, to the point where most fans and writers aren't aware that those names are in fact nicknames.
- Jay Garrick is actually Jason Garrick. But many just assume he shares a name with Homer Simpson.
- Especially the case with Barry Allen, who actually has the same full name as his grandson, Bartholomew. (In the Silver Age, it was "Barrence"; this was quietly retconned in the '90s.)
- Wally West's full name is Wallace West.
- Future Foundation: Rikki is called this instead of her legal name Rebecca, at her preference, and is only referred to with the latter a couple times.
- Gen¹³: Grunge. Especially notable in that the team's members usually refer to each other by their first names. Of course, Grunge's first name is Percival.
- G.I. Joe: Pretty much every member of GI Joe and Cobra alike, to the point that even after Grunt had left the service to go to college he was unused to being called Robert.
- "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill": The eponymous Golden Eyes. If she's got a real name, the author never reveals it.
- Green Lantern:
- Hal Jordan's real name is "Harold", but he is never addressed as such, ever.
- His friend Tom Kalmaku once had the nickname "Pieface", and he was referred to as such constantly. Political correctness wasn't a big thing at the time.
- Hunter's Hellcats: This applies to all of the Hellcats except for Ben Hunter, and Heller (who is known only by her surname).
- The Incredible Hulk:
- The Hulk himself is known mainly by his moniker since Savage Hulk insists on it and actually gets pissed when people call him (puny) Banner or Bruce. Likewise Bruce himself doesn't like being called Hulk and as he normally would rather treat his big green alter ego as a seperate entity altogether.
- She-Hulk aka Jennifer Walters much like the Wasp example is primarily known as "Jen" affectionately by her close family, lovers and friends rather than Jennifer. Other heroes like Thing tend to call her "Shulkie".
- Iron Man:
- The Armoured Avenger generally gets called “Tony” by all his friends and loved ones, the aforementioned Black Widow is one of the few people other than his mother Maria who’s actually called him “Anthony” but it was specifically when she was disappointed in him due to his and The Illuminati’s actions.
- Virginia "Pepper" Potts, is always referred to as “Pepper” or “Potts” by Tony, Happy and others. Literally nobody calls her “Virginia” except when reciting her full name.
- Harold Joseph "Happy" Hogan, is known mainly by his Ironic Nickname of Happy despite being a Perpetual Frowner.
- James Rhodes aka War Machine is known as simply "Rhodey" by all his friends and love interests.
- Kid Eternity: The titular character was always just referred to as "(the) Kid," first by his grandfather and later everyone else. Eventually DC Comics got the rights to the property and did some Canon Welding with Shazam!, making him Freddy's brother with the real name Christopher "Kit" Freeman.
- Kunskapens Korridorer: Five of the students (Mia, Bosse, Micke, Svenne and Vicky) are known by just common Swedish nickname forms. But we can be pretty sure what their real names must be (Maria, Bo, Mikael, Sven and Victoria). However, we get no clue what Hjärnan's and Koma's real names are.
- Mickey Mouse Comic Universe: Eega Beeva, with most people (and readers) not even knowing that Eega Beeva is actually a nickname. There's a very good reason: Eega's real name, rarely used outside his debut, is Pittisborum Psercy Pystachi Pseter Psersimmon Plummer-Push (with a giant spit on the "Push"), long enough that Eega got winded after saying it twice in a row, at which point Mickey came up with the nickname.
- Mingamanga: The real names of the main characters are Korbinian, Mustafa, Vinh Ngoc and Daniel. They're almost always called Bini, Staffie, Vinnie and Bo.
- Mr. Miracle (Holyoke): Mr. Miracle's real name was never given, as he was a random guy given the Mind-Ray to save his life after a suicide attempt.
- Paperinik New Adventures: Zigfried. Everybody from friends to his sister to his employers call him Ziggy. He even call himself that when meeting new people.
- The Punisher: For a decade, the Punisher was never referred to by his real name, even when he stood trial in The Spectacular Spider-Man. It took until 1985 for his actual name to be established as Frank Castle (born Castiglione).
- Rychlé šípy: Červenáček and Rychlonožka in the Czech comics are literally only known by their nicknames: their real names are never revealed.
- There are other characters as well: Dlouhé bidlo and Štětináč from Rychlé šípy's arch-rival group Bratrstvo kočičí pracky are nicknames unrelated to their unknown names (although a late story suggests Dlouhé bidlo's surname may be... Bidlo); the third member is known as Bohouš, which is a nickname for Bohumil or Bohuslav. Plus there are Metráček, Bambus, Tlouštík and Pískloun, Podkova... In the books, there is Širokko, the mysterious figure from Stínadla se bouří.
- Borderline case with Haha Bimbi, who always introduces herself with her full name (Alžbětina Prknářová), but whom other characters refer to by her nickname, and fans tend to remember her by it.
