History Main / NamedAfterSomebodyFamous

Compare ShoutOutThemeNaming, FamousNamedForeigner (when foreign characters are named after famous people from their countries just because the creators didn't research the relevant naming conventions), CharacterNameAlias (when the name in question isn't actually the character's real name but a fake one that they're using after a real or fictional famous person) and UnusualPopCultureName (when they're named for a famous ''character'', often embarrassingly). Contrast NearAndDearBabyNaming. If the character hates their given name (for example an atheist given an overly religious name) then they may invoke DoNotCallMePaul. When the famous person a character is named for is ''their own actor,'' it's TheDanza.

If characters are named after things like [[NamesToRunAwayFrom/NotoriousKillers famous killers]] or NamesToRunAwayFrom/{{conquerors}}, it overlaps with NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast.

Because this trope is so prevalent, it would be [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease inappropriate to include any real-life instances on this page]].

!!Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly:

!!Examples:

[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision. Many people have named their infants after characters made famous by religious/mythological scriptures: Adam, Eve, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Maria, Benjamin, Jonah, Joshua, Ezechiel, Joseph, Jesus (this name is more common in Spain than in other countries), Eli, Muhammad, Fatima, Thor, Venus, Hercule(s), Jason, Diana,... , sometimes without even knowing what these people actually did. Other names will also directly bring up associations with famous people nowadays: UsefulNotes/{{Napoleon|Bonaparte}}, WesternAnimation/{{Mickey|Mouse}}, Creator/{{Walt|Disney}}, [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar César or Caesar]], UsefulNotes/{{Cleopatra|VII}}, Music/{{Elvis|Presley}}, UsefulNotes/{{Adolf|Hitler}}, UsefulNotes/{{Osama|BinLaden}}, UsefulNotes/{{Saddam|Hussein}}, [[UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette Marie-Antoinette]], UsefulNotes/ElizabethII, Creator/{{Vincent|VanGogh}}, Creator/{{Marlon|Brando}}, Creator/{{Marilyn|Monroe}}, Creator/{{Rembrandt|VanRijn}}, Creator/{{Leonardo|DaVinci}}, UsefulNotes/{{Attila|TheHun}}, UsefulNotes/{{Genghis|Khan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Benito|Mussolini}}, Theatre/{{Romeo|AndJuliet}}, Marina (named after the 1958 song by Rocco Granata),...
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther Martin Luther]], initiator of the Protestant Reformation, gets regularly confused with UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr nowadays.
** Ironically King's father (whose original first name was Michael) named himself (and his namesake son) after the German theologian well into adulthood (and after Junior had been born). He heard Luther's story during a church study trip in Germany and was impressed by Luther's drive for change.
* Inversion in the case of Albert Einstein, the comedian, not [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein the physicist]]. He (the comedian) became famous as Creator/AlbertBrooks. His parents thought it was funny.
* Many streets are named after famous people. Some of them are still very famous to this day; others have fallen into such obscurity that you have to consult an encyclopaedia to find out who they were and what they did to earn a street named after them.
* Averted in the case of Creator/MichaelBJordan. He's actually named after his dad rather than [[UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan the basketball player]].
* Monarchies and colonies are really big fans of naming things after royalty and nobility. In the past, it was because it was only the nobility who were rich enough to finance the building of colonies and public works (and so got the naming rights in the bargain); currently, naming things after royalty is a relatively uncontroversial (unless you are a republican) way to honor the country without sounding partisan.
** Even in America, a lot of these names remain: Virginia/West Virginia (UsefulNotes/ElizabethI, The ''Virgin'' Queen), Maryland (Henrietta Maria of France), North/South Carolina (Charles I), Georgia (George II), Pennsylvania (Sir William Penn), and Delaware (from the adjoining Delaware Bay, in turn named for Thomas West, 3rd Baron ''De La Warr'').
* Though now more or less abandoned, the naming system of the US Navy had destroyers named after naval heroes. Currently they're named after admirals. Still in use is the trend of naming aircraft carriers after former presidents: most recently USS ''UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush'' (which is rather fitting, as Bush had been a naval AcePilot during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). The new class of supercarriers currently under construction is to be called the ''[[UsefulNotes/GeraldFord Gerald R. Ford]]'' class, as work on the ship was started shortly after his death.
** Uniquely, UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter asked if, rather than an aircraft carrier, he could have a nuclear submarine, as he had been trained as a nuclear engineer but left the Navy a year before USS ''Nautilus'' came online. Sure enough, USS ''Jimmy Carter'' is a ''Seawolf''-class nuclear attack sub, launched in 2005.

