Theme Naming: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Obelix:''' O chief Vitalstatistix, the Normans are landing! And they've got ever such funny names! They all end in "af"!
'''Asterix:''' That's right! Their chief is called Timandahaf!
'''Vitalstatistix:''' Ha, ha, ha! Did you hear that, [[Hypocritical Humor|Getafix, Cacofonix, Operatix, Acoustix, Polyfonix, Harmonix]]?
|''[[Asterix]] and the Normans''}}
Authors like to use themes to create a sense of unity or cohesiveness within their work. Some extend themes to the names of the characters, often beyond the similarities that would be expected for characters from the same culture or who all speak the same language. When the author does this, you have Theme Naming, for instance, all the female characters will have names of flowers or plants; all the names start with the same letter or syllable, groups of characters are named after groups of gods, demigods, or mythical heroes. As the list of subtropes demonstrates, there are a ''lot'' of possible themes (and that's not all of them, either)
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See also [[Meaningful Name]], [[Prophetic Names]], [[Who's on First?]], [[Steven Ulysses Perhero]], [[Names Given to Computers]], and [[This Is My Name on Foreign]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Examples by Soft-Split Subcategory ==
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** The Latin American dub decided to maintain the game, and translated the heroines' names: Hikaru became "Lucy" (derived from Latin ''Lux'' meaning "light"), Umi was renamed Marina (feminine form of Latin ''Marinus'' meaning "of the sea"), and Fuu became Anais (supposedly alluding to her "air" element after a famous perfume, but also seems to point more [[wikipedia:Anais|to her gracefulness]]).
** The Filipino dub did this one better by going with Luce, Marina, and the more-appropriate Anemone (Greek for "daughter of the wind").
* Terra of the Left, Vento of the Front, Acqua of the Back and Fiamma of the Right of ''[[
* Similarly, many characters in ''[[Flame of Recca]]'' have names that reference the elemental powers they possess (Recca = "wild fire", Fuuko = "wind child", and so on).
* The Shiba siblings in ''[[Bleach]]'' follow a pattern: Kaien means "sea swallow", Ganju means "rock eagle", and Kuukaku means "sky crane".
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*** Wellington seems indicated, as it's pointed out that Generals either get items of clothing or culinary dishes named after them. Beef Wellington anyone?
* ''[[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt|Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt]]'': all the major characters are named after undergarments. There are also Chuck, Brief, [[Big Bad]] Corset and the demon sisters Scanty and Kneesocks, Panty uses a gun named Backlace... you get the point.
=== Body Parts ===
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* Autobot Headmasters in ''[[Transformers Headmasters]]'' have head- or brain-related names: Chromedome, Hardhead, Highbrow, Brainstorm, and Cerebros.
* [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|The Seven Primevals]] of ''[[GaoGaiGar]]'' were named after the body-parts related to their powers (Nails, Liver, Intestine, etc.)
* In the ''[[Greyhawk]]'' setting of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', the clergy of Vecna (evil God of Secrets and Lichdom) have a macabre way of naming the hierarchy of the faithful. Right under Vecna himself is the Voice of Vecna, a name given to his avatar, and right under this is the Heart of Vecna, the high priest of the entire cult. Immediately under this leader is the Hand and Eye, two bizarre monsters with an oversized Hand and Eye in place of heads, respectively. Individual congregations are called Organs of Vecna, each led by a priest called a Thought of Vecna. Lesser priests are Memories of Vecna. Under them are Teeth of Vecna (wizards who function as scribes, alchemists, and crafters of magic), Fingers of Vecna (spies and assassins), and Blood of Vecna (martial warriors and thugs). Civilian worshippers are called Spawn of Vecna. While this all might seem... unpleasant, so is pretty much everything associated with Vecna, a deity worshipped by one of the most vile [[Religion of Evil|Religions of Evil]] on Oerth.
=== Science and Technology ===
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* Almost everyone in ''[[Nabari no Ou]]'' has a name relating to weather. Raikou and Raimei mean "lightning" and "thunder", Gau means "rain shower", Yoite means "evening breeze", Kumohira means "calm cloud", and Fuuma means "wind demon". Yukimi, Kouichi, and Miharu have the characters for "snow", "rainbow", and "clear weather", respectively.
