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{{trope}}
A very common and easy to spot form of [[Theme Naming]] is the use of common or similar letters, or patterns of letters. This includes such things as names which begin or end with the same letter, names in alphabetical order, and rhyming names.
Compare [[Theme Initials]], [[Theme Twin Naming]], and [[Letter Motif]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* The main characters of ''[[
** We can't forget [[Theme Initials|Misa, Matt, Mikami, Matsuda...]]
* The Black Siblings' names in ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' all start with ''ki'': Kittan, Kiyoh, Kinon, and Kiyal. If you flip them, you get emotions or states of mind: ''tanki'' means ''quick temper'', ''youki'' means ''cheerfulness'', ''nonki'' means various things including ''carefree'' and ''optimistic'' and ''yaruki'' means ''willingness''.
* ''Sato''ko and ''Sato''shi from ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* In ''[[
* The Joestar family in ''[[
* ''[[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 ''[[
* Three minor characters in ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'' are known as the SOS trio, from their names: Sagawa, Oota and Sugiyama. The 4Kids version kept this with Simon, Oliver, and Stewart.
* A-ko, B-ko and C-ko in ''[[Project
* In [[
* 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.
* 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]]''
▲* 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
▲* 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.]]
▲* 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 ''[
* The brothers in ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' are named alphabetically from [[
== [[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''
* [[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 [[
* The Dumbledore siblings in the ''[[Harry Potter (
* Among the general trend to Theme Family Naming in [[
** IIRC most of the dwarf names came from Norse mythology, and presumably rhymed because they were used in epic poems.
*** [[
* In the ''[[
* 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.
* All the men in the Carter family in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[The Number of the Beast]]'' have names starting with Z, as it was part of the will of an eccentric ancestor. If they don't have a Z-name, no inheritance for them.
* In ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', the orphans when they were found were given a name from the next letter of the alphabet (ie. Oliver (Twist) was proceeded by a Swubble and followed by an Unwin, followed by a Vilkins and so on), with their last name related to place they were found.
* In [[Cory Doctorow]]'s ''Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town'', the protagonist and his six brothers have names beginning with the letters A through G respectively. The twist is that none of them actually has just one name; instead, each one will answer to pretty much any male name that starts with the appropriate letter.
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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]] ==
▲* The ''[[Charmed (TV)|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...
* ''[[
* ''[[M*A*S*H (
** Kellye Nakahara (who played [[The Danza|Nurse Kelleye]], what an amazing coincidence), started off as one of the nurse Charlies, then became an
* 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 (Web Video)|Lewis "Linkara" Lovhaug and his girlfriend (Iron) Liz.]] [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|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
== [[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
* The characters of ''[[
* ''[[
* The wise men in the Japanese version of ''[[
** In the English version they are Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, the traditional names of the Three Wise Men.
* In ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' (and the rest of the Donkey Kong series), most, if not all of the Kremlings have names beginning with a K, as does much of their technology, many of the bosses, and many of the locations controlled by them. The names are usually alliterative too, giving you multiple words in each name beginning with a K. The K is also used to replace C in these cases.
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** The exceptions to the latter being Naminé and Xion, both of whom are unusual.
*** Xion still sort of fits as her original name was {{spoiler|No.i}}.
* ''[[
* 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 ''[[
* All the toads from the first ''[[Paper Mario (
** The goombas in the goomba family were named Goombario, Goombaria, Goompapa, Goomama, Gooma and Goompa.
** All dragons in the ''[[Paper Mario (
* The names of the traditional 8 Bosses of ''[[
* ''[[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 ''[[
* There is a ''[[The Sims]]
* ''[[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]] ==
* The [[Our Demons Are Different|demons]] from ''[[Godquest]]'' each have a name beginning with a letter. To accentuate this, their initials are bolded and colored with their aura (for example, '''{{color|#308000|H}}'''eral).
* ''[[
* The three peanut butter monsters in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' are Molly, Golly (short for Galatea), and Jolly (short for Djaliana).
* With the exception of Don Donald Anderson, the gangsters in ''[[Jack (
* All the protagonists in ''[[
** Two of the main protagonists {{spoiler|and their alternate universe counterparts}}, and one of the main villains all have names beginning with J; John is the Protagonist, Jade is his best friend {{spoiler|and sister}}, Jack was for a time the [[Big Bad]], and {{spoiler|Jane and Jake are alternate versions of John and Jade's parents.}}
* All the [[
== [[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]] ==
* Odd one out time: The penguins of ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* [[Disney]]'s [[Donald Duck]] has three nephews named Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
* Dinobots in ''[[Transformers]]'' tend to have names that start with S (Slag, Sludge, Snarl, and Swoop; Grimlock is the [[Odd Name Out]]).
* Uh, [[The Powerpuff Girls]] anyone? It's actually acknowledged in one episode when a squirrel gains superpowers and becomes a Powerpuff ''squirrel'' and Blossom insists that his name start with B.
** 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 ''[[
* 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
* Lampshaded in the ''[[Adventures
▲== [[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.
▲** 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
▲* 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]]
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