History Main / StockForeignName

* A lot of Dutch/Afrikaner surnames are prefixed with ''[[TheVonTropeFamily van]]'' or ''van der''. If the diphthong "-aa-" can be squeezed in somewhere in the name, that's even better.

* Maurice

* Alistair (if you're posh)
** That's the Anglicized form, actually--the Scottish Gaelic form is '[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Alasdair]]', and it's overall a cognate of 'Alexander'.

** A stock folklore name, most famously (but by no means limited to) Folklore/RobinHood.

** ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'': [[ArabOilSheikh Emir]] Ben Kalish Ezab's son RoyalBrat son is named Abdullah.

** ''LiveActionTV/CoryInTheHouse'' had a one-off Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir [[PunnyName Schuzoff]]. Any resemblance to [[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin actual heads of state]] is, of course, totally coincidental.

* Jack: Almost a prerequisite name for TheHero.

* Smith, which happens to be the most common last name in the US.

** Allegedly, when DC Comics was pitched the idea of an African-American ComicBook/GreenLantern, editor Julius Schwartz wanted to call him "Lincoln Jefferson" until Creator/NealAdams pointed out this was the most [[UnfortunateImplications stereotypical "slave" name imaginable]].

*** Jean-Luc Picard of ''LiveAction/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''

** Kimiko Tohomiko, of ''WesternAnimaton/XiaolinShowdown''.

** Creator/JackieChan

** "A Chang is hearty to the core. We always come out healthy, that's why there's like a billion of us. You ever tried Googling me? Can't be done." - Ben Chang, ''Series/{{Community}}''

** Cho Chang from ''Franchise/HarryPotter''. Despite often being held up as a example of such due to the alliteration of the name making it dangerously look like [[ChingChong a bit of a slur]], Cho Chang is actually an aversion. The name is rendered in the more archaic Wade-Giles romanization system (more commonly used by the "old-stock" Chinese diaspora in the UK). [[https://libraries.indiana.edu/chinese-studies-pinyin-wade-giles-conversion-table Cho Chang converts to "Zhuo Zhang" in modern Pinyin.]] Zhuo (倬) and other words with similar pronunciations can be fairly common unisex given names in Chinese. The Chinese translations of the novels uses Zhāng Qiū. (Note that "qiū" is also pronounced similarly to "Cho".)
** The Chang triplets of ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' - also a bit victim to ValuesDissonance (only one of them even had a first name revealed), but the [[WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyLouderAndProuder revival]] has somewhat tamped that down.

** The [[TropeCodifier granddaddy]] of them all, at least in Western media, is of course Creator/BruceLee - specifically, his [[TheDanza identically-named hero]] in ''Film/EnterTheDragon''.

** [[Music/TheyMightBeGiants Ana Ng]]

** "It is very difficult to phone people in China, Mr. President. The country's so full of Wings and Wongs, every time you Wing you get the Wong number." --''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator''

** Ripoll--Catalan, not Arabic, but popular because of all the Spanish immigrants.

** Also common in Serbia.

** Lars Alexandersson from ''VideoGame/Tekken6''