What was the real name of the character known as 'Sawyer'?

The real name of the character known as “Sawyer” is James Ford.

Sawyer is an alias adopted by James Ford, a con man who takes the name of the person responsible for destroying his family. As a child, James receives a letter describing how a con artist called Sawyer manipulated his parents. His father then kills James's mother and himself, leaving James consumed by anger and determined to find the culprit.

As an adult, James adopts the Sawyer identity and becomes a skilled confidence trickster. The name therefore refers both to his personal trauma and to the criminal persona he deliberately builds. On the island, other survivors usually call him Sawyer, even though James Ford is his birth name. He later uses another alias, Jim LaFleur, while living undercover with the Dharma Initiative in the 1970s.

The character is played by Josh Holloway and begins the series as selfish, sarcastic, and antagonistic. His experiences on the island gradually reveal a more compassionate and heroic side. A common mix-up is assuming “Sawyer” is his surname; it is actually an alias, while Ford is his family name. The name also evokes Mark Twain's fictional Tom Sawyer, which is part of the character's backstory.