When robots, computers, and other machines appear in fiction, there are a few common ways for them to be named.
- A phrase describing the machine's function is shortened to an acronym, or made the name itself.
- A common word or name is made into a relevant backronym. If the acronym describes the function of the robot, then it's an A.I.-cronym, and should go there.
- A string of numbers and letters, often containing at least one hyphen.
- A similar string of numbers or letters which resembles a word or name, either as written, or when read aloud.
- Slightly mutated terms related to math, machinery or electronics.
- Robo-something
- Something-tron or Something-bot
- References to other pop culture, or actual human names.
See also A Mech by Any Other Name, Names Given to Computers and Name-Tron. Sub Tropes include A.I.-cronym.
A phrase describing the machine's function is shortened to an acronym, or made the name itself.
- Alpha from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou named herself after her model name, since it was still pretty rare when she was created.
- Eradikator 6, the Exterminators and the Protectors from the Marvel Universe.
- In the Five Nights At Freddys fanfic Something Always Remains, Puppet is derived from P.U.P.P.E.T., which stands for Protocol Unit for Personality Performance Engagement Test. It was the first animatronic with a programmed personality and function, and its ability to develop a personality and adapt to changes in its programming was the basis for the others after it.
- Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space. A Tin-Can Robot calls itself Tobor because that's the name written on its chest.
Proton: That says 'robot' you fool—you were looking in a mirror!
- WALL•E: AUTO is short for Autopilot.
- Both Ash and Bishop from the Alien franchise have names containing SH, possibly to indicate they are Synthetic Humanoids. Falls apart in Alien: Resurrection with Annalee Call, though.
- Desk Set (1957) featured the Electro-Magnetic Memory and Research Arithmetic Calculator, known as EMERAC (or possibly EMMARAC) for short.
- Beta of The Last Starfighter
- The robots in Short Circuit belong to the SAINT (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) line, but each one is simply known by its model number. The main character is Number Five, who gains sentience from being struck by lightning. At the end of the movie, he decides to give himself a human name, choosing "Johnny" from the pop song "Who's Johnny". But he thinks it sounds cool to keep his number too, so he settles on "Johnny Five".
- Navi from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
- That Mitchell and Webb Look has Cheezoid, designed to recognise cheese by smell. It can't.
- Hatchworth of Steam Powered Giraffe plays this straight with a name describing his function. Additionally, The Spine plays with this trope, having a name based on his skeletal structure. And Rabbit's name references robotic glitches, which she is prone to.
- As a Magnus originally designed to be a toy robot, the superhero-like name of Kid Ultra from Battleborn is derived from his marketing tagline: "Kid-friendly, Ultra-dependable".
- Robo, the, um robot party member from Chrono Trigger.
- Etrian Odyssey Untold: M.I.K.E., the AI who watches over Gladsheim and becomes the last boss found there, stands for Memetic Installation Keeper Engine.
- EDI, short for Enhanced Defense Intelligence and pronounced "ee-dee," in the two later Mass Effect games is a shackled AI with a female personality, hardwired into the Normandy SR-2. Her primary purpose is running the ship's cyberwarfare suite. Joker is forced to remove the shackles late in Mass Effect 2 to save the ship, and she remains loyal.
- Only a handful of Robot Masters of Mega Man (Classic) aren't called "Something man", where something describes some kind of theme related to their powers or function.
- Mega Man X is named after the numeral variable (x) because of his limitless potential to adapt and change.
- The various Mavericks of Mega Man X use a two-word descriptive naming formula comprised of an adjective describing an ability of theirs and their species (IE, Armored Armadillo is a heavily armored robotic armadillo, Flame Stag is a fireball-tossing robotic deer, etc.). This only applies to the eight animalistic bosses per game that grant weapons, however, and not to more humanoid named enemies such as Sigma.
- Persona:
- Persona 3 has Aigis, whose name reflects that she is both an Artificial Intellgience and an aegis (Ancient Greek for a protective garment or a protector). And in the extra chapter you meet Metis, whose name is Greek for wise or skilled.
- Appearing in Persona 4: Arena, Labrys, named for the shape of her preferred weapon (a kind of Ancient Greek double-headed axe).
