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Character Name Alias: Difference between revisions
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* In ''[[Fletch]]'', the title character goes by a number of aliases:
** Real people: Ted Nugent, [[Igor Stravinsky]], Gordon Liddy and [[Harry Truman|Harry S. Truman]].
** Characters: Babar (the elephant), [[The Godfather|Don Corleone.]]
** Just plain weird: Dr. Rosenpenis
** In the second Fletch film, ''Fletch Lives'', Fletch uses the alias "Elmer [[Looney Tunes|Fudd]] [[Elmer Gantry|Gantry]]", combining the names of two fictional characters.
* In ''[[The Saint]]'' with Val Kilmer, all of Simon's aliases are names of Catholic saints.
* Real-person name example from ''[[In the Line of Fire]]'': Would-be presidential assassin Mitch Leary uses the name Booth (as in John Wilkes -) when taunting Agent Frank Horrigan (a former JFK bodyguard) over the phone.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* In the ''[[Animorphs]]'' novel "The Unknown", Marco, Rachel and Cassie are captured in a military base. They give their names as [[The X-Files|Fox Mulder, Dana Scully]] and Cindy Crawford, respectively.
** They also do this in the very last book, identifying themselves to a rogue Yeerk ship as the Starship ''Enterprise'', from the United Federation of Planets. This turns out to be a bad idea, as a human-Controller responds, asking sarcastically to speak to Captain Picard.
* [[Roger Zelazny]] wrote a series of short stories, collected in ''My Name Is Legion'', about a secret agent whose real name even his employer didn't know, whose aliases were always the names of obscure-but-notable historical figures. (In a break from the usual procedure, the historical figure always had ''nothing whatever'' to do with the job at hand; for instance, on his first appearance he was undercover as an engineer, but using a name whose original owner was a doctor.)
* In ''The Darkest Evening of the Year'' by [[Dean Koontz]], one of the villains uses at least two aliases from Kurt Vonnegut novels.
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* In ''[[Catch-22]]'', Yossarian censors letters under the name Washington Irving. This is eventually copied by Major Major, who is delighted by the fact that "Washington Irving" can be flipped around and people will know the difference.
* In the [[Ellery Queen]] novel ''The Origin of Evil'', there is a character who calls himself Alfred Wallace. Recognising the connotations of the name (Wallace was a naturalist and contemporary of Darwin who independently proposed a theory of natural selection) is what starts Ellery down the path to the solution of the mystery.
* In ''[[Ender's Game]]'', Ender's brother and sister make [[wikipedia:John Locke|"Locke"]] and [[wikipedia:Demosthenes|"Demosthenes"]] their online identities.
* In [[Daniel Pinkwater]]'s ''Young Adult Novel'', the Wild Dada Ducks of Himmler High School, who use their Dada names instead of their real names, include the Honorable Venustiano Carranza (President of Mexico), previously known as Pecos Bill.
* The main character of ''Little Brother'' originally goes by "w1n5t0n", as in the protagonist of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]''. When the plot starts heating up, he realized it might be a tad too obvious, and gets a new alias.
* Trix MacMillan is not the real name of the character from the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] who's known by that name, and it's very close to [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Tricia McMillan]].
* ''[[Sweet Valley High]]'' had a spin-off series, ''Elizabeth'', in which Elizabeth runs away to London and becomes a servant in an aristocrat's mansion. She decides to use the alias [[Pride and Prejudice|Elizabeth Bennet]], and while people do call her out on it, she ultimately gets away with the ruse.
* In ''[[Neverwhere]]'', the Marquis de Carabas admits to taking that pseudonym from "[[Puss in Boots|a lie in a fairy-tale]]".
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* On one episode of ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'', Ned, Emerson and Chuck go undercover in a nunnery to solve the murder of a nun. Emerson uses the alias Father Dowling, lifted from a television show called ''The Father Dowling Mysteries'', and Ned goes by Father Mulcahy, from ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]''. Chuck uses the name "Sister Christian", a song from the band Night Ranger. Subverted a bit when they do end up getting caught.
