I watched through Death Note once, and I never remember hearing L's name, even after he died.
What was L's real name, or did he never have one (it was never said)?
I watched through Death Note once, and I never remember hearing L's name, even after he died.
What was L's real name, or did he never have one (it was never said)?
According to both the Death Note Character list on Wikipedia and the L character page on the Death Note Wikia, his full name is L Lawliet. He does have several aliases that sound more like real names but L seems to be his actual name.
From the L Wikipedia page:
Tsugumi Ohba, the writer of the series [...] For L's name, he wanted to use a single letter with a lot of significance; he considered "I" and "J", but eventually chose "L" after careful consideration.
The Wiki page also points out that his name is written in Latin characters as "L"
L's real name is L Lawliet
Alias: L
Letter: L
Real Name: L Lawliet
Relation: The famous detective L. He was found by Wammy as a child and brought to the orphanage. The goal of the orphanage is to train a worthy successor to his title.(†)
Also, Wikia lists his name as エル (Eru), so most likely that is how you would spell L in his name (over using the English letter L)
There is also a scene in the movie Death Note 2: The Last Name where we see L's real name written in the Death Note
which he shows to Light that he wrote in himself to become immune to Rem's use of the Death Note and trap Light.
There are Death Note cards that state the characters' full and true names. And L's card says "L Lawliet." So that is his true name. The letter "L" and Lawliet as his last name. The cards are, as far as copyright goes, completely under the suit of the same owners as the anime and manga.
I believe that L's real name is Lind Lawliet. As we know, when L puts Lind L Tailor in his place in his PSA, the L follows Lind. (Lind L).
Afterwards we discover that L's last name is Lawliet. So we have L Lawliet. I believe that if we simply reverse it (L Lawliet) take both names and put them in their proper place and you get Lind Lawliet.