History UnfortunateNames / Literature

** The Librarian of Unseen University, who was [[BalefulPolymorph turned into an orangutan]] during the events of ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'' and has since grown used to [[CursedWithAwesome his new form's advantages]], is [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep only ever known as "The Librarian"]]. He prefers to keep his real name a secret, not only because he doesn't want the other wizards changing him back to a human against his will, but because his real name is apparently ''Horace Worblehat''.
** Moist von Lipwig from ''Discworld/GoingPostal''. Adora Belle Dearheart didn't fair much better, and generally goes by either "Killer" or "Spike".
** Cheery Littlebottom. She's a dwarf, and apparently her name is traditional and perfectly respectable in Dwarvish, but in [[TranslationConvention Morporkian]]... not so much. When he first meets her, Vimes makes a point of ''not'' reacting to her name until she is out of earshot (which earns him some respect from her), at which point he can't help but chuckle to himself. (As very briefly revealed in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'' when Carrot greets her in Dwarfish, the Dwarfish version of the name is [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike even worse in Morporkian]] - Sh'rt'azs.)
** One particular joke in ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'' is about the Carter family, who named all their daughters after virtues (Chasity, Prudence, etc), but were a little bit stumped when it came to their sons. They decided to go with ''sins'', leading to poor boys with the names of Bestiality, Jealousy, Deviousness and Anger (and, in a CallBack in ''Discworld/TheTruth'', ''Catastrophe'', which isn't a vice exactly, but still isn't much better...). Which, thanks to the RuleOfFunny, immediately become {{Non Indicative Name}}s, e.g. Bestiality is actually very kind to animals and Hope is a depressive.
** A minor character in ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' has the name One Man Bucket, which, it is revealed, is short for One Man Throwing A Bucket Of Water Over Two Dogs. He states that his home tribe had a tradition of naming their children after whatever the healer saw outside the tent upon their birth, and explains further that at least his name was better than that of his twin, born minutes earlier. Windle Poons delicately guesses that the twin's name was "Two Dogs ''Fighting''", at which One Man Bucket nearly laughs himself sick.

** According to Gaspode in ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', wolves don't have names so much as descriptions, which leads to a lowly omega wolf being known as "Arsehole". Carrot convinces Gaspode to go with the more-genteel translation of "Bum".

** Cheery Littlebottom. She's a dwarf, and apparently her name is traditional and perfectly respectable in Dwarvish, but in [[TranslationConvention Morporkian]]... not so much. When he first meets her, Vimes makes a point of ''not'' reacting to her name until she is out of earshot (which earns him some respect from her), at which point he can't help but chuckle to himself.

** [[DeconstructedTrope This forms part of]] [[AwesomeMcCoolName Varamyr Sixskins']] StartOfDarkness: in accordance to some Free Folk tribal superstitions/ traditions, his sister nicknamed him "Lump" as a child, partially to help deter bad luck from seeking her brother out, partially as a term of endearment, but also to help toughen him up before he could choose his own adult name. Unfortunately for everybody else in the region, calling a budding, very powerful ChildMage with anger management issues and a lack of empathy something highly embarrassing others could tease him about/ abuse him for [[DisproportionateRetribution backfired]]. Badly. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Oops]].

** "[[Literature/SearchByTheFoundation]]": Arcadia Darell bemoans the fact that everyone in her class must write their names as initial-of-given-name followed by surname ("A. Darrell" in her case), because she'd rather use Arkady as her name. The only exception to the rule is [[StealthPun Olynthus Dam]], "because the class laughed so when he did it the first time."

** "[[Literature/{{Foundation}} Search By The Foundation]]": Arcadia Darell bemoans the fact that everyone in her class must write their names as initial-of-given-name followed by surname ("A. Darrell" in her case), because she'd rather use Arkady as her name. The only exception to the rule is [[StealthPun Olynthus Dam]], "because the class laughed so when he did it the first time."

* The SpinOff to the Literature/{{Molvania}} Travel Guide ''Traditional Molvanîan Baby Names: With Meanings, Derivations And Probable Pronunciations'' is essentially a list of Molvanîan names and their meanings, a lot of which make you wonder whether anyone would willingly give them to their children. There is, for instance, ''Agpovertetnyk'' ("lowly paid foreign worker") and ''Dkurtiklof'' ("exceptionally unfit"). They double as [[TheUnpronounceable unpronounceable names]] as well.

* ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'': The book ''The Master Mind of Mars'' contains a character named "Bal Zak", which looks an awful lot like "balzak", the Dutch word for Scrotum. Or, for those who don't speak Dutch, it also sounds an awful lot like "ballsack", the English word for scrotum. Or, for those who read French literature, it sounds an awful lot like the great author Balzac...

* The eponymous character of ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh''. In-universe, Christopher Robin is asked (by his father) why a male bear is named "Winnie". Christopher's response is that his name is actually Winnie-''ther''-Pooh, as if that explained everything. The RealLife explanation is that he was named after a bear called [[CanadaEh Winnipeg]] who lived in the London Zoo.

