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| 4 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 7 | %%NOTE: "Temporary on-the-spot pseudonym" examples go to the subtrope, LineOfSightAlias. |
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| 9 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16894270200.56244500 |
| 10 | %% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 11 | %% |
| 12 | [[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bugsy_name.png]]]] |
| 13 | [[caption-width-right:350:"Film/BugsyMalone?"\ |
| 14 | "No, just Film/{{Bugsy}}."]] |
| 15 | %% |
| 16 | ->''"I once knew a man from UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco named Holden Gate. Guess where they found him?"'' |
| 17 | -->-- ''Literature/TheSupernaturalist'' |
| 18 | |
| 19 | This trope is when a character is put on the spot to name something and can't come up with anything, so they take inspiration from things around them. This can be used to name a bevy of things -- [[LastMinuteBabyNaming babies]], teams, places, or pets. It can even be used for aliases, like {{Code Name}}s, {{Stage Name}}s, or superhero names, or for people with NoNameGiven -- they may be amnesiac, genuinely unnamed, or referred to with a designation like YouAreNumberSix. Yet another application is the MeaningfulRename, where someone might name themselves through line-of-sight to remember a particularly transformative place or time. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | LineOfSightAlias is a subtrope, for the specific situation where someone is in disguise and comes up with a bad instant pseudonym when pressed for one. Usually, this is a more comedic and temporary variant. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | TruthInTelevision -- many locations were named with surrounding landmarks in mind. In many societies, many surnames also came about this way. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ---- |
| 26 | !!Examples: |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 31 | * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Kenpachi gave himself and Yachiru the surnames Zaraki and Kusajishi from the districts they came from. |
| 32 | * Shinichi Kudo in ''Manga/CaseClosed'', transformed into a child, comes up with his alias of "Conan Edogawa" by seeing books of mysteries by Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo. He gets called out for his given name not being one that Japanese people commonly have. |
| 33 | * ''Anime/DragonautTheResonance'': |
| 34 | ** Toa got her name from [[spoiler:a bracelet belonging to Jin's sister Ai, which was broken in the accident that killed her and the rest of his family (that ''she'' caused.) It originally had "To Ai" engraved on it, but read "To A" when she found it]]. |
| 35 | ** Gio got his name because Kazuki saw his designation number G10 and mistakenly read it as Gio. |
| 36 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'': |
| 37 | ** A LostInTranslation example from the original ''Bardock'' special. Grandpa Gohan noticed that a mysterious baby CameFromTheSky and names it "Goku", [[StellarName given that "ku" can mean "sky"]]. This is likely more obvious to Japanese audiences considering Gohan is ''holding'' Goku up to the sky as he’s doing it. |
| 38 | ** Gohan was named after his (adoptive) grandfather, who's Four Star Dragon Ball was sitting on a shelf. In Goku and Chichi's defense, Gohan ''had'' cried at every single other suggestion. |
| 39 | * In ''Literature/DragonCrisis'', Rose's name is chosen by Ryuuji by him thinking the pattern on her hand looks like a rose. |
| 40 | * ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'': |
| 41 | ** The InnocentFlowerGirl of a main character Tsubomi ([[MeaningfulName "flower bud"]]) was named after a budding tree that was by the window of the hospital where she was born. |
| 42 | ** Itsuki also chose the name 'Cure Sunshine' because she was also currently looking at the sun. It goes more than that, but the element of the trope is there. |
| 43 | * ''Manga/HybridXHeartMagiasAcademyAtaraxia'': Aine was discovered as an amnesiac child in a canal called Chidorigafuchi, and that became her surname. |
| 44 | * ''Literature/IHadThatSameDreamAgain'': Nanoka calls [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Skank-san]] that because the word was scrawled on the nameplate over her door when Nanoka showed up trying to get help to save the black cat's life. She's far too young to know what the word means and Skank-san finds this amusing and decides to just run with it. |
| 45 | * In ''Anime/{{K}}'', Shiro comes up with the name for an ill-sister based on a poster he sees floating around in order for Kuroh to let him go. [[spoiler:Later it turns out that's how he came up with the name Isana Yashiro as well.]] |
| 46 | * A variation of this happens in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar''. When Shirogane is trying to figure out how to make sure he and Kaguya end up sitting next to each other in the movie theater without directly telling her his seat number, he sees a mascot costume of a character named Pen-tan (who is the star of a show called 12 Great Penguins) and chooses seat G-12, subtly trying to pass on the information to Kaguya by pointing out the mascot after he gets his ticket. Unfortunately, her train of logic goes from Pen-tan to Pentane (C-5 H-12), comes to the conclusion that he's sitting at seat H-12, and picks seat H-13. HilarityEnsues. |
| 47 | * In ''Anime/KemonoFriends'', Kaban is named for the bag she's wearing ("kaban" being Japanese for "bag"). |
| 48 | * ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'': |
| 49 | ** The MadScientist [[ArtificialHuman that made]] [[spoiler: Fate Testarossa]] gave her the name of the very Project she used to create her. She did this because she [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman didn't see her as human enough to deserve a proper name]]. |
| 50 | ** The four Numbers Cyborgs who [[spoiler:joined the Nakajima family]] named [[SiblingTeam their unit]] "[=N2R=]" after the part of the rehabilitation center they stayed in (N block, Room 2). |
| 51 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 52 | ** It's eventually revealed that the titular character does in fact have a name someone made up while eating a bowl of ramen (a naruto is the circular fishcake with a red spiral in it). [[spoiler:Jiraiya did it when trying to think up the name for the hero of his (non-pornographic) novel, and Naruto's parents named him after the character.]] |
| 53 | ** [[spoiler:Kabuto turns out]] to have been named like this too. In his case, he was found wounded and suffering from amnesia after a battle, and he didn't remember his own name. When the people who found him decided to give him a new name, he happened to be wearing a [[spoiler:samurai's helmet, also known as a ''kabuto'']]. |
| 54 | ** As revealed in the Warring States flashbacks, Konohagakure itself was named this way. Someone randomly picked up a leaf with a hole in the middle, peeked through it, and saw the place where the village would stand. He decided to name the place "[the village] hidden (''kakure'') in leaves (''ko no ha'')". [[spoiler:Said person was Madara Uchiha, who ironically became the village's greatest enemy in the present day.]] |
| 55 | * In ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'', Saitama's hero name is "Caped Baldy" by the Hero Association due to the fact he's bald guy with a cape. |
| 56 | * ''Manga/RecentlyMySisterIsUnusual'': The ghost girl is revealed to have forgotten her original name. She took the name Hiyori Kotobuki from two characters from a children's book in Mitsuki Kanzaki room named "Hiyori" and "Kotobuki". |
| 57 | * In Act 1 of the ''Manga/SailorMoon'' manga and ''Anime/SailorMoonCrystal,'' newly-minted MagicalGirlWarrior Usagi stammers on introducing herself until her cat {{familiar}} Luna {{invoke|dTrope}}s this by meowing at the moon to prompt her. |
| 58 | * Suitengu of ''Anime/SpeedGrapher'' picked his current name after reading it off a sword. |
| 59 | * In ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'', Lag gives Niche her name because he found her in an alcove of a train station. |
| 60 | * The title character of ''Literature/VioletEvergarden'' had no name prior to being transferred under Major Gilbert's supervision. The name "Violet" was actually given to her by the Major, who came up with it on the spot when his gaze fell upon a pair of violets growing across the yard from where they were standing at that moment. |
| 61 | [[/folder]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 64 | * In one of the older ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' origin stories, Bruce Wayne is sitting in his study trying to come up with his vigilante name, and contemplating that criminals were a superstitious cowardly lot, when a bat smashes through the window. "That's it, it's like an omen, I shall become a bat". This was expanded nicely in ''Film/BatmanBegins''. |
| 65 | * The eponymous hero of ''ComicBook/{{Blueberry}}'' was named Mike Donovan, but picked "Blueberry" as last name in a hurry because there were some growing where he was looking at the time. |
| 66 | * Loser Ringo Fonebone tried to commit suicide by hanging himself but failed, and ended up falling out his window on top of a robber on the run from the police. The robber blurted out "You ''klutz''!" When the thankful police asks him who they have to thank for catching the crook, the dazed Ringo mumbles "I'm just a klutz, captain..." Since circumstances have meant he ''is'' wearing a superhero costume (his long johns, the towel he used as a rope, a hat that got stuck on his head) they assume he is ''ComicBook/CaptainKlutz'', the new superhero. The name stuck. (The Captain's adventures were illustrated by Don Martin and published in ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' paperbacks). |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': In ''The Corinthian: Death in Venice'', a beggar attests that he named the titular nightmare after the first thing he saw with his new eye -- a Corinthian pillar. |
