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The standard fandom term for using a real person's name in a story as a form of in-joke or [[Shout-Out]]. Derived from the science fiction writer Wilson Tucker, well known for doing this.
 
It isn't always a famous person, either: sometimes a writer will use the names of friends (or enemies). Famous writers, including [[Stephen King]] and [[Terry Pratchett]], have been known to offer their readers a chance to be tuckerized, either as [[Contest Winner Cameo|the prize in a competition]] or as part of a charity auction. Characters created under these circumstances have a tendency to suffer a form of [[Death Byby Cameo]]. Sometimes falls into [[Theme Naming]].
 
For the time travel variant, see also [[I'm Mr. Future Pop Culture Reference]]. For the animal version, see [[Tribute to Fido]]. For characters who take their names from the actors who portray them, see [[The Danza]]. Opposite is [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]].
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Ash from the ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'' anime. His original Japanese name is Satoshi, after the creator of the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, Satoshi Tajiri; some have hypothesised that "Ash" is in turn a contraction of "Satoshi". Gary was originally named Shigeru after [[Shigeru Miyamoto]], the game director and [[Creators]] of such [[Nintendo]] mascots as [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]], [[Donkey Kong]], and [[The Legend of Zelda|Link]]. Probably both a poke and a tribute, as their game series are rivals and Miyamoto mentored Tajiri early in ''Pokémon'''s production. Finally, [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Paul#Trivia Paul] was named after an employee at the company who dubs ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]''
* Reportedly, Sky Dragon of Osiris was renamed "Slifer the Sky Dragon" in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' dub, as a nod to [[4Kids! Entertainment|4Kids]] director Roger Slifer. Yes, it's stupid, and yes, it gets many an account of [[Gannon Banned]].
** Played with in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series (Web Video)|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', which calls the dragon "Slifer the Executive Producer."
* Shigeru Kanmuri in ''[[Yakitate!! Japan]]''. The author's editor's name? Shigeru Kanmuri.
* [[Sailor Moon|Usagi Tsukino]]'s family members were designed after and named for author Naoko Takeuchi's actual family members. The jewelry store owned by the Osakas has an in-universe explanation for the store's name, OSA-P, but out of universe, the store was named for Fumio Osano, Takeuchi's editor at Kodansha and a good friend whom she nicknamed Osa-P.
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* Paul Gambi, the underworld tailor who designs costumes for [[The Flash]]'s [[Rogues Gallery]] is named after DJ and comics fan Paul Gambaccini.
* Brazilian artist Maurício de Sousa did this to many characters in ''[[Monica's Gang]]'' (due to them [[Write Who You Know|being based on people he met]] - one of his daughters became the title character).
* The main character of ''[[Kick -Ass]]'' was named by the winner of a contest, who chose his own name, essentially Tuckerizing himself.
* ''[[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (Comic Book)|Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew]]'' encountered a retired comic book artist named ''Gardener'' Fox after aforementioned comics creator Gardner Fox. Gardener Fox then proceeds to outline a theory of alternate dimensions originally devised by his namesake. (And, obviously, [[Species Surname|he's a fox]]).
* Marc Spector, the main persona of Moon Knight, was named after a friend of creator Doug Moench.
* In ''[[PS 238PS238]]'' there's a villain named Von Fogg who flies around in an airship and wears a helmet shaped like a bowler hat. Comics artist Phil Foglio wears a bowler at all his public appearances, and his comics imprint is called Airship Entertainment. (See Webcomics below for the flip side.)
* Carlie Cooper of [[Spider -Man]] was named after [[Joe Quesada]]'s daughter. The fandom was not amused.
* A few members of the Sinestro Corps in ''[[Green Lantern]]'' were named after DC staff members. Bur'Gunza (Eddie Berganza), Schlagg-Man (Adam Schlagman), Scivor (Ethan Van Sciver), and Duel Eknham (Doug Mahnke). Another member, Imecsub, was based off of actor Steve Buscemi.
 
 
== Fan Fiction ==
* Fans of ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]'' often put the nickname of the series' creator, ZUN, into their derivative works -- most often as an [[Unsound Effect]]. Strangely enough, ZUN's real name, Oota Jun'ya is rarely used, if ever.
* In L-Dog Z's ''Spider-Man Evolution'' series all minor mooks that are not pre-existing comicbook characters are named after comicbook writers, basically combining this trope with [[Take That]] (although they're also (fan) [[Cannon Immigrants]] from the [[Daredevil]] film adapation).
 
 
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* William Shatner named ''[[Star Trek V: theThe Final Frontier]]'''s Shakaree after [[Sean Connery]].
** Mostly because they were hoping to get him for the movie.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' is littered with examples. See [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tuckerization this Wookieepedia article]. A particularly interesting example is the planet Stewjon, the homeworld of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which [[George Lucas]] named after [[Jon Stewart]] in response to Stewart asking him about Obi-Wan's homeworld at Celebration V.
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* Pretty much everyone in the entire cast of the first ''[[Final Destination]]'' is one big [[Shout-Out]] to some influential horror director or another; for instance, the teacher is named after Val Lewton, who did ''Cat People''. In fact, this kind of thing seems to be fairly common in horror movies. So, if you don't want a tribute of you to feature the bloody death and dismemberment of your namesake, don't become a horror director.
