Tomboyish Name: Difference between revisions

This can become [[An Aesop]] if said Charlie Somebody is in a traditionally male-oriented profession; for instance, the ''[[Step By Step]]'' episode where J.T. immediately dismisses female mechanics, before handing his car over to "Sam", who is apparently the best mechanic in town. The [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?|message]] can quickly get [[Anvilicious]] if done more than once in a series. Though you can hardly blame someone if the name means "male"/"man" or include "son" (see: Andrew, Charles. Benjamin).

** There are girls named Sam on ''[[Whos the Boss]]?'', ''[[Bewitched (TV)|Bewitched]]'', ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', ''[[Without a Trace (TV)|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."

** ''[[Without a Trace (TV)|Without a Trace]]'''s Samantha doesn't like being called "Sam" (or at least didn't at first), in no small part because her last name is [[The Maltese Falcon|Spade]].

** Fresh Sam(antha) sighting: ''[[Monster Buster Club (Animation)|Monster Buster Club]]''. (And it's [partially, at least] from the same company as ''[[Totally Spies]]'', too.)

** Sam of ''[[I Carly]]''

** One also shows up in ''[[American Gods (Literature)|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.

** ''[[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.

** Alex D from ''[[Deus Ex Invisible War (Video Game)|Deus Ex Invisible War]]''. The name is purposefully ambiguous so that the player can choose to play a male or female character without needing voice actors to re-record their lines with a different player name.

* 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.

* Nagisa in ''[[Chou Kuse Ni Narisou]]''... which turns out to be a blessing, as she spends much of the series [[Wholesome Crossdresser|disguised as a boy]].

* ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'' has a female character named Riff. Not to mention [[Spell My Name With an "S"|"Larry" Vincent]].

* Elliot Chandler from ''[[Mai-Otome 0 Sifr]]''.

* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]!'' inverts this by giving a major male character the distinctly ''female''-sounding name, Claire. This doesn't make him any less [[Badass]].

* 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.

* Yukio in Marvel's [[X-Men|X-Men books]]. That the [[Les Yay|ronin good friend]] of Storm uses a boy's name has led to speculation that it is not her real name. In the limited series ''Wolverine: Soultaker'', her other [[Friends With Benefits|good friend]] Logan wonders if her actual name might not be the similar-sounding, but unambiguously feminine "Yukiko".

** After the death of Dark Phoenix, Cyclops left the [[X Men]] for a time, and decided to apply for employment on a ship. The first person he sees aboard is a pretty young woman.

* Charlie Duncan of ''[[Sapphire Eleanor Rose Suzette De Mont vs. Canon (Fanfic)|Sapphire Eleanor Rose Suzette De Mont vs. Canon]]''. Her full name is Charlotte, but no one ever calls her that--very fitting of an [[Action Girl]].

* Sidney of ''[[Scream (Film)|Scream]]''.

* Arguably, Saavik in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' movies: there was a definite pattern to Vulcan names in [[Star Trek the Original Series|TOS]] (men are called Spock, Sarek, Surak etc.; women are called T'Pau, T'Pring, T'Lar etc.) and she had a name that fitted the male pattern. (Since then, we've seen Vulcans whose names don't fit either pattern, but at the time...)

* Haruka {{spoiler|(Hokuto)}} in ''[[.hack AI Buster (Light Novel)|.hack//AI Buster]]''. {{spoiler|Besides having a masculine real name, she also turns out to be the user named after [[William Butler Yeats]].}}

* Gabriel Landry in ''All That Glitters'' by [[VC 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 (Literature)|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.

* The ultimate example would have to be Joey from ''[[Dawsons Creek|Dawson's Creek]]'', who played the [[Tomboy]] angle straight for the first couple seasons and grew increasingly girly as time went on.

* In ''[[Black Adder|Blackadder II]]'', Nursie is revealed to have the first name "Bernard". She also has sisters named Eric, Basil and Donald. Nursie is not particularly tomboyish, but certainly is insane, so this all could be her imagination.

* "Doctor Mike," a.k.a. Dr. Michaela Quinn, on ''[[Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (TV)|Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman]]'' There's actually a purpose to this, though. The writers felt it was necessary to explain why the townspeople accept the woman who is coming to be their doctor: they thought she was a man. Communication being what it was, her name was telegraphed to them, as telegraphs were, with no spaces, upper and lower cases, or punctuation. They're expecting "Michael A. Quinn." If her name had been Alice, or something, the viewer is meant to presume they would have cabled back saying "Forget it."