* There are quite a few porn stars who do this for PornNames -- usually a name that's similar, rather than identical (such as Dru Berrymore), although there is one young lady out there who performed in hardcore as Cindy Crawford... and as the [[Creator/CindyCrawford supermodel of the same name]] found out when she took legal action, the young lady's birth name really is Cynthia Crawford. Fair use prevailed. (She's since retired.)
** Averted in the case of Cindy Crawford's children - although her son is called Presley he is ''not'' named after [[Music/ElvisPresley we all know who]].
* Creator/ChrisColumbus. He ran with it by naming his production company 1492 Pictures.
* US Senator John Little [=McClellan=], named by his parents after a former governor named John Little.
* Winfield Scott (1786-1866) served as an officer in the United States Army from 1806 through 1861, as a general from 1814 until his retirement in 1861 at the rank of a Major General. "The Grand Old Man of the Army" played a prominent role in UsefulNotes/TheWarOf1812, the UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar, and various Indian campaigns, and designed the basic strategy which the Union used in the Civil War. Two other individuals born during Scott's tenure as a general officer were named after him, and also rose to command rank in the armed forces: Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, who served in the Army of the Potomac in the Civil War (and served under the original General Winfield Scott as a newly minted Lieutenant in the Mexican-American War), and Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, who commanded the U.S. squadron at Santiago in the Spanish-American War.
** Speaking of the Civil War, Union general UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Buford and Confederate general UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar Buckner. Unfortunately, [[CoolVersusAwesome they never met in battle.]] Neither did Union general [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] [[UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson Jackson]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tecumseh Tecumseh]] Dana and Confederate general [[UsefulNotes/GrecoPersianWars Leonidas]] Polk.
*** And, of course, the most famous case from Civil War would be UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman - to the point where, according to some biographers at least, it is actually ''William'' that had to be added to the name afterwards.
*** As would be UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant. Amazingly, his parents actually ''drew the names from a hat'' as a method of choice - and ''Ulysses'' was among the options because his step-grandmother had suggested the name of the famous Greek hero (''Ulysses'' being the Roman variant of ''[[Literature/TheOdyssey Odysseus]]''). [[{{Pun}} Granted]], Grant is a particularly odd example in that, according to himself at least, the "S." middle part [[MysteriousMiddleInitial doesn't really stand for anything]].
* Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was named for a famous doctor of his time, Naguib Pasha Mahfouz.
* Creator/DavidTennant's real name is David [=McDonald=] but uses the last name Tennant after Music/PetShopBoys singer Neil Tennant professionally because there was another David [=McDonald=] in the Screen Actors Guild. It should be noted that SAG requires you to register as your legal name if your stage name is already taken (so you can't just register as Creator/BradPitt or Creator/TomCruise and get a bunch of "accidental" calls), so David had to legally change his name before registering.
* Many places, people, and monuments in real life are named after famous people, [[TruthInTelevision making this...]]
* Very popular in space exploration. Features on other planets, such as impact craters, are frequently named after famous people, usually from the sciences or arts.
* Brazilian soccer player Roberto Carlos is named after an eponymous singer from that country.
* It is remarkably common in Brazil to name your son after a famous American- both Ronaldo and Ronaldo Gaúcho (Ronaldinho) are named after UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, and then there's Creedence Clearwater Couto...
** And it also happens in Portugal... Cristiano Ronaldo is ''also'' named after Ronald Reagan.
* Creator/SiegfriedSassoon owes his German first name to his mother's love for Wagner's ''Theatre/RingOfTheNibelung''.
* The Hong Kong TVB actress, Rebecca Chan (famous for a string of TVB roles in the 90s) named her son "Tiga"... after, you guessed it, that [[Series/UltramanTiga Ultraman with the same name]]. [[https://www.jaynestars.com/news/rebecca-chan-a-single-mothers-choice/ Yes, really]].
* A Romanian couple wanted to name their son UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden for this specific purpose. They eventually settled on Stefan (Steve), after the legendary Moldavian lord [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_III_of_Moldavia Stephen III]].
* In 2010, the [[http://www.behindthename.com/top/lists/us/2010/100 most popular names]] for babies born in the U.S. were Jacob and Isabella. Both names had been decently popular beforehand; Jacob, in fact, is undergoing a slight lull [[http://www.behindthename.com/top/name/jacob/us?viewing=graph in popularity]]. Isabella, however, only made the [[http://www.behindthename.com/top/name/isabella/us?viewing=graph top five]] in 2006, [[BabyNameTrendStarter right after a certain uber-popular]] [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga teen vampire book series]] hit the shelves. One cannot help but wonder if fans are letting their [[FanPreferredCouple preferred couple]] influence their ThemeNaming just a tad...
* Similarly, a number of too-obsessed Potters have named their sons [[Franchise/HarryPotter Harry]].
* A Japanese graphic design studio known for their graphic design work in ''VideoGame/{{A3}}'' is called "Gene & Fred", obviously owing their name to Creator/GeneKelly and Creator/FredAstaire, both being Hollywood's most famous song-and-dance men.
* George Washington Carver and Martin Luther King Jr. take things a step further than usual by bearing their namesakes' ''full'' name.
* SerialKiller John Wayne Gacy was named after Creator/JohnWayne, who was his mother's favorite movie star. One has to wonder how the Duke would have reacted if he had been alive at the time of Gacy's arrest.
* Creator/DianeKeaton (born Diane Hall) took her last name from Creator/BusterKeaton.
** Creator/MichaelKeaton (born Michael Douglas) didn't have to change his name until AFTER his time period working as a stagehand for ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' (during which time Diane was establishing herself in Creator/WoodyAllen comedies), but when he did (for [[Creator/MichaelDouglas obvious reasons]]) he got HIS inspiration from Diane Keaton's name.
* Creator/GeorgeTakei was named after [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor King George VI]].