** A sign in ''[[Slither]]'' promotes "Henenlotter Dairy Days". Frank Henenlotter was the director of ''Basket Case''.
** Raimi and Savini in ''[[The Dead Next Door]]'', after ''[[Evil Dead]]'' director Sam Raimi and ''[[Dawn of the Dead (Filmfilm)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' effects artist and actor Tom Savini.
** ''[[Film/Fido|Fido]]'' is set in the fictional town of Stanley, named after the setting of ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''.
** Captain Spaulding, Otis Driftwood, and the Firefly clan in ''[[House of 1000 Corpses]]'' and ''[[The DevilsDevil's Rejects]]'' are named after [[Marx Brothers|Groucho Marx]] characters.
* In ''[[Batman Returns (Film)|Batman Returns]]'', the bad guy is named Max Shreck, after horror actor Max [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|Schreck]], noted for his role in ''[[Nosferatu (Film)|Nosferatu]]''-- Shreck is metaphorically a "vampire" who sucks electrical energy from Gotham City for his own ends.
* A young Wes Craven was bullied by a kid named [[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street|Fred Krueger]]. This is probably also the origin of the character "Krug" from ''Last House on the Left''.
* In ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', Captain Willard is given an assignment by Lt. Gen. Corman and Col. Lucas, named for director Francis Ford Coppola's mentor Roger Corman and his protege George Lucas.
** Bonus points for the fact that Col. Lucas is played by [[Harrison Ford]].
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*** Which, in an incredibly strange coincidence, are the names of [[Willard|a 70's horror film]] and its sequel. Both kids were born before the movies, but still a bit weird.
* Lord Lew in [[The Muppet Movie]] was named after [[The Muppet Show]] producer Lew Grade, who was the only person who actually gave Jim Henson's idea for [[The Muppet Show]] a chance when all the networks passed up on it. he even occupies a similar role in-movie in helping the Muppets get their big break.
* In ''[[Dog Soldiers (Film)|Dog Soldiers]]'' one of the squaddies is called Bruce Campbell, after the star of the [[Evil Dead]] films which influenced the film. Not to mention [[HGH. G. Wells|Sgt. Harry G. Wells]].
* In the movie adaptation of ''[[Fight Club]]'', the three detectives interviewing the Narrator as he spills the beans on Project Mayhem are Detective Andrew, Detective Kevin and Detective Walker. Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the script for the David Fincher movie [[Se7en]] as well as doing some uncredited rewrites on the [[Fight Club]] script.
* In the ''[[Doom (Filmfilm)|Doom]]'' movie, the chief scientist in such is named Todd Carmack, after [[wikipedia:John Carmack|the lead programmer]] of id Software. They could've named the same character after the company's CEO Todd Hollenshead, though.
** The protagonist of the movie is named "John", a name shared with two of id's founders: the above John Carmack, as well as [[wikipedia:John Romero|John Romero]].
* The main character of ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'', Nicholas Angel, was named after the film's music supervisor.
* The list of rejected housekeepers in ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire (Film)|Mrs. Doubtfire]]'' is composed of crew members whose names also appear in the end credits.
* In ''[[Serenity (Film)|Serenity]]'', Jayne's minigun ('Lux') is named after Lux Lucre, a huge fan of ''[[Firefly]]'' who died before the film was released.
* Narrowly averted in ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'': Keyser Söze was originally going to be named "Keyser Sume," after the former boss of screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. Mr. Sume, however, was not too keen on having his name attached to a [[Diabolical Mastermind]] who murdered his own family, so they changed it.
* A promient criminal in the [[Daredevil]] film is named [[Joe Quesada|Jose Quesada]] (a fact that has become [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] after some...controversal decessions Quesada made as Editor-In-Chief of Marvel has some fans casting him as a villian common place), a "[[Stan Lee|Mr. Lee"]] that pays for his legal fees in fish, and other characters named [[Jack Kirby]], Bendis, and Romita, all named after writers and artists that contributed to the Daredevil mythos. Really, that filmed loved this trope.
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== Literature ==
* [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] and his friend [[Robert Bloch]] both wrote stories in which they had a character supposed to be the other being horribly killed as an affectionate [[Take That]].
** He also wrote of the 'Atlantean high-priest' Klarkash-Ton (Clark Ashton Smith).
*** And to repay the kindness, Smith wrote about Egyptian priest Luveh-Keraph. Or the other way round.
* In one of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''Black Widower'' mysteries, the name of the guest was the name of a reader who had won a competition; the prize was to be included in the story.
* The ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Maskerade|Maskerade]]'' features a brief appearance by a young woman named Colette, who draws comment for her remarkable earrings; this is a [[Shout-Out]] to a fan Terry Pratchett met at a book signing while he was working on the novel, whose name was Colette and who was wearing a pair of memorable earrings. Several subsequent Discworld novels have included characters whose names were determined by charity auctions.
** And let's not forget Hodgesaargh, the Lancre castle falconer, based on Dave Hodges, who really does keep birds of prey. Lady Jane, the vicious gyrfalcon who keeps attacking him, is real too.
