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In Germany, the phenomenon of upper class parents giving their offspring more conservative names like Emil, Cornelius or Viktoria has coined the term "Emilism" as opposed to "Kevinism", describing the tendency of lower class parents to give their children names unusual to German-speaking areas, especially English names like the aforementioned Kevin, Justin or Mandy.
 
Compare [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"]], which overlaps with this sometimes when people intentionally mispronounce a name just to make it sound more classy. A trademark of the [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]] and [[Upper Class Wit]].
 
Note, a name associated with upper class characters in one generation will often sound "common" in the next as working class mothers decide to name their children after characters in books or movies, members of the royal family etc. For example, [[James Bond]] married a very classy young woman called Theresa, known as Tracy. And she wasn't the only classy Tracy in films of that era either. Sharon was quite a "nice" name back then too. By the 80s? Not so much. By now, Sharon and Tracy will be working class mothers whose own children have names ''they'' considered classy when she chose them, only to discover that all the other Sharons and Tracies had chosen them for their urchins, too. (this specific example applies only to the UK; in the US people simply ''stopped using'' these two names so that "Sharon" among Baby Boomers and "Tracy" among Generation X are time-capsule names, linked '''far''' more strongly to generation than class.)
 
Royal names are another example of this latter phenomenon. In the late 19th Century there was a fashion for Victoria/Victor and Albert/Alberta in honour of the queen and her husband. By the time the first ''[[Steptoe and Son]]'' movie was made, 'Arold (Son) told Albert (Steptoe), with reference to the baby they had adopted, "''Naw'', we're no' callin' 'im Albert; 's ''common''!"
{{examples}}▼
 
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The English version of ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' gave us Corina Buxworth (aka Aizawa Minto).
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' had a bunch of these in Chazz Princeton, Atticus and Alexis Rhodes, and Syrus and Zane Truesdale.
** Well the school pretty much is a prep school. Also present are Jaden Yuki, Blair Flannigan, Chumley Huffington, and Bastian Misawa
 
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[X -Men|Warren Worthington III]].
* In [[The DCU]], the closest thing Firestorm has to an archenemy is Danton Black, alias Multiplex.
* In the [[Archie]] comics, there's Veronica Lodge.
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* Emmett Fitz-Hume in ''[[Spies Like Us]]''.
* Warner Huntington III from ''[[Legally Blonde]]''.
* The villain of the film ''[[Young Einstein]]'' is an [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]] named Preston [[Repetitive Name|Preston]].
* [[Roger Moore]]'s character in ''[[North Sea Hijack]]'', Rufus Excalibur ffolkes, is definitely upper class but is certainly no twit. %spelled with a lower case ff, honest%
* Blane McDonnagh from ''[[Pretty in Pink (Film)|Pretty in Pink]]''.
{{quote| '''Duckie:''' His name is Blane? Oh! That's a major appliance, that's not a name!}}
* Dissected and analysed in [[Freakonomics]]. In an interesting inversion, the girl's name Ashley reputedly devolved from a popular middle-class girl's name to a lower-class "Wal-Mart set" girl's name.
* Devon Montgomery Johnston III from ''[[Cars]]'', who is also simply known as DJ.
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* Gilderoy Lockhart and Justin Finch-Fletchley, and possibly also Kingsley Shacklebolt and Neville Longbottom, in ''[[Harry Potter]]''.
* Dalton Campbell in ''[[The Sword of Truth]]''.
* [[Shout -Out|Carson Flynn]] in the ''[[Mythology 101 Cycle]]'', who is fairly rich (at least by college professor standards).
* In the [[Pink Carnation]] series, Geoffrey Pinchingdale-Snipe, Sebastion Vaughn, and Reginald Fitzhugh.
* Cotton Remington Weathington-Beech, and his school friends, in the ''[[Machine of Death]]'' story "Prison Knife Fight".
* The pornographic novel ''The Oxford Girl'' is narrated (and nominally authored) by a character named Presley Abbott.
 