| 68 | * ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Jay Garrick initially didn't have a name for his mystery man antics, until he rescued his girlfriend's father from some kidnappers. One of them remarked that the unseen Jay was "like a flash", and when Major Williams asked who he was, Jay just went with "the Flash". |
| 69 | * The superhero ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' got his name when, after a fight, his high school principal told him "you aren't invincible, you know". One assumes that this scene would work equally well with the writers' original idea, "Bulletproof". |
| 70 | * ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'' rival/enemy/ally Nite-Wing took his name from a restaurant's neon sign advertising that they had "all nite chicken wings". |
| 71 | * In the version of ''ComicBook/{{Paperinik|NewAdventures}}'' where he starts out as a member of [[SpacePolice The Guardians]] [[TheChosenMany of the Galaxy]], Donald just makes up the name "Paperinik" from an alien symbol on his shield that looks like the letters P and K entwined when asked who he is during his super hero debut (he has recently been told he must remain anonymous). |
| 72 | * When asked for his name, ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' villain Thorn names himself as such by glancing at a passing road sign. As his near death experience had left him amnesiac, it became his new name. |
| 73 | * The amnesiac heroine of ''ComicBook/SomersetHolmes'' gets her name from an advertisement for a housing development called Somerset Homes. |
| 74 | * ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': In one issue, some of the characters are gathered at a bar, discussing the nemeses they've accumulated over the course of the war. AmnesiacHero and badass spy Skids names his archenemy as Misfire, leaving the readers wondering how a superhumanly gifted learner could be bested by one of the biggest losers in the comic. WordOfGod would subsequently explain on Twitter that the idea was that Skids ''couldn't remember'' who his archenemy was and had picked Misfire solely because the drink he was looking into while trying to come up with someone was purple. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 78 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6527688/1/Activated-A-New-Generation Activated: A New Generation,]]'' [[WesternAnimation/GadgetAndTheGadgetinis Penny]] had only thought up a name for Digit before activating the Gadgetinis. While trying to decide what to name the other one, she notices that he's been fidgeting with a piece of yarn, and names him Fidget. |
| 79 | * Laven in ''Fanfic/AnonymoosesMonsterGirlSaga'' can't remember his original name, so he takes a new one from a bed of lavender flowers. |
| 80 | * In ''Webcomic/AskWhitePearlAndStevenAlmostAnything,'' Steven doesn't know White Pearl's name, since she can only repeat back what he says. Eventually they get separated and he winds up with the Crystal Gems, where he obviously notices the similarities between her and CG!Pearl. He wants to hide the fact that his missing friend is a Gem, however, so when asked for her name he glances over at Pearl and responds "[[GenderBlenderName Earl]]." |
| 81 | * In ''Fanfic/BlueSkyWaffles'', the town of Eaden got its name from a "Dead End" sign that was missing the first and last letters due to age. |
| 82 | * ''Fanfic/BrokenBow'' has Armani Dove, whose name came from his uncle needing to come up with a name for him beyond 'Little Baby', and noting his ''Armani'' tuxedo and ''Dove'' toothpaste. Armani is not amused when he finds out and tells said uncle he sucks. |
| 83 | * While trying to decide on code names in ''Fanfic/TheEvilQueen'', [[VideoGame/Persona5 Ann accuses Akira]] of being a complete bore. When Akira protests that he can be funny, Ann sarcastically calls him "a real joker." Karasu jumps on the name "Joker" for Akira's code name. |
| 84 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7236252/11/Holly Holly]]'' Harry is mistaken for a girl while dress shopping. When the saleswoman asks for his name, he spots a sprig of holly near her collar and decides to call his alter-ego Holly. |
| 85 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8354496/4/I-Know-Your-Secret I Know Your Secret]]'' Harry decides to name a charitable corporation he's made up on the spot Fairytale after glancing at a book of wizarding fairy tales in Dumbledore's office. |
| 86 | * In ''Fanfic/TheParselmouthOfGryffindor'', the Boggart-Boy comes up with his first name (Maximilian) more or less on his own, but is still looking for a last name when he happens to visit Professor Dumbledore, who offers him a sherbet lemon. After a bit of refining on this idea, he ends up as Maximilian Candy. |
| 87 | * In ''Fanfic/REPIsMagic'', one of the main characters, Coin, who's struck with amnesia, names himself this after finding a bit with an x engraved in it in his claw. |
| 88 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8865777/1/Sleepless-in-Selsey Sleepless in Selsey]]'' Albus pretends to be his father during a phone conversation with a radio-show host. When they ask for his "father"'s name, Albus blurts out "Ron", gets stuck on a surname, spots a black jacket while glancing wildly around the room and finishes with "Black". |
| 89 | * ''Fanfic/TheTyrantAndTheHero'': Mary takes on the name "Alicetroemeria" when disguised, this being a portmanteau of "Alice" and "alstroemeria". "Alice" is the name that Mary will eventually take when she becomes Monster Lord, while "alstroemeria" is a type of flower (a bouquet of which is in the room). |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 93 | * [[SmellySkunk Flower the skunk]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' actually got his name when Bambi was getting the names of various plants and animals wrong (such as calling a butterfly a "bird" and a flower a "butterfly"), and the reason why Bambi named the skunk "Flower" is because he was first found in a flower patch. |
| 94 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBoxtrolls'' get their names from whatever words and images are depicted on their box, leading to names like Fish, Shoe, Fragile, and Knickers. The protagonist, a human boy [[RaisedByWolves raised by the boxtrolls]], gets the name "Eggs". |
| 95 | * Variation in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2'': |
| 96 | -->'''Hiccup:''' ''[adding a new location to his map]'' So bud, what shall we name this? ''[sees Toothless scratching himself]'' "Itchy Armpit" it is. |
| 97 | * The DVD extras of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' reveals that this is how PosthumousCharacter Dynaguy came up with his name. While sitting in a diner trying to come up with a superhero name for himself, one of the ideas he had was "Diner Guy". From there he works his way to "Dynaguy". |
| 98 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AMonsterInParis'', Lucille names the eponymous 'monster' Francœur after a street sign in the alleyway where she first meets him. |
| 99 | * This is how the main character gets his name in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'', when he walks into a bar and is asked who he is. The bottle of cactus juice he was holding said "DURANGO" on it, so he called himself Rango. Up to this point in the movie, the audience doesn't know his name- and neither does he for that matter (he spends most of the movie trying to figure out just who he is or should be). |
| 100 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Scoob}}'': When Shaggy first met Scooby-Doo when he was a stray pup, Shaggy tells a cop trying to catch him that the dog belongs to him. He is promptly asked for the dog's name to prove it, so he looks down at a box of [[TrademarkFavoriteFood Scooby Snacks]] and says his name is "Scooby". He's ''then'' asked for a middle and last name, so he improvises "Dooby" and "Doo". |
| 101 | [[/folder]] |
| 102 | |
| 103 | [[folder:Film -- Live Action]] |
| 104 | * Subverted in ''Film/Aquaman2018''. Thomas Curry is listening to a weather report about the [[AStormIsComing approaching]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Arthur Hurricane Arthur]], and suggests that as the name for the child he's having with Princess Atlanna. She thinks he's referring to the hurricane, but he's actually referring to [[Myth/KingArthur another Arthur]]. "He's going to be a king, isn't he?" |
| 105 | * In ''Film/AroundTheWorldIn80Days2004'', Lau Xing is looking at a passport when Fogg asks for his name. He blurts out "Passport... two", which Fogg interprets as "Passepartout". |
| 106 | * In ''{{Film/The Battle of Algiers}}'', Colonel Philippe Mathieu is asked what he wants to name the military action he is overseeing. After pausing to look out from a balcony, Mathieu sees a billboard for champagne. He says he'll call it Operation Champagne, to which another military officer responds "Why not?" |
| 107 | * ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'': |
| 108 | ** Carol got the name "Vers" (pronounced "Veers") among the Kree after they found half of her broken dogtag only showing the last "Vers" in "Danvers". |
| 109 | ** Nick Fury renames his PROTECTOR Initiative when he sees [[spoiler:Carol's callsign on her fighter, "Avenger", to the Avengers Initiative]]. |
| 110 | * ''Film/CrimeDoctor'': When Phil Morgan arrives at the hospital in a coma, he is a 'John Doe'. The nurses start calling him 'Mr. Ordway' as he is in the Ordway Room. He later adopts it for himself as he is used to it. |
