View source for Lucky Charms Title

{{trope}}
[[File:one piece logo by ryukai san 1734.jpg|link=One Piece|thumb|425px|One Piece... or Nep Ec. Depending on how you read it.]]

{{quote|"''The first challenge one confronts with '''[[Face Off|Face/Off]]''' is the curious, I might even say ''misplaced'', 'forward slash' in the title. Are 'Face' and 'Off' separate talents on the title's resume?''"|''Mike Nelson Movie Megacheese''}}

There are many ways to name something, but if you're looking to add a bit of variety, why not throw some symbols into it in place of letters? This comes in two varieties. The first kind, extremely present in [[Anime]] and the songs within it, is adding meaningless symbols into the title. These symbols can give the show its own identity, but since you can't exactly ''pronounce'' a symbol, they just end up being there for decoration. Hearts and stars are especially common, much like the marshmallows in a bowl of Lucky Charms. These usually end up being removed when the title is brought over to the West. One is tempted to count in tildes (~), which are ridiculously common in Japanese titles, but these actually serve a function - the same function that a dash or colon would serve in a Western title (and as such tildes are often simply changed to colons for the Western release).

The first variety, unless you're the sort that compulsively downloads character sets, may end up looking very, very strange when it pops up in a Web browser that doesn't fully support Unicode. Extreme examples can render the title impossible to search for online.

The second variety is common in the West. Instead of writing actual letters, [[Letters 2 Numbers|replace them with numbers]]. Of course, this practice is just as common as part of [[Leet Lingo|"133t-speak"]] on the Internet, so the implications of it may vary, from looking cool to just looking silly. It can sometimes be used to make a political point, especially by using $ in place of S; examples of this are best left as an exer¢i$e for the reader.

May include a [[Heart Symbol]]. Apply this to speech, and you get [[Say It with Hearts]]. [[Letters 2 Numbers]] and [[The Backwards R]] are sister tropes.

{{examples}}
== Series Titles with Symbols ==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* ''[[Lucky Star]]''
** Written らき☆すた (Raki☆Suta) in the original title.
* ''[[Yotsuba&!]]''
** Only translations have an ampersand, though - and you can pronounce it. Specifically, in Japanese, it's "''Yotsubato!''" (see ''Rosario + Vampire'', below)
* ''[[Kujibiki Unbalance]]''. The remake series does this to distinguish itself from the original. In fact, the Genshiken characters, when they refer to this series, actually pronounce the heart, calling it "Kujibiki Heart Unbalance".
* ''UG♥[[Ultimate Girls]]''
* ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel♥Saga]]''
* ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star|Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash ☆ Star]]''
* ''[●REC]''
* ''[[Penguin Musume]]''♥''Heart''
* ''[[×××HOLiC]]'' The 'xxx' is silent, being replaced by whatever addiction the current episode is about. Whether you pronounce it correctly as "Holic" or more clearly as "Triple X-holic" is your choice.
** "Ex-Ex-Ex-Holic"
* ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' (as in ''xxxHolic'', the X is silent; it's just "Hunter Hunter".)
* ''φnal Approach'' (''[[Final Approach]]'' - the Greek letter is a phi)
* ''[[Koihime Musou]]''
* ''[[Rolling☆Girls]]''
* ''Blue Dragon RalΩGrad''
* ''[[Gun X Sword]]'' (as in xxxHolic, the X is silent; it's just "Gun Sword".)
* [[Lovely Complex|''Lovely''★''Complex'']], which is the full name of the official title, ''Love''★''Com''.
* ''[[Uta Kata]]''
* [[Candy Boy|''Candy''☆''Boy'']]
* ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'', where the "+" is actually the word "and".
* ''[[Turn A Gundam|Turn ∀ Gundam]]'', usually pronounced "Turn A Gundam". The ''∀'' is a mathematical symbol meaning "For all" (in the sense of "The following applies to every member in the set").
* The Anime/Manga ''[[S-Cry-ed]]'' is a good example. There does not seem to be any reason why the dashes are there. This leads to most Americans pronouncing it "ess(pause)cry(pause)ed". However, the Japanese announcer voice in the anime simply calls it "''Sukuraido''"
* ''[[Maria Holic]]''
* Parodied by ''[[Magical Pokaan|Renkin 3-kyuu Magical?Pokaan]]'', where the question mark is supposed to be a symbol that failed to render properly.
* ''[[Princess Princess]] +'' which is pronounced as "Princess Princess Plus".
* ''[[Fate/stay night]]''
** Even more so its parodic [[Alternate Universe|alternate continuity]] ''[[Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya]]'', which then stepped it up ''further'' with [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo]] ''Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya [[Gratuitous German|2wei!]]'' (yes, the exclamation point [[Excited Series Title|is also part of the title]].)
* ''[[One Piece]]'' has a skull and crossbones in the O, a silhouette of Luffy in place of the I, and an anchor for the last E. An early volume's Q&A segment features a Japanese reader referring to the series as "NE PECE," which the author said was very common at the time.
* ''[[Chaos;Head]]'' — the first a also sports umlauts in the series logo.
* The Japanese version of ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'' is titled "Quiz $ Millionaire" (クイズ$ミリオネア)
* ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]''# (generally pronounced "Ojamajo Doremi Sharp")
* A new level in Lucky Charms Title has been reached by ''[[Hidamari Sketch]]''. Its [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|third season]] is titled ''Hidamari Sketch x☆☆☆'', pronounced "Hoshimittsu" or "Three Stars".
* ''[[+Anima]]'' is actually pronounced Plus-Anima.
* Black☆Star from ''[[Soul Eater]]'' always has his name like that, and the title of the show has Soul's logo between "Soul" and "Eater."
* ''[[Blood+]]'' the + is pronounced normally as Plus.
** When it was first airing, one person wrote in asking how to pronounce it, so they wouldn't "[[Fan Dumb|look like a fool while beating up nerds on the playground]]" (or something like that), and [[Adult Swim]] [[No Pronunciation Guide|suggested]] it's actually pronounced "Bleud Pleux".
* ''[[Romeo X Juliet]]'', Do you pronounce the x "X", "times", "and", or is it just "Romeo Juliet"?
** Just call it "Romeo and Juliet." The "x" is the typical Japanese marker of [[Shipping|romantic pairings]].
* ''Onegai☆Teacher'' and ''Onegai☆Twins''. The English versions lost the stars but picked up exclamation points, becoming ''[[Please Teacher!]]'' and ''[[Please Twins!]]'' respectively.
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica|Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica]]''
* In ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'', the Public Media Guys consider making a [[Show Within a Show]] called "π[[Pirates of the Caribbean|rates of the Caribbean"]], starring the genius kid who remembers the whole π number.
* [[The Idolmaster (anime)|The Idolm@ster]]
* [[Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle|φBrain]] - Phi Brain
* ''[[Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakkou]]''
* The second season of the ''[[Yuru-Yuri]]'' anime is "Yuru-Yuri ♪♪".
* ''[[Risky☆Safety|Omishi Magical Theatre: Risky☆Safety]]''

