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{{quote|"You know, when you name your son 'Jeeves', you've pretty much set up his life's path for him. What is he going to become... a hitman? 'Pardon me sir, but I'm afraid I must whack you.'"|'''[[Seinfeld|Jerry Seinfeld]]'''}}
 
Some names, frequently taken from historical events, seem to be jinxed. No one wants to ride on a ship (or a [[Space Sailing]][[Starship Titanic|ship]]) named "Titanic" or "Hindenburg". Similarly, anything named "Icarus" is begging for a wing-clipping, and [[The Bible (Literature)|the Goliath is going down hard, probably to a smaller opponent]] (bonus points if said [[David Versus Goliath|smaller opponent is named David.]]) Likewise, don't compare your defenses to the walls of Jericho - that'll just make 'em go splat like an ant beneath an elephant's foot (with said ant being you, and said elephant's foot being the wrath of [[God]].) It's probably not a good idea to name your vehicle the [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Doom Buggy]], either, especially if you plan on driving your friends around in it. And if you're assigned to name a computer, let alone a supercomputer, [[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|"Skynet"]] is strictly off limits; after all, what good is a computer if all it wants to do is [[Take Over the World]]?
 
Note that it has to be the name of something that has ''already'' gone down: The original ''Hindenburg'' was not an example of this trope (but ''Titanic'' arguably was, see the [[Real Life]] section below).
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== [[Anime]] ==
* Most of the ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' cast are named after sunken [[World War II]] battleships (poor Asuka gets the dubious distinction of having ''both'' of her last names be associated with a terrible fate); is it any surprise that the place is a [[Dysfunction Junction]]?
 
== [[Comics]] ==
* Ozymandias in ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]''. Apparently he wanted to reclaim the name from the elegant ignominy to which Shelley's poem had consigned it.
** Also, there's the [[Gordian Knot]] Lock Company.
* Icarus of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', a mutant born with wings. Reverend Stryker cuts his wings off, tricks him into helping kill a busload of his former friends and then murders him.
 
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* Averted in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'': Kyon [[Ha Ha Only Serious|jokes]] about his new PDA (made with alien technology) conquering the world, comparing it to [[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|SkyNet]] -- which is what he then ends up calling it. And so far, it's been anything but rebellious and threatening.
 
== [[Film]] ==
* People seem to find humor in ''[[Seltzer and Friedberg|Disaster Movie]]'' bombing at the box office.
* The ship in ''[[Sunshine (Filmfilm)|Sunshine]]'' is flying to the Sun with the name ''Icarus Two''. As if the name isn't [[Tempting Fate]] enough, they still stuck with it after losing ''Icarus One''.
* To the humans in ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'' - you named the new moon [[Classical Mythology|Pandora]]? Really? I don't care if it means "All-Gifted," there's a reason you don't try to open things named after or belonging to Pandora!
** This is probably more a case of the creator invoking [[Meaningful Name]], which seems to be a theme of the movie. For crying out loud, they're going after a precious mineral literally called [[Unobtanium]]!
* [[The Asylum]] [[The Mockbuster|movie]] ''[http://www.thefilmcatalogue.com/catalog/FilmDetail.php?id=9424 Titanic 2]'' features a shipping magnate not only building a second ''Titanic'' [[Tempting Fate|but also setting its maiden voyage in the 100th anniversary of the original disaster and having it traverse]] ''[[Tempting Fate|the exact same route of the original]]'' (though in the opposite direction). Somehow, things go even ''worse'' than in the original voyage: the ship is slammed by an iceberg ''carried by a tsunami'' and later is hit by a ''second'' "mega tsunami". It ends with the female lead as the sole survivor. And this is played ''100% straight''.
* In ''[[Cherrybomb (Film)|Cherrybomb]]'', the health centre where Malachy works is called "Titanic Leisureplex". And people are ''[[Genre Blindness|surprised]]'' when bad things start happening there.