| 111 | * In ''Film/{{Deathtrap}}'', Sidney needs an name for the play he supposedly working on while on the phone to Clifford. Glancing over at Myrna's unimpressed expression, he says that the play is called ''The Frowning Wife'', before adding that it is a working title. |
| 112 | * Buddy from ''Film/{{Elf}}'' gets his name when the elves read the label on his diaper: Little Buddy Diapers. |
| 113 | * In ''Series/{{Jackass}}'': The Movie, one of the skits has Johnny Knoxville dressed as an old man shoplifting in a store. When he is promptly pushed out, he declares to the man: "I was Creator/LonChaney's lover!". He'd just seen his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at that very moment with no knowledge of the actor. |
| 114 | * In ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'', the main character, who is impersonating an elderly women, comes up with the last name Doubtfire at a moment's notice by looking at newspaper laying around and seeing a headline that reads "Police Doubt Fire Was Accidental". |
| 115 | * ''Film/Paddington2014'' gets his name from the train station where the Browns meet him. Though in the film it's played for laughs a bit, since the station name isn't the only thing in line-of-sight initially, leading to some confusion: |
| 116 | -->'''Mrs. Brown:''' Oh Henry, it's perfect!\ |
| 117 | '''Mr. Brown:''' ... You want to call him "Ketchup"?\ |
| 118 | '''Mrs. Brown:''' No!\ |
| 119 | '''Mr. Brown:''' "Ketchup the Bear"?\ |
| 120 | '''Mrs. Brown:''' ''Paddington''! |
| 121 | * In ''Film/ThePrincessDiaries'', when Amelia's grandmother, Clarisse accidentally ends up crashing into a trolley when Amelia's car stalls-out on a hill, Clarisse quickly manages to sweep the event under the rug by granting the local officer the Order of the Rose. The accident happened on Rose Street and Clarisse, fumbling for a name, actually glances at the street signs. |
| 122 | * In ''Film/RemoWilliamsTheAdventureBegins'': Used by the protagonist's new boss as he recovers in the hospital. The boss says: |
| 123 | -->'''Boss:''' Your new name is Williams... Remo Williams... We put a lot of thought into that. ''[... while casually looking at the imprint on the bottom of a bedpan: Williams Mfg. Co., Remo, Ark.]'' |
| 124 | * In ''Film/Rocketman2019'', Reginald Dwight presents "Elton" as his stage name; when asked his last name, he looks at a Beatles poster and chooses "John." (In reality, he was honoring Creator/LongJohnBaldry.) |
| 125 | * When the main mermaid character of ''Film/{{Splash}}'' first steps into the human world and finds herself in need of a name, her eyes go to a street sign saying Madison Avenue in New York and so calls herself that. Allen Lampshades how "that's not a (feminine first) name!", but it becoming a BabyNameTrendStarter in RealLife leading to a massive boom of girls born in the late 1980's and early 1990's being named Madison makes this HilariousInHindsight. |
| 126 | * When the protagonist of ''Film/TopSecret'', Nick Rivers, is asked about his name, he says that his father thought of it ("Nick") while shaving. |
| 127 | %% ZCE ** This is parodied in an episode of ''Series/KeyAndPeele''. |
| 128 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5vRkuk6wJI Done in]] ''Film/WrongfullyAccused'', with items from a bait-and-tackle shop (with the scene where the policeman discovers this being a parody of the twist ending of ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''). |
| 129 | --> Buzzin. Buzzin Frog. Born on the shores of the Euro Larvae River in Rapala. Couple of husky jerks brought me to Slimy Slug, South Dakota. Up there by Timber Doodle? The Zebco brothers, Smithwick and Salty Dog Shrimp... ohh! I can't go fishing this afternoon. I've got a big meeting over at... Menzrum. |
| 130 | * In The Comebacks, Coach Lambeau Fields improvises his RousingSpeech using various items that are lying around the locker room, |
| 131 | [[/folder]] |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 134 | * An old joke tells of a young Native American boy who is curious about his given name. The boy's father explains the longstanding tradition in their tribe that when a baby is born, the father steps out of the tepee to look around, and the first thing he sees, he must select as the name for his child. The punchline: "Why do you ask, [[spoiler:Two Dogs Fucking]]?" |
| 135 | [[/folder]] |
| 136 | |
| 137 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 138 | * ''Literature/AlexRider'': The "[=McCain=]" in ''Crocodile Tears''' Desmond [=McCain=] comes from him being found in a bag of [=McCain=]-brand oven chips as a baby. |
| 139 | * ''Literature/BecauseOfWinnDixie'': Opal encounters a stray dog at the local Winn-Dixie supermarket, and tries to pretend it's hers so that it won't be taken to the pound. It comes to her when she calls: "Here... Winn-Dixie!", so she keeps that as its name. |
| 140 | * ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'' implies that this happened by accident to Li Kao when he was born. His mother, just before dying of an arrow wound, pointed in the general direction of her just-born child and said with difficulty, "Kao! Li...kao...". The monk watching over her thought she was trying to name her child and didn't realize until after she died that she might have been trying to gesture instead to the ''kaoli'' drink that the midwife had been drinking. |
| 141 | * In ''Literature/TheCityWeBecame'', Manny, having forgotten his original name, names himself after seeing the word Manhattan in a subway station |
| 142 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' |
| 143 | ** ''Literature/ReaperMan'': In "One-Man-Bucket"'s tribe, newborns were traditionally named after the first thing the mother saw when looking out of the teepee, and his was a shortened form of "One-Man-Pouring-A-Bucket-Of-Water-Over-Two-Dogs". Reportedly, his twin brother, born and named ten seconds earlier, [[StealthPun would have given his right arm to be named "Two-Dogs-Fighting"...]] |
| 144 | ** Also in ''Literature/ReaperMan'', Death first picks the name "Bill" from Ms Flitworth telling him that he had to be "a Bill or a John or something", then looks around and improvises the surname Door after his first choice, Sky, is shot down. Ms Flitworth is, understandably, far from convinced that it's his real name, but she's had her own issues with law enforcement in past, so she doesn't make an issue about it. |
| 145 | ** A variation in ''Literature/SoulMusic''; people join the Klatchian Foreign Legion to forget and end up forgetting ''everything'' (except sand). The corporal who recruits Death doesn't know his own name, but thinks it might be written on the label of his uniform. Death finds it unlikely that he's "Corporal Medium" or "Corporal Hand-Wash Only", but accepts that "Corporal Cotton" is a possibility. The new recruit is then handed over to Legionary Size 15. |
| 146 | ** The rats in ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'' have names like this; when they learned to read, they picked names off of things they read, with little understanding of what words were names or even went together logically, hence there being a rat named Dangerous Beans. |
| 147 | * ''Literature/Dive2003'': In the BackStory Kaz quit playing hockey, after previously devoting every waking moment to the sport, due to the guilt that came with accidentally paralyzing another player. When his father and sports agent asked what else he wanted to do with his life, he came up blank and said he was interested in fish (leading to his applying for a diving internship) just because he was looking at a fish tank across the room. |
| 148 | * Creator/AletheaKontis's ''{{Literature/Enchanted}}'': An unusual form occurs when a mute girl came to work for the cook, the cook took her into the garden and told her to pick out a plant; they would call her that. Rumbold, hearing it, offers a few jests about her name being Cabbage or the like, and the cook tells him it's Literature/{{Ra|punzel}}mpion. |
| 149 | * ''Literature/JuniperSawfeather'': June's father, a Chinook Indian, was born Peter Clark. When he was twelve, he and his siblings were joking about how Indians in movies always have a NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom while they were stuck with a boring one. They decided to give each other proper Indian names. Peter got his name because he saw an eagle feather and pointed it out to the others. His siblings became Amelia Climbing Vine (she climbed a rope into a tree) and Nathan Trips in Brook (self-explanatory). Peter liked "Sawfeather" enough that when he grew up, he legally changed his name. |
| 150 | * ''Literature/LilyAndDunkin'': When Norbert introduces himself to Lily, he's afraid she'll make fun of his name. Before he can tell her what it is, Lily says "Dunkin," and points to the Dunkin' Donuts bag he's carrying. He uses that nickname for the rest of the book. |
| 151 | * Creator/AnnJungman's ''Literature/LucyAndTheBigBadWolf'': When Lucy insists on having a name to call the wolf by, he decides he'll take the name of the train on which they're travelling to Lucy's grandmother's house, expecting something dashing like "Flying Scotsman" or "Golden Arrow". Lucy tells him that as far as she knows the train is just called "the 2:15", and 2:15 he remains for the rest of the book. |
| 152 | * ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'': Thomas received his name [[spoiler:because a WICKED member who took him from his mother saw a light bulb in his house, and Thomas Edison immediately crossed his mind]]. |
| 153 | * Skye from ''Literature/OrangeCloudsBlueSky'' was born in a hospital room that had a blue sky with clouds painted on the ceiling. |
| 154 | * In ''Mr. Pottermack's Oversight'', a Literature/DrThorndyke novel, the protagonist flees across the Atlantic after being accused and convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Pondering what name to begin his new life under, he chooses to adapt the name of the ship he's travelling on: the SS ''Potomac''. |
| 155 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/NorbyTheMixedUpRobot'': When Jeff purchases the titular robot, it looks like [[TinCanRobot a dingy barrel]] with the old label "Norb's Nails" still on it. The robot admits that it had been named Macko by the [[AsteroidMiners spacer]] who repaired him. Jeff suggests Norby based on the label (which has now fallen off of him). |
| 156 | * In the Creator/KJParker novel ''Literature/Savages2015'', one of the main characters is [[NoNameGiven introduced as simply "He" and no name is given]], and in the very first chapter, he has his position usurped and his family slaughtered in front of him. After that, he starts wandering, and when a stranger in the forest asks his name, he doesn't know how to answer because of a ThatManIsDead attitude toward his previous life. Then, he sees a raven on a tree and decides to call himself Raffen. The character's real name is revealed late in the novel when his allies restore him to power, but he ends up picking a new name which can be conveniently shortened to Raffen. |
| 157 | * ''Literature/ShadowPolice'': Ross picked her new surname from a refrigerated van she saw overturned in a ditch. |
| 158 | * ''Literature/SimonArk'': In "The Man from Nowhere", Simon explains that Douglas Zadig is an amnesiac who appeared in England at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. He knew that his first name was Douglas but nothing else. The press gave him the surname Zadig because the only possession he had on him was a copy of the novel ''Zadig'' by Creator/{{Voltaire}}. |
| 159 | * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. There's the character Ser Rolly Duckfield, who was knighted near, you guessed it, a field with ducks in it. There's also Ser Robert Stone, whom Osmund Kettleblack cites as the man who knighted him, but [[spoiler: Jaime]] believes he made up the name from that of [[spoiler: dead]] King Robert and a stone wall in the room. |
| 160 | * How the protagonist of ''Literature/TheSorcererKingOfDestructionAndTheGolemOfTheBarbarianQueen'' chooses names. He chose his own name, Dasai Nemaki - literally "Lame Pajamas" - based on what he was wearing when he was summoned to another world. |
| 161 | * According to ''Literature/StarWarsKenobi'', when Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives on Tatooine to begin his exile and needs an alias, he picks "Ben" off the name of a mesa on a map. Why Ben and not some other named mesa? Because it's also an old nickname that Satine (from ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'') used to call him. |
| 162 | * Tofu from ''Literature/SuperMinion''. While there wasn't any tofu in actual line of sight when he chose to pseudonym, he had recently eaten a really good tofu burger. |
| 163 | * ''Literature/TheSupernaturalist'': This is explicitly the method by which John Does are named. For example, protagonist Cosmo Hill got his name because he was found on Cosmonaut Hill. |
| 164 | * In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Tribe cats are named for the first thing their mother sees or perceives when they are born. Lampshaded by the character Rock in ''Cats of the Clans'', when he wonders why Tribe cats aren't all therefore named "Wall of Cave" or "Roof of Cave" or "Floor of Cave". |
| 165 | * ''Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows'': Billy Coleman just bought two puppies and is carrying them home and deciding their names. He passes by some SweetieGraffiti that reads "Dan + Ann". He names the dogs Old Dan and Little Ann. |
| 166 | * In ''Literature/AYellowRaftInBlueWater'', Rayona gets her name from the tag of her mother's hospital gown (made of rayon) because Christine was originally intending on calling the child Ray if it was a boy, but when it turned out to be a girl and Elgin wanted to call her Diane, Christine insisted on Ray and had to find a good feminine form of the name from somewhere. |
| 167 | * In the Literature/DrWatsonAtWar series by Robert Ryan, Watson takes offense when a German FemmeFataleSpy uses the cover name "Adler", thinking it's a reference to Irene Adler from his Literature/SherlockHolmes tales, when she actually took the name from her Klein-Adler typewriter. |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | |
| 170 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 171 | * ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': The Solomons are revealed in one episode to have taken their last name off the side of a truck. Harry comments that they could have ended up as the Wal-Marts. |
| 172 | * In the Japanese TV adaptation of ''Manga/AbsoluteBoyfriend'', Riiko needs to make up a surname for Night to use at work. She chooses "Tenjou" from the front of a nearby travel brochure, but then a co-worker points out that the name of the place is actually pronounced as Amagi. |
| 173 | * In the pilot of ''Series/ANTFarm'', Chyna is asked about her FirstKiss at [[AlphaBitch Lexi]]'s party. Having never kissed anyone, she nervously looks around the party and sees the front door and stairs, then claims it was with a guy named "Dorian Bannister". |
| 174 | ** Hilariously, in Season 3 [[RealJokeName there actually is someone named Dorian Bannister]]. |
| 175 | * In the Canadian puppet TV series ''Series/{{Bookmice}}'', the cat that had plagued Norbert, Zazi, and Leon (the "mice" in question) decides to give himself the name "Exit" in honor of the first word he learned how to read (which was an "EXIT" sign). |
| 176 | * ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'': Cory named his band "The Exits". This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the season 2 episode ("Band on the Run") because before seeing the Exit sign, Cory glances at better names (like a flier for a 'Blood Drive'.) |
| 177 | * In ''Series/{{The Day of the Triffids|2009}}'', the villain takes his name from Torrence Lane after the plane he's in crash-lands there. |
| 178 | * ''Series/DogWithABlog'': In "My Parents Posted What?!", Avery lies that she's on the social media platform [=BuddyBop=] when really, she's not allowed to use it. When the classmates ask what her screenname is, she looks at a poster of Abraham Lincoln, the continent Russia on the map, and a boy wearing an ugly sweater, coming up with the name "[=LincolnRussiaUglySweater=]". |
| 179 | * ''Series/EerieIndiana'' features an amnesiac kid who sports a mysterious "+" and "-" on the backs of his hands. He eventually decides to name himself after the marks. The main character guesses, "Plus Minus?" but the kid scoffs at the suggestion and corrects him, "Dash Ecks." |
| 180 | * In ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'', when Ray and Debra start to suspect each other of lying about their whereabouts (due to having been collaborating on doing so to Ray's parents), Ray asks the name of Debra's new doctor. She replies "Dr. Flowers" while averting her eyes -- Ray immediately follows her gaze to the vase of flowers in the kitchen window and calls her on it. (where Debra actually ''was'' goes unaddressed) |
| 181 | -->'''Ray:''' You sure it wasn't Dr. Cabinet? Or Dr. Scrubby-Brush? |
| 182 | * In "Flash Forward (1996)" Christine is trying to save a dog from going to the pound by lying about being it's owner. Skeptically the man from animal control asks her the dog's name. Noticing the man's name tag Christine claims the dog has the same name: "Steve". The man from animal control then points out that the dog is female. |
| 183 | * In the television play ''Series/TheFlipSideOfDominickHide'', time traveller Dominick Hide takes his new name Gilbey from a bottle of gin. He soon discovers that Gilbey is not a normal first name in this era. |
| 184 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Ross, his ex-wife Carol and her life-partner Susan spend most of the first season arguing over what to call their soon-to-be-born son. At the hospital Ross and Susan briefly get stuck in a janitor's closet where they see a uniform with "Ben" on the nametag which they agree to use for the baby. |
| 185 | * In ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'', when Benny is caught stealing money, she claims she has to pay off a guy named Mike. |
| 186 | -->'''Benny:''' Yeah, Mike Rowave. Let me tell you, he heats up real fast. |
| 187 | * Sylar on ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', who took his alias from a watch he was fixing. This is likely inspired by the real-life Zodiac killer, who is thought to have taken his name and/or logo from a brand of watch. |
| 188 | * According to ''Series/MacGyver2016'', Angus [=MacGyver=] got his name from a billboard advertising a steakhouse that was across the street from the spot where his mother and aunt were forced to pull over and deliver him in the back of the family truck. A steakhouse that sold steaks made of Angus beef. |
| 189 | * ''Series/Manhunt2024'': Boston Corbett's origin flashback, back to when he used his birthname Thomas, has a minister suggest that he give himself a MeaningfulRename to mark his becoming born again. They choose "Boston" from a nearby street sign. |
| 190 | * ''Series/MaxHeadroom'' names himself after [[BrainUploading downloading]] Edison Carter's line of sight in the pilot episode of the ''Max Headroom'' TV series (the last thing Edison saw before his accident was a parking-garage sign indicating the "Max(imum) Headroom," i.e. vertical clearance, of an exit). |
| 191 | * ''Series/MightyMed'': The name of Skylar’s civilian persona, Connie Valentine, came from an advertisement for the upcoming school dance Kaz saw that said “Carnival Time” when trying to come up with a fake girlfriend to take to the dance to make his crush jealous. |