* In the UK, reprints of the ''[[Creator/EnidBlyton Faraway Tree]]'' books have changed the children's names to get around this: Jo becomes Joe (since the "Jo" spelling is now normally used for girls), Fanny becomes Franny and Dick becomes Rick. Bessie's name is possibly the least unfortunate (though it is the "stereotypical" nickname for a cow), but is rather archaic regardless.

* The Name of the Novel "Jack Vance: [[Literature/PlanetOfAdventure Servants of the Wankh]]". http://www.cracked.com/article_14790_the-best-worst-fantasy-science-fiction-book-covers_p3.html

** "[[Literature/Foundation Search By The Foundation]]": Arcadia Darell bemoans the fact that everyone in her class must write their names as initial-of-given-name followed by surname ("A. Darrell" in her case), because she'd rather use Arkady as her name. The only exception to the rule is [[StealthPun Olynthus Dam]], "because the class laughed so when he did it the first time."

** "Literature/SearchByTheFoundation": Arcadia Darell bemoans the fact that everyone in her class must write their names as initial-of-given-name followed by surname ("A. Darrell" in her case), because she'd rather use Arkady as her name. The only exception to the rule is [[StealthPun Olynthus Dam]], "because the class laughed so when he did it the first time."

** [[DeconstructedTrope This forms part of]] [[AwesomeMcCoolName Varamyr Sixskins']] StartOfDarkness: in accordance to some Free Folk tribal superstitions/ traditions, his sister nicknamed him "Lump" as a child, partially to help deter bad luck from seeking her brother out, but also to help toughen him up before he could choose his own adult name. Unfortunately for everybody else in the region, calling a budding, very powerful ChildMage with anger management issues and a lack of empathy something highly embarrassing others could tease him about/ abuse him for [[DisproportionateRetribution backfired]]. Badly. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Oops]].

* Often {{Lampshaded}} by villains in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', the titular character's namesake was a woman. And not just any woman: In Greek mythology, Artemis was (among other things) the goddess of childbirth and the protector of young girls.

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'', the protagonist's wife is named Jezebel. She prefers to be called Jessie, after her husband (named Elijah, of course) tried to convince her the historical Jezebel wasn't as bad as her reputation. That was what spoiled it for her; up to then she had been ''proud'' of the name.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/SearchByTheFoundation": Arcadia Darell bemoans the fact that everyone in her class must write their names as initial-of-given-name followed by surname ("A. Darrell" in her case), because she'd rather use Arkady as her name. The only exception to the rule is [[StealthPun Olynthus Dam]], "because the class laughed so when he did it the first time." . The only exception being Olynthus Dam, because everyone laughed the first time he did it.

* The second part of Asimov's ''Literature/SecondFoundation'' begins with the heroine of that part, 14-year-old Arkady Darrell, writing an essay for school, and dreading having to read it because she hates the way in which pupils are obliged to say their names when doing so -- initial, then surname ("A. Darrell" in her case). The only exception being Olynthus Dam, because everyone laughed the first time he did it.

** This forms part of Varamyr Sixskins' StartOfDarkness: in accordance to some Free Folk tribal superstition/ traditions, his sister nicknamed him "Lump" as a child, partially to help deter bad luck from seeking her brother out. Unfortunately for everybody else in the region, calling a budding, very powerful ChildMage with anger issues and a lack of empathy something highly embarrassing others could tease him about [[DispropotunateRetribution backfired]]. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Oops]].

** Pity poor Prince Maegor "Reasons-Not-To-Give-Me-the-Throne" Targayen: [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy Aerion]], what where you ''thinking'' [[WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt when you named your kid after]] [[TheBluebeard Maegor]] ''''[[BloodKnight the Cruel]]''''? Though, being quite a cruel person himself, Aerion may have named his son "Maegor" out of sheer admiration, not just spite.

** Poor Prince Maegor "Don't-Give-Me-the-Throne" Targayen: [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy Aerion]], what where you ''thinking'' [[WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt when you named your kid after]] [[TheBluebeard Maegor]] [[BloodKnight the Cruel]]? Though, being quite a cruel person himself, Aerion may have named his son Maegor out of admiration.

* A cat called "Nigger-Man" appears in "The Rats in the Walls" by Creator/HPLovecraft. To make matters worse, Lovecraft named it after his own cat. Of course, given Lovecraft's rabid racism, this isn't too surprising.

** Subjectively we also have the names of the children in the epilogue, whose name just consist of other characters' names strung together at almost random. Probably the most infamous is "Albus Severus Potter", both because of [[AerithAndBob the strangeness of the name]] and the common perception that it's ''[[EasilyForgiven really weird]]'' that Harry named his kid after a guy who manipulated him his whole life and a guy who bullied him for seven years. The sentence where Harry calls him "Albus Severus" has become [[http://oaktreehideaway.tumblr.com/post/114479444146/minus-ludo-he-was-coool-a-collection-of-names-for something of a snowclone]] in the fandom.