Famous-Named Foreigner: Difference between revisions

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Half a minute later, you've got names for your villains - ''Napoleon Dumas'' and ''Friedrich-Wilhelm Goethe''. That sounds pretty authentic, right? Right?

A [[Famous-Named Foreigner]] is a character [[Captain Obvious|hailing from some foreign nation]] who, due to the authors [[Did Not Do the Research|not knowing anything about local naming conventions]] and/or [[Small Reference Pools|thinking it would make their nationality more recognizable]] and/or [[They Just Didn't Care|just being lazy]], is named after some very famous person from the respective nation's history or culture. Which most of the time sounds pretty ridiculous to the local ear, [[One Mario Limit|due to those names often being quite rare and primarily associated with those same famous persons]].

A '''Famous-Named Foreigner''' is a character [[Captain Obvious|hailing from some foreign nation]] who, due to the authors [[Did Not Do the Research|not knowing anything about local naming conventions]] and/or [[Small Reference Pools|thinking it would make their nationality more recognizable]] and/or [[They Just Didn't Care|just being lazy]], is named after some very famous person from the respective nation's history or culture. Which most of the time sounds pretty ridiculous to the local ear, [[One Mario Limit|due to those names often being quite rare and primarily associated with those same famous persons]].

This trope, as noted earlier, is often the result of either [[Did Not Do the Research]], [[Small Reference Pools]] or [[They Just Didn't Care]]. If the authors [[They Just Didn't Care|care even less]], it often results in [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]. And of course, names ''do'' become popular because famous people have ~~them -- for~~ example, "Muhammad" is by far the most common name for Muslim boys (and in fact, is the single most common boy's name in the world).

This trope, as noted earlier, is often the result of either [[Did Not Do the Research]], [[Small Reference Pools]] or [[They Just Didn't Care]]. If the authors [[They Just Didn't Care|care even less]], it often results in [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]. And of course, names ''do'' become popular because famous people have them—for example, "Muhammad" is by far the most common name for Muslim boys (and in fact, is the single most common boy's name in the world).

Compare [[Named After Somebody Famous]], when this is done deliberately as a reference, and not just with foreign characters.

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== Albanian ==

* In [[The Simpsons]] episode "The Crepes of Wrath", the Albanian exchange student/spy living with the Simpsons in exchange for Bart is named [[wikipedia:Adil ~~%C3%87ar%C3%A7ani~~|Adil]] [[wikipedia:Enver Hoxha|Hoxha]].

* In [[The Simpsons]] episode "The Crepes of Wrath", the Albanian exchange student/spy living with the Simpsons in exchange for Bart is named [[wikipedia:Adil Çarçani|Adil]] [[wikipedia:Enver Hoxha|Hoxha]].

== Australian (Indigeneous) ==

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* Mao (as in Mao Tse-Tung) is fairly common, especially in anime. Note that Mao could be written several different ways in Chinese, and is a common enough surname.

** ''[[Code Geass]]''

** ''[[Darker than Black]]'': Justified in that Mao literally means "cat" and the character in question is a [[Talking Animal|guy trapped in a cat body]] ~~-- and~~ it's a code name, not his real name.

** ''[[Darker than Black]]'': Justified in that Mao literally means "cat" and the character in question is a [[Talking Animal|guy trapped in a cat body]]—and it's a code name, not his real name.

** ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]''

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* Miss Wenceslas in ''[[Sherlock]]'', presumably named for Wenceslaus of Bohemia. Unfortunately for the makers, the Czech version of the name is Václav, which is not used as a family name, and even if it were, would be lacking the "-ová" ending all female surnames that have a noun root.

* In the ''[[Night Watch]]'' series of novels, there is Czech vampire Vítězslav Hrubín. While "Vítězslav" is common name, this combination is obviously merging names of two famous Czech poets, Vítězslav Nezval and František Hrubín.

* At one point in ''[[Wet]]'', Rubi is put in contact with a Czech woman named [[wikipedia:Franz Kafka|Kafka]] [[wikipedia:~~Anton%C3%ADn~~ ~~Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k~~|Dvorak]].

