History Main / MeaningfulName

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': Leonard Church. Means nothing at first, but in ''Reconstruction'', [[spoiler:after Church is revealed to be an [=AI=], we hear the Director of Project Freelancer narrate an EpilogueLetter about how all [=AIs=] are based off of a human mind. He then signs off with his own name, [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Doctor]] Leonard Church.]]

* Another major WWII figure, Japanese Admiral [[UsefulNotes/YamamotoIsoroku Isoroku Yamamoto]], had such a name. His given name of "Isoroku" was an old Japanese term for "56"— his father's age at the time of the future admiral's birth.

* In the ''Radio/CabinPressure'' episode "Qikiqtarjuaq", Arthur is highly enthusiastic about flying to the eponymous community to look at polar bears. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, there is a theory that "Arthur" means "watcher of the bear".

* Most mythology is like this--check Wiki/TheOtherWiki for details, but some examples include Odin meaning something like "fury, excitement, poetry"; Aphrodite, "sea foam", as in what she was born out of; Ra means probably "sun" or "creator"; Amaterasu-ōmikami is "the great august deity who shines in the heaven"; Shiva, "The Auspicious One", was originally a euphemistic nickname for Rudra, "the Roarer"; even El (and its plural Elohim), Hebrew names of God, were Semitic for "deity". Meaningful names were the only names people had for most of history--why would a person be named gibberish, after all?

* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: The person's name just so happens to match their job.

* "C++" is a computer language that's an improved version of the [[UsefulNotes/TheCLanguage "C"]] computer language. The Meaningful Name, as well as {{Pun}} (if you understand the computer language) kicks in when you know "++" is an affix within "C" that when attached to a variable, ''increases its value''. Thus the name "C++" means "C improved/taken UpToEleven" - which it is.

** Its discoverers originally suggested naming it "Xena", after the Creator/LucyLawless character. It has a moon. Named Dysnomia, after the Greek spirit of lawlessness.

* [[AwesomeMcCoolname Lake Speed]] was a NASCAR driver in the 1980s and 1990s, who is of no relation to Scott Speed, who had a brief NASCAR career in the late 2000s-early 2010s.

* German anthropologist Adrian Zenz, or rather, his chosen Chinese name, 鄭國恩; 鄭 is the surname and 國恩 ("nation's mercy"). He is most well-known for investigating the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang by China.

* ''WesternAnimation/LiteSprites'': The sprites' names are all based on what powers they have. Prisma controls all color in general, Brooke has water color magic, Astra has magic alluding to the sky and stars, Meadow has floral and earth-based magic, and Bleak despises color and is more intent on stealing it, turning whatever she zaps greyscale.

* ''Toys/LiteSprites'': The sprites' names are all based on what powers they have. Prisma controls all color in general, Brooke has water color magic, Astra has magic alluding to the sky and stars, Meadow has floral and earth-based magic, and Bleak despises color and is more intent on stealing it, turning whatever she zaps greyscale.

** And of course almost ''all'' the names have their own in-universe meanings in the fictional ''BIONICLE'' languages

Sometimes used more subtly; the Meaningful Name only becomes obvious in hindsight, but when the clincher is revealed it's a moment of "Now how did I miss that?"

* EuphemisticNames: When a person's name is a DoubleEntendre.

* DescriptivelyNamedSpecies: When an entire species' name fits their physical description.

*** Jacob's original name (meaning "supplanter") was appropriate enough, considering he exchanged a bowl of soup for his brother's birthright - which entitled him to inherit the family patriarchy and 2/3 of Father Isaac's possessions. [[WhatAnIdiot Nice going there, Esau]].

-->''"Damn you Dealbreaker Jones, [[WhatAnIdiot that wasn't part of the DEAAAALLLLL!]]"''

* ''Animation/InfinityNado'': In the Chinese original, Jin is named Ye Feng (叶枫), which literally means leaf in the breeze". Sure enough, his Infinity Nado powers involve [[BlowYouAway air attacks]].

* Franchise/{{LEGO}} at one point caused quite a controversy for trying to trademark words from the Maori language as ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' names. These included Tohunga (craftsman, name of the resourceful villagers), Toa (champion, name of the heroes), Turaga (village chief), Kanohi (face, used as masks in ''BIONICLE''), and a collection of others. After the controversy, which had forced LEGO to change a few of these names (most famously Tohunga to Matoran), they began using made-up words, although the online games occasionally still took meaningful words from existing languages like Finnish, Egyptian, Hawaiian, Hungarian or Japanese -- however these weren't trademarked, and the few that were had to have their spellings changed. A lot of the made-up names also have clear meanings:

* Chinese Olympic skier [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Gu]], or her Chinese name 谷爱凌, which literally means "Valley Love Ice". Even her English name (although "Eileen" technically came from Irish) means "Radiant Valley".

* Most if not all characters from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'', sometimes to the point of double meanings. Nutty is a hyperactive to the point of insanity squirrel, Handy is a skilled carpenter and mechanic who happens to [[IronicName lack hands]], The Mole both [[ADogNamedDog is]] and [[BeautyMark has]] a mole, the list goes on.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' are named after philosophers John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes.