People who are Only Known by Their Nickname in live-action movies.
- 3 Days to Kill: The Wolf is almost never called by his real name.
- Played for Drama in About Elly — when Elly disappears, a police officer is incredulous that her "friends" know so little of Elly that they don't even know her first name.
- About Scout: Lulu's real first name is Tallulah, but no one calls her that except unsympathetic authority figures.
- In Accident, two of the Brain's gang are known only by their nicknames: Fatty and Uncle. The third member is a case of No Name Given. (The Brain, however, does have a real name: Ho Kwok-fai).
- All About E: E is only called Elmira by her parents, though Trish wrote it once on a postcard addressed to her too.
- Penny Lane in Almost Famous. Her real name is Lady Goodman.
- Alto: Frankie's given name is Francesca, but she's only called it a couple times by her mother.
- The titular "Amazing" from Amazing Grace and Chuck. One character he meets says it's kind of awkward calling him that and asks whether he has a real name. Amazing just smiles and says it's "worse".
- In Apocalypse Now, with the exception of Lance and Willard, all the main characters are primarily referred to by a nickname fitting their characters: Chief, Chef, and Clean. Interestingly enough, it's the only two men not referred to by a nickname who make it out of the film alive.
- August In The City: Clem's full name, Clementine, is only said once.
- In the Back to the Future series, main character Marty McFly's full name is actually Martin Seamus McFly.
- Landfill is pretty much only referred to by that name in Beerfest. Including by his wife... while having sex with his twin brother, who becomes known as Landfill II or just Landfill.
- Beyond the Lights: Kaz's full name is Kasaam, which he's a bit embarrassed about, only saying it once (while no one else uses this).
- Jeff Lebowski is "The Dude" throughout The Big Lebowski. This is mainly because the name Jeff Lebowski is a plot point. Of course it's lampshaded throughout whenever he gets angry at someone calling him by his real name rather than simply "The Dude".
- The Blind Side: Michael, at first anyway. After he reveals to Leigh Anne that he doesn't like to be called "Big Mike", she thereafter always calls him "Michael" instead.
- Blondie from Blondie Johnson is never called by her actual name, Virginia.
- The bartender with Hollywood Tourette's in The Boondock Saints is just called "Fuck-Ass," since he says it all the time. He doesn't seem to mind the nickname.
- A Boy Called Po: If anyone tries to call Po by his real name, Patrick, he replies, "Patrick's a nice name for a boy, but I think I'll call you Po."
- Miro Simic from Breaking and Entering (2006) dislikes his real first name, Mirsade, although his mother likes it because it saved his life in the Bosnian Wars by making him look Muslim rather than Serbian.
- Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman: The Machine Gun Woman. Also applies to most of the other elite hitmen, but they get far less screen time.
- Bumblebee: Charlie, as a firm tomboy, is almost always called this rather than her full name Charlene.
- Cropsy, the Big Bad in The Burning, and a few of the campers (like "Fish" and "Tiger").
- In Camp Nowhere, 12-year-old Morris Himmel goes by the nickname "Mud". The only people who call him by his actual first name are his father and his love interest.
- Camp X-Ray: Much like the "Dollars Trilogy" example below, Private Amy Cole is referred to as "Blondie" by Ali for the majority of the film, despite being played by obvious brunette Kristen Stewart.
- The Little Tramp in the Charlie Chaplin movies. Other languages call him Charlot or Carlitos. Chaplin himself referred to the character as "The Little Fellow".
- Copycat:
- MJ is only called "Mary Jane" by her captain once.
- Nicoletti is usually nicknamed "Nico".
- The Core: Beck's full name is Rebecca, but she prefers to go by Beck. When she meets up with General Purcell, she notes that only he and her father call her Rebecca.
- The Craft: Legacy: Lily's full name is Lilith, but she always goes by Lily.
- Crush: AJ is never called by anything but these initials.
- In Cuties, Amy's full name is Aminata, but only her mother calls her that.
- Cut to the Chase:
- Isobel gets called Izzy almost always.
- John Mansfield is mostly known as just "the Man".
- Darby and the Dead: Capri's full name is Capricorn, but she didn't go by that and only gets called it a couple times in the film (even her memorial marker simply says "Capri" with her surname-perhaps it's embarrassing).
- In The Darwin Awards, the documentary maker accompanying Burrows and Siri is only ever referred to as "NumbNuts". This is not an affectionate nickname.
- In Death Ring, two of the hunters only introduce themselves only by their nicknames: Apache and the Iceman.
- "The Kid" in Dick Tracy, though at the end he's given a name: Dick Tracy, Jr.