* Music/BetteMidler was named after Creator/BetteDavis, although she's pronounced her name with one syllable, instead of two like Davis. Considering the fact that Bette Midler was the multitalented diva's real birth name, of course it was her mother who named her (after Mrs. Midler's favorite movie star), but it was also her mother who thought "Bette" was pronounced as per the single-syllable word "bet", instead of Ms. Davis's pronunciation (which is the same as the more traditional spelling of "Betty").
* Creator/JoanCrawford loved to state that in the 1940s, which is when her fame hit its ultimate peak, there was a massive influx of baby girls named Joan, half for UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc and half for Ms. Crawford herself.
* UsefulNotes/BillClinton and UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton named their daughter Chelsea after the Music/JoniMitchell song "Chelsea Morning", which itself got its name (and was basically about) the bohemian New York City hangout called the Chelsea Hotel.
* On the periodic table, elements 95 through 118 are mostly named after famous scientists, though a couple are named after famous laboratories instead.
* [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeLargeTheropods Cryolophosaurus]] was dubbed [[Music/ElvisPresley "Elvisosaurus"]] for its unique, curled crest before being given a formal name.
* A genus of ferns have been named ''Gaga'', after, of course, Music/LadyGaga, because its young, unfurled stalks tend to look like claws, similar to Gaga's "paws up" gesture. Going further, one species is named ''Gaga germanotta'', taken from her maiden name (Stefani Germanotta), and another has species name ''monstraparva'', which pretty much translates to Little Monsters, Gaga's FanCommunityNickname.
* Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio was named after painter Creator/LeonardoDaVinci. According to [=DiCaprio=], his mother chose the name because she visited a gallery while pregnant and she felt him while standing in front of a Da Vinci painting.
* Early 20th Century baseball player and Hall of Famer UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland Alexander was named after the President at the time of his birth. He was depicted in a movie in 1952, played by [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan a future president]].
* Flemish bar window painter Rubbes was nicknamed after Creator/PeterPaulRubens.
* NVIDIA has named their [=GPUs=] after famous scientists and mathematicians.
* Winter Park Resort in Colorado has one part of its front side where trails are named for famous people involved in the founding of the resort.
* Music/CelineDion's use of this trope is especially apparent in her younger twin sons Eddie (after Eddy Marnay, French-speaking songwriter who used to write songs for her) and Nelson (after UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela, the famous South African political figure). Her first son, René Charles, has a full (baptized) name of Joseph René Charles Dion Angélil, but the names Joseph and Charles were specifically taken from his great-grandfather (Joseph from his father's side, Charles from his mom's).
* Mickey Mantle, Hall of Fame baseball outfielder, was named after Mickey Cochrane, Hall of Fame baseball catcher. Later in his life, Mantle expressed relief that his father didn't know that the catcher's real name was Gordon Stanley Cochrane.
* Sometimes people don't get this entirely right, as with the Prussian-born American Revolutionary War hero, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who justified not dropping his noble title despite settling in New York and becoming an American citizen after the war, in deference to all the American children who had been named "Baron" in his honour.
* Creator/RobinWilliams named his daughter, Creator/ZeldaWilliams, after the princess in the ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' video games -- who was in turn named by creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto after Creator/ZeldaFitzgerald, the wife of Creator/FScottFitzgerald. This all came full circle when Creator/{{Nintendo}} featured the famed comedian in commercials promoting the 3DS remakes of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures Four Swords Adventures]]'', the latter of which also involved his daughter Zelda.
** F. Scott himself was named after Francis Scott Key, a distant relative and the lyricist for the national anthem of the United States.
* Music/{{Miyavi}} named his first daughter Lovelie '''''Miyavi''''' Ishihara. His real name is Takamasa Ishihara, so he named his daughter after his StageName.
* The chemical elements of Einsteinium, Rutherfordium, Nobelium, Lawrencium, Curium, and Meitnerium are all named after scientists.
* In 2017, one of the Weather Channel's winter storm names [[https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/winter-storm-names-2017-2018?cm_ven=T_WX_CD_100517_2 was chosen in honor of]] Wilbur Post from ''Series/MisterEd''.
* The Italian Space Agency created [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Purpose_Logistics_Module three containers]] and named them after three Renaissance artists: Leonardo, Raffaello, and Donatello. [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles For obvious reasons]], when NASA had to pick a project logo they went with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Multi-Purpose_Logistics_Module_Logo.png a Ninja Turtle astronaut]].
* If a male born in Argentina after the seventies has Diego as a first name, you can bet as much as you want that the middle name is Armando. "Diego Armando" exploded in popularity during Diego Armando Maradona's legendary performances in association football.
* Creator/SelenaGomez is named after Tejano singer Music/{{Selena}}.
* Music/NellyFurtado was named after gymnast Nellie Kim (and in fact, Kim is her middle name).
* Mussolini's father was [[IAmNotMyFather a socialist]], and he named his son [[UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini Benito]] after the liberal Mexican president, Benito Juárez. The traditional Italian version of the same name is Benedetto. As you can figure, the Spanish version gained some popularity in Italy after Mussolini became Il Duce.
