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Alphabetical Theme Naming (view source)

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{{examples}}
 
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Aria]]'' has all main characters' names start with 'A', like Akari, Athena, and Aika. That there are [[One Steve Limit|both an Alicia and an Alice]] only adds to the confusion--andconfusion—and Akari often gets mixed up with Akira.
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', virtually ''all'' the Arrancar have double letters in their names. Example: Yylfordt, Cirucci, Nnoitra, Grimmjow, Luppi, Zommari...
* The main characters of ''[[Death Note]]'' go by Kira, L, Mello and Near.
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* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', most of the women have names that start with 'K': Kikyo, Kaede, Kagome, Kagura, Kanna, etc.
* The Joestar family in ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' have forenames that that allow the nickname 'JoJo'. Such as Jonathan Joestar, Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, Jolyne Kujo... Part 5 has Giorno Giovanna, which looks like a subversion, but the syllable "gio" is pronounced "jo".
* ''[[Kamichama Karin]]''. [http://mrglassesman.deviantart.com/art/Kamichama-Karin-theme-naming-c-171800858 It's easiest just to provide a chart.]{{Dead link}}
* The eight main characters of ''[[Kyouran Kazoku Nikki]]'' have names that end with "ka": Kyou'''ka''', Gek'''ka''', Yu'''ka''', Gin'''ka''', Tei'''ka''', and Hyou'''ka''', Ou'''ka''' and Chi'''ka'''.
* Several members of the Cloud Village in ''[[Naruto]]'' have names that can be pronounced as letters - [[Memetic Badass|A]] {{spoiler|the Raikage}}, [[Crazy Awesome|B]] {{spoiler|the host of the 8-Tailed Beast}}, [[The Medic|C]], and J.
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* A-ko, B-ko and C-ko in ''[[Project A-ko]]''
* In [[Bakuman｡]], the Azuki family, or at least the women, (Miyuki, Miho and Mina), have names that begin with "mi".
* The starting protagonist team in ''[[Princess Principal]]'' are Ange, Beatrice, Charlotte, and Dorothy. When everybody starts calling Charlotte "Princess", Chise joins the team.
 
 
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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** In the original French, Gaulish women usually have names ending in ''-ine'' (Bonnemine, Iellosubmarine), although Falbala's name ends in ''-a'', like those of Roman women.
* [[Dennis the Menace UK]] has a dog called Gnasher. He later acquired a pet pig, and went for the obvious gag of [[Bacon Addiction|Rasher]]. Since then we've seen his pet frog, Splasher, and his pet spider, Dasher.
* In ''[[The Sandman]]'', all [[Anthropomorphic Personification|the Endless]] have names that start with D -- Dream, Death, Desire, Destruction, Destiny, Delirium (formerly Delight), and Despair.<ref>"I've heard rumors of an eighth one called Donuts, but they get mad when you ask them about him..." -- from a [[The Nineties|90s]]-vintage [[Crossover]] [[Fanfic]]</ref>
** And again in the Marvel parody/homage that appeared in [[Peter David]]'s Captain Marvel - The Seven Friendless had names beginning with E - Empathy, Enmity, Entropy, Epiphany, Eternity, Eulogy, Expediency .
* A classic ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' story featured a trio of necromancers named Malak, Karnak, and Hebrak.
 
== [[Film]] -- Animated ==▼
 
* Utilized in the Dr. Seuss movie ''Halloween is Grinch Night'' with the Who family of Josiah, Mariah, and Uchariah (unrelated to the "homeschooled" family on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s recent{{when}} season premier)▼
▲== [[Film]] -- Animated ==
* The seven daughters of Triton in ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' -- Aquata—Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, Alana, and Ariel. Note that Ariel's name begins with A, [[Odd Name Out|but doesn't end with it.]]▼
▲* Utilized in the Dr. Seuss movie ''Halloween is Grinch Night'' with the Who family of Josiah, Mariah, and Uchariah (unrelated to the "homeschooled" family on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s recent season premier)
* The Lectroid villains from ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth8th Dimension]]'' were all named "John" with a random word afterward. This is because the word "John" sounds the same as a Lectroid interjection roughly equivalent to "Hey" or "Yo".▼
▲* The seven daughters of Triton in ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' -- Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, Alana, and Ariel. Note that Ariel's name begins with A, [[Odd Name Out|but doesn't end with it.]]
 