* In the ''[[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]'' film ''[[Die Another Day (Film)|Die Another Day]]'', the villain's superweapon is named "Icarus". At the end of the movie, the villain loses control of the weapon and accidentally burns the wings off his own plane, causing a spectacular crash.
** In his defense, the superweapon ''was'' intended to burn things through sunlight<ref>The specific reckless usage that Icarus did was, most commonly, flying too close to the sun and having the warmth melt his wings</ref>.
* In ''[[Mimic (Film)|Mimic]]'', genetic engineers attempt to exterminate cockroaches with their own genetically altered cockroach. They call it the Judas Breed. Three guesses what the new species [[To Serve Man|prefers as prey]].
* In ''[[Rise of the Planet of Thethe Apes]]'', the main primate is named [[Gaius Julius Caesar|Caesar]]. ([[Planet of the Apes|the original]] could fit too, even if the name was given to him by the circus owner who adopted him -- parents named him "Milo".)
** Also, if you pay attention in to the TV in the background during one scene, you'll see news coverage of a NASA launch which is called ''Icarus'' (implied to be the ship that crash lands in the beginning of the original ''[[Planet of the Apes]]''). Sure enough, just a few scenes later, a newspaper headline can be seen proclaiming that the ship has mysteriously vanished, and we all know what happened to it after that.
* The original colonists' ship in ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' is called the ''Bellerophon''. In [[Classical Mythology]], Bellerophon was a great hero, yes, and he did tame the Pegasus. However, he also fell victim to [[Pride|hubris]], and was punished by being sent crashing down to Earth from his mount, where he died a blinded cripple. Guess what happened to the ship?
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[The Last Colony]]'' by [[John Scalzi]] centers around the newly-colonized planet of Roanoke. The protagonist essentially facepalms when it hits him.
* The ''[[Starship Titanic]]'' is mentioned in ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Literaturenovel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', along with the ''GSS Suicidal Insanity''.
** The latter is part of a crescendo sequence, ''GSS Daring,'' ''GSS Audacity,'' and ''GSS Suicidal Insanity.'' ''Daring'' and ''Audacity'' are actual names of Royal Navy ships.
** ''[[Starship Titanic]]'' later got its own game and novelisation. Its maiden voyage went as hilariously badly as one would expect given the name and the author.
*** ... who is [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Terry Jones]] (novelization and parrot).
* A ''[[Wing Commander (Literaturenovel)|Wing Commander]]'' novel has a character refuse to name a ship the ''Alamo'' because while the Battle of the Alamo is an inspirational bit history and the defenders were heroes... they lost.
* [[Lampshaded]] in one of the ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' books. The Havenite battle plan is code named Icarus, and one of the commanding officers muses that if ''he'' were in charge, he wouldn't have named the plan after the one whose wings fell apart. Strangely, it's one of Haven's most successful operations.
** It's possible that the "Icarus" in "Operation Icarus" actually referred to the ''Manticorans''.
** Also: The Solarian League named a series of ships Joseph Buckley. [[Designated Victim|They should've known]].
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* There's Soviet book about Captain Vrungel (mix of Wrangel and ''vrun'' "liar"). He named his boat ''Pobeda'' "Victory", because "it will sail according to how you name it. You can name your boat "Trough" or "Sieve", but don't expect it to not to sink at its first sailing". Ironically, at ''Pobeda''s first sailing, two letters fell out, and the ship became called ''Beda'' "Trouble" (The pun is [[Woolseyism|"Courage" and "Rage"]] in the English translation). The four letters remaining are the only part of the ship to complete the journey.
** There's a [[Shout-Out]] to this in ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'', where a [[The Mafiya|mobster's]] yacht in Moscow is named the same thing, with the "Po" missing; by the morning after Mike visits, it's a ghost ship with no signs of a struggle.
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe (Franchise)|Star Wars Expanded Universe]], Han confronts an incredibly naive Imperial weapons designer about the projects she's worked on. Projects with names like ''Death Star'', ''World Devastator'', and ''Sun Crusher''. Did she really think that these would be projects with peaceful applications?