| 192 | * In one episode of Dave Gorman's ''Series/ModernLifeIsGoodish'', Dave talks about adopting a stray cat and taking it to the vet to see if it's been microchipped by a previous owner. When the vet's receptionist asks for the cat's name, Dave can't think of anything and looks to a newspaper containing an article about the British monarchy for inspiration. To this day, even though his family now call the cat "Clancy", in all correspondence with the vet she's referred to as "HRH Queen Elizabeth". |
| 193 | * In ''Series/SleepyHollow'', the Sin Eater gets his primary alias this way, naming himself "Henry Parrish" after the (abandoned) St. Henry's Parish. |
| 194 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'': Vala, having lost her memories and being interrogated by the police, uses "Todad" as her last name, from reading a child's drawing pinned on the wall in front of her with "To Dad" written on it. The police detective sees through this instantly. |
| 195 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' has a verbal version in "I Borg" when La Forge and Dr. Crusher are trying to name a captured Borg drone. |
| 196 | --> '''Crusher''': I'm Beverly, he's Geordi, and you... you... |
| 197 | -->'''La Forge''': That's it! Hugh! |
| 198 | * ''Series/{{Superstore}}'': Cheyenne and Mateo help Glenn write an "in memoriam" for their deceased coworker, despite not really knowing anything about the coworker. They make up names based on Glenn's clothes. According to them, their coworker was a cowboy who rode a horse named Cloud Tie, and a soldier of the Blue Shirt division who fought in the Battle of Khaki Pants. |
| 199 | * Mel gets Cole's fake last name, Hauser, from someone's parking space in ''Series/Tracker2001''. |
| 200 | * In ''Series/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt'', Kimmy Schmidt has to make up a name to explain her step-father to her new boyfriend, so picks the first three sings she sees - a bag of potatoes, a sewing machine, and a box marked 'Say Say Say'. |
| 201 | -->'''Kimmy''': Kaiser. Sew. Say. [[Film/TheUsualSuspects Keyser Söze]]! |
| 202 | [[/folder]] |
| 203 | |
| 204 | [[folder:Manhua]] |
| 205 | * In ''Manhua/RavagesOfTime'', a modern reinterpretation of ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', this is how Liaoyuan Huo gets his much better-known name [[spoiler: Zhao Yun, after watching some clouds ('yun' in Chinese) go by]]. |
| 206 | [[/folder]] |
| 207 | |
| 208 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 209 | * "Blue Like Mars" by Lloyd Cole was inspired by a NASA photo with this title he ran into. |
| 210 | * Chris Martin started writing the Music/{{Coldplay}} song "Yellow" after seeing the Yellow Pages (he said that in an alternate universe he probably wrote a song called "Magazine/{{Playboy}}"). |
| 211 | * Music/{{deadmau5}} admits to being very lax and unconcerned with song titles most of the time, no doubt inspiring some especially odd, nonsensical titles that usually consist of whatever phrase or in-jokes are on his mind at the moment. Reportedly, his 2010 single "Right This Second" got its name is because it was still untitled as it was ready for release and his manager told him to "[[ExactWords name this song right this second]]." |
| 212 | * This trope is why ''Music/SiameseDream'' by Music/TheSmashingPumpkins has a song titled "Mayonnaise". While Billy Corgan was writing songs for the album, he took a break to make some lunch. When he opened the fridge, he spotted a jar of the eponymous condiment. |
| 213 | * Japanese band Sukima Switch took their name from a gap (sukima) in the windowsill and a pull light switch in Tokita's apartment. |
| 214 | * Music/ConwayTwitty (real name: Harold Lloyd Jenkins) picked his stage name by spotting Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Texas on a road map. |
| 215 | * Music/ElectricLightOrchestra's first album was titled ''No Answer'' in the United States. A secretary at the American publisher called the British office to ask what the name should be, the call wasn't answered, and she wrote that down on a note, which somehow got sent off to the American printer. |
| 216 | * According to the [[ReclusiveArtist anonymous musician]] who is the [[IAmTheBand sole constant member]] of Music/{{Jandek}}, he picked the name because at the time that he decided to start recording music, he was on the phone to somebody called Decker in the month of January. |
| 217 | * Little River Band, originally called Mississippi, got its name in this way. As former member Beeb Birtles recounted it in his autobiography: |
| 218 | -->'''Birtles''': [Glenn Shorrock] and I were sitting in the back seat of a car driving down Princes Highway to play a gig at The Golf View Hotel in Geelong. As we passed the Little River exit sign, [Shorrock] said "Little River, that'd be a good song title." Within a split second he said, "Hey, what about Little River Band?" We all agreed it was the perfect name for us. |
| 219 | * Trocadero's Nico Audy-Rowland was writing a song about driving a ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' Warthog for ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', but was struggling to find an opening lyric. Then he saw in a bar a woman in a green dress, and the result is even acknowledged in the title "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRSLRjPX0Bg Steady Ride (Gun Metal Green)]]". |
| 220 | * Music/UB40 took its name from the Unemployment Benefit Form 40, or [=UB40=] for short, while the members were waiting in a dole queue to fill out their paperwork. |
| 221 | * The members of Music/DoesItOffendYouYeah wanted to upload some demo recordings to [=MySpace=] but hadn't settled on a band name yet, so they resolved to name themselves after the first thing they heard when they turned on the television - this turned out to be a scene from ''Series/TheOfficeUK'' in which the character David Brent asks "My drinking, does it offend you, yeah?". The name stuck. |
| 222 | * The Music/HarryStyles song "Music For a Sushi Restaurant" was inspired by him dining with a friend at a sushi restaurant when one of his songs came on, and they were amused at how out-of-place it seemed. His friend said it was "really unusual music for a sushi restaurant," and Styles liked that so much he wrote a song around it. |
| 223 | * Soviet band Music/{{Kino}} (Кино, 'Film') reportedly got its name after frontman Viktor Tsoi observed a bright neon cinema sign while trying to think of something. |
| 224 | * Music/{{Lorde}} was inspired to title what would become her BreakthroughHit and SignatureSong "[[Music/PureHeroine Royals]]" after seeing a photograph used as the cover of a 1976 issue of ''Magazine/NationalGeographic'' showing [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Kansas City Royals]] third baseman George Brett signing baseballs, noticing the team's name emblazed front and center on his shirt. (Lorde and Brett [[https://twitter.com/MLB/status/456405512977129472 would eventually meet each other,]] by the way.) |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Poetry]] |
| 228 | * In the 1893 poem "A Bush Christening" by Creator/BanjoPaterson, the priest forgets the name of the recalcitrant child who is to be christened. Seeing an empty bottle of Maginnis' whiskey, he chooses the name Maginnis, much to the later embarrassment of the upstanding citizen he has named. |
| 229 | [[/folder]] |
| 230 | |
| 231 | [[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]] |
| 232 | * Comedian Stephen K. Amos had a bit where he mentioned being born in St. Stephen's Hospital. "So you can just imagine how hard my parents worked to come up with my name." Worked out pretty well for him, but not so much for his twin sister, Hospital.[[note]]She's actually named Stella.[[/note]] |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 | |
| 235 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 236 | * ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest''. |
| 237 | -->'''Jack:''' The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old gentleman of a very charitable and kindly disposition, [[DoorStopBaby found me]], and gave me the name of Worthing, because he happened to have a first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocket at the time. |
| 238 | * ''Theatre/InTheHeights'': How Usnavi got his name. |
| 239 | -->'''Abuela Claudia:''' It was engraved on a passing ship the day your family came! Your father said "Usnavi! That's what we'll name the baby!" |
| 240 | -->'''Usnavi:''' It really said "US Navy," but hey! I worked with what they gave me, okay? |
| 241 | * ''One Man, Two Guv'nors'': Stanley, desperate for an alias and seeing a dustbin outside a pub, introduces himself to Alan as Dustin Pubsign. He claims it's an old Anglo-Saxon name from the families that painted pub signs. |
| 242 | * In Noah Smith's stage version of ''Theatre/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'', Hyde gets his name this way, from Hyde Park. |
| 243 | [[/folder]] |
| 244 | |
| 245 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 246 | * In ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'' the amnesiac Isabella first wanted to be called Cattleya (her name in the Japanese and European versions) after Will gives her a (plastic) ''cattleya isabella'' Orchid (a natural hybrid that in real life is only found in Brazil). Will convinces her to go with Isabella instead, because he finds "Cattleya" to have a very awkward pronunciation. |
| 247 | * In ''VideoGame/BedtimeStory'', a father telling his son the story in question can't think of a name for the villain's boss, so he looks around the room for a bit and comes up with the "Great Wizard Kur-Tayn." |
| 248 | * In ''VideoGame/BeneathASteelSky'', a boy is given the surname "Foster", ostensibly because he's an orphan that was "fostered", but the fact they're in Australia and the person who named him was holding a popular beer of the nation probably helped in some way. (Due to copyrights and trademark stuff, the name of the beer was changed to a fictional one for many versions of the game (including the freeware one) hence spoiling the joke). |