- GLaDOS, the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System from Portal. Her name might also be a variant of "Gladys", as in the naming scheme below.
- CID from Saints Row IV goes by this name because he's a consciousness uploaded into one of the C.I.D. (Control and Interface Device) units of the Zinyak empire.
- In TRON 2.0, a particularly knowledgeable Tower Guardian program is called I-No.
- All Terrain Armored Combatants or ATACs, from the PS1 game Vanguard Bandits.
- Sawtooth Rivergrinder from Freefall, a terraforming robot.
- Roofus the Roof-Repair Robot from The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!
- ROSS, short for Rudyard Oscar Shelton Software, is an AI created by the namesake scientist in Darwin's Soldiers.
- NEPTR, the Never-Ending Pie-Throwing Robot from Adventure Time.
- The BOYZZ bots of The Bots Master all had names based on their programmed skillsets.
- XR from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is an X-Perimental Ranger. ER makes slightly more sense but forget that, X is just cooler. (And you won't confuse it with "Emergency Room.")
- Truth in Television. X is the universally recognized letter to let people know that something is a prototype, or "experimental" equipment. That's why experimental planes are called X-Planes and have designations like "X-10" or "XF-1". It's similar to how fighter jets tend to have F in their designation.
- It's X instead of E because under the US aircraft designation system, E is used for EW aircraft, such as the E-3 Sentry.
- Truth in Television. X is the universally recognized letter to let people know that something is a prototype, or "experimental" equipment. That's why experimental planes are called X-Planes and have designations like "X-10" or "XF-1". It's similar to how fighter jets tend to have F in their designation.
- Futurama's Bender (whose full name is Bender Bending Rodriguez, since he was built in Mexico, and "bending" is his middle name).
- Quite a few fit: Flexo, Angleyne, Roberto (the robber), Clamps...
- Uniblab of The Jetsons, given that his purpose was to blab on the employees to Mr. Spacely.
- Linguo, from The Simpsons, whose function is to correct grammatical errors.
- Mechanical Lifeforms aren't immune either, just ask Transformers such as Bonecrusher, Onslaught, or Ruination. But if you pick one of those three, phrase it very, very carefully. Otherwise you might be asking First Aid, Fixit, or Medix next.
- The early vacuum-tube computer ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), and its successor EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer).
Alternatively, a common word or name is made into a relevant backronym. If the acronym describes the function of the robot, then it's an A.I.-cronym, and should go there.
- Miyu for "Multiple/Merciful Intelligential Yggdrasil Unit" (depending on whether it's the Hime or Otome universe) from the My-HiME.
- J.A.K.E., short for "Jungle Assault Killer Experiment", from The DCU.
- A.D.A.M., short for "Ambient-Energy Dampening Actualization Module", from the Marvel Universe.
- Iron Man:
- H.O.M.E.R. (Heuristically Operative Matrix Emulation Rostrum).
- I.S.A.A.C.
- B.E.N., short for "Bio-Electronic Navigator", from Treasure Planet.
- All of the robot characters in WALL•E, including the main character ("Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-class") and EVE ("Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator").
- The Black Hole: V.I.N.CENT, short for "Vital Information Necessary, CENTralized".
- Moon: GERTY
- Red Planet: AMEE ("Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion").
- R.O.T.O.R.: The titular protagonist's name, stands for: "Robotic Officer Tactical Operation Research."
- The titular character of The Murderbot Diaries befriends an AI piloting a university research vessel, which it nicknames ART, or "Asshole Research Transport".
- Parodied in Friends with C.H.E.E.S.E.:
Joey: I'm up for the part of Mac Macaveli or "Mac". I'm a detective and I solve crimes with the help of my robot partner. He's a Computerized Humanoid Electronically Enhanced Secret Enforcer or "C.H.E.E.S.E."
Rachel: So... Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.?
Joey: That's the title! Yeah! You know, they really lucked out that the initials spell cheese.
Chandler: That is lucky. - Mr. R.I.N.G. ("Robomatic Internalized Nerve Ganglia") from Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
- Parodied in a KTMA episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 when Joel reveals to Crow in a flashback that his name actually stands for "Cybernetic Remotely Operated Woman." After Crow flips out that he's really a woman, Joel reveals it as the elaborate set-up for a joke.