* The good airship ''Hubris'' in ''[[More Information Than You Require]]''.
* Discussed in [[Diane Duane]]'s ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' novel ''My Enemy My Ally''. The Rihannsu (Romulan) belief system places great meaning on names, and it is considered unlucky to name a ship after a virtue, as it is all too likely to take too much of the spirit of that virtue. Kirk then muses on the unlucky histories of ships named Intrepid, and the Rihannsu renegade he's speaking with explains "Name a ship after the spirit of fearlessness, and it forgets to fear."
* ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' gives us Professor Remus Lupin {{spoiler|who is a werewolf — "Remus" being a mythical child raised by wolves (brother to Romulus, founder of Rome), and "Lupin" as described above. In addition, out of the two Roman brothers, guess which one died (killed by his twin, even) when you have to be alive to found a city. He appears aware of this as he uses "Romulus" as a pseudonym for a radio broadcast late in the series.}} [[JKJ. K. Rowling]] seems very fond of [[Meaningful Name|meaningful names]].
** There's also a minor werewolf character named Fenrir Greyback. ''Fenrir'' is the wolf-shaped son of Loki in Norse mythology, and ''Greyback'' is obvious.
* In a short story ''[[Isaac Asimov|Sucker Bait]]'', humanity tries to colonise a lush, though somewhat cold (but rich in biosphere) planet called Troas. The first colonisation expedition died after three years on the planet - and now they [[We Have Reserves|prepare to send the next...]] (although, to be fair, they did file away the records about the first attempt)
* In the ''[[Troy Rising]]'' series, the alien Rangora are rather baffled by the fact that Earth's first two Battlestations are named after famous, historical DEFEATS - the Troy and the Thermopylae. But ultimately, the trope is subverted - both battlestations wind up facing scenarios similar to their historical counterparts, but weather them. In the third book, Tyler Vernon admits that he named the first two stations after those historic defeats because back then, he didn't know if they'd WORK - his main hope was that, even in defeat, they'd be memorable and serve as an inspirational example to future resistance, similar to how the fall of Troy caused the birth of the Roman Empire, and the Battle of Thermopylae catalyzed Greece into an ultimately successful union to oppose the Persian invaders.
** People often tend to forget that on a strategic level Thermopylae was a ''victory'' (or at least the successful damage control): the whole point of the [[Three Hundred300]] was ''delaying action'', when it became obvious that the retaining of the pass is impossible, and letting the main force to retreat. [[Four-Star Badass|Leonidas]], the rear guard commander, held the Persians for the whole three days, giving Themistocles, who commanded the whole war (and the navy), enough time to retreat and reorganize — directly leading to his later victories at Salamis and Plataea.
* German novel ''Azrael'' has the eponymous experimental drug named after the angel of death. Of course the book is of the horror genre.
* In [[Jack Campbell]]'s ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' series the ships named ''Invicible'' naturally have very short lives.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "[[Doctor Who/2007 CS Voyage of the Damned/Recap|Voyage of The Damned]]" features a space faring vessel called ''Titanic'' that resembles the famed ship. Used for tourist visits to a primitive planet (namely Earth), it was named after a "famous ocean-going Earth vessel." The Doctor comments on how poor a name that is, and isn't too surprised when the ship starts to blow up and "sink." {{spoiler|It was an [[Invoked Trope]]. The ship was ''supposed'' to crash into the planet and go nuclear, as a sort of genocidal insurance fraud...}}
* One episode of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' featured some barely-audible background dialogue along the lines of "Transport ''Marie Celeste'' now docking." When fans pointed out online that no one would be crazy enough to name a starship after a famous ocean-going ship whose crew vanished mysteriously, creator [[J. Michael Straczynski]] pointed out that Australians might indeed be just that crazy.
** ''[[Babylon 5]]'' also had a ship named the "Icarus". It was an archaeological explorer's vessel, and it was destroyed with all hands lost when it went to Z'ha'dum, the home of the Shadows, and [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|woke them up]]. And technically, there were survivors, but most were turned into living computer cores. Only Morden remained whole, but he was a bastard to begin with.
