History Main / NamedByDemocracy

* Creator/DCComics' Solomon Grundy was named after the nursery rhyme when he told someone he didn't have a name, and had emerged fully grown from the swamp on a Monday.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

-->'''Scar:''' Long ago this body did have a holy name given by god, but that person died years ago from a life of sin, malice and retribution.
* In ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', Ayumu Kasuga is quickly nicknamed Osaka (after the city she just transferred from) in spite of her protests. By Year Two, this name catches on to the extent that even the teacher forgets her real name. [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} At one point she even forgets what her real name is.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/Homestuck}}'s'' character names all came from fan suggestions.

->''"All students proceed to the Butthead Memorial Auditorium.'' [turns off mic]'' Damn it, I wish we hadn’t let the students name that."''

->''"I was tall, it's true, all of six foot two. They broke me across my back! My name unknown, it's not my own! They call me Crooked Jack."''
-->-- '''Irish Folk song'''

* ''Webcomic/Homestuck'''s character names all came from fan suggestions.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' foe [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Genocide]] does not appreciate the name democracy chose for her. She offered no alternative though so people kept calling her Genocide.

* The main character of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', Skitter, gets named by the Wards. She doesn't particularly care for it, [[spoiler:and later changes it to Weaver.]]

* The people start calling the thing that claimed to be from the beyond as the "Beyonder" in ''ComicBook/SecretWars''.

* This is basically how 'wolves' are given their ''nom de geurres'' in ''Anime/BenTo''; usually as a result of [[EmbarrassingNickname embarrassing situations that the 'wolf' in question is caught in]]. For instance, Satou ended up becoming known as 'The Freak[=/=]Pervert' after [[DraggedIntoDrag being seen in public wearing women's clothing]] (against his will, yes, but not that that would help him). It later turns out that Shaga got her name 'Beauty by the Lake' after [[spoiler:she fell asleep in the park after netting her first half-price meal]], and Yarizui became known as the 'Ice Witch' when [[spoiler:she unwittingly attempted to purchase a vodka mixer to go with her meal, under the impression at the time that it was a soft drink]].

* This, along with BreadEggsBreadedEggs, gave secret heir to the throne Tomjon his name in ''Discworld/WyrdSisters''. When Mrs. Vitoller, his to-be adopted mother, asks Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg what his name is, they don't know what the king actually wanted to name him, so they simultaneously say "Tom" and "John," then settle on "Tomjon."

* ''Who Am I'': The protagonist is asked who he is in a language he can't understand. As he is amnesiac he demands to know, "Who am I?". The locals just think he's hammy and shout "Who Am I" with equal enthusiasm when they want his attention.
* In ''Film/{{Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides}}'': The mermaid captured by Blackbeard's crew for the {{Fountain of Youth}} was named "Syrena" by Phillip in an attempt to prove a point to Blackbeard, since Phillip doesn't know Syrena's real name as it was never revealed.

* In contrast to how military pilots in fiction are pretty much guaranteed to have AwesomeMcCoolname call signs, in real life they're often joking or even insulting because the nicknames are dreamed up by the pilot's fellow students or even the instructors in flight school, hopefully due to a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome but more likely something they consider an OldShame (but which their peers found to be a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}). Go into fighter school expecting a name like "Maverick" and you might come out, after an unfortunate incident involving a negative-G maneuver and some bad breakfast, having "Upchuck" stenciled on your cockpit.

* Successfully {{defied|trope}} by La Sombra and Rush in Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, whose trio with La Mascara was originally dubbed "Los Indeseables" based on the fact no one wanted anything to do with them but officially became "Los Ingobernables" thanks to their insistence.

* The French gave [[Wrestling/EdStranglerLewis Ed Lewis]] the RedBaron "Strangler" because that's what they thought he was doing to his opponent when he applied a Sleeper Hold.

Perhaps the original is too hard to pronounce, maybe the subject in question simply doesn't have one at all, refuses to tell, [[IdentityAmnesia or just forgot it]]. For whatever reason the masses decided on a fitting name for the subject and are sticking to it regardless of any protests. They've been named by democracy. Compare VerbalTicName, where the subject will really have a hard time protesting this, and AppropriatedAppellation, where someone will adopt their title from someone else's guess or mistake. The naming of the subject has to be depicted or described to be this trope, if we don't know how it came to be it is more likely KnownOnlyByTheirNickname or EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep.

* ''WonderWoman'' foe [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Genocide]] does not appreciate the name democracy chose for her. She offered no alternative though so people kept calling her Genocide.

* TheIncredibleHulk was an example of this trope but it's since been retconned away.

* In contrast to how military pilots in fiction are pretty much guaranteed to have AwesomeMcCoolname call signs, in real life they're often joking or even insulting because the nicknames are dreamed up by the pilot's fellow students or even the instructors in flight school, hopefully due to a MomentOfAwesome but more likely something they consider an OldShame (but which their peers found to be a CrowningMomentOfFunny). Go into fighter school expecting a name like "Maverick" and you might come out, after an unfortunate incident involving a negative-G maneuver and some bad breakfast, having "Upchuck" stenciled on your cockpit.