Hercules’ original name in Greek mythology was Alcides.
The name comes from his mortal grandfather Alcaeus, the father of Amphitryon. In Greek, the hero is more commonly called Heracles, meaning “the glory of Hera,” while Hercules is the Latin form that became familiar in Roman literature and later European storytelling.
Alcides is especially useful for identifying early or alternate versions of the hero’s story. Some ancient authors use Alcides when discussing Hercules’ ancestry, childhood, or heroic identity before his famous labors. He was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, although Amphitryon was his mortal social father.
The name Heracles is not the same as Alcides: Heracles became his principal Greek name, whereas Alcides is a patronymic-style epithet. Hercules’ Twelve Labors belong to the same mythic hero under all three names.