{{quote|'''Mother Superior:''' Perhaps you'd like to call your associate, M*A*S*H's Father Mulcahy. And Sister Christian is nothing but a heavy petting metal ballad. }}
* On ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' one UnSub was a teenager who said his name was [[Grand Theft Auto IV|Nico Bellic]]. Everyone was shocked when [[Cool Old Guy|Rossi]] [[Criminal Minds/Funny|said he knew that's GTAIV's main character]].
* One ''[[CSI]]'' episode featured a serial killer who used the names of slasher villains as aliases.
* Sam and Dean on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' almost always use the names of musicians whenever they pose as policemen/agents/reporters to interview people.
** They've also used ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]]: "Major Ford and Major Hamill" and "[[X Wing Series|Wedge Antilles]]." Dean also used [[The Great Escape|"Hilts" and "McQueen"]] to send Sam a note while they were both in police custody.
* ''[[Psych]]'' has done this at least a few times.
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Fires of Pompeii" has the Doctor introduce himself as Spartacus. Donna Noble quickly follows with [[I Am Spartacus|"and so am I."]]
** Rose once introduced him as [[Star Trek|Mr. Spock]].
* In an episode of ''[[Life On Mars]]'', Sam Tyler goes undercover as "Tony Blair" with Annie as his wife, "Cherie". When Gene tags along, Sam introduces him as "Gordon Brown".
** In the American version, he's "Detective Skywalker," making it more of an [[I'm Mr. Future Pop Culture Reference]].
* ''[[Dexter]]'' orders his tranquilizers as [[American Psycho|Patrick Bateman.]]
* The "title character" (sort of) of ''[[Remington Steele]]'', a movie buff, has multiple passports, each bearing the name of a character [[Humphrey Bogart]] played in the movies. In a later episode, Laura catches him in a lie because a woman calling him uses the alias of an [[Ingrid Bergman]] character.
* On ''[[Lost]]'', Ben's passport says "Dean Moriarty," a character from ''On the Road''.
** Locke's father called himself "[[Tom Sawyer]]."
{{quote|"The ladies love that one."}}
** Ben went by [[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|Henry Gale]] before we found out his real name.
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** In "Tangent," Jackson tries to stall a Jaffa patrol ship by impersonating a Goa'uld and identifying himself as "[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|the great and powerful Oz]]".
** On [[Stargate Atlantis|Atlantis]] John Shepard introduces himself as [[Fantastic Four|Reed Richards]].
** On [[Stargate Universe|Universe]] Eli uses the name [[Futurama|Philip Fry]]. To his mother, no less.
* ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' plays a similar name game with other notable fictional detectives. Keith Mars has memorably introduced himself as [[Monk|"Adrian Monk"]] and as "[[Nancy Drew|Carson Drew, and my daughter Nancy]]". Veronica, infiltrating a rival school, went by the name [[Archie Comics|Betty]], saying she was Horny, the mascot for the Rhinos, the team at her old school...Riverdale.
** On one occasion, Veronica went to a church group and pretended to be pregnant. Her chosen alias was [[The Scarlet Letter|Hester.]]
* ''[[Farscape]]'' used Butch and Sundance as aliases when Crichton and Aeryn were masquerading as bounty hunters.
** Crichton ''loves'' this trope. He's also claimed to be [[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]].
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* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'': "Uh... Elvis. Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabar".
* On ''[[Gargoyles]]'', immortal [[Anti-Villain]] MacBeth uses the alias Lennox MacDuff as his modern persona. Both are characters from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[Macbeth]]''. The first time he uses it, the person he's talking to (a writer) immediately finds him suspicious.
* [[American Dragon: Jake Long|Jake Long]] once came up with the alias [[Beyonce]] [[Justin Timberlake|Timberlake]], but it was okay becuase he was [[I'm Mr. Future Pop Culture Reference|time traveling at the time]].
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* A common tactic of [[419 Scam|419]] baiters. They usually do this for these reasons:
## It's more amusing if they manage to fool the scammer.
## The scammer may use it as a false name later, making his future scams more obvious.
* As shown in the documentary film ''Kanehsetake: 270 Years of Resistance'', one of the protesters at the Oka Crisis used the alias "[[A Nightmare on Elm Street|Freddy Krueger]]". Naming yourself after a child-killer is probably not the best way to get the public on your side...
* The 2010 Orwell Prize for best political blog was ironically awarded to an anonymous blogger calling himself [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|Winston Smith]].
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