2913: Noms de Guerre Dec 12, 2024

A nom de guerre refers to a name adopted for the use during military involvement. The practice is not so common today; recently it has come up in the news as the Syrian rebel leader used the nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, but now after recent success is attempting to pivot back to his birth name, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa. Perhaps the last major use of a nom de guerre was in the 1970’s with Pol Pot, born Saloth Sâr, who kept it after he became General Secretary in Cambodia.

The practice originated with mandatory use of the nom de guerre in the French military. This practice dates to the 15th century, usually giving people pseudonyms based on geographic origins, and became a mandatory practice in the early 18th century. Not used for the officers, it was a form of identification, phased out with the advent of identification numbers. 

They are now often taken up by paramilitary leaders and many communist leaders to avoid indicting themselves, though whether a name taken by a revolutionary not directly involved in fighting is a nom de guerre is debatable.