Special Person, Normal Name: Difference between revisions
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In real life, most people have very common and completely ordinary names. But not so in fiction. If a character is to have any relevance to the plot, he has to have a name that sounds either cool and tough, or ominous and evil. But sometimes they don't. Everyone else does, but not these characters. Their names are just so ordinary and common that it really sticks out.
This trope is the middle ground between [[Awesome McCoolname]] and [[Unfortunate Names]]. Compare with [[Aerith and Bob]], when characters with completely made up names appear side by side with others that have completely mundane names. Might overlap with [[Mr. Smith]]. See also [[Fluffy the Terrible]], [[Tom the Dark Lord]], [[Sesquipedalian Smith]], [[Some Call Me... Tim]], and [[Odd Name Out]].
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Elfen Lied]]'', the massive, floating head, [[Body Horror]] oracle that is kept in the pool under the research facility is just called "Anna". But to be fair, she was born as a mostly normal girl.
* The [[Big Bad]] undead evil sorceress in ''[[Record of Lodoss War]]'' is just named "Karla", being about the only character in the entire world [[Aerith and Bob|with an actual real world name]].
* The high priestess of the temple in ''[[Rune Soldier]]'' is named Jenny. Just "Chief Priestess Jenny".
* As ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' mages tend to have extravagant names, several fans understandably did a double-take when [[The Rival|the main rival]] and [[Les Yay|possible love interest]] in ''[[Spin Offspring|ViVid]]'', who also happened to be the female [[Techno Babble|sort-of]] [[Reincarnation]] of a [[Warrior Prince|legendary king and hero]], was revealed to have the name of... "Heidi". Cue short-lived [[Heidi
** Subverted, as everyone in-series calls her for her second name, Einhart.
* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' starts with a pilot named Jiro Yamada, the Japanese equivalent of John Smith. He's so upset his name isn't awesome he insists everyone call him Gai Daigoji.
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== [[Film]] ==
* [[Some Call Me... Tim|Tim the Enchanter]] in ''[[Monty Python and
* [[Kill Bill|Bill]].
* [[The Matrix|Smith, Brown and Jones.]].
* Inverted in ''[[Down Periscope]]''. The name of the electrician is Nitro, but he's working on a nickname: Mike.
* Played with in [https://web.archive.org/web/20200107153827/http://www.desent-audio.com/images/MIB%20vhs.jpg the poster] for ''[[Men in Black]]'' (as the characters go by [[One
* ''[[Mr. and Mrs. Smith]]''.
== [[Live Action Television]] ==
* The all-knowing prophet "Chuck" In ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''.
== [[Literature]] ==
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* Subverted in ''The Curse Of [[Monkey Island]]''. Guybrush asks one pirate his name, to which he is told "Bill". When Guybrush comments that this doesn't sound very piratey, Bill interjects with, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|"Cutthroat Bill"]].
* [http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Ed_the_Undying Ed the Undying] an ancient mummy in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]''. Lampshaded in the encounter: "Ed? Not Ed-Ra, or Ed-hotep, or something?"
* In ''[[
* While Solid Snake from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' certainly has a cool-sounding code name; his real name is just "David".
** Big Boss' and Ocelot's real names are also rather plain (John and Adam).
*** Actually, Ocelot's real name is "Adamska". He says it at the end of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]''. In fact, he asks Naked Snake what his name is and then gives his own. When Naked Snake answers simply, "John," Ocelot replies, "Plain name, but I won't forget it."
* ''[[
* Inverted in ''[[Thief]]'' with Viktoria, who has a suprisingly fancy and aristocratic name for {{spoiler|a wood nymph}}.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The immortal "[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-06-25 Jerry]" from ''[[
* Biff in ''Absurd Notions'' names every one of his [[Role
* [[Looking for Group|Richard.]]
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', episode "The Chronicles of Meap":
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* Billy from ''[[
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