** Dr. Follett, the former head of the Assassin's Guild, was named after the author Ken Follett.
* [[Nero Wolfe|Rex Stout]] was a midshipman on President [[Theodore Roosevelt|Theodore Roosevelt's]] yacht from 1906 to 1908. His life was made miserable by a bullying, incompetent senior officer named Gilbert Rowcliff. Later, while writing the [[Nero Wolfe]] novels, he created a bullying, incompetent police lieutenant named George Rowcliff who showed up in a number of books. Stout later admitted that he'd followed the career of his early nemesis and had been surprised when Rear Admiral Rowcliff was named [[wikipedia:Gilbert Jonathan Rowcliff|Judge Advocate General]] of the Navy.
* In [[Elizabeth Moon]]'s novel ''[[VattasVatta's War|Victory Conditions]]'', the section in which the villains attack the Moray shipyards features heroic deaths for a group of the author's friends.
* As Piers Anthony's ''[[Xanth (Literature)|Xanth]]'' series now consists almost entirely of [[Running the Asylum|material suggested by fans]], the series now includes many references to actual readers. A major character, Jenny Elf, is named in honor of a real girl and Xanth reader who was paralyzed in a car accident.
* There are several of these in the [[Dragaera]] books, particularly in the introductions to the ''Khaavren'' books. One, written by "The Dean of Pamlar University" was written by author Pamela Dean; another, by a magician named Ilen was written by [[Neil Gaiman]]. Similarly, in the book ''Athyra'', there is a reference to a ''Book of the Seven Wizards'', with each wizard being a [[Shout-Out]] to writer friends of Brust, except for one which describes himself.
* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''How Much For Just The Planet?'' by [[John M. Ford]], the ''Enterprise'' visits a planet colonized by a group of eccentric artists; nearly all the colonists with speaking parts are based on the author's friends and fellow-writers, including [[Pamela Dean]], [[Neil Gaiman]], [[Diane Duane]], [[Peter Morwood]], and [[Janet Kagan]].
** Interestingly, ''How Much For Just The Planet?'' was used in Duane's ''[[Young Wizards]]'' Series as the title of an alien TV show.
* [[Peter David]] has a book out called ''Mascot To the Rescue!'' which tells the story of a boy named Josh [[Frank Miller|Miller]] trying to save a comic book character from death (you see, everything that happens to Mascot, the character, also happens to Josh). Who writes the comic that Mascot is in? Why, a man named [[Stan Lee|Stan]] [[Jack Kirby|Kirby]].
** Which reminds me of an old [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] book (based on the cartoon) where the Turtles meet a guy named Kirby who uses a magic pencil to bring comics to life. It always made me tear up.
** He also wrote in [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to all the actors who played the main characters on his show ''[[Space Cases]]'' in the first four ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'' novels. And he re-shouted out Jewel Staite in another novel after ''[[Firefly]]''.
*** Also, Roger Tang, the Starfleet ground-pounder with the [[Catch Phrase]] "All part of the service" in ''Imzadi''? Named after an enthusiastic fan.
* A very unpleasant example by [[Michael Crichton]]: the journalist Michael Crowley, who criticised Crichton's position on global warming, was written into ''Next'' under the name "Mick Crowley". Several other details (Washington journalist, went to Yale) are given just to make sure nobody misses who it's supposed to be. The fictional Mick Crowley is a homosexual baby rapist with a very small penis.
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* Gary Russell's ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures]] novel ''Legacy'' featured several notable names in fandom, including an alcoholic Pakhar (intelligent alien hamster) named Hyn't'n, whose death sets up the plot. By a strange coincidence, Craig Hinton's subsequent DW novel, ''The Crystal Bucephalus'', had a cameo by a doglike creature named Garruss.
** The Virgin Publishing ''[[Doctor Who]]'' novels did this a ''lot''. Take a random book and compare the names of minor characters with the rec.arts.drwho folk namechecked in the aknowledgements.
* [[Simon R. Green]] likes having characters named after sf jounalist [[David Langford]] (starting with gossip columnist Dee Langford in ''Deathstalker Destiny''). He frequently writes to Langford's fanzine, ''Ansible'', to express his glee in how viciously he can kill them off.
* The ''[[Lord Darcy (Literature)|Lord Darcy]]'' stories by Randall Garrett include a brilliant magical theoretician named Sir Thomas Leseaux. Garrett was friends with the stage magician and author T.A. Waters. His sometime collaborator Michael Kurland appears in ''Too Many Magicians'' as Sergeant-At-Arms Michel Coure-Terre. Also in ''Too Many Magicians'', there is a senior wizard named James Zwinge; the real name of stage magician and arch-sceptic James Randi.
* ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' has a character called Erek (he's a Chee, i.e. holographic dog-robot, who helps the heroes out from time to time) named after a fan who won a contest.
* [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]] named the ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' villain Fagin after a man he worked with in a factory in his childhood. The real Fagin was actually a kindly man, but Dickens' memories of that period scarred him for life.
* In his acknowledgments of ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|The Lightning Thief]]'', Rick Riordan includes thanks to his "cadre of middle-school beta testers," the first of whom is "Travis Stoll, clever and quick as Hermes." The Stoll brothers, Connor and Travis, appear from the next book on as the new head counselors of the Hermes cabin.