- The Sandman (1989): In Death: The Time of Your Life, Foxglove's assistant goes by Boris, but Death calls him by his given name, Endymion. ("I really do prefer Boris, if you don't mind," he tells her.)
- Foxglove herself: she's rarely called by her real name, Donna Cavanagh. Even closest people call her Foxglove, or Fox.
- Song of the South: Disney's Brer Rabbit comics seem to imply that all the animals have actual names, but everyone seems to just refer to everyone as "Brer <Species Name>".
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Sonic was revealed to be the title character’s nickname. His Embarrassing Middle Name was Maurice, and his actual first name was never revealednote .
- Sonic the Comic:
- Shorty the Squirrel is known by his nickname of Shortfuse the Cybernik.
- Tails is never called by his real name, except in the Nameless Zone. In the Nameless Zone he is known by his real name "Miles Prower". In the Chemical Plant Zone he is known by a different nickname, that of Zonerunner.
- Oscar the Pig is better known by his nickname of Porker Lewis.
- Spider-Man:
- Mary Jane Watson is better known as by her dearest and nearest as "MJ" although Peter sometimes calls her "Red" the same way she calls him "Tiger".
- Gwendolyne Stacy is understandably referred to (even in the alternate universe) as mainly "Gwen" by everyone including her dad. Only MJ has ever called her Gwendolyne, just to be catty when they were rivals for Peter's affection.
- J. Jonah Jameson is known namely as "Jonah" with his first name being unknown for the longest time (it's John like his son), Spider-Man exclusively called him "Chuckles" for ages before switching to "Jonah" when they became friends.
- Edward Brock aka Venom is only ever known as "Eddie" to his friends and family.
- The Kingpin is mainly known by his Red Baron or "Fisk", only his wife Vanessa calls him by his actual name of Wilson.
- Dr. Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus is mainly known by his villain moniker (often shortened to "Doc Ock") only a select few (like Aunt May) have called him Otto.
- Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin is often know as just "Goblin" contemptuously by his Arch-Enemy Spidey although prior to Gwen's death he often called him "Gobby" more playfully. Nowdays Peter just calls him Norman or Osborn being well past nicknames with him.
- Peter Parker himself often gets called "Pete" or "Petey" by his friends, in Flash Thompson's case it showed his Character Development that he had matured from calling him "puny Parker" to "Pete". As Spider-Man most people who like him (usually other heroes) call him "Spidey" while the ones who don't (usually villains) call him "Wall Crawler".
- Strangers in Paradise:
- Katchoo's real name is Katina Choovanski, but those close to her only call her that when they're angry with her or in a very serious mood.
- Katchoo's two half-sisters, the Baker twins, are called Tambi and Bambi, and they're never referred to as anything else. It's not until the two sisters are together on-panel for the first time (many, many issues in) that we find out their real names: Mary Beth and Sara, respectively.
- Strontium Dog:
- Very few people know Johnny Alpha's real last name, since both he and his family have very compelling reasons to keep their relationship secret.
- "Middenface" McNulty's given name is Archibald, though you'd have to read the comic quite carefully to figure it out. The only ones to ever refer to him as anything other than "Middenface" are his gran (who calls him Archie) and the good kind of "Wanted"-posters (which refer to him as "The Tartan Terror".)
- Superman:
- Before Superman gave him a Kryptonian name and then an earth name, both of which placed Kon in his family, the 90's Superboy didn't have a name outside of a nickname or a number.
- In Starfire's Revenge, Supergirl villain and crime queenpin Starfire never reveals her real name.
- Alexander "Lex" Luthor. This serves to distinguish him from the heroic Luthor of Earth-3, who went by Alexander. As did his son.
- Tintin: The titular character. His name fits the familiar Francophone nicknaming pattern of reduplicating a name's syllable, as in "Loulou'' for Louis(e) (first syllable of given name), "Nana" for Anna (second syllable of given name), or "Bébel" for Jean-Paul Belmondo (first syllable of surname). "Tintin" could e. g. be based on Martin, Constantin or Célestin.
- Tomahawk: Most of the members of Tomahawk's Rangers.
- Transmetropolitan: The first president in the series is known only as The Beast. Even his kids call him that. There's also the ever-lovable Bill Chimpfucker. He only did it once, though.
- V for Vendetta: The titular V.
- Wonder Woman:
- The villain Hypnota and her sister Serva are only known by the stage names they used as Stage Magicians, no adaptation yet has given them legal names.
- Wonder Woman (1942): In "Terrors of the Air" it's made clear that "Nifta" and "Redbeard" are nicknames, but the couple's real names are never given.
- Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Poornima's name gets mentioned when she introduces herself but otherwise she goes by and everyone calls her Nim. Tekmassa's name is only known due to the YA novel, she's only referred to by her nickname Tek in the comic.