- The crooks Gruesome, Melody and X-Ray in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome.
- In Dobermann, the majority of the gang are only referred to bu their nicknames: Dobermann, Nat the Gypsy, the Abbot, Mosquito, and Pitbull. Christini briefly rattles of their real names when he is interrogating Pitbull near the end.
- Doctor in the House (1954): The bartender is only known as "the Padre", so the patients can believe the doctors are going to chapel rather than across to the pub.
- Dog Soldiers has "Spoon" Witherspoon. His first name is never revealed.
- The Man With No Name in the Dollars Trilogy gets a different nickname in each installment of the trilogy (in order "Joe", "Manco", and "Blondie"). His real name is — obviously — never given.
- Similarly, in For a Few Dollars More, the villain is simply known as "El Indio". In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Lee Van Cleef plays a villain simply named "Angel Eyes".
- Dope: Diggy (Cassandra) and Jib (James) are only called by their legal names a single time in each case.
- Drive-Away Dolls: Sukie's full name is Susanne, which only gets said a couple times.
- Duck Butter: Nima's full name is really Naima, but she's happy going by this. It's only used when she introduces herself to Sergio early on.
- Spider from Elysium.
- E.T. from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In the cancelled sequel, his real name was going to be revealed to be Zrek.
- All characters in the thriller Exam are referred to by hair colour, ethnicity or job title, with the exception of the mystical CEO.
- Although the main character of Falling Down is named William Foster, he is rarely referred to as such, and credited as the name on his vanity license plate, "D-FENS".
- Fantastic Beasts: Tina is called this (or Teeny by her sister), never Porpentina, her full first name (which isn't too surprising).
- Feast of Love: Oscar's dad is only called "the Bat".
- Fast Color: Bo's full name turns out to be Bonnie, though only her former partner Dean calls her that.
- The named sailors in Follow the Fleet are known only by their nicknames. The male leads are "Bake" Baker and "Bilge" Smith, and there's another crewman known as Dopey.
- Foxfire (1996): Legs is only called her legal name once, while in court.
- Freaky: The Blissfield Butcher is only known by that name except for when his last name, Sherman, is mentioned briefly on a news broadcast.
- In Gambit, Harry Deane's friend, the art forger, is never referred to as anything other than "the Major".
- In The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, the GM's name is Kevin Lodge, but almost everyone calls him Lodge. The newbie player addresses him by his first name, and the rest of the gaming group expresses astonishment at Lodge having a first name.Joanna: Thanks, Kevin. I'll look it over. [leaves]
Mark: Kevin? Who the hell is Kevin?
Lodge: I'm Kevin!
Mark: Dude, you have a first name? - Ghost Rock: One of the outlaws in Pickett's gang is only known as 'The Barber': because he fights wielding a cutthroat razor in each hand.
- Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed: Ghost is only ever referred to as "Ghost." Apparently her grandmother started calling her that when she was 7 as a way to subconsciously stop her from making sudden noises.
- The killer in Girl House is only known by his online handle: Loverboy.
- Girls Like Magic: Jamie's given name is Jamina, but only her parents call her that.
- Patch, the leader of the Howlers motorcycle gang in Goldstone.
- Of the main characters in Guns, Girls and Gambling, only the Sheriffs (Hutchins and Cowley), Vivian and (possibly) Mr. Crow are consistently addressed by their actual names. Everybody else is referred to by a nickname (e.g. Mo, Redfoot and Dark Eyes), a physical description (The Blonde), a job title (The Chief, The Rancher), a self-given title (The Cowboy, The Indian), a description based on where they first appeared (The Girl Next Door), or , the case of the Elvis Impersonators, the name Elvis which an additional descriptor (Asian, Gay, Little Person, and Elvis).
- In both the film and book versions of The Help, main character Skeeter Phelan is only called Eugenia by her mother.
- The Hollow Child: Samantha is called Sam most of the time.
- In Hooded Angels, 'Widow' Wilson says that she has been called 'Widow' for so long that she no longer remembers what her given name was.
- In the Japanese horror film House, the seven girls are referred only by their nicknames, even by family; namely, they're Gorgeous, Fantasy, Prof, Kung Fu, Melody, Sweet, and Mac (that's short for "stomach"). This is the first real clue that these girls are meant to be thought of as more archetypes than actual characters.
- The title character in Hudson Hawk, who is called that by everyone except his best friend Tommy Five-Tone. Tommy calls him his real name: Eddie.
- The Hunger Games: Prim's full name is Primrose, but everyone calls her Prim.
- In The Immortals, the hostage in the Egyptian costume is only referred to as 'Cleopatra', and is identified as such in the credits.