=== Comic Books ===
* ''[[Richie Rich (comics)|Ri¢hie Ri¢h]]''.
* ''$crooge McDuck'' comics.
* The title for ''[[Booster Gold]]'' was written as "Boo$ter Gold" early on. Post-52, the comic title became "B∞ster Gold" (using the infinity symbol), but it's always been pronounced "Booster."

=== Film ===
* ''$'' is a film starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. It is popularly pronounced "Dollars," and in the UK is called ''The Heist''.
* The movie ''[[I ♥ Huckabees]]''. Public consensus quickly settled on pronouncing it "I Heart Huckabees"
* The movie ''[[William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet]]''.
* ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'' replaced the Es in "Greek" with sigmas: ''My Big Fat GrΣΣk Wedding''.
* [[Jim Henson]]'s ''[[The Muppets|Muppet]]★[[Disney Theme Parks|Vision]] [[3D Movie|3D]]''.

=== Live-Action TV ===
* ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]''.
* The dollar sign ($) in place of an S seems to be popular, especially if money is a prominent theme:
** ''The $treet''
** The 1970s series ''Vega$''
** The 1990s series ''Arli$$''
** The multi-national [[Game Show]] ''[[Sale of the Century|$ale of the Century]]'' did this everywhere except the United Kingdom after Reg Grundy acquired the format. The original [[NBC]] daytime series, with Jack Kelly and later Joe Garagiola, rendered its title ''$ale of the ¢entury''.
** The Marty Feldman vehicle ''In God We Tru$t''
** ''How to Beat the High Co$t of Living''
** ''[[Cash Cab|Ca$h Cab]]''. Though only in the American version.
*** Is the British version £oot £orry?
** ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' episode "Ro$e Love$ Mile$"
** ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' has pricing games named "Lucky $even", "Pocket ¢hange", and "$uper $aver" (the latter one is now retired).
*** If you want to be pedantic, the show's logo gives the title at "$The Price Is Right".
** The short-lived game shows ''Amne$ia'', ''$how Me the Money'', and ''$et For Life''
** The [[Syfy]] [[Game Show]] ''[[Cha$e]]''.
** ''[[Shit My Dad Says]]''
* Commercials for the TV show "Dirt" render the title as D!rt
* The "A"s in "[[Stargate Verse|Stargate]]" are always rendered in the show's titles as the Ancient symbol "At" (A symbol resembling the Greek letter Λ crowned by a small circle).
** Until the first one changes back to a plain ol' A.
* ''[[Greek]]'' is rendered as ''GR''ΣΣ''K''.
* [[Kamen Rider Agito|''Kamen Rider Agit''Ω]] The Omega is pronounced like an "O".
* The logo for the first and second seasons of ''[[T. J. Hooker]]'' replaced the second 'o' with a cross-hairs target.
* In Japan, ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' is called ビッグバン★セオリー, or "Big Bang★Theory". [[Market-Based Title]] much? They even add a subtitle that basically means "The romance laws of our geekiness".
* [[Numbers Never Lie|Numbers Never* Lie]].
* ''[[Friends]]'' has the logo of ''F·R·I·E·N·D·S''

=== Music ===
* [[Stan Freberg]]'s "Green Chri$tma$."
{{quote|"Christmas has two S's in it, and they're both dollar signs!"}}
* ''[[Black★Rock Shooter (band)|Black★Rock Shooter]]''

