James Bond’s alternative name revealed

James Bond is the most iconic name in British fiction, but the British spy had an alternative name - James Secretan.

A newly unearthed manuscript for Ian Fleming’s 1952 draft of the first Bond novel, ‘Casino Royale’, reveals the surprising moniker.

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In the text, a CIA Agent meets 007 and says: "My name's Felix Leiter. Glad to meet you."  Bond replies: "Mine's Secretan. James Secretan."

Fleming then changed his mind, because ‘Secretan’ was crossed out and replaced with ‘Bond’.

It seems Fleming’s original idea was that 007 would have a real name - Bond - and a cover name for when he was on spy duties – Secretan.

The manuscript has been released to coincide with the book's 60th anniversary. Fleming’s niece Kate Grimond has been speaking about why her uncle made the change.

“Ian’s first idea was to give James Bond an assumed name as his cover,” she told The Sunday Times.

"Ian must have realised it would cause confusion if he had Bond known as Bond to his friends and the security services in London, but as Secretan for his cover name to strangers or people he didn't want to know he was a spy."

The manuscript also reveals an alternative name for Miss Moneypenny - 'Miss Pettavel' or 'Petty' for short. The name came from Kathleen Pettigrew, the personal assistant to real life MI6 director-general Stewart Menzies.

According to the BBC, Bond utters the iconic catchphrase 'The name's Bond, James Bond' 25 times throughout the series of spy movies.

The last of which, ‘Skyfall’, broke records to make more than a billion dollars at the box office.