- The title character of Indiana Jones. His real name is Henry Waltonnote Jones, Jr.
- And Mutt Williams in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. His real name is Henry Walton Jones III, according to his mother Marian, at least until she married Mutt's stepfather and changed it to Williams.
- Inglourious Basterds. While it's likely the Nazis know the Basterds' real names, they are mostly called by their nicknames: The Bear Jew, Aldo the Apache, etc.
- Jennifer's Body: Needy's first name is really Anita, but almost no one uses it.
- In John Doe: Vigilante, the title character is always referred to by his alias of 'John Doe', even after his arrest. His actual surname is Jones (revealed when a police officer does a licence check on him), but his first name is never revealed.
- Pudwell from Kenny & Company has been known by that nickname for so long that Kenny doesn't remember his real name. Even his mom calls him Pudwell.
- The Bride in Kill Bill is this with respect to the audience — up to a certain point, any references to her by her actual name (Beatrix Kiddo) are censored out.
- "Captain" in The King and the Clown. Might be considered an example of Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep", except he gets the nickname of Captain before he gets leadership of the performing troupe.
- In King of Thieves, Brian gave Basil his nickname because his plummy accent reminded him of Basil Brush. If Brian knows Basil's real name, he never mentions it, and the rest of the gang only know him as Basil.
- In Kingsman: The Secret Service, although the audience does learn that Eggsy’s given name is Gary, he introduces himself to the other Kingsman candidates as Eggsy, and is exclusively referred to as Eggsy by the other characters in the film.
- Kiss Me (2011): We only learn “Mia” is a nickname for “Maria” when she's about to get married and recites her whole name.
- Lampshade hung, of course, in Last Action Hero, where a one-note character named Skeezie is actually named just Skeezie; he even gives that as his full name on a police report.
- Last Christmas:
- Kate's name is "Katarina," but she started going by a traditional English name after immigrating to the UK. Her family still calls her "Katarina," much to her annoyance.
- Kate's boss exclusively goes by "Santa," to the point that Kate is surprised to find out it's not actually her name, much to her amusement. She explains that her name is Chinese and most English customers have trouble pronouncing it, so she uses nicknames to make things simpler — she chose "Santa" because she runs a Christmas-all-year shop. She was "Muffin" at a bakery and "Kitty" at a pet shop.
- On the flipside, Santa can't pronounce her boyfriend's name (she comments it has a lot of guttural sounds, implying it's Slavic), so she dubs him "Boy," and it sticks. We never even find out what his actual name is.
- The Leopard Man: Clo-Clo is only called by her real name, Gabriella, once in the entire movie, when her mother asks why she's leaving in the middle of the night.
- Little Voice: Everyone calls the tittle character LV (Little Voice) but her real name is Laura.
- Lost and Delirious: Tori's first name is really Victoria, but she's rarely called that. Pauline meanwhile is always just called Paulie.
- Mabul: Yoni and Miri's full first names, Yonatan and Miriam, are only used at Yoni's Bar Mitzvah.
- Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome: At least two members of the feral tribe are only addressed by names which they almost certainly received later in life.
- Mr. Skyfish, who uses a kite to fish for birds.
- Scroolose, whose name indicates his mental issues ("Screw loose"), which isn't something that would have been obvious when he was born.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Both of Iron Man's sidekicks are only ever referred to by their nicknames.
- Tony's head of security is officially named "Harold Hogan", but goes by "Happy".
- Tony's personal assistant and later girlfriend/fiancée is officially named "Virginia Potts", but goes by "Pepper".
- It also applies to Tony himself, as it's the shortened form of Anthony.
- Bucky Barnes is only referred to as "James" about three times throughout the entire franchise. The same exhibition that refers to Steve as "Steven" calls him Bucky. When an interrogator calls him James, he (somewhat petulantly) informs him that "My name is Bucky." Basically, any time the character appears or is referenced outside of a HYDRA or generic assassination context he will almost certainly be referred to as "Bucky", "Barnes" (possibly prefixed by "Sergeant") or "Bucky Barnes", and thanks to seventy years of brainwashing it's entirely possible that not even the man himself thinks of Bucky as "James Buchanan Barnes" at this point.
- Both of Iron Man's sidekicks are only ever referred to by their nicknames.
- Every human character in The Matrix is known by their hacker handle (Neo, Trinity, Morpheus) rather than their birth name. Only Neo had his name revealed (to the point that Arch-Enemy Smith calls him "Mr. Anderson").
- Benji from the last three Mission Impossible movies. Even CIA director Hunley refers to him at one point as "Benji Dunn" instead of "Benjamin Dunn", even though the two of them don't have a particular good relationship and Hunley thinks that Benji has gone rogue at that time.
