History Main / AerithandBob

* The main characters and staff of the titular ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'' are named Angel Dust, Vaggie, Alastor, Niffty, Husk, and Charlotte "Charlie" (who ironically is the only one who was born a demon and never a human). Somewhat justified, as Sinners, [[DemonOfHumanOrigin human-born demons]], are using nicknames with the exception of Alastor. We know that the real names of Angel Dust and Vaggie are Anthony and Vagatha (which is fictitious but at least is a play on "Agatha") respectively.
** For its spin-off ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'', the main characters are named Blitzo (the 'o' is now silent), Moxxie, Loona and... Millie. Stolas's family consists of himself, his daughter Octavia, and his wife Stella. Other demons alternate between the unusual and mundane, like Fizzarolli, Sallie Mae (Millie's sister), Barb Wire, Crimson, Chadwick "Chaz", Vortex, and one imp was even named Dennis.

In stories set in TheFuture, new names can be assumed to have been invented or become popular over the years, while older names would still exist alongside them. Can also happen ''within'' an OverlyLongName, where a {{Muggle|s}}-type name is liable to appear amid a long series of archaic names. Most often, the "normal" name is "Terry", "Scott", "Dave", "Steve", "Lyle", or "Kevin", because those names are somehow inherently funny. Sometimes happens accidentally in a cast full of Aeriths if an author finds a name from another language that sounds exotic to them, since it will inevitably sound like a Bob to viewers from the culture it comes from. It can also happen if the writer has created a NamingConvention that happens to produce something familiar: if one culture has people called Zib, Gug, Mav, and Dod, then they might well also have a Bob, who only sticks out from the audience's perspective.

In stories set in TheFuture, new names can be assumed to have been invented or become popular over the years, while older names would still exist alongside them. Can also happen ''within'' an OverlyLongName, where a {{Muggle|s}}-type name is liable to appear amid a long series of archaic names. Most often, the "normal" name is "Terry", "Scott", "Dave", "Steve", "Lyle", or "Kevin", because those names are somehow inherently funny. Sometimes happens accidentally in a cast full of Aeriths if an author finds a name from another language that sounds exotic to them, since it will inevitably sound like a Bob to viewers from the culture it comes from.

* The Hyenas in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}''. We've got Shenzi, whose name is Swahili for ''demon'' or ''savage'', [[TheBrute Banzai]], Swahili for ''skulk'' or ''lurk'', and our [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} third hyena]] is named... Ed.

* Intentionally used in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' Trilogy, where the free human characters have unusual, often [[ThemeNaming mythology-based names]] such as Morpheus or Niobe. On the other hand, if you run into a character with [[OddNameOut a boring last name]] like Jones or Smith, you'd better start running.
** This is mostly because everyone who takes the red pill appears to abandon their old name when they leave the Matrix for a new one, or a previously existing nickname (like "Neo," which was originally just a nickname used by hacker Thomas Anderson).
** Entirely justified in that the freed people are all Internet geeks and hackers and let's face it, [[{{Contributors}} we all have ridiculous handles like that (or we crib them from games and anime)]]. It was probably only copyright that ensured that Neo never ran into the heroic resistance fighter [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]] or the daring pilot [[Anime/CowboyBebop Spike Spiegel]].
*** The Matrix managed to have a character named [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] (but married to [[WritingAroundTrademarks Zee]], rather than Zelda).

* ''Literature/Tam Lin'': The titular character's true love is either called Margaret or Janet.

