I've noted that a number of characters from My Hero Academia are named after their real names (examples: Aiba Manami, Asui Tsuyu, Usagiyama Rumi) while others are named after their hero/villain name (examples: Midnight, Mount Lady). So, should they be aliased to real names?

lamialover97 said:

I've noted that a number of characters from My Hero Academia are named after their real names (examples: Aiba Manami, Asui Tsuyu, Usagiyama Rumi) while others are named after their hero/villain name (examples: Midnight, Mount Lady). So, should they be aliased to real names?

We should alias them to their real names.

Most outside wikis have defaulted to using their real names, so I can see the argument to alias them. All Might's going to be tricky, as he has a emaciated civilian form which he uses his real name to pose as a secretary. He's also arguably too iconic, much like his inspiration, Superman.

I do know Dabi will have to be an exception, as his real identity is going to be a massive spoiler when it is revealed. The manga's already dropping hints like a stealth bomber.

To be honest, it seems kind of weird to me to make the civilian names the main tags, since that works for most of the kids who don't use their hero names much and didn't even have them until later, but the adults are the reverse, they're hardly ever referred to using their real names, I didn't even know Miruko's name was Usagiyama Rumi until I saw the tag, and I definitely couldn't name literally any other hero's real name.

I understand it's for consistency and all that, but it still seems really weird to use the name that's mentioned maybe once for most characters and then almost never again.

Hillside_Moose said:

Most outside wikis have defaulted to using their real names, so I can see the argument to alias them. All Might's going to be tricky, as he has a emaciated civilian form which he uses his real name to pose as a secretary. He's also arguably too iconic, much like his inspiration, Superman.

I do know Dabi will have to be an exception, as his real identity is going to be a massive spoiler when it is revealed. The manga's already dropping hints like a stealth bomber.

Yeah, for All Might and Dabi it would definitely be strange and troublesome to display their real names as the main tag.

Hillside_Moose said:

Most outside wikis have defaulted to using their real names, so I can see the argument to alias them. All Might's going to be tricky, as he has a emaciated civilian form which he uses his real name to pose as a secretary. He's also arguably too iconic, much like his inspiration, Superman.

When a character has a civilian form and an alternate hero form, it only makes sense to use separate character tags for both forms. This is the way we've done things for years — compare with the Sailor Senshi and Pretty Cures.

iridescent_slime said:

When a character has a civilian form and an alternate hero form, it only makes sense to use separate character tags for both forms. This is the way we've done things for years — compare with the Sailor Senshi and Pretty Cures.

Problem would be, that most users don´t know the name of all might etc. and will tag it, for example, all might instead of toshinori yagi, so somebody would have to correct the images it from time to time.

My general stance is that I think we should follow Wikipedia's common name policy, which is to say we should use the name that is most commonly used by fans and by the source material. If a character has a real name, but nobody calls them that and it's barely used in the manga, then I don't think that's the right name to use. There are several factors that go into choosing a name, including unambiguity, consistency, and recognizability. Consistency is one factor, but it's not the only one, and I wouldn't say it's even the most important one.

I second what evasion said.
Even as an avid reader and watcher, i mostly know the characters by their hero names, especially the episodic ones, because that's what they're caller 90-100% of the time. Some characters you only find out heir real names from a guidebook, or some twitter posts.
It was really time consuming trying to search for a character, or post an image but, having to take some time to look through several wiki pages to find out what names i need to use on danbooru.

If we wanted to be both somewhat consistent and useful, we could use real names for the students and hero/villain names for the hero/villain adults. I can't think of any students who are better known by their hero names, or any pro heroes or villains who are better known by their civilian names.

I fully agree with evazion and Aqros, it should really be the name that's actually used the most, otherwise it's more trouble than it needs to be to actually find someone.

Twice is one notable example of someone commonly referred to by both names, but between the two Twice is probably more easily remembered and recognized.

Evazion makes a good point, I have to agree with him.

I agree with evazion. Another question would be: if we keep both tags for all might and yagi toshinori, should post like this even be tagged as all might (post #3176638 post #2849410) because in those images he is clearly not all might, as his hero form would be full of muscles and he isn´t wearing his hero outfit.
On the other hand, people will tag this as all might, as this is his common name, even in his weak form. Even the most manga characters call him all might in his weak form and rarely yagi toshinori.

So, what should we do about Usagiyama Rumi's case? I'm pretty sure her hero name "Mirko" is more popular and used than her real name.

lamialover97 said:

So, what should we do about Usagiyama Rumi's case? I'm pretty sure her hero name "Mirko" is more popular and used than her real name.

In her case, Mirko is definitely the way to go, just from that tag having 4 times more images on pixiv. And, as you said of course, it's the more popular name.

To take the conversation a bit further though, to make searching easier we will need to make more aliases/implications into the "popular name".
Since we'd pretty much be going with a mix of the Fate character tagging system (1 main popular name, real name in description and aliased) for heroes/villains and the Precure character tagging system (2 or more character tags, 1 for the 'real name' + 1 for each of the costume persona) for the students/mostly civilians.

Guaro1238 said:

I agree with evazion. Another question would be: if we keep both tags for all might and yagi toshinori, should post like this even be tagged as all might (post #3176638 post #2849410) because in those images he is clearly not all might, as his hero form would be full of muscles and he isn´t wearing his hero outfit.
On the other hand, people will tag this as all might, as this is his common name, even in his weak form. Even the most manga characters call him all might in his weak form and rarely yagi toshinori.

My personal opinion on this is that given that he re-introduced himself as All Might when he was in his regular form it's not really an issue that it also gets tagged All Might. I do think that the Yagi Toshinori tag should be retained to cover depictions of his deflated form though for searching purposes.

keonas said:

To take the conversation a bit further though, to make searching easier we will need to make more aliases/implications into the "popular name".
Since we'd pretty much be going with a mix of the Fate character tagging system (1 main popular name, real name in description and aliased) for heroes/villains and the Precure character tagging system (2 or more character tags, 1 for the 'real name' + 1 for each of the costume persona) for the students/mostly civilians.

Not really keen on supporting aliases for Precure characters or similar series, particularly given that those transformations also tend to result in physical differences between the character's two forms.

If it were possible, I think it'd be a better system to have a means of linking two character tags so the autocomplete also suggests the alternative character tag instead going the route of forcing aliases or implications.