Crow: Boy, I feel like Morey Amsterdam.
- R.I.C. ("Robotic Interactive Canine") from Power Rangers S.P.D.. A two-parter also involved a Robot Girl named Sophie, for "Series One Processor/Hyper Intelligent Encryptor".
- S.A.M. ("Super Automated Machine") from Sesame Street.
- SELMA (Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive) from Time Trax.
- The titular robot from B.O.B, whose name doesn't appear to stand for anything.
- The GDI tactical control AI throughout the Command & Conquer: Tiberium series is the Electronic Virtual Assistant. Nod has the Computer-Assisted Biologically-Augmented Lifeform, as well as LEGION (known to be an acronym as well as another of Kane's self-indulgent Biblical references, but never expanded upon in the game).
- In Infinite Crisis Mecha-Superman is a Kryptonian Artificial Lifeform, also known as K.A.L.
- R.O.B, the Nintendo robot who has made cameos in several games. Stands for "Robotic Operating Buddy", since it helps you play games.
- In Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, Z.E.R.O.'s name isn't actually an acronym; he's named after Ziggy's brother Zero, and as a reference to the fact that his serial number (SGNB00000000AA) contains many zeroes.
- Spindizzy stars a remote-controlled probe named GERALD (Geographical Environmental Reconnaissance And Land-mapping Device).
- Xenosaga:
- KOS-MOS. Her name is not only a backronym, it's also a recursive acronym. Kosmos Obey Strategical Multiple Operation Systems.
- MOMO is an acronym for Multiple Observation Mimetic Organicus.
- Parodied on Dragon Tails. Bluey creates the Christmas Holographic Refracting Illusion System, and names it...Barry.
- The CyborgName website bacronyms your name and sells T-shirts with the robot names on them. This wiki translates as "Transforming Versatile Technician Responsible for Observation, Peacekeeping and Efficient Sabotage".
- F.L.U.F.F.I. from Bionic Six.
- MAR-10 from Dexter's Laboratory.
- I.S.R.A.E.L., short for "Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser Lady", from the Drawn Together movie.
- H.E.R.B.I.E. ("Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics") the robot from the De Patie Freleng Enterprises version of The Fantastic Four (1978).
- The comic also featured H.U.B.E.R.T., short for Hyper-Ultronic Brain Employing Randomized Tracings.
- The B.A.T.s ("Battle Android Trooper") from G.I. Joe.
- N.I.G.E.L. from Godzilla: The Series stands from Next-millennium Intelligence Gathering Electronic Liaison.
- Parodied with GIR on Invader Zim:
Zim: "GIR"? What does the "G" stand for?GIR: I don't know...
- JANICE, from Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, stands for "Junctioned Artificial Neuro-Integrated Cybernetic Entity".
- The Simpsons:
- E.A.R.L., short for "Electronic Automatic Robotic Lighthouse."
- There is also C.H.U.M., short for "Childlike-Humanoid-Urban-Muchacho."
- The eponymous robot in the Transformers episode "B.O.T." is a "Biotronic Operational Telecommunicator."
- In Carmen's backstory in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, The Chief's name is revealed to be an acronym meaning "Computerized Holographic Imaging Educational Facilitator." Back when he worked with Carmen, he was a robot.
A string of numbers and letters, often containing at least one hyphen.
- Project 2501, a.k.a. the Puppet Master, from Ghost in the Shell (1995).
- P-01s from Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere.
- The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection/Detonation movie duology has IR-S07, or as they're more commonly known "Iris".
- MX39147 from Alpha Flight.
- RRU-9-2 from The DCU.
- Machine Man's official designation when he was built was X-51, but he much prefers the name his adoptive father gave him, Aaron. In fact, addressing him as "X-51" is probably the fastest way to make him angry at you.
- SJ3RX, better known as Red Ronin, from the Marvel Universe.
- From The Matrix's expanded media, the first robot to intentionally kill a human was named BI66-ER.
- Star Trek: Nemesis: B-4, Data's idiot older brother.
- Picard: "Dr. Soong's penchant for whimsical names seems to have no end."
- Star Wars has R2-D2 and C-3PO among innumerable others.