| 249 | * In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' you meet a ghost who explains ghosts have no need for names(presumably to hide his identity as [[spoiler:Eric Lecarde]]). But then the wind blows, and he decides you can call him "Wind". |
| 250 | * In ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'', Kara (one of the game’s android protagonists) can disguise as human to stay at a motel. When the receptionist asks for her name and address, she quickly glances at an ad for a car rental service and comes up with the name "Archer" to avoid suspicion. |
| 251 | * In ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'', crazy hermit Herman Toothrot admits that he suffers from EasyAmnesia. When he washed up on the island, he created his name as a backronym from the only legible initials on his last remaining possession. Once he regains his memory, he's revealed to be Horatio Torquemada [[spoiler:Marley, Elaine's grandfather]]. |
| 252 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'': Garnet, the runaway princess, has to go incognito for awhile and needs a [[CodeName fake moniker]]. Seeing the hero's weapon of choice, she names herself Dagger--assuming the player [[HelloInsertNameHere picks that name]], of course. |
| 253 | * In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the heroes eventually reache [[GrimUpNorth Garlemald]], the home of TheEmpire, and set up a forward operating base in an abandoned town. When asked what to name their new camp, the commander names it Camp Broken Glass, since the ice crunching underfoot reminds them of the sound of breaking glass. |
| 254 | [[/folder]] |
| 255 | |
| 256 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 257 | * In ''VisualNovel/{{Ghostpia}}'', Sayoko decides to name the newly arrived ghost "Yoru," meaning "night," simply because they met at night. |
| 258 | [[/folder]] |
| 259 | |
| 260 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 261 | * ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'': Black Mage has to come up with an alias in a hurry, so he looks at the noticeboard holding his MOST WANTED poster. The notices on the board include a sign for "Toilet Trouble? Call the Johnsmith!" and, in a ShoutOut to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', a pea, a tear and a griffin...so, naturally, he takes "Mos Anted" off the Most Wanted poster. |
| 262 | * In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', when Bugsy is explaining that former fairy students can be rewarded with names, she recalls the time she got her own name. Cue FlashBack of some bored guy (who she doesn't even remember properly) glancing at a shelf of [=DVDs=] and telling her "Umm ... your name can be ... Film/{{Bugsy}}." |
| 263 | * ''Webcomic/KarinDou4koma'': Seren happened to be eating Ujikintoki (a type of shaved ice) when she needed a surname for Ginka and Kinka and just went with "Ujikintoki". |
| 264 | * ''Webcomic/MyFianceeIsAVampireHunter'': When [[AmnesiacHero Maxie]] asks Louis her name, he doesn't want to tell her her real name in case it jogs her memory. He looks around, but fails to spot anything inspiring until his gaze lands on the daisies outside the window, and he tells her her name is Daisy. |
| 265 | -->'''Louis:''' ''[internally]'' Think of a name, quick! ''[looking around]'' Dust?! Trash?! Axe?! Those are all ridiculous!! |
| 266 | * ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'': When Melon first meets "Spookybot" she exclaims "Yay! New friend!" whereupon they introduce themselves to her as "Yay Newfriend." Melon, [[TheDitz being Melon]], doesn't notice. They decide to keep the name and their friend Roko concedes that, what with it being an obnoxious joke, it's perfect for them. |
| 267 | -->'''Yay:''' Also, we have decided that "Yay" is a hypocrism, a shortening of our '''''full''''' first name.\ |
| 268 | '''Roko:''' Which would be?\ |
| 269 | '''Yay:''' Yaaaaaaaay\ |
| 270 | '''Roko:''' '''''GOD DAMN IT''''' |
| 271 | * In [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Ben Croshaw's]] webcomic ''[[http://yahtzee.comicgenesis.com/d/20001220.html Yahtzee Takes On The World]]'', a variation of this occurs. When the VillainProtagonist was trying to choose a name for himself, he consistently overheard people talking with the name 'Ben' in every other sentence. However, he ignored these, and took the name 'Yahtzee' when the board game was mentioned. |
| 272 | * Subverted in [[https://robbiegeez.tumblr.com/post/149610809224/alien-comic this]] webcomic, where an FBI agent asks an alien for its name. The alien looks around at signs for "Peter Street" and "Johnson Cola"... then panics because he can't read. |
| 273 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': |
| 274 | ** In ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickStartOfDarkness Start of Darkness]]'', we learn that this is why Xykon's sidekick is known only as "Redcloak". When the two first meet, Xykon murders a lizardfolk ally for having an OverlyLongName he won't be able to remember, and thus when Xykon asks the name of the goblin in the red cloak, the goblin spontaneously gives his name as "Redcloak" to avoid the same fate, also dubbing his eyepatch-wearing younger brother "Right-Eye". Their given names are never spoken; the names of other goblins encountered later in the book would indicate that goblins do indeed tend to have multisyllabic names, though not to nearly the extent of the lizardfolk lord's. |
| 275 | ** In ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]'', Roy gets frustrated with his newly formed party trying to name their party after completely arbitrary things (like how they met in a tavern or how it's cloudy on that day), so he sarcastically suggests that they name themselves based on him finding a stick on the road. Sadly for Roy, [[TeamTitle The Order of the Stick]] ends up striking a chord with the party. |
| 276 | [[/folder]] |
| 277 | |
| 278 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 279 | * ''WebAnimation/GridironHeights'' uses this trope to give us a joke on how the Washington Redskins/Commanders came up with their temporary name, the Washington Football Team: |
| 280 | -->'''Dan Snyder:''' ''[as he is sweeping the Redskins name and logo under a rug]'' Uh... we're the Washington... ''[sees Stefon Diggs snatching a football away from Josh Allen]'' ...Football... ''[sees Patrick Mahomes sneaking away with a trio of baseball players]'' ...Team. |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 284 | * In ''Roleplay/NeoPokeforum'', this is how the Crow comes up with names for all her pokemon. Zexy's name is a shortened version of nearby printer's brand, while Dirty Harry got his after she spotted dirt on his fur. |
| 285 | * In episode 94 of the second campaign of ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'', Nott declares that her parents' names are Ashley and Travis when asked by Yasha and Fjord (played by Creator/AshleyJohnson and Creator/TravisWillingham respectively). |
| 286 | * In [=YouTuber=] Seamus Gorman's series on Disney sequels, he plays a recurring character named "Cameron Paperman", a news reporter named for the camera and the stack of papers he's holding respectively. |
| 287 | * Parodied and combined with OverlyLongName by Website/{{Collegehumor}} in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-4uXoep_KAAmir "Making Up a Sketch on the Spot"]] |
| 288 | [[/folder]] |
| 289 | |
| 290 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 291 | * The ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Horse and Ball" reveals that James Baxter the Horse came up with his name from seeing a box labeled "Games" and a sign reading "Bookstore". |
| 292 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': |
| 293 | ** In the episode "The Man Who Killed Batman", nobody mob underling Sidney [=Debris=] is given the nickname "Sid The Squid" when one of his superiors spots an advertisement for calamari. |
| 294 | ** In the episode "Growing Pains", Tim Drake must think of a name for an amnesiac girl. He looks around and seeing another girl with a BrandX version of a Literature/RaggedyAnn doll, concludes that he'll call her Annie. |
| 295 | * In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', when reuniting with Kai, Ben lies about changing the name of his "Benwolf" form, then looks to see Wolf Blitzer on a TV and renames the form "Blitzwolfer". |
| 296 | * In ''WesternAnimation/CarmenSandiego'', Carmen bases her alias on the name of haberdashery who made her trademark hat ("Carmen's") and the city where it's located ("San Diego"). |
| 297 | * ''WesternAnimation/DenverTheLastDinosaur'': How the titular dinosaur gets his name when Shades sees a Denver, Colorado ski resort bus ad. |
| 298 | * Implied to be the case in ''{{WesternAnimation/Disenchantment}}'' where Gordie Stewson [[spoiler:aka Alva Gunderson]] seems to have picked his alias from a sign in the background of his first scene that reads "Stew's On." |
| 299 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'', while writing an essay on his best friend, Kuzco realizes that he doesn't have one and looks at various objects while trying to make one up. Three of the things he sees are a loaf of bread, a fruit bowl and a picture of a llama. Thus, he writes about Brad Bowllama. |
| 300 | * PlayedForLaughs on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Peter attempts to use this to come up with an alias for himself, and the first three things he sees is a pea, a tear falling from someone's eye, [[RuleOfFunny and a griffin]]. He thus confidently declares himself to be [[RealNameAsAnAlias Peter Griffin]] before suddenly realizing the problem. |
