I Have Many Names



"Verence: Are you Death, fellow? Death: Verence: Which one are you using at present?"

- Wyrd Sisters

In some stories there are characters with so many names, aliases, bynames, and/or titles that it's hard to keep track of them. An attempt to do so ends up with an Overly Long Name. As such, when asked who they are, it is not uncommon for them to reply "I Have Many Names."

Gods and whatnot tend to have hundreds of names.

Bonus points if the character lists these names in the form of a Badass Boast, in which case some of them are probably Awesome McCoolnames and/or Names to Run Away From Really Fast.

In a comedy, expect one of the names to be noticeably different from the others, and/or somewhat less than impressive.

Polar opposite of No Name Given. Compare The Magnificent. Contrast Just the First Citizen.

Anime and Manga
"Truth: Who am I? One name you might have for me is the World, or you might call me the Universe, or perhaps God, or perhaps the Truth. I am All, and I am One. So of course, this also means that I am You."
 * Yugi's alter-ego recites this line in the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub (which shouldn't technically count); but he's been referred to as Pharaoh (sometimes Nameless Pharaoh), Yami (for a few dub episodes, this is more often a Fanon name), Spirit (also for a few episodes), Mou Hitori no Boku (what Yugi calls him in the Japanese version, "the other me"), and his true name,.
 * On the abridged series, he gets the classic line: "I have had many names. Once, I was known as Pharaoh. Then, I was the Artist Formerly Known as Pharaoh."
 * Let's not forget his other name, Dan Green!!!!
 * Perhaps more importantly, he's also known as Yugi-oh, which translates to "King of Games."
 * Both Kenshiro and Raoh have at least two titles on Fist of the North Star: Raoh is known as both Ken-Oh (Fist King) and The Conqueror of the Century's End, and Kenshiro is called The Man With the Seven Scars and The Savior of the Century's End.
 * Exaggerated in Hellsing. Both Alucard and Alexander Anderson have a ridiculous amount of nicknames that they are referred by many times in the series.
 * Among other names, Anderson is known as: Father Anderson, Paladin Anderson, Executioner Anderson, Bayonet Anderson, Angel Dust Anderson (Dust to Dust Anderson in the OVA), Off With Its Head Anderson (OVA only), Assassin Anderson, Regenerator Anderson, Killing Judge Anderson, and Judas Priest (Alucard often calls him this).
 * And three of the five times Anderson has shown up somebody says ALL of them.
 * Van from Gun X Sword has a large amount of nicknames, and is referred to by a different one in each episode. The two most frequently used are "Van of the Dawn" and "Van the Nice Guy", although others that people known him by are downright insulting (i.e. "Garbage Can Van").
 * Another frequent one is "Van of a Thousand Conquests" though, as the supporting cast is quick to correct, it is actually "Van of a Thousand Naps"
 * Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell from Mahou Sensei Negima seems to get more and more of these as time goes by. The Dark Evangel, the Magus Nosferatu, the Doll Master, the Queen of the Night. Usually uttered by other mages to emphasize how casual the main group has gotten with her—and just how much of a figure of terrifying darkness she is to everyone else.
 * Subverted shortly after Anya arrives. When she expresses disbelief born of terror that Negi and his girls are training under Evangeline, Yue recites a partial roster of Eva's aliases in a bored tone to emphasize that yes, this Evangeline is indeed that Evangeline, and yeah, they know all about her reputation.
 * Current list: Evangelina Athanasia Ecatherina MacDovell (on her semi-official Pactio card), Dark Evangel, Maga Nosferatu, The Queen of The Night, The Doll Master, The Apostle of Destruction, The Tidings of Evil, Puppet Master, Dreaded Vampire, High Daylight Walker, The Girl Queen of Darkness, The Visitation of Woe, Evil Sound, The Disciple of Dark Tones, Disciple of Catastrophic Noise, The Gospel of Darkness, The Strongest Invincible Vampire (from the Negima Bible). Her classmates call her Eva-chan, Negi usually calls her Evangeline-san when not in a master-student context, and Albireo Imma calls her Kitty.
 * And Rakan calls her Loli Grandma, which really pisses her off.
 * This is parodied by Jack Rakan, who has names like "The Thousand Blades" and "Legendary Hero" among the common people. He is also known as "The Invincible Idiot" and "That Damn Guy You Can Stab With Swords All You Like and It Won't Do a Thing, Damnit" among those who actually know him.
 * L from Death Note definitely counts. L isn't his real name (It's ). His aliases include Hideki Ryuga (for when he goes to Light's college), Ryuzaki (how the Kira Investigation force refers to him),
 * And of course Lina Inverse, who has among her titles: the Bandit Killer, the Enemy Of All Who Live, Lina The Pink, and the Dragon Spooker (in the dub).
 * Possibly subverted by Coyote Ragtime Show by Mister, who has so many aliases and false identities that "Mister" is the only thing he can reliably be called.
 * Baccano!'s Claire Stanfield, a.k.a Vino,, and a number of aliases that he changes about every week or so before finally sticking with for legal reasons like . His stepbrothers are more than a little annoyed with this practice.
 * Hei (a name which in itself is an alias) from Darker than Black has a number of them, including Li Shenshun, BK201, the Black Reaper, and (thanks to one of his slashfic-writing Loony Fans) "the masked man with delicious collarbones"...Hey, he had no control over that last one, okay?
 * Yuuko Ichihara from ×××HOLiC has gained quite the long list of names over the course of her career, including the Time-Space Witch, the Dimensional Witch, the Far East Witch, and the Girl Witch, and that's just for starters. Even the name she gives Watanuki is just another pseudonym.
 * Guts of Berserk is known as "The Black Swordsman" and "The Branded Swordsman" after the Eclipse, but back in the days when he was with the Band of the Hawk, in addition to his official title of Commander of the Hawk's Raiders, he also earned the title of "The Hundred Man Slayer" because of what he did to the Blue Whale Knights around the middle of the Golden Age arc.
 * Vash The Stampede is only really named 'Vash,' although he seems to have accepted 'The Stampede' as a legitimate surname since it became his most common epithet. He's also known as 'The Humanoid Typhoon,' 'The Walking Disaster Area,' 'The Demon of July,' and 'The First Human Act of God,' though the latter is only for insurance purposes.
 * (And technically inaccurate, but so is the demon one.) Has also gone by 'Ace Gunman' and on one occasion introduced himself as "Valentinez Alkalinella Xi'hak Sicidabohertz Gombigobella Blue Stradavari Talentrent Pierre Andre Charlton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III" just to be annoying. Usually avoids aliases and gives his real name despite its notoriety. Apparently hates lying.
 * Wolfwood's also doing pretty well here. He also generally gives his real name, which is an understated Awesome McCoolname in its own right. Manga Wolfwood, however, is has also been known by the professional name 'Nicholas The Punisher'. Also
 * Meryl and Millie only have one stylish nickname each. Like most of the Gung Ho Guns! It's kind of a thing they do on that planet.
 * Several characters in A Certain Magical Index have multiple nicknames or titles.
 * Kamijou Touma is known as "Imagine Breaker", "The One Superior to God", "The One Who Cleanses God" (these two are based off the translation of his family name) and to Misaka: "that bastard"
 * Misaka is known as "Railgun", "The Ace of Tokiwadai", "the #3 Esper" and to Touma: "Biri-Biri" (the japanese onomatopeia for electricity)
 * Accelerator goes by the codename given to him since he does not remember his own name. He is also known as "the #1 esper", "Ippotsuko" (one way street) and a few other names.
 * The second anime and original manga of Fullmetal Alchemist has the Truth, an apparition who guards the Gate of Truth within every human's being.

Comic Books

 * Dream from The Sandman is a prime example of this trope since he "collects names as others collect friends" (To wit, Morpheus, Dreamlord, The Sandman, Oneiros, Kai'ckul, Lord L'zoril, Shaper of Forms, Lord Shaper and on at least one occasion, "Tall, Pale and Interestin'").
 * Lucifer Morningstar, The Morningstar, Atse'hashke, The Lightbringer, Star of the Morning, Satan, Sammael, The Devil; surprisingly few really.
 * Galactus is said by the Silver Surfer to have many names. We just used his.
 * In Marvel's The Mighty Thor, when up against the Midgard Serpent when it does not know him, Thor identifies himself with an authentic reeling off of his names from mythology.
 * Marvel's Hank Pym has been known as at least Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, and Wasp, usually with slight variation in powers associated with each. The first two times were plot-based, but on occasion he's apparently just decided "I'm going to be Yellowjacket today".
 * Of course, Wasp is ... The man has serious issues.
 * As immortals, the Eternals have all used numerous names over the millennia, but The Forgotten One, aka Hero, aka Dragon-Slayer, aka Gilgamesh, is the grand champion; he has a ton and can't decide which one to use. Hercules even got into a spat with him for using his name. Meanwhile his real name is still unknown, making him No Name Given as well.
 * Hero Hotline strongman Sturgis Butterfield has been Mister Muscle, Muscle Man, Brother Bicep, Mister Mighty, and Flex.
 * "Some know him as Nester 13, others know him simply as N 13, or Count Onme, or Scooter, but no one really knows his true name."
 * Demons in the Marvel Universe often have Many Names, at least when it comes to Big Bad ones. It goes without saying that most of these are Names to Run Away From Really Fast.
 * Dormammu, Dread Dormammu or The Dread One, The Black One, Eater of Souls, Lord of Darkness, Lord of Chaos, Lord of the Dark Dimension
 * Shuma-Gorath, He-Who-Sleeps-But-Shal-Awake, Lord of Chaos, The Great Old One, The Withering Devourer, The Unclosing Eye
 * The Elder God Set, Father Set, The Great Devourer, Set the Great Destroyer
 * As an example of the Hydra Problem, Set literally Has Many Names- Set, Apep, Ophion, Tiamat, Lotan, Leviathan and Apocalypse, one for each of its seven heads. Presumably a case of Julius Beethoven Da Vinci, with each name forming the basis for varying mythical great serpent monsters (though the Egytian god Set, in Marvel, is a seperate character, albeit one who took the name of the Elder God).
 * The Elder God Chthon, The Other, The Great Shadow, He Who Holds The Darkness, Demon Of The Darkhold
 * Superman kind of fits. Although he has two real names ("Kal-El"/"Kal-L" and "Clark Kent") and one main codename ("Superman"), he has gone by other names, such as "Nightwing". Then you add all the nicknames, such as "The Man of Steel", "The Big Blue Boy Scout", "The Big Blue Cheese" (a Shout-Out to Captain Marvel), just "Big Blue", "The Last Son of Krypton", "the Red-Blue Blur" (in Smallville), the "Man of Tomorrow", "Son of Jor-El", "The Metropolis Marvel", "The Big Red S," and others not listed.
 * Nicknames shouldn't really count, as almost all established superheroes accumulate a passel of them. Spider-Man has "wall-crawler," "web-slinger," "webhead," and "Spidey"; Batman has "the caped crusader," "Bats," "Dark Knight," "the Goddamn Batman;" etc.
 * Well, Spidey can... kinda count. Captain Universe, Scarlet Spider, Spider Carnage, Spider Hulk, Bombastic Bag-Man, Ricochet, and whatever names he had during Identity Crisis.
 * A better example would be Captain America (comics)/Steve Rogers. At various times in his career, Cap has also gone by "The Captain" and "Nomad" (among others), while his civilian aliases have included "Grant Rogers", "Buck Jones", "Roger Stevens", and "Brett Hendrick".
 * Another Marvel example is James Howlett, better known as Wolverine, but also known as Logan (sometimes with a "Jim" appended to it whenever the situation demanded), Patch, Weapon X, Death (when he was one of Apocalypse's Horseman, though that's not something one can leave behind as Archangel and Gambit can attest), The Ol' Canucklehead and so on and on.
 * Justice League villain Queen of Fables is the  literal embodiment of fairy tale villainy. As a result, her many names are those of every villain in those stories, every Wicked Witch,  every cruel stepmother, every  child-devouring hag, she's lived each and every one of those lives and has all those identities and names. Hardly a surprise then, that she is  completely off her rocker.
 * Outside of the original Captain Mar-Vell, various Marvel Universe characters that take on the title of 'Marvel' in their superhero title at some point wind up changing their alias multiple times.
 * Monica Rambeau: Captain Marvel, Photon, Pulsar, Daystar, Sceptre, Lady of Light, Monica Marvel
 * Genis-Vell: Legacy, Captain Marvel, Photon
 * Phyla-Vell: Captain Marvel, Quasar, Martyr
 * Robert 'Bob' Grayson: Marvel Boy, The Crusader, the Uranian.
 * Carol Danvers: Ms. Marvel, Binary, Warbird,back to Ms. Marvel again and.
 * Noh-Varr: Marvel Boy, Captain Marvel, and Protector
 * Vance Astro/Astrovik: Marvel Boy,, Justice, Major Astro, Major Victory
 * Jean Grey: Marvel Girl, Phoenix, no code-name, Phoenix again, no code-name again
 * Rachel Summers: no code-name, Phoenix, Marvel Girl (also changed her real name to Rachel Grey)
 * Kitty Pryde: Ariel, Sprite, Shadowcat, Captain Kate Pryde, and The Red Queen (the last being a "villain name" she used to infiltrate the Hellfire Club)
 * Helmut Zemo: Phoenix, Baron Zemo, and Citizen V.
 * Karla Sofen: Moonstone, Meteorite and Ms. Marvel.
 * Erik Josten: Power Man, Smuggler, Goliath, Atlas
 * Norbert Ebersol: Fixer, Mr. Fix, Techno, Ogre
 * Abner Jenkins: Beetle, Mach-1,Mach-2,Mach-3,Mach-4,Mach-5
 * Jhonen Vasquez parodies this with Senor Juan Diablo complaining about all the foolish names humans keep inventing for him, and insisting on his real name. He then compromises and lets Johnny the Homicidal Maniac call him Mister Satan.
 * And his son, The Dark Messiah, The Unholy Son, The second coming of evil... His mom calls him Pepito. His doggie's name is woofles.
 * The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen does this with a few people, combining several characters from established fiction into a single person
 * Orlando is Virginia Woolf's Orlando as well as Roland, the Mona Lisa, Orlando the Marmalade Cat, and "O" from The Story of O
 * Robert Kim Cherry is Bob Cherry from the Billy Bunter stories, Harry Lime, "M", and "Mother" from The Avengers
 * Oliver Haddo, an Aleister Crowley analogue, is known as Simon Iff, Dr. Carswell Trelawney, Adrian Marcato, and Hjalmar Poelzig, all names of fictional counterparts to the real Crowley.
 * Caged Demonwolf from Empowered has many names, The Other Wiki listing at least 72 at the last count, although he made up most of those himself.
 * Empowered herself has a fair number of names applied to her as well. Unfortunately they are along the lines of "Useless Lass" and "Captain Kidnapped".
 * Nathan Cable Christopher Charles Summers Winters Dayspring Askani'Son Soldier X. Deadpool suggests that he just go by Priscilla.
 * In Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, Robotnik is known as nearly every name he's been known by in all other media except for "Ovi"; There's Warlord Julian Kintobor of the House of Ivo, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, plus his replacement being known as Robot-Robotnik, Robotnik Mach Two and Eggman... lampshaded in a several post-200 issues (after his ) when he introduces himself as "Warlord-Doctor Julian Ivo Eggman-Robo-Kintobor Mach Two" and later muses on how he gained each of his names, which
 * Although God appears in DC Comics fairly regularly, he never uses any of his many, many canonical names. So far, he's been referred to as The Presence, The Voice, The Hand, and The Source, and, according to at least one account, Rama Kushna (though He was a She in this case).
 * How about Azrael? Jean-Paul Valley had "the Agent of the Bat," "the Punishing Angel," "the Avenging Angel," and simply "Az." Michael Lane, on the other hand, has "Death's Dark Knight," "the Dark Knight of God," "God's Sword of Justice," and "the Angel in the Dark."
 * The soul of the pre-Crisis Supergirl appears in Peter David's Supergirl comics issue 48 and 49, and said this to the then-current Supergirl Linda Danvers: "I have gone by many names, but the one I am most fond of is: Kara!"
 * Since Bullseye keeps his real name a secret, has used several aliases over the years. Benjamin Pointdexter, Shelton Pendergrass, Matt Hobson, etc.