- The whole cast of Celebrity Impersonators in Mister Lonely.
- Monos: All of the Monos are only known by their noms de guerre, such as Wolf, Lady, Smurf and Rambo. They refer to their hostage as "Doctora" throughout the film. We only find out her real name in the very end from a news report.
- Mouth to Mouth: Dog, Tiger, Mad Axe, Manson, and more.
- Dutch's two henchmen in Never Grow Old, Dumb-Dumb (who is The Speechless) and Sicily (who doesn't speak English). Dutch himself just averts this; giving his full name as Christopher 'Dutch' Albert during the 'friendship ceremony' with Patrick.
- No Escape (1994): The Father is only ever referred to as this.
- The Treadgold children from No Kidding insist on only being known as "Dandy Big" and "Dandy Little":Dandy Little: "Dandy Big" him, "Dandy Little" me. Don't use our given names, they stink.
- The Tet from Oblivion (2013) is named after its shape
and it never gives us its actual classification other than "God", that is. - In Ocean's Eleven there is "The Amazing Yen" and Basher Tarr.
- In The Odd Angry Shot, Bung's actual name — first or last — is never revealed.
- In Once Upon a Spy, The Spymaster who heads the agency Chenault and Tannehill work for is known only as 'the Lady'.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blackbeard's real name is mentioned only once near the beginning of the film, and from that point on he's referred to as either Blackbeard or Captain. Probably a case of Truth in Television — A lot more people know the real-life pirate as Blackbeard than Edward Teach.
- Plan B (2021):
- Sunny is only called her full name, Sunita, by her mother.
- Lupe's really Guadalupe, but only her dad uses that.
- The first name of Jo from Please Turn Over is actually "Josephine", but only Maurice, her boss at the hair salon, calls her such, and she only uses it herself on the cover of Naked Revolt.
- Prairie Fever: It seems unlikely that Blue is her actual given name, but no one — not even her husband — ever refers to her as anything else.
- The Great Kanaka, Starcat, Provoloney, and Yo-Yo from Psycho Beach Party.
- In Purple Rain, Prince's character is referred to "The Kid" even in the credits. He's never referred to by name, even by his parents. He's still just "The Kid" in the pseudo-sequel Graffiti Bridge.
- In the film adaptation of La Reine Margot, the titular character is only called Marguerite during her wedding ceremony. At all other times, people call her by the pet name Margot.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera: "GraveRobber, GraveRobber, sometimes I wonder why I even bother..."
- The Retreat (2021): Val is only called her full name Valerie a couple times.
- Revenge (2017): Jen's full name is Jennifer, but the only time it is used is when Richard introduces her to his buddies. Apart from that, everyone just calls her Jen.
- Riot Girls: Nat is presumably Natalie, or maybe Natasha, though we never hear anything else. Scratch, Fish and many more are also only called by what're presumably nicknames too.
- In the various incarnations of RoboCop, if you run Omni Consumer Products, then chances are very good your name won't be revealed. The head of OCP in the first two movies and the woman in charge of it for the first two episodes of RoboCop: Prime Directives are only referred to the respective nicknames "The Old Man" and "the Old Woman". The guy who ran it in the third movie and the man who ran it in RoboCop: The Series, however, fall under Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" as they're referred to their respective job titles of "the CEO" (though in a case of All There in the Manual, the comic adaptation by Dark Horse Comics, while it doesn't reveal his first name, states he's Bob Morton's father) and "the Chairman".
- Rock Star : Kirk Cuddy refers to all women as "Tottie".
- The Secret (2007): Sam is rarely called by her full name, Samantha.
- In Seven (1979), two of Sevano's Seven — Cowboy and the Professor — never have their real names disclosed. Lampshaded when Jenny asks Cowboy what his first name is, and he replies "Drugstore".
- The Shawshank Redemption: You've got to pity poor Fatass, who is not only beaten to death his first night in prison, but is stuck with that name in the credits.
- Nose Noseworthy in Shorts — apparently not his actual given name (we assume it comes from his last name), yet he is listed as "Nose" Noseworthy on his episode card and Toby says he's 'a kid that everyone calls Nose', completely avoiding stating his real name. Even his father never calls him by name — or nickname, for that matter — the closest we get is 'son'.
- Shot Caller: The Beast is never referred to by anything else. His real name, Jerry Manning, is only briefly seen when the Aryan Brotherhood's minion prison guard types up a report which includes this.
- In Snuff Movie, the trio of teenage murder groupies are only know as X, Teeth and Youth.
