Tomboyish Name/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A girl has a boy's name. Such a character is usually a tomboy, although she does not necessarily have to be.

  • Straight: Samantha is a Tomboy and wants everyone to call her Sam.
  • Exaggerated: Sam is the manliest woman alive.
  • Downplayed: Sam has a boy's name, but is not actually much of a tomboy.
  • Justified:
    • Sam just likes her name that way.
    • Sam's parents wanted a boy.
  • Inverted: Samuel is called Sammi.
  • Subverted: Sam is very tomboyish, but insists people call her Samantha.
  • Double Subverted: ...however, later on she decides to go by Sam.
  • Parodied: The girl is called "Johnathan James Ironfist".
  • Zig Zagged: Sam is sometimes called Samantha, and sometimes Sam.
  • Averted: Samantha goes by Samantha.
  • Enforced: "We need to keep the computer's gender ambiguous until the Reveal. Let's give her a name that's slowly becoming unisex."
  • Lampshaded: "Oh, for...this is the fifth time this week someone's mistaken me for a guy!"
  • Invoked: A newborn girl's parents give her a boyish name because they hope their daughter will be a Tomboy.
  • Exploited: Sam uses her Gender Blender Name to successfully pull off Samus Is a Girl.
  • Defied: Samantha doesn't want to be a tomboy, and forces everyone to call her Samantha.
  • Discussed: "Honestly Sam, if you went by Samantha you'd probably confuse less people."
  • Conversed: "Why do tomboys in these shows always have male-sounding names?"

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