* At one point in ''[[Wet]]'', Rubi is put in contact with a Czech woman named [[wikipedia:Franz Kafka|Kafka]] [[wikipedia:Antonín Dvořák|Dvorak]].

== Finnish ==

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** In fairness, Tarantino was just dropping a reference to Julie Dreyfus.

* George de Sand from ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam]]''. [[wikipedia:George Sand|George Sand]] was the pen name of a ''woman''.

** And meant to sound ''English'' ~~-- the~~ French form of "George" is ''Georges'' and the French word for "sand" is ''sable''.

** And meant to sound ''English''—the French form of "George" is ''Georges'' and the French word for "sand" is ''sable''.

* ''[[Captain Tsubasa]]'': The two main players of the French team are named [[wikipedia:Le Cid|El Sid]] Pierre, and Louis [[wikipedia:Napoleon I of France|Napoléon]].

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* In the Thomas Harris novel ''Hannibal Rising'', Hannibal Lecter has a Japanese aunt-by-marriage named Lady Murasaki Shikibu. The historic Murasaki Shikibu is best known as the author of ''The Tale of Genji'', one of the world's earliest novels as well as one of the most famous and significant works of Japanese literature. The character in the book is said to be a descendant of the historic author, but this doesn't make the name much more plausible because "Murasaki Shikibu" was the author's pen name. The author's real personal name is unknown, but she was a member of the Fujiwara clan. "Shikibu" isn't even an actual Japanese family name, it was a reference to the court position held by the historic author's father.

* Pretty much every 'foreign' character in WWF at least through the Attitude Era, what with Mr. [[wikipedia:Mount Fuji|Fuji]], that sort of thing. To be fair, Mr. Fuji's real name is Harry Fujiwara.

** Averted with Kenzo Suzuki<ref>that doesn't count, it's his actual name</ref>, who originally was going to be called Hirohito and come in as if he was related the the Emperor of Japan.

** Averted with Kenzo Suzuki,<ref>that doesn't count, it's his actual name</ref> who originally was going to be called Hirohito and come in as if he was related the the Emperor of Japan.

* The protagonist of Shaena Lambert's novel ''Radiance'' is called Keiko Kitigawa, just one letter different from the name of actress [[wikipedia:Keiko Kitagawa|Keiko Kitagawa]]. Incidentally, "ti" is not a Japanese phoneme and would never show up in any real Japanese name, though it is an entirely legal rendering of a 「ち」 syllable in the official Kunrei romanisation system. (The better known Hepburn system renders it as "chi".)

* Clarence [[Yojimbo]] in ''Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars'' by [[Daniel Pinkwater]]. Subverted as he's not actually Japanese but Venusian.

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* ''[[Wild CATS]]'': Adrianna [[wikipedia:Valentina Tereshkova|Tereshkova]] (The Void).

* ''Fiends of the Eastern Front'': Grigori [[wikipedia:Sergei Eisenstein|Eisenstein]]. Eisenstein is actually ''[[Yiddish as a Second Language|Jewish]]'' name, but still...

* The ship that took [[Warhammer 40000|Luna Volves and Death Guard]] loyalist captains [[Horus Heresy|Iacton Qruze and Nathaniel Garro]] to Terra is also named after the famous ~~filmmaker -- or~~, rather, a pale shadow of his memory.

* The ship that took [[Warhammer 40000|Luna Volves and Death Guard]] loyalist captains [[Horus Heresy|Iacton Qruze and Nathaniel Garro]] to Terra is also named after the famous filmmaker—or, rather, a pale shadow of his memory.

* Another 40K reference is Lord Inquisitor [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Karamazov Fyodor] [[wikipedia:The Brothers Karamazov|Karamazov]], [[Kill It with Fire|Pyrophant]] [[Knight Templar|Judge]] of Salem Proctor.

* [[wikipedia:Leonid Brezhnev|Simon Brezhnev]] of [[Durarara!!]].