=== Video Games ===
* ''[[Metal Gear Acid]]''. The sequel was ''Metal Gear Ac!d<sup>2</sup>''.
* ''[[Katamari Damacy|We ♥ Katamari]]'', in which the heart is pronounced "love".
** Not to mention that the game includes a song titled "DISCO ☆ PRINCE".
* ''[[.hack]]'', which is pronounced "dot-hack", just like "dot-com" which is what the title is supposed to be invoking. The title logo on the majority of .hack media has the "dot" as a six-sided shape with the word "DOT" clearly written in it in roman letters (in both English and Japanese logos) makes it clear what the intended pronunciation is. The party in the first set of games being called "The Dot Hackers" by other characters in the meta-series reinforces it. Each title adds a set // to the title, becoming .Hack//Title. Unlike the "dot" these are ''not'' pronounced nor are they even applied to the tile when referring to the Metaseries as a whole
* ''[[Half Life|Hλlf-Life]]'' The symbol is a "lambda", which is the scientific symbol for a substance's <s>half-life</s> decay constant. Pronouncing the original Greek letter would yield "Hllf-life." Once again, [[Rule of Cool]] trumps the rules of spelling.
** The sequel uses the "squared" symbol instead of a traditional 2, but then again the sheer [[Sequel Escalation|difference in scale]] between installments makes it [[Even Better Sequel|not completely incorrect.]]
* [[CROSS†CHANNEL]], the source material for the [[NANACA†CRASH!!]] flash game.
* ''[[Nanatsuiro Drops]]'' is technically ''Nanatsuiro★Drops''
* One of the ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' games, ''Tokimeki no Houkago [[Nee★Quiz shiyo♥]]''
* The [[Xbox]] version of ''[[Guilty Gear|Guilty Gear X2]]'' was called ''Guilty Gear X2 #Reload,'' [[Musical Theme Naming|pronounced "Sharp Reload"]]. It had a sequel called Λ Core.
* Some editions of ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' are written as ''Street Fighter II{{'}}'', pronounced "Street Fighter II Dash" in Japanese.
* ''[[Uta no Prince-sama|Uta no☆Prince-sama♪]]''.
* ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex: HumΔn Revolution]]''. (''Deus Ex: [[Hum Δn]] Revolution'' on some browsers)

=== Web Original ===
* ''☆dventure'', a [[Interactive Comic|forum adventure]] at the [[MS Paint Adventures|MSPA forums]] ([http://www.mspaforums.com/showthread.php?35334-%E2%98%86dventure found here]{{Dead link}}).

=== Western Animation ===
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "$pringfield"
* ''[[Transformers]]'' is an odd case. In some cases it is spelled Trans * Formers, where the * is either faction's symbol. Then there was the Japanese-only ''[[Transformers Headmasters|Headmasters]]'', whose full title is ''Transformers: The★Headmasters'' (or, rather, ''トランスフォーマー ザ★ヘッドマスターズ'')
* ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' is known in Japan as ''ジェニーはティーン☆ロボット''

=== Real Life ===
* Otterbein College (Westerville, Ohio) has a sorority called Sigma Alpha Tau, which makes the letters ΣAT. Since the sorority was founded in 1910, it's hard to say whether the founders were aware of the now-obvious double entendre.


=== '''UNSORTED''' ===
* ''$la$er$'' is about contestants surviving [[Ax Crazy]] serial killers for fabulous cash and prizes! Appropriate, since in-universe the game show is Japanese{{context|reason=MOD: What sort of work is this? I can't find it in a DuckDuckGo search in 2023.}}

==  Numbers In Place of Letters ==
=== '''UNSORTED''' ===
* The video Game ''Driv3r''.
* ''[[Se7en]]'', which arguably brought the whole 133t-speek numbers/letters deal into the mainstream. Damn it.
** [[Older Than They Think]]: Austin [[Market-Based Title|division's]] version of the Mini was originally called "Austin Se7en"
*** An early internal name for the successor to Windows Vista was Windows Se7en. In a rare moment of intelligence, Microsoft simplified it to simply Windows 7 by the time the official announcement came around.
* ''[[Numb3rs]]''
* The film ''[[Murder by Numbers|Murd3r 8y Num8ers]]''.
* ''Thir13en Ghosts'', the modern remake of William Castle's ''Thirteen Ghosts''.
* ''[[S1m0ne]]'', which actually makes sense, as the titular computer-generated [[Idol Singer]]'s name is derived from the phrase "Simulation One".
** Also, she consists of [[Zeroes and Ones]].
* ''[[Layer Cake|L4yer C4ke]]''
* The boyband 5ive.
** The Jackson 5ive sometimes used this one first.
* The Avril Lavigne song ''Sk8er Boi''.
* Many Prince songs. (''I Would Die 4 U'', ''When 2 R in Love'', etc.)
* Roman numeral example: ''Menace Ⅱ Society''.
* Does the punny acronym title of ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'''s sequel, MIIB, count?
** Only to two, [[The Firesign Theatre|Mudhead]]
* [[Daft Punk]]'s ''[[Interstella 5555]]: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem''
* ''[[Lucky Number Slevin|Lucky Number S7evin]]'', although to convey this properly I'd have to find a way to flip the 7 upside-down. And, yes, it's upside down because it's standing in for an "L".
* Thr3e
* Quoth [[Tom Lehrer]]: "I am reminded at this point of a fellow I used to know who's name was Henry, only to give you an idea of what an individualist he was he spelled it HEN3RY. The 3 was silent, you see."
* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]''
** In [[The Stinger]] of [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee's review of the above]], he derides this trope with "There's a special circle of hell 4 people who replace words with numbers"
* ''TR2N'', which has since been renamed ''[[TRON: Legacy]]''.
* The 2014 version of ''[[Thief]]'' was first announced as ''Thi4f''. Shortly after the announcement of the above, John Walker of ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' spoofed this on [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/12/4idos-gam4-nam4s-rev4al4d/ these Photoshop jobs].
* All sen10r classes of 2010. You know who you are.
** Oops?
* ''[[Bandslam]]'', which featured Sa7m.
* ''SURV1V3'' by Jonathan Underdown, one of the soundtracks from ''[[Gran Turismo]] 5 Prologue''.
* The Architecture In Helsinki song ''It'5!'', pronounced "it's five".
* Skateboard clothing company 323K13(upsidedown)7 (Ezekiel).
* Goa trance group/artist Merr0w.
* [[The Event|The Ev3nt]]. Although it's more like a backwards "E".
* The Apocaly[[Play Station 3]], referring to the March 1, 2010 bug where the internal clock perceived 2010 as a leap year. [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity ensued]] if you were a Xbox 360 fan. [[Tear Jerker|If not...]]
* The [[Syfy]] original miniseries ''[[5ive Minutes to Midnight]]'' also featured this. "5ive" is just pronounced "five".

