History Main / CharacterNameAlias

* Modified slightly in the ''Series/{{Hustle}}'' episode "Conned Out of Luck" - Mickey mentions Ash to TheMark as "Mr. Bond", after which Ash simply can't resist introducing himself as "Bond... Film/JamesBond. *{{beat}}* No relation."

* In ''Manga/CaseClosed'' (''Case Closed'' in the English dub), Shin'ichi Kudo is [[FountainOfYouth changed into a little boy by a powerful poison]]. When he returns to his house after the change, he is surprised by his not-yet-girlfriend Ran Mouri and hastily thinks up the name of Conan, from Creator/ArthurConanDoyle, the famous author of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes''. His fake last name of Edogawa comes from Edogawa Ranpo, a Japanese mystery author, whose pen name in turn is a pun on Creator/EdgarAllanPoe (Edogaa Aran Po).

* In ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' (''Case Closed'' in the English dub), Shin'ichi Kudo is [[FountainOfYouth changed into a little boy by a powerful poison]]. When he returns to his house after the change, he is surprised by his not-yet-girlfriend Ran Mouri and hastily thinks up the name of Conan, from Creator/ArthurConanDoyle, the famous author of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes''. His fake last name of Edogawa comes from Edogawa Ranpo, a Japanese mystery author, whose pen name in turn is a pun on Creator/EdgarAllanPoe (Edogaa Aran Po).

* The ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' trilogy:
** In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Marty's name is assumed to be "Calvin Klein" because that's the name on his underwear. He also dresses up as "[[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]", [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial an extraterrestrial]] from the [[Franchise/StarTrek planet Vulcan]].

* ''Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery''. An undercover Austin introduces himself as [[Series/HappyDays Richie Cunningham]] and Vanessa as his wife [[Series/TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah]]. Because he's been in cryostasis for decades, he doesn't realize that these are famous names.

* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter, shapeshifted into an (apparently) Japanese woman, as "[[Franchise/SailorMoon Hino Rei]]" in an issue of ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsJLA'' guest written by Creator/MarkMillar. Seriously. What's more: ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' picked up on the reference. Out-of-universe, this is supposedly due to someone pranking Millar when he asked for a Japanese name connected with Mars.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/Trinity2008 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/martian_manhunter_sailor_moon_joke_in_dc_comic_39.jpg]]]]

* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter, shapeshifted into an (apparently) Japanese woman, as "[[Franchise/SailorMoon Hino Rei]]". Seriously. What's more: ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' picked up on the reference. Out-of-universe, this is supposedly due to someone pranking the author when he asked for a Japanese name connected with Mars.

* In ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', Merrin hates his EmbarrassingName and gives himself a MeaningfulRename to "Daniel Hunter" after the two scariest people he can think of, [=DomDaniel=] and The Hunter.

* An easter egg in the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' cartoon "secret identity" shows the registry book for Bubs' Motor Lodge, where we see people have signed in under fake names including "Mr. [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Allan Poe]]", "Mr. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_Boyardee Boyardee]]", "Mr. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlain Chamberlain]]", "Mr. [[Film/{{Superman}} Tesmacher]]", "Mrs. [[Creator/JacquesCousteau Cousteau]]", "Mr. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fab_Five_Freddy Five Freddy]]", and "Mr. [[Creator/BillyDeeWilliams Dee Williams]]". From clues, it's not hard to determine which character is behind which alias, and the latter is explicitly confirmed to be Homestar himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': After meeting Lando Calrissian in the first season, Ezra Bridger uses his name as an alias on several occasions, including to [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E04BrothersOfTheBrokenHorn Hondo Ohnaka]] and [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E05ImperialSupercommandos Gar Saxon]].

* As shown in the documentary film ''Kanehsetake: 270 Years of Resistance'', one of the protesters at the Oka Crisis used the alias "[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]]". Naming yourself after a child-killer is probably not the best way to get the public on your side...

** In the very last book, they identify 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.

* The main character of ''Little Brother'' originally goes by "w1n5t0n", as in the protagonist of ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''. When the plot starts heating up, he realized it might be a tad too obvious, and gets a new alias.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' enemy the Film Freak uses thhe alias Edison after UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison, inventor of the motion picture[[note]]At least in popular understanding[[/note]].

** Catriona Kaye is fond of the movie ''Film/LesVampires'' and uses the name 'Irma Vep' as her GoToAlias.

* In ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'', Frank Abagnale Jr. uses the alias Barry Allen, secret identity of ComicBook/TheFlash. One of the guys on the case figures out that the person they're looking for is probably quite young based on this information.

* ''Film/NineteenninetyFourBakerStreetSherlockHolmesReturns'': When Holmes visits the police station, he decides that giving his name as Sherlock Holmes might be a good idea, so he introduces himself as "Holmes, Oliver W".

[[caption-width-right:350:Warning: Tactic may not work against World's Greatest Detective!]]

If a character makes a habit out of doing this, it may be a case of ThemedAliases.

Compare with LineOfSightAlias, SdrawkcabAlias, and SueDonym. Subtrope of LazyAlias. If the character has traveled back in time and is using a name from the future, it's ImMrFuturePopCultureReference.

* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter, shapeshifted into an (apparently) Japanese woman, as "[[Franchise/SailorMoon Hino Rei]]". Seriously. What's more: ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' picked up on the reference. Out-of-universe, this is supposedly due to someone pranking the author when he asked for a name connected with Mars.

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': It plays a similar name game with other notable fictional detectives. Keith Mars has memorably introduced himself as [[Series/{{Monk}} "Adrian Monk"]] and as "[[Franchise/NancyDrew Carson Drew, and my daughter Nancy]]". Veronica, infiltrating a rival school, went by the name [[Franchise/ArchieComics 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 [[Literature/TheScarletLetter Hester.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/Trinity2008 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/martian_manhunter_sailor_moon_joke_in_dc_comic_39.jpg]]

* In the Creator/ElleryQueen 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 [[EurekaMoment starts Ellery down the path to the solution of the mystery]].