History Main / PropheticNames

** ''Comicbook/{{Red}}'' is about Paul Moses, whose death is decreed by the CIA.
* 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.

* This is a recurring theme in ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' where almost every character's name is a pun related to their job, their personality or that can serve as foreshadowing for the various court cases the player has to defend. Thus, we end up with lawyers with names such as Apollo ''Justice'', a musician prosecutor named ''Klavier'' Gavin and a tour guide named... Ahlbi Ur'gaid.

* In ''Anime/ErgoProxy'', the name Daedalus is originally just prophetic of him being a brilliant scientist and inventor. Towards the end of the show, [[WhatAnIdiot he gives one of his loved ones wings and they fly towards the sun]].

* ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' featured a ship called the ''Icarus''... which was in charge of a mission that not only involved ''restarting the Sun'' but said mission was ''vital to the Earth's survival''. [[WhatAnIdiot Even more stupidly]], when the first ship is lost, the second ship (which due to the massive resources involved in the Sun restarting device ''cannot be rebuilt'') was named the ''[[TemptingFate Icarus II]]''. Director Creator/DannyBoyle admitted this was unrealistic, saying that Americans would likely call it ''Ship of Destiny'' or ''Hope''.

** Ever wondered if the name Aragorn has any meaning? Well, in Sindarin it means "revered king" (though the prefix ''ara(n)-'' meaning "high, noble" is quite used in names from Isildur's heirs ... justified since they are still of the ''lineage'' of the kings, even if the kingdom itself is mostly a memory).
*** Actually, it's "Lord of Courage" or "Kingly Valor", depending on how you translate it.
*** Rather "Lord of Courage": in Sindarin ''ara(n)'' can't be an adjective in that position (unless it's a very ancient name).

** Then there's Victor Fries.

* In the [[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/598336 flash game]] Zelda the Welder, the titular Zelda and her siblings have names that rhyme with their occupation due to their parents being rhyming soothsayers. The others are Borris the florist, Violet the pilot, Jeff the chef, and Chris the policy analyst.

* Naming anyone after Japanese stars (''Manga/{{X1999}}'', ''Anime/DotHackSign'', ''Anime/GearFighterDendoh''), or the constellations from the astrology/geomancy system of TheFourGods (''Manga/FushigiYuugi''), is pretty much setting their status as Very Important in stone.
* Also in ''{{Manga/X1999}}'', Satsuki's supercomputer, Beast, emblazoned with the number 666. It probably doesn't help matters that when written in hiragana, "satsuki" looks like "sakki", which means "bloodlust".

* Naming anyone after Japanese stars (''Manga/X1999'', ''Anime/DotHackSign'', ''Anime/GearFighterDendoh''), or the constellations from the astrology/geomancy system of TheFourGods (''Manga/FushigiYuugi''), is pretty much setting their status as Very Important in stone.
* Also in ''Manga/X1999'', Satsuki's supercomputer, Beast, emblazoned with the number 666. It probably doesn't help matters that when written in hiragana, "satsuki" looks like "sakki", which means "bloodlust".

* Naming anyone after Japanese stars (''Anime/{{X 1999}}'', ''Anime/DotHackSign'', ''Anime/GearFighterDendoh''), or the constellations from the astrology/geomancy system of TheFourGods (''Manga/FushigiYuugi''), is pretty much setting their status as Very Important in stone.
* Also in ''Anime/{{X 1999}}'', Satsuki's supercomputer, Beast, emblazoned with the number 666. It probably doesn't help matters that when written in hiragana, "satsuki" looks like "sakki", which means "bloodlust".

* '''D'''avid '''Ten'''nant, playing the '''Ten'''th '''D'''octor in ''Series/DoctorWho''. The FanNickname "d10" applies equally well to both the actor and the character.

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 [[RuleOfCool the name itself having a nice ring to it]], combined with the built-in allegory about literally [[AmbitionIsEvil flying too close to the sun]].

As some of the examples show, [[IcarusAllusion Icarus]] seems to be an unusually favored name in this regard (no fewer than ''five'' examples). [[RuleOfCool Might have something to do with the name having a nice ring to it]]. Oh, yeah, and the melting wings of doom probably help.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': As Myne starts introducing more and more precise tools from modern-day Earth to her new world that 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.

* Invoked in ''WebVideo/FriendshipIsWitchcraft'' with the Apple family, who farms apples. The main members are Applejack, Big McIntosh, Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith. Apple Bloom has wants to be president (nevermind that Equestria has princesses, not presidents) but according to her sister "We didn't name ya Apple Bloom so you could grow up to be the president".

This happens in real life [[TruthInTelevision more often than you would expect]] -- for example, by the [[http://scienceblogs.com/mixingmemory/2007/04/the_nameletter_effect_or_why_c.php name-letter effect]]. ''New Scientist'' coined and popularised the term "Nominative Determinism" for this. The [[OlderThanFeudalism Romans had their own term]]: the "nomen omen" (name omen).

->''"Ever notice a lot of butlers are named Jeeves? You know, I think when you name a baby 'Jeeves'... you've pretty much mapped out his future, wouldn't you say? Not much chance he's gonna be a hitman, I think, after that. 'Terribly sorry, sir, but I'm going to have to whack you.'"''
-->-- '''Creator/JerrySeinfeld''', ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''

* Petty Officer John Deadman (Alasdair Beckett-King) records the minor setbacks suffered by Project Hubris in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GpCU76kIRY this video]] on Website/YouTube. Funnily enough, it's an ApocalypticLog.

-->'''Alex''': We need to focus on Evilini. I don't know if you know, but she's evil.
-->'''Justin''': No, her ''name's'' Evilini.
-->'''Alex''': And how much cleaner could it be?
-->'''[[WrongGenreSavvy Justin]]''': Okay, if she was really evil, don't you think she would have changed her name to "Really Friendly Ini" or "Nice Ini" or "Totally Not Evilini"?

* Literature/TheFarseerTrilogy: It is ancient tradition in the Farseer dynasty to name children after certain qualities, which inevitably come to be a defining characteristic of the individual as they grow up. For example, King Shrewd is cunning and clever, Prince Verity is honest and trustworthy, and Prince Regal is arrogant and proud.

* Reigen Arataka from ''Manga/MobPsycho100'', who works as a (fake) exorcist and whose surname translates to “spirit phantom”.

* Justified (ish) in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', where sometimes people get specific magical abilities ''because'' it fits their name. [[http://egscomics.com/comic/qa8-14 There are rules though]].
* One page of ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' portrays [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]] insisting that his defense record is based on [[https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/whats-in-a-name building trust with the client]]... while he's [[ExploitedTrope actually cherry-picking his clients based on whether their names indicate that they are trustworthy]].

* ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'': Overhaul. Gets a MidSeasonUpgrade into Leobreaker. In ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' in general, 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.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' parody ''Thumb Wars:''

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Julian Lazarus ends up a scientist who studies death, and comes up with a way to mimick bringing someone back from the dead.

* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0018.html The chimera Trigak]] from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' could be interpreted this way since his name could be taken to mean mean "three 'gak's". Belkar fulfills the prophecy in the second panel [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0021.html three strips later]].

* This is a recurring theme in ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' where almost every character's name is a pun related to their job, their personality or that can serve as foreshadowing for the various court cases the player has to defend. Thus, we end up with lawyers with names such as Apollo ''Justice'', a musician prosecutor named ''Klavier'' Gavin and a tour guide name... Ahlbi Ur'gaid.

* Nearly all of the cast of ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' and its sequel series have such names. The title character, for example, Itoshiki Nozomu, is a eternally depressed schoolteacher who has a fairly normal sounding name when written vertically, but when written horizontally in kanji, his name spells "despair" (zetsubou). His given name, Nozomu means "hope" (it becomes the "bou" in "zetsubou", which still means "hope" as in "totally without hope"), further cementing the irony. Of note is the fact that most, if not all, members of his family have names of this sort, courtesy of their surname which, when written horizontally and tightly enough that the two characters it is written with to appear to be one character, reverses the meaning of most names written after it ("hope" becomes "despair", "life" becomes "death", and so on).