* The ambiguously Legends canon ''ComicBook/StarWarsTales'' comic ''Lunch Break'' (from issue #17) gave us the stormtrooper friends Kjazhed-Uhl and Bob. But then post-clone Stormtroopers are recruited from many worlds, including colonies settled from multiple sources, so it's to be expected.
* Some [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kryptonian]] given names are strange, more often for men than for women. Women: Kara, Lara, Faora. Men: Kal (as in Kal-El) and Dru (as in General Dru-Zod) resemble [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Cal]] and [[Series/TheDrewCareyShow Drew]], but Jor (as in Jor-El)? 'El' and 'Zod' are family names. Thus Jor-El named his son Kal. Unmarried women [[UsefulNotes/{{Patronymic}} took their father's full name]] so Supergirl's Kryptonian name, in full, was Kara Zor-El. Superman's mother was Lara Lor-Van until she married Jor-El, but it's not clear if she then became Lara Jor-El or just Lara El. Faora, BTW, was Faora Hu-Ul while Zod was General Dru-Zod.
* In the Disney comic saga ''Wizards of Mickey'', [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts classic Disney characters]] Mickey, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pete keep their mundane names, while original characters have "fantasy-style" names like Nereus and [[Myth/NorseMythology Fafnir]].
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': In the Pre-Crisis continuity the [[Franchise/WonderWoman Amazons of Paradise Island]] were women from throughout history who had come to the island seeking refuge and chose to take an oath to uphold the Amazons' peaceful protective ways then drank from the Fountain of Youth and survived ingesting the dangerous water so their names were incredibly varied, including Althea, Diana, Fatsis, Gerta, Hippolyta, Mala, Metala, Orana, Sophia and Zoe.

* Many kinds of mythology and old literature now seem like this to the modern reader because certain names have caught on and certain names have not. While Patroclus and Thrasymedes wouldn't have stood out at the time, they now seem odd in contrast to names like Helen, Hector and Cassandra. However at the time of writing all of these sorts of names were common in one form of another. Sometimes it is worsened by varying degrees of Anglicisation such as "Jonathan" would be transcribed more accurately as "Yonatan" if one were to translate directly from the Bible.
* In the ballad of Tam Lin, his true love is either called Margaret or Janet.
* [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Arthurian mythos]] tends to suffer from mixed anglicisation and the later addition of Knights by French and English. Thus popular and important knights, like Drystan, are frequently changed into Tristan, while less popular ones kept the old Welsh form like Culhwch. Making things even worse is when there are characters added later with no Welsh roots, like Galahad and Lancelot who suddenly are thrown into to interact with the Welsh Knights without any comment on how their name sounds odd since the ones who initially added them to the story didn't speak Welsh and figured they'd be fine AsLongAsItSoundsForeign.
* Due to the massive widespread use of ''Literature/TheBible'', it was inevitable that a lot of the Hebrew names contained within would gain use in other languages. However, not every name. This can lead to interesting passages in the Bible detailing people whose names are either very familiar or foreign-sounding, not because they have different roots - in fact, they all have the same roots - but because some of them have been used and some haven't.
** Jacob had thirteen children with four women, going by the names Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah... Dan, Joseph and Benjamin. (Reuben is a semi-common name, however, as is Simon, a form of Simeon.)[[note]]And of course all of these names are still used by (mostly Orthodox) Jews.[[/note]] This also varies on the culture. In Finland, for example, it is Leevi (local form of Levi) and Simeon which are seen as mundane names, while Dan and Benjamin are exotic.

** The names for the Messiah in the Literature/BookOfIsaiah take this to an extreme. The first is Immanuel. The rest? Shearjashub, Mahershalalhashbaz, and Pelejoezelgibborabiadsarshalom.

** Of Jesus's main twelve disciples, most have entered common usage: Simon (AKA Peter), Andrew, James, John, Philip, Matthew, Thomas. There's also the uncommon Bartholomew, and Judas, [[NamesToRunAwayFrom/BiblicalNames which no one uses anymore]]. And another Judas, who also went by Jude and Thaddaeus.
** Paul's letter to the Romans includes greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Patrobas, and Julia.

* In ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'', everybody has a PunnyName... except [[FriendlyPirate Russell]] and Petunia. And even with Petunia, [[SignatureHeadgear you could probably guess what inspired her name]]. There is a StealthPun in Russell's naming convention as well, since it rhymes with mussel, a sea food Russell likes to eat.

* In ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'', everybody has a PunnyName... except [[FriendlyPirate Russell]] and Petunia. And even with Petunia, [[SignatureHeadgear you could probably tell what inspired her name]]. Russell, on the other hand, has a very standard name for a bunch of characters whose usual names go from [[MeaningfulName Flippy]] to [[IronicName Handy]], to [[ADogNamedDog Cub]]. Granted, there's a StealthPun in Russell's naming convention as well, since it rhymes with mussel, a food Russell likes to eat.

