Odd Name Out: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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== Anime ==
* In ''[[Bakuretsu Tenshi]]'', the main characters are named after the heroines of ''[[Little Women]]'', substituting "Sei" for "Beth". {{spoiler|A [[Lampshade Hanging]] occurs in the [[OVA]], where Sei ends up commanding an airship called the ''Elizabeth''}}. Appropriately, Beth's name is sort-of the odd one out in the original
** In the original novel Jo was the odd one out with her comparatively tomboyish name, which actually suits her fine considering she's [[The Stoic]] [[Action Girl]].
** According to [[Word of God]], Sei's last name is Elizabeth. Why her middle name is the same as the airship is anyone's guess.
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* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' includes the kanji for the senshi's planets in their last names, save for Aino Minako, whose name comes from Venus being the goddess of love. Fitting this, Minako is also the first senshi to draw her powers from her planet's namesake rather than from what the kanji means. This is because she was created first for ''[[Codename: Sailor V]]''.
** In the Outer Senshi, Sailor Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto's last names are Ten'ou (天王), Kaiou (海王), and Meiou (冥王). They mean sky king (Uranus is a Greek "ur-god", the personified sky the way Gaia is the personified earth), sea king (Neptune is the Roman name for Poseidon, the god of the sea), and dark king (Pluto is an alternate name for Hades, god of the death and the underworld). The Japanese name for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (the planets) are Ten'ousei (天王星), Kaiousei (海王星), and Meiousei (冥王星). See the pattern? ...Sailor Saturn's last name is Tomoe (土萠). It means sprouting earth (and has no connection to mythology whatsoever). The Japanese name for Saturn is Dosei (土星), so Tomoe seems to fit the inner senshi's naming scheme.
** Jadeite, Nephrite, and Zoisite stayed the same in the English dub, Engrish (Jeddite, Nephlite, the oi as a diphthong) notwithstanding. Kunzite became Malachite. Big hint he's Beryl's last henchman. Beryl herself qualifies. Also, Jadeite and Nephrite were the first two. A ''lot'' of
* The Ly Five in ''[[Shaman King]]''. The other four all have names that end in -ly (Sally, Lily, etc), but the leader's name is Sharona. Naturally, this is intentionally played for laughs when they first introduce themselves.
* A semi-example: Most of the ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'' sisters are named for jewels. Hinaichigo, Suigintou and Kanaria are not.
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** All of the Mangekyo Sharingan's abilities are named after Shinto Gods (Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, {{spoiler|Susanoo, and Kagutsuchi, as is the non-Manekyo technique Izanagi}}) except for Kakashi's ability, Kamui, which is named after an '''Ainu''' god.
* In ''[[Case Closed]]'', the suspect in a murder is both the literal odd guy out (he's something of an introvert and doesn't get along well with the rest of the group) and, as Conan quickly realizes in a [[Eureka Moment]], the only one of that circle of friends that doesn't have an airport-based name.
* In ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' the Servant Classes are: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Berserker, and... Assassin.
* {{spoiler|Blackbeard}} from ''[[One Piece]]'' is the only one of the [[Psycho for Hire|Seven Warlords of the Sea]] without an animal-themed name and [[Animal Motifs|motif]].
** The Medaka Mermaid Quintuplets are named [[Numerical Theme Naming|Ichika, Nika, Sanka, Yonka]]... [[Rule of Funny|and Yonka Two.]]
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** Parodied in ''[[Tom Strong]]'', where Tom's [[Funny Animal]] counterpart, [[Animal Superheroes|Warren Strong]] has three daughters (Tesla's counterparts) called Topsy, Turvy and Fluffytail. Fluffytail prefers to be called Delilah.
** Also parodied in ''[[Girl Genius]]'''s [[Filler]] side story, with Flopsy, Mopsy and [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]].