==  Names with Symbols ==
=== '''UNSORTED''' ===
* Quite a few [[Pokémon]] have non-alphabethic symbols for names.
** Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀. the gender symbols are canonically part of their names because they were introduced in the original games, back when Pokémon ''didn't'' have their genders displayed, but they were still intended to be each other's [[Single Gender Species]] counterpart.
** Farfetch'd; the apostrophe is part of the name. In case it's not obvious, it's supposed to be a mispronunciation of ''far fetched'', since it carries a stick for attacking.
** Porygon2, Porygon's evolution. Called so because Porygon is supposed to be a living computer program, of which the evolution is just an "upgrade".
** Porygon-Z; the hyphen is part of the name. It is the evolution of the above, and intended to be an [[Playful Hacker|unauthorized upgrade]]. The Z was also used because [[Letters 2 Numbers|it looks like a 2]]. It seems that the hyphen was added specifically to invoke this trope, too.
** Ho-Oh had a hyphen in its name two generations before Porygon-Z and was introduced in the same generation as Porygon2, though it isn't artificial like the Porygon line. (It's also a palindrome, but that's unrelated to this trope.) Possibly because a ''houou'' is a mythical Japanese bird akin to a phoenix, and it's difficult for non-Japanese speakers to pronounce "Hoou", which would be the literal Romanization.
* [[Those Wacky Nazis|The SS]] symbol was a pair of runic 'S'es, which look like lightning bolts.
* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]: Trials & Tribulations'' features the [[Phantom Thief]] Mask*DeMasque. The fandom has recently come to a consensus that the star is "pronounced" by pausing and making a "jazz hands" gesture.
** ''[[Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]]'' has the following exchange:
*:'''Trucy''': When I sign my name, I always put in a little diamond! "Trucy ♦ Wright" See? Cute, don'tcha think?
*:'''Apollo''': It's a little confusing. Won't people think your middle name is diamond?
*:'''Trucy''': Hey! You could write your name like "Apollo = Justice"!
*:'''Apollo''': I do like justice, but that's taking it a bit far.
*** The Italian version has Trucy suggesting "Apollo @ Justice", and Apollo remarking it would look like his e-mail address.
* ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'''s opening theme tune is sung by the Excel♥Girls, played by the seiyuu duo of Yumiko Kobayashi and Mikako Takahashi.
* The singer [[P!nk]]. Her breakout album also had it, along with [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]]: ''M!ssundaztood''.
* The star spirit Geno in ''[[Super Mario RPG]]: Legend of the Seven Stars''. When asked for his name answers "♥♪!?" but tells you to call him Geno after the doll he is possessing, stating that his real name is [[The Unpronounceable|hard to pronounce]].
* Black☆Star in ''[[Soul Eater]]'', another one with the star being part of their name. It doesn't help that his seiyuu is the first of the aforementioned Excel♥Girls.
* ''[[Naruto]]'' [http://www.mangareader.net/naruto/495/08 writes his family name Uzumaki as a spiral] instead of in Japanese kana or kanji since that's what it means.
** Similarly, in ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'', when Mugen learns how to read, he signs his name as an infinity sign.
* [[Blue Öyster Cult|Blue Oyster Cult]]
* The Artist Formerly Known as [[Prince]] (now The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known as Prince).
** I thought he was now Prince The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?
* B* Witched.
* In ''[[Snow Crash]]'', the hacker named Da5id.
* In ''[[The Demolished Man]]'' by Alfred Bester, several characters spell their names with symbols. Examples: Dr. Wyg& (pronounced Wygand), @kins.
* The seminal [[Cyberpunk]] novel ''[[Neuromancer]]'' gave us Lady 3Jane, a clone daughter of the founding fathers of the artificial satellite that the story takes place on.
* Author Jennifer 8. Lee. Yes, her middle name is the numeral 8, with a period after.
* Black★Rock Shooter, a character seen in a [[Vocaloid]] music video, sung by Hatsune Miku. [[Black★Rock Shooter (band)|The series]] title is the same name.
* ?uestlove of The Roots. It's pronounced "Questlove."
* Ke$ha has a single dollar sign in her name, said to represent the price of her integrity/virginity/[Insert your own [[Take That]] here].
** Ma$e [[Older Than They Think|did the single dollar sign]] [[Buffy-Speak|thing]] [[Older Than They Think|first]].
* A certain British synth-pop band of the 80s originally was named with an unpronounceable symbol comprised of a spiral leading into an undulating line and ending in a loop. When their label complained about their unpronounceable name, they offered the name Freur.
** Similarly, Part 4 of the "Something at the Bottom of the Sea" suite by the band Quantum Jump is given a squiggly line in lieu of a name for a title.
* [[Gahan Wilson]]'s short story in the ''[[Again, Dangerous Visions]]'' anthology has no title - it's identified by a black blob. (It's ''about'' a black blob, illustrated in the story itself, that grows and grows until...)
* Science fiction magazine ''[[Analog]]'' was for some time officially known as ''Analog Science Fiction [symbol] Science Fact''. The symbol, resembling a right-pointing arrow superimposed on an inverted U, was invented by editor [[John W. Campbell]] to represent "Analogous to".
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' does this a few times. Mostly it's the A-E ligature, such as Æther Storm or Æther Flash. Originally this wasn't possible to print, so Ærathi Berserker is rathi Berserker instead. During the Tempest block, they were also fond of gratuitous use of the italics, such as the ''en''-Kor or the ''il''-Vec.
* According to an urban legend, a mother named her child [http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp Le-a], which she insisted should be pronounced {{spoiler|Ledasha}}.
* The Poser character Near☆Me (or にあ☆みい in the original Japanese) - alas, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160313114451/http://contentparadise.com/productdetails.aspx?id=9885 the webpage where once can buy a copy of the model] doesn't include the star.

==  Other ==
===  Music ===
* 80s J-pop band TOM☆CAT
* The OP and ED songs for the ''[[Shinigami no Ballad]]'' anime were provided by a singer called K○Y.
* Hello! Project examples:
** Athena & Robbikerottsu: Honkimekimeki♡Tokimekimeki, Yuugure☆Sherbert.
** Buono!: Renai♥Rider, Muteki no ∞ Power.
** Berryz Koubou: Sakura→Nyuugakushiki.
** ℃-ute: Tsuugaku Vector ☂, ★Akogare My STAR★, Suiiitsu→→→Live.
** Country: Onna no Ko no Torishirabe Time♥.
** GAM: Icha♡Icha Summer.
** Heike Michiyo: L♡M→Baby, Star★Man.
** [[Kirarin Revolution|Kirarin]]☆[[Kirarin Revolution|Revolution]]: Happy☆Happy Sunday, Happy☆彡, Hatten×Joy, Love da yo☆Darling, Koi☆ka na, group Kira☆Pika, Kirarin☆Land, ☆☆☆.
** Matsuura Aya: ♡Momoiro Kataomoi♡, Zettai Tokeru Mondai X = ♡, ○○ -Joshikousei no Shuchou-, ×3
** Minimoni: Gyutto Dakishimete <FOREVER>.
** Morning Musume: The☆Peace!, Yuki / Ai x Anata ≥ Suki, Hare Ame Nochi Suki♡, Tomodachi(♀)ga Ki ni Haitteiru Otoko kara no Dengon, "Suki da yo...", "Suggoi Nakama", "Sugoku Suki na no ni.. ne".
** Odoru♡11, Happy♡7.
** Satoda Mai to Fujioka Fujimaki: Ojisamatte Daisuki!♪
** SI☆NA.
** S/mile♡ge.
** Viyuden: Issai Gassai Anata ni∮A?ge?ru♪, Koisuru♡Angel♡Heart.
** Producer Tsunku's name is written as つんく♂.
* The band ¡Forward, Russia!. Even stranger is the other way of writing their name, ¡FФЯWДЯD, RUSSIД!, which might be transliterated as "¡FFYAWDYAD, RUSSID!"
* ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star]]'' OP -- "Makasete★Splash☆Star★"
** The ending theme for ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5|Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Go Go!]]'' has some ☆s in its ''lyrics,'' as Karen and Kurumi are so kindly demonstrating for us up at the top.
** In ''[[Fresh Pretty Cure]]'', the lyrics for the second ending have some (^^)s thrown in, as does a song from the first Vocal Album.
* [[Hed PE]], is often rendered with a schwa, a letter used in the International Phonetic Alphabet, as (həd) p.e.
** Which would, according to the IPA, actually be pronounced "hud".
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', Rena's [[Image Song]], "Egao Happy Peace♪"
** Same with [[Bleach|Inoue Orihime's]] [[Image Song]], "La La La♪".
** Higurashi also gives us "Sukisuki ∞ Nii Nii" for Satoko.
** ''[[When They Cry]]'' in general, some of the letters in the title are red.
* ''[[My-HiME]]'' and ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' have this in spades. Both series' first opening theme has a star in it ("Shining☆Days" and "Dream☆Wing", respectively), and these titles are shared by the final episodes. In fact, the working title for ''Mai-Otome'' (''舞-乙HiME'') was ''舞☆MAiD''.
** The title ''舞-乙HiME'' counts too, since 乙HiME is meant to be pronounced "otome," which would normally be spelled 乙女.
* The opening theme for ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' has the ☆ as part of its kanji lyrics.
** As does the ending theme of ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5]] GoGo.''
* The opening theme for ''[[Lucky Star]]'' has a ♥ in it.
* [[One Piece|Usopp's]] first [[Image Song]] is titled "Usopp☆Drop".
* One song by J-pop group Plus-Tech Squeeze Box is simply titled "☆".
* There's a Thelma Aoyama B-side called I☆You - pronounced in the lyrics as "I Star You".
* One Porno Graffitti song is entitled World☆Saturday Graffitti. The album version is World☆Saturday Graffitti (★★★).
* The ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' series has one song whose instrumental version is called "Candy☆", and whose vocal version is titled "Candy♥".
** Konami has a lot of fun with this elsewhere in the ''Bemani'' series: "Happy☆Angel", "Sweet Sweet ♥ Magic", "Love ♥ Shine", "♥ Love<sup>2</sup> Sugar → ♥", "Stars★★★"... Need I mention "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUmXBFI1tdQ Magic Door (Theme of SPACE(Saturn)MACO]"?
** [[Be For U]] has a song titled ''Peace (^^)v''
** Also, the artist Ryutaro Nakahara goes by Ryu☆
** "BRE∀K DOWN", also by [[Be For U]].
** ''In The Groove'' songs "Utopia," "Destiny," "Delirium," and "Xuxa," among others, are credited to ☺. Pronounced "smiley." There is also a song entitled "!" pronounced "bang."
* Gravure idol Yuka Kosaka's debut mini-album is titled Ero♥Puri★Trance [[Yuka-chin Mahou wo Kakechauzo]].
* The second opening to ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' is called Shichiten Hakki ☆ Shijōshugi!
** And it has a (O_O;) in its kanji lyrics!
* The band !!!. Yes, that's the whole band name. It can be pronounced by saying any sound three times, though the usual rendering is "chk chk chk".
* Groove☆Master, Sumomo's [[Image Song]] from ''[[Chobits]]'' (ft. Shinbo).
* And [[Bass Hunter]] has an album titled ''LOL <(^^,)>''