| 301 | * Invoked twice in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': |
| 302 | ** Aside from Goliath, most of the titular gargoyles did not use names before their move to New York. On learning that humans insist on them, the others pick names from their surroundings, becoming Hudson, Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington and Bronx. |
| 303 | --->'''Hudson:''' You humans have to have a name for everything. Does the sky need a name? The river?\ |
| 304 | '''Eliza:''' [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder The river's called "The Hudson."]]\ |
| 305 | '''Hudson:''' ''[sighs]'' Then I shall be "The Hudson" as well. |
| 306 | ** Demona names the gargoyle clones after Californian surroundings--Hollywood, Malibu, Burbank, and Brentwood--specifically to point out how stupid she thought this method of naming was. |
| 307 | * Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''. While trying to think up a nickname for an aloof new kid who never speaks, Billy sees likely names on all number of things around him, but doesn't choose any of them, and instead goes with "Pif". |
| 308 | * The protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/HamiltonMattress'', an up-and-coming drummer, takes his stage name from a billboard advertising bedding. |
| 309 | * In ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'', [[spoiler:after escaping the train with Jesse, Mirror Tulip rechristens herself "Lake" after seeing her reflection in a nearby lake, the first reflective surface she's been able to look at without fear of the Flecs chasing her.]] |
| 310 | * ''WesternAnimation/NinjagoDragonsRising'': When in need of an alias to sneak into Imperium, Arin looks around and comes up with the name Dr. Lampshade Floortile. |
| 311 | * In ''[[WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers Ōban Star Racers]]'', Eva Wei invents her pseudonym Molly in this way. When she sees her father for the first time in years and he doesn't recognize her, she gives the name "Molly" after a pin-up poster in the hangar. |
| 312 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' has Rigby use this method to come up with his new name;[[note]]Having been convinced to change it to two random words after seeing a documentary about a rock band.[[/note]] the first things he sees are a trash can and a painting of a boat, so he goes with Trash Boat. |
| 313 | * Bart comes up with two of these in a row in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. To get into a woman's house, he pretends he's looking for a lost turtle; when asked what the turtle's name is, he looks at the woman and comes up with "Apron Boobs Face". When asked for his name, he comes up with "Shoes Butt Back". |
| 314 | ** Subverted in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E1TreehouseOfHorrorXI Treehouse of Horror XI]]. In response to Lisa asking about her boyfriend's name, the witch says 'George…', turns her head, looks at a cauldron and finishes with '…Cauldron. George Cauldron.' Lisa and Bart don't believe and laugh at her but the actual George Cauldron shows up at the door one moment later. |
| 315 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': |
| 316 | ** In "Born Again Krabs", when the Flying Dutchman visits Mr. Krabs in episode "Born Again Krabs", the latter denies to be Eugene Krabs and calls himself "Harold" (then he looks at the flowers at his night desk) "Flower". The German dub manages to combine this trope with an ActorAllusion to Mr. Krabs's German voice actor, by changing the name "Harold Flower" to "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_the_Elephant Benjamin Blümchen]]" ("Blümchen" means "blossom" or "little flower"). |
| 317 | ** In the storyboard for "New Student Starfish", Patrick got the name "24" by glancing at the date of 24 on the calendar. |
| 318 | * In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'', Steven gets annoyed by the fact that Pearl and Pink Pearl both have the same name, and decides Pink Pearl needs a nickname. He dubs her "Volleyball", after one of the Quartzes hits him in the head with a volleyball. |
| 319 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Stripperella}}'' does this as part of a RunningGag over her [[ClarkKenting barely concealing]] her SecretIdentity. "My last name? (sees lamp) Lamp... (sees chair) chair... (sees apartment wall) wall... ner... stien." |
| 320 | * ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'': In "Save the Tiger", [[IOweYouMyLife Shere Khan owes Baloo a debt after Baloo saves his life]]. Baloo asks for $50,000.00 to buy the Sea Duck back from Rebecca, and when he presents the money to Rebecca, she asks him where he got it. Since Baloo promised Khan that he wouldn't tell anyone about the rescue, Baloo sees a vacuum cleaner, and says that his Uncle Happy Hoover gave him the money. |
| 321 | * The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeachersPet'' sees Spot coming up with his human name in this fashion. By noticing the teacher's pencil, he comes up with Scott "Leadready No. 2." The teacher assumes he means "the Second." |
| 322 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' Michelangelo needs to distract the recently mutated Ivan Steranko and Anton Zeck in order to rescue hostages, so he fake surrenders and offers to give them 'mutant names'. He then looks at various stalls of the abandoned carnival they're at, and comes up with "Pork Rind and Chili Cheese Fry", "Sprinkles and Hot Sauce", "Royal Weenies" (which goes over so badly they almost attack him right then and there) before seeing "Bebop and Rocksteady". Anton immediately calls him out on his lack of creativity, but Ivan actually likes being called "[[SpellMyNameWithAThe The Rocksteady]]". |
| 323 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'': Tick's famous BattleCry of "Spoon!" came about because he was holding a spoon at the time. |
| 324 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' episode, "Who's Geoffrey?", Thomas comes up with the titular fake engine to get out of trouble, using things and characters around him to come up with his supposed appearance: a big steam engine(Big Mickey and Porter) from the mainland (a ship) who is red (Victor) and hiding out in Henry's Tunnel (Henry). |
| 325 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' the Constructicons picked their own names this way. Mixmaster from a decal that was left on him (or just "Mix" for short) and Scrapper from a pile with a sign that said "Scrap". |
| 326 | ** Grimlock and Wreck-Gar also get their names in a similar way, with Wreck-Gar getting it as a nickname from Angry Archer, and Grimlock getting it as a result of something Megatron said. |
| 327 | * On ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'' a demon who is posing as a demon baby's father is asked the name of the baby and he responds, "Choking Victim?" This is revealed to be a title on a poster directly in his line-of-sight. [[spoiler: It turns out he really is the baby's father. And he decides to keep the baby's name as Choking Victim]] |
| 328 | * ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': In "Escandaolos", Baby Grizzly and his brothers become ''luchadores'', and he gets the name for their team from seeing a ''telenovela'' magazine headline reading "¡Que Escandaloso!" ("How scandalous!"), introducing themselves as "Los Escandalosos" (which also doubles as a nod to the Latin American Spanish dub's alternate title). |
| 329 | [[/folder]] |
| 330 | |
| 331 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 332 | * When Creator/LarryKing began as a DJ in Miami his manager thought his birth name of Zeiger was too ethnic. Minutes before going on air, he saw an ad for King's Wholesale Liquor. |
| 333 | * One of Creator/JimHenson's Series/{{Fraggle|Rock}}s, Wembley, was named this way. At an early production meeting where potential character names were being tossed around, head writer Jerry Juhl happened to glance at a newspaper article about an event at Wembley Stadium. |
| 334 | * Surname examples: |
| 335 | ** Canadian Inuit typically used only a single name until the government began delivering services in the 1940s and 1950s, at which point family names and southern-originated names started coming into wider use. In some cases the family names were chosen by this method as a person (or government bureaucrat) had to think of ''something'' to put in the blank lines of documents. |
| 336 | ** Swedish nobility have a certain amount of this trope, as they usually got their names based on the device they bore on their shields. (This started out as a convention used by historians to differentiate all the various people with similar names and patronymics, but was eventually formalized in the 17th century.) Case in point: Gustav Eriksson, widely credited as [[FounderOfTheKingdom founder of the Swedish nation]], is known today as Gustav Vasa, after his family's coat of arms- a vasa being a trap for catching fish. |
| 337 | ** Japanese surnames were also made up like that, as surnames were only legally required after the Meiji Restoration. Extremely common name elements are ta/da "rice paddy", yama "mountain", kawa/gawa "river", mori "forest", mura "village", ue "upper", naka "middle" and shita "lower". You can take almost any combination of two of these and make a common Japanese surname, with the most common names being known as the "Ta-naka-mura" names, which are a combination of any two of those three characters in any order: Tanaka, Nakata, Nakamura, Muranaka, Murata, Tamura. |
| 338 | ** Also, the German Jews. Which is why many German Jewish names have a relatively modern spelling and are not (like most German names) related to profession, location or personal attributes (appearance, temper etc.). |