- It is interesting to note that in certain historical periods, some fans believed that this naming convention was not specific to robots, believing Kenobi's first name to be "OB-1"
- Referenced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels for the Wii. If Kenobi fights himself,
Obi-Wan: If I'm Obi-Wan, does that make you Obi-Two? - In the Star Wars Expanded Universe novel Vision of the Future, there's a character named Entoo Needaan E-elz, Entoo Nee for short. The characters who meet him find his name interesting, rather like a droid's designation. He smiles and tells them that people do sometimes mistake him for a droid.
- It is interesting to note that in certain historical periods, some fans believed that this naming convention was not specific to robots, believing Kenobi's first name to be "OB-1"
- Buck Rogers gives us Twiki, from the robot's alphanumeric designation: TWKE-4
- House of Robots: Robots Go Wild!: Dr. Ignatius Ignalls builds a robot to act as his injured son's eyes and ears at the school. It's name is Substitute Student 10,000, but is shortened to SS-10K.
- The title character in Eric Frank Russell's 1941 story "Jay Score" is revealed to be a model J.20 robot on the final page.
- Isaac Asimov's Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury: The robot who had been sabotaging Project Light was created in the Sirius system and given the serial number RL-726.
- Although not robots, Lois McMaster Bujold uses this in the Vorkosigan Saga for the names of several genetically engineered life forms.
- In Ethan of Athos, Terrance's full product number includes Terran-C, and Janine's number includes J9.
- In "Labryinth", Miles meets Nine, the last survivor of ten prototypes. She is later renamed Taura.
- The Quaddies from Falling Free all have names derived from their serial numbers as well. The names vary from traditional (Tony) through unusual-but-not-unheard-of (Silver) to decidedly odd (Pramod).
- The early Power Rangers seasons have Alpha 5 and Alpha 6.
- From the Japanese source franchise, Tensou Sentai Goseiger attaches these sorts of strings to the names of the robotic Matrintis villain faction.
- The Denshi Sentai Denziman had a real-looking robot dog called IC.
- On Red Dwarf, Kryten (obviously) as a more "normal" first name, but his full name is Kryten 2X4B-523P.
- In one episode, he claims that he shortens it to Kryten since he thinks "2X4B" is a dorky middle name. But not as bad as an acquaintance of his, called 2Q4B.
- BlazBlue: ν-13, the Yandere Robot Girl SNK Boss.
- From Chrono Trigger, R-66Y AKA Robo.
- CyberLife-manufactured androids in Detroit: Become Human are designated by model names consisting of two letters signifying their model line and a number in the hundreds signifying which series they are. Concerning the protagonists, Kara is an AX400, Connor is a RK800, and Markus, who is apparently an earlier revision of Connor's model, is a RK200.
- The playable robot character in Don't Starve is named WX-78. In addition to fitting the Theme Naming of all player characters starting with W, this also matches the serial numbers for Robert Wagstaff's creations.
- Ratchet & Clank: Clank has at least three names; two of them are strings of numbers (one his serial number and the other his actual name, XJ0461) and the last— well what do you think it is?
- The E-Series robots from Sonic the Hedgehog all have this style of name, with E followed by a number. E-102 Gamma, and E-123 Omega are the main examples.
- The W-Series in Super Robot Wars, despite coming up with normal sounding names, they have their own robot names, which ranges from W00 to W17, in order of the creation sequence.
- The English localization of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony renames the Ultimate Robot Kiibo (pronounced like kibou, the Japanese word for hope) to K1-B0, though he's still nicknamed Keebo, pronounced like in Japanese.
- It seems that the standardized format for designating robots in Gunnerkrigg Court is through single-letter model designations (H-Models for the horse robots, HL-Models for the heavy lifting robots, S-Models for the "Seraph" robots, etc.). Individual robots get numbers appended to their model name: the robot that Annie built is S13, and the Super Prototype of the S-Models is S1.
- Though there are multiple exceptions: see every other subsection of this page.
- Questionable Content has the Moray series of robots, going by names like Moray-21. Each one chooses her number.
- Robot X-1 from Futurama.
- XJ-9 in My Life as a Teenage Robot. She doesn't like the name much and prefers to be called Jenny. Her 8 sisters also follow the convention with XJ-1, XJ-2, XJ-3, etc.
- K-10, KIT-9, and COCKA-3 from the "Go God Go XVII" episode of South Park. They are supposed to be close to things you'd read as an actual word; if K-10 and KIT-9 switched numbers, they would be read like "canine" and "kitten," in reference to the species they are designed after. Similarly, if COCKA-3's number was one less, it'd be "cockatoo."
- Elita-1 from Transformers.
A similar string of numbers or letters which resembles a word or name, either as written, or when read aloud.
- Trinity Blood: HC-IIIX, usually known as Father Tres Iqus
- L-Ron from Justice League International. Also Hein-9, K-Dikk and J-Lo.
- She-Hulk: RT-Z9, AKA Artie Zix, with the ix at the end being the roman numeral for 9.
- The writers of a number of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence fanfics have decided to go with this theme when it comes to Mechas, for example Joe is usually given a serial number that starts with JO and the mass produced Davids and Darlenes are referred to as DA models. Mecha Original Characters include Danny (DY), Drew (DR), Ralphie (RP) and Kurt (KR).
- Nobody Dies has the Reego, who have taken names from their Roman Numeral designations — Ⅰ is Una, Ⅱ is Due, Ⅲ is Tres, and Ⅳ is, well, Ivy. The Ree, though a clone/bioroid line instead of robots, probably also count, as they are also named after numbers (from Rei=0 on up), and three of the Evangelions (or their AIs) have nicknames based on their unit numbers: Ichi, Zwei, and Go-kun.
- Done as an Actor Allusion in the Transformers: Animated fanfic Return to Cybertron, where Sari is told by Perceptor that her original protoform designation was T4R4-5RT0N6.
- Meet the Robinsons has DOR-15, pronounced "Doris."
- In Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon, the robot working for The Men in Black is called MUGG-1N5, referring to the British slang word "muggins" meaning "person who's stupid enough to be left with the rotten jobs" (usually used to refer to oneself, and thereby combining Self-Deprecation with complaining).
- B-4 from Star Trek: Nemesis (giving hell of a work for translators...)
- Isaac Asimov: His US Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation would give each robot series an alphanumeric serial number. They would usually nickname those models for fun afterwards.
- "The Bicentennial Man": The robot in this story is part of the NDR series, although he cannot recall what those numbers are after all these years.
- "Catch That Rabbit": The DV series model is of a central robot with six additional robots networked to function as subsidiary systems. The central robot is officially DV-5 (and unofficially Dave), while the first of the subsidiaries is DV-5-2.
- "First Law": The MA robot series are often called Emma.
- "Galley Slave": The titular character is an EZ-27, nicknamed "Easy".
- "Lenny": The LNE series gains the In-Series Nickname of "Lenny".
- "Liar! (1941)": The RB models are called "Herbie".
- "Little Lost Robot": The NS-2 models are called "Nestor".
- "Reason": The QT models are robots, and QT-1 is the first one of its type. To humanize it, Powell and Donovan call it "Cutie".
- "Runaround": Rather than using the model designation, SPD 13, Powell and Donovan call their robot Speedy.
- "Satisfaction Guaranteed": The TN-3 models are called "Tony".
- "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him": The robots in this story are named JG-10 and JG-9, and nicknamed George.
- "Victory Unintentional": One technician suggested the ZZ series be known by the ironic "Sissy", but said technician was immediately shushed and the subject never mentioned again.
- "Feminine Intuition": US Robots were originally assuming the JN series would be nicknamed John. Once they come up with the gimmick of presenting the series's more creative brain as "feminine intuition", they became Janes.
- The Bolos created by Keith Laumer usually have three-letter designations (sometimes with numbers) and nicknames derived from those designations: Unit LNE (Lenny), JSN (Jason), SPQR (Senator), DAK (Das Afrika Korps), and RML-1138 (Rommel) are typical examples. The last two appear in unrelated stories.
- The android main character in Almost Human is a DRN model known as Dorian.
- Doctor Who's K9.
- TAC from Mirai Sentai Timeranger
- VICI on Small Wonder.
- Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba!.
- The CL4P-TP General Purpose Robots in Borderlands are normally referred to as "Claptraps" or "Intergalactic Ninja Assassin".
