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When someone has to think of a pseudonym for themselves, an oddly popular choice is their own name, but written backwards. You'd expect them to be more imaginative, and smart enough to realize that such a pseudonym can easily give away your true identity. Sure enough, most of the time someone notices, often by exclaiming "(Eman Sdrawckab) spelled backwards is (Backwards Name)!"
The technical term for this is an "Ananym". (And yes, it does spell "My Nana" if written backwards). On a technical note, this trope is much more interesting depending on whether it's the ''sounds'' or ''letters'' that have been reversed, compared with whether it occurs in written or spoken form. For example, compare "[[Who Wants to Be a Superhero?|Rotiart]]" (Roh-Tee-Art) to "traitor" (Tray-Tor); the letters are reversed, but the way English language rules work, the result comes out with noticeably different syllabic parsing and verbal rhythm. You might spot the trope in writing, but it sounds like a genuine name when spoken aloud. Conversely, reversing the syllables instead of the spelling can pass in writing, but may sound obvious when spoken out loud.
Also note that some other languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, assign ''whole syllables'' to each character, so while the names really ''were'' spelled backwards in their native alphabet, their English equivalents got [[Lost in Translation]]. This includes palindromes, such as "[[Love Hina|Maeda Ema]]" (spelled Ma-e-da-E-ma) and "[[Infinite Stratos|Yamada Maya]]" (Ya-ma-da-Ma-ya).
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== VT Noicta-Evil ==
* ''[[Doctor Who]]: The War Games'', The War Chief's space-time-travel machines are called SIDRATs.
* These work better in real life than one might think. In the reality show ''[[Who Wants to Be a Superhero?]]'', each contestant has a [[Code Name]]. In the middle of the first episode, it was revealed that one of the contestants was [[The Mole|actually a spy]]. The contestant Rotiart stepped forward and proclaimed dramatically, "Rotiart spelled backwards is..." ''(rip off name tag for [[The Reveal]])'' "Traitor!"
* Long-running American soap opera ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' is well-known for its far-fetched plots, particularly those centered around the arch-villain Stefano DiMera. One plot had several characters leave the show's usual locale of Salem during the Fall of 1995 to attend a wedding in the town of Aremid. Events conspired to make many of the characters stay in Aremid until the following spring, but in that time nobody seemed to notice that Aremid was actually DiMera spelled backwards. The show repeated the trope nine years later when several characters found themselves abducted from Salem and kept captive on the island of Melaswen (New Salem), a place filled with recreations of several landmarks from their hometown.
* ''[[Scrubs]]''
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'''Janitor:''' ''(to Indian doctor)'' Mornin', Dr. Rotinaj.
'''Doctor:''' Good morning, Mr. cleanup man! }}
* ''[[Star Trek: The
** An episode mentioned a toxic substance called Selgninaem. One of the show's writers acknowledged this to be a comment on the meaningless nature of [[Techno Babble]].
** In the second-season episode "Where Silence Has Lease", the Omnipotent Being of the Week was named "Nagilum", or "Nagillum," depending on what you read. That second name is important when you consider that the producers originally wanted Richard Mulligan for that role....
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== Semag Potelbat ==
* The dark messiah "Susej", from ''Satanis Unbound''.
* ''[[Dungeons
** In the ''[[Spelljammer]]'' setting; "scro" (singular and plural) are advanced orcs.
** ''D&D'' also has "nilbogs" and "llorts", both of which are [[Revive Kills Zombie|damaged by healing magic, and vice versa]].
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* ''[[Fire Emblem]]''
** ''Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon'' and its sequel features Draug, the first armored [[Mighty Glacier|Knight]] that joins you.
** ''Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn'' features Danved as a playable character, who has a striking resemblance to Devdan in ''Path of Radiance''. Instead of a full reversal, they swapped the syllables and reversed one of them. Furthermore, in the Japanese release, Danved was known as Nadved—a full reversal. [[Dub
* The climax of ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' has the scientist Kio Marv supposedly store some secret information in an MSX cartridge. When the cartridge is retrieved and booted up, it displays the MSX BIOS screen, with a visual RAM of 01K - so it reads 'VRAM 01K'. Snake realises that the cartridge is genuine.