* When [[Ian Fleming]] was writing the early [[James Bond]] novels, he was informed by one Geoffrey Boothroyd that Bond's Beretta 418 was more or less [[Little Useless Gun|a wimpy purse gun]]. His next novel had a "Major Boothroyd", introduced as "the greatest small-arms expert in the world", issuing Bond his iconic Walther PPK. The character was transferred over to the movies, although he was only referred to as Boothroyd in the first, as well as a blink-and-you'll-miss-it use of the name in ''The Spy Who Loved Me''; in every other movie he was simply Quartermaster Branch, or "Q."
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* Like the ''Animorphs'' example above, the final book in the ''[[Spy High]]'' series introduced major character Kate Taylor, named after Kate Harrison who had won a fan contest.
* Birdwell Island, the setting of the ''[[Clifford the Big Red Dog]]'' series books and cartoon, is actually named after Norman Bridwell, who created this series.
* Armand in ''[[Hothouse Flower and The Nine Plants of Desire (Literature)|Hothouse Flower and The Nine Plants of Desire]]'' is named after a friend of the author.
* ''[[The Name of the Rose]]'' has one blind-bibliotecarian called Jorge De Burgos. The character was obviously (created and) named after [[Jorge Luis Borges]]. The fact that the name of the story is the same as one of Borges' most famous poems makes this even more obvious.
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' makes a brief mention of Lord [[Sdrawkcab Name|Trebor Jordayne]] of the Tor. His heraldic symbol is a quill, and he apparently has an interesting theory that [[The Wheel of Time|time is a wheel]].
* M'chel Riss of ''[[Star Risk, Ltd.]]'' is named after author [[Chris Bunch]]'s friend Michelle Rice.
* In ''The [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' radio drama and early versions of the novel, author Douglas Adams mentions a classmate named Paul Neil Milne Johnstone whom he considers the worst poet in the universe. ([[Beyond the Impossible|He's worse than Vogons!]]} The named was eventually changed to Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings in the later editions of the novel, the [[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (TV series)|TV series]] and the [[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Filmfilm)|movie]].
 
 
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* Half the characters in ''[[Space Cases]]'' have names that are Tuckerized references to writers and scientists.
* Half the characters on ''[[SCTV]]'' are named for Canadian celebrities, but the name is often the only resemblance. For instance, oily Melonville mayor Tommy Shanks was named after decidedly non-oily Alberta jazzman (and now Senator) Tommy Banks, while stuffy alcoholic Floyd Robertson/"Count Floyd" is named after sober, down-to-earth CTV news anchor Lloyd Robertson (who's [[Long Runners|still on the job]]).
* One of the characters on ''[[The Wire]]'' is Sergeant Jay Landsman, who is named after and shares certain similarities with a real life Baltimore homicide detective that series creator [[David Simon]] met while writing ''[[Homicide: Life On the Street|Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets]]''. Even stranger, the real Landsman retired from police work and became an actor, and he appears on ''The Wire'' as Major Dennis Mello, a character named after ''another'' real-life Baltimore cop.
** Stranger than that, Mello meets with Landsman's expy from the television series, none other than [[John Munch]].
* A large corporation that's popped up a couple of times on [[Law and Order SVU|Law and Order: Special Victims Unit]] is Taucher-Leto Pharmaceuticals. Take a look at the end credits sometime and see if you can't figure out why the names seem so familiar...
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** Geordi LaForge was named after George LaForge, a quadriplegic fan of the original Star Trek who had died in 1975.
** The Bolians are named after Cliff Bole, the director of the first episode a Bolian appeared in. Also, the [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Cliffs of Bole]] are named after him.
** Samantha Wildman of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' was named after a young girl who died in an accident, and whose organs were donated to the ailing wife of one of the screenwriters.
** "Jefferies Tubes" (the maintenance area of the ships) in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe were named after [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series|Original Series]] art director Matt Jefferies, as an in-joke.
* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'''s Gunn was named so after the brothers [[Slither|James Gunn]] and [[Gilmore Girls|Sean Gunn]], with whom [[Joss Whedon]] had worked.
* Bill Lawrence admits on a ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]'' DVD commentary that he's terrible at naming characters, so he named a bunch of character after real people. Included are JD, Todd Quinlan (The Todd), Molly Clock, Randall Winston, and Turk. Not too mention a lot of patients, including Will Forte, Jill Tracy, Mr. Burski, and many others. Interestingly, Jill Tracy the patient was named after the real Jill Tracy, who later played a heart transplant patient named Elaine. Randall Winston was named after the real Randall Winston, who plays the security guard with the giant afro. It can get confusing.
* A number of characters from ''[[The Thick of It]]'' were named after players from one writer Jesse Armstrong's five-a-side football team. They include Malcolm Tucker, a particularly neat example of this trope.
* ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch (Animation)|Celebrity Deathmatch]]'' held a contest with the prize being the honor of appearing on the show. The winner got to see his Claymation self right in the center of the Deathmatch ring -- where his liver was promptly ripped out by John Tesh.
* In the episode "Breaking and Entering" from the 2nd season of ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Michael's cover ID for infiltrating a [[Private Military Contractor|mercenary company]] is Terry Miller, which is the name of the show's unit production supervisor.
** The lead character himself is an example: Michael West'''en''', not to be confused with actor Michael West'''on''', who appeared in ''[[Garden State]]'', had recurrent roles on ''[[Scrubs]]'', ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|Law and Order SVU]]'', and ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''--and made a guest appearance on ''[[Burn Notice]]''.