* French house group Justice has an album titled ''†''. (It's pronounced "cross".)
* The group Hear'Say. Another reason to hate these talent competition reality shows...
* [[Led Zeppelin]]'s fourth album. The cover has [[No Title]], and the label has four symbols where the title would be, one representing each band member. Since no one can actually pronounce or write those symbols (apart from Jimmy Page's which resembles "Zoso"), it's mostly called ''Led Zeppelin IV''—although some people, misled by Page's symbol, call it "Zoso."
* One of German industrial band [[KMFDM]]'s albums has a title consisting of a burst, a skull-and-crossbones, a bomb, a spiral, and a banging fist. It's universally called ''[[wikipedia:Symbols (album)|Symbols]]''.
** One [[Fan Nickname]] for it is "Curse", as it resembles a bleeped swear word. Or you could call it "Bitch", as the cover art shows a man bitchslapping a woman.
** Their latest album, ''Blitz'', has a track with a modified Uranus symbol for it title. In the song, it's pronounced "Up Ur Anus"
* The Icelandic post-rock group ''Sigur Rós'' has an album entitled ''( )'', usually referred to as "The Bracket Album." (Despite the fact that they are actually parentheses, not brackets.)
** Outside the Americas, () are known as brackets, [] are known as square brackets and {} are known as curly brackets.
* American indie-rockers stellastarr*
* Sunn O))) -- they named themselves after the logo of their preferred brand of amps. (On the logo the O))) looks more like a circle with soundwaves coming from it.)
** Strictly speaking, they chose their name and amps based off of the favored amps of the band Earth, whose song and album titles, unfortunately, simply tend towards [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]].
* How have we gone on this long without mentioning *NSYNC?
** A trend [[Justin Timberlake]] would continue upon going solo with his album FutureSex/LoveSounds and its title track (which drops the plural).
** Or [[A Cϟ DC]] ([[ACDC]])?
** →↑→ or "Tich Tich Tich" were an Australian Underground group of the late 1970s that used this.
* [[Prince]]'s album and film ''Sign '☮' the Times''.
** [[The Trope Formerly Known as X|And his]] [[wikipedia:File:Prince logo.svg|old name.]]
** Also, starting with ''[[Love Sexy]]'', his song titles replace the word "I" with an icon of an eye.
* Ministry's ''ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ'', also known as "Psalm 69."
** Rendered in Roman letters, that would be "Kephalexth", which is at least pronounceable.
* In ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'', Minako has song (both in and out of universe) called Kiss<sup>2</sup> Bang <sup>2</sup>. Much like the lyrics state it's meant to be pronounced "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"
* The OP single for ''[[Kanamemo]]'' has a second song titled Wake Me Up (^_-)b!
* [[Bob Dylan]]'s song "Love - 0 / No Limit". The title is meant to be expressed as a mathematical problem, pronounced "Love minus zero divided by no limit". The quotient, according to Dylan, is "absolutely unlimited love".
** [[Talking Heads (band)|Talking Heads]] have "Love → Building on Fire".
* Irish girl group B* Witched.
** Likewise, A* Teens and R* Angels.
* Japanese speedcore duo DJ Sharpnel's albums ''UG☆Psyclone'' and ''Running★★★All Night!!''
** The latter album also features a ''[[Lucky Star]]'' remix titled ''LITTLE GOD CH@NNEL''.
* Hero/Heroine by Boys Like Girls.
* Citizen/Soldier by 3 Doors Down (although, being about the U.S. National Guard, it ''is'' appropriate).
* Japanese pop/rock band High and Mighty Color entitled their debut album G∞VER. After some confusion as to how to translate that (Pandora typed it out as "Goover" at one point,) [[The Other Wiki]] stepped in and stated that it's supposed to be "Go Over." Songs on the album include the title track (G∞VER) and RUN☆RUN☆RUN.
* Irish band ''Therapy?'' - the ? was added to the name to make it span across the cover of the homemade demo after an alignment error. Although this could be [[Unreliable Narrator|inaccurate]] depending on [https://web.archive.org/web/20080908054507/http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/music-discussion/45990-kurt-cobains-jumper-therapy-s-question-mark-musical-guide-larne.html who you ask].
** Similarly, the Christian band Delirious?.
* Japanese Electropunk types ''Mad Capsule Markets'' have a song called "Pulse" that is properly spelt with a square waveform in the title also.
* Recently, the singer [[Ke$ha]]. [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|That's pronounced "Keh-sha", by the way.]]