* ''[[Ultima V]]''
** The [[Messianic Archetype]] Avatar could recruit a party member named SADUJ; a spy for the Oppression who would promptly turn on you and try to kill you the next time you entered combat. The smart players made him into [[Uriah Gambit|Hairu]] in one particular battle.
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* One of the Daedric Princes in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games is Namira, which is Ariman backwards.
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' combines this with [[Gratuitous Russian]] with the Dalokohs bar; "dalokohs" being the Russian word for chocolate, "shokolad", spelled backwards.
* Though ''[[
* The [[Fan Nickname]]s for the two Toads in ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]'': Yvan and Wolley.
* There is a town called Gorlab in ''[[Ultima I]]''. It also appears in Serpent Island as the Gorlab Swamp (the town itself was pulled into the dream realm). Gorlab is balrog backwards.
* One puzzle in ''[[King's Quest I]]'', Rumpelstiltskin gives you a riddle on how his name is spelled. The clue received is to think backwards. You think it's spelled "Nikstlitselpmur", but you have to reverse the alphabet (A becomes Z and so on) which spells the quite unpronounceable "Ifnkovhgroghprm". This was resolved in the remake by making both solutions acceptable.
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* In ''[[The Emperor's New School|The Emperors New School]]'', Yzma's alias while masquerading as the principal of Kuzco U. is Amzy. Of course, no-one falls for her [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] except for Kronk, the only one who's ''supposed'' to know. Though this is [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in the finale when Kronk admits he figured out "[[Medium Awareness|about three episodes back]]" and proceeds to [[Lampshade Hanging|point out everything that made it obvious]] while admitting he'd been [[Obfuscating Stupidity|pretending to remain ignorant]] since the realization.
* In ''[[Gargoyles]]'', the [[Evil Twin]] (so to speak) of Goliath is Thailog... not a precise reversal. Of course, the writers admitted they did it this way because "Htailog" would have been very hard for the voice actors to say.
* During his initial appearance in ''[[Totally Spies!]]'', Tim Scam masquerades as Mac Smit. Alex figures it out when she sees his name tag in the mirror, although the letters are not mirror-image reversed.
* In the "Marge vs. the Monorail" episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Mr. Burns attempts to get his money back by disguising himself with a fake mustache at the town meeting and calling himself "Mr. Snrub". Surprisingly, it fails instantly. Remember, this is ''Springfield'' we are talking about.
** In the "New Kids on the Blecch" episode Bart, Milhouse, Ralph Wiggum, and Nelson are in a boy band that is secretly sponsored by a military force. The main song's hook had the lyrics "yvan eht nioj."
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** All of the "Wild Brood" bikers in ''[[Scooby Doo Mystery Inc]]'' have these, from smooth-acting leader Odnarb, to Foog and Dren, to the disgusting Gabtraf.
* The second ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series uses several of these in a non-alias context, the most notable being Mortu the Utrom. There is also a running gag involving recurring character Kluh ([[The Incredible Hulk|"Hulk"]]), where concepts related to him are also backwards names for things related to the Marvel character—his father is called Ammag ("gamma"), and his home planet is named Levram ("Marvel").
* A strange example in ''[[The Fairly
* One episode of ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' had Sector V visiting a [[Mirror Universe]]. The KND counterpart was the Destructivly Nefarious Kids (DNK), the Delightful Children From Down The Lane (DCFDTL) were now the Little Traitor Dudes From Childrens Defense (LTDFCD), and the alternate Lizzie was named Eizzil, leading some fans to believe this applies to all names (the DNK operatives are only referred to as Negative Numbuh X).
* Spoofing Superman's "Mr. Mxyzptlk", an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' has a clip in which Adam West provides "Kebert Xela" as his answer on ''Final Jeopardy'', causing host Alex Trebek to disappear when he read it aloud.
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[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]
[[Category:Sdrawkcab Name]]▼
[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]
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