Sabre, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, basically.
I tend to refer to Servants however they're referred to in tjhe specific work I'm discussing at the time. So if I'm talking about F/sn, I'll call him "Gilgamesh", but if I'm talking about Zero, I'll call him "Archer". In cross-work discussions or general discussions of the franchise as a whole, I'll usually refer to Artoria as Saber and Emiya as Archer—partially because those two have a particularly strong association with their class names, and partially because those are the two identity reveals that I think it's still worth trying not to accidentally spoil—but I'll just refer to everyone else by their true names.
Nowadays I only use Class names for Emiya because his name is a spoiler and for /strange Fake's Assassin because she doesn't have an actual name.
Trying to hide the Saber's identity is like trying to hide Sheik's identity. Pretty much impossible now a days.
here is a list of my servant sheets(new and improved format for my servant sheets)
Come explore the White Library, and reach the bottom of this Abyss
Fate / White Memoria
Yeah I was gonna say, Saber's identity is like Darth Vader being Luke's father, it's so synonymous with the franchise that it's not really a spoiler anymore. Fate is known to non-fans as "that series with female King Arthur."
Heck, Saber is popular enough to have Saber clones in other franchises!
here is a list of my servant sheets(new and improved format for my servant sheets)
Come explore the White Library, and reach the bottom of this Abyss
Fate / White Memoria
original Artoria is called Blue King in Japan nowdays.
I still remember the distant past when I was watching a certain anime:
Me: "that blast from her sword, skill in a swordfight, who could she be?!"
Rin: "There is no mistaking that sword belongs to the legendary King Arthur"
Me: "OMG Saber is King Arthur's secret sister!"
----later----
Me: "OMG King Arthur is a girl! and I've been jerking off to King Arthur!"
Too bad newer fans will never experience that
That's definitely true within anime fandom, but anime fandom itself is still a pretty niche subculture in the west. I've recommended F/sn to plenty of people who aren't generally into anime (usually fans of western urban fantasy, superhero comics, etc), and those people very rarely know Saber's identity in advance simply because they're not part of that subculture.
The one thing that dragged me into the Fate fandom was remembering fondly about "that one anime where King Arthur is a girl that I watched when I was a kid".
I call em Saber, Archer, Cu but sometimes Lancer, Rider, Caster, Herk, Kojirou, Hassan, Gil.
Now that i think about it I think I used to call him Herk even before Fate went crazy witht he servants. Maybe cause i love disneys Hercules lmao
Marvel Herc> Fate Herc> Myth Herc> Disney Herc> Storkules (the OTHER Disney Herc)> Kevin Sorbo> Arnold Schwarzenegger in that old crappy movie> DC Herc> Dwayne Johnson> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mighty_Hercules
Let's be honest here, being a villain made him interesting for the first time ever. Before that he only was a guy sitting in a crappy place and being mediocre enough as not to be an interesting jerk like the other gods, but also apathetic and not good enough as to be likable either.disney made Hades into villain so no.
Give me James Woods over that any day of the week.