Awesome McCoolname/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character has a really cool name, made up of unusual components and/or in a setting that would make such an awesome name seem strange.

  • Straight: Bob has a friend called Odysseus Obsidian.
  • Exaggerated: Every single person on Earth has an impossibly cool name. Or everyone calls him "O." because if they heard his true name, their heads would explode.
  • Justified: Odysseus' family members all have really cool names as a family tradition.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted: Everyone treats Odysseus' name like it's just another name.
  • Doubly Subverted: ...Except for Bob, who really thinks it's a cool name.
  • Parodied:
  • Deconstructed: Odysseus hates his unusual name because the other kids make fun of him. He resents his parents for giving it to him and changes it the first chance he gets.
  • Reconstruction:
    • Odysseus' old name was boring and plain, so he changed it to something more exotic.
    • Odysseus' name reflects a personal change he went through in his life, prompting him to get a new, cooler name to distance himself from the person he was.
  • Zig Zagged:
    • Odysseus changes his name several times, from mundane to awesome and back again.
    • Odysseus changes his name every time he introduces himself: Obsidian, Brimstone, Onyx, Mithril, etc. Bob calls him out on this, and reveals his real name: Smith. Everybody laughs it off for a while... but then they start thinking: what is the profession where men work on raw materials to make incredible weapons?
  • Averted: No one has unusual/cool names.
  • Enforced: "I've got a really cool idea for a character name! Let's use it!"
  • Lampshaded: "Dude, that's such a cool name!"
  • Invoked: A baby is given a cool name after much discussion between the parents.
  • Defied: A cool name for the new baby is rejected by the parents in favor of something more conventional.
  • Discussed: "Did you hear what the name of that new kid is? It's so cool it's ridiculous!"
  • Conversed: "What am I going to call him? I was thinking either Xerxes, Ozymandias or Indiana. Which one do you like best?"

On the birth certificate is your Awesome McCoolname.