* [[Jayma Mays]] played girls named Charlie on both ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' and ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' in the same season. Not much chance for confusion, though, since while the ''UB'' Charlie {{spoiler|is a recurring love interest of a main character}}, the ''Heroes'' Charlie {{spoiler|was a one-shot who was killed off by the main villain. She was ''also'' the love interest of a main character though...}}

* ''[[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.)

* ''[[Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad]]'': One of the main characters is a girl named Sydney and she was at least once expected to be a boy because of her name.

* In the BBC series ''[[Sherlock (TV)|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".

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

* After acquiring all eight badges in ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'' versions, with male trainers named Arabella and Bonita.

* And yet another Makoto, from the [[The Idolmaster (Video Game)|IdolM@ster]] series, who becomes an idol in order to find a more feminine side of herself.

* Harold Berselius of ''[[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Tales of Destiny]] 2'', who is in fact often mistaken as a man by people who have yet to meet her.

** And then there's Corrine, the summon spirit in [[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Symphonia]]. Corrine is typically a female name, and the spirit itself has a high-pitched, feminine voice. However, there are some instances Corrine is referred to as male, {{spoiler|as well as taking into account that Corrine would eventually become Verius, who is definitely male in name and voice}}. [[Viewer Gender Confusion|This is even more confusing]] as what Corrine's relation to {{spoiler|Verius}} is never agreed upon in Symphonia's many iterations {{spoiler|as sometimes Corrine is a different persona from Verius and could potentially be female when Verius is male, or Corrine ''is'' Verius where Corrine could have been too young (in voice) to pass as a young male rather than outright female}}.

* ''Yuugi'' Hoshiguma from ''[[Touhou]]''. The name means "a game", as in chess or go ([[Yu-Gi-Oh|or cards]]), and it has a masculine tone to it. [[The Ladette|She looks and acts masculine too]], and in fan works is usually [[Tomboy and Girly Girl|contrasted]] against the girly [[Green-Eyed Monster]] Parsee for effect.

* The Fujibayashi twins, Kyou and Ryou, in ''[[Clannad (Visual Novel)|Clannad]]''.

* This was actually a plot point in the final case of ''[[Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]: Justice For All''. {{spoiler|A female character is accused of murder when the hired gun who did the killing names her as his client. He makes a crucial mistake when he claims that he met his client in person and calls the client a "he". The woman has a masculine name (Adrian Andrews). Phoenix points out that if the killer had actually met Adrian in person, he would've called her a "she".}}

* Parodied in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'': when Captain Tagon decides to hire a new medical officer, the first thing he notices are her rather large physical assets. He only notes that her name is 'Edward' (due to her incredibly stupid parent's poor choice of names) after deciding to hire her (but before actually looking at her professional credentials). To be fair, when she was conceived, her parents (who could not legally have natural-born children due to their deficient intelligence and appearance) had her genetically engineered to have a Nobel-laureate brain in an exotic dancer's body.

* Parley from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' isn't very tomboyish at all, but her first name is George. [[Embarrassing First Name|She's deeply embarrassed by this name]], although there's a pretty good story behind it.

* Ariel from [[Drow Tales]], ironically, she is send to a boys school (because of exceptional circumstances) and one of her (male) classmates is more effeminated than her. {{spoiler|Also, it later turns out she is blessed with shape shifting abilities, so she could basically be anything}}

* In ''[[Two Guys and Guy]]'', a webcomic featuring [[Two Guys and A Girl]], "Guy" is [[Captain Obvious|the girl]].

* Frances "Frankie" Foster in ''[[Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends]]''. [[Name's the Same|Similarly]], Frankie Stein in ''[[Monster High]]''.

* The leader of the Guardians in ''[[WITCH (Animation)|W.I.T.C.H.]]'', Will Vandom, is a girl like the others. Depending on the source, it's short for Wilma, or Wilhelmina.

* In an episode of ''[[Batman the Animated Series]]'', Poison Ivy appears to have gone straight and gotten married. Batman observes some heartwarming interactions between Pam and her stepsons, Chris and Kelly, but realizes something's up when Robin says he knows the "husband" and his ''daughters''.

* Applejack, from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. It sounds like she has a ''boy's'' name, which led to a considerable amount of gender confusion back in G1 where she had a low pitched voice.

* Inverted with Mandark from ''[[Dexters Laboratory]]'', whose real name is "Susan".

* A bizarre twist on this trope: over the last hundred years, Ashley has gone from being a male name to a female one. (Not to anyone who has seen [[Gone With the Wind]])

** 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.