Most superheroes need secret identities. They have friends and families they want to protect from villains who might attack them for knowing the hero. Some also want to move covertly through the world when they are investigating a situation or pursuing a villain. For that reason, it’s also helpful to have a secret identity that can realistically show up at dangerous locations without raising suspicion.

Wonder Woman has done this with her identity as Diana Prince. She has been using Diana Prince as her civilian identity since Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942). In her earliest outings as Diana, she was a US Army nurse during World War II, learning about the conflict and helping to save people.

She gained the identity from the real Diana Prince who needed money to travel to South America where her fiancé was located. The two women struck a deal, in which Wonder Woman gave Diana the money to travel and Diana gave Wonder Woman her credentials to operate as Diana Prince. She started working with Major Steve Trevor (her future love interest) as a military secretary, which gave her the opportunity to covertly help Steve and other soldiers.

Her Diana Prince identity went through some changes during the Silver and Bronze Ages when she transitioned into being a member of military intelligence. This was also a period that saw Wonder Woman losing her powers and only operating as Diana Prince. She began to focus on the ways she could help people as a regular human by moving up in the ranks in military intelligence. She also became an astronaut and worked with the United Nations.

Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman went by Diana of Themyscira instead of Diana Prince. However, she did still use the name periodically. Wonder Woman needed to operate covertly after she killed Maxwell Lord when he was mind-controlling Superman. Setting aside her role as Wonder Woman, she adopted the Diana Prince identity again and started working with the Department of Metahuman Affairs.