** Lets not forget the Babylon 5 station itself. That "5" is there because there were four other Babylon stations before it, all either destroyed or, in one case, vanished. The actual ancient city of Babylon didn't fare too well either...
* The first episode of ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'' features the Icarus Project. Let's just say there's been a little SNAFU.
** An earlier incidence was lampshaded on ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]'' when O'Neill complained about the proposed name for the first X-303, Prometheus saying "Its a Greek tragedy, who wants that?" That didn't stop them from choosing the name anyway, though, because "guy who stole fire from the Gods" was too appropriate to pass up when fighting god-wannabees (and using technology stolen from them); the creators lampshaded it further by naming the episode in which it was eventually destroyed after the eagle who tormented mythological Prometheus ("Ethon").
*** Of course, the main reason he didn't want it called Icarus was because he wanted to call it [[Shout-Out|the]] ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Enterprise]]''.
*** McKay also got shut down for that by Sheppard. They went with ''Orion'' instead. None of the other named ships appear to match their name origins. Although, that was mainly because the ship's original Ancient name, ''Hippofaralkus'', was universally considered to be kind of lame.
* In ''[[Noob (TV series)|Noob]]'', the titular MMORPG guild is hinted to have gotten its resident n00b ''after'' being named. Coincidence?
* In one episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'', Jerry joked that if you name your kid Jeeves, you are guaranteeing that he'll be a butler when he grows up.
 
== [[Music]] ==
* There's a musician who calls himself Mighty Casey. You've heard of him, right? [[Casey Atat the Bat (Literature)|...oh]].
 
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|Changeling: The Lost]]'' says that changelings avoid naming their freeholds after myths, legends or fairy tales for exactly this reason, because the Wyrd sometimes like to make sure the story repeats itself. Mention is made of "[[Noodle Incident|the grave fate that befell]] New [[wikipedia:Lyonesse|Lyonesse]]."
 
== [[Theater]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The [[Douglas Adams]] computer game ''[[Starship Titanic]]''.
* While the flying city of ''[[Bio Shock Infinite (Video Game)|Bio Shock Infinite]]'' is named Columbia, its government codename was..."Project Icarus". This being ''Bioshock'', things go badly there.
** Not to mention the original ''[[Bio Shock 1 (Video Game)|Bio Shock 1]]''. It may not be fitting to name a projected utopian city "Rapture"
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (Videovideo Gamegame)|Knights of the Old Republic II]]'', the ship the [[Player Character|Jedi Exile]] returned to the Republic on (and subsequently gets overrun by Sith assassins) is named the ''Harbinger''.
* In ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]'', humans are [[Too Dumb to Live|looking for fame and treasures in a legendary vault on a planet named]] [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Pandora]]. Never mind that even before hearing this name [[Crapsack World|most people wouldn't want to spend five minutes on it]].
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind]]'' there is an item found early in the game called Scroll of Icarian Flight. It gives you 1000 extra jump skill, which both allows you to jump very high and absorbs damage from long falls. The problem? This skill boost only lasts 7 seconds. You won't be able to reach the ground before the scroll wears off.
** To give you more of a hint...you get the scroll off the dead body of a mage, when he lands in front of you from out of nowhere.
* ''[[Fallout New Vegas (Video Game)|Fallout: New Vegas]]'' brings us Camp Forlorn Hope--a front-line NCR military outpost on the edge of being overrun by the Legion. About the only way the camp name could be even more conducive to the loss of battles and morale is if it was 'Camp Certain Death.'
** Actually, it's even worse. "Forlorn Hope" is a military term coming from the Dutch "Verloren Hoop", "lost heap", referring to the first wave sent into attack who are pretty much doomed to die. Basically, it's 'Camp [[We Have Reserves]]'.