* The Taiwanese girl group 4 in Love have the stage names Rainie, Windie, Sunnie and Cloudie.
* The four female
** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: {{spoiler|That's when Ken first met them and they helped him get over his [[Heroic BSOD]]}}.
* Mangaka Hiro Mashima has a habit for naming his protagonists after seasons. Aki (winter) from ''[[Monster Soul]]'', Haru (spring) ''[[Rave Master]]'', Natsu (summer) from ''[[Fairy Tail]]''
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* The [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] in ''[[Fresh Pretty Cure]]'' had its members named after three of the four cardinal directions: Eas (''east''), Wester (''west''), and Souler (''south''). This is also reflected in their civillain names: respectively, Setsuna ''Higashi'', Hayato ''Nishi'' and Shun ''Minami''. However, it is still unknown when will a member named after the remaining cardinal direction (by now called [[Fan Nickname|"Norther"]] by the fans) appear.
** Also, given that {{spoiler|Setsuna/Eas will become the [[Heel Face Turn|missing fourth member to the Pretty Cure team]], [[Sixth Ranger|Cure Passion]]}}, Toei might think of a new "east" member soon enough.
* In ''[[Pokémon]]'', paired members of Team Rocket always have names with an Old West theme. Jesse and James are the most visible members, but there's also Butch and Cassidy, Annie* and Oakley. Jimmy's foes Attila and Hun seem to break the cycle, possibly because Jimmy himself is a [[Hero of Another Story]].
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', about half the ninja from the Cloud Village are named after [[Gratuitous English|English language]] [[One-Letter Name|letters]]: A/Ei (the Raikage's real name), Killer '''B'''ee, C/Shi/Shee, and J/Jei/Jay.
* Hazel, Almond, Coconut, etc. from ''[[Magical Pokémon Journey]]''
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** Many Gundams also follow certain themes, varying from series to series. One example are the Gundams in the Anno Domini timeline (00): Exia, Dynames and Kyrios are all derived from Greek words. Virtues, Cherudim, Seraphim and the Thrones are angels, the Thrones being the angels closest to God himself (ironically enough, piloted by the Trinity Siblings, all created artificially by Ribbons Almarks, who thinks he's God). Likewise, the GN-X is referred to as the "Jinx", a hint at their capabilities against Celestial Being (not bad, that is).
* All the [[Mirai Nikki|Future Diary owners']] names correspond to a member of the Roman pantheon.
* The Nakajima sisters in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS]]'' have Astronomical Theme Naming: Ginga and Subaru mean Galaxy and Pleiades, respectively.
=== [[
* In the earlier issues of ''Marvel Adventures: Avengers,'' there was something of a [[Literary Allusion Title|naming theme]] going on in some of the issues. "[[Finding Nemo|Finding]] [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Zemo]]", "[[A Beautiful Mind|A Not-So-Beautiful Mind]]", "[[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Attack of the Fifty Foot Girl]]"(complete with an obvious [[Homage]] on the cover to the poster), "[[Magnificent Seven|The Avenging Seven]]", "[[James Bond|From Russia With HATE]]", and probably a few more.
* The four heroes of ''[[Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters]]'' are named [[Jackie Chan|Jackie]], [[Clint Eastwood|Clint]], [[Bruce Willis|Bruce]], and [[Chuck Norris|Chuck]], all after action stars of the time.
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* In ''[[Justice League]]'' comics, [[Galactic Conqueror]] Manga Khan's series of robotic servants (L-Ron, Hein-9, and K-Dikk) are all named after science fiction writers ([[L. Ron Hubbard]], [[Robert Heinlein]], and [[Philip K. Dick]], respectively). The [[Odd Name Out]] is the most recent model, J-Lo, who is named after [[Jennifer Lopez]].
* Julius and Augustus Furst, the patriarchs of the First Family in ''[[Astro City]]'', are both named after Roman emperors who had months named after them.
* In ''[[Ice Cream Baby]]'', all the characters
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=== [[Literature]] ===
* Dwarfish names in ''[[Discworld]]'' were loosely based on a mixture of Tolkien and Norse mythology, then turned up to eleven (Glod Glodsson, Snori Snoriscousin, Grabpot Thundergust, etc.) This
** Some dwarfs are also named after emotions, as a ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' reference (Cheery Littlebottom). And the ones who invented the printing press in ''[[
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', most (though not all) members of the Black family are named after stars or constellations, with some more distant relatives, like Draco Malfoy and his son Scorpius, also following the tradition.