- In a similar inversion to the below mentioned Jean Grey, the titular heroine in Post-Crisis comics gets far more commonly referred to as Diana (her real name) by her closest allies rather than her official moniker of “Wonder Woman”. It’s only really villains and people outside the JL and Themyscira who call her by her superhero name. This is likely due to the concept of Wondy having a secret identity getting steadily downplayed by writers before being abolished altogether.
- X-Men:
- Katherine Pryde is almost exclusively addressed as "Kitty" by her friends and family or “Katya” by her longstanding Love Interest Colossus. It's quite a shock to the X-Men during Days of Future Past when their nervous young recruit suddenly starts insisting it's Kate (because she's swapped minds with her future self). In 2019, Kitty suddenly changed her mind, and has become exclusively known as Kate.
- Storm is more often than not referred (even by her teammates) to as just Storm, rather than her actual name of Ororo. The X-Men Film Series in particular don’t even refer to her real name until the third movie. In comics it’s generally the people she’s closest to Kitty, Xavier, Nightcrawler, Jean, Cyclops, Wolverine and T’Challa that call her Ororo.
- For the first two decades of her published existence, Rogue was known just as "Rogue", even to her nearest and dearest (which according to at least one version of her origin published before 2001 was shown to be her nickname before she discovered her powers). Only after the makers of the first movie decided to saddle her with "Marie" did that eventually bleed over into the comics, Chris Claremont eventually naming her Anna Marie Raven. (The surname is almost certainly an assumed name; it's identical to the first name of her adoptive mother, Raven Darkhölme aka Mystique).
- Wolverine took quite a while to even reveal that his name was Logan, and he didn't even volunteer it; Kurt Wagner was with him when he saw an old friend, who addressed him by name. Many years later, it was revealed that Logan was itself a nickname, and he was born James Howlett.
- Gambit is generally known only known as Gambit even when his real and fancy name of Remy Etienne LeBeau was revealed, most X-Men still refer to him by his moniker instead. Only Rogue (his lover turned wife) and a select few others call him Remy, when Rogue calls Gambit by his first, middle and surname he’s (as The Thing notes) in deep trouble.
- Jubilee is pretty much always known by her nickname, Wolverine who is a kind of father figure to her, is the only one who’s called her by real name Jubilation and gotten away with it.
- For a while, Magneto had no known name. Then in a flashback story he's referred to as "Magnus", though it was ambiguous as to whether that was his first name, his last name, or an alias. Eventually, his real name was revealed to be "Erik Magnus Lensherr". Then later on, it was decided THAT was an alias, then for a while it was "Maybe it's his real name, maybe it isn't". Now Testament seems to pretty firmly establish his real-real name as "Max Eisenhardt", but who knows how long that will last. His birth parents call him Max, which itself sounds like it's short for another name. Professor X is really the only one who regularly gets away with calling Magneto “Magnus” or “Erik” to his face.
- Juggernaut being The Dreaded is generally solely known by his monicker although jokey characters like Spidey and Deadpool call him “Juggs” or “Juggy”. Only his stepbrother Charles and Black Tom (whom he is Heterosexual Life-Partners with) call Juggernaut by his real name of Cain.
- Mystique is rarely ever called by her name Raven in the comics, except by Destiny (her wife), Wolverine, Sabertooth, and Nightcrawler (when he isn’t able to bring himself to call her mother as Rogue does). It’s more than likely “Raven Darkhölme” isn’t Mystique’s actual name either, especially since her past is shrouded in mystery. Mystique, in turn, is one of the few people who call Destiny by her real name Irene.
- Inverted with Jean Grey who nowadays hardly ever gets referred to by her offical monikers of Marvel Girl and Phoenix, Jubilee at one point even mocked Jean over the fact she’s apparently “too sexy for a code name”. Although Jean’s other loved ones (especially Cyclops and Wolverine) tend to nickname her “Jeanie” or “Red” a lot.
- X-Wing Series: Plourr Ilo it turns out is an alias, based on her full and very much longer name of Isplourrdacartha Estillo. After learning this, everyone else still always calls her Plourr Ilo, aside from in formal addresses, as seems to be Plourr's preference.
- Y: The Last Man: Agent 355. She served as the titular protagonist's bodyguard for years before she was comfortable enough to share her old name with him. And she whispered it, so the reader never finds out what it was.
- Fitting, as no one knows the real Agent 355's name either.
- Youngblood (Image Comics): In Youngblood: Judgment Day, Bryce Barstow, formerly the Fisherman, calls his former sidekick Toby King by his old hero name, Skipper - despite being his adoptive father. Toby's a little irritated, but settles the matter by saying he'd prefer his real name in this situation.