** Lampshaded by [[Todd in the Shadows]], who pronounces her name "Kuh dollar sign hah."
** Lampshaded in ''[[Glee]]'' as well, as the principal introduces the glee club performing "the hit single Tik and also Tok, by rapper Keh-dollar sign-ha."
** Also, the Fake AP Stylebook suggests "for an international audience," you spell her name as "[http://twitter.com/#!/FakeAPStylebook/status/12663498284 KeUSDha]."
** Humorously, searching for "Ke$ha" on [[YouTube]] brings "ke ha" as a search suggestion, since "$" is a special character.<ref>stripped from pretty much all search engines because of the fact that search engines use program code that may use things such as $, %, *, etc as functions and commands</ref> Additionally, some mp3 parsers don't even replace it with a space, leading to the interesting title "keha".
* The Godspeed You! Black Emperor album F♯A♯∞
* Japanese experimental noise rock band Boredoms is somewhat known for their odd song titles, but on Vision Creation Newsun all of the songs are the following symbols: ◯ ☆ ♡ Ҩ 〜 ◎ ↑ Ω and finally ずっと
* The opening theme of ''Nanatsuiro★Drops'' is called "Shining Stars Bless☆."
* [[Katamari Damacy|We Love Katamari]]'s "DISCO★PRINCE".
* Marco V has a song entitled "C:\del * .mp3".
* There exists a rare Devin Townsend EP named ''C:enter:###'' (See colon, enter colon, pound pound pound).
* [[Aphex Twin|Richard D. James]] has, among his repertoire, a song which is simply referred to as "a mathematical equation," due to the difficulty of actually pronouncing [[wikipedia:Windowlicker#Track listing|the title]].
* Panic! At The Disco eventually lost the ! on their second album, Pretty. Odd., citing "too much punctuation".
** Only to find it again after members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left to form The Young Veins.
* The first opening to ''[[Bleach]]'' is called * ("Asterisk"). The band, Orange Range, also has an album titled Viva★Rock.
* Fall Out Boy's live concert CD/DVD, * * * * : Live in Phoenix. The band stated that you pronounce * * * * by [[Double Entendre|replacing it with any other four letter word you'd prefer]].
* The band Five Knuckle has a song entitled '.'
* There's Justiφ's (Justifies), the opening theme song of ''[[Kamen Rider 555]]''. The φ (phi) motif is rampant throughout the show as well.
* Orbital has a song on ''The Middle of Nowhere'' called "Way Out -->", named after a London Underground station.
* ? and the Mysterians, a band famous for its one-hit "96 Tears". Their lead singer ''does'' in fact just go by ?.
* Nearly every band in the genre known most commonly as Witch-House. Names include: ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ, Gr†LLGR†LL, †‡†, dir†ypride, 8:*), ///▲▲▲\\\, PWIN ▲▲ TEAKS, ▲, twYlY<ght>[[Zo Ne]], ✝NO VIRGIN✝, Δressed Up Like Δogs, μnłıłĿΞΔ, and more.
* Rick Ro$$, on his album covers.
** Similarly, Ma$e on ''his'' album covers.
* Japanese singer Maki Ohguro's latest original album includes a song titled "君は✈☠☢☻☈". On top of that, no website other than her own even parses these characters out, and they won't show up on iPods, so this song has to be written as "君は■■■■■" or "君は○○○○○". The song's name is actualy read as "君はテロリスト", translated as "You Are a Terrorist".
* The Japanese [[Boy Band]] D☆DATE.
* Shudder To Think's "Gang Of $". It's a [[Non-Appearing Title]], but apparently it's supposed to be pronounced "Gang Of Money'.
* Fictional Example: In ''[[K-On!]]'', the two names Mio suggests for their band are "Chocolate ☆ Melody" and "Pure ☆ Pure". (Curiously, she suggested them purely vocally, so one might wonder if she just said "hoshi" or "suta" in a way that made it clear that she intended the symbol rather than the word... or just accept that it's manga, so if it can be printed, you just pretend that they can say it somehow.)
* Some songs by I've Sound have this kind of title, for example "Otomegokoro + √[[Unusual Ears|Nekomimi]] = ∞".
* [[Sonic Youth|Thurston Moore's]] 1995 solo album is usually referred to as ''Psychic Hearts'', but the album artwork actually renders the title as ''Psychic ♥♥♥''.
* The opening theme for the first season of ''[[Minami-ke]]'' is "Keikenchi Joushouchuu ☆". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuL1ZffBI2I As Marina Inoue explains:]
{{quote|'''[[Marina Inoue]]:''' Opening theme name is Keikenchi Joushouchuu hoshi... star! Joushouchuu star. Yes, star.}}
* †††, a side project of [[Deftones]]' Chino Moreno (not to be confused with the already mentioned †‡†). It's pronounced "crosses". Also, they have a tendency to replace all T's in their song titles with cross symbols, as in "†his Is A †rick", and even have a song simply titled "†".
* British dance-punk band Hadouken!
* All-female [[Visual Kei]] band [[Exist Trace]].
* ★ - [[David Bowie]]'s last album and also the titular song. Pronounced as [[Shaped Like Itself|★]], or ''Blackstar''.