Fan Works
""Allow me to introduce myself. I am He of the Seven Thorns, the Birdcatcher, the Hunter in the Dark. I am Thalo..." The Sidhe gave an elaborate bow, then shrugged, a knowing gleam in his eyes. "I go by many names...as I wager so do you.""
 * Celebrian has several names, nearly all of them NSFW.
 * In the 7th Sea story Homecoming, the Sidhe hunter Thalo not only introduces himself that way to his quarry—but implies his prey does as well.

""I have many names and I have no name, for they drift away with the currents.""
 * The Game Mod Brotherhood of Shadow for Knights of the Old Republic uses this frequently, as many of the characters have assumed new names, identities and lives. "Shadow"  is the most prominent example.
 * Luffy in The Will of the D when

""In one world, I was reborn as a dancer named Linna Yamazaki, who grew and lived as a mortal and came into her birthright on the eve of the Apocalypse. In another, I never Fell, and a people of horses and plains do me duty and worship. In yet another, I invest avatar after avatar, calling to myself each time the best and brightest in the arts of war to do battle against the Dark. I have been Sekhmet, Mylee, Ishtar, Michael, Athena and a billion others, and I will be a billion more before the worlds grow dim and cold. "The Three were once the Four -- the Maiden, the Warrior, the Mother and the Crone. I am whole again.  I am the Warrior.""
 * Douglas Sangnoir appears to be accumulating names as he travels in Drunkard's Walk. He starts his journeys with an official code name, "Looney Toons", and the Sobriquet "Godslayer" (whose accuracy he disputes).  At one point a house-elf calls him "the Crazy Songs, the Rider Between Worlds, and the Wizard of War"; in the same story, the Sorting Hat earlier calls him "the Music of the Madness".  In a vignette set in Sword Art Online he is called "the Grey Rider".  In another a Middle-Eastern Bronze Age tribe calls him "Aharon". In yet another, the role he played in the Sack of Rome in 1527 earned him "The Unknown Guard" and "Saint Duglas the Defender".  And that's just to start.
 * In Drunkard's Walk V, a goddess (once fallen but now redeemed) says to Doug:

""Know you that I am he who was once Longinus, centurion of the Tenth Legion. I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh. I have been called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the world goes dim and cold. I have been killed a thousand times and every time I return. I fight for truth. I fight for glory. I fight for love. I fight for beauty. I am Hero. I will return.""
 * The Mega Crossover Fanfic Neon Exodus Evangelion by Eyrie Productions, Unlimited, has a similar Shout-Out to Marathon which starts off as a set of Arc Words at first, and then eventually evolves into a Badass Boast:


 * In The Teraverse Fanfic Beyond the Veil, a Catholic nun meets Aslan and is credited with addressing him with multiple names - because she not only called him Aslan, but also genuflected and crossed herself.

Films -- Live Action
"Kevin Lomax: What are you? John Milton: Oh, I have so many names! Kevin Lomax: Satan. John Milton: Call me Dad."
 * The Devil's Advocate has that immortal exchange:

"Gabriel: Son of Perdition. Little Horn! Most Unclean! Satan: [nostalgic] I do miss the old names."
 * Or from Constantine:

"Hepburn: Oh, I love you, Adam, Alex, Peter, Brian, whatever your name is, oh, I love you! I hope we have a lot of boys, and we can name them all after you!"
 * In Ghostbusters, the Big Bad Sumerian deity Gozer was also known as "The Traveler", "The Destructor", "Volguus Zildrohar" and "Gozer the Gozerian".
 * Ghostbusters II has Vigo the Carpathian. Who also went by "Vigo the Cruel", "Vigo the Torturer", "Vigo the Despised", and "Vigo the Unholy", but not "Vigo the Butch". He claims himself as the "Scourge of Carpathia" and the "Sorrow of Moldavia".
 * In Pan's Labyrinth, the faun tells us that he has had many names, "names that only the trees and the mountains can remember," but he doesn't tell us any of them. The film's English title implies that "Pan" is one of them, though the original Spanish title, El Laberinto del Fauno, would be more accurately be translated "The Faun's Labyrinth". Guillermo del Toro has stated that Pan would have been far too dangerous and fickle for the role.
 * David Ryder from the So Bad It's Good film Space Mutiny had many cheesy names bestowed upon him by Mike and the 'Bots. "Flint Ironstag!" "Bolt Vanderhuge!" ... "Bob Johnson! Wait..."
 * "We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese!"
 * To save you the trouble, Here's a (mostly) comprehensive list of all the names given to Buff Drinklot... I mean, Punch Rockgroin, I mean Lump Beefbroth, I mean Big McLargehuge, I mean...
 * The TV movie Monster Maker, which was shown on The Jim Henson Hour, has a scene with the following quote: "I have many names. I have many faces. Yours too, Matthew Banting."
 * The Big Lebowski: "I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. Or, you know, Duder, or His Dudeness, or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing."
 * Cary Grant's character in Charade has a ton of aliases. At the end of the film, he proposes to Audrey Hepburn:

"Swan: Oh this is too much. I guess you're supposed to be the devil? Swan's Reflection: I go by many names."
 * Phantom of the Paradise:

""The Humungus! The Lord Humungus! The Warrior of the Wasteland! The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla!""
 * Heavenly Creatures is the Real Life story about a girl named Pauline Reiper, Paul to her girl-friend Juliet and Yvonne (her middle name) to her parents. She also calls herself Gina, and writes role-playing letters as the fictional King Charles. On top of all that . As for Juliet, she's also known as Deborah  . Also, Pauline renames Bill—her lovesick suitor -- "Nicholas" because it sounds better.
 * The manifestation of Alessa's dark side in the film of Silent Hill claims this.
 * Irwin Fletcher, of Fletch, uses an extremely large number of aliases, including Ted Nugent, Gordon Liddy, Don Corleone, and Harry S. Truman.
 * ...the Desolate One! The First of the Fallen, the Spoiler of Virgins, the Master of Abortions! Let me help you out of your chair, grandma!!!
 * In 200 Motels, Rance Muhammitz is just one of the M.C.'s names. Apparently, he also goes by Opal You Hot Little Bitch...
 * This trope is subverted in the semi-indie movie Demon Hunters, by Dead Gentlemen Productions.
 * Michael J. Fox's character in The Secretof My Success only had two: his real name, Brantley Foster, and his alias for, Carlton Whitfield. However, the nature of the business world leads to people referring to him casually as only a first or last name. When, at a party, he's addressed by all four names by various partygoers, he explains to his date that his parents weren't satisfied with just one name. "My monogram looks like an eyechart."
 * The eponymous Warlock uses this trope to trick a professional medium into channeling Satan. When he asks her to channel his father's spirit and she asks for a name, the Warlock replies "he has many names". When she says that she only needs one, he deliberately gives her one of the Devil's more esoteric names.
 * Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez Ramirez from Highlander. He even lampshades it when giving a full list of 8-10 names at a "checking point". Arguably, most immortals (from the series and not only) have many names, since they pretended to die so many times and had to change identity.
 * Used to comic effect in The Santa Clause. After being arrested, Scott delays his interrogation significantly by invoking this trope. Each time the interrogator demands his name, he replies with one of the many names of Saint Nicholas.
 * And ends with Topo Gigo.
 * Crossing over into Badass Boast territory, from The Road Warrior:

"Abe: Red, you need to hear the rest of the information. Hellboy: Nah, he's taken care of. Abe: No, listen to this. 'Sammael, the Desolate One, Lord of the Shadows, Son of Nergal, hound of resurrection.' Hellboy: Now see, I don't like that... Abe: What, hound of resurrection? 'Harbinger of Pestilence, Seed of Destruction...' Hellboy: [Now fighting the revived Sammael] Cut to the end, will ya? How do I kill it? Abe: Hmm, doesn't say."
 * From the first Hellboy movie, after Hellboy shoots Sammael and walks away from the bloody corpse:


 * In the movie Charade, Cary Grant's character goes through several names by the end of the film.