- Mecha Wonder Woman in Infinite Crisis has the designation D1A-NA.
- Hearthstone: V-07-TR-0N's name may at first glance appear to be a collection of random letters and numbers, but it's actually a reference to Voltron.
- Inscryption has P03, the Scrybe of Technology and a TV Head Robot. P03 is supposed to be read as Poe and a reference to Poe's Law.
- Jak X: Combat Racing has UR-86, a robot designed to takes out its opponents. UR is obviously "you are" and "to 86" means to get rid something. The death bots in Jak 3: Wastelander are referred to as UB-86 (never stated in-game, but mentioned in the Strategy Guide).
- O2-JOY, from Noitu Love.
- River City Girls: The giant robot enemies, with names like D4-V1D, 64-RC14, and CH-R15.
- Ma3a (Mathreea) from TRON 2.0.
- T-ELOS, also from Xenosaga.
- In Bob and George, the original robot characters named N4-T3 and C1-14D-L1N6, which just happen to look like Nate and Chadling, respectively.
- Princess Voluptua's valet, W-2: 9000 from The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! is a reference to the W2 tax form.
- Schlock Mercenary has some fun with this one. For those not sufficiently familiar with Roman numerals, the other names mentioned are, in order: "Gavin", "Xavier", "Algernon", "Macey", "Victor", "Allen", "Michael", "David" and "Michelle".
- Genetically engineered life forms, actually, but Sequential Art gives us 5C4RL37, V10L37, 4M83R, and J4D3.
- In a Questionable Content guest strip, Erika Moen's robotified Self-Insert is called Er1-KA Muon.
- NO. 3113 from The Adventure Zone: Balance, pronounced Noelle. She's actually the ghost of a little girl named Noelle, forced by a Mad Scientist to possess a robot for his experiments.
- Fresh Cut Grass from Critical Role is sometimes referred to as F.C.G ("effigy").
- Not actually a robot, but worth mentioning: XLR8 of Ben 10 fame. However his species does have wheels on their feet, so they may qualify as cyborgs. Later series give the same style of name to other members of his species, such as ML-E and K8-E.
- NOS-4A2 From Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. It's an energy vampire, and its model name when spoken aloud sounds like Nosferatu.
- GICU2 the short-lived transforming security robot from DuckTales (1987).
- The Mighty Orbots, Tor, Bort, Bo, Boo, Krunch and Ono had names that reflected their personalities.
- Tor was the strongman.
- Bort was the shapeshifter with an identity crisis, and his name is a partial anagram of the word robot.
- Actually, except from Ono and Krunch, all of the Orbots' names are partial anagrams of "robot."
- Bo and Boo were mischievous twins.
- Ono was the babysitter figure, who tended to preface every scolding of the others [including their human leader] with "Oh, no!"
- In Phantom 2040, Enforcer Sagan Cruz has a cyborg police dog named DVL, reflecting the previous Phantom's wolf, Devil.
- SPRX-77 from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!. His name is mostly pronounced as simply Sparx.
- C1-10P, aka "Chopper", from Star Wars Rebels.
Slightly mutated terms related to math, machinery or electronics.
- Mekanique from The DCU.
- Computo from The DCU.
- Marvel Universe:
- Mechano.
- Electro and Elektro.
- Mekano from Wonder Comics.
- Dot Matrix from Spaceballs.
- Tik-Tok from the Oz books.
- Gadget from Doctor Who.
- Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Data. Also, Androids made by Data's creator and his students tend to have names related to information processing and transmission. Data's Evil Twin is called Lore, while Star Trek: Picard introduces androids of the same type with names like Saga, Arcana, Sutra, Codex, and Rune.
- From Super Sentai and Power Rangers
- Mag from Choushinsei Flashman
- Colon from Choujuu Sentai Liveman
- Circuit of Power Rangers Time Force.
- Metal Alice of Tensou Sentai Goseiger and Power Rangers Megaforce.
- Datas, also from Goseiger.
- Upgrade, former member of Steam Powered Giraffe.
- Clanky from Backyard Sports.
- Curly Brace and protagonist Quote, the robots from Cave Story, are named after punctuation marks.
- Clank from Ratchet & Clank.
- Mecha-Nicole from Everyday Heroes.
- Qwerty and Dvorak from Freefall, named after different keyboard setups.
- The TicTocs from Gunnerkrigg Court (though this name has only appeared in paratext so far) are named for the sound they make.
- Cynthia, the synthoid from Batman Beyond.
- Calculon and URL from Futurama. Partial example with mafia thug Joey Mousepad.
- Also Dot Matrix from ReBoot.
- Arcee, the first female character from Transformers. Her name is RC (Remote Controlled) phonetically.
Robo-something
- The Big O: As a Shout-Out to Isaac Asimov, robots preface their names with the initial R (for robot). The one most often encountered was R. Dorothy Wayneright.
- The titular character of Atomic Robo, a robot built by Nikola Tesla in the 1920s.
- RoboGadget from the 1999 film version of Inspector Gadget
- RoboCop's titular character, although he was technically a cyborg.
- Ro-Man from the infamous B-Movie Robot Monster.
- Isaac Asimov:
- The Caves of Steel: The robot novels have Spacer robots who are all given the first initial R. (for robot) in front of what appeared to be near-human first name/last name name builds.
- Mirror Image: The tradition established in The Caves of Steel continues; the robotic personal assistants are named R. Preston and R. Idda, with the "R" standing for "Robot".
- Robot from Lost in Space.
- Robogog from Tensou Sentai Goseiger. As part of the series' sci-fi-movie Shout-Out Theme Naming, his is based on RoboCop.
- Robo Knight from Goseiger's adaptation Power Rangers Megaforce, a completely separate homage to RoboCop.
- Again from Chrono Trigger, Robo aka R-66Y, which means he fits two different subtypes of this trope.
- Robo-Ky from Guilty Gear XX is a robot designed to resemble Ky Kiske.
- Robo Drilldigger from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Not to be confused with the real world 'Drilldigger' machine, which just breaks rocks.
- Gunnerkrigg Court:
- When Annie builds a robot, she simply names it Robot, and he answers to this from then on. It's later revealed that his original name was S13.
- Also, Robox. Who is basically a box on legs.
- Not to mention Boxbot, who has arms but no legs at all. He's like Robox's lame twin.
- Robot Redshirt from the League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions.
- SCP-846, also known as Robo-Dude.
- The Robot Devil, Robot Santa Claus, Robo-Puppy, and some others in Futurama.
- Robotella, the Biskit Family's spa robot in Littlest Pet Shop (2012).
- Robot Jones from Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?.
Something-tron or Something-bot
- All the Power Spheras in BoBoiBoy (and its prequel, Mechamato, note ) have "[name]Bot", with the name often relating to the power or a certain feature they possess.
- Ultron from The Avengers.
- Fantastic Four:
- Victor von Doom has several Doombots.
- Doom also had an android called the Robotron at one point.
- The Cybertrons, also from the Marvel Universe.
- Biotron and Microtron from Micronauts (Marvel Comics).
- The Orgasmatron in Barbarella, invented by Duran Duran
- The protagonist of The Murderbot Diaries named itself following a malware attack that forced it into a killing spree. The name's private, though, and it tends to go by SecUnit (its function - security unit) in public.
- The Buffybot from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Polyphase Avitron from Doctor Who.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 has Cambot.
- The Robotrons from Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
- Frobot The Player Character that the game is named after, naturally.
- The Flaming Antasmatons found in Neo Bowser Castle in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team.
- Lie-Bot from Achewood
- From the webcomic Adventurers!, Killer Evil Death Spybot 5000. Who's with the protagonists.
- Doorbot (a robot porter who is literally bolted to his door) and Boxbot (a box on wheels) from Gunnerkrigg Court.
- Gofotron from Sluggy Freelance.
- Futurama's Hedonism-bot, Preacher-bot, Kwanzaa-bot, Don-bot, and dozens more!
- Bunnie Rabbot of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) is another cyborg example of this naming convention.
- Subverted with Team Umizoomi's Bot. His name is simply Robot for short.
- Megatron (who later becomes Galvatron) of Transformers
- Lots of Transformers characters or places have the "-tron" or "-bot" naming convention: Autobot, Transbot, Cybertron, Banzai-tron, Velocitron...