=== '''UNSORTED''' ===
* Canal+, a French film and television studio and distributor, and TV channel. (Usually pronounced "Canal Plus", using the French pronunciation.)
* E!, the American cable and satellite television network.
* Cisco ūmi telepresence.
* $cientology, used as a slight against said institution.
** $¢i€nto£og¥
* Likewise, the slur Micro$oft.
** The abbreviated form M$ft may have been suggested instead by the occasional Windows system error messages that begin "$Mft is corrupt..." (these actually refer to a Master File Table).
** More recently, Appl€ has appeared as a slight against the company for their business practices, especially the walled-garden and anti-right-to-repair stance on their devices.
** Also NA$CAR.
** And $tarbuck$.
** Di$ney.
** 4Kid$.
*** Also acceptable is $Kids, since American keyboards will have the 4 key become $ when Shift is held.
** [[Captain Obvious|Basically any corporation with an S in the name]].
** When ''Advanced [[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' was the monster that all the small role-playing game companies contended with, it was common to refer to the company that owned it as T$R.
*** And then there's Fourth Edition DnD, known as "$e". This was originally a typo, but has since reached a full-blown [[Memetic Mutation|meme]].
*** See also Game$ Work$hop
*** [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|£ido$]] gets a double whammy of the dollar sign and the pound symbol.
* The now-defunct British satellite channel L!ve TV.
* The red "Na" in ''[[Higurashi]] No {{color|red|Na}}ku Koro Ni'' is officially part of the title.
** The official dub calls it ''When They {{color|red|C}}ry''.
** ''Higurashi Day{{color|red|b}}reak'' by Tasogare Frontier: The b is officially off-color, although the color depends on the material - if the rest of the text is white, the b is normally black, but if the rest of the text is black, the b is red. Spelled in Japanese, the "bu" (ブ) is treated the same way.
* The novel ''Vampire$'' by [[John Steakley]]. The film adaptation, ''John Carpenter's Vampires'', eliminates the dollar sign and therefore misses the entire point.
** Sadly, [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HRELFE/ recent editions] of the book itself have followed suit, dropping the $ to tie in better with the movie, even thought the company the book is named after is still unchanged. Very sad.
* The revisions to ''[[Guilty Gear|Guilty Gear XX]]'' generally had strange names: "Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload" (pronounced "Sharp Reload"), "Guilty Gear XX/" ("Slash") and "Guilty Gear XX Λ Core" ("Accent Core"). Even the "XX" part of the title is actually pronounced "Igzex".
* Sony's ''U R Not {{color|red|e}}'' ads for the Playstation.
* Parodied in ''[[The Middleman]]'' with the super-addictive !!!!. Yes the drink is called !!!!. It is pronounced by stamping your foot and doing jazz hands.
* There's a ''[[Lost]]'' episode called "?" This refers to something specific in the plot, but was also so named in tribute to the episode's intended director, Darren Aronofsky, who directed the movie ''π'' (that's ''[[Pi]]'', of course). Aronofsky had to bow out of the episode, but the title remained.
* The computer programming languages C++ ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110926063620/http://www2.research.att.com/~bs/bs_faq.html#name pronounced "see plus plus"]; "++" means "increment by 1" in it<ref>on numeric primitives; due to operator overloading you can never be sure what it will do on any custom type</ref> and its predecessor C, so C++ means "C incremented"<ref>or, for extra pedantry, return the value of C and then increment it - perhaps a subtle nod at its fairly large degree of backwards compatibility?</ref>) and C# ("see sharp", despite actually using a pound sign, which is subtly different from a musical sharp symbol, which has led to its nickname "D flat", or Db)
** Well, "see octothorpe" doesn't roll off the tongue.
* [[Tetris|TET]]Я[[Tetris|IS]], of course.
* And Toys 'Я' Us
** And [[Korn|KoЯN]]
** Made even worse by the fact that Я is a Russian letter ''and'' word (meaning "I" or "myself"). It's like the English "I", which is a letter by its self and a pronoun as well. So basically it's saying "Toys I Us".
* The Famous, (and often parodied) I♥NY T-shirts
** Leading to the infamous I ✈ NY shirt
*** And plenty of other X ♥ Y merchandise as well. Sometimes parodied with other playing card suits, as in I ♠ My Cat or I ♣ Baby Seals.
* {{color|blue|House}} [[House of Leaves|of Leaves]].
* While presumably pronounced "slant," the science fiction novel / is somewhat disorientingly titled, particularly since it's uncertain that ''is'' the title unless you look at the copyright page (which for clarity's sake describes the situation rather than simply putting a / on the page.)
* The Bittorrent client "μTorrent", which we're supposed to pronounce "uTorrent". Geek options: muTorrent for the linguistics geek; microTorrent for the science geek.
* The Swedish feminist party (which didn't ''quite'' take off in the 2006 elections, and now hasn't been heard from in a while) chose "F¡" for their symbol. It was, of course, impossible to stop the party's detractors from reading it as "Fi", which is the traditional Swedish military abbreviation for "enemy" ("fiende" in Swedish).
* The [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=coexist%20bumper%20sticker&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Coexist] bumper sticker, which comes in many variations.
* The ¥€$ currency in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]''.
* Actor Laurence Tureaud legally changed his name to [[Mr. T]].
{{quote|"First name: Mister, Middle name: Period, Last name: T!"}}
* The English seaside town Westward Ho! (exclamation mark official)
* Sm:)e Records.
* BT's ''THЭSЭ HOPЭFUL MACHINЭS'' album.
* Sasha's ''Invol2ver'' mix compilation.
* [[Earth Star Voyager|Earth]]☆[[Earth Star Voyager|Star Voyager]] - a [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]] that originally aired as a 2-part miniseries on ABC's ''Wonderful World of Disney'' in January 1988. It focused on a bunch of young people from a late 21st century [[Crapsack World|Crapsack Future Earth]] as they [[Serial Numbers Filed Off|trekked through the stars]] to find a new home for the human race.
* [[Acclaim|A<<laim]].
* The [[Wii]]. A homophone for "we", and the i's represent two people.
* Just try finding a check cashier storefront in America which doesn't have a "CHECK$ CA$HED" sign up.
* On ''[[Top Gear]]'', the new{{when}} "reasonably priced car" is a Kia Cee'd (pronounced like "seed"). Jeremy Clarkson, however, insists on calling it the "[[I Read That As|see apostrophe dee]]."
* g0y, used by gay men who don't want to identify as gay. They get amusingly pissy if you call them "goys".
** [[You Have to Have Jews|g0yim?]]
** To be perfectly clear, g0ys do identify as bi- or homosexual, but "reject" the term "gay" because of its association with anal sex; gay - a(nal) = g0y. Their website is so hateful to non-g0y gays that even someone who agrees with the basic ideals of the g0y movement could be repulsed.
* ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'''s English titles use the format ''You VERB (Not) X''. Yes, "not" is in parentheses.
* ''[[Amorphous]]+''.
* Some [[Autechre]] songs, such as "90101-5|-|" (pipe dash pipe?) and "O=0"

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