Unfortunate Names: Difference between revisions

* [[Gender Blender Name]]—Many names (at least, in American English) were once relatively common and unremarkable as names for male children, but in recent years have become more common for girls, sometimes with minor spelling differences. In the real world there are male Stacys, Danas, Courtneys, Robins, and Ashleys, and yet you only seen those names in modern fiction on women. Likewise, [[Leslie Nielsen]] was a man. So someone with old-fashioned parents, or simply a desire to name a baby after an ancestor, might wind up with a "girly" name, such as Mary. Conversely, unfortunate women may end up with a "guy" name; though they are mostly more fortunate.

* [[Fun with Acronyms]]—when the initials spell something silly or offensive.

 

This only goes for examples where the name is the character or person's ''legal given name'', or the name they most commonly go by. If someone uses it as a temporary alias, that's not this [[Trope]].

** ''Hogfather'' has everyone's favorite psychotic Assassin, Jonathon Teatime (allegedly pronounced "te-ah-tim-eh").

** Omnians favor longwinded and reverent names such as Visit-the-Infidel-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets. Thankfully, most of them are fairly easy to truncate (the aforementioned character is usually just called "Visit"), but that isn't much comfort to the guy who ended up as "Mightily Oats".

** The Ankh-Morporkian ambassador to Zlobenia in ''[[Monstrous Regiment]]'' is named Clarence Chinny. As he himself puts it, when asked by Sam Vimes: "Were you a good fighter at school?" "No, sir, but no one could beat me over the fifty yard dash."

* ''[[Good Omens]]'' has Pippin Galadriel Moonchild (her mother was going through a very brief "hippie" phase), better known as Pepper. Last name not given.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** "Yeah well Jayne ain't a girl!"

* ''[[The IT Crowd]]'' gave us Peter File, who was unfortunate enough to be paged over an airport loudspeaker. This is probably referencing ''[[Brass Eye]]'', who [[Older Than They Think|did that joke in the 2001 special]]; creator Graham Linehan was one of the writers of the special.

** In another example from this series, of the Unfortunate Meaning variety, one of the girls from the Jane Addams Academy is named Aphasia.

* ''[[Love Connection]]'' introduces a 26-year-old man who loves beer and loud music. He currently works in gift sales and his mom seems to have some issues with his love life. Ladies and gentlemen, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuZeU-SjgJQ Robert Fagot].

** Hers may be somewhat punny, but now D.B. has her beat in the name department. "Seeing Red" revealed his full name is Diebenkorn Russell. No wonder he uses D.B.

* ''[[University Challenge]]'' had one contestant called Steve Raper. To make matters worse, he represented the University of Bath, so every time he buzzed in [[The Announcer]] said "Bath Raper", which sounds like a [[Serial Killer]] sobriquet.

== Pro Wrestling ==

* Former [[ECW]] wrestler Balls Mahoney is an obvious example. According to his backstory, he learned to fight at a young age, fighting off bullies who picked on him because of his name. He seems to have embraced it as he got older, though, considering how [[Double Entendre]]-laced his promos were and his selection of AC/DC's "Big Balls" as his entrance theme.

* Teddy Hart, whose real name is Ted Annis, whose last name rhymes with... well, you know...

 

 

* The eponymous villain from ''[[I.M. Meen]]'' may have the lamest [[Punny Name]] ever. No wonder he's so, ahem, ''meen''.

* The random Hersir name generator in ''[[Age of Mythology]]'' gives us such gems as Thorvald Eggscreamer, Gisli Unsightlywisher, and Bersi Cheesedrowner.

 

== Web Comics ==

 

== Western Animation ==

** Something very similar happened in the episode ''Donnie Fatso'', where Moe Syszlak got a call requesting for a "Yuri Nater", and called out to the patrons asking for him, with predictable results. However, it wasn't a prank call, as the caller did actually intend to speak with a person by that name (The man in question was the caller's Russian business associate), and the person Moe was implied to have chewed out on for it was actually Fat Tony, the mafia leader.

** The "Flaming Moe" was originally named the "Flaming Homer". That is, "flaming 'mo" vs. "flaming homo".

** Principal Gene Vagina. Yes, he knows he was dealt a bad hand there and is very insecure about it.

** Also, [[Amusing Alien| Mr. Poopybutthole]]. Summer can barely even say the poor guy's name when calling an ambulance for him after he's shot! Fortunately, he survives.

** In fact, aliens with silly names is sort of a [[Running Gag]] on this show, like Bird Person, Shleemypants, and so on. There are even entire alien races with dumb names, like the Gromflomites, Floovians, and Squanchies.

* One poor kid from ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' had the name "Fatass McBlobicus", which Quinn initially assumed was just a teasing nickname.

* From ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]''; when it at first seems like Cheese is a second Friend that Mac has imagined, it seems this Trope applies. Mac can already predict the "Mac and Cheese" jokes everyone is going to mock him with. Subverted, however, as it is revealed at the end that Cheese is actually his neighbor Louise's Friend - he tends to get lost a lot.

* Bob Belcher, the protagonist of ''[[Bob's Burgers]]''; not a good name to have when you're running a hamburger joint.

 

== Real Life (People) ==

* Benno Baksteen (litterally translated ''Brick'') was a Dutch airline pilot and for nearly a decade, the president of the Dutch federation of airline pilots, and as such, appeared on national television various times.

** This, of course, means that in his plane, [[Comically Missing the Point|he was a]] [[Flying Brick]].

* [[The Soup|Let's take a look at]] [[Man Woman Wild|Myke Hawke]].

* ''A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since The Middle Ages'' was edited by [http://books.google.com/books?q=+inauthor:%22Harry+Cocks%22 Harry Cocks]. You'd think he'd become an expert on something else, or at least start going by Henry.

* Richard Ian Cox, the English dub voice of both [[Inuyasha]] and [[Ranma ½|Ranma Saotome]] (male form).

* Rick Santorum. Sound innocent to you? [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=santorum Well...]

* Irish Rugby League player [[wikipedia:Wayne Kerr|Wayne Kerr]]... think about it! Makes you wonder about his motivation to get into such a macho sport.

* Anal is a rather common Indian male name. It means "fire".

** it isn't an accident. ever been hit by one that's soaked?

* Honda had to rename one of their car models, Honda Fitta ("small on the outside, but it feels big once you're in it!") when launching it in Scandinavia since "fitta" is the Swedish word for "cunt."

** Financial firm Schroders was launching a new investment vehicle called the Schroders High Income Trust. They'd printed most of the promotional materials when someone noticed and the name was hurriedly changed to the Schroders High Income ''Fund.''

** It's somewhat fitting that UNESCO's program to bring universal internet coverage to all people has the acronym ''[[The Internet Is for Porn|IFAP]]''...