Multiethnic Name: Difference between revisions

 

[[Reality Is Unrealistic|This is much more common]] in [[Real Life]] than it is in fiction. In real life, this often happens for fairly simple reasons. It's fairly common amongst some families who have arrived in a new country. They may give a newly born child a (let's say) English first name, while they retain their (for example) Asian or African last name. Also, in "[[Culture Chop Suey|mixed-culture]]" couples, their children are often named in a way that represents the cultural mixture. And then there are people [[Named After Somebody Famous|naming their kids after famous people]], or a name having lost some its cultural ties thanks to the aforementioned famous people.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Kid Hero|Negi Springfield]] and his father from ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' as well as Gateau Kagura Vanderburg!

** The original pilot features a helmsman named "José Tyler" in a conscious attempt to invoke this trope.

** While it wasn't her original name, after she got married, Keiko O'Brien definitely counts. Likewise her son, Kirayoshi O'Brien, actually combines three: His Irish father's surname of O'Brien, and a first name which combines both Japanese (-yoshi) from his mother's side and the Bajoran (Kira-) family name of the alien surrogate who carried him to term (which is traditionally put first anyway, giving him two family names, both Kira and O'Brien).

* Dharma Finkelstein from ''[[Dharma and Greg]]''. As she put it, [[Hippie Parents|her father]] is [[Informed Judaism|Jewish]] but wanted to be the Dalai Lama.

* Agent Graham Tanaka on ''[[Dollhouse]]'', played by [[Mark Sheppard]]. The part was originally written with an Asian actor in mind, and Sheppard wanted to keep the name. The [[Word of God]] explanation is that he took the name of his stepfather.

{{quote|'''Bella''': You know Heinrich, I can never get used to ''that'' accent coming out of ''that'' face.

'''Heinrich''': South America was very kind to [[Those Wacky Nazis|my German ancestors]]. }}

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The ''[[The Sims|Sims 2]]'' random character generator is notorious for producing townies with names like Juan McCullough or Kiyoshi Centowski (when the names it comes up with aren't just plain bizarre, like the infamous Goopy GilsCarbo) and having no relation whatsoever between looks and the ethnic background of a Sim's name. For example, the aforementioned Kiyoshi is a [[Dark-Skinned Blond]] with blue eyes.

* ''[[Soranica Ele]]'' gives us Zenobia Adelaide Albert Axelrod and Kaguya Lolotte Omi de la Patelliere.

* In ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]'', Guybrush has a run-in with the pirate-hating, heavily-armed [[Overly Long Name|Admiral Ricardo Luigi Pierre M'Bengu Chang Nehru O'Hara Casaba III]].

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Bernardo O'Higgins, the liberator of Chile (part Spanish, part Irish).

* "Carlos Murphy's" is a famous chain of Irish-Mexican restaurants.

* One of the more famous examples is former NASA astronaut Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz.

* African-American slave names.

** Also found with a number of blacks who were born free or freed slaves who adopted their names by choice.

* Former ''[[Lois and Clark|Superman]]'' actor Dean Cain whose real name is Dean George Tanaka.

* Almost all Christian names are originally either Hebrew, Latin or Greek and do bear real meanings in those languages.

 

{{reflist}}