* Collective example: A written list of murder victims seen on ''[[Forever Knight (TV)|Forever Knight]]'' consisted entirely of the names of [[Real Life]] fans, from a newsgroup dedicated to the show.
* Roger Last was a production assistant on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''. His last name was appropriated by Michael Palin in the "Fish License" sketch, and his full name was appropriated by John Cleese for "Is There?"
** The 'buying the mattress' sketch features a Mr. Verity and a Mr. Lambert, named after BBC producer [[Verity Lambert]].
* Claude Rains in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is named after the actor who played ''[[The Invisible Man (Filmfilm)|The Invisible Man]]'' in the 1933 movie. This is quite appropriate, Claude's power being invisibility and all. It's hinted that this isn't his real name and he chose the name himself.
* ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' has done this a few times. A character in the 2009 [[ARG]] was Hans van Eeghen, likely named after the show's film editor Henk van Eeghen. The minor character "Simmons" in season 6 was hinted to be named as a shout-out to sports columnist [[Bill Simmons]].
* The surnames of all the ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' crewmembers (prior to the accident) were taken from people Rob Grant and Doug Naylor went to school with. Rimmer was named after a snobby prefect and Kochanski was named after the school bully.
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': Tommy Oliver, the Green/White Ranger is named after producer Tony Oliver. Tommy's White Ranger weapon, Saba, is likely named after Haim Saban. Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger, is named after Saban voice actor Bryan Cranston.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'': Bobby Singer named after director/writer/executive producer Robert Singer. Lampshade duly hung in "The French Mistake" when Dean and Sam are zapped into "our" reality and meet Rob.
{{quote| '''Dean:''' What kind of a douchebag names a character after himself?<br />
'''Sam:''' Oh, that's not right. }}
* ''[[How I Met Your Mother (TV)|How I Met Your Mother]]'' has several examples of this, most notably MacLaren's Bar, and its bartender Carl which were together named after one of the creators' assistants.
* ''[[ICarly (TV)|I Carly]]'': Used occasionally to reference the creator [[Dan Schneider]], such as St. Schneider's Hospital and Schneider's Convenience Store.
** Also done with one of the other staff members, Robin Weiner, whose name gets attached to some hot-dogs.
* Cameron from ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' was quite obviously named after [[James Cameron]], the creator of the entire ''[[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]]'' series.
* The surnames of the ''[[The X -Files (TV)|The X Files]]'' main duo: Mulder is the maiden name of [[Chris Carter]]'s mother, and Scully is [[Named After Somebody Famous|after Dodger announcer Vin Scully.]] And it appears every now and then in the series (for instance, the [[Creepy Twins|Creepy Twin Clones]] from "Eve" are named after the writers' wives).
* Piz from ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' was named after a regular director for the show, Piznarski.
* Gil Grissom on ''[[CSI]]'' is named after astronaut Virgil 'Gus' Grissom; Petersen is a space buff.
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== Music ==
* [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]] named itself after a rather authoritarian teacher at their former high school, with [[Captain Obvious|slightly different spelling]]
* [[Edguy (Music)|Edguy]] is an affectionate epitaph for a Mr. Edgar Siedschlag, who was their math teacher from when they were young.
* The Dead Milkmen's "Stuart" mentions a kid named Jonny Wurster: Jon Wurster is the drummer for Superchunk and a friend of the band.
* Sloan are named after an old friend of the band, sort of: their friend Jason Larsen was frequently called "slow one" by his boss, but due to a heavy french accent it sounded more like "Sloan", which became his nickname. Larsen agreed to let them name their band after him on the condition that they put him on an album cover, and sure enough his face is on the cover of ''Peppermint'', their first EP.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Practically half the names of people and places in the World of Greyhawk setting for ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' are named after people E. Gary Gygax knew, and then there's Xagyg himself.
* Some examples from ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'': [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=37 Nevinyrral's Disk] is named after writer [[Larry Niven]] <ref>Although this might be more of a straight [[Shout-Out]], given that Niven wrote a story about just such a disk.</ref>, while [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=3794 Jalum Tome] is named after former ''Magic'' game designer Joel L. Mick (initials: JLM).
** There's also Mons's Goblin Raiders for Mons Johnson and Jayemdae Tome for '''J'''. '''M'''ichael '''Davis'''. Also there are a number of Arabian Nights cards containing anagrams of Richard Garfield's friends' names when he ran out of [[Gratuitous Foreign Language|Gratuitous Arabic]]. Oh, and [[Significant Anagram|Pheldagrif/Garfield PhD]].
** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Maro Maro] is named after lead designer '''Ma'''rk '''Ro'''sewater.
* The adventure scenario "...And I Feel Fine" for ''[[Unknown Armies (Tabletop Game)|Unknown Armies]]'' (in the supplement ''One Shots'') includes two ready-to-play characters named after RPG designers: Rebecca Borgstrom and Rich Dansky.
 
 
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== Videogames ==
* In the ''[[Armored Core (Video Game)|Armored Core]]'' series, the obscenely powerful Karasawa laser rifle is named after one of the series' producers. It's always one of the strongest weapons in the game, if not ''the'' strongest.
