History Main / DayOfTheWeekName

In many traditions, for a very long time, a handy shortcut to giving a child a MeaningfulName has been to name that child after one of the days of the week.

This pagan-based naming has ticked off the Catholic Church, so some countries with lots of Catholic influence will have boring names, based on what prayers should be done. Or even more mind-numbingly uninventive: long ago in Iceland, a Catholic bishop renamed Tuesday to "third day", Wednesday to "middle week day", Thursday to "fifth day" and Friday to "fasting day." The Quakers also used numbers for days of the week instead of honoring Pagan deities (Sunday was the first day, etc), and in Hebrew they've always been numbers ("Sabbath" comes from the Hebrew word for seven).

Naming a character in this way is a good way to connect them to some of these previously described figures. Also, naming a character after a weekday may imply he is similar to the day's feel (See ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''). Someone named Monday can't be fun, because ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} [[HatingOnMonday hates Mondays]], right? On the other hand, Saturday must be super fun to hang out with, and, ladies, he's single.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', ''[[VideoGame/PokemonCrystal Crystal]]'' and the remakes ''VideoGame/PokemonHeartGoldAndSoulSilver'' there are seven [=NPCs=] called the Week Siblings, whose names resemble days of the week: Monica of Monday, Tuscany of Tuesday, Wesley of Wednesday, Arthur of Thursday, Frieda of Friday, Santos of Saturday, and Sunny of Sunday. They appear on the day of the week they're named after in various locations and initially provide type enhancing items. In the remakes if they've all been met, they then give out ribbons for Pok

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''/''Crystal'', there were seven [=NPCs=] whose names resembled days of the week and would only appear on the day of the week they resembled: Monica of Monday, Tuscany of Tuesday, Wesley of Wednesday, Arthur of Thursday, Frieda of Friday, Santos of Saturday, Sunny of Sunday.

* In ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia,'' Vyse's rival explorer is named Domingo, the Spanish word for Sunday

So, anyway, naming a character in this way is a good way to connect him to some of these previously described figures. Also, naming a character after a weekday may imply he is similar to the day's feel (See ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''). Someone named Monday can't be fun, because ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} [[HatingOnMonday hates Mondays]], right? On the other hand, Saturday must be super fun to hang out with, and, ladies, he's single.

* In "VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia," Vyse's rival explorer is named Domingo, the Spanish word for Sunday

* In ''ComicBook/MsTree'', Michael Tree's maiden name was Friday.

This pagan-based naming has ticked off the Catholic Church, so some countries with lots of Catholic influence will have boring names, based on what prayers should be done. Or even more mind-numbingly uninventive: long ago in Iceland, a Catholic bishop renamed Tuesday to "third day", Wednesday to "middle week day", Thursday to "fifth day" and Friday to "fasting day." The Quakers also used numbers for days of the week instead of honoring Pagan deities (Sunday was the first day, etc).

* The TV film ''Film/SnowWhiteTheFairestOfThemAll'' has this for the Seven Dwarfs' names and uses the Nursery Rhyme (see Page quote above) to introduce them.

* ''GirlFriday''

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This is useful because each weekday has an array of meanings. Many European languages derive their names from the Roman practice of naming them after the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Roman gods]], either by adopting the Roman names or by substituting them with similar local gods (e.g. [[Myth/NorseMythology Germanic gods]]). From the original Latin, we have Monday as "Dies Lunae", Moon's day, Tuesday is "Dies Martis", Mars' day, Wednesday is "Dies Mercurii", Mercury's day, Thursday is "Dies Iovis", Jupiter's day, Friday is "Dies Veneris", Venus' day, Saturday is "Dies Saturni", Saturn's day, and Sunday, "Dies Solis", which is... Sun day.

This is easier to remember in Latinate languages. The days of the week in French, for example, are Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi and [[OddNameOut Dimanche]]. In Spanish, those days are Lunes, Martes, Miercoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sabado, and Domingo. An exception but still easy is Portuguese, where considering Domingo is the first day, the five following it before Sabado are "[ordinal number]-feira" starting with second (Segunda, Terça[[note]]Though that's "third" as in fraction, in ordinal it would be "terceira"[[/note]], Quarta, Quinta, Sexta).

* Two from ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'', Wednesday Ryan and Wednesday Garci. Given this is a KillEmAll [=RP=], full of woe is quite apt.

* The ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' books, of course. The eponymous heroine aside, her mother is Wednesday Next, her son is Friday Next, and her daughter is Tuesday Next. The only one who doesn't fit is her daughter Jenny. This [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] the fact that [[spoiler:Jenny doesn't exist--she's a mindworm (an imaginary, persistent idea) implanted in Thursday that later spreads to the rest of the family]], making her a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]].