List of pseudonyms

This is a list of pseudonyms, in various categories.

A pseudonym is a name adopted by a person for a particular purpose, which differs from his or her true name. A pseudonym may be used by social activists or politicians for political purposes or by others for religious purposes. It may be a soldier's noms de guerre, an author's pen name, a performer's stage name, or an alias used by visual artists, athletes, and fashion designers. Pseudonyms are occasionally used in fiction such as by superheroes or other fictional characters.

Social activists

Visual arts

Pseudonym

A pseudonym (UK pronunciation: /ˈsjuːdənɪm/ SYOO-də-nim and US pronunciation: /ˈsuːdənɪm/ SOO-də-nim) is a name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which can differ from his or her original or true name (orthonym). Pseudonyms include stage names and user names (both called screen names), ring names, pen names, nicknames, aliases, superhero identities and code names, gamer identifications, and regnal names of emperors, popes, and other monarchs. Historically, they have often taken the form of anagrams, Graecisms, and Latinisations, although there are many other methods of choosing a pseudonym.

Pseudonyms are most usually adopted to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists' tags, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre, and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other performers sometimes use stage names, for example, to mask their ethnic backgrounds.

In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because they are part of a cultural or organisational tradition: for example devotional names used by members of some religious institutes, and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Trotsky and Lenin.