* Quite a few [[NPC|NPCs]] and items in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' are named after real people, often in their memory. One of the more recent is [http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=30562#comments Crusader Bridenbrad], named for '''Brad'''ley '''Briden'''becker, the brother of one the Blizzard Employees, who had died of cancer.
** One of the more bizarre ones is Gorge the Corpsegrinder, a Horde NPC named after George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher of the band Cannibal Corpse. Fisher is apparently a huge fan of the game, owning multiple accounts and often lamenting in interviews that he doesn't get a chance to play as much as he'd like on the road, as well as the presence of elves in the Horde.
* Many characters in the ''[[Ultima]]'' series are named after the games' creators and their friends, most notably Lord British and the Avatar's Companions (although Lord British may canonically be, quite literally, [[Author Avatar|Garriott himself]]).
** In the ''Martian Dreams'' spin-off from ''[[Ultima VI (Video Game)|Ultima VI]]'', you get to hang out with Warren Spector, one of the game's designers.
*** And in the previous game, ''Savage Empire,'' Warren Spector also shows up as {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]]}}.
* In ''[[Fatal Frame]]: Crimson Butterfly'', several of the photographed ghosts bear the names and faces of people who won a contest to be placed in the game.
* Is it not odd that the main character of ''Confidential Mission'' is named Howard Gibson, while the chief localizer of said game just happens to bear the name Howard Gi'''p'''son?
* Noob Saibot from ''[[Mortal Kombat (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mortal Kombat]]'' is the names of two of the developers (Boon and Tobias) backwards.
* Sometimes the developers of Japanese RPGs actually make it into the game themselves. Examples include [[Motoi Sakuraba]], the music composer, in ''[[Tales of Phantasia (Video Game)|Tales of Phantasia]]'' and ''[[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Tales of Destiny]]'' and Shinji Hashimoto, the producer of ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]''.
* Spiderweb Software loves to do this in its games. See [http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=122074#Post122074 this thread] for a list.
* Many characters and locations in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' are real-world references, such as Perez Park and Gaiman Woods.
* In the Japanese version of ''[[Animal Crossing]]'', the character known as K.K. Slider in foreign versions is called Totakeke, which is the nickname of Nintendo composer Kazumi Totaka. He's the one to go to if you want to hear [[Easter Egg|Totaka's Song]] in this game.
* Contest winner Kurt Zisa got a powerful US-exclusive [[Bonus Boss]] named after him in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''.
* Let's not forget [[Isaac Asimov]] [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)|Clarke]] from ''[[Dead Space (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dead Space]]''.
* On [[The Bourne Series|that]] [[Ian Fleming|note,]] [[Shadow Complex|Jason Fleming.]]
* Ozzy, Slash and Flea in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' were [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to Ozzy Ozborne, Slash from Guns N Roses, and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers. (Their Japanese names were references to food sauces.) This caused some problems in the sequel, where there was a new character named Slash, whose name had to be changed to Nikki, after Nikki Sixx of ''[[Motley Crue]]''.
* [[Shigeru Miyamoto]] originally intended to name Link from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' "Chris" or "Christo" after his godfather. [[Executive Meddling]] stopped his plans.
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] was named after Nintendo of America's landlord, Mario Segali.
* Depending on who at Nintendo you ask, [[Kirby]] was either named after a lawyer who helped Nintendo in their legal battle against Universal over ''[[Donkey Kong]]'', ''or'' Kirby vacuum cleaners.
* Practically every street name in the town of ''[[Silent Hill]]'' is the name of a horror, fantasy/SF, mystery or true-crime author -- or director. [[Invasion of the Body Snatchers|Finney Street]], [[Richard Matheson|Matheson Street]], [[Robert Bloch|Bloch Street]], [[Dean Koontz|Koontz Street]], [[Ray Bradbury|Bradbury Street]], Levin Street, [[Stephen King|Bachman Road]], [[Michael Crichton|Crichton Street]]... and let's not forget [[Village of the Damned (Film)|Midwich Elementary School]], [[The Shining|Overlook Penitentiary]] or [[Dario Argento|DiArgento Cemetery]].
* Online flash-based game ''[[Dragon Fable (Video Game)|Dragon Fable]]'''s developers, Artix Entertainment, awarded about 10 players cameos as {{spoiler|brainwashed heroes that the player must fight}} in one of the late quests of the Fire War.
* In ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 (1997 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Golden Eye 1997]] 007'', a gun called [[Joke Item|the Klobb]] is named after Ken Lobb, a Nintendo of America employee at the time who helped develop the game. This wasn't originally planned - the gun was originally named the Spyder (and the manual even referenced it with this name), but when the developers discovered such a gun really existed, they had to quickly change it to something else for legal reasons. There's also a Dr. Doak, after one of the developers, David Doak.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind]]'' contains the ashes of two members of the official forums who died before the game shipped.
* Almost every single randomly-generated [[Red Shirt]] soldier in the ''[[Call of Duty]]'' series is named after members of their respective game's development team. The most prominent is Staff Sergeant Griggs from ''[[Modern Warfare]]'', who is named after, [[Ink Suit Actor|looks like]], and voiced by Infinity Ward's lead animator at the time.
* Some of the pitchers and batters in ''2020 Super Baseball'' and ''Baseball Stars 2'' are named Kawasaki, a reference to [[SNK]]'s president.
