A Dog Named "Dog": Difference between revisions

* The heroine of ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' is a duck who can turn into a human girl. Her name is Duck. Often she's still referred to by her Japanese name, Ahiru... which is Japanese for "Duck."

* Subverted in ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'' when one of the Misaka sisters finds a stray cat. When Touma asks what she wants to name it, she responds "dog". (When Touma says no, she suggests "Schrodinger", invoking [[Schrödinger's Cat|a completely different trope]].)

* In ''[[Toradora!]]'', Ryuuji's parakeet is named "Inko-chan". "Inko" happens to be Japanese for "parakeet".

* In ''[[Wild Life]]'', Tesshou's dog is named Inu. Which is dog in Japanese, {{spoiler|he also befriends a bear, which he calls Kuma, that is bear in japanese}}

* [[Inverted Trope]] in ''[[Turnabout Storm]]''; when [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Fluttershy]] hears [[Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright's]] name, she jumps to the conclusion that he's an actual phoenix who's in his "shedding his feathers before bursting into flame" stage. Nick tries to correct her, but as Twilight Sparkle points out, at least this way [[Friend to All Living Things|Fluttershy]] is actually ''[[Shrinking Violet|talking]]'' to him.

 

* The main character in ''[[Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron]]'' is usually called "Mustang" until he gets properly named at the end.

* Simba the lion in ''[[The Lion King]]'', getting his name from Swahili.

* In ''[[Shrek]]'', there's the character Donkey. Guess what kind of animal he is; go on, guess. There's also Puss in Boots, a kitty cat who wears shoes with ankles, and Dragon (guess what?).

* Mack from ''[[Cars]]'' is a rare non-animal example. As with Doc Hudson, whose real name is actually Hudson Hornet, which means that "Hudson" is actually his first name and not his last name.

* The characters in the ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' movies are an interesting variation. Rather than being named for their species or occupation, most of them are named after the kind of toy they are. Thus, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Barbie and Ken are a Barbie and Ken, etc. Also applies to characters not based on real toys: Woody is a Woody doll and Buzz is a Buzz Lightyear action figure (one of hundreds, as we're shown). The straightest example of this trope would be Dolly the doll from ''[[Toy Story (franchise)||Toy Story 3]]''.

* The Furious Five in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'': Mantis, Tigress, Viper, Monkey and Crane.

* Tod and his girlfriend Vixey from ''[[The Fox and the Hound (film)]]''. Tod actually gets his name from the word used to describe a male fox, while Vixey gets her name from the word vixen, a female fox.

* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Cat City]]'' is a cat named Mr. Gatto.

* ''[[Babe]]''

** Farmer Hogget names Babe Pig for the sheep-herding competition. Everyone's in stitches, thinking it's a dog named Pig, until he actually shows up.

** Also applies to the name "Babe" itself. According to Babe, it's what his mother called all her children; that is, she called her babes Babe.

* [[John Wayne|Jake's]] dog in ''[[Big Jake]]'' is named Dog.

* A rare human example: Kid the kid in ''[[Dick Tracy (film)|Dick Tracy]]''. By the end of the film he chooses the name "Dick Tracy Jr." but is still called "Kid" out of habit.

* ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0952682/ Shotgun Stories]'' is centred around three impoverished brothers living in rural Arkansas called Son, Boy and Kid.

* In ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'', Buttercup's horse is named Horse.

* As well as one specific horse in the ''[[Belgariad]]''.

* ''[[Raptor Red]]'': The eponymous character—a Utah''raptor'' of the ''Red''-Snout species—comes from a species with no names or real language, so the author gives her this nickname for reference. Other characters have similar "names" like "Raptor Red's sister" and "the old dactyl".

* ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'': Piglet, Owl, and Rabbit. Played with via mother and joey kangaroo pair Kanga and Roo, and narrowly averted with Tigger.

** Then of course you get Father Wolf, who isn't given even that, and Grey Brother is nearly as bad.

** In a particularly bizarre quasi-subversion of this trope, Mowgli is explicitly stated in the book to be named after the word for "frog", but Mowgli does not actually mean frog in any human language.

** Ayla adopts a wolf pup and names it Wolf. [[In-Universe]] it's an [[Unbuilt Trope]], though, since it's virtually unknown for people to have pets in that world.

** Also, she calls her horse Whinney, which she takes to be another form of this.

* Everyone from the ''Sweet Pickles'' books.

* In the children's book ''Tight Times'' has a mild aversion: the boy wants a pet dog. Eventually he adopts a hungry kitten and names it "Dog", of course.

* Almost all the child characters in Wilmar Shiras's ''Children of the Atom'' have pets. The only name we learn for any of the pets is Pup-Dog.

* All the characters from the ''Cat the Cat'' books by [[Mo Willems]].

* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'': Aslan is Turkish for "lion".

* ''[[The Black Stallion]]'''s title character is referred to as "The Black" throughout the novel.

* Mouse from the sequels to ''[[If You Give a Mouse a Cookie]]''.

* Subverted in [[Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger]] where one student has a cat named "Dog" and another has a dog named "Cat."

* Inspector [[Columbo]] has a basset hound named Dog.

* On ''[[The Closer]]'', Brenda simply calls her inherited cat Kitty.

* [[ALF]]'s real name is Gordon Shumway, but his Earth name ALF is actually an abbreviation of "Alien Life Form".

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has a [[Robot Dog]] named K9, overlapping with [[Robot Names]].

* The robot in ''[[Lost in Space]]'' answers to "Robot", even among those who consider it family and best friend.

* "Horse" from ''[[Monkey]]''. "Horse" is really a dragon named Yu Lung, but everyone just calls him "Horse".

* "Cat" from ''[[Red Dwarf]]''. Played with as Cat is actually a [[Human Alien]] that evolved from domestic housecats.

* A character in ''[[Sinfest]]'' is a dog named Pooch. Monique lampshades the absurdity, furiously asking Pooch's owner if he'd name her "Girl".

* The robot from ''[[Zap]]'''s real name is XR-743-9Q. Zap can't remember it, so he redubs him to Robot.

* In ''Crazy Ghosts'' we get Ghost, who has no knowledge he is a [[Reality Warper]] and is also a [[Lecherous Old Man]]

* A non-animal version comes up in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', when Tagon asks Petey what the local inhabitants—whose water-covered planet they're orbiting—call their world, it comes out as "Wet". When Tagon comments that this isn't very imaginative, Petey replies that they compare favourably to the natives of "Earth".

** Ironically, Mr. Kitty is female.

* Bird from ''[[Bob the Builder]]''.

* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' has the alien robot sphere named Sphere and the albino [[Big Badass Wolf]] named Wolf. [[Lampshaded]] when Conner is introduced to a monkey named Monkey. He says that's a good name.

* ''[[Franklin]]'': Practically everyone besides the title turtle. His friends include a bear named Bear, a rabbit named Rabbit, a beaver named Beaver, a fox named Fox, a snail named Snail etc. Apparently only turtles are creative enough to give their offspring names not taken after their respective species.

* Every character in ''[[Word World]]''. Which makes a certain amount of sense, since most objects in ''[[Word World]]'' are made of the letters that spell what it is.

* In ''[[Taz-Mania]]'', Taz has a pet named 'Dog'. Who is a turtle. [[All Animals Are Dogs|Who thinks he is a dog]].

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* George Foreman owned a dog named Doggo.

* According to a passage in his anthology ''[[Deathbird Stories (Literature)|Deathbird Stories]]'', [[Harlan Ellison]] once owned a dog named "Inu" (Japanese for "dog").

 

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