* Subverted in [[Christopher Moore]]'s ''[[Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff|Lamb the Gospel According To Biff]]''. All of Balthasar's concubines have elaborately long names usually referring to sex, such as "Tiny Feet of the Divine Dance of Joyous Orgasm" and "Delicate Personage of Two Fu Dogs Wrestling Under a Blanket," with the sole exception of Sue ("Short for Susanna"). Naturally, if any of them are going to be important, it'd be
* In ''The Joy Luck Club'' by [[Amy Tan]], one of the daughters has four brothers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and Bing. To elaborate, {{spoiler|guess which one tragically dies when the daughter fails to keep an eye on him?}}
* All of Lynn Kurland's romance novels are titled after songs, with the exceptions of her novellas (except ''To Kiss In The Shadows'', which was released as a single paperback novel) and her books ''Dreams of Stardust'' and ''Much Ado in the Moonlight''. There doesn't seem to be a particular reason for DoS and MAitM.
* From ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Though Brian is a perfectly good old name from the British Isles, it's also, you know, still used. Frequently. In the fifth film, this is [[Played for Laughs]] when he states his own name, with "Brian" said more quietly and after a slight pause.
** Everyone in the Weasley family has a normal, old-fashioned kind of name like Fred, George, Ronald or Bill (William). And then they named the girl "Ginevra".
** In the Black family everyone has a name [[Stellar Theme Naming|connected with astronomy]]
*** She's not the only one (Sirius' mom was named Walburga), but she's the main exception. [[Word of God]] says that she thought of Narcissa's name early and didn't want to change it.
** Harry's children are James, Albus and Lily. Albus stands out as the only "odd" name (though apparently he uses "Al" for short) as well as the only one not named after one of Harry's relatives.
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* In ''[[Memetic Mutation|The Falcon's Malteser]]'', the main character Nick is kidnapped by four goons called Lenny, Kenny, Benny and Fred.
* Major characters in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' include Isana, Amara, Fidelias, Maximus, Araris, Invidia... Tavi? Every Aleran character has a [[Gratuitous Latin]] [[Name of Cool]]... except him. {{spoiler|Which, as it happens, is [[Foreshadowing]]. His name is short for Oc'''tavi'''an, which is very much in line with the rest.}}
* Also from [[Jim Butcher]], ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' books all have two word [[Double Meaning Title
* The ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' began with ''Eragon'' and ''Eldest,'' both of which start with "E" and have six letters. Fans speculated that the last book in the trilogy would be called ''Empire,'' but the author eventually made it a quartet with the final books titled ''Brisingr'' and ''Inheritance,'' respectively.
* In the novel ''Murder at Avedon Hill,'' the five children in the Avedon family are named Richard, Carin, Edvard, Jon, and Julienne. {{spoiler|If you guessed that ''two'' of them would turn out to be Important and Special, give yourself a pat on the back. Edvard is a vampire-bite victim and Julienne has some sort of magical affinity.}}
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** Lamech's three sons were Jabal, Jubal... and Tubal-Cain. The first two were from the same mother, the third - and his sister, Naamah - from another. On the other hand, this is only a partial example since Jabal, Jubal and Tubal rhyme.
* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] gives us Han and Leia's children: [[Theme Twin Naming|Jacen, Jaina]], and [[Dead Guy, Junior|Anakin?]] Not intentional, just that the people behind ''[[Dark Empire]]'' didn't know Jacen and Jaina existed.
* Elizabeth Hand's novella ''Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol'' features a set of cut-rate Ramones called the
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', the direwolves are named Nymeria, Ghost, Summer, Lady, Grey Wind and... Shaggydog, who was named by a three-year old. It's also an ironic name, given that Shaggydog is the most wild and savage.
* The [[Sandra Boynton]] book ''15 Pets'' had fourteen animals named Bob, but the turtle has an [[Overly Long Name]].
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* Clark's friends in ''[[Smallville]]'', actually: You got [[Theme Initials|Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane]], and... Chloe Sullivan. Guess which character wasn't originally created in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]]!
* On ''[[Privileged]]'' the relevant characters are Laural, Rose, Sage, Lily, ...and Megan.
* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'': The "Australian Philosophy Professors" sketch, in which the members of the department complain about the newest addition to the faculty being "a bit confusing"
* A [[Benny Hill]] gag once combined this with [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion]], with the law firm of Arten, Marten, Barten, and Fargo.
* ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' had the guest stars, "The Mosquitos", whose names were Bingo, Bango, Bongo... and Irving.
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* Episodes of ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' have short, usually one-word titles... except for the seventh season episode "Please Note We are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger".
* Lauren, Lauren, Cassie and Lauren, Will's interns on ''[[The West Wing]]''.
* In ''[[Scrubs]]'', Dr. Kelso decides to save effort by calling all the male interns Dave and all the female interns Debbie. Except the one who actually is named
* Australia's ''[[The Comedy Company]]'' character Con the Fruiterer had daughters Roula, Soula, Toula, Voula, Foula and Agape.
* In the ''[[Space Mutiny]]'' epsiode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', Mike and the 'bots make up tons of silly nicknames for the protagonist along the lines of "Big McLargeHuge", "Slate Slabrock" "Thick McRunfast", and "Smash Lampjaw" (to name four)...and then there was "Bob Johnson". Doesn't have quite the same punch,<ref>
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E04 The Time of Angels|"The Time of Angels"]] saw this with the clerics: Angelo, Christian and... [[Everything's Better with Bob|Bob]]. [[Ominous Mundanity|Sacred Bob]]. {{spoiler|''Angel Bob''.}}
* In one episode of ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', the women buy minks to breed for fur. Rose names them Fluffy, Muffy, Buffy, and Joanne.
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** For the other teams we have [[Hikari Sentai Maskman|X1 Mask]] ([[One-Shot Character|a one-episode warrior in green]]), [[Chouriki Sentai Ohranger|King Ranger]] (instead of "Oh Black"), [[Mirai Sentai Timeranger|Time Fire]] (since there's already a "Time Red"), [[Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger|Shurikenger]] (instead of "Hurricane Green"), [[Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger|Abare Killer]] (instead of "Abare White"), [[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger|Deka Break]] (instead of "Deka White"), [[Mahou Sentai Magiranger|Magi Shine]] (instead of "Magi Gold"), [[Juuken Sentai Gekiranger|Geki Chopper]] (instead of "Geki White") and [[Tensou Sentai Goseiger|Gosei Knight]] (instead of "Gosei Silver").
** A non-extra example is featured in ''[[Battle Fever J]]'', where the [[Smurfette Principle|lone girl]] of the team is codenamed "Miss America" instead of following the "Battle (nation's name)" pattern of the other members.
* In ''[[Power Rangers]],'' get ready for the "is he a Ranger or not?" battle to ''never'' end if a hero's name doesn't have "Ranger" in it.
* In a vampire-themed episode of ''[[Psych]]'', a suspect's three roommates are named "Eddie, Jake, and Lucien." Shawn, Gus, and Julie immediately look for "Lucien." {{spoiler|Of course, it's not Lucien or Jacob, but [[Twilight (novel)|Edward]].}}
* On the TV series [[Batman]], all members of the Gotham police force had an Irish name starting with O. Except for Goldberg.
* The demons in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' all have classical demonic names (Azazel, Lilith, even [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastor Alastair]), with the exceptions of Ruby, Crowley and Meg,<ref>granted, it's not her real name</ref>
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* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' [[Original Generation|OG Saga]]: [[Endless Frontier]] has group of antagonists call Orchestral Army. Their members have German name based on "[[The Bremen Town Musicians]]" (Henne - Hen, Ezel - Donkey and Katze - Cat), then we have a [[Cute Witch]] call '''Kyon'''.