Literature
"King Belgarion of Riva, Overlord of the West, Lord of the Western Sea, Godslayer, and general all-around hero, had an extended argument with his co-ruler, Queen Ce'Nedra of Riva, Imperial Princess of the Tolnedran Empire and Jewel of the House of Borune. The subject of their discussion hinged on the question of just who should have the privilege of carrying Crown Prince Geran, Heir to the Throne of Riva, hereditary Keeper of the Orb, and, until recently, the Child of Dark."
 * Kvothe from The Name of the Wind invokes this trope at the very beginning of his tale by claiming that "I've had more names than anyone has a right to." His titles/names include Maedre (which can mean the Flame, the Thunder, or teh Broken Tree depending on how it's spoken), E'lir, Dulator, Shadicar, Lightfinger, Six-String, Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. "But I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant "to know.""
 * He also goes by Kote to the town he lives in and Reshi to his student.
 * Milady from The Three Musketeers. She uses or is referred to by the following names throughout the novel:
 * Charlotte Backson (the name Milady's brother-in-law, Lord de Winter, attempts to bestow upon her in his plan to banish her to the colonies)
 * Anne de Breuil (the name Athos knew Milady by when he met her)
 * Comtesse de La Fère (the title and name Milady assumed when she married Athos, who was Comte de La Fère a the time)
 * Milady de Winter, Baroness of Sheffield (the general name Milady is referred to throughout the story)
 * Lady Clarick (a variation on the previous name; in some English translations, this is translated as Clarisse or Clarice)
 * Athos even makes a sober gibe at that (at least he did in the Russian film): "So many of you and so few of me..."
 * Les Misérables: Jean Valjean, being a fugitive, refers to himself as Monsieur Madeleine, Ultime Fauchelevent, Monsieur Leblanc and Urbain Fabre over the course of the work. Javert becomes Monsieur DeMasi, Les Gremlin and Hano'n. Not to mention Euphrasie/Cosette/The Lark.
 * Most characters in Russian novels fit this trope, having a first name, patronymic, surname, Russian nickname, and English nickname(s). So in Anna Karenina, Darya, Darya Alexandrovna, Princess Oblonskaya and Dolly are all the same person, and she may be referred to by all these names in a single conversation. I was halfway through One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich before realising that Ivan Denisovich and Shukhov were the same man...
 * Some editions (like Pevear and Volokhonsky's translations of Fyodor Dostoevky) will attempt to help make sense of this by including a list of characters, with their full names and all their nicknames, before the novel.
 * Randall Flagg in the works of Stephen King has been known as Walter Padick, Walter O'Dim, Richard Fry, Russell Faraday, Robert Franq, Marten Broadclaok, The Man In Black, The Walkin' Dude, Maerlyn, and a few others.
 * The Dark Tower reveals Walter Paddick is his real name.
 * The trope is actually stated near-verbatim by Tom Cullen in The Stand, when he's in his trance. "He has many names..."
 * In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth works this is rather common, due, among other things, to: having names and their translations in various languages, Elven custom gifting them with several names, people gaining names and epithets due to their achievements, and more so if they travel and gain lots more names in different places.
 * There are even Elven terms for the various types of names according to originator and function. The general extra epithet was called the epessë, the after-name. It was usually an honorary title or nickname, sometimes chosen by the Elf personally.)
 * Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings: "Many are my names in many countries: Mithrandir among the Elves, Tharkun to the Dwarves; Olórin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incanus, in the North Gandalf, to the east I go not." Additionally don't forget Gandalf Greyhame, Gandalf the Grey, The Grey Pilgrim (a translation of Mithrandir), The White Rider and Gandalf the White. Also Greybeard, Stormcrow and Lathspell (Ill-news) as insults (although "Stormcrow" is later used by Gandalf himself).
 * Aragorn son of Arathorn, chieftain of the Dunedain of Arnor, Captain of the Host of the West, bearer of the Star of the North, wielder of the Sword Reforged, victorious in battle, whose hands bring healing, the Elfstone, Elessar of the line of Valandil, Isildur's son, Elendil's son of Numenor. And that's before he added the royal titles and not counting at least two aliases and three running-related nicknames. He is also called "Strider" or "Stick-at-naught Strider" in Bree, the name he addresses himself as upon first meeting the hobbits; the occassionally call him that later in the story.
 * In the Affectionate Parody Bored of the Rings', Arrowroot son of Arrowshirt, True Son of Araplane—the Aragorn-analogue—drops the Trope name while parodying the above scene. His allies heave a long-suffering sigh as they confirm it to be true while at the same time keeping him from actually reciting the names.
 * Tom Bombadil is called "Forn" by the dwarves, also known by the Men as Orald. And by the Elves as Iarwain Ben-Adar ("the eldest and fatherless").
 * Sauron has many, many names (and titles), the most amusing of which is probably The Nameless One. Depending on how you count, he can easily beat even Aragorn and Gandalf.
 * And Nazgul/Black Riders/Ringwraiths/The Nine. Ringwraiths is a translation of "Nazgul". They're also passingly referenced as Úlairi in The Silmarillion. Ironically, their actual names are never revealed.
 * Also, Saruman/Curunir/Curumo, Saruman the White, Saruman of Many Colors, the White Wizard, nicknamed Sharkey.
 * Even Frodo and Sam got elvish nicknames in the drafts (which translate as Endurance Beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable).
 * Tolkien liked this in general, which is understandable—it's extremely common in mythology, and he was a mythological scholar.
 * It might also be attributable to the fact that he was a linguist first and foremost. It's generally only in fiction that very old things, places, races, etc., have only one name. In real life, these things accumulate many names from different peoples, languages, and contexts. Tolkien always wrote with the different linguistic contexts in mind.
 * Túrin son of Húrin from The Silmarillion is also called the Mormegil, the son of Morwen, Adanedhel, Neithan, Gorthol, Agarwaen son of Úmarth, Thurin, and Turambar. Played with in that he deliberately chose all but his birth name for himself as part of an attempt to avoid his destiny. It didn't work.
 * They look petty after Turin, but one shouldn't forget Galadriel/Galadhriel/Alatáriel (same name with mistaken etymology and therefore spelling or in a different if related language), also called Artanis, also called Nerwen; her brother Finrod, Findaráto, Felagund (Hewer/Lord of Caves), Ingoldo (The Wise), Nóm the Wise, Lord/King of Nargothrond, Friend of Men (Atandil/Edennil); or her cousin Nelyafinwë, also called Nelyo, Maitimo, Russandol and Doegred Winstrehand, but more commonly known as Maedhros the Tall. All the House of Finwë have a fair share of names for that matter (father name + mother name + Sindarin name + Old English name...not to mention a standard epithet, ex, Caranthir the Dark or Celegorm the Fair).
 * Entish names are the full and long winded description of the named object, so, if they could be translated, they would most likely be this trope taken Up to Eleven.
 * Even Gondolin is said to have seven names. Plus at least one known name in Quenya (Ondolindë). It's sometimes referred to as the "Hidden City" or "Hidden Kingdom" (...which is also a way to refer to Doriath.)
 * In The Hobbit, Bilbo gives both Smaug and himself a whole bunch of epithets during their conversations.
 * Likewise, Inheritance Cycle, being a successor of The Lord of the Rings, has Eragon, known to his home village Carvahall as Eragon Garrowson, to the elves and dwarves as Argetlam (meaning silver hand), and the rest as Eragon Shadeslayer.
 * And Firesword to the Urgals.
 * The Last of the Mohicans is full of this, as most characters have an English name, a French name, and an Indian name. And sometimes a nickname for good measure. Cora and Alice are exceptions.
 * The protagonist (Natty Bumpoo) has gone by many names over his lifetime, but in this particular novel is most often called Hawkeye. The French call him La Longue Carabine.
 * His enemy Magua is called The Sly Fox, or in French, Le Renard Subtil.
 * Dirk Gently from Douglas Adams's "Holistic Detective" series of books apparently changes his name on a periodic basis for reasons that he rarely explains. He started life (apparently) as Svlad Cjelli, but by the time of the first book, he is doing business as Dirk Gently.
 * Reasons which might be related to the way he will look at you as if trying to figure out whether he owes you money, and if not, whether you might lend him some.
 * Terry Pratchett's Death, as mentioned in the quote. In the Discworld book Mort, a list of his titles includes "The Stealer of Souls, Defeater of Empires, Swallower of Oceans, Thief of Years, The Ultimate Reality, Harvester of Mankind" before Death himself gets fed up and interrupts the herald announcing him.
 * Pteppic, new pharaoh of Djelibeybi in Pyramids, is referred to by his stubbornly traditional high priest Dios when meeting foreign diplomats as "His Greatness the King Pteppicymon XXVIII, Lord of the Heavens, Charioteer of the Wagon of the Sun, Steersman of the Barque of the Sun, Guardian of the Secret Knowledge, Lord of the Horizon, Keeper of the Way, the Flail of Mercy, the High-Born One, the Never-dying King" every time he opens his mouth.
 * It is mentioned in Thud! and possibly The Fifth Elephant that a vampire, having plenty of free time because of their long life, tends to spend much of it making up the longest possible names. In Thud!, we're introduced to a new vampire on the Watch, and her name is told to Vimes as, "Salacia...the names go on for a few pages, but they end in 'von Humpding'."
 * Or Moist von Lipwig, conman extraordinaire. He was hanged under the name Albert Spangler, but he used lots of others, including (apparently) "Ethel Snake".
 * Granny Weatherwax is known to the dwarfs as "She Who Is To Be Avoided" and to the trolls as "Go Around the Other Side of the Mountain," titles about which she had mixed feelings.  (The similarity of these to certain of The Doctor's sobriquets is probably coincidental.)
 * Commander Vimes of the City Watch has had a few names over the books. "The Butcher," for example. Also "Old Stoneface", which was also a nickname of his famous ancestor. And in Night Watch he . Also, after having a few honors bestowed upon him (under protest), his proper full name and title is "His Grace, the Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes." Though he absolutely hates being called "Your Grace," and allows "Sir" only if the person speaking to him insists on being formal. Those who have his trust and respect (a short list) call him simply "Mr. Vimes." Among the dwarfs, he's also known as "Blackboard Monitor Vimes." And to people like Sybil (his wife), and Colon, who have known him longer than anyone else alive and entering times of crisis, call him "Sam".
 * Paul Atreides from Dune has been called "Muad'Dib", "Usul", "the Emperor", "Kwisatz Haderach", "Mahdi", and "".
 * The Sandworms are referred to as "Sandworms," "the Old Man of the Desert," "the Grandfather of the Desert," "the Great Maker," "The Worm Who Is God," or "Shai-Hulud," depending on who's speaking about them.
 * Many of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos have many names. Examples include Azathoth ("The Blind Idiot God", "The Nuclear Chaos" or "The Daemon Sultan"), Nyarlathotep ("The Crawling Chaos" or "The Messager and Soul of the Outer Gods"), Shub Niggurath ("The Black Goat in the Woods with a Thousand Young"), and of course Cthulhu ("The Sleeping God", "Master of R'lyeh" or "The Great Priest") himself.
 * When it comes to the number of names, Nyarlathotep is pretty much the undisputed champ: he has a thousand different forms, each with its own name. Examples include "The Haunter in the Dark", "The Black Man", "The Dark Pharaoh" and 997 more.
 * Lovecraft sometimes plays this straight (especially with passages from The Necronomicon) but often subverts it by having any given story be internally consistent with the name, but using a variation of the name or title in other stories.
 * This tendency is oft-parodied in the Discworld 'verse. In Discworld Noir, for example, the Cosmic Horror summoned up is called Nylonathotep, the Laddering Horror. Who can be contacted using the Necrotelecomnicon.
 * Moorcock's Eternal Champion often does the actual "I have many names" line, especially John Daker, who got so confused by all the lifetimes he could remember that he often just used Erekosë (the first of the alternate lives he was pulled into) rather than trying to keep track of who he was at the moment.
 * Unsurprisingly in a work steeped in myth, lore, and legend, Rand al'Thor suffers from this in The Wheel of Time: he is known as the Dragon Reborn, He Who Comes with the Dawn, the Car'a'carn, and the Coramoor, not to mention all the lands he has become king or lord of, and he's also the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon who has own set of lengthy titles: Lord of the Morning (which may overlap with another title - prince of the dawn), the Dragon, Kinslayer, Ruler of the Nine Rods of Dominion, Wearer of the Ring of Tamyrlin...
 * Also, the Dark One, who is known by a different name virtually everywhere, and the Forsaken, who all have at least two names- their birth names, of which we only know a few, and the ones the Dark One gave them, plus all of the aliases they have taken, and the rebirths. For example, we have Elan Morin/Ishamael/Moridin/Ba'alzamon/Betrayer Of Hope/Nae'blis, Mieren/Lanfear/Silvie/Selene/Keille and (True Name Unknown)/Balthamel/Aran'gar/Halima.
 * Jace from Mortal Instruments. He doesn't really have a surname. He was Jace Wayland, Jace, Jace and Jace Lightwood.
 * Parodied, like many other tropes, in David Eddings' Malloreon, in the form of another Overly Long Gag:

""I Have Many Names... Would you like to call me 'Etarre'? ... Or it could be 'Esther' just as closely. Or 'Aster.' Or even 'Estrellita.'""
 * Earlier in the Belgariad, when Belgarath's identity is still a tenuous secret and source of much confusion to Garion, the old man states that he has many names and chooses to go by "Old Wolf" at the moment, suggesting he takes many aliases as he travels the world. However, once the cat of his true name is out of the bag, he sticks with that for the rest of the series and never attempts to go incognito, although he has some other titles such as "Disciple of Aldur" and "Ancient and Beloved" that come to some use. Garion, of course, goes on to attain the above additional appellations afterwards.
 * Then there's Silk. As a spy, he naturally assumes aliases, the most common being Radek of Boktor and Ambar of Kotu. His birth name is Kheldar and he's generally known as Silk, his spy academy codename. Interestingly, he is also treated thus in the prophecies, unlike the other characters, who have one prophetic name each. In the first book he is called the Rat; in the second, the Guide; and in the third, the Nimble Thief. He reverts back to the Guide for the rest of the books.
 * Lord Foul from ''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: "I have many names. To the Lords of Revelstone I am Lord Foul the Despiser; to the Giants of Seareach, Satansheart and Soulcrusher. The Ramen name me Fangthane. In the dreams of the Bloodguard, I am Corruption. But the people of the Land call me the Gray Slayer." He is also called the Master and the Maker. Later he picks up another—A'Jeroth, Lord of the Seven Hells.
 * Covenant's response to asking Foul who he is and hearing him reel all of these Names to Run Away From Really Fast off? "Forget it." It's probably the only moment for the next three books that the reader actually likes him.
 * John C. Wright's Chaos trilogy (The Orphans of Chaos, The Fugitives of Chaos, and The Titans of Chaos) makes full use of the many names of the Greek gods who appear as characters in the book. Normally, they are referred to by legitimate but obscure variants, but they can engage in a Badass Boast that rattles them off. The title characters have two sets of names that they know of, and additional ones when they escape their Laser-Guided Amnesia; in a I Know Your True Name situation, a villain tries to invoke all three sets of names to use magic on them, and is foiled because one of them hid one of his names.
 * War of the Dreaming features Oberon—who is also Odin, Zeus, and the proto-Indo-European god who inspired all of them.
 * The eponymous character of The Bartimaeus Trilogy does this a lot. However, only the main one seems to have power over him. Additionally none of them are his true name, but Bartimaeus is forced onto his nameless essence to summon him.
 * In the John Brunner fantasy novel The Traveler in Black, the title character is described as "having many names, but only one nature".
 * In Robert A. Heinlein's novel Glory Road, the female lead actually uses this phrase when she tells narrator/main character Oscar Gordon:


 * Every one of her many names mean "star", though, and that's what he ends up calling her.

"Lucas: Your name, please. Esus: My name is war! My name is pestilence! My name is misery and pain and everlasting torment! Lucas: Perhaps, but as a form of address, it is rather unwieldy. What do your friends call you?"
 * Time Enough for Love opens with a nearly page-long list of some of the names Woodrow Wilson Smith has used in his life.
 * Sam, the protagonist of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light, lists some of his many names in the opening of the book. Of course, he is the self-styled Buddha of his world, and the Buddha also had many names. It's never revealed whether Sam is also his original given name, or just something English-sounding that he fashioned from the title Mahasamatman (which literally means, at least as it is presented in the novel, "Great-Souled Sam".
 * Or Conrad Nomikos, in Roger Zelazny's "This Immortal", who has tons of names, almost all starting with Konstantin, because
 * Also from Zelazny, the narrator of My Name is Legion, who's got a back door into the global data bank that allows him to document just about any identity he cares to invent. Proving that history classes in his time suck, no one ever seems to think anything of him using names like Albert Schweitzer, James Madison, or John Donne. His original name is never revealed, even in the two conversations with mind-readers.
 * The Lone Power of Young Wizards seems to have at least one name from every type of being It's ever involved Itself with. And since Its role in the universe is to run around trying to corrupt everyone...
 * Machu Picchu (Peach), the helpful parrot, also turns out to have had *cough* a few previous names.
 * Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Nine Billion Names of God".
 * Sovereigns in Fiona Patton's Tales of the Branion Realm, patterned after medieval Britain, are styled: "Aristok of Branion, Heathland, Kormandeux, Aquilliard and Roland, Gracious Sovereign of the Triarchy, Most High Patron of the Knights of the Sword, Hereditary Earl of the Columbas Islands, and Vessel of the Living Flame." Not only do these titles increase (since the series spans several centuries), the Aristok is required to repeat them all during her coronation ceremony.
 * In The Vor Game, by Lois McMaster Bujold, after uncovering a third alias Victor Rotha / Lord Vorkosigan / Admiral Naismith has been using, Cavilo asks "How many people are you, anyway?"
 * Almost every freaking major character in The Acts of Caine.
 * Harry Potter:
 * Harry Potter; The Boy-Who-Lived, The Chosen One, Undesirable No. 1.. etc..
 * "He Who Must Not Be Named": You-Know-Who, the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort, and.
 * In P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath, heroine Jame picks up many names. Her real name is Jamethiel, but that's an ill-fated name to give anyone because of the infamy of its last bearer, so she's Jame—but many people try and back-form the nickname to Jameth, since it's the only name in her culture except for the bad one that would have that abbreviation. She is called Talisman in the thieves' guild, the B'Tyrr (which also means Talisman) as a tavern dancer, and Jamie by her old tutor. Her epithets include Priest's Bane and Lordan of Ivory.
 * Jack Shaftoe of Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle is known as Half-Cocked Jack (for two reasons), L'Emmerdeur, the King of the Vagabonds, Ali Zaybak, Quicksilver, Sword of Divine Fire, and Jack the Coiner.
 * Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan and Lord of Darkness
 * a.k.a. Adam.
 * The Shadow had numerous alternate identities such as John Haverson, Henry Arnaud, Lamont Cranston, George Clarendon, Fritz, Clifford Gage, etc. Of course, anonymity was much more his MO than it usually is with masked heroes. The Gray Seal had the alternate identity of Larry the Bat. The Spider had the alternate identity of Blinky McQuade.
 * In the X Wing Series, Gara Petothal/Lara Nostil/Kirney Slane once says in the narration that she can't clearly remember all the names she's had, or what she's done in each identity. She's a form of Deep-Cover Agent, and deeply messed up.
 * From Altered Carbon, Takeshi Lev Kovacs, variously known as Mamba Lev, The Icepick, One Hand Rending.
 * In Incarnations of Immortality, Piers Anthony's character Satan is also known as the Lord of Lies, Master of Evil, Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub, Lucifer, and Parry.
 * Although this isn't straight, as Satan, Beelzebub, and Lucifer are completely different people; upon assuming the role of the Incarnation of Evil, they each picked an (already existing) name for the Devil to use as an alias. The fact that there actually has been more than one officeholder is one of those "deep dark secrets that somehow the entire world knows by the end of the series" that pervade the author's settings.
 * Maya Angelou goes by at least six names in the autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Sister, Maya, My, Ritie, and Margurite being the acceptable ones. The more unsympathetic characters call her "Margaret", and there's a chapter on a white employer who tries to shorten it to "Mary".
 * In Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong, Lucas has a conversation along these lines with a druid spirit.

"Oz: I was born in Omaha, and my father, who was a politician, named me Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, Diggs being the last name because he could think of no more to go before it. Taken altogether, it was a dreadfully long name to weigh down a poor innocent child, and one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was to remember my own name. When I grew up I just called myself O. Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled 'pinhead,' which was a reflection on my intelligence."
 * In the Vampire Chronicles novel Memnoch the Devil, the eponymous character hates the names that humanity has created for him (e.g. The Devil, Satan, Lucifer), preferring to use his real name. Naturally, Lestat immediately declares his intention to start using the other names all the time just to piss him off.
 * Hugo Artemis Solon Saturnicus Reginald Arthur Rune, anyone?
 * China Mieville loves including intricate titles for his most badass characters—from King Rat: "I'm the big time crime boss. I'm the one that stinks. I'm the scavenger chief... I'm the intruder, I killed the usurper... I killed half your continent once... I make you blind with my piss. I'm the one with the hardest teeth in the world. I'm the Whiskered boy, I'm the Duke of the sewers, I run the underground. I'm the king. I'm King Rat."
 * Played for Laughs in, of all places, the Oz sequel Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz:


 * In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Lost, a character comments that with his generosity, Father Christmas can be known by many names.
 * A rare author example: Science Fiction writer Lester del Rey sometimes claimed that his full name was Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heartcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez del Rey y de los Uerdes. (But according to his sister his real name was Leonard Knapp.)
 * "She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita." (And, we must not forget, And it's strongly implied that no one but Humbert ever called her "Lolita".)
 * In Everworld, gods tend to have this, as they do in Real Life. In Everworld-Egypt take this Up to Eleven; Sobek won't even talk to you if you don't address him by his full title ("Lord Sobek, god of the crocodiles of the Nile, called Rager, son of Seth and his consort Neith, called the nurse of crocodiles"), and the Pharaoh's herald spends at least five minutes reciting incarnations of Ra before the Amazons lead the protagonists away.
 * Voltaire's Candide contains one - which is to be expected, as it's a parody of just about everything on the face of the planet. One minor character is consistently addressed as Don Fernando d'Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza. Played for comic effect with the man's poor servant in the musical.
 * Justified in Daemon, where was an identity thief.
 * In the House On the Rock scene from Neil Gaiman's American Gods, when He later claims to have as many names as there are ways for a human to die.
 * In Cold Copper Tears, Garrett has to track down a woman who'd introduced herself to him as Jill Craight. This task proves especially difficult when it turns out that she has a different name for every person who knows her. (Her real name is revealed to be, which is Lampshaded as the only one dumb enough to be real.)
 * In Tom Holt's Who's Afraid of Beowulf? King Hrolf gains much needed time by asking his antagonist his name. The Sorcerer King can't resist reeling off a Tolkienesque list of names and titles that just enough time for Hrolf's plan to work.
 * Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: In Razor Sharp, there is a madam of a high-end brothel who goes by the names Lily Flowers, Crystal Clark, Ann Marie Anders, Caroline Summers and she will never tell you what her real birth name is. Vanishing Act has a pair of identity thieves going by names like Sara Brickman and Dennis Carson, Angela and Derek Bookman, Bonnie and Clyde, Tammy Jessup, James Ferris, Timothy Black, Bethany Nolan, and their real names are.
 * Repairman Jack uses so many different surnames for his various false identities, he keeps them organized by working his way through the alphabet over and over (Adams, then Byers, etc).
 * Accounting in A Song of Ice and Fire for the vast array of first names, surnames, nicknames (especially nicknames), diminutives, aliases, and titles, almost any character has at least two or three names to go by. Some kings and queens have an unnecessarily long list of titles, but the true winner is Arya. She has gone by Arya Stark, Arya Underfoot, Arya Horseface, Arry, Lumpyhead, Weasel, Nan short for Nymeria, Squab, Salty, Cat, Beth, and simply "no one".
 * Tormund Giantsbane, Tall-Talker, Horn-Blower, and Breaker of Ice, Tormund Thunderfist, Husband to Bears, Mead-King of Ruddy Hall, Speaker to Gods and Father of Hosts.
 * Mr. Church aka The Deacon, aka St. Germain. These are just the ones we know
 * The Outlander series has James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser. While he is generally known as Jamie to the readers, and to most of his associates in the first two books, in the later books he sometimes uses various combinations of his middle names as a disguise. When first encountered in book three (Voyager), for example, he was going by Alexander Malcolm. He's sometimes also known as Red Jamie, or as Dunbonnet.
 * Robert Silverberg's short "To Be Continued" features an extremely long-lived Roman by the name of Gaius Titus Menenius. He's learned to hide his age and identity behind false personas, so has quite a collection of names.