| 339 | ** Brazilians are told that when Portuguese Jews were forced to convert, they took up names relating to their surroundings or to local vegetation and sometimes the myth tells that all surnames of this kind are New Christian. There are no studies that might prove such a tale and at least one Portuguese genealogist claimed to almost have a stroke when reading such nonsense. Also, having St. Nuno of Portugal been named Nuno Pereira (pear tree) and universally described as an Old Christian already brings down the idea that all of those surnames were Jewish. |
| 340 | *** However in old church registries (prior to etymological spelling or basic schooling) one could tell who was a New Christian to some limited extent because of the outright horrible spelling of their names as most spoke pidgins of Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic. |
| 341 | * British musical hall artiste Nosmo King picked his stage name from some partially ajar stage doors that split the warning "No Smoking" in "No Smo King". |
| 342 | * In an interview with Wild Cartoon Kingdom #1, Creator/JohnKricfalusi said that he instantly conceived his character, George Liquor, upon seeing [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XwGYOcz2ASU/RXJGGaNXBiI/AAAAAAAAAcE/LL_MiyiTWL4/s1600-h/wck1_pg38.jpg a sign for a (now long gone) liquor store]] in Van Nuys, California which was named George's Liquor (although the S had fallen off by the time John saw it). |
| 343 | * Actor Creator/MichaelCaine was born Maurice Mickelwhite, and initially performed under the stage name Michael White. On the phone in Leicester Square, his agent informed him that he had a new job, but it required him to join Equity (the British actor's guild) and they already had a Michael White. Caine then proceeded to glance around the square and saw a sign for ''Film/TheCaineMutiny'', and the rest is history. He has also joked in interviews that if he'd looked the other way he would have ended up as "Michael WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians". |
| 344 | ** Apparently this happens to a LOT of British actors. Creator/JohnLevene, Sergeant Benton of ''Series/DoctorWho'', plucked 'Levene' off a billboard when he learned he couldn't use his real name. Which would have been fine except for YEARS producers looking to fill Jewish character parts kept calling him. Not only is he not Jewish, he doesn't even LOOK Jewish. |
| 345 | * When riding home from an audition in need of a stage name, the future ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' star saw a truck pass by which said "Crawford's Biscuits Are Best". From then on, he was Michael Crawford. |
| 346 | ** Like Caine, he once joked in an interview the it turned out better than it might have -- if a different biscuits lorry had gone by he could ended up as "Michael Peek Freans". |
| 347 | * Tenth Doctor Creator/DavidTennant (his real name is David [=McDonald=], [[OneSteveLimit and there is already an actor with that name]]) says he got his name from a ''Smash Hits'' magazine, taking it from Music/PetShopBoys singer Neil Tennant. |
| 348 | * Ernest Tidyman reportedly came up with the name for ''Film/{{Shaft}}'' while pitching the character to a publisher. When asked for the character's name, he didn't have one ready, but he happened to look out a window and see a sign reading "fire shaft". |
| 349 | * When Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen was in exile in Japan around the turn of the 20th century, his friend registered him at a hotel as Sho Nakayama. He took this name from a palace near Hibiya Park in Tokyo. In Mandarin, the kanji for Nakayama would be read as Zhongshan and it is now the most common name used for him-- at least in Chinese. [[note]]He had so many names that The Other Wiki has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Sun_Yat-sen a page on them]].[[/note]] |
| 350 | * Chris Martin said he named the Music/{{Coldplay}} song "Yellow" after a Yellow Pages directory he saw while composing. He also stated: "In an alternate universe, this song could be called 'Magazine/{{Playboy}}'." |
| 351 | * In her autobiography ''Anarquistas, Graças a Deus'' ("Anarchists, Thank God!"), Brazilian novelist Zelia Gattai tells her childhood neighbour was supposed to name his daughter Haydée, but lost the paper with that written. So, he asked the notary to name her Olga after the brand of cigarettes he smoked. |
| 352 | * Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} got their name when Brian Jones was on the phone trying to get a gig, and the promoter asked for the band's name. Not having one yet, Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP on the floor with the first song entitled "Rollin' Stone Blues". |
| 353 | ** Likewise, Music/{{ACDC}} came from a sewing machine (Alternating Current/Direct Current). |
| 354 | ** In 1966 Music/NeilYoung and Stephen Stills decided to call their new band "Buffalo Springfield" after seeing a steamroller manufactured by the Buffalo-Springfield Company resurfacing the street in front of the house they were living in. |
| 355 | ** Music/DepecheMode got their name from a French fashion magazine because they liked how it sounded. They only found out the meaning (either "fashion review", "hurried fashion" or "fashion dispatch") later but liked it anyway. |
| 356 | ** Music/TheHollies was half this and half NamedAfterSomebodyFamous -- although they idolized Music/BuddyHolly, as did virtually every other British Beat band at the time, it also happened to be Christmas. |
| 357 | ** The song "Black Dog" by Music/LedZeppelin was named after a black Lab that hung around the recording studio, despite having nothing to do with the song. |
| 358 | * ''Music/{{Oasis}}'': |
| 359 | ** The album ''Standing on the Shoulder of Giants'' came from an Isaac Newton quote that is on the £2 coin (except that it is "shoulders", but Noel Gallagher was drunk when he wrote the title). |
| 360 | ** Follow-up ''Heathen Chemistry'' comes from a T-shirt Noel saw. Lead single "The Hindu Times" was also seen somewhere (it's an actual newspaper), but Noel can't remember where. |
| 361 | ** The band name itself is picked from a poster as well. |
| 362 | * According to [[http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showpost.php?p=687689&postcount=12 this forum post,]] the name of Creator/ADVFilms (originally known as A.D. Vision) was one of these, named after the AD Police from ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis''. |
| 363 | * Creator/{{A24}} got their name from the Italian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostrada_A24_(Italy) A24 motorway]] that one of the founders was driving on when he decided to form the company. |
| 364 | * Creator/StephenKing came up with a last name for his pseudonym while listening to Music/BachmanTurnerOverdrive and reading a novel by Richard Stark (pen name of Creator/DonaldWestlake). Hence, Richard Bachman. |
| 365 | * As an old local rumor goes, the city of Cocoa, Florida got its name this way. It was founded as "Indian River City", but that name was too long to fit on a postmark. When the time came to rename the place, the postmaster happened to have a tin of cocoa on his desk. The rest is history. |
| 366 | * The programming language Java got its name this way. The creators were drinking coffee from Java when they were thinking of a name for their product. Originally, they wanted to name it Oak (because they saw an oak tree through the window), but that name was already trademarked. |
| 367 | ** Similarly, the Code Red computer worm was named after the Code Red Mountain Dew that the people who discovered it had been drinking. |
| 368 | * Some Berber tribes in North Africa have a tradition of having the women gather and read the Qur'an while a woman is in labor. The word that was being read when the baby was born (how that's defined depends on the tribe) is the name of the child. It helps a bit that there is probably a bit of latitude in terms of which word is chosen (delivering a baby, after all, takes time), and that many Arabic words--and particularly adjectives--have meanings that are suitable as names. |
| 369 | * The band Mest got their name from a can of Milwaukee's Best beer. More specifically, they started with a {{Spoonerism}}, "Bilwaukee's Mest", then shortened it. |
| 370 | * Ever wondered how Emerald Hill Zone from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' got its name? |
| 371 | -->''"Visually speaking, through all three games, we always start with an island. At the time, we were developing in San Francisco, and south of there was a town(?) called Emerald Hill. We were doing a location test at a shopping center there when we saw it, and since it was a Green Hill-like name we thought well, let's use it in the game!"'' |
| 372 | ** Incidentally, the town's name is actually Emerald Hill''s'', but [[https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=San+Francisco,+CA,+United+States&daddr=Emerald+Hills,+CA,+United+States&hl=en&sll=37.46466,-122.268023&sspn=0.027796,0.065875&geocode=FVJmQAIdKAe0-CkhAGkAbZqFgDH_rXbwZxNQSg%3BFVSqOwIdiVa2-Cnd8hyue6GPgDGbBtZ6XWvGmA&oq=San+&t=h&mra=ls&z=11 the details are otherwise correct]]. (Though it would probably be more accurate to describe Emerald Hills as "right next to Redwood City" because it is at least a good half-hour to the south of San Francisco.) |
| 373 | * The ''Franchise/{{Degrassi}}'' franchise began as a short film ("Ida Makes a Movie"), which led to others being commissioned and the need for a blanket series title. One of the houses used for a lot of the filming was on De Grassi Street in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} and so the name Degrassi was chosen. The spelling variation is due to technical limits; in 1979 Toronto still used stamped street signs which were in all-caps and had a hard character limit before an expensive longer plate was needed (so it appeared as "DEGRASSI ST"), by