* A number of ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' level editing tools are named after notable Creator/{{Nintendo}} employees: ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii''[='s=] is named Reggie (after Reggie Fils-Amie), ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU'' got Creator/{{Satoru|Iwata}} (an early version) and [[Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto Miyamoto]] (the current version), and the original ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros1'' has Creator/{{Gunpei|Yokoi}}.
* Meiji-era Japanese statesman [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itagaki_Taisuke Itagaki Taisuke]] {{invoked}} and {{exploited}} this trope. He was born Inui Masakata, but family traditions stated they are descendants of UsefulNotes/TakedaShingen's retainer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itagaki_Nobukata Itagaki Nobukata]] through Nobukata's disgraced son Nobunori (thus a different surname). In 1868, when he initiated [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kōshū-Katsunuma military action]] against the Takeda's Senkoku-era holdings, he was advised to revert to the Itagaki surname, since many samurai in the area were descendants of Takeda's retainers, and the idea that the forces were led by one of them would make good PR.
* Creator/MichaelJFox took his stage name after Creator/MichaelJPollard.
* Movie director Creator/RaoulWalsh gave actor Marion Michael Morrison the stage name Creator/JohnWayne in 1930, from "Mad" Anthony Wayne a hero of the American Revolution.
* Music/{{DMX}} named his daughter Aaliyah after [[Music/{{Aaliyah}} the R&B singer]], who was a friend of his before her passing.
* In an odd example of this trope, the World Meteorological Organization used [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Elsa]] as a hurricane name to replace the name Erica in a list for hurricane names of 2021. At the time the name was decided in 2016, ''Frozen'' was at the height of its popularity.
* Music/AnaisMitchell was named after French-Cuban author Anaïs Nin.
* Venezuelan lawyer José Ramírez Navas, a dedicated Marxist, was urged by his wife to give their three sons Christian first names. He didn't listen, naming them after [[UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin Vladimir Ilyich Lenin]]—starting with Ilich (1949), and later Lenin (1951) and Vladimir (1958). Ilich would go on to infamy as international terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
* Composer Harald Kloser named his son Lennon after Music/{{John|Lennon}}, and in a case crossed with TitledAfterTheSong, his daughter Luka after Suzanne Vega's song.
* Filipino politician and retired boxer Creator/MannyPacquiao named his daughter Queenie after Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII during the run-up to his match against British boxer Ricky Hatton.
* Tyson Fury was named after Creator/MikeTyson. And he also became a victorious boxer, because with that name, [[StevenUlyssesPerhero he just had to]]!
* Kenyan rally driver [[https://www.wrc.com/en/championship/teams-and-drivers/junior-wrc/driver/mcrae-kimathi/ [=McRae=] Kimathi]] was named after the Scottish [[UsefulNotes/WorldRallyChampionship WRC]] legend Creator/ColinMcRae, whose victories in the famed Safari Rally made him an icon in Kenya and inspired legions of Kenyans to start rallying.
* Creator/ShirleyMacLaine was named after Creator/ShirleyTemple.
* A common trend in the naming of weapons systems is to name them after someone important in their country of origin's military history.
** Many of the US Army's armored vehicles (tanks, APCs, etc.) are named after American generals. This practice was actually adopted from the British Army, after they purchased a batch of tanks, which the US Army had creatively dubbed "Medium Tank, M3", and renamed them as "General Lee", with an improved version being called the General Grant. The Americans would then continue this tradition to the current day.
*** The first US heavy tank, the [=M26=] Pershing, named after World War One general John J. Pershing
*** During UsefulNotes/TheColdWar, some American tanks, the M46, M47, and M60 would be nicknamed after the World War Two iconic general George S. Patton.
*** The two currently serving tanks in the US armed forces continue this tradition, with the M1 tank being named after Cold War general Creighton Abrams, and the recently adopted M-10 light tank being named after sargeant Stevon A. Booker and Private Robert D. Booker, both medal of honour recipients.
** The Soviet IS heavy tank family, named after its supreme leader, Iosef Stalin.
** The infamous World War II battleship Bismarck was named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the architect of the unification of Germany as a national entity after the Napoleonic wars.
** One of the lesser-known Brazilian military industry's creations was the Osório Main Battle Tank, named after Marshal Manuel Luís Osório, the patron of the Brazilian army's cavalry force[[note]]which the current day Brazilian army's armoured units descend from[[/note]].
* Edward Music/VanHalen decided to follow his middle name taken from a famous composer - Lodewijk, as in Music/LudwigVanBeethoven (in Dutch) - by naming his son Music/{{Wolfgang|AmadeusMozart}} Van Halen.
* Jewish tradition holds that after UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat took Jerusalem from Persia, he wanted to put a statue of himself in the Temple. Instead of this violation of the Commandments, the priestly families offered to name all of their sons after him for a year.
* The late Brazilian football legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento--more popularly known as Pelé--was named after UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison, but his parents removed the "i" from "Edison" and called him "Edson" instead; his birth documents however list his name as "Edison".
* Filipino comedian Michael V's birth name is [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven Beethoven]] Bunagan. His father did not however realise at the time that "Beethoven" was a surname.
* American singer-songwriter Music/TaylorSwift is named after [[Music/JamesTaylor James Taylor]].
* The parents of French actress Creator/AudreyTautou were fans of Creator/AudreyHepburn.
* Estonian professional basketball player Valmo Kriisa was an admirer of Steve Kerr, who was then winding down a successful NBA playing career and would go on to even greater things as an NBA coach. When he and his wife had a son early in 2001, they named him Kerr. The younger Kriisa would go on to play three seasons at his namesake's alma mater the University of Arizona before transferring to West Virginia University after the 2022–23 season.
* [[UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} Cincinnati]] restaurant Lucious Q. is named after Cincy's own namesake, Roman general Lucius Quinctius {{Cincinnatus}}.
* Music/OliviaNewtonJohn was named by her parents after screen legend Creator/OliviaDeHavilland.
[[/folder]]