** Most of the women are named after flowers: Lily, Petunia, Fleur, Narcissa
* In Nina Kiriki Hoffman's book ''[[A Fistful of Sky]]'', the five kids in the [[La Zelle]] family are all named after minerals or precious stones. The girls are named Opal, Gypsum, and Beryl, while the boys are named Jasper and Flint. It is implied that this is a family tradition, as they have cousins named Amethyst and Chalcedony. It is also implied that each generation of the family has a different theme for names, as the mother Anise and the mother's sister Hazel are named for plants.
* [[J. R. R.
* Likewise in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', uses employs Theme Naming to differentiate the ethnic, cultural and familiar differences between its [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]
* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''. A lot of the werewolves have [[The Bible|biblical]] names: Jacob, Leah, Seth, Samuel, Paul...
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=== [[Live
* ''[[Lost]]'' has a bunch of names derived from Jacob like Jack, James and of course Jacob himself. Also Benjamin was the son of the Biblical Jacob.
** There are also several characters named after philosophers—John Locke, (Desmond) David Hume, Mikhail Bakunin, Danielle Rousseau, etc..
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* In ''[[The Bible]]'' and other religious texts, most of the big player angels have names that end in "el". Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, etc. Similarly, one of the names of [[God]] is Elohim. This is because "El" means "God" in Hebrew.
=== [[Toys]] ===
* Milton Bradley's old magnet powered ''Magic Mary'' paper doll would be expanded with other girls who had their names begin with "Mary", including "Mary-Ann", "Mary-Jane", and "Mary-Lou". Doubles as a [[Planet of Steves]].
=== [[Video Games]] ===
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* The ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' series uses several different variations. Of the examples that don't fall into any subtropes, [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|Xenon]] ships have a single-letter designation (e.g. J, K, M). [[Terraform]]er ships use a hexadecimal string (#deca, #fade, #cefa).
* ''[[Vega Strike]]'' ship classes have theme naming per faction: Andolian - scientists, High-Born - characters from [[Arthurian Legend]], Mechanists - "Mk. N", Unadorned - mostly mathematical terms, Purists - mostly certain set of philosophical ideas, Merchants - beasts of burden, LIHW - miscellaneous animals of Earth, Forsaken - mostly scavengers, Shapers - terms related to ancestry... or birds, Shmrn - related to angst, Uln - feudal status terms, Aera - (translated to) Greek names and Rlaan - mostly Chinese emperors (mainly Tang Dynasty at that).
* In ''[[Guilty Gear]]'', all of the female Jellyfish Pirates (meaning all of them except [[The Mentor|Johnny]]) are named after months of the year: Janis, Febby, March, [[The Hero|May]], April, June, July, Augus, Sephy, Octy, Novel, and Dizzy. Another member, Leap, is not named after a specific month, her name referring to a leap year.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
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=== [[Real Life]] ===
* The Mars Rovers are developing a pattern
*In [[World War II]] the US Navy had a very precise system. Carriers got named after heroic historical references: [[The American Revolution|Lexington, Saratoga]], Enterprise (which was one of the first ships), or generically awe-inspiring names which has resemblance to the fearsome names of British capital ships. The more perplexing carrier names tend to be named after previous ships.
**Battleships tended to be named after States
**Cruisers after Cities
**Destroyers after often fairly obscure naval heroes. USS Norman Scot for instance was named after a dead admiral at Guadalcanal, USS Decatur was named after a hero of the [[War of 1812]], and one was named after the first sailor to climb aboard aboard in the cutting out action that kept the Philidelphia out of Barbary Pirate hands.
**Submarines were named after marine species notably the more ferocious (Shark, Barracuda).
**Hospital ships got "compassionate" names (Relief, Solace).
**PT boats got numbers (109). If they had names they were picked by the crew.
* In the ''RMS Titanic'' era, Cunard was prone to use names ending in -ia (such as ''Carpathia'') while White Star favoured names ending in -ic (''Olympic'', ''Titanic'', ''Britannic'').
** The modern Cunard liners follow a different convention, each being named for a British queen.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
▲[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Theme Naming Tropes]]
[[Category:
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