- Star Wars:
- Most people in the galaxy refer to him as Jabba the Hutt, probably completely unaware of his full name: Jabba Desilijic Tiure. This is never mentioned in the movies, but does appear in the Expanded Universe.
- It's implied this may be the case with Rey from The Force Awakens, due to her name being very similar to the last name of a long-dead Rebel pilot whose helmet she owns, "Ræh", which is visible written on the helmet during the scene where she's wearing it while eating.
- Another Sequel Trilogy lead, Finn, as a former First Order stormtrooper, only had a serial number, so a nickname is an improvement.
- General Grievous' real name is Qymaen jai Sheelal (like Jabba, his real name was only revealed in the EU.)
- In The Story of Luke, Zack introduces himself as "Zack, never Zachary."
- In Stripped to Kill, one of the club patrons is referred to by the girls as 'Mr. Pocket': becuase he always keeps one hand in his pants pocket. His actual name is never revealed.
- The five protagonists of Sucker Punch are referred to only by the nicknames the antagonist, Blue, gives them: Baby Doll, Sweet Pea, Rocket, Amber, and Blondie. Even Sweet Pea and Rocket, who are sisters, don't call each other by their real names.
- Surrounded: Mo introduces herself as Mo, not her full name Moses, which only gets used briefly.
- Thank You for Smoking: Nick Naylor's boss, BR. He even has that name on his office door."The name 'BR' came from his tour in Vietnam. The people who know its meaning are all dead."
- They Live by Night: All the main characters are only ever called by their nicknames. Bowie and Keechie's real names are revealed mean they get married (Bowie is Arthur Bowers and Keechie is Catherine Mobley) and T-Dub and Chicamaw's names are mentioned in the article describing their escape (Henry "T-Dub" Mansfield and Chicamaw "One-Eye" Mobley).
- Goose in Top Gun. Everyone, even his own wife, just calls him that. His real name, which is seen on a box, is Nick Bradshaw.
- This seems to be based on some kind of fact. In the credits about a dozen technical advisors are listed as "<First Name> <Nickname> <Last Name>".
- Trap For Cinderella:
- Twice Round the Daffodils:
- Nurse Catty's first name is "Catry", but only Matron regularly calls her that.
- Chris' first name, "Christopher", is hardly used in favour of the more casual alternative.
- In keeping with the working class/criminal nature of the setting, several characters in Two Hands are only ever addressed by their nick name. This includes Alex's brother Rocket, the bank robber Wozza, and the gangsters Pando, Acko and Wallynote .
- U571 has Trigger, Rabbit, and Chief, among others. Chief is referred to as such because he's Chief of the Boat, but the others are nicknames.
- Cuddles in Underworld U.S.A..
- In The Walking Dead (1936), Nolan's driver is a gambling addict known only as Betcha.
- Wendy: The only other girl on the island is called "Cudjoe Head", which you have to presume isn't her real name.
- We're All Going to the World's Fair: Casey and JLB are only known to each other and us by their internet handles. Casey claims that she's not using her real name, though she could be lying. In the end, JLB claims that they exchanged their real names when they met in real life, but he doesn't say what they are.
- Ivan Ivanych Naydenov in White Tiger is a patient with no memory and no documents in a Russian military hospital. He is called Ivan Ivanych (like John Johnson) for want of anything better, and is given the surname Naydenov (meaning "found") because he was found in a tank.
- Who's Singing Over There?: Most characters are only known by their description (the Singer, the Hunter, the Bride et cetera). Not very surprising, since they all meet on a bus and don't know each other.
- Wild Thing is referred to only by the nickname given him by the homeless woman who raised him. His original name is never mentioned.
- Wonder Woman (2017): "Chief"'s real name is never given. At least, not in English. In Blackfoot, he identifies himself as Napi to Diana.
- X-Men Film Series:
- Ororo Munroe is regularly referred to as Storm.
- Everyone calls Rogue by her code name. Marie is only used twice in the entire franchise.
- X-Men: The Last Stand: Like his comic book counterpart, Leech is referred to as simply "Jimmy" with no surname given.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: Psylocke and Angel are only called by their code names. Jubilation Lee goes by her nickname Jubilee in promotional materials.
- Nut from Zebrahead (1992) is called Nut because he's crazy, he used to be really small, and his head is shaped kind of like a peanut. His real name is Calvin MacRae, but no one uses it, not even the teachers.
- The main characters of Zombieland use the place of their destination in place of their real names to avoid personal attachment. Needless to say it doesn't work.
- The Zombie Apocalypse in Apartment 14F: The name of the woman who lives in apartment 15F is never stated. Raymond decides to call her Red, which is how she's referred to from then on.