*** During the cold war, a number of american tanks, the M46, M47 and M60 would be nicknamed after the World War Two iconic general George S. Patton.
*** The two currently serving tanks in the US armed forces continue this tradition, with the M1 tank being named after Cold War general Creighton Abrams, and the recently adopted M-10 light tank being named after sargeant Stevon A. Booker and private Robert D. Booker, both medal of honour recipients.

** The infamous World War II battleship Bismarck was named after chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the architect of the unification of Germany as a national entity after the napoleonic wars.
** One of the lesser known Brazilian military industry's creations was the Osório Main Battle Tank, named after Marshal Manuel Luís Osório, the patron of the Brazilian army's cavalry force[[note]]which the current day Brazilian army's armoured units descend from[[/note]].

* Jewish tradition holds that after UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat took Jerusalem from Persia, he wanted to put a statue of himself in the Temple. In lieu of this violation of the Commandments, the priestly families offered to name all of their sons after him for a year.

* Estonian professional basketball player Valmo Kriisa was an admirer of Steve Kerr, who was then winding down a successful NBA playing career and would go on to even greater things as an NBA coach. When he and his wife had a son early in 2001, they named him Kerr. The younger Kriisa would go on to play three seasons at his namesake's alma mater of the University of Arizona before transferring to West Virginia University after the 2022–23 season.