Always V. Sexy

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Vanessa. Vincent. Violet. Valentine. Vivian. Victor. Veronica.

Something about the V's serve to make names sexier. They're also fairly unusual, which is probably part of it. As a result, a man or woman with a V name in a work is often a hint that they're supposed to be the alluring one. Betty and Veronica have those names for a reason. Bonus points if the first and last name of the character both start with V.

Characters only qualify for this trope if the letter V is prominent in their name, and they are considered attractive In-Universe. Because characters with Vs in their name are a dime-a-dozen, listing aversions would be a waste of time, so we won't do that here.

Also, the only real-life examples we'll use here are stage names and cases where the person in question deliberately invokes the trope. We at All The Tropes frown upon anyone using the examples section as a means to call other people sluts and whatnot.

Examples of Always V. Sexy include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

  • Veronica Corningstone from Anchorman was like this. She arrives at the news station and all the men completely lose it.
  • Maybe notable that the first Batman movie of the modern era uses Vicki Vale as the love interest.
  • Velma and Veronica Kelly from Chicago aim for the sultry jazz girl image. And succeed.
  • A famous male example is Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction, played by John Travolta.
  • Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale, played at her alluring best by Eva Green.
  • Violet from the movie Ultraviolet, played by Mila Jovovich
  • Vivian from Legally Blonde may or may not be an example. She's portrayed as stuffy and not particularly sensual, but on the other hand Warner leaves Elle for her and she is played by Selma Blair
  • Many of Adam Sandler's love interests in his films have alliterative names starting with V. Like Veronica Vaughn in Billy Madison and Vicky Vallencourt in The Waterboy.

Literature

  • Played with in regards to Viktor Krum from Harry Potter. He's an international Quidditch player, which makes all the girls at Hogwarts swoon over him, but he's also described as not especially attractive, and spends a good deal of time in the library.
  • Vittoria Vetra from Dan Brown's Angels & Demons. The sexy Italian yoga master.
  • Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale, as mentioned above.
  • Conan the Barbarian gives us the pirate queen Valeria.
  • Vanessa in the Diogenes Club stories. Lampshaded in "You Don't Have To Be Mad..." where she goes undercover as Vanessa Vail, and the Pleasant Green Centre turns this into "vivacious Veevee".
  • Victor Tuglebend/Marachino, the handsome leading man in Moving Pictures.
  • Stationery Voyagers: Final Hope has Metchutza "Vaneesa" Abiyoti, who is the first Excavator / Voyager to ever have to take maternity leave. (Katrina was an Edge Skidder, so she doesn't count.) (And Vaneesa was the first one to actually be beheaded by Astrabolo. Rhoxter, Bluxtin, and Esmeralda were technically the first Voyagers actually killed by Astrabolo's forces, but being crushed by a falling building is not quite the same as actual execution.)

Live-Action TV

  • In an episode of Better Off Ted, the boss attempts to blackmail one the pawns into signing a waver using her best sultry act.

Veronica: "Ooh. I like the way you say my name. Veronica... Ooh. I like the way I say it too"
Corporate Mook: "I could listen to you say your name all day"
Veronica: "So could I!"

  • On a season of The Bachelor, the winner was a woman named Vienna. Let's just say she didn't win because of her social graces.
  • Vincent from Beauty and The Beast may not be the handsomest - but he makes Catherine's heart go pitter-patter. And quite a bit of the audience as well.
  • Vyvyan on The Young Ones is a strange, mainly fan-reaction example. He is a crude, spotty, violent, antagonistic Quincy Punk—in other words, a character blatantly not intended to be sexy. Nevertheless, a great number of the show’s female fans consider him to be the hottest of the four lads, thus also buying him a pair of leather pants. Being played by the Comic Strip’s resident Bishonen, Adrian Edmondson, may have something to do with it as well.

Oral Tradition, folklore, Myths and Legends

  • One name for the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legend is Viviane. Obviously she isn't really "sexy" in a traditional sense (in most interpretations anyway), but is mysterious and powerful, and the name adds to that.

Video Games

Web Comics

  • Veronica Reed from Questionable Content is a kink model under the name Veronica Vance.
  • Valerie from Sluggy Freelance is certainly drawn to look fairly sexy, and is Torg's first real love interest. And she's a vampire to boot.
  • The Ciem Webcomic Series delights in subverting this trope. The "V" in Candi and Denny's last name is the middle character, not first, of their surnames. The only character named "Victor" in the entire thing is Victor Nanale, who is portrayed as a disgusting and revilesome pig of a man that only the lowest dirtbags of women would ever sleep with. (And he's a child molester.) The greater Classic Gerosha universe plays it more straight, with Valerie McMaline becoming Wes Sankey's love interest in Grillitan Diner. There's also Vince Finton / Navyrope, but the government has mistaken him for a terrorist and therefore, made him decidedly off limits to most women.

Web Original

  • Vanessa, codename Vox, of the Whateley Universe. Girlfriend of Phase, and regarded as one of the hot freshman girls at Super-Hero School Whateley Academy. To top it off, she's a Siren.

Western Animation

  • In The Little Mermaid, what name does Ursula take when she turns into a sultry young woman in order to seduce Erik? Vanessa, of course.
  • Found in Vanessa from Phineas and Ferb, of all places.

Real Life

  • Veronica Varlow of Emilie Autumn's backup band. She's also known as The Naughty Veronica; she used to be a pinup model and a burlesque actress.
  • The name "Vanessa" was coined by Jonathan Swift (of Gulliver's Travels fame) to refer to his longtime lover, Esther Vanhomrigh. Trope Maker?
  • Not a person, but the Victoria's Secret lingerie company certainly.
  • Sultry 1940s actress Veronica Lake, who was a popular pin-up girl. Her birth name was Constance Frances Marie Ockelman.