History Main / PropheticNames

** Likewise, the "Marduk Institute" chose child candidates to pilot the Evangelions. The fact that Marduk was also a Sumerian god to whom children were (supposedly) sacrificed is appropriate.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': This applies in-universe to Megatron, who is named after the Transformer equivalent of Judas, and usually had that name ''before'' he became a villain.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': Wasp got his name from his "stingers", but the name takes on a new meaning when he gets mutated into a half-wasp/half-bot creature.
* ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'': Overhaul, who gets a MidSeasonUpgrade into Leobreaker.
* Used throughout the ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' franchise to a degree. A pony's name tends to correspond to his or her personality/special talent, even though they are named before their later personality would be apparent (and finding their talent becomes a major focus of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic.'') For example, Twilight Sparkle, the main protagonist, becomes a princess alongside Celestia (Equestria's daytime ruler) and Luna ("Princess of the Night"). In a more "What were they thinking" example, in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', the Cakes name one of their newborn babies Pound Cake. Guess what he proves to have a troublesome habit of doing to things once he comes home from the hospital? Hint: It's not caking things.
** The mother of Pound Cake was initially referred to as "Mrs. Cup Cake." At one point, Applebloom learns that she was confused about her path in life when she was younger, to which Applebloom quips "Weren't you always Mrs. Cake?" and she responds that her name was originally Chiffon Swirl, implying that she changed her name after finding her special talent for baking and/or marrying Mr. Cake, which might indicate that at least ''some'' of the names in the setting came after the talents rather than vice versa (though the name Chiffon Swirl itself does point to baking/cake decorating, [[VoodooShark which only raises further questions about why she would have changed it]]).

* Combining this with PunnyName, Nick ''Bottom'' of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' gets his head turned into that of a donkey, or alternatively, an ''ass''. Of course, considering Shakespeare's language, [[HilariousInHindsight this may not have been intentional.]]

* A tragic example in Edward Glenn Roberts, Jr., a successful NASCAR driver in the 1950's who has always been known exclusively by his nickname "Fireball" Roberts. He earned the nickname from the speed of his college baseball pitch, but died in 1964 [[WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt of third-degree burns]] suffered in a terrible crash.

* Thomas Crapper, a famed plumber who improved upon the flush toilet, but did not invent it is commonly believed. His company was a leading manufacturer of toilets in his time and he received several royal warrants for the quality of his work.

* It's sometimes assumed that Thomas Crapper perfected the flushing lavatory, it was called a "crapper" after him, and that's where the word "crap" comes from. The word "crap" was first recorded in 1846, when Thomas was nine. (Creator/TerryPratchett's theory is that he was teased at school and decided to make being a Crapper something to be proud of. "Crap" actually comes from the Dutch ''krappe'' "the residue remaining from the rendering-down of fat", and for a long time in British English simply meant "rubbish"; the coarser meaning was added later, and likely is indeed a back-association from Crapper.)

* In ''Literature/TheSorcerersReceptionist'', King "Zerolight"'s reign is best known for the apocalyptic battle against [[LivingShadow Stadel]] that occurred during that time. Stadel was blocking out the sun, so it could indeed be said there was "zero light".
* 'Literature/Buddenbrooks'': Dr. Brecht (German for "break it") who ended up being a dentist.

---> '''The Doctor''': Did anyone tell you ''why'' it was famous?

* Charles de Gaulle was elected french president: France covers most of ancient Gaul.

* Professional boxer Tyson Fury. Need one say more? Well, ''yeah'': as of this writing and at the age of 21, he's 7-0 with a 100% KO rate. Not quite as good as his namesake, but impressive nonetheless.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_Mitford Unity Valkyrie Mitford]]. Of course she ended up a Nazi.
%%* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson Jack Robinson]] is a very good name for a Major League Baseball player.[[note]]As an aside, a surprisingly large number of baseball greats have the last name "Robinson" and are not related to each other. Two, Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson, shared space on the World Series-winning 1970 Baltimore Orioles. It's only about the 20th most common last name in America.[[/note]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tory John Tory]], leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.

* Magnus ver Magnusson, which translates to "Big Guy, son of Big Guy, who was the son of another Big Guy", holds the record for most wins in the World's Strongest Man competition.

* The Great Lakes freighter ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' was the pride of the American lakes shipping fleet and was fairly larger than others, earning itself the nickname "''[[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic Titanic]]'' of the Great Lakes." It eventually became the most famous shipwreck in Lake Superior.

* Lonzo ''Ball'' plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.

* Scaramouche was a stock CommediaDellArte character who was usually portrayed as a mischief-making servant, who loved to pick fights (his Italian name literally meant "little skirmisher"), but whose exaggerated braggadocio was comically undercut by his cowardice. He was generally unreliable and unscrupulous. In 2017, when Creator/DonaldTrump hired Anthony Scaramucci as his White House Communications Director, internet wags initially picked up on the similarity of his name to a line in [[Music/{{Queen}} "Bohemian Rhapsody"]]. But as his colorful, impulsive personality turned his Washington tenure into more and more of trainwreck, until he resigned after just 10 days, people started noticing the resemblance to his namesake.

* Rick Monday played 19 [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Major League Baseball]] seasons, but his career highlight came when he hit the winning home run for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 5th and final game of the 1981 National League Championship Series against the Montreal Expos. The game was indeed played on a Monday.

* Retired '''baseball''' player Cecil '''Fielder'''. And his son, Prince '''Fielder''', ''also'' a baseball player.

