Line #126 AwesomeMcCoolname/Literature


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5	%%%AwesomeMcCoolName is now Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly. The story must consider the name cool in some way for the example to count.
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9	* ''Literature/AccelWorld'': The one who takes the prize of coolest name is without doubt Crimson Kingbolt. It's so cool he was instantly recruited by the Purple King into her Legion without knowing his ability was not a powerful lightning bolt. [[spoiler:In fact, a kingbolt is just a type of screw.]]
10	* ''Literature/AgentOfHel'': Lady Eris the head vampire. Daisy believes there's no way it can be her real one. [[spoiler:As it turns out, it ''is.'' She was named both for the goddess of sowing discord, and the pun created by the fact that in the nineteenth century, she was the daughter of a wealthy man: an heiress.]]
11	* ''Literature/TheBadGuys'': [[spoiler:The Good Guys Club and the International League of Heroes]] eventually merge to become Shadow Squad G, which is a name so cool that anyone who hears it remarks how they can picture the cool stylized logo floating in the air as its said.
12	* ''Literature/BinderOfShame'': Oftentimes, El Disgusto tries too hard with making his characters sound cool. In "Creep on the Borderlands," his ninja character was "Lord Baron Whoopass Von Badass."
13	* ''Literature/BloodRites'': One of the younger actors only recently finished his first film, and has not yet picked a stage name. Bobby considers names like "Rocko Stone" or "Rack [=McGranite=]". Finally, at Jake's suggestion, he goes with "[[PunnyName Gowan Commando]]."
14	* In ''The Book of Basketball'', Creator/TheSportsGuy says that they should have known that Ralph Sampson wasn't gonna cut it because he found his name not to fit with how the best players, "they're all great names that you'd give a sports movie character", like Usefulnotes/MichaelJordan, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Larry Bird or Moses Malone.
15	* Creator/AgathaChristie:
16	** Alexander Bonaparte Cust in ''Literature/TheABCMurders'' was specifically given a grandiose name by his mother.
17	** As drily noted by Hastings, Poirot's mother must have been thinking along the same lines by naming her sons Hercule and Achilles [[spoiler:the latter doesn't exist, used as a disguise for Literature/HerculePoirot to avoid detection]].
18	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
19	** ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'': {{Inverted}}. Vampire teenagers have "Goth" birth names like Lacrimosa, so they think calling themselves "Wendy" or "Susan" is edgy and rebellious.
20	** Literature/{{Maskerade}}: Agnes Nitt's persona called Perdita X Dream, where [[MysteriousMiddleInitial X stands for "person who has a cool and interesting middle name"]]; when Agnes tells other people she'd like to be called this, they usually end up calling her "that Agnes who wants to be called Perditax."
21	* ''Literature/DeptfordMice'': Madame Akkikuyu. This is lampshaded in ''Thomas'' when she decides to become a fortune teller. Her given name was exotic-sounding enough, but it needed a bit more, so she tacked Madame onto the beginning.
22	* In the final book of the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' novels, due to an inability to compromise between two equally unwieldy epic names, a ship is christened "Great Descent into Maelstrom of Solar Flare of Righteous Vengeance Against Enemies of the People's State."
23	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': The "actors" in ''Blood Rites'' have to pick stage names, and Bobby considers names like "Rocko Stone" or "Rack [=McGranite=]". Finally, at Harry's suggestion, he goes with [[{{Pun}} "Gowan Commando."]]
24	* ''Literature/TheExpanse'': When Miller is trying to find the ''Rocinante'' through data analysis, one of the ships he comes across is the freight hauler ''Badass Motherfucker'' owned by the Luna company "MYOFB Corporation" (an acronym which likely means, judging by the name of the ship, "Mind Your Own Fucking Business"). In the same breath, however, Miller notes that it's AwesomeButImpractical, since a ship with a name like that simply begging for a bored port official to bust their chops for kicks.
25	* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'': Locke Lamora's name is noted in the text as having a nice ring to it.
26	* ''Literature/GhostsOfTomorrow'': The scans in combat chassis get to choose their own names; since many of them were teenagers [[ChildSoldier or even younger]] when they were scanned, they tend to pick names like [=SwampJack=] and Androctonus.
27	* ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'': Aphrodite. Justified because when fledgling vampyres enter the school, they are allowed to change their names and are legally emancipated from their parents. Being incredibly self-centred and vain, she chose the name of the goddess of love.
28	* PlayedWith in ''Literature/KnightsOfTheBorrowedDark'' when a character holds out a hand to Denizen and says, "Jensen Interceptor"...but when Denizen is impressed, he clarifies that he's referring to the make of a car he saw Denizen admiring, and he could never get away with a name like that himself. His name's actually Graham. ''Then'' it turns out he's OnlyKnownByHisNickname, and "Grey [=McCarron=]" is still pretty badass.
29	** Denizen Hardwick himself was named this because [[spoiler:his father knew he was never going to get a chance at being normal]].
30	* Creator/DeanKoontz:
31	** In ''From the Corner of His Eye'', the villain (named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Enoch Cain]], naturally) learns from a newspaper article that one of his victims was named Kickmule. He's surprised to learn Kickmule is a legitimate name, and since it's so badass decides to use it in the future if he ever needs another alias ("no one would ever mess with Wolfgang Kickmule").
