Tomboyish Name: Difference between revisions

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== General ==

* '''Sam'''

** There are girls named Sam on ''[[Whos the Boss]]?'', ''[[Bewitched]]'', ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', ''[[Without a Trace]]'', ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', ''[[Doonesbury]]'', ''[[Reunion]]'', ''[[Totally Spies]]'', ''[[My Sister Sam]]'', ''[[Dreamfall]]'' and ''[[Red Faction]]'' (yes, even in video games). Usually shortened from Samantha, in which case it can be taken as an indication that the character ''wants'' to have a [[Tomboyish Name]].

** Sam Carter from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' also got a [[Samus Is a Girl]] moment in her first appearance. When an alien asks what the name means, she replies "My dad wanted a boy."

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** One also shows up in ''[[American Gods]]''. Shadow asks her if she's a boy Sam or a girl Sam, because they were in the dark when she introduced herself and her voice was deep enough that he thought she could have been a preadolescent boy.

** The English dub of ''[[Medabots]]'' had Samantha as the [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses|tough-as-nails]] leader of the Screws Gang.

** Sam from [[Danny Phantom]]. God help you if you dare to use her full name, Samantha.

** Samanya from [[Red Faction]]: Guerilla is normally called Sam for short.

** In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Sam is Charlie's love interest/Odd Friendship.

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** ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]''. Alex is a girl.

** ''[[Law and Order SVU]]'' had Alex Cabot and ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' had Alex Eames. Granted, though, they were named after series creator Dick Wolf's niece or grandchild or something who had the name Alex(andra).

** ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' had DA Alex Cahill.

** Alexandra Margarita Russo in [[Wizards of Waverly Place]].

** ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' had a lesbian character named Alex.

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** Semi-plot point in ''[[Building 12]]''.

* Alex Forrest from ''[[Fatal Attraction (film)|Fatal Attraction]]''; feminist criticism points out that the film has her punished for infiltrating environments traditionally reserved for men, with her name itself being an example.

* ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' has DI Alex Drake. Gene Hunt had been expecting a male DI when he first saw her paperwork.

* Wen Spencer's fantasy novel ''Tinker'' centers around a girl named Alexander Graham Bell. She prefers to go by her (also tomboyish) nickname, Tinker.

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

* One of the oldest examples is Ryuunosuke Fujinami from ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'', Also one of the original [[Bifauxnen]] and a [[Wholesome Crossdresser]] to boot. As a rule, ''-suke'' is masculine, it's almost like ''-son'' (Jacobson, etc) in English. This is due to the fact her father is one of the most extreme examples of 'wanted a boy' in fiction - he forces her to act, talk, dress and pretend to be a boy when she wants to be feminine but can't manage it because of her upbrining.

* There's a very boyish-looking girl named Edward on ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'', a very odd person who chose her own name (in full: Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV).

** According to her father, her real name is Françoise, which is nearly an androgynous name--it's exclusively female, but easily confused with its male counterpart François unless you know how French pronunciation works.

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*** Actually it isn't reserved for males, "-kun" is used for girls as well to show a degree of familiarity between the formal "-san" and the more familiar "-chan"

* Ukyo, from [[Ranma ½]], is often mistaken for a boy when people first meet her. Her name doesn't help since it's male (although very old, so people might not know)

* Ayumu from ''[[Life (manga)|Life]]'' has a male name, which she hates for that reason and thinks doesn't fit her. She has short hair for most of the manga and can easily pass as a boy a lot of the time, but she's actually very feminine.

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', while "Yellow" (Japanese pronunciation, ''ierou'') is by no means a real name in any language, it sounds very masculine to Japanese ears, as "''ie''" and "''rou''" are both common suffixes to male names. Fittingly, Yellow goes around [[Samus Is a Girl|masquerading]] [[Bifauxnen|as a boy]] for the first two arcs she appears in.

* [[King Incognito|Seth]] of ''[[Trinity Blood]]''. "Did your parents want a boy?" "I have two older brothers, you'd think they'd had enough."