* The main character of ''[[Robotron]] 64'' is called Eugene, a reference to the creator of the original game, [[Eugene Jarvis]].
* In the ''[[Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)|Rockman.EXE]]'' series, both the games and [[Mega Man NT Warrior|the anime]], there's a character named Meijin Eguchi (literally, "The Famous Eguchi", Mr Famous in the Translations), who plays a minor role in each game (mostly a fan-Navi vehicle) and is basically the commander in the anime. The name of the scenario writer for ''EXE''? Eguchi Masakazu.
* The only guaranteed shopkeeper in ''[[Nethack]]'' is Izchak, named for the late coder Izchak Miller (who did a lot of work on the shopkeeper logic). [[Self-Imposed Challenge|Extinctionist gameplay]] is very ropey on whether it's acceptable to kill him (anything other than extinctionism and the rule is simple; don't).
* One of the hunts in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', Yazmat, is named for Yasumi Matsuno, the game's original director and a long-time developer at Squaresoft (later [[Square Enix]]). Matsuno frequently went by "Yazz" amongst his colleagues. The dialog for the quest makes an oblique reference to his stepping down from the game's development and subsequent departure from Square Enix before the game was completed. The English version mistranslated this to "Yiazmat", not understanding the reference.
* Satomi Tadashi, the [[Generation Xerox|(group of)]] people who run the drugstores in ''[[Persona]]'', are named after the scenario designer.
* Scott Dolph, head of the Marine Corps in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty]]'', was named after the American coordinator working on that game and the first. Cécile Cosima Caminandes in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'' is named after Konami's real life French coordinator, since Kojima thought her middle name and last name sounded like 'Kojima kaminandesu' (Kojima is God). The character is modelled to look somewhat like her as well.
** The original ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' had the inept guard Johnny Sasaki, named after character model designer Hideki Sasaki. For some reason, he dropped the Sasaki surname in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]''.
* When the Data East shmup ''Makyou Senshi'' was localized, it was renamed ''Gondomania''. The lead designer's family name happened to be Gondo...
* Veteran RPG writer Dennis Detwiller contributed the story for ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]'', but before that, he was well-known for his work on ''[[Delta Green]]'' alongside writers like John Tynes. Among the various characters Alex ends up eating as part of the Web of Intrigue is a Dr. Jon Tynes.
* Many of the characters in the ''[[Kunio Kun]]'' were named after employees of Technos Japan Corp., or people they knew. In fact, Kunio himself was named after Technos Japan's president, Kunio Taki.
* In the ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem Tellius]]'' series, one of the villains is named Izuka (who appeared only as a brief cameo in ''Path of Radiance'' only to come back with importance in ''Radiant Dawn''), which is also the surname of the character and set designer for ''Path of Radiance'', Daisuke Izuka.
* ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'' did similar to ''Goldeneye'''s Klobb: one of the sniper rifles was named the "Geldmacher SVD", after Jim Geldmacher.
* The [[Pokémon]] Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are named after [[Bruce Lee]] and [[Jackie Chan]] respectively. Their Japanese names, Sawamular and Ebiwalar are taken from Tadashi Sawamura, the world's first kickboxer, and Hiroyuki Ebihara, a world champion Japanese boxer.
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* Similarly once more, the only character in ''[[Earthsong]]'' to be Tuckerized in was [[Sacrificial Lamb|killed...ish]] within the first 25 pages.
** Before the reboot, the character of Alyss had the name "Tehmel", which was an explicit reference to a close friend of the author. The name was altered when the character was reintroduced during the Redux because the author didn't particularly like how akward the name sounded. Alyss is apparently still a reference to the same person.
* ''[[And Shine Heaven Now (Webcomic)|And Shine Heaven Now]]'' takes this to extremes, with a mostly-annual storyline in which fans of the series (it's a [[Hellsing]] fancomic) are drawn in by the dozens. Another storyline had a few of the main cast visiting a convention, which was staffed by real-life con volunteers.
* ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' auctions off cameo appearances for the Child's Play charity.
** An example of this can be seen [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/12/9/ here.]
*** For the last two years, as evidenced by the strip linked above, Tycho and Gabe have ''completely forgotten'' to do the cameo strip. And in all but the first case, they have pointed out that the people that buy the cameo appearances are either a group (as in the first case), or otherwise in possession of a lot of money. Their second cameo strip consisted entirely of them trying to convince the person who had won the appearance to ''buy them cars'' (he had won the auction with a bid of $20,000).
* Trawn from ''[[Electric Wonderland (Webcomic)|Electric Wonderland]]'' shares the same first name as one of the cartoonist's friends: Eileen Cruz, founder of Toon Zone.
* In [[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]] there's a villain named Baron Aaronev who is served by mooks with a strong resemblance to characters in comics drawn by ''Aaron'' Williams. Williams returned the favor by making Phil Foglio a villain in [[PS 238PS238]] (see Comics, above).
* ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' has Gamzee Makara was named for a Turkish fan named Gamze (better known as Gammy), who was a member of the forums at the time the trolls were introduced. A variety of variations on her name were suggested (as her name at 5 letters was too short), and "Gamzee" ended up being selected, as Hussie thought it was a [[Meaningful Name]]. A similar thing happened with Tavros Nitram, as his last name is just "Martin" backwards, named after another fan. Because of these two incidents, Hussie became more selective with name suggestion, and after the trolls were fully introduced, no further naming has been possible by the fans.
 
 
== Web Originals ==
* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' has a character named for hockey player Sidney Crosby. A slight variation in that the character is based off the real person rather than simply sharing his name.
* ''[[DarwinsDarwin's Soldiers]]'' has three notable instances.
** The fictional actor Stephen Di Georgi mentioned in the third RP is a fusion of the names of two people that Serris knows in real life.
** ''Jessica Boyle of Escondido'', a fictional play mentioned in the first RP, is named after a person LB&T knew in real life
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** The design of one of the street racers in the Master Disaster episode is based on one of the writers' daughters.
** The trend goes up to ridiculous levels in the ''Allspark Almanac'', a guidebook to the show's characters and settings. Every seemingly irrelevant throwaway name is either a reference to another show/movie or to a real life person, often friends or family of the writers.
* Several sector and zone names in ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' were named after fans on the transformers irc channel.
* An example ''from [[Looney Tunes]]'': in a Bugs Bunny episode, the wolf which chases Bugs is named "Charles M. Wolf". Guess what the "Charles M." stands for. (The episode was, actually, directed by Friz Freleng.)
* All of the members of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' family are named after Matt Groening family members, except Bart, which is an anagram of "brat".
** Also, they all have the middle initial "J", as a tribute to Jay Ward, who created ''Bullwinkle''.
** Also, John Frink is an executive produced of the show.
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** Groening has stated that he doesn't know which of his family members are more angry with him: the ones who got characters named after them, or the ones that didn't. He also named one of his sons Homer to "make it up" to his father.
* On Disney cartoons where Goofy plays all the characters in a sports team, the names of the players are those of various Disney artists.
* Mozenrath of Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' is named for series writers Bill Motz and Bob Roth.
** Razoul was also named after Rasoul Azadani, Disney's layout supervisor.
* It was a rare episode of ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' that didn't feature a crew member's name snuck into the script somewhere. One [[Egregious]] example was the Tamaranian-language joke: "How many Okaarans does it take to Hoegee a Morflark? Finbar!", with Hoegee and Finbar being crew members' names.
** Hell, sometimes the creators just went ahead and drew themselves in the series as random civilians!
*** Story editor David Slack is the human form of Plasmus.
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** There is also a sort of minor villain called Soto. Not sure if it's a Tuckerization or not, but as the character is an incredibly childlike rockish alien with a spaceship like a playpen, it seems likely.
** In the [[Trapped in TV Land]] episode, there's a talk show where the guest is "Dr. Victor Payton who has discovered the secret to world peace." Victor Payton is the father of Cyborg [[Voice Actor]] Khary Payton.
* In ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'', Stan's parents and sister are named after Trey Parker's parents and sister, Kyle's parents are named after Matt Stone's parents, [[Really Gets Around|Cartman's mom]] is named after Parker's fiancee who left him for another man, Cartman's name is based off their friend Eric Carpman, Butters is named after their friend and then-animation director (now a producer) Eric "Butters" Stough, and [[Living Prop]] Jason is named after close friend Jason McHugh who worked on ''Cannibal! The Musical'' and ''Orgazmo''.
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together," the band in question is composed of Danny (named after Dan Povenmire, one of the creators), "Swampy" Sherman (the other creator, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh), and Bobbi Fabulous (whose name comes from Bobby Gaylor, a writer on the show). The last one is...''[[Ambiguously Gay|subtlety at its finest]]''...
** Also in [[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]], Ferb is named after a real life friend of Dan and Swampy's named Frank. But everyone called him Ferb, but his name were Frank. Like the fictional Ferb, Ferb has every tool imaginable.
* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'': Elmer, Butch Hartman's real name, is used as the name of one of Timmy's friends. His boil, Bob, is named after art director Bob [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Boyle]].
** The doctor on ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' was also named after Butch Hartman. His name: Dr. Elmer Hartman.
* In the ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force (Animation)|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'' episode "Pet Project" Gwen mentions that a store called McDuffie's, named after [[Dwayne McDuffie]], one of the writers, is closing down.
** [[Heartwarming in Hindsight]], given McDuffie's untimely death in February 2011.
* "[[Invader Zim|It was forseen that you would come. Forseen by...]][[MST3KMystery Science Theater 3000|Frank.]]"
{{quote| '''Frank:''' Yep. Told you he'd come.}}
* Two gargoyles from Disney's ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' are named Victor and Hugo (after the author of the book in which the film was based off of), respectively.
* Those other scarers from ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]''. They're all named after the [[Pixar Regulars|staff of Pixar.]]
* The RLS Legacy starship from ''[[Treasure Planet (Disney)|Treasure Planet]]'' was actually named after Robert Louis Stevenson, the writer of ''[[Treasure Island]]''.
* The Fa family ancestors from ''[[Mulan (Disney)|Mulan]]'' are actually all named after the film's cast and crew.
* Darla, the supposed main antagonist from ''[[Finding Nemo]]'', is actually named after [[Pixar Regulars|Pixar staff member]] Darla K. Anderson.
* [[Kelsey Grammer|Doctor Frankenollie]], the [[Mad Scientist]] from ''[[Runaway Brain]]'' is actually named after former Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, respectively.
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