Real Name as an Alias: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

A character needs an alias for some reason and technically ''doesn't'' lie about what their name is... it might be their real name if they're known by a nickname or vice versa, or their maiden name if they're a married woman, or their middle name being used as their first name, but the point is that the character can argue that it ''is'' their real name. Often used by [[King Incognito|disguised royalty]] with [[Overly Long Name|overly long names]], since they can just pick one of their many middle names to be called by.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In Katharine Kerr's ''[[Deverry]]'' novels, the character Nevyn (meaning "no one", and hence often taken to be a joke) uses his long-abandoned original name (Galrion) when he needs to be taken seriously by some nobles. Everyone who knows him assumes he just made it up.

* In [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''[[Friday (Literature)|Friday]]'', the title character runs out of fake passports and falls back on the real one to pull a switcheroo with one of the fake IDs.

** By most people. Death Bredon just says it the way it looks.

* In the novel ''[[The School Story]]'', Zoe pretends to be a literary agent and uses her nickname "Zee Zee" together with a misspelling of her last name.

* [[Vorkosigan Saga|Miles Naismith Vorkosigan]] spent ten years running top secret operations under the cover identity of Admiral Miles Naismith. Once, on the point of being found out, he covered by pretending that "Admiral Naismith" was his clone, who used his Betan mother's maiden name because Betan law grants clones the legal status of family members.

* In ''Spindle's End'', when Katriona and Aunt take in the little princess, they take the last of her many names, Briar-Rose, and decide to call her Rosie.

* In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'', a regiment composed of [[Sweet Polly Oliver|women dressed up as men]] dress up as washerwomen to get themselves into a fort, and use their real names as their aliases.

* In ''The Birthday Ball'', Princess Patricia Priscilla dresses as a peasant and goes to the village school. When the schoolmaster asks for her name, she calls herself Pat. ("Quite a short name because I'm [[Most Definitely Not a Villain|merely a humble peasant]].")

* In ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]],'' Cyborg infiltrates the HIVE by donning a hologram to make him look human until he "powers up" into a rocklike form. He calls himself "Stone." Vic Stone is, of course, his real name.

** There's also Slade, whose real name is Slade Wilson. In the original comic his alias was Deathstroke the Terminator.

* In ''[[Young Justice (Animation)|Young Justice]]'', Artemis' real name is... Artemis Crock.

 

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]

[[Category:Real Name As An Alias]]