Live-Action TV
""Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Krop Tor. Some may call him Satan. Or Lucifer. Or the King of Despair. The Deathless Prince. The Bringer of Night. And these are the words that shall set him free.""
 * The Doctor from Doctor Who is a more unusual version of the trope. He has many nicknames, aliases, and titles, but his real and/or original name is unknown to most people, including the viewers.
 * Dalek name for him: "Ka Fariq Gatri"—The Destroyer of Worlds.
 * There's also the slightly more often-quoted nickname courtesy of the Daleks -- "The Oncoming Storm".
 * This page shows, about half way down, a very impressive list of names for the Doctor. It approaches fifty.
 * A more standard use of the trope comes from "The Impossible Planet", where the Ood declare of the Beast:

"Rudi: Some call me... Mystery Man. Others know me as the Shadow Dweller. Some call me Secret Peter -- where is he hiding, in a shoe, in a bush, in a rock, in a side cupboard, in a lane? No! He is inside your self. Some call me Miraculous Mark, diviner of mysteries. Others call me Hreeerereereeerereereeeereeereeereereer Smith. Some call me Hammer-ah-ooooooooooooooh Eep... (bangs a bongo drum) it's my surname. Other know me as Domino.... the bounty hunter. Some call me Titty Titty Bramen, but others know me as Clive. I... am sometimes called Peppercorn... by the Dutch. (to Vince) You could step in here at any point, you know. You don't have to leave me dangling like a tit in the breeze. Vince: Go on, do one more. Rudi: Some call me Cillit Bang. (audience cheers) But you may call me... Rudi."
 * Sutekh the Destroyer in Pyramids of Mars also has many names, one of which is Satan.
 * Strangely enough, the Torchwood series 1 finale featured a demonic creature named Abaddon who was said to be the Beast's son.
 * Want a full list of The Beast's names? you asked for it :he is known as Satan, Abaddon, Lucifer, Krop Tor, The King of Despair, The Deathless Prince, The Bringer of the Night, He Who Bathes in the Black Sun, The Sin, The Temptation, The Deceiver, The Pain, The Loss, The Death of Hope, The Prince and the Fallen, Fury, Rage, Death, The Darkness, The Bile, The Ferocity, The Price, The Fool, The Agony, The Fear, The Vanity, The Obsession, The Lust, and The Destroyer.
 * Jack Harkness of Doctor Who and Torchwood is implied to have had many names. Jack Harkness isn't even his real name. In one episode he goes by Captain James Harper. In another, he goes by former team member Owen Harper.
 * Given how he and John Hart had to ask each other's names, it seems to have been a standard practice among Time Agents.
 * Parodied in The Mighty Boosh, where one of the minor characters has so many names it becomes an Overly Long Gag. In the stage version, most of the names are Ad Lib.

"Maldis: By the way... my name is Maldis. (in Haloth's reedy old voice) But you can address me as Haloth if you like. (in Igg's broad Cockney accent) I got a lotta names, Johnboy; call me whatever pops your cork. Crichton: Yeah, right. You're a regular Laurence Olivier."
 * Sweet, the dancing demon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Musical Episode, claims to have had a hundred names, though he doesn't tell us any of them—even "Sweet" we only get from the credits.
 * Star Trek: The Next Generation has Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, and Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed. She is also Deanna Troi's mother, a chief ambassador for Betazed, and a great thorn in Captain Picard's side. In one episode, Deanna exasperatedly points out that at least some of those titles are obsolete, and "The Sacred Chalice of Rixx is an old cup clay pot with mold growing in it." The first series of her titles eventually became a Badass Creed in an Expanded Universe novel when Lwaxana beat the snot out of Q
 * Punctuating each title with a kick or a smack, no less.
 * TNG also had an alien who claimed to be a plethora of devils of various worlds, including Fek'lhr ('Fek-lar' to those who need vowels to pronounce words), the being who prevents warriors from escaping Klingon hell—Worf comments "You are not Fek'lhr." The alien, a woman, then proceeds to turn into a big red man and then Fek'lhr.
 * Star Trek had Flint, whose aliases from Earth history included Methuselah, Solomon, Alexander the Great, Lazarus, Merlin, and Leonardo da Vinci, just to name a few.
 * Star Trek also had the episode "Wolf in the Fold", which included an entity whose names included Beratis, Kesla,.
 * From Lost:
 * Cooper: A conman goes by many names, friend. I've been Adam Seward, Anthony Cooper, Ted MacLaren, Tom Sawyer, Louis Jackson, and Paul...
 * Ben Linus, Henry Gale, Dean Moriarty
 * The Smoke Monster
 * Kate Austen, Annie, Joan Hart, Monica Callis, Katherine Dodd, Monica Ryan ,Lucy
 * Sawyer, James Ford, Jim LeFleur
 * The Farscape villain Maldis has many seperate identities and names; these include Igg (a street-corner jester), Haloth (a benevolent old wizard) and Kyvan (a dealer in trinkets).


 * Firefly has "Saffron", a skilled con artist whose other false names include "Yolanda" and "Bridget." This leads to Mal calling her "YoSaffBridge" at one point. (Fans tend to go with that or the original "Saffron.")
 * Tony on NCIS has adopted a lot of short- or long-term aliases, usually stealing them from movies or TV shows.
 * One unsub on Criminal Minds was a con man who'd been living under so many false identities that he started to lose track of them all and cracked from the pressure.

Music
"Her name was McGill And she called herself "Lil", But everyone knew her as "Nancy"."
 * A small example from The Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon":

"Rocky Rococco: Worthless? Hahaha! *cough* *hack* Not to Melanie Haber! Nick Danger: Melanie Haber? Rocky Rococco: You may remember her as Audrey Farber... Nick Danger: Audrey Farber? Rocky Rococco: Susan Underhill? Nick Danger: Susan Underhill? Rocky Rococco: What about...Betty Jo Bjalowski? (musical sting) Nick Danger: (internal monologue) Betty Jo Bjalowski. I hadn't heard that name since college. Everyone knew her as Nancy."
 * Referenced by The Firesign Theatre:

"I was christened David Anthony But still in spite of that To my father I was William While my mother called me Pat"
 * Shawn Combs, aka Diddy, aka P. Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, aka Puffy, aka Sean John
 * The Wu Tang Clan, whose members will use several aliases simultaneously.
 * Dance musicians LIVE off this trope.
 * Max Coveri, famous for the song Running in the 90s (used in the LOL, Internet YTMND), also used the names Casanova, David Essex (and similarly, D-Essex and D. Essex), Niko, 7th Heaven, Kevin Johnson, Mad Max, Marko Polo, Morris, Oda, and last but not least, his real name, Maurizio de Jorio
 * Similarly, the vocalist known as "Cherry" also goes by Leslie Parrish (not to be confused by this person), Suzy Lazy, and previously Vanessa and Linda Ross. Her real name is Clara Moroni.
 * Most Eurobeat singers do this.
 * Ferry Corsten. Besides his real name, he has used the names System F, Moonman, Albion, Gouryella (collaborating with Tiesto), Veracocha (collaborating with Vincent de Moor), and a few others.
 * Paul Oakenfold. Sometimes he's credited by his full name, sometimes by his last name, and sometimes he goes by Grace, Virus, or Perfecto Allstarz.
 * Armin van Buuren has released tracks as Rising Star, Gig, Gaia (with Benno de Goejj of Rank 1, who also has many aliases), Major League, Alibi, and Perpetuous Dreamer.
 * In The Groove and Pump It Up Pro staff composer Kyle Ward. Ka W, K Bit, Inspector K, :) (Smiley), Banzai, Symphonious.
 * Japanese happy hardcore artist DJ Shimamura has used 2B4U.D-157, Asian Dugem Foundation, エロティシズム, キャプテンSK-2, DJ Eterni-T, DJ Sin, DJ Unicorn, DJ Wiz-R-D, Dog Styles, Extremist, Fantazista, Far-East Hakke Crew, Geraid, Geriben Ha 2 Densho, Inful-8, Lauryn Hell, Orange Hair, Ravers Anthem, The result of Raverz Project!, SFX, Speed Junky, Twintale and 殺人ビューロランド
 * Ingo Kunzi: DJ Tandu, Ayla, Anakin, Intrance, Voyager, Frozen Orange Project, Flatliners, Tantau, etc.
 * Brian Transeau, in addition to BT, has used the names Kaistar, Elastic Reality, Libra, etc.
 * Norman Cook, aka The Mighty Dub Katz, aka Fatboy Slim, etc.
 * Gianni Coraini was best known by his Italo-disco alias Ken Laszlo, and also sang Eurobeat under the names Ken Hunter, Jean Corraine, DJ NRG, Alvin, Maxx Ducati, Ric Fellini, etc.
 * Eurobeat artist/producer Davide di Marcantonio, the man behind John Desire of "Hot Limit" fame, also has used the aliases Dave Mc Loud, David Bird, Dee Dee, Chemical Boy, Eurobeat Lovers("Yozora no Muko", another J-pop cover), Jimmy Bravo, David Kane, and more recently, David Dima and Dreamfighters.
 * Another trance master with many names: Lauren Veronnez, aka Airwave, Cloud 69, Cosmic Junkie, Green Martian, Lolo, Magnetix, Sagittaire, etc.
 * Richard D. James (more commonly known as Aphex Twin) has used several different aliases such as AFX, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Caustic Window, DJ Smojphace, GAK, Martin Tressider, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Prichard D. Jams, Q-Chastic, Tahnaiya Russell, The Dice Man, and Soit P.P.
 * Some people call me the space cowboy. Some call me the gangster of love. Some people call me Maurice.
 * Before founding Shiny Toy Guns, Jeremy Dawson and Chad Petree produced trance music under the names Cloud2Ground, Slyder, RRDS, etc. Two of their Slyder songs, "Score" and "Neo(The One)" were featured on Grand Theft Auto III's Rise FM station; the latter song was also the basis for Shiny Toy Guns' "You Are The One".
 * Pitchfork writer Dominique Leone attempted to but together a list of all Boredoms and OOIOO related acts, as follows: "Akabushi, AOA, Audio Sports, Children Coup d'Etat, Concrete Octopus, Dendoba, Destroy 2, DMV, Dowser, the Dramatics, Elvis Dust, Flare, Free Kitten, the Geisha Girls, Gong Derby, Goonies, Grind Orchestra, Guillotine Kyodai, Guitoo, Dekoboko Hajime/Yamantaka Eye, Hanadensha, the Hanatarash, the Hattifatteners, Hijokaiden, Live Under the Sky, MC Hellshit & DJ Carhouse, Minga & Eye, Mystic Fugu Orchestra, Naked City, Nankai Hawkwind, Nimrod, Noise Ramones, Novo Tono, Oh!Moro Video Series, Shinro Ohtake + Eye, Omoide Hatoba, solo Yoshimi P-We, Rashinban, Rise from the Dead, Roughage, Rovo, Ruins-Hatoba, Alice Sailor, S.O.B.-Kaidan, Sound Hero, Standing Earth & Touching Air, Sun Kich, Tent, Three Day Stubble, Torture Garden, Tribal Circus, U.F.O. or Die, Universal Errors, the Vickly & the Ohdorockanize, Woods, XOX, solo Yamamoto Seiichi, solo Yamatsuka Eye, Yellowhouse, Z-Rock Hawaii and Karera Musication."
 * From the "Orange And The Green"

"Andre 3000 aka Possum Aloisious Jenkins aka Dookie Blossum Gain the 3rd Funk Crusader, Love Pusher Dungeon Family 1st Generation Here to drop the turd Go! Antoine Andre Patton Sr Better known as Big Boi aka. Daddy Fat Sacks aka Lucious Leftfoot aka Billy Oldshoe aka Francius the Savannah Chitlin Pimp Dungeon Family 1st Generation Here to put the "D" in D-Boi And still cooler than a polar bear's toenails ''Yeah!"
 * From "D.F." by Outkast


 * Wilhelm Anton "Bill" Leeb, aka Wilhelm Schroeder, who contributed to Skinny Puppy's first album and is also the frontman of Front Line Assembly and its side project Delerium, among others. }}
 * Dutchman Michiel van der Kuy produced italo-disco and spacesynth in the 80's under the names Laserdance (with Erik van Vliet), Koto, Proxyon, Rygar, etc., techno-rave in the early 90's as L.A. Style (with Wessel van Diepen), Eurobeat with various vocalists (in the early days of the genre), and later even co-produced a couple songs with Alice Deejay.