== [[Live -Action TV]] ==
* Richard Woolsley III from ''[[Raising the Bar]]''.
* Flynn Carsen of ''[[The Librarian]]'' fame, though ironically he's not rich.
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** Of course, considering the show is about white-collar crime the [[Villain of the Week]] will at least occasionally have a preppy name too.
*** And let's not forget the recurring villain, Sterling.
* Barnabas Collins, Cyrus Longworth, Skyler Rumson and Bruno Hess from ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]''.
* [[Justified]] in ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' (and [[Jeeves and Wooster (Literaturenovel)|the books they were based on]]).
* Chase (his last name; his first name, rarely used, is Robert), from ''[[House (TV series)|House, M.D.]]''. Some of these names overlap with upper-class-sounding British names; with Chase it's both. He started as the [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]] but had a little character development making him a competent twit, much like Charles Emerson Winchester III from M*A*S*H.
* Speaking of which, Charles Emerson Winchester III from ''[[MASH|M*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]''.
** ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' made a [[Shout -Out]] to this by naming an [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]] "Chaz" Winchester IV. And while we're on the subject, the Rangers have included a handful of upper-crusters in their ranks: [[Power Rangers Time Force|Wesley Collins]], [[Power Rangers SPD|Sydney Drew]], [[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive|Mackenzie Hartford]] (with his father Andrew Hartford as the team's patron), and [[Power Rangers RPM|Summer Landsdown]].
* Greenlee Smythe and Colby Chandler on ''[[All My Children]]''. Both first names are their mothers' maiden names, which is a typical preppy naming convention.
* Chatsworth Osbourne, Jr. from ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]''.
* Charles Widmore from ''[[Lost]]'' who is a rich businessman thanks to the company he owns. Which is, of course, called Widmore Industries.
* [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurston_Howell:Thurston Howell,_III III|Thurston Howell III]] (Jim Backus) in ''[[GilligansGilligan's Island]]''.
* Crispin from ''[[Skins]]''. Just Crispin. Like Prince, Madonna, Cher, Lemar... [[Only One Name|only Crispin]].
* Wesley Wyndam-Pryce from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.
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* Jackie Gleason character "Reginald van Gleason III" (note "the Third" yet again)
* Audrey fforbes-Hamilton from ''[[To the Manor Born]]''.
* Addison Forbes Montgomery-Shepherd from [[Greys Anatomy|Grey's Anatomy]].
* Harrison Chase from the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode The Seeds of Doom.
** Also [[The Scrooge|Kazran Sardick]] in "A Christmas Carol".
* As explained in the trope description, this is a common occurrence in Hispanic ''telenovelas''. Usually it is the male protagonist who is well off, and this means we wind up with a male lead called Ricardo Facundo (always, ''always'' called by both names) while the female lead is called María, Juana, or other ridiculously common names. This tendency has been parodied many, many times, often giving the parody protagonist an [[Overly Long Name|Overly Long]] [[Preppy Name]].
** One famous case of a female [[Preppy Name]] is "María Joaquina" from the telenovela ''[[Carrusel]]''. She was never called just "María," ever.
** Castilian Spanish conventions are different, and the ''pijo'' naming clichés tend to go along Araceli, Soraya or Cayetana for girls and Gonzalo, Rodrigo or Borja (Borjamari in terminal cases) for boys.
* More than half the cast of ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. Including some of the actual cast members, such as Chace Crawford, Blake Lively, Penn Badgeley and Leighton Meester. The cast is full of them.
** This last one is funny, since her parents were actually small-time crooks from Texas (her mother was serving time for marijuana smuggling at the time of her birth), but her name would be completely at home in the New York City aristocracy, particularly given that her last name is Dutch (a large proportion of New York's oldest families are Dutch for historical reasons).
* Blaine Anderson from ''[[Glee]]''.
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== [[Radio]] ==
* Hubert Updike III in ''The Alan Young Show'', voiced by Jim Backus.
 
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* [[Rupert Grint]]▼
* The late Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Amusingly, this was the opposite of upper-class when he was born: "Arthur" was still a fairly common name in 1917, and "Schlesinger" would have been seen as too ethnic--and particularly too ''Jewish''<ref>Although Schlesinger was not himself Jewish, his paternal grandfather was a Jew from Prussia</ref>--to be truly upper-class in that era (during which Jews were not considered white, and Germans were [[World War One|for obvious reasons]] not well-trusted).▼
* Engelbert Humperdinck (although it is not his birth name).▼
* [[Benedict Cumberbatch|Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch]]▼
* Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue, aka Poppy Montgomery.▼
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series brings us Richard Wellington and Wesley Stickler.
* Most, if not all, of the preppies in ''[[Bully (Videovideo Gamegame)|Bully]]''.
* Slade Percy Benedict III from ''Wall Street Kid''. See [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Wall<!-- 20Street20Kid%20Street%20Kid/ this playthrough]]. -->
* Lord Montague "Monty" Basingstoke-Pratt IV from ''[[Kingdom of Loathing (Video Game)|Kingdom of Loathing]]'', a hero of the Frat Warriors. He drops an item that increases money gains.
* Florian Phinaes Horatio Aldebrant, Esquire- otherwise known as Finn in [[Dragon Age Origins]] DLC Witch Hunt.
* [[The Sims 2]] has a pre-made sim named Francis J. Worthington III. He's obviously supposed to be a snobby rich kid.
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* Orville Brand, Blair Duchess, Hadley Sharpe, Nelson Stickling and Tatum West on ''[[Honorable Hogwarts]]''.
* The idea behind Reginald Cuftbert's name in [[Spoiler Warning]]'s [[Let's Play]] of Fallout 3. The original suggestion was Reginald Cuthbert, but something was lost in translation.
* [[Survival of the Fittest|SOTF-TV]]: A good portion of the kids in Silver Dragon Academy have this sort of name. Examples include Mae St. Clair, Leopold Sutherland, Bob Lazenby, and Renée Carlson.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Remy Buxaplenty from ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]''.
* The real name of Cave Guy from ''[[Freakazoid!]]'', whose voice is apparently based on Thurston Howell III, is Royce Mumphry.
* The students at Morningwood Academy in ''[[Family Guy]]'', including James Williams Bottomtooth IV and Rogers Chapstick, heir to the Chapstick fortune.
** All of the employees at the New Yorker, as well: Wellesley Shepherdson, Fielding Wellingtonsworth, Livingston Winstofford, Amelia Bedford Furthington Chesterhill, and James William Bottomtooth III.
* [[Word Girl|Theodore "Tobey" MacCallister III.]] My, but isn't that a mouthful?
* Trevor Noseworthy IV from ''[[James Bond Jr.]]''.
* From ''[[Total Drama]],'' Cody Emmett Jameson-Anderson.
* Bradley Uppercrust III from [[An Extremely Goofy Movie]]
 
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* [[Rupert Grint]]
▲* The late Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Amusingly, this was the opposite of upper-class when he was born: "Arthur" was still a fairly common name in 1917, and "Schlesinger" would have been seen as too ethnic--andethnic—and particularly too ''Jewish''<ref>Although Schlesinger was not himself Jewish, his paternal grandfather was a Jew from Prussia</ref>--to—to be truly upper-class in that era (during which Jews were not considered white, and Germans were [[World War OneI|for obvious reasons]] not well-trusted).
▲* Engelbert Humperdinck (although it is not his birth name).
▲* [[Benedict Cumberbatch|Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch]]
▲* Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue, aka Poppy Montgomery.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:Preppy Name{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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