** Which still fits the Bremen Town Musicians, because Kyon is Greek for Dog (though it's still odd name out for not being German)
* In ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]'', there is a band ([[Combination Attack|no, not that Band]]) of five [[Wutai|Eblanese]] [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|ninja]], enough to form a full party in that game. Of these ninja, the first four are named Tsukinowa, Izayoi, Zangetsu, and Gekkou, Japanese terms for phases of the moon. The last is named
* The Koopalings do it ''four times'': First, the general theme of living (well, at the time anyway) male musicians:
** Lemmy Koopa (Lemmy Kilmister)
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** What about Ami?
* [[The Strategist|The strategists]] of the ''[[Suikoden]]'' series have always been from the Silverberg family ([[Suikoden II|Shu, at least, is a student of Matthiu]]), but [[Suikoden V|the fifth game]] gives you Lucretia Merces, a hot Karayan [[Expy]] of Zhuge Liang, who has no relation to the Silverbergs in any way. The other side's strategists have nothing to do with the family either.
* Belladonna is the only properly named character from the ''[[Persona (video game)|Persona]]'' series to be related to the Velvet Room and not have a name that somehow ties into ''[[Frankenstein]]''. The remainder are Igor, Nameless, Elizabeth, Margaret (this one's pretty
* In ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2'', the [[Dark World]] counterparts of Temple Grounds, Agos Wastes, Torvus Bog and Sanctuary Fortress are respectively Sky Temple Grounds, Dark Agon Wastes, Dark Torvus Bog and ''Ing Hive''. Repeated in ''Metroid Prime 3'', where the main planets visited are Norion, Bryyo, Elysia and ''Pirate Homeworld''. Ing Hive has the name probably because it's where the Ing proliferate the most, while Pirate Homeworld is the only planet without a fully confirmed name.
* The Chateau level names in ''[[Something]]'' are based on the elements in the French language (Feu, Eau, Vent, and Terre), but the final Chateau has the name of Chateau Finale.
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** Well, [[Comically Missing the Point|the name "David" is just as Semitic as those other three...]]
* Fey's three fairies from the [[Whateley Universe]], Trixie, Dixie, and Brunhilda.
* In [[Notting Cove|''Fairies of Notting Cove'']], all the forest fairies have Irish names, except for The Cook, who is [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]. Saga is also an
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* ''[[Futurama]]'' has Calculon, who was "all of history's great acting robots: Acting Unit 0.8, Thespo-mat, David Duchovny!"
* [[Rocky and Bullwinkle|Boris Badenov]] once claimed to be a partner in the advertising firm of Dancer, Prancer, Blitzen and Fink. No prizes for guessing which.
* In ''[[The Incredibles]]'', the two older children have names and powers that are symbolic of their time of
* An episode of the Disney series ''[[Bonkers]]'' had the eponymous character being followed by agents Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and [[The Beatles|Ringo]].
* An episode of ''[[A Pup Named Scooby Doo]]'' featured a family carnival run by the Jipners, who consisted of Jolly, Joey, Jerry, Julie (to name a few) and Bart. Guess which one was the ghost. {{spoiler|Subverted as it was Joey.}}
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* ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'': His parents are Richard and Nicole. His ascended pet/brother is Darwin, and his sister is Anais. And yet Gumball is the odd name out.
* [[The Jetsons]] are named George, Jane, Judy, and Elroy.
* [[Keith David|Goliath]] from ''[[Gargoyles]]'' is the only member of the Manhattan Clan (until Angela joins the cast
* The [[Three Little Pigs]] are named Fifer, Fiddler, and Practical. Guess whose house didn't get blown down by [[The Big Bad Wolf]]!
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' has the six main character ponies named: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle. The last name is the only one with four syllables.
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* In quantum physics, the different 'flavours' of quarks are up, down, bottom, top, strange, and charm.
* Earth is the only planet in the Solar System that is not named after a Greco-Roman god. And nope, "Terra" will not help either.
** Same for
* The Earth's continents are named Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, the two Americas, and Europe.
* The three periods that made up the Mesozoic era are called the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.
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