Mythology and Religion

 * This gets especially bad in the Greek pantheon, where each deity has a wide range of different epithets, regional cult names, and poetic titles.
 * Older Than Dirt: Most Egyptian gods have a least a couple names. Re and Amun both have tons. Osiris has 100 in the Book of the Dead. Their true names, however, are supposedly unknown to mere mortals.
 * The Mesopotamian god Marduk has 50 in Enuma Elish.
 * A variant of this, used especially in Norse Mythology, is the "kenning", a descriptive or metaphorical phrase used instead of a regular noun or name.
 * Odin especially was known for his oodles of names, reportedly over 200.
 * In Hindu Mythology, some major gods have 108 or 1008 names, depending on who you ask, and reciting all of these names is a religious ritual for some.
 * That Other Wiki lists Muslims' 99 Names of Allah. The name "Allah" itself is merely the Arabic word for "God". (Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews also refer to their deity as "Allah".)
 * There are posters in Christian bookstores listing the many titles of the Christian God.
 * The Bible on Jesus:
 * Isaiah 9:6: "And he shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace..." (Although the Book of Isaiah never mentions Jesus by name, most Christians interpret its prophecy of a Messiah to be about Jesus.)
 * Also, He has a name "that no-one knows but Himself."
 * Other names and titles include: Immanuel, (which means "God be with us") the Lamb of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Man of Sorrows, King of the Jews, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
 * The Bible on God. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, which didn't have vowels. God's first name only appears as "YHWH." Most people think it would have been pronounced "Yahweh," but no one can really be sure. Instead, an alternative term for God's first name is Tetragrammaton, which basically means "four-letter word".
 * In many English translations, Yahweh is rendered as "The LORD " (in small caps). Certain Hebrew passages also refer to Him as "Adonai", which literally means "lord" (without the small caps). This convention runs into trouble with passages that refer to Him as "Yahweh Adonai".
 * In modern times, Jews have taken to substituting YHWH with Ha Shem (The Name), when they read the text aloud.
 * The Latin Vulgate bible rendered YHWH as "Iehovah" (remembering that in Classical Latin, "v" is pronounced like either a "u" or a "w".) Eventually, this spelling came down into modern English as "Jehovah."
 * In Exodus 3:14, God introduced Himself to Moses by saying: "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’"
 * Catholics have a huge number of titles for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here's one list; even allowing for doubtful entries, it numbers in the hundreds. Basically, anytime you see "Our Lady of" followed by an emotion, virtue, or placename, it's her... and you can throw in "Queen of Heaven", "Queen of Angels", and the like, for good measure. And there's the classic Greek one: Theotokos (God-bearer), from which, "Mother of God".
 * Santa Claus still bears the names of all the midwinter spirits he's assimilated: St Nicholas, Sinterklaas, Yule-Father (see also Odin), Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost, Papa Noel, Kris Kringle...

Professional Wrestling

 * Many wrestlers have acquired a great number of nicknames, some let them go in favour of new ones, others keep all of them, no matter how inappropriate they become. Shawn Michaels is a notable example, as he's The Heartbreak Kid (Used well into his forties), Mr.Wrestlemania, The Showstopper, The Headliner, The Main Event, and The Icon. He often made a habit of introducing himself with all of his nicknames.

Tabletop Games

 * Some of the more-detailed D&D settings include multiple names for the residents' gods, as they are called by in different languages. Most deities also have one or more titles that illustrate their respective portfolios.
 * In Warhammer Fantasy, we Settra, who mostly goes by The Imperishable, but according to the 8th edition Tomb Kings rulebook, he requires a highly literate body guard because he has so many titles that it takes "2 hours to say them all."
 * To keep from drawing their attention, the Lost refer to their Keepers as the True Fae, the Gentry, and the Others.
 * From Greyhawk; much like Lord Voldemort, Vecna is so feared and dreaded that most residents of Oerth dare not speak his name, instead using one of his many titles. The likely first one - used while he was a human wizard - was "Master of the Spider Throne". Others included "The Arch-Lich", "The Maimed God", "The Whispered One", "The Dying King", "The Lord of the Rotted Tower", "The Undying King", and "The One Spoken Only in Whispers". While he was the darklord of Caviticus in Ravenloft, he was also called "The Chained God".

Video Games
""I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh. I have been called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the world goes dim and cold. I am hero.""
 * RuneScape: Senliten, upon whom Tumeken shines and from whom his glory is reflected. Bearer of the vengeance of Amascut upon the unworthy, mistress of the Stern Judges. Queen of the desert lands and rightful heir to the glory and fertility of Elidinis. Daughter of the divinity through the royal blood of the deity. Reborn through Icthlarin into this realm as has been and will be.
 * The first terminal on "Kill Your Television" in the game Marathon 2: Durandal displays what appears to be a critical piece of text, although who it identifies is still subject to debate:

"Valvatorez: I had almost forgotten all of those old aliases... Those were cute."
 * R-Type's iconic xenomorph-like repeating boss is officially called Dobkeratops, but has also previously gone by Subtom, Subkeratom, Krill, Doppleganger and Gladiator.
 * Some Video Games—particularly those released in multiple regions—tend to hold several names. For example, the European arcade & home computers release of Contra is known as Gryzor, and the European NES release is known as Probotector.
 * The obscure top-down shooter RayForce is one of the bigger offenders. The Japanese and American arcade versions are called RayForce, the European arcade version is called Gunlock, the Japanese console version is called Layer Section, and the American console version is called Galactic Attack. Whew!
 * M. Bison also says this in Street Fighter Alpha 3 when you face him with Guy.
 * Which is partly true, because he isknown as "M. Bison" in America was Vega in Japan and "Ditactor" in fan circles.
 * At one point in Planescape: Torment, you can find a list of titles the Nameless One has gone by at some point: "Lost One, Immortal One, Incarnation's End, Man Of A Thousand Deaths, The One Doomed To Life, Restless One, One Of Many, The One Whom Life Holds Prisoner, The Bringer Of Shadows, The Wounded One, Misery-Bringer, Yemeth, Adahn, ".
 * It's pretty vague in StarCraft, but
 * Emil Narud.
 * Bowser's cohort in the Mario Party series was known as Baby Bowser in the first three games, then subsequently Koopa Kid.
 * Tchernobog, The One That Binds, The Dreaming God, The Sleeping God and The Devourer of Souls from Blood.
 * April Ryan, of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, accumulates these as her story goes on, one for each culture she encounters. By the end of Dreamfall her names include: April Ryan; Venar Kan-ang-la; April Bandu-embata of the Banda; Waterstiller; Windbringer; (a) Wave; The Raven; and The Scorpion.
 * Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII, princess of the kingdom of Alexandria and the female lead of Final Fantasy IX. After being kidnapped (under her request), her "captor" suggests that she drop her royal bearing and adopt an alias, which she chose Dagger. Lastly, it turns out that Garnet is not her real name,, and her original name was Sarah.
 * Frank Jaeger from the Metal Gear series has more aliases than any other character in the series (which is saying something considering the number of aliases Solid Snake and Revolver Ocelot has): he has went by "Gray Fox", "Frank Hunter", the "Cyborg Ninja", "Deepthroat", and "Null".
 * Ocelot's real name is Adamska (alias Adam), his Russian allies also know him as Sharashka Shalashaska, his FOXHOUND codename is "Revolver Ocelot", and when he's supposedly possessed by Liquid Snake's spirit, he changes it to Liquid Ocelot.
 * Solid Snake's real name is David (or Dave), but he also goes by the alias of Iroquois Pliskin during the events of MGS2 and is given the codename of Old Snake in MGS4
 * Big Boss also has a few names as well. His real name is John, his nickname is Jack, and his former codename is Naked Snake.
 * SaGa Frontier features "Charm Lord, Merciless King, Protector of Rose, Ruler of Darkness, Pursuer of Beauty, Supreme Judge, Ruler of Facinaturu, Lord of the Castle, Mystic Lord Orlouge."
 * Ace Attorney has Trucy Wright, the daughter of Phoenix Wright. But as it turns out she is only his adopted daughter, her real father is
 * Trucy?
 * Wilhelm, the Big Bad of the Xenosaga trilogy, flat out tells the party when they confront him that he's been known by many names throughout history. He says they're all names that other people have ascribed to him and while he answers to them, none of them define him. The only one who could name (and thereby define him) is his counterpart chaos. chaos then proceeds to not reveal Wilhelm's true name and just lets the party thrash Wilhelm's Giant Space Flea Machine Zarathustra and technically kill him.
 * Deathwing from the Warcraft universe. Apart from his original name (Neltharion) and his new name, he is also sometimes referred as Xaxas, Blood's shadow, Lord Daval Prestor, and has many titles.
 * No More Heroes has The Crownless King, The No More Hero, and the one everyone apparently forgot, Holy Sword, all are titles bestowed upon Travis Touchdown.
 * In some Shin Megami Tensei games, this can be played with, because in your available pantheon of demons, you may have a couple who are technically the same being, but with a different name depending on their culture of origin. This can lead to some awkward moments if the two should meet in conversation. Shiva and Mahakala meeting in Raidou vs. Abaddon, for instance.
 * However, it's also sometimes subverted; Satan and Lucifer, for example, are unambiguously different beings, and are in fact directly opposed to each other.
 * This is somewhat played for laughs in Dragon Age II. The Witch of the Wilds introduces herself as also Flemeth, Asha'Bellanar, and an old hag who talks too much.
 * Valvatorez of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten had a number of Sobriquets under his belt, including Tyrant Valvatorez, the Bloodthirsty King of Fear, the Blood-soaked Valvatorez of Absolute Evil, and The King of Carnage and Atrocity.


 * This trope abounds in BlazBlue and is especially notable when Mu-12 or Hakumen is talking, since they both commonly refer to characters by alternative names and/or titles. Here are a few examples:
 * Ragna The Bloodedge, The Black Beast, Grim Reaper, The World's Nightmare.
 * Jin Kisaragi, The Hero of Ikaruga, The False Hero, The End Bringer.
 * Rachel Alucard, The Observer, External Factor.
 * Terumi Yuuki, Hazama, Kazuma Kuvaru, Black Susano'o, The True Evil.
 * The Player Character in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. To the dragons, you are Dovahkiin. To people who know the legends, you are Dragonborn. The Graybeards give you the name "Ysmir", which the previous world-changing dragonborn Tiber Septim was given before you. You are probably "Whoever in oblivion is killing all our Justiciars out on the roads" to the Thalmor. And of course, you are whatever you name your character.
 * In the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise,

Web Comics
"Stranger: Thank you for answering my call for aid. I am the last of a race that tended to the Multiverse. Mind Mistress: What do we call you? Stranger: I am known by infinite names. Webmaster, the Centurion, Omenlord... Dasien: Anyone ever call you Ringo? Stranger: ... There is a dimension in which I am called Ringo, yes. The indigenous Kukuchaku of Revolution #9 refer to me in this way. Although they pronounce it... Dasien: Fine! Then you're Ringo!"
 * From The Crossoverlord, Chapter 2, Page 2:

""My name is Daniel Ti'Fiona: Warrior for Hire, Slayer of the DoomKnights, Bringer of Peace, Friend to Beer Wenches!""
 * Meet Richard, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and mayor of a little village up the coast. It's very scenic in springtime. You should visit sometime.
 * I've seen the village. It's the scariest title he holds.
 * Don't forget Lord of The Dance.
 * And now Mistress of Magma.
 * Dan of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, has earned his own list as an adventurer:


 * Merlu of Juathuur. Other names of him we know are the Second and the god-in-the-tree.
 * Gabrielle of Sister Claire quotes the trope name word for word before telling Claire to call her Gabrielle.
 * In The Wotch, Anne's brother is normally named Evan, though he has Punny Names for both of his Gender Bender forms -- "Lil' E/Lilly" for his four-year-old girl form, and "Miss E/Missy" for his more conventional female form. Lampshaded when he, as Missy, attempts to introduce himself to Rick, but keeps screwing up which name he's supposed to use, causing Rick to interpret it as "Lilerevermiss" (the first syllable of each name with "er"s in between).
 * In Homestuck, all the exiles (save for ) are known only by their job or title, which change depending on their role with only their initials remaining constant. WV has had the most so far, being known as the Wayward Vagabond, Warweary Villein,, and most recently.
 * All the players have at least three names, as well: their actual name, their instant messaging handle, and their mythological title. For instance, Terezi Pyrope is gallowsCalibrator is the Seer of Mind, and Dave Strider is turntechGodhead is the Knight of Time. Some have even more; for instance, John is both ectoBiologist and ghostyTrickster because he changed his handle.
 * Nikki the Red in The KAMics has a few
 * Evil Diva: Well, he does, but it's someone else who tries reeling them off
 * Mr. Sin from Sam and Fuzzy mysteriously disappears and is replaced by a "cousin" with a different first initial and hairstyle whenever one of his plans goes catastrophically pear-shaped. How often has he done this? It's hinted that he uses initials because he ran out of first names.
 * Roza The Mountain Lord
 * In Endstone, Jon reflects on them when he faces death.
 * Hijinks Ensue crosses this trope with I Call Him Mr. Happy.
 * From Penny Arcade, a Badass Boast from the Cardboard Tube Samurai: "Will you face me? This tube goes by many names. Some you are worthy to hear. The Waking-Dragon, coiled, as spring dawns. Hawk's-Harvest, seizing prey in the tall summer grass. Autumn-Razor, the patient hunter. The Famine-Of-Winter, that kills the babe at its mother's empty breast. So, will you face me? I, who hold the very reins of the world?"
 * Schlock Mercenary has Chinook, the new AI of Eina-Afa.

Web Original
"Harley: And we got these custom sauces, 'cause I'm the Doctor of Dressing, aka the Pharaoh of Flavour, aka the Minister of Mixture, aka the Connoisseur of Condiments, aka the Don of the Drippin', aka the Jeff Goldblum of the Internet, aka... [ dramatic zoom on the sauces] ...the Sauce Boss."
 * Doomsday Arcade had the Dicelord who went by the names The Creator, The Dungeon Master and Richard Gariot (even though Richard Gariot was in the same room as him).
 * Whateley Universe example: Billie Wilson has the codename Tennyo, and has picked up the nickname 'Disaster Dame', but she's also known by some less amusing names, such as 'The Scourge' and 'The Stalker of the Stars', to name two.
 * The Slender Man, "Slendy", "The Operator" (though that's never used in-series), and "OH GOD, WHAT IS THAT?!"
 * Not to mention the names some of the snarkier and better-informed bloggers give him; Maduin usually calls Slendy "TPF" ("Tall, Pale, and Faceless") and Zeke Strahm uses a new one basically every time he mentions him.
 * EPICMEALTIME:


 * The owners of one automobile site go by pen-names, not for anonymity according to Word of God, but their own idiosyncratic reasons.
 * SCP-1370 of the SCP Foundation is constantly giving itself new names that are meant to be intimidating, like "Sinister Prime Minister", "ShivaTron, Despoiler of Mirth" and "Doom-Master Thirteen Seventy Master Of All Doom".
 * Played with in the "Yellow Trailer" for RWBY: when asked if she has a name, Yang replies "I have several", but we never find out what they are.  (Nine volumes later we still don't know what they are -- if they exist at all.)  We don't even find out her real name until the final moments of the trailer, when Ruby addresses her in the street.

Western Animation
"Satan: Little fools! I am Beelzebub, Lucifer, the reaper of souls, the really angry one! I AM SATAN! MWAHAHAHAHAA!"
 * Parodied in The Simpsons; in an episode where Marge has amnesia, Homer attempts to reeducate her, saying "This is the Sun. It goes by many names -- Apollo's lantern, Daymoon, Ol' Blazey -- but the important thing is never to touch it." On another occasion, Homer prays to the god of the sea for mercy, proclaiming "The Greeks call you Poseidon; the Romans... Aquaman."
 * In Code Lyoko, Aelita is first called "Maya" when awakened as an amnesiac AI, before finding her true first name. Once materialized on Earth, she went by the name "Aelita Lyoko" at first, then "Aelita Stones". It is finally found that her name is "Aelita Hopper", although her birth name was "Aelita Schaeffer". Not counting her nickname of "Princess" (or "Mrs. Einstein" for Sissi).
 * So all in all, her name is Aelita (Maya) Lyoko/Stones/Schaeffer-Hopper.
 * "I've had many names during my life, but my favorite... is Tombstone."
 * Parodied on Phineas and Ferb, "The Chronicles of Meap": "I am known by many names through out the universe... well, two really: Mitch, and some of the guys call me Big Mitch!"
 * After the Shredder is put on trial in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we learn that Oroku Saki is only one of several aliases, which include Torrinon, Kako Naso, and Duke Acureds. His real name? Ch'rell. Outside of this scene, many Utroms simply call him "the Evil One".
 * In the movie Turtles Forever, the Shredder lists all his names as part of his Badass Boast.
 * In Animaniacs:

"Sandman: But you can call me Steven."
 * In Miraculous Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng's usual and preferred heroic identity is that of Ladybug; however, many times she has assumed other heroic identities for a variety of reasons, each time with a Kwami and Miraculous other than hers; in "Kwamibuster", after Tikki was kidnapped by the eponymous villain, Marinette uses the Mouse Miraculous to become Multi-Mouse, and is later aided by the kidnapped kwamis, becoming Multibug, Multinoir, and finally Multifox. In "Reflekdoll", she uses Adrian's Miraculous to become Lady Noir, a Distaff Counterpart of Cat Noir. In "Miracle Queen" she uses both the Ladybug and Dragon Miraculous to become Dragon Bug. She almost had an Akuma-identity, which Hawk Moth named "Princess Justice", but seeing as the akumatization is interrupted and not completed, details remain a mystery.
 * Not to be outdone, Adrien has done this too, using other Miraculous-es to become Mr. Bug (Ladybug Miraculous), Aspik (Snake), and Snake Noir (Cat and Dragon combined). He also becomes Cat Blanc, an akumatized version, in one Bad Future scenario.
 * Recurring villain on The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, the Sandman. The Vision Crafter, Given of Wishes, the Lord of the Sleep Realm,  the King of Dreams!

Real Life

 * Truth in Television: for one, Sun Yat-sen, leader of Nationalist China, with as many as thirty names.
 * Naoki Maeda, of Dance Dance Revolution fame. He has produced songs for Konami's Bemani franchise under many, many pseudonyms, most of which he only uses once or twice. It's been rumored that "Naoki Maeda" is not his real name, and is just yet another pseudonym; "Naoki M" is an anagram of "Konami," and some argue that it's too much of a coincidence that his real name would be an unintentional Shout-Out to Konami.
 * Just to list a few: Naoki, Naoki Underground, De-Sire, Reven G, Z, ZZ, Omega, Crystal Aliens, d-Complex, Factor-X, NM...
 * Custom stepfile maker Chuck Enck, a.k.a. Family Farce, takes this trope and runs it into the ground. Here we go: Family Farce, Hypernov8, dj foreshanks, F+ F, Nullify, K Li NK, Sidewinder, ASSIMILATION, Yawaraka, The Grind, Tidal Da Wave, Sun Buddha, radiograph, Rampage Superstars, Hulisi-Ska, Nadeshiko feat. H8!, PIPN, PIPN UNDERGROUND, PIPN SPEEDVIBE, Kurio, Side FX, DJ Analytic Hum, E519, 375U, APT.204, Gunhat, Snatcher, Pointy, Radical Minds, Avin, Reigun Overdose, Eversedative, Omega Phlegm, DJ Rezolution, Tri-Umvirate, Ni-MH, Chaarusu, NOMA VAE VICTIS, H.S.M Recovery Team, Miasma, Culture-Slum, Project Anilox, Riksmaal, Agnostix, FL@_line, Devonshire, Nessus, MC Turista, Digital Chaos, Okui Hun, e.n.d, Rick Victims, Magway, DJ Nedved, Victor-E, Mr. Pill, Sound Pressure, Jimmy Presto, Cetro, XY-Cycle, ROBO MOJO vs. EE 330, A.B.O.F.A, C&E, EZKL, Final Gasp, Retsu Group, Automatic Allisto feat. Angela, DJ Torq, S.Hazard, Two Faced Trio, Sevensleuth, Tune Out.
 * Kyle Ward of In The Groove fame also goes by Inspector K, KaW, Smiley (actually just a happy face), KeeL, K-Bit...
 * This is actually informative: Each alias writes a different style of music. KaW does trance, Smiley does happy hardcore, K-Bit does chiptune-style stuff...
 * The Tsars were big on this: "We, -- by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia, Samogitia, Belostok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria, and other territories; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhni Novgorod, Sovereign of Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, and all northern territories; Sovereign of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardinian lands and Armenian territories -- hereditary Lord and Ruler of the Circassians and Mountain Princes and others; Lord of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth." Justified as the Russian Empire grew from the small Grand Duchy of Moscow by conquest, exploration, expansion and heritage over centuries, and so the Tsar claimed rule over each new territory added to his Crown.
 * "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith". And that's the short version. The long version lists all of Her other Realms and Territories, the Commander-in-Chief of about a dozen armies, Duke of Lancaster, Lord of Mann, Duke of Normandy, and about a hundred others...
 * It's not quite as bad in Commonwealth Realms, but it can still be kind of long. In Canada, for instance, her title is "Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith." It is then often repeated in French (for the sake of good form and politeness): "Sa Majesté Elizabeth Deux, par la grâce de Dieu Reine du Royaume-Uni, du Canada et de ses autres royaumes et territoires, Chef du Commonwealth, Défenseur de la Foi."
 * Rumor has it that if the Queen is late to an appearance, the person announcing her will continue to recite her names and titles until she arrives; this can take up to half an hour.
 * This list has actually shortened over time, since the British monarchs also claimed to be: Emperor/Empress of India, King/Queen of South Africa, numerous former colonies, and France. Many of these have been dropped over the years as many former colonies (India, Pakistan, South Africa, etc.) chose to become republics.
 * Let's not forget Elizabeth's full title when she first ascended to the throne: "Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen, Defender of the Faith, Duchess of Edinburgh, Countess of Merioneth, Baroness Greenwich, Duke of Lancaster, Lord of Man, Duke of Normandy, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Garter, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Sovereign of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order, Sovereign of the Imperial Service Order, Sovereign of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, Sovereign of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, Sovereign of the Order of British India, Sovereign of the Indian Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of Burma, Sovereign of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, Sovereign of the Royal Family Order of King Edward VII, Sovereign of the Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, Sovereign of the Royal Victorian Order, Sovereign of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem." It's practically an inversion of Small Name, Big Ego.
 * She also has two "middle" names (Alexandra Mary).
 * It runs in the family. Just ask her son, His Royal Highness The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Order of Australia, Companion of the Queen's Service Order, Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty The Queen.
 * Following the Unification of Prussia and Germany, Emperor Wilhelm I became "His Imperial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm the First, by the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia; Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern; sovereign and supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz; Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen; Duke of Saxony, of Westphalia, of Angria, of Pomerania, Lunenburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelders, Cleves, Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of Crossen, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg; Landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Prince of Orange; Prince of Rügen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Münster, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Cammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers; Princely Count of Henneberg; Count of Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen; Lord of Frankfurt"
 * No list of bombastic royal titles would be complete without the Habsburgs! Take Franz Joseph I, for example:
 * His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, Franz Joseph I, By the Grace of God, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, King of Lombardy-Venetia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; King of Jerusalem etc., Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow, Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and of the Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz, Zator and Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Zara (Zadar); Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trent (Trento) and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc.; Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro (Kotor), and in the Windic march; Grand Voivode of the Voivodeship of Serbia etc.
 * Mind you the titles above are after the family split between the Spanish and Austrian Lines and after the fall of the Holy Roman Emperor. Charles the 1st would of had several more pages between German, Italian, and Spanish titles, before starting on the colonial titles...
 * Let's not forget the most insanely long royal title: that of the contemporary Bourbon King of Spain. He is, to wit: "His Majesty Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, King of Spain, of Castile, of León, of Aragon, of the Two Sicilies, of Jerusalem, of Navarre, of Granada, of Toledo, of Valencia, of Galicia, of Majorca, of Seville, of Sardinia, of Córdoba, of Corsica, of Murcia, of Menorca, of Jaén, of Algeciras, of Gibraltar, of the Canary Islands, of the East and West Indies and of the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, of Brabant, of Milan, and of Neopatra, Count of Habsburg, of Flanders, of Tyrol, of Roussillon and of Barcelona, Lord of Biscay and of Molina, Captain General of the Royal Spanish Armed Forces and its Supreme Commander, Sovereign Grand Master of the Celebrated Order of the Golden Fleece, Grand Master of the Royal & Distinguished Order of Charles III, Grand Master of the Royal Order of Isabel, the Catholic, Grand Master of the Royal & Military Order of St. Hermenegildo. Grand Master of the Order of Montesa, Grand Master of the Order of Alcántara, Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, Grand Master of the Order of Maria Luisa." And there are more that he doesn't use.
 * Also justified as post-1492 "Kingdom of Spain" was more or less an artificial creation, a union of kingdoms with different customs, laws, dialects and ethnicities ruled under the same King by local nobility and bureaucracy. (Even modern post-Franco Spain is the most federalized country in Europe.) So there was a "King of Spain" just as "a King of many realms and territories regarded as the Spanish Crown's".
 * The cougar is also known as a puma, catamount, panther, painter, mountain lion, American lion, brown tiger, deer lion, and mountain screamer.
 * Some of the rarer names, only in common use in backwater areas, include ghost walker, ghost lion, screech lion and Purple Feather.
 * Locals who live in or near their territory (in the Pacific Northwest, at least) often just call them "cats." Which can lead to some confusion when advising visitors to "Watch out for the cats."
 * In areas where other types of wild cats are rarer, driven to extinction, or unkown to exist, they may be referred to as "wild cats".
 * Terrestrial crustaceans of the order Isopoda are variously referred to as pill bugs, roly-polies, woodlice, sow bugs, armadillo bugs, cheeselogs, doodlebugs, potato bugs, chuggypigs, butcher boys, cheesy bugs, slaters, roll up bugs, chunky pigs, gramersows, butchy boys, or wood bugs. Oh, or isopods, for their official name.
 * Dogs of mixed ancestry have many generic names: Hybrid, mutt, cur, cross-breed, mix(ed)-breed, Heinz 57, and simply "dog".
 * Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Province of Rome, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God, and last, but not least, Joseph Ratzinger. The scary thing is, that's missing some of the old titles -- "Patriarch of the West", "Vicar of the Apostolic See", and "Vicar of Peter" were all used in the past, for example. Really, all the ancient heads of state did this, to some greater or lesser extent. See Queen Elizabeth II and the Tsars above, for example.
 * How about Suleiman? Although this is more of Badass Boast.
 * "Slave of God, powerful with the power of God, deputy of God on earth, obeying the commands of the Qur'an and enforcing them throughout the world, master of all lands, the shadow of God over all nations, Sultan of Sultans in all the lands of Persians and Arabs, the propagator of Sultanic laws (Nashiru kawanin al-Sultaniyye ), the tenth Sultan of the Ottoman Khans, Sultan, son of Sultan, Suleyman Khan. Slave of God, master of the world, I am Suleyman and my name is read in all the prayers in all the cities of Islam. I am the Shah of Baghdad and Iraq, Caesar of all the lands of Rome, and the Sultan of Egypt. I seized the Hungarian crown and gave it to the least of my slaves."
 * The Ottoman Sultan's title was "Sultan (given name) Khan, Sovereign of the House of Osman, Sultan of Sultans, Khan of Khans, Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe, Protector of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, Emperor of The Three Cities of Constantinople, Andrinopole and Bursa, and of the Cities of Damascus and Cairo, of all Azerbaijan, of the Magris, of Barka, of Kairuan, of Aleppo, of Arabic Iraq and of Ajim, of Basra, of El Hasa, of Dilen, of Raka, of Mosul, of Parthia, of Diyarbakır, of Cicilia, of the Vilayets of Erzurum, of Sivas, of Adana, of Karaman, Van, of Barbary, of Abyssinia, of Tunisia, of Tripoli, of Damascus, of Cyprus, of Rhodes, of Candia, of the Vilayet of the Morea, of the Marmara Sea, the Black Sea and also its coasts, of Anatolia, of Rumelia, Baghdad, Kurdistan, Greece, Turkistan, Tartary, Circassia, of the two regions of Kabarda, of Georgia, of the plain of Kypshak, of the whole country of the Tartars, of Kefa and of all the neighbouring countries, of Bosnia and its dependencies, of the City and Fort of Belgrade, of the Vilayet of Serbia, with all the castles, forts and cities, of all Albania, of all Iflak and Bogdania, as well as all the dependencies and borders, and many other countries and cities".
 * Some college sports teams have more than nickname. Army is known as the Cadets and the Black Knights. North Texas is the Eagles and the Mean Green. Virginia Tech can be the Hokies or the Gobblers, although Gobblers isn't used much anymore. The LSU Tigers are often called the Bayou Bengals. Sometimes the women's teams will have different nicknames than the men: USC's men teams are the Trojans, while the women are the Women of Troy.
 * Rudy Ray Moore. The King of the Party Records. The Human Tornado. The Avenging Disco Godfather. Petey Wheatstraw. The Devil's Son-In-Law. Dolemite, muthafucka!
 * The city of Jerusalem has seventy names.
 * Voice Actor Kirk Thornton has been credited as Ronald Allen, Ron Allen, Sparky Allen, Todd Crump, Donald Lee, Robert Lloyd, Sean Roberts, Spanky Roberts, Sparky Roberts, Kurt Thornton, Sean Thornton, Sparky Thornton, Sparly Thornton, Starky Thornton, Kirk Thorton, Sean Thorton and Sparky Thorton.
 * Babe Ruth was known as Babe Ruth, George Herman Ruth, Jr. (his real name), "The Babe", "The Bambino", "The Sultan of Swat", "Caliph of Clout", "The King of Swing", "Rajah of Rap", "The Terrible Titan", "The Home Run King", "The Colossus of Clout", "The Wazir of Wham", the "Maharajah of Mash", the "Blunderbuss", "the Monarch of Maul" and "Behemoth of Bust". And those are just some of them.
 * The Godfather of Soul, Mr. Please-Please-Please, Mr. Dynamite, The Hardest Working Man In Show Business, Soul Brother Number One... Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. James Brown.
 * Like many Asian cultures, Japanese children are generally given an Embarrassing First Name to not attract evil spirits, and then are expected to give themselves a "grownup" name by their first Rite of Passage... but many will also change their names to mark a turning point in their lives or in hopes of changing their fortunes. This doesn't include the many, many titles (granted or self-appointed) they may also gain in the course of their lives.
 * This, of course, doesn't apply to modern day Japan, as nobody believes in these evil spirits regarding names any more.
 * The name system in Feudal Japan is extremely complex. Take the person we usually known as Tokugawa Ieyasu as example: He was born Matsudaira Takechiyo, "Takechiyo" being Embarrassing First Name mentioned above. When he came of age at 15, he became Matsudaira Jirōsaburō Motonobu-- "Jirōsaburō" is a name others call him, and "Motonobu" a name he calls himself. After his first marriage, he changed his named Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu—the order is the same as above, but "Kurandonosuke" is less of a name but a title.
 * In 1657, after switching allegiance towards Oda Nobunaga and claiming himself a Minamoto descendence, he again changed his name as Tokugawa Jirōsaburō Ieyasu, as the "moto" in his previous name came from Imamoto Yoshimoto. While the "family name" and the self-referring name remained constant afterwards, in the subsequent years he'd more likely be referrer by his title of the time, which would be too long to list here.
 * It should be noted that since he claimed to be a Minamoto (and Tokugawa is merely a cadet branch of Minamoto), and Minamoto is of the Kabane of ason, in some situations he'd call himself Tokugawa [Jirōsaburō or whatever he had at the time] Minamoto no Ason Ieyasu.


 * Similarly, Chinese men used to (and perhaps still do) give themselves self-apportioned "style names".
 * The Treaty of Westphalia uses up a significant portion of the first paragraph giving the full name of two leaders of the conflict and their two representatives. Look at that mess and realize it's mostly just saying, "X and Y were fighting, and it caused a lot of problems. A and B came to this conference for peace. Attached is the treaty."
 * Some users on share programs use multiple "tags" to be more recognized and have priority in some downloads.
 * Some practitioners of real-life magical traditions will use several names in order to get energy and power from all the name archetypes they tap into.
 * In the land of the Internet, people can have numerous nicknames, handles, email addresses, and aliases they might be known by, for whatever reason (changing whims, specific circumstances for being known by a certain name on a certain forum, or just to obfuscate their online identity).
 * In Real Life, many people will have nicknames they might be known by among certain groups of people. Depending on the people you hang out with, any normal person might collect a variety of names because of this alone.
 * Egyptian pharaohs had many names: a Horus name, a Nebty (two ladies) name, a Golden Horus name, a Throne name and a personal name. So Thutmose III was fully known as:
 * Horus name Kanakht Khaemwaset meaning "Horus Mighty Bull, Arising in Thebes"
 * Nebty name Wahnesytmireempet -- "He of the Two Ladies, Enduring in kingship like Re in heaven"
 * Horus of Gold name Sekhempahtydsejerkhaw "Horus of Gold Powerful of strength, Sacred of appearance"
 * Throne name Menkheperre -- "He of the Sedge and the Bee, Enduring of form is Re"
 * Personal name Thutmose Neferkheperu -- "Son of Re, born of Thoth, beautiful of forms"
 * The humble tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). The Convention on Biological Diversity organized a project to list every plant on the planet in a giant catalogue (they're still at it, as of 2010). Most of the plants were erroneously given 2 or 3 names around the world, which is no big deal if you are looking for information on a particular plant. On the other hand, the tomato was accidentally given 790 fricking names, making it the plant with most names in the world.
 * A vehicular variation is the World War 2 aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), known as "The Big E", "Lucky E", and "The Grey Ghost", among other titles.
 * Chairman Mao's fourth wife went by eight names during her life: she was first called Lǐ Jìnhái (a boy's name) because her father wanted a son; then renamed Lǐ Shūméng; then enrolled in school as Lǐ Yúnhè, a more dignified name; then shortened it to Lǐ Hè; went by the stage name Lán Píng; then adopted the Nom De Guerre Jiāng Qīng; wrote articles under the pseudonym Lǐ Jìn; was called Madame Mao by the Western media; called herself Lǐ Rùnqīng after being released from prison. Her tombstone bears her school name, Lǐ Yúnhè.
 * Ramses II had a couple of different names, the most well known being Ramses the Great, then there was Ozymandias, and User-Maat-Re-Setep-En-Re.
 * Germany has many different categories of names in different languages, such as Germany in English, Deutschland in German itself, Allemagne in French, Niemcy in Polish, and a few others.
 * The late Prince Rogers Nelson, or simply known as Prince, had quite a few aliases. Among them were The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, The Artist, Alexander Nevermind, Coco, Starr * Company, Camille, and his very own symbol.
 * Mandarin Chinese has several names in that language. The most common are Putonghua ("Common Speech") and Guoyu ("National Language"), used on the Mainland and Taiwan, respectively. In parts of the diaspora, Huayu ("Chinese Language", Hua being a name for Chinese culture) is common. Finally, the word "Mandarin" is a rendering of Guanhua, "the speech of officials" from a time when it was the language of government functionaries based around Beijing.
 * The dinosaur Plateosaurus engelhardti has been named over twenty times (All of them have turned out to be the same species)
 * Many Chinese and Koreans who live in Western countries are given two names, so they can feel a part of both cultures. Also, names might be harder to pronounce or look/sound funny in the other language, e.g 혜나 (Hye Na), looks like Hyena and Jill (질), sounds like the Korean slang word for the female genitals.
 * Actually, children who live in China and South Korea are given Western names. Christianity is one of the most common religions so Christian children have an extra name for their religion, but most children who aren't Christian also have Western names as well.