* Actress Creator/FlorencePugh, whose name derives from the Latin ''florens'' meaning blossoming, played Dani in ''Film/MidSommar'', where she became the May Queen and ended up surrounded by flowers.

* Wolfgang Wolf, former manager of German football team VfL Wolfsburg

* Hannes **Halldór**sson, Icelandic football player who ended up being a goalkeeper.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': As Myne starts introducing more and more precise tools from modern-day Earth to a world that's still in its medieval period, she ends up working closely with an extremely detail-oriented blacksmith named Johann. Eventually, Myne tasks Johann with making the letter types for a proto-printing press. Now, remember Guntenberg, the inventor of letter types back on Earth? His first name was '''Johann'''es. In-universe, Myne treats the similarity in names as a ContrivedCoincidence. And gives Johann a title when he succeeds in the task. You get zero points for guessing what Myne calls the title.

As some of the examples show, [[IcarusAllusion Icarus]] seems to be an unusually favored name in this regard -- perhaps it has something to do with the name itself having a nice ring to it, combined with the built-in allegory about literally [[AmbitionIsEvil flying too close to the sun]].

See also WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt and NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast.

* ''VideoGame/BeyondTheBeyond'' has a playable character named Samson, who possesses superhuman strength just like his [[Literature/TheBible biblical]] namesake. No donkey jaws, though; this Samson prefers to kick ass with {{an axe|ToGrind}}.

->'''Jay:''' Ah! Oh, my gosh. Are you—? Are you—?
->'''Cyrus Borg:''' Cyrus Borg? Yes. Unfortunately, when my parents gave me a name like that, my future in technology was predetermined.
-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}''

** ''Fell'' is about Richard Fell, a detective who falls from grace and is reassigned to the worst city in America.

* Rezo, TheManBehindTheMan and WellIntentionedExtremist of the first season of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', is known alternately as the Red Priest or the Blind Priest. This is a very early reference to his unique connection with the Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo.

** In the ''Anime/SailorMoon R'' movie, the main villain is named Fiore, which is Italian for "flower". As it turns out, Fiore [[spoiler:is being controlled by [[PlantAliens an evil flower]]]].

* [[Manga/TriGun Million Knives]].

* The prophecy in ''Anime/{{Pokemon2000}}'' says "...then the world will turn to ash...". It turns out it's referring to Ash Ketchum, the protagonist. Averted in the Japanese version as his name is "Satoshi".

** ''Comicbook/TheAuthority'' has Jenny Sparks/Jenny Quantum, who can control electricity and quantum mechanics respectively, and Jack Hawksmoor, who has a psychic relationship with cities (he is named after architect Nicholas Hawksmoor). Jenny's name was deliberately chosen by analogy with her predecessor.
** ''Comicbook/{{Planetary}}'' has Elijah Snow, who can freeze things, and Jakita Wagner, who is something of a valkyrie (composer Music/RichardWagner wrote "Music/TheRideOfTheValkyries").

* In ''ComicBook/RogueTrooper'' from ''Comicbook/TwoThousandAD'', and the games based on it, Rogue's comrades were named Gunnar, Bagman, and Helm. They end up dying and accompanying him on his journey in the form of datachips mounted onto his gun, backpack, and helmet. No points for guessing which goes where.
* Creator/StanLee villains tended towards this too, such as ''Franchise/SpiderMan'''s Otto Octavius. Take a guess, was he Comicbook/DoctorOctopus or Sandman?

* DC Comics hero, Comicbook/{{Steel}}, once worked with a man named Dr. Villain (pronounced "will-hane"). The good doctor did a bit of LampshadeHanging on this trope when he was first introduced. Guess what he turned out to be?

* In ''LightNovel/TheSorcerersReceptionist'', King "Zerolight"'s reign is best known for the apocalyptic battle against [[LivingShadow Stadel]] that occurred during that time. Stadel was blocking out the sun, so it could indeed be said there was "zero light".

* Done retroactively for the message-scrawling "Rat Man" of ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}''; the cryptic promotional teasers for ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' reveal that his real name was "Doug Rattmann".

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** The various members of the student council are named after Kaguya and her suitors from ''Literature/TheTaleOfTheBambooCutter''. Every one of them (sans Kaguya and Fujiwara) is connected in some way to a girl who is named after their counterpart's respective impossible task.

* In ''Machinima/ReynaldoTheAssassin'', there is a man named Captain Pirate.

* Lucia of ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' is a [[MessianicArchetype Messiah]]-type character easily spotted because of her name; in contrast, the last BigBad is an angel named Michel, both an allusion to the biblical Michael and a hint that he, like his name, is "off" somehow from the source. Then there's Michal, an IllGirl with ''some'' connection to Michel; what it is isn't revealed until the end, but thanks to the name, you catch on quickly that it's there.

As some of the examples show, [[IcarusAllusion Icarus]] seems to be an unusually favored name in this regard -- perhaps it has something to do with [[AwesomeMcCoolname the name itself having a nice ring to it]], combined with the built-in allegory about literally [[AmbitionIsEvil flying too close to the sun]].

* A tragic example in Edward Glenn Roberts, Jr., a successful NASCAR driver in the 1950's who has always been known exclusively by his nickname [[AwesomeMcCoolName "Fireball" Roberts.]] He earned the nickname from the speed of his college baseball pitch, but died in 1964 [[WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt of third-degree burns]] suffered in a terrible crash.

** ''ComicBook/Red2004'' is about Paul Moses, whose death is decreed by the CIA.