History Main / FamousNamedForeigner

* Hoxha. Usually named for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha Enver Hoxha]], the communist leader of Albania for 40 years.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had Captain Picard, a scientist-explorer, who sounds suspiciously like the (French-Swiss) Piccard brothers, who were scientist-explorers. Or Jean-Felix Picard, a 17th century French astronomer.

* Hadji Singh from the ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' series. Hadji is an obviously Muslim title, and Singh is obviously Hindu or Sikh. Also, the chances of a guy named Hadji Singh being the prince of Calcutta are rather low.

Even worse, sometimes the name might not actually be a name, with UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin for instance being a NomDeGuerre and no Russians outside of his family bearing that last name. And other time, the name is actually of a different country as the one intended to be portrayed; for example Creator/FryderykChopin being known as a Pole might mislead an author into thinking "Chopin" is a Polish surname when it's in reality a French one.

Even worse, sometimes the name might not actually be a name, with UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin for instance being a NomDeGuerre and no Russians outside of his family bearing that last name. And other time, the name is actually of a different country as the one intended to be portrayed; for example Creator/FrydErykChopin being known as a Pole might mislead an author into thinking "Chopin" is a Polish surname when it's in reality a French one.

A Famous-Named Foreigner is a character hailing from some foreign nation who, due to the authors not knowing anything about local naming conventions and/or [[SmallReferencePools thinking it would make their nationality more recognizable]] and/or just being lazy, is named after some very famous person from the respective nation's history or culture. Which most of the time sounds pretty ridiculous to the local ear, [[JustForFun/OneMarioLimit due to those names often being quite rare and primarily associated with those same famous persons]]. Even worse, sometimes the name might not actually be a name, with UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin for instance being a NomDeGuerre and no Russians outside of his family bearing that last name. And other time, the name is actually of a different country as the one intended to be portrayed; for example Creator/FrydrykChopin being known as a Pole might mislead an author into thinking "Chopin" is a Polish surname when it's in reality a French one.

A Famous-Named Foreigner is a character hailing from some foreign nation who, due to the authors not knowing anything about local naming conventions and/or [[SmallReferencePools thinking it would make their nationality more recognizable]] and/or just being lazy, is named after some very famous person from the respective nation's history or culture. Which most of the time sounds pretty ridiculous to the local ear, [[JustForFun/OneMarioLimit due to those names often being quite rare and primarily associated with those same famous persons]].

* The title character of ''ComicBook/AthenaVoltaire'' shares a name with the [[Creator/{{Voltaire}} famous Voltaire]], but Voltaire actually invented his as a pen name. That said, Athena's father was a well-known performer, and it's quite possible it wasn't ''his'' real name either -- he may have borrowed Voltaire for the stage, and since Athena became part of his act, she may have become known by it too.

* Vega is neither nearly as common a surname in Spain as it would seem from American fiction. Only some 65,000 had it as their first surname in 2019, and only 5,000 had "de la Vega."[[note]]About the same numbers had them as their second surname, which is inherited from the mother. TheMaidenNameDebate does not exist in Spain.[[/note]] However, it keeps popping in media because of Literature/{{Zorro}}'s real name, Don Diego de la Vega. The only famous living Spaniard with the surname Vega, actress Creator/PazVega, chose it as a stage name (her real surname is Campos).

* ''VisualNovel/LuckyDog1'' has Giancarlo [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Maria_Del_Monte Bourbon del Monte,]] Giulio [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giotto di Bondone]] and possibly Alessandro [[SpellMyNameWithAnS del Salto]] / [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_del_Sarto del Sarto.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Blackhawk}}'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janos_Prohaska Janos Prohaska.]] [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Note that Blackhawk is Polish, the RealLife Janos Prohaska was Hungarian, the surname is Czech (Slovakia was part of Hungary until 1918), and the first name isn't Polish either (that would be Janusz).]]

** Wojtyla dynasty, however, rules what remains of Poland in ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}''. It's baffling because the main authors of RIFTS -- Kevin Siembeda and Alex Marciniszyn have Polish ancestry.

* Early in the movie ''Film/{{Swordfish}}'', a Finnish hacker is arrested. His first name, Axl, is not a commonly used Finnish name, but his last name is Torvalds - just like a certain other [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds Finnish hacker.]]

* George de Sand from ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam''. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sand George Sand]] was the MustacheDePlume of a woman. It's meant to sound ''English'' - the French form of "George" is ''Georges'' and the French word for "sand" is ''sable''.

** Wojtyla dynasty, however, rules what remains of Poland in ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}''. It's baffling because the main authors of RIFTS - Kevin Siembeda and Alex Marciniszyn have Polish ancestry.

* In ''The Code of Dusty Fog'' by Creator/JTEdson, three trouble-making Russian members of a rail gang are named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruschev Kruschev,]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbachev Gorbachev]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_Gorky Gorki.]] That last one isn't even a real Russian surname. Likely a reference to Maxim Gorky (almost always anglicised with a 'y'), even though Gorky was actually a pen name (it means 'bitter') and the author's real surname was Peshkov. Possibly named after the city of Gorki, east of Moscow on the intersection of the Volga and Oka rivers - which was renamed to Nizhny Novgorod two years after the story was written.

* After JapanTakesOverTheWorld, Marty [=McFly=] addresses his boss in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' as Fujitsu-san. The problem is Fujitsu is only the name of a corporation; it is not a Japanese surname. It's a bit like having a character named Mr. Kodak.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** The real name of the Marauders mutant Scrambler is Kim Il Sung, after the communist revolutionary leader.

* In a bit of an odd real life example, the man who went to the moon (but didn't walk on it) with Louis Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was named Michael Collins, which is very odd for someone from Ireland as it's the exact same name as revolutionary leader Michael Collins who won the country's independence.

* In ''Manga/Eyeshield21'', Panther's all-American, white best friend is named Homer. Not exactly a common name in the States due to [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons who its associated with...]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has a fat villain named Heidegger, with an annoying laugh. He is in no way to be confused with either the Dr. Heidegger in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story or the eponymous German philosopher, author of "Being and Time," an inquiry into the nature and meaning of existence.

* Indian characters named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma "Mahatma"]] after UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi are a particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example, as "Mahatma" is an honorific, not a first name.

* In a bit of an odd real life example, the man who went to the moon with Louis Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was named Michael Collins, which is very odd for someone from Ireland as it's the exact same name as revolutionary leader Michael Collins who won the country's independence.

* In Creator/RudyardKipling's poem "Mandalay", the narrator's Burmese girlfriend is named "Supilawyat", i.e. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supayalat Supayalat]] like Queen Supayalat, wife of King Thibaw of Burma.

** Nene [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov Romanova]]. Note that Romanov(a) is a common Russian surname, and most Romanovs in real life has absolutely no connection to the royal dynasty. On the other hand, Nene [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign isn't a proper Russian name]], but [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nene_%28person%29 a Japanese name]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchess_Helene_in_Bavaria a Bavarian nickname.]]

* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'': The Dreyfus family shares its name with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus the most famous French Jew]] in history. Tarantino was actually drawing a reference to Julie Dreyfus, Alfred's descendant.
* Inspector Dreyfus of ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' films. The name itself however is originally Yiddish, a language related to German.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': Chester [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France Bonaparte]] in "Fresh Bones".

* Similar to the above, Gaëtan "Mole" Molière from ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' is named after famous French screenwriter and actor Creator/{{Molière}}, despite it being a made-up stage name rather than a proper French surname.

** ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''

* ''Anime/TrinityBlood'' has character named Václav Havel, same as the first Czech president.

* Celty [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorri_Sturluson Sturluson]] of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', who came from Ireland and now lives in Japan, but ended up with a Scandinavian name along the way. Kind of runs into problems because Sturluson is a patronymic, not a last name.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Brezhnev Simon Brezhnev]] of LightNovel/{{Durarara}}

[[folder:Aboriginal Australian]]
* ''ComicBook/GlobalFrequency'': Danny [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gulpilil Gulpilil.]]

** The [[UnfortunateImplications merry]] [[BlackAndWhiteMorality band]] of LovableRogue Basque terrorists are named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Miro J. Miró,]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lope_de_Vega Felix Carpio,]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Gutierrez_Mellado R. Mellado.]] [[CriticalResearchFailure None of these names are Basque in origin]], and are uncommon in the Basque Country.