* In ''Film/ThePacifier'' the children's names are Zoe, Seth, Lulu, Peter, and Tyler. "Lulu" is a real name, but it's quite off coming from a white suburban family where everyone else's names are normal. Poor Lulu.[[note]]It could be short for something like Lucy.[[/note]]

* ''Film/AWedding1978'': The three Brenner kids are named Hughie, Muffin, and Buffy.

* ''Film/TheSantaClause'' and its sequels feature elves named, among others, Betty, Judy, Bernard, Hugo, Zippy and Crouton.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PlanBee'', Names like Beatrice and Bonnie show up alongside the likes of Afik and Belzar.

* ''WebAnimation/ElainTheBountyHunter'' includes characters named Elain and Dennis alongside characters named Dento, Gop Donsterly and Love Nugget the Heart Eater.

Not to be confused (or transliterated) with AliceAndBob. When it's played for laughs, it's an OddNameOut. See also SpecialPersonNormalName. Compare MeltingPotNomenclature, SesquipedalianSmith, WackyAmericansHaveWackyNames and MyFriendsAndZoidberg. One of the names may be a RealJokeName — for extra laughs, it might be "Bob".

* In ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'', everybody has a PunnyName... except [[FriendlyPirate Russell]] and Petunia. Even with Petunia, the flower on her head gives away her name's reasoning. Russell, however, is a very standard name for a bunch of characters whose usual names go from [[MeaningfulName Flippy]] to [[IronicName Handy]], to [[ADogNamedDog Cub]]. Granted, there's a StealthPun in Russell's naming convention as well, since it rhymes with mussel, a food Russell likes to eat.

** ''Film/{{Solo}}'' introduces [[MyNaymeIs Qi'ra (pronounced "Kira")]] and Enfys Nest (though both are real words, "Enfys" is Welsh for "rainbow, and certainly isn't a regular given name) vs Val and the very normal-sounding Tobias Beckett.

* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'' has this, to some extent. Our characters have names like Winston, Peter, Ray, Louis, and Dana... and Egon. "Egon" is an actual name (it's Teutonic and means "edge of a sword" -- [[MeaningfulName actually quite fitting]] for a character who is [[BadassBookworm both a genius and a warrior]]), but it still sounds out of place next to more common ones. The cast are an example, too. Creator/BillMurray, Creator/HaroldRamis, Creator/ErnieHudson, Creator/RickMoranis, Creator/DanAykroyd... and ''Creator/{{Sigourney|Weaver}}'' [[Creator/SigourneyWeaver Weaver]].

* Every real-world analogue character in ''TabletopGame/DamnationDecade'' has a bizarre name, and they're really bizarre, like the authors were pulling random nouns from a hat to generate names (Ampersand Vole, [[UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter Quantrill Biscuit]]). The most reasonable-sounding names include Stanton Spobeck's secretary Ethel Ambrose Pratt, host of ''Beyond the Barrier'' [[Creator/LeonardNimoy Herman Purvis]], and musician Edmund Fitzgerald, famous for a song about the sinking of the ore freighter ''Music/GordonLightfoot''.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': Warforged were created without names, only numerical designations. As they realized names make it easier to socialize with other races, they have begun taking some, or having names given to them by people they interact with, but without any fixed pattern, this can be generic name humans/elves/dwarves/some other races would use, a word for a concept they feel fits them (Bulwark, Vanguard, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Lord of Blades]]), the name of an object, or even words that aren't in common. Some Warforged also retain their numerical designation as they still look for an "ideal" name.

* The Shakespearean RPG ''[[{{TabletopGame/Forsooth}} Forsooth!]]'' encourages mixing in a few common (or silly) English names, regardless of the setting--like how ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' was set in ancient Greece but had a character named Bottom.
* While not a fantasy setting in the traditional sense, the ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' book "Grimoire of Grimoires" has a grimoire take the form of a black metal/industrial album put together by a band called Schattenbahn. The band's lineup is Blixa Dark, Hellson, Regenfeuer, Doktor Kultur... and Andy.
* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', major characters tend to have names like Urza or Lim-Dul. This makes names like Peter Douglas (a minor character from Fallen Empires) seem incredibly strange. Occasionally, this is played for laughs. For example, one short story had a demonic dark lord named Vincent who employed a human chef named Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar.