History Main / GiverOfLameNames

* [[GranolaGirl Phoebe]] in ''{{Friends}}''. Regina Filanji, anyone?

Someone who can't think of good names for things (or people if it's the character's kids). The names are too long, don't fit the thing(s), or are just weird.

* Young-and-Beautiful of '''{{Goblins}}''' gives names to the goblins of her village based on what's destined for them. While some get names like Chief or Complains-of-Names, there's also Dies-Horribly. And calling herself "Young-and-Beautiful" when she's a fat old hag. Guess from where Complains gets his name?

* Renge from ''AirMaster''. She has a tendency to give ridiculously bad names for Maki's signature moves, before one of the other girls interrupt her with a better name. They routinely joke that she has 'No naming-sense'.

!!Examples:

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

[[AC:Comics]]

* In ''AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' Dick Grayson, [[OverlyLongGag age 12,]] tells [[MemeticMutation The Goddamn Batman]] that "Batmobile" sounds lame. [[strike:Batman]] [[AtopTheFourthWall Crazy Steve]] visibly takes offense and tells Dick to shut up. Later he [[RantInducingSlight rants]] at Black Canary for making the same mistake.

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* Leonard of Quirm of {{Discworld}}. He invents loads of things, but his names for them just don't work. They are exact, but so wordy they won't catch on.
** There's a lot of lampshading of this one- for example, he has a device which is designed to be "''submersed'' in a ''marine'' environment." Naturally, he names it the "[[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering Going-Under-The-Water-Safely Device]]."

* Also in Discworld, Lancre ''as a country'' is [[RunningGag repeatedly said]] to suffer from this sort of thing, for two reasons. Firstly, its largely rural and uncomplicated population tend to choose names without regard for meaning ("There'd be a little Chlamydia running around today if her mother hadn't decided Sally was easier to spell"); and secondly, the Lancrastian naming custom dictating that whatever the naming priest says at the appropriate moment ''is'' the name. This has led to such gems as Princess Esmeralda Margaret Note Spelling, King My God He's Heavy the First, and James What The Hell's That Cow Doing In Here Poorchick.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In the short lived western spoof ''Legend'' (not to be confused with [[Film/{{Legend}} the movie]], but was by the same people who made ''TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr''), the inventor Bartok gives overly long names for his inventions.
* A recurring theme on StargateAtlantis. Lieutenant Ford was ''supposed'' to be terrible at naming things, but his names really weren't that bad. For example he wanted to call the original people from Atlantis the Atlantians. Shepperd scoffed at that, but it wasn't that different from the name they eventually used anyway.
** Similarly, a number of people tried to name the Lantian [[CoolShip shuttle]] a Gate Ship (It's a ship that goes through the Gate!), which turned out to be what the Atlanteans originally called it. This was shot down, again by [[TheNicknamer Sheppard]], who decided to call it a Puddle Jumper. It stuck.
** And the Wraith never used names (if they even had them) around humans, so Sheppard took to naming them things like "Michael", "Todd", and "Kenny". Lampshaded when [[DoctorJerk Dr. McKay]] got jealous that Sheppard always got to name everything.
* [[GranolaGirl Phoebe]] in {{Friends}}. Regina Filanji, anyone?
* In {{Dinosaurs}} the Elder is responsible for giving all dinosaur babies names. While most of them are normal sounding names, he would accidentally say the wrong thing and the clerk would write it down as the proper name. Like Baby's first name was "Augh Augh I'm Dying You Idiot".

[[AC:Stand-up Comedy]]

[[AC:Video Games]]
* A lot of things that gnome and goblin engineers make in ''WorldOfWarcraft''. Wrench? No no no, it's an Arclight Spanner. Screwdriver? No, that's a Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor. Heat Sink? Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector. Fishing Lure? Aquadynamic Fish Attractor.
* Sometimes Remilia Scarlet, from the [[TouhouProject Touhou Series]] is implied to be one of these in the fandom
* Karol from ''TalesOfVesperia.'' Unluckily for him, his name suggestions are always rejected and he is klonked on the head.

[[AC:Webcomics]]

* Young And Beautiful of '''{{Goblins}}''' gives names to the goblins of her village based on what's destined for them. While some get names like Chief or Complains Of Names, there's also Dies Horribly and calling herself Young And Beautiful when she's a fat old hag. Guess where Complains gets his name?
* The players from ''DarthsAndDroids'' consider the GM to be one of these (and many times end up taking [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Sally's]] names instead).
* In ''EverydayHeroes'', Mr. Mighty once worked for a superhero group known as the '''G'''roup '''O'''f '''O'''fficial '''D'''o-'''G'''ooders '''U'''nited '''I'''n '''S'''uppressing '''E'''vil ... or for short, GOODGUISE.

[[AC:Web Original]]
* In an AbridgedSeries of ''{{Trigun}}'', Knives is voiced as though he was [[AustinPowers Dr. Evil]], and his plans have names that are sexual in nature, and he never gets it. One plan is to steal a lumber from a place before dawn, and he calls it "Operation [[RagingStiffie Morning Wood]]".

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* Dr. Doofenshmirtz from PhineasAndFerb. It's always the whatever-inator.
* In ''CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', most of Flint's inventions have pretty straightforward names, even if they don't exactly roll off the tongue (Hair Un-balder, anyone?). However, his latest invention has the unwieldy title of "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" or [[FunWithAcronyms FLDSMDFR]] for short.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender's'' Sokka: "Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man"
** Actually he and Toph are quite good at making names. Which in the last episode makes them tell Suki: ''"Leave the nicknames to us, honey."''
* When [[TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]] becomes a [[MoralGuardians Moral Guardian]], she forms the protest group SNUH (Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding and Helping).
* The Military in the ''SouthPark'' movie "Imaginationland," whose projects and operations tend to be a little too [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on the nose]]: i.e. Project Imagination Doorway and Operation Nuke the Imagination Through the Imagination Doorway.
* In one episode of TimeSquad, the Earl of Sandwich attempts to give his new food creation the moniker of "Stinky Pile o' Poo." He claims that it was his mother's maiden name.
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* [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Finland]] from AxisPowersHetalia tried to name his pet dog "Go For It! Bomber" before [[HoYay his partner]] [[GentleGiant Sweden]] stopped him.

* This turned up a few times on StargateAtlantis. Lieutenant Ford was ''supposed'' to be terrible at naming things, but his names really weren't that bad. For example he wanted to call the original people from Atlantis the Atlantians. Shepperd scoffed at that, but it wasn't that different from the name they eventually used anyway.
** Similarly, a number of people tried to name the Lantian [[CoolShip shuttle]] a Gate Ship (It's a ship that goes through the Gate!). This was shot down, again by [[TheNicknamer Sheppard]], who decided to call it a Puddle Jumper. It stuck.

* In ''AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' Dick Grayson, [[OverlyLongGag age 12,]] tells [[MemeticMutation The Goddamn Batman]] that "Batmobile" sounds lame. Batman visibly takes offense and tells Dick to shut up. Later he [[RantInducingSlight rants]] at Black Canary for making the same mistake.

* A lot of things that gnome and goblin engineers make in World of Warcraft. Wrench? No no no, it's an Arclight Spanner. Screwdriver? No, that's a Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor. Heat Sink? Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector. Fishing Lure? Aquadynamic Fish Attractor.

* Also in Discworld, Lancre ''as a country'' is [[RunningGag repeatedly said]] to suffer from this sort of thing, for two reasons. Firstly, its largely rural and uncomplicated population tend to choose names without regard for meaning ("There'd be a little Chlamydia running around today if her mother hadn't decided Sally was easier to spell"); and secondly, the Lancrastian naming custom dictating that whatever the naming priest says at the appropriate moment ''is'' the name. This has led to such gems as Princess Esmeralda Margaret Note Spelling, James What The Hell's That Cow Doing In Here Poorchick, and King My God He's Heavy the First.

** And his code-breaking Engine for the Neutralisation of Information via the Generation of Miasmic Alphabets.

* In AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder Dick Grayson, [[OverlyLongGag age 12,]] tells [[MemeticMutation The Goddamn Batman]] that "Batmobile" sounds lame. Batman visibly takes offense and tells Dick to shut up. Later he [[RantInducingSlight rants]] at Black Canary for making the same mistake.

* Leonard of Quirm of {{Discworld}}. He invents loads of things, but his names for them just don't work. They are exact, but so wordy they won't catch on.
** There's a lot of lampshading of this one- for example, he has a device which is designed to be "''submersed'' in a ''marine'' environment." Naturally, he names it the "[[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering Going-Under-The-Water-Safely Device]]."
** In ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'', during the course of preparing a cheese sandwich, he redesigns a war machine to pull a plough and, since it's key feature is ''traction'', calls it the Machine For Pulling Heavy Loads. Also, to keep dairies cool for the cheese, he invents a device for regulating temperature by means of metal strips coupled to pulleys. He calls it the Device For Regulating Temperature By Means of Metal Stips (Coupled to Pulleys)
** The Make Words With Tiles That Have Been All Mixed Up Game!
* In the short lived western spoof ''Legend'' (not to be confused with [[Film/{{Legend}} the movie]], but was by the same people who made ''TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr''), the inventor Bartok gives overly long names for his inventions.
* In an AbridgedSeries of ''{{Trigun}}'', Knives is voiced as though he was [[AustinPowers Dr. Evil]], and his plans have names that are sexual in nature, and he never gets it. One plan is to steal a lumber from a place before dawn, and he calls it "Operation [[RagingStiffie Morning Wood]]".
* In the film ''Where The Heart Is'', a lady names her kids after candies.

* This turned up a few times on StargateAtlantis. Lieutenant Ford was ''supposed'' to be terrible at naming things, but his names really weren't that bad. For example he wanted to call the original people from Atlantis the Atlantians. Shepperd scoffed at that, but it wasn't that different from the name they eventually used anyway.
** Similarly, a number of people tried to name the Lantian [[CoolShip shuttle]] a Gate Ship (It's a ship that goes through the Gate!). This was shot down, again by [[TheNicknamer Sheppard]], who decided to call it a Puddle Jumper. It stuck.

* Dr. Doofenshmirtz from PhineasAndFerb. It's always the whatever-inator.
* In ''CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', most of Flint's inventions have pretty straightforward names, even if they don't exactly roll off the tongue (Hair Un-balder, anyone?). However, his latest invention has the unwieldy title of "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" or [[FunWithAcronyms FLDSMDFR]] for short.
* A lot of things that gnome and goblin engineers make in World of Warcraft. Wrench? No no no, it's an Arclight Spanner. Screwdriver? No, that's a Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor. Heat Sink? Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector. Fishing Lure? Aquadynamic Fish Attractor.

* In one ''UltimateFantasticFour'' comic, Ben, Sue, and Johnny all complain that Reed can't name things (the example they give being "The Fantasti-car"). Dr. Storm then says they should let Johnny name the shuttle Reed's reinventing. He names it the "Awesome". Reed is not amused.
** And later, just before the title got canceled, Ben is on his own and helps set up a shuttle to save Sue. He comments that "I finally got to name one of these doohickeys myself" while we see that the shuttle sports the name "Awesome II".

* In the ''FamilyGuy'' "Blue Harvest" ''StarWars'' parody, Grand Moff Tarkin (voiced by AdamWest) announces to Princess Leia his plans to use the "Death Star Planet Blower-Upper Gun" on her home planet of Alderaan.
* The Military in the ''SouthPark'' movie "Imaginationland," whose projects and operations tend to be a little too [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on the nose]]: i.e. Project Imagination Doorway and Operation Nuke the Imagination Through the Imagination Doorway.
* In one episode of TimeSquad, the Earl of Sandwich attempts to give his new food creation the moniker of "Stinky Pile o' Poo." He claims that it was his mother's maiden name.

* Young And Beautiful of '''{{Goblins}}''' gives names to the goblins of her village based on what's destined for them. While some get names like Chief or Complains Of Names, there's also Dies Horribly and calling herself Young And Beautiful when she's a fat old hag. Guess where Complains gets his name?
* The players from ''DarthsAndDroids'' consider the GM to be one of these (and many times end up taking [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Sally's]] names instead).

* [[NewAgeRetroHippie Melanie]] in ''Ally's World''. Her children are, in birth order: Linnhe (Pronounced 'Linny', after the lake in scotland, prefers to be called Linn), Rowan (After the tree), Alexandra (After the alexandra palace in london, she also shares it's nickname, Ally Pally), Tor (After Glastonbury Tor), and Ivy (After St Ives, a village in cornwall).
* [[GranolaGirl Phoebe]] in {{Friends}}. Regina Filanji, anyone?
* [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Finland]] from AxisPowersHetalia tried to name his pet dog "Go For It! Bomber" before [[HoYay his partner]] [[GentleGiant Sweden]] stopped him.
* Sometimes Remilia Scarlet, from the [[TouhouProject Touhou Series]] is implied to be one of these in the fandom
* An aversion occurs in FullMetalAlchemist. To most people, Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim seems to be an unnecessarily goofy-sounding name, thus making [[spoiler:Homunculus]] a GiverOfLameNames. It just so happens that this is taken from the real name of the real-life alchemist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus Paracelsus]]. The example is notable in that, while the trope is not actually in play, those without a passing knowledge of real-world alchemists would believe that it is.

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* Sometimes Remilia Scarlet, from the [[Touhou Touhou Series]] is implied to be one in the fandom

** Similarly, a number of people tried to name the Lantian [[CoolShip shuttle]] a Gate Ship (It's a ship that goes through the Gate!). This was shot down, again by [[TheNicknamer]]Sheppard, who decided to call it a Puddle Jumper. It stuck.

* This turned up a few times on StargateAtlantis. Lieutenant Ford was ''supposed'' to be terrible at naming things, but his names really weren't that bad. For example he wanted to call the original people from Atlantis the Atlantians. Shepherd scoffed at that, but it wasn't that different from the name they eventually used anyway.