Theme Naming: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Obelix:''' O chief Vitalstatistix, the Normans are landing! And they've got ever such funny names! They all end in "af"!<br />

'''Asterix:''' That's right! Their chief is called Timandahaf!<br />

'''Vitalstatistix:''' Ha, ha, ha! Did you hear that, [[Hypocritical Humor|Getafix, Cacofonix, Operatix, Acoustix, Polyfonix, Harmonix]]?|''[[Asterix]] and the Normans''}}

The [[Recurring Extra|Recurring Extras]]s, [[Those Two Guys]] and [[Creepy Twins]] sometimes have thematic names that link them. Theme naming is also common for characters with unusual names as a mnemonic in order to keep track of a huge cast; it's easier to keep track of which character is associated with which other characters if each group uses a theme.

* Terra of the Left, Vento of the Front, Acqua of the Back and Fiamma of the Right of ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'' are named after the elements as well as the different position you can take in regard to someone.

=== Water/The Sea ===

* The Venezuelan [[Soap Opera]] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20080704145422/http://www.telenovela-world.com/archives/show.php?N=llovizna1997 Llovizna]'' named most of its characters either with water-related names, or things related to the Guayana and Gran Sabana region (for example, the namesake protagonist has a name who means "light rain"; the [[Love Triangle|rivals on the protagonist love]] are named Orinoco and Caroni after the two main rivers of the region; one of them has the surname "Ferrer", who alludes to the iron and steel industry traditionally established there). Many of those characters have the surname "Fuego" ("fire"), which combined with the water-trend on first names gave birth to silly combinations as "Nieves Fuego", "Snow Fire". Another character has the sillier name "Soledad Barranco" ("Solitude Precipice"), which continues the theme naming (since the table mountains and their lonely deep precipices are common in the region) and also doubles as a [[Prophetic Name]] and a [[Meaningful Name]].

* The names of recent{{when}} companions in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' seem to be following this trend: Jackson Lake, Adelaide Brook, River Song, Amy Pond... It might be symbolic, or then again, it might just be a coincidence.

=== Clothes ===

* On ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]],'' the [[Rogues Gallery]] of [[Superhero]] The Crimson Chin are The Body of Evil, whose members are (naturally) all named for body parts: Bronze Kneecap, Golden Gut, Iron Lung, and Titanium Toenail, among others.

* The ''[[Battle Network]]'' series uses a computer theme for its main characters (Net/Site or Lan/Hub, Mail, and so on), but contains a nod to the musical theme of the earlier games in the third game -- thegame—the master of the Ura Internet and penultimate final boss, Serenade. The manga [[Lampshade Hanging|hung a lampshade]] on this, where in an [[Omake]] the author decides to make Blues a girlfriend named Rhythm. Rhythm and Blues!

** In X8, we have Alia,<ref>Aliasing, jaggies, anti-aliasing</ref>, Layer<ref>Background layers, rather important in sprite ripping.</ref> and Pallette,<ref>Palettes, duh.</ref>, all graphics related.<ref>[[And Knowing Is Half the Battle|And now you know]]</ref>.

* The Card Professors in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! R|Yu-Gi-Oh R]]'' are named after Intel project codenames (Mendo Cino from Mendocino<ref>the 300 MHz P6 Intel Pentium II Centrino chip</ref> and Kirk Dixon from Dixon,<ref>the 333 MHz 1.6V Intel Pentium II chip</ref>, for example), which explains why [[Aerith and Bob|some of them are much more "unique" than others]]. This overlaps somewhat with [[Location Theme Naming]], as many of those codenames were originally taken from the locations of various Intel plants (Tilla Mook is derived from Tillamook,<ref>the Embedded 266 MHz Intel Pentium MMX chip</ref>, Oregon, and Willa Mette is named after the Willamette<ref>Intel's 1.5 GHz P7 Pentium IV</ref> River from the same state).

=== Emotions ===

* [[Terry Pratchett]] --— naturally --— spoofs theme naming with the Carter family in ''[[Discworld]]''. The daughters are named after virtues: Hope, Chastity, Prudence, and Charity. After that they got confused and thought that the sons should be named after vices: Anger, Jealousy, Bestiality, Covetousness and Deviousness. This being ''Discworld,'' they all have personalities which are the exact opposite of their names. For example, Hope suffers from depression and a sense of the existential alienation and angst, Chastity is a uhh..."Seamstress" in Ankh-Morpork's seedier districts, while Anger is a calm and reasonable fellow and Bestiality is known for his kindness towards animals.

** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', The Beauty and the Beast unit takes this trope one step further, combining the animal names of FOXHOUND and the emotions of the Cobra Unit (for example, combining Vulcan Raven and The Fury to make Raging Raven).

* The [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Seven Dwarfs]], at least in [[Disney Animated Canon]].

=== Sun/Light/Fire ===

=== Games ===

* ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'' - In the Japanese version, we have Spade, Heart, and Ace; an Ace is the most valuable card in a suit, with Spades and Hearts being two of them in a standard deck of playing cards. Switching to the English version, a tarot deck uses twenty-two cards known as Major Arcana (Arcanus). The Minor Arcana, likewise, are divided into suits, two of which are swords (Blados) and cups (Chalis). Kraden explains this proper upon a certain [[Reveal]].

* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' card game has the [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Archfiend Archfiend archetype], in which the main monsters that are part of it are themed after chess pieces, each with a demonic-themed slant (Terrorking, Infernalqueen, Darkbishop, Desrook,<ref>Any card with the word 'Death' in the title of their original Japanese form was [[Bowdlerise|bowdlerisedbowdlerise]]d to 'Des' in the English translation</ref>, Shadowknight and Vilepawn).

=== Powers ===

=== Weather and Nature ===

* The Tendos in ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma ½]]'' are named after clouds, which also represent their personalities. "Tendo" (or "Tendou", depending on the romanization) can mean "Way to Heaven" or "Path of Heaven." "Akane" means "crimson," "Nabiki" means "to sway" (which her victims tend to do,) and "Kasumi" means "mist," referring to her wispy nature. "Soun" means "fast cloud."

* The four female protagonistsleads in ''[[SeitokaiStudent noCouncil's IchizonDiscretion]]'', Sakurano (Cherry-Blossom-Field) Kurimu = Spring. Shiina Minatsu (Deep-Summer) = Summer. Akaba (Red-Leaves) Chizuru = Autumn. Shiina Mafuyu (True Winter) = Winter.

== Other Examples ==

=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' loves these. The main character, Usagi Tsukino, is a pun on "Rabbit of the Moon" (the Japanese equivalent of the Man in the Moon). Rei Hino is "Spirit of Fire", Minako Aino can be read as a pun on "Everyone's Child of Love", Ami Mizuno is "Friend of Water", Makoto Kino is "Truth of Trees". The outer Senshi have Haruka Tenou ("Distant Air King") and Michiru Kaiou ("Rising Sea King"). Then there's Chiba Mamoru ("Protection of Earth" -- he—he's Tuxedo Mask, the guy that's constantly saving Sailor Moon). Just to add a special flair, their names usually contain a kanji for or associated with their planet.

** Also, Ten'ou, Kaiou, and Meiou, the civilian names of Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Pluto, come from the Japanese names of the planets the represent. "Meiou" also means "Dark King" and "Setsuna" (Pluto's given civilian name) means "moment", but could also be a derivative of "setsunai", meaning "painful". (Which no doubt influenced the selection of her dub name, Trista -- whichTrista—which means "sad".) Sailor Saturn/Hotaru Tomoe has her own thing going on: "Hotaru" is Japanese for "firefly" (fireflies are associated with the spirits of the dead in Japanese mythology), and "Tomoe" means "sprouting earth". The first kanji for "Tomoe" is also the first kanji of Saturn's Japanese name, Dosei. Plus, just about all of the villains are either named after stones and minerals or have their own deal.

* The few members of the Joketsuzoku (or "Amazons") in ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma ½]]'' who are named are named after cosmetics, spices, or Indian food: for example, the central trio Cologne, Shampoo, and Mousse.

* ''[[Gundam]]'' is all over the place with various groups of characters and mecha given different themes, but an often forgotten one is that most of the White Base crew from [[Mobile Suit Gundam|the original series]] are named for WWII fighter planes -- Amuroplanes—Amuro Ray for the infamous "Zero", Kai Shiden for the Shiden Kai, etc.

=== [[ComicsComic Books]] ===

* 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.

* In ''[[Ice Cream Baby]]'', all the characters namenames camecome from food and drinks name.

=== Film ===

=== [[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 has beenwas toned down in recentlater books, possibly due to dwarfs becoming a more serious immigration metaphor for various minority groups.

** 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 ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]'' are all named after fonts.

** Most of the women are named after flowers: Lily, Petunia, Fleur, Narcissa.., and so on.

* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth world makes much use of Theme Naming and its various subtropes, ranging from family members being given related names, to naming conventions of dynasties of the general public.

* In [[David Drake]]'s [[RCN Series]] series, the so-called Alliance of Free Stars is not especially German in its ethnicity -- butethnicity—but '''many''' major Alliance warships have German names: the cruiser/minelayer ''Bremse'', battleships ''Der Grosser Karl'',<ref>and every ship in its squadron had a name that at least '''could''' be German</ref>, ''Siegfried'', and ''Direktor Friedrich'', cruisers ''Bluecher'' and ''Scheer''.... Also, Alliance destroyers mostly have alphanumeric designators which usually begin with "Z." It may be coincidence that the German word for "destroyer" is "Zerstoerer". One notable exception is a battleship named ''Pleasaunce'' after the Alliance capital world.

=== [[Live -Action TV]] ===

** There are also several characters named after philosophers -- Johnphilosophers—John Locke, (Desmond) David Hume, Mikhail Bakunin, Danielle Rousseau, etc..

* ''[[Due South]]'' adored themed names. There was usually some sort of pun or reference involved (e.g. in one episode, a hockey player's manager shared a name with a well-known Canadian hockey commentator), but they were not often [[Meaningful Name|Meaningful Names]] -- onces—once you ''got'' the reference or pun, there was generally no further significance to the name.

=== [[Religion]] and [[Mythology]] ===

=== [[Video GamesToys]] ===

* In ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]'', the names of the three spirits Iwazaru, Mizaru, and Kikazaru in Japanese refer to the 'speak no evil', 'see no evil', and 'hear no evil' monkeys, respectively.

* From ''[[Cave Story]]'', the robot [[True Companions]] of Quote and Curly Brace are sort of named for punctuation -- thepunctuation—the names are spoonerized from curly quote and brace (the â€� and } symbols, respectively). According to the end credits, the four Mimigas that Curly adopted went by the last name Colon.

* Fawful's minions in ''[[Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story|Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'' have some part of their original name replaced with part of Fawful's (Grasshopper- Fawflopper, Crocodile- Crawful, Monty Mole- Mawful Mole, Chain Chomp- Chain Chawful, etc)

* ''[[EveEVE Online]]'' has each Empire's ships follow theme naming for easy distinction. The Ammar use religious terms with an inquisitorial bent (Apocalypse, Omen, Punisher), the Gallente use Latin/Greek names (Hyperion, Incursus, Thorax), Caldari are generally birds, but with some mythological or land-based animals thrown in (Rokh, Merlin, Caracal), and the Minmatar have names based on violence, storms, and animals (Maelstrom, Stabber, Jaguar).

* The ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' series uses several different variations. Of the examples that don't fall into any subtropes, [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|Xenon]] ships have a single-letter designation (e.g. J, K, M). [[Terraform|Terraformer]]er ships use a hexadecimal string (#deca, #fade, #cefa).

* Warships in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' have a lot of running themes: the protagonists tend to give their ships comedic names [[Private Military Contractors|appropriate to their profession]], such as the Post-Dated Check Loan or the Serial Peacemaker. The [[The Federation|UNS]] names their battleplates after major asteroid impact events. The Tausenigann Ob'enn have long, pretentious names of the form "Weapon of Adjective Noun." for attack ships and other "(Object) of Adjective Noun" for the rest. And the Fleetmind's ships [[Theme Initials|all have the initials P.D.]]

=== [[Web Original]] ===

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

=== [[Real Life]] ===

* The Mars Rovers are developing a pattern (though this troper lacks for a good name for the pattern) - Pathfinder (lander)/Sojourner (rover); Spirit (R.I.Pactive until 2010) and Opportunity (stillactive until kicking2018), Curiosity (rover).