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{{quote|'''Cyclops:''' Excuse me, I'm looking for Captain Lee Forrester. I heard he was hiring crew.

'''Woman:''' My name is Lee Forrester -- Aletys to my relatives -- and you heard right. }}

* In the 1980s [[Captain America]] fell in love with and for a time was engaged to Bernie (short for Bernadette) Rosenthal.

* In the 1980s [[Captain America (comics)]] fell in love with and for a time was engaged to Bernie (short for Bernadette) Rosenthal.

* Parodied in ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'' with Tommi Ryder, a 'supermodel-turned-lawyer with a dangerous secret' protests that the 'i' makes her name feminine. Amusingly, her (male) love interest's name is Jody.

** Said Jody also makes fun of said statement.

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* In the ''Airhead'' series by Meg Cabot, the main character is geeky high-schooler Emerson Watts. She goes by the name of Em, mostly anyway.

* George from ''[[Enid Blyton|The Famous Five]]'' (shortened from Georgina, in the first book she uses it as part of a [[Something They Would Never Say]] ploy)

* George from the [[Nancy Drew]] books, who is proud of her unusual name but is not a [[Tomboy]].

** Maybe not anymore (since the series has been updated several times), but she certaily used to be. Many fans would go so far as to say she was a lesbian.

* The character Jo in the book ''[[Little Women]]'', who was also a [[Tomboy]], and who makes this [[Older Than Radio]].

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* Gabriel Landry in ''All That Glitters'' by [[V. C. Andrews]]. This appears to be a rather odd [[Retcon]], since the other books in the series name her as "Gabrielle."

* Jack Starbright, housekeeper to ''[[Alex Rider]]'' (and the closest thing he has to family after his uncle dies). The first book mentions that Alex wonders what it's short for, but he never asks.

* Never commented on, but Beldaran in the prequels of the [[Belgariad]]. To explain it comes in two parts. The male disciples of the god Aldur get the prefix 'Bel' meaning beloved attached to their names while females disciples get the femenine form 'Pol.' Secondly the name without the prefix 'Daran' is used by her son and several of her descendants as a perfectly serviceable masculine name.

* Tom Gay (real name Lucinda Muriel) in the [[Chalet School]] books. And Joey Bettany, of course.

* The ''Malory Towers'' has both the series' heroine, Darrell Rivers, and late arrival Bill (short for Wilhelmina) Robinson, a very horsey tomboy who has six brothers and who quicky becomes best friends with the [[Tomboy and Girly Girl|somewhat girly girl]] the Hon. Clarissa Carter.

* Inverted in Enid Blyton's [[The Faraway Tree]] trilogy, the main characters are two sisters and their older brother called Jo - traditionally a girl's spelling. In later editions, it has been altered to Joe.

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* ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'' had a female vicar called Geri (short for Geraldine), leading to confusion with traditionalist parishioners expecting a male vicar.

* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' has Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Jr., who practically embodies the "my dad wanted a son" excuse.

* [[South of Nowhere]] has a Spencer.

* ''[[Skins]]'' has Franky, short for Francesca.

* The live-action segments of Disney's "One Saturday Morning" block originally starred a girl named Charlie.

* Charlie Benford in ''[[Flash Forward 2009]]'' (we haven't been told whether that's short for something more traditionally feminine)

* Somewhat related: in [[Mad About You]], the characters Paul (male) and Jamie (female) are often referred to as "Paulie" and "James".

* ''Picket Fences'' had officer Maxine "Max" Stewart (Lauren Holly).

* [[Aaron Sorkin]]'s shows usually have one of these among the main characters: Dana (''[[Sports Night]]''), C.J. (''[[The West Wing]]''), Jordan (''[[Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip]]'').

* In ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'', Charlie and Teddy are used as names for girls. It's even lampshaded in one episode.

* Flashman's Pink Flash is named Lou!

* ''[[Married... with Children]]'': Gary, the owner of the shoe store where Al Bundy works, is a woman. Al spent his first twenty years of work at the shop believing she was a man. (He never met her until being told she'd come to inspect the shop. In fact, he once considered the possibility of Gary not even existing.)

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* Sydney Bristow, the main character of ''[[Alias]]''. Her friends even call her "Syd".

* In the BBC series ''[[Sherlock]]'', John Watson's sister is called Harry. Having learned her name and the fact that she used to be married to a woman, Sherlock makes an almost accurate series of deductions regarding John's "brother".

* In [[Full House]], there is DJ, who is the oldest daughter but the abbreviated initials are at best gender-neutral, if not leaning towards being boyish-sounding. It stands for Donna-Jo (not Joanna, not Josephine, just Jo).

* Dylan from ''[[The Secret Life of the American Teenager]]''

* In an inversion, [[The Mentalist]], Patrick Jane, is generally referred to as Jane.

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== [[Theatre]] ==

* In the musical ''[[Once Upon a Mattress]]'', Winnifred tells the Prince he can call her by her nickname. He guesses, "Winnie?" She corrects him, and a minute later, he's summoned everybody to hear his "Song of Love": "I'm in love with a girl named Fred!"

* The title character of the George M. Cohan musical ''Billie''. She and her show would be completely forgotten if ''[[wikipedia:George M!|George M!]]'' hadn't reused the title song, in which she divulges that [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?|her parents had wanted a boy]].

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* The [[Bifauxnen]] bouncer/bartender from ''[[Art of Fighting]]'' and ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' goes by the name of "King" (no last name).

* Ken Marinaris in ''[[Zone of the Enders]]: The 2nd Runner'' but her large breasts make it clear that she is very much a woman.

* Atlas, the controller of Model F from ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'', is actually a girl.

** Also inverted in the same game; Thetis, who shares a name with Achilles' mother in Greek lore, is a male who controls Model L, the only female biometal.

* The first ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' game has three mechanics who can upgrade Clank. Their names are Al, Bob, and Ed. Guess which one's the girl? {{spoiler|It's Ed, short for Edwina, as she is called in the credits}}

* After acquiring all eight badges in ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'' or ''Emerald'', a player can find an older women named Jay on the second floor of Meteor Falls.

** [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in the Viridian Gym in the ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'' versions, with male trainers named Arabella and Bonita.

** The female protagonist of ''Crystal'' is called "Kris", which sounds like "Chris". It's never specified in the games if this is short for anything, though a [[Pokémon Special|few]] [[Pokémon Golden Boys|adaptations]] put it as short for "Crystal".

* ''[[Suikoden IV]]'' has Wendel, who gets mistaken for a guy by Nico, your ship's lookout. This is notable mainly because Nico's vision and perception are praised almost every time the subject comes up -- in fact, Wendel has been trying to become Nico's apprentice ''because'' of his fantastic eyesight.

* Ridley Silverlake from ''[[Radiata Stories]]''. When Jack runs into her in his Radiata Knights trial at the beginning of the game, he's dismayed to learn that she's a girl.

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** "Lee" and any names that end in "-lee" or a variation thereof were at one point exclusively male.

** When Howard Hawks hired Leigh Brackett to co-write the screenplay for ''[[The Big Sleep (film)|The Big Sleep]]'' (with [[William Faulkner]]), he was surprised at their first meeting to find the writer he hired was a woman.

* There's a well known human rights lawyer in Britain called Gareth Peirce, although she changed her name legally. "Gareth" was originally her middle name.

* Born a Stephanie, [[Fleetwood Mac|Stevie Nicks]] has gone by Stevie for most of her life. She had difficulty pronouncing her name when she was young, and the nickname stuck.

* An inversion occurs in the nickname of a West German striker who played in the 1966 [[The World Cup|World Cup]] final, Lothar "Emma" Emmerich.

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* [http://www.caymanilika.net/ Cayman Ilika].

* Justifiablely averted in Germany where parents are banned from assigning names that doesn't clearly designate their child's gender.

** Can still happen with middle names. Just ask actor [[Klaus Maria Brandauer]] or comedian Markus Maria Profitlich.

* ESPN Sportscenter anchor Chris [[Mc Kendry]] is a woman as is MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing.

** Chris Evert counts too