 
== [[Film]] -- Live Action ==
▲* The Lectroid villains from ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension]]'' were all named "John" with a random word afterward. This is because the word "John" sounds the same as a Lectroid interjection roughly equivalent to "Hey" or "Yo".
* The jewel thieves in ''[[Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back]]'' are named Sissy, Chrissy, Missy, and Justice. Obviously, Justice is the [[Odd Name Out]] (there's even a [[Lampshade Hanging]] in the film, as the other girls complain that she doesn't fit the rhyme scheme), and she's the one who ends up doing a [[Heel Face Turn]] before the end of the film.
* The female jewel thieves in ''[[The Great Muppet Caper]]'' were called Carla, Darla and Marla.
* The 2003 B-film ''[http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0275799/ [Xtracurricular]]'' was inspired by ''[[Project A-ko]]''; as a result, its three central characters all have last names that start with "Ko" and their first names start with "A", "B" and "C", as a tribute to A-Ko, B-Ko and C-Ko. There's even a fourth character named "Echo" ("E-Ko").
* The brothers in ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' are named alphabetically from [[The Bible]]. The problem was a lack of a good "F" name, so the sixth brother was named "[[Embarrassing First Name|Frankincense]]".
 
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the Bridgerton series of historical romance novels, the titular Bridgerton siblings are named in alphabetical order. Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory and Hyacinth.
* All dragons in the ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' books have names that end in ''th'' -- Ramoth—Ramoth, Ruth, Faranth, etc.
* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]] seems to be surrounded by the letter "M". Morgan, Murphy, Michael, Mouse, Mister, Mab, Maeve, Mac, Margaret, Malcom, Mavra, Molly and Martin are all either currently major characters or were the focus of a book. It might just be an inevitable consequence of having [[Loads and Loads of Characters]].
* In ''Flowers in the Attic'' by [[V. C. Andrews]], the Dollanganger children are named: Christopher, Cathy, Cory and Carrie. Their parents are Chris Sr. and Corrine.
* The Dumbledore siblings in the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' series: Albus, Aberforth and Ariana.
* Among the general trend to Theme Family Naming in [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth: The rhyming names of the Dwarves in ''[[The Hobbit]]'' (Oin and Gloin, Fili and Kili, etc.) as well as Bilbo's mother and her sisters: Belladonna, Mirabella, and Donnamira.
** IIRC most of the dwarf names came from Norse mythology, and presumably rhymed because they were used in epic poems.
*** [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] ''loved'' this trope. Most of the half-elves had names that start with El (Elrond, Elros, Elladan); Aragorn was the last in a line of twenty-five men whose names started with Ar; most of the Haladin have names starting with Ha; all the male Beorites start with a B; Húrin and Huor (brothers) had sons named Túrin and Tuor. The "Ar" means "I AM SO TOO the rightful King of Arnor!", the "El" usually meant "star" or "elf"; I don't know if any of the other themes are [[Justified Trope|justified]] as anything but a family identifier.
* In the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series, [[Big Bad]] '''A'''lbrecht Dettweiler's sons don't merely fill the next several ranks below him before you get to a high ranking [[Evilutionary Biologist|Mesan]] NOT named Detweiler. The don't just happen to "coincidentally" look exactly like him. What's really impressive is that their names are '''B'''enjamin, '''C'''ollin, '''D'''aniel, '''E'''verett, '''F'''ranklin, and '''G'''ervais. Subtle...
* In ''[[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]]'', each member of the revolution has a code name determined by their rank, starting at the top with Adam Selene.
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* ''[[The Years of Rice and Salt]]'' helps us keep track of the main characters across their various reincarnations by keeping the first letter of their names the same.
 
== [[Live -Action TV]] ==▼
 
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[Charmed]]'' ones: Prue, Piper, Phoebe and later on Paige.
** And in the eighth season, the Triad members '''A'''smodeus, '''B'''aliel and '''C'''andor, with the demon '''D'''umain at their service. No wonder they didn't want the demon Xar among them...
* ''[[Lost]]'' has a number of [[Significant Anagram|anagrammatical]] names like Ethan Rom (Other Man), Mittelos (Lost Time), Henry Gale/Minnesota {{spoiler|(See Another Man Lying}}, Hoffs/Drawler {{spoiler|(Flashforward). It was one of the buildings in the background of ''Through the Looking Glass''}}. And, yes, I am a ''Lost'' freak but these were actually [[Word of God]] too!
* ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|MashM*A*S*H]]'' did this with the "background" nurses during the course of the series, nurses Able, Baker and Charlie (though the last one was never actually referred to by name on camera, only named in the credits). The reason for these names came from the old Army radio alphabet, using Able for A, Baker for B (changed to Bravo since then), and Charlie for C. Most people know the words for the letters [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|W, T and F]]
** Kellye Nakahara (who played [[The Danza|Nurse Kelleye]], what an amazing coincidence), started off as one of the nurse Charlies, then became an ascended[[Ascended extraExtra]] and given her own partnamed role.
* In the [[Too Good to Last]] show ''[[Wonderfalls]]'', the names of the Tyler family are Darrin, Karen, Sharon, Aaron, and the main character...Jaye ([[Tomboyish Name|Tomboyish]] [[Odd Name Out]]).
* On ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'', Al's brother is named Cal and his mother is named Alma. Also, Wilson Wilson's niece is named Willow Wilson and it is once mentioned that his relatives include Wilbur, Wilhemina, Wilford, Willard, and Wilma.
 
 
== [[Music]] ==
* Morbid Angel's albums follows alphabetical order. Altars of madness, Blessed are the sick, Covenant, Domination, Entangled in chaos, Formulas fatal to the flesh, Gateways to annihilation and Heretic.
 
 
== Other ==▼
* Maths problems framed as stories are fond of naming characters in alphabetical order, because if the characters are [[Alice and Bob|Alice, Bob and Carol]], then it's easy to see how they connect to the variables ''a'', ''b'' and ''c'' in the equation.▼
** Professor Ian Stewart likes using Alfie, Betty and Gemma, for alpha, beta, gamma.▼
** Cryptography examples traditionally add Eve the Eavesdropper to their cast of Alice, Bob, and Carol.▼
 
 
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* Most of the NATO [[Reporting Names]] for Soviet/Russian submarines are (in random order) letters of the [[Phonetic Alphabet]], such as "Golf", "Hotel", "Yankee" and "Delta" for the first four groups of [[Mnogo Nukes Missile Submarines|ballistic missile submarines]], with individual sub-classes. They ran out eventually- the next two are "Typhoon" and Borey, the latter being the actual Russian designation.▼
* Not really related to each other but BTSS, CTSS, and DTSS [[O Ses]].▼
* [[Rowan Atkinson]] has two older brothers, named Rodney and Rupert.▼
* Joseph and Magda Goebbels's children were Harald (his stepson), Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Holdine, Hedwig and Heidrun. Some suggested that this was a tribute to [[Adolf Hitler]], but there's no evidence for this.▼
* The Duggars (who have enough kids to start a small army) all have names that start with J. Michelle and grand-daughter Mackenzie are the only exceptions.▼
** Papa Duggar's name is Jim Bob. The names of the children, from oldest to youngest are: Joshua, Jana and John-David (twins), Jill, Jessa, Jinger (pronounced {{spoiler|"ginger"}}), Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah and Jeremiah (twins), Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn-Grace and Josie.▼
* Multiple births are often named alphabetically by birth order, as Kate Gosselin mentioned in an older episode of ''Jon and Kate Plus Eight''.▼
* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Lewis "Linkara" Lovhaug and his girlfriend (Iron) Liz.]] [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony and his girlfriend Scarlet.]] Seriously, if they were fictional, you'd swear this was intentional.▼
* A prominent dissertation about the big bang credits Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe and George Gamow (Alpha, Beta and Gamma, the first three letters of the greek alphabet). Turns out Bethe didn't participate at all in it and Gamow added Bethe's name to the paper without consulting with him, because of this trope.▼
* [[Brits With Battleships|The Royal Navy's]] [[Ultimate Defence of the Realm|Vanguard class submarines]] are named ''Vanguard'', ''Victorious'', ''Vigilant'', and ''Vengeance''. The Royal Air Force's V-bombers followed the theme as well: Avro Vulcan, Handley-Page Victor, and Vickers Valiant.▼
 
 
== [[Theatre]] ==
* The Pontipees in ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' have biblical names in alphabetical order: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank(incense), and Gideon {{spoiler|with the pattern continued by Adam and Milly's daughter, Hannah.}}
 
== [[Toys]] ==
* When [[Weebles]] are given names, a W is usually involved.
** The 2004 generation gives all characters surnames, and most start with W: Bumpus Wobbleworks, Diddy Wishingwell, Tibby Wobnobbin, Tooey Winkington, etc.
** The 2016 generation has six characters with the same first letter: Willie, [[Ambiguously Brown|Wally]], Winston, Wendy, Willow, and <s>[[Little People (TV series)|Tessa]]</s> Winnie.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A subtle one--inone—in ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth|Ace Attorney Investigations]]'' the countries of '''A'''llebahst and '''B'''abahl have formed from a schism in '''C'''ohdopia.
* The characters of ''[[Deadly Premonition]]'' are named alphabetically. The game begins when the murder of '''A'''nna brings '''Y'''ork and '''Z'''ach to Greenvale, and the suspects' names run through all the letters between.
* ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]'' has several names from the Greek alphabet. There's μ-12 (mu), Nu-13, and Taokaka (Tau).
* The wise men in the Japanese version of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' were named Bash, Mash and Gash.
** In the English version they are Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, the traditional names of the Three Wise Men.
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* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' series has a father and daughter named Marin and Tarin, and another, similar pair named [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Malon and Talon]].
* In the dating game at the very beginning of ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]] 6'', the female contestants all have names that start with Charla, like Charla Magne and Charla Tan.
* All ''[[Luigi's Mansion|Luigis Mansion]]'' Boos are pun names based on words with 'Boo' added to them.
* All the toads from the first ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'''s last names are the letter "T". Thier first names and last names form words relating to thier lines of work (eg. Tayce T. the cook. Russ T. the professor).
** The goombas in the goomba family were named Goombario, Goombaria, Goompapa, Goomama, Gooma and Goompa.
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* ''[[Pac-Man]]'''s ghosts were named Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and [[Odd Name Out|Clyde]] (or [[Gender Flip|Sue]]). Additionally, in the original Japanese Puck-Man, the ghosts had alternate nicknames of Macky, Micky, Mucky, and Mocky.
* The regions in the main series of ''[[Pokémon]]'' video games' regions all contain an O, specifically one that would be rendered as ō when romanized in Hepburn - Kant'''o''', J'''oh'''to, H'''o'''enn, and Sinn'''oh'''. This was averted with Isshu. However, its English name is Un'''o'''va. This also sometimes occurs in the spin-offs, such as '''O'''rre or '''O'''blivia.
* There is a ''[[The Sims]] 2'' challenge -- called [[Alphabetacy]] -- that involves havingshepherding a family through 26twenty-six generations, no cheats, and naming each generation after a letter.
* ''[[Suikoden Tierkreis]]'' has the five Porpo-kin Namna, Nemne, Nimni, Nomno, and Numnu.
* The resident [[Red Shirt|redshirts]] of the [[Gears of War]] games are the Carmine brothers. ''A''nthony in the first game, ''B''enjamin in the second, and ''C''layton in the third. [[Word of God]] states that there is a fourth Carmine brother, though it has never stated if his name starts with a D.
 
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* All the [[Freak Angels]] were born at the exact same time in a small English village, look more alike than they ought to, and all have the "K" or hard "C" sound somewhere in their name.
 
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
 
▲== Web Original ==
* ''[[Arcana Magi]]'' uses alphabetical order for the first names of the Sentinels '''A'''lysia, '''B'''rie, '''C'''hisame, and '''D'''anica.
* ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' uses an [[Odd Name Out]] technique for the Fashion Club (Ami, Emi, Umi, and A'''k'''i)
* ''[[Ilivais X]]'' assigns a different and usually meaningful letter for each of the conveniently 26 Ilivais prototypes.
 
