Romney, Santorum code names revealed WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Secret Service code name is Javelin and Rick Santorum's is Petrus, campaign sources told GQ. Though the Secret Service hasn't confirmed the names obtained by the magazine, Ed Donovan, the special agent in charge of government and public affairs, said there's no need to keep code names secret anymore. "Call signs are designated jointly by Secret Service and the military (White House Military Office) for communications purposes," Donovan said. Given modern capabilities to secure communications through encryption, there is no longer any security relevance to protectee call signs. GQ reported that while it's easy to associate a candidate's code names with his personality -- Javelin could refer to a make of car Romney's father's company produced, and Petrus is a biblical reference to St. Peter -- the names are often assigned by the Secret Service. John McCain, during his 2008 presidential campaign, was assigned the name Phoenix.