Go-To Alias: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A variation on this would be the Go-to Identity, when this name carries a history or personality to which the character sticks whenever he uses it. In more dire circumstances, [[Becoming the Mask|the character will start associating with that identity more than his own]]. If [[Played for Laughs]], he will be [[Lost in Character]].

 

{{examples}}

=== [[Comic Books]] ===

* ''[[Batman]]'': Alfred Pennyworth often uses his middle names (Thaddeus Crane) as an alias when he goes undercover.

* Donald E. Westlake's [[The Hot Rock|John Dortmunder]] character is a career criminal. He has occasionally used the alias "John Diddums" (he claims to anyone who asks that it's Welsh), a name he dislikes but uses involuntarily in circumstances that preclude using his real name.

 

* ''[[Friends]]'':

** Phoebe Buffay is practically guaranteed to use the name "Regina Phalange" whenever pretending to be someone else.

* On ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Dale likes to go by Rusty Shackleford, generally whenever he's doing something sneaky, although he also refuses to sign his real name to any document, being a comical [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic]]. At one point in the series, [[The Real Remington Steele|the actual Rusty Shackleford]] shows up—Dale knew him as a kid and had thought Rusty had died—it turns out that Rusty had just moved away and wasn't happy being connected with Dale's various acts of stupidity.

 

=== [[Comic Books]] ===

* [[Batman]] has his Matches Malone identity that he uses to get information about the criminal underworld.

* [[The Stainless Steel Rat]], in his criminal days, had a constructed identity complete with false fingerprints, pads that changed the shape of his face, and so on, which he would adopt before beginning any con (and keep up underneath any other alias required for the con), so that the police would spend their time looking for that person instead of the real him.

 

* ''[[Leverage]]'': Sophie Devereaux is [[Only Known by Their Nickname|the alias by which we know]] Gina Bellman's con artist.

** Not that the rest of the gang doesn't have standard cover identities. [[Word of God|John Rogers]] says it's to decrease the number of names they have to run by their legal team to keep them from slandering someone. A small selection:

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Identity Index]]

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]