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** To spell it out we have '''B'''lo'''ss'''om, '''B'''u'''bb'''les. '''B'''u'''tt'''ercup. Also '''B'''u'''nn'''ey and '''B'''u'''ll'''et. Note the use of double constants as well as a B.
*** Let's not forget the [[Evil Counterpart|Rowdyruff]] [[Distaff Counterpart|Boys]]: '''B'''rick, '''B'''oomer, and '''B'''utch.
* In ''[[Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!|Wow! Wow! Wubbzy]]'', each of the three main character's names begin with a W: Wubbzy, Walden, and Widget. This theme is broken in the second season with the introduction of a fourth main character, Daizy.
* On ''[[Daria]],'' Quinn's most common admirers are a group of friends commonly known as [[Those Two Guys|the Three J's]]: Joey, Jeffey and Jamie.
** Possibly a coincidence, but all three of Daria's major [[Love Interest|Love Interests]]s use T: [[Star BoardingStarboarding|Trent]], [[Guy of the Week|Ted]] and [[Official Couple|Tom]].
* Lampshaded in the ''[[Adventures from the Book of Virtues]]'' episode "Generosity", when Annie insists that her name should be first in the name of her and Zach's canned goodies project (the latter being the founder) because their initials were the first and last letters of the alphabet respectively, much to Zach's dismay.
 
▲== [[Other Media]] ==
▲* Maths problems framed as stories are fond of naming characters in alphabetical order, because if the characters are [[Alice and Bob|Alice, Bob and Carol]], then it's easy to see how they connect to the variables ''a'', ''b'' and ''c'' in the equation.
▲** Professor Ian Stewart likes using Alfie, Betty and Gemma, for alpha, beta, gamma.
▲** Cryptography examples traditionally add Eve the Eavesdropper to their cast of Alice, Bob, and Carol.
 
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* Most of the NATO [[Reporting Names]] for Soviet/Russian submarines are (in random order) letters of the [[Phonetic Alphabet]], such as "Golf", "Hotel", "Yankee" and "Delta" for the first four groups of [[Mnogo Nukes Missile Submarines|ballistic missile submarines]], with individual sub-classes. They ran out eventually- the next two are "Typhoon" and Borey, the latter being the actual Russian designation.
▲* Not really related to each other but BTSS, CTSS, and DTSS [[O Ses]].
▲* [[Rowan Atkinson]] has two older brothers, named Rodney and Rupert.
▲* Joseph and Magda Goebbels's children were Harald (his stepson), Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Holdine, Hedwig and Heidrun. Some suggested that this was a tribute to [[Adolf Hitler]], but there's no evidence for this.
▲* The Duggars (who have enough kids to start a small army) all have names that start with J. Michelle and grand-daughter Mackenzie are the only exceptions.
▲** Papa Duggar's name is Jim Bob. The names of the children, from oldest to youngest are: Joshua, Jana and John-David (twins), Jill, Jessa, Jinger (pronounced {{spoiler|"ginger"}}), Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah and Jeremiah (twins), Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn-Grace and Josie.
▲* Multiple births are often named alphabetically by birth order, as Kate Gosselin mentioned in an older episode of ''Jon and Kate Plus Eight''.
▲* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Lewis "Linkara" Lovhaug and his girlfriend (Iron) Liz.]] [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony and his girlfriend Scarlet.]] Seriously, if they were fictional, you'd swear this was intentional.
▲* A prominent dissertation about the big bang credits Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe and George Gamow (Alpha, Beta and Gamma, the first three letters of the greek alphabet). Turns out Bethe didn't participate at all in it and Gamow added Bethe's name to the paper without consulting with him, because of this trope.
▲* [[Brits With Battleships|The Royal Navy's]] [[Ultimate Defence of the Realm|Vanguard class submarines]] are named ''Vanguard'', ''Victorious'', ''Vigilant'', and ''Vengeance''. The Royal Air Force's V-bombers followed the theme as well: Avro Vulcan, Handley-Page Victor, and Vickers Valiant.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Theme Naming Tropes]]
[[Category:Alphabetical Theme Naming]]
[[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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