** [[All in The Manual|In fact]] it apparently used to be called [[Tempting Fate|Camp Hope]]. It got the name after things went to hell.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'', during a conversation between an AI controlled, damaged semi-kamikaze ship and the central computer.
{{quote| '''The rogue:''' Any last words?<br />
'''Ship:''' Make sure you don't skimp on fire extinguishing foam when you build ''Predictably Damaged VI''. Oh and.. [Explodes]<br />
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'''Mega Man X''': Yeah!<br />
'''Sonic''': When they named him, were they trying to make a Maverick? }}
* In ''[[Nature of NaturesNature's Art|Solar System]]'', which takes place in the far future, one character is a dog named Strelka... [[Defied Trope|because you do not want to name a space dog "Laika"]]. She also shoots down another character's suggestion to name a new space shuttle "Challenger", reminding him what happened to the original ''Challenger''.
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Used as part of [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|Spoony's]] spoof of ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'', where the people of America [[President Evil|vote Dr. Insano into the White House]]. He even lampshades it himself by asking what the hell they expected, voting for a guy who calls himself "[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Insano]]".
* ''[[SF Debris]]'' has a running gag about the naming of ship's Icarus that highlights this trope.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' had an entire ''[[Titanic]]'' pastiche. It took place on a [[Space Sailing|space cruise-liner]] named "Titanic". The spaceship resembled the original Titanic with added sci-fi bits tacked on. Naturally enough, by the end of the episode, it's sucked into a black hole. They even christened the ship with the head jar of [[Leonardo Di CaprioDiCaprio]] and [[Titanic (Film)|he didn't warn them.]]
** Amusingly, nobody sees anything wrong with the name; after 1,000 years, it's not common knowledge. But when it comes to 20th Century born Fry's opinion, he's too much of a dumbass to know any better.
** Of course none other than Captain Zapp Brannigan is repeatedly [[Tempting Fate]].
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** There was also the ''Land Titanic'', the world's largest land vehicle. It sank on 7th Avenue after hitting a mailbox. This took place before the spaceship ''Titanic'', so surely the ones who made the spaceship should have still had suspicions about the name.
** Mixed with [[Gone Horribly Right]] there was "Project Satan", an attempt to create the most evil car in the world. What went wrong? Well, the car was ''[[Captain Obvious|pure evil]].''
* An episode of ''[[Duck Tales (Animation)|Duck TalesDuckTales]]'' went for the Double Dog-Dare with an airship named the ''Hindentanic''.
* In one episode of ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'', Peter jumps up shouting "Quick, to the ''Petercopter!'', and immediately crashes a helicopter with his face on the front lawn of his neighbor Joe. A few scenes later, the situation repeats itself with Peter shouting "Quick, to the ''Hindenpeter''!" and all we get to see is a zeppelin with Peter's face [[Scream Discretion Shot|passing by through the window]] with exactly the results you would expect.
{{quote| ''"Joe, I am '''sooo''' sorry!"''}}
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
* After the success of the movie ''[[Titanic (Film)|Titanic]]'', someone tried to build a replica of the famous ship to cater to all the movie fans who wanted to have a romantic ocean cruise on a ship like that. They couldn't find enough investors willing to tempt fate that boldly.
** Then there's the "original" ''Titanic''. [[Classical Mythology|What are the original Titans most famous for?]] For being roundly defeated and sealed into Tartarus once Zeus and company came along, and if they weren't imprisoned they got lousy fates like holding up the sky for all eternity, or being chained to a rock with an eagle snacking on 'em for all eternity... [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|or being married to Pandora]].
** The ''Titanic'' sort of is an example in another way. In 1898, a merchant seaman wrote a story called "The Wreck of the Titan", about a giant cruiseliner called the ''Titan'' which is meant to be unsinkable, whose passengers include lots of famous and rich people, and on one of whose voyages in its first year of service -- yes, across the Atlantic -- it hits an iceberg in the middle of the night in April and sinks. And no, there weren't enough lifeboats for the characters in his story either.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/883357"
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