Meaningful Name/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

* Jeannie in ''[[I Dreamof Jeannie]]'', who is a genie.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has taken to doing this in recent years.

*** There was also Yellow Ranger Taylor Earhardt, missing and presumed dead ever since her fighter plane <s> disappeared over the Atlantic</s> was tractored to the Animarium.

** ''SPD'''s aliens are frequently named after the animal they resemble, such as doglike Anubis "Doggie" Kruger of Sirius, catlike Kat Manx and Dr. Felix, apelike Sgt. Silverback, and birdlike Fowler Birdy. With humans it's not quite as gimmicky: ''Blue'' Ranger Sky has a flying [[Humongous Mecha|Zord]], Jack was once a thief, etc.

*** [[Kamen Rider Faiz|Takumi Ogami]]'s surname means "wolf"; the original Takumi's surname, Inui, was a homophone for "dog". {{spoiler|Both are references to Takumi's status as the Wolf Orphnoch.}}

*** [[Kamen Rider Blade|Kazuma Kendate]]'s name is a lengthy one. The "ken" in "Kendate" means "blade", while the "date" means "to rouse"; Blade's primary weapon is the Blade Rouser. His teammates have similar theme names: Sakuya Hishigata/Kamen Rider Garren, modeled on the Suit of Diamonds (the surname means "diamond-shaped") and Mutsuki Kuroba/Kamen Rider Leangle, modeled on the Suit of Clubs ("kuroba" is the phonetic pronunciation of "clover").

** [[Kamen Rider Ryuki]] has a couple:

*** Shinji Kido: "[[Wide Eyed Idealist|To believe in brightness.]]"

'''Kramer:''' That's amazing. That's like an ice cream man named, "Cone". }}

** An in-universe example. Remember George's alias, Art Vandelay? Guess who shows up in the finale.

* In an episode of ''[[QI]]'', [[Stephen Fry]] mentions "nominative determinism," the social theory that if your name is meaningful its meaning will reflect in your career choice. David Mitchell: "That's why you run that caff."

* ''[[Strangers With Candy]]'' has this trope in perverse forms only [[Stephen Colbert]], [[Amy Sedaris]] and Paul Dinello could've conceived. Most obvious is Principal [[Scary Black Man|Onyx Blackman]]. There's also Stew the meat-man ("Simmer down, Stew") and Mr. Noblet's son, Seamus -- the first syllable sounds like "shame," which is Noblet's primary emotion when it comes to his family, since he's a closeted homosexual. That one may sound like a slight stretch until you've listened to the DVD commentaries, wherein it's explained that school grief counselor Cassie Pines was named to evoke the image of "casket" and "pine box," and that Orlando, the frequent butt of racist Filipino "monkey" jokes, was originally going to be named Simeon. Then there's the all-white school production of ''A Raisin in the Sun'', where the starring students' all have last names like "Chalk" and "Snow"... the list goes on.

* Subversion: In ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'', a [[Monster of the Week]] has a name that means "felony" and is of a species whose name means "villain". As the plot was one character's attempt to prove him innocent and the true culprit guilty, the names were an [[Anvilicious]] way of making him the obvious suspect (which he was anyway).

** Otherwise, [[Super Sentai]] has so many characters with Meaningful Names (and Meaningful [[Punny Name|Punny Names]] and [[Theme Naming]]) that adding them to this page would triple the length.

** What, ''Poseidon Adventure'' base, or ''Towering Inferno'' base were already taken? Or was it just a case of "Unsubtle allusion to hubris and haste that will end badly" base was too much of a mouthful to say?

** Arguably justifible in they were trying to 'fly higher than ever' in the sense of dialing the ninth chevron. Makes you wonder about the symbolism involved such that flying into suns stops them from dying... ([[Wild Mass Guessing|Then again isn't that a Greek myth? Maybe the Ancients had something to do with that?]] [[Up to Eleven|The terms for Destiny and Death are historically linked... to bad it was cancelled, maybe that was their plan all along!!!]])