Malcolm X, the civil rights campaigner (born Malcolm Little), adopted the 'X' to represent his unknown African ancestral name. Many Jewish politicians re-adopted Hebrew family names on return to Israel, dropping westernized versions that may have been in the family for generations. David Ben Gurion, for example, was born David Grün in Poland.
He adopted his Hebrew name in 1910, when he published his first article in a zionist journal in Jerusalem. Famous pseudonyms of people who were neither authors nor actors include: Le Corbusier, the architect, was Charles Édouard Jeanneret. James, who uses up to 11 other different names on various releases.
Alan Smithee is a name commonly used by directors who want to disown their own movie. George Spelvin and Georgina Spelvin are names used in American theater when the actor playing the part is unknown at printing time, wishes to remain anonymous, or the part is double cast or played by an actor who plays more than one character in the cast. Luther Blissett is a shared pseudonym often used for activist and artistic purposes, especially in the Italian art scene.
David Agnew is used on BBC programmes where a writer's name cannot be used for contractual reasons. Nicolas Bourbaki was a famous pseudonym for a group of mathematicians. Student was William Sealey Gosset, discoverer of Student's -distribution in statistics.
Hambali is Riduan Isamuddin, the leader of Jemaah Islamiah, a terrorist group; he was born Encep Nurjaman Edward Gorey had dozens of pseudonyms, each one an anagram of his real name. Jim McKay is the professional name of American sportscaster James Kenneth McManus. Sue Denim is actually children's writer, Dav Pilkey.
On the internet, pseudonymous remailers utilising cryptography can be used to achieve persistent pseudonymity, so that two-way communication can be achieved, and reputations can be established without linking a physical identity to a pseudonym. Malcolm X, the civil rights campaigner (born Malcolm Little), adopted the 'X' to represent his unknown African ancestral name.
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