32	** ''Literature/OddThomas'': Kenneth Randolph Fitzgerald Mountbatton: the huge, terrifying, heavily-armed security guard with screaming hyena tattoos and a shirt that says "Death Heals." He picked the names himself.
33	* ''Literature/LordPeterWimsey'' sometimes while undercover calls himself by his two middle names -- Death Bredon ("Some people with that particular name pronounce it to rhyme with 'teeth' but I prefer it to rhyme with 'breath' -- more dramatic, what?").
34	* The protagonist of ''Literature/LoveLettersToTheDead'' is named Laurel, which her new friend Hannah thinks is the coolest name ever.
35	* ''Literature/MatthewSwift'': The bikers tend to change their names: Dave to Blackjack; Laslie to Halfburn. Also, Jeremy the Troll wants to be called the Mighty Raaaarrggh!. He lightly mocks Matthew for having a normal name.
36	* ''Literature/MonsterOfTheYear'': [[{{PunnyName}} Skip Toomaloo]] has an arguably worse name than his daughter Lulu, but seems to take pride in it.
37	* ''Literature/{{Murderworld}}'': Murderworld is filled with gamers who have named themselves in attempt to appear as badasses -- Slaughterella being a successful version -- although some naming attempts have gone horribly wrong, e.g. Perry's initial character name, Major Lawsuit.
38	* ''Literature/OldPossumsBookOfPracticalCats'': "The Naming of Cats" decrees that every cat should have one as his/her second name; one of those amazing names that "never belong to more than one cat." It gives Munkustrap, Quaxo, Coricopat, Bombalurina, and Jellylorum as examples.
39	* ''Literature/OnTheEdgeOfEureka'': The Miran child soldiers who were later adopted out and given the chance to choose their own names. They were quite young at the time, so the majority have names like Wolfgang Deathridge or Septimius Justinian in order to invoke this trope.
40	* ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'': Some of the survivors have this, as in the future taking a new name is essentially the fashion trend of the decade. Mo'Steel takes the cake; he's not sure if it stands for "More Steel" or "Man of Steel" (Either works, as he's broken so many bones most of them are made of metal now.)
41	* ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'': In "Sharpe's Devil," Lord Cochrane complains that the Spanish don't know how to name their warships.
42	--> Warships ought to have names like ''Victory'', ''[[OddNameOut Arse-kicker]]'', or ''Revenge''.
43	* ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'': Jim Moriarty Nightshade, as {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d by Mr. Dark, who suggests a WeCanRuleTogether of "Dark and Nightshade, or Nightshade and Dark."
44	* Deconstructed in ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant''. Sorcerers choose their own names, which means that some characters choose names that sound extra cool - but Skulduggery mentions that he's met people who's names are embarrassing due to how they don't fit them at all.
45	-->''He'd once been introduced to a woman who had put on a little bit of weight over the years, and her hair had been a bit windswept and she had spinach in her teeth, and he was told her name was Jet.''
46	* ''Literature/SnowCrash'': the main character's name is Hiro Protagonist, his roommate is named Vitaly Chernobyl, and his partner is Yours Truly (abbreviated to YT). These are all actually nicknames or stagenames, but the closest we come to their real names is that Hiro's full first name is "Hiroaki." On the other hand, the Aleut Dmitri "Raven" Ravinoff sports a suitably [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast ominous]] and legitimate name.
47	-->'''Y.T'''.: Stupid name.\
48	'''Hiro:''' But you'll never forget it.
49	* ''Literature/SpiderKiss'': Shelly and the Colonel go through several of them while deciding what Luther Sellers' StageName should be. They reject Bruce Barton, Alan Prince, Brick Colter and Matt Gore before Shelly comes up with Stag Preston.
50	* ''Literature/{{Tanith}}'': The titular Tanith Rowan. Mrs. Wayne-Johnston remarks that with a name like that, it's no surprise that she became a witch.
51	* In ''Teen Angst? Naaah...'' by Ned Vizzini, Ned recalls that he always wanted to have the nickname "Skitch", thinking it was "edgy and streetwise". When a guy who Ned played dominoes with asks for his name, Ned first tells him it's Skitch, but the other guy doesn't buy it for a second.
52	* ''Literature/ThisPerfectDay'': Snowflake invokes this trope when she insists Chip needs a codename cooler than "Chip," suggesting things like "Tiger" or "Pirate." Nonetheless, Chip prefers the nickname he's had since childhood.
53	* ''Literature/ThroughTheMotions'': Lillian's last name is Silverthorne, an appropriate name for a young woman who runs her own private WizardingSchool. She is very proud of her family name, and her parents would only bless her marriage when her fianceé told them he'd [[TheMaidenNameDebate let her keep her last name]].
54	* There's also Numair Salmalin in the ''Literature/TortallUniverse'', who made his up because he thought "Arram Draper" didn't sound badass enough for one of the world's most powerful wizards.
55	* ''Literature/TristramShandy'': Walter Shandy has a theory that one's given name will influence one's personality and fortune, so he wants his son to be called Trismegistus Shandy. Things don't go as planned.

Context AwesomeMcCoolname / Literature