- Additionally, up until 2007, the Japanese names for Autobots and Decepticons were 'Cybertrons' and 'Destrons' respectively.note
References to other pop culture, or actual human names.
- Chachamaru Karakuri in Negima! Magister Negi Magi: her name is written with the Kanji for "tea", while "Karakuri" are a spring-powered, tea-serving doll mainly used in Japan's Meiji period. Meaningful Name indeed.
- Most robots from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou choose their own, usually human-sounding, name. Kokone is one such example.
- Skeets from Booster Gold, he's a small yellow flying security bot with a laser, you figure out why he's called Skeets.
- Which is to say the flying targets at shooting ranges, which resemble him. Not the hip-hop slang kind of skeet. (Also a kind of target shooting, but not the kind you're thinking of.)
- Carl from Meet the Robinsons.
- David from A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.
- All of the replicants in Blade Runner have human-sounding names, although some are unusual (e.g., Roy, Leon, Pris, Zhora.
- Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet.
- Zane Gort from The Silver Eggheads by Fritz Leiber, a robot author (creator of the popular Dr. Tungsten series), whose name is an homage to Zane Gray and to Gort, the alien robot of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Also, his lady-love, the government-built censor-robix, Miss Phyllis Blushes. (She's plated in pink anodized aluminum. Zane, on the other hand, is blued steel.) (And "robix" is that setting's term for a female robot. Robot sexuality is one of the amusing features of the setting.)
- Marvin, the Paranoid Android, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- Get Smart - Hymie. ("My father's name was Hymie!")
- The Late Late Show - Geoff Peterson
- Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo and Gypsy from MST3K
- Kryten from Red Dwarf is a reference to the head butler in the J.M. Barrie play The Admirable Crichton, but with Xtreme Kool Letterz. His replacement in "The Last Day" is Hudzen, presumably after Hudson the butler in Upstairs Downstairs.
- Star Trek: Voyager. In the Show Within a Show The Adventures of Captain Proton, Satan's Robot is a Shout-Out to the so-called Republic Robot, an overused prop in various Republic serials including ''Mysterious Doctor Satan''.
- From Super Sentai and Power Rangers:
- Murphy from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger
- In its source, Tensou Sentai Goseiger, the Matrintis robot villains all have names based on sci-fi movies - for instance, the above-mentioned Robogog and Metal Alice are respectively named after RoboCop and Metropolis (the other villain factions are named for alien and monster sci-fi movies).
- Goseiger's adaptation Power Rangers Megaforce has Tensou.
- The Buddyroids of Tokumei Sentai Go Busters are all named for the animal they're themed after and that animal's diet: Cheeda Nick (cheetah and niku, "meat"), Gorisaki Banana (gorilla), Usada Lettuce (usagi, "rabbit"), and Beet J. Stag (beetle/stag beetle, and the J is is for jukei, tree sap).
- The Jon, former member of Steam Powered Giraffe.
- As a Magnus originally designed to serve the rich as a butler and reflect high society values, Marquis d'Caliber from Battleborn has a noble sounding name.
- Chrono Trigger hat trick: Prometheus AKA R-66Y AKA Robo.
- Legion in Mass Effect 2, named after the bible passage for it's Mind Hive nature.
- Eva Core, Cerberus's successor to/replacement for EDI in Mass Effect 3, is named for an actual human in the game's background who was once affiliated with Cerberus. As the robot Eva was designed as an infiltrator, basing it on a real person (albeit one who had been dead for some time) may have helped with fabricating identification and so forth.
- Coga Suro: Lincoln. Later robot names follow a Greek mythology theme [Styx, Persephone, Hades]. There's also Mr. Roboto.
- The robot cows from Gunnerkrigg Court are all named Elsie with a number (for example, Elsie 113). This was apparently chosen because "Elsie" sounds just like "L.C.", which stands for Laser Cow. Also a reference to the Borden Company's cartoon mascot, Elsie the Cow.
- Winslow and Momo from Questionable Content
- Hanna-Barbera's Frankenstein Jr..
- Tinny Tim and Malfunctioning Eddie from Futurama, among others.
- Rosey and Mac from The Jetsons were not given names that meant anything if broken down into acronyms.
- Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot, though as mentioned above, she's also called XJ-9.