History Main / ProtagonistTitleFallacy

* Quite famously, ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer at his computer.]] To elaborate, the Bebop is the name of the ship the protagonists- Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed- use in their work as bounty hunters(sometimes referred to as "cowboys" in-universe).

* The first ''Comicbook/{{Gwenpool}} Holiday Special'' was a general Marvel Universe holiday special that Gwen happened to be in. The second, ''Gwenpool: Merry Mix-Up'', acknowledges this by having the subtitle ''The Gwenpool Holiday Special For Real This Time''.

* Although Debbie Harry is blonde, she is not nicknamed "Music/{{Blondie}}", except (to her annoyance) by fans confusing her with her band.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': The protagonist is Link. Zelda herself doesn't even appear in some games in the series, even if she frequently ''is'' the {{Deuteragonist}} whenever she does. That, somewhat understandably, doesn't stop people unfamiliar with the series from [[FandomEnragingMisconception assuming that the titular "legend" is about the blonde hero we always see slaying monsters, of course.]]

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': The protagonist is Link. Zelda herself doesn't even appear in some games in the series, even if she frequently ''is'' the {{Deuteragonist}} whenever she does.

* ''Film/{{Rebecca}}'': The protagonists are Rebecca's widower and his second wife. Rebecca died before the events of the movie, and is never seen.

* Hootie and the Blowfish got their name from a couple of guys the bandleaders (Darius Rucker and Mark Bryan) knew in college. This led to people referring to Rucker as "Hootie", much to his dismay.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' is the name of Dagwood Bumstead's ''wife''. This is confusing to some kids who read the comics, which mostly (but not always) follow Dagwood, and assume that "Blondie" is a GenderBlenderName in this case. This has elements of ArtifactTitle in that, although Blondie is still a character (and thus this is a SecondaryCharacterTitle), in the very beginning Blondie ''was'' the protagonist.

* The Spencer Davis Group were named after the the group's keyboard player: the lead singer was Steve Winwood.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma is the protagonist, not Index (who is still the second most important character). Index's importance fades so much after the first volume that there's a common rumor that the author had originally intended to change which character's name was in the title with each volume, but the editors shot down the idea for the sake of title recognition. Mikoto "[[RedBaron Railgun]]" Misaka ''is'' the protagonist of the spin-off ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', however. Accelerator is likewise the AntiHero[=/=]VillainProtagonist of ''Manga/ACertainScientificAccelerator''.

* Inverted with ''{{Literature/Frankenstein}}''. The title refers to Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist. But pop culture has led to others assuming Frankenstein refers to the monster.

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' is not titled after its protagonist, who is named Samus Aran, but after a species of {{Life Drinker}}s who the protagonist is tasked with exterminating. This is somewhat complicated by two things. The first being that the [[AllThereInTheManual series' lore]] notes that the word "Metroid" is derived from a [[{{Precursors}} Chozo]] word meaning "ultimate warrior," which ''could'' apply to [[InterspeciesAdoption their ward Samus]], but this is never made a plot point. The second being that, after the events of ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', Samus is not only part-Metroid, but the only being in the universe with Metroid DNA. [[spoiler:Eventually defied entirely in ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'', where it's revealed that Samus has been mutating into a Metroid since ''Fusion'', gaining the Metroid's signature skill of draining energy and later having her Power Suit resemble a humanoid Metroid. The villainous Chozo, Raven Beak, even dubs her as the "Ultimate Metroid" and plans to use her DNA to create an army of Metroids in Samus' likeness.]]

* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' is a SecondaryCharacterTitle. The main character is actually Nobita, whom Doraemon is supposed to help. The mini-arcs and movies at least are titled [[CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase "Nobita and [X]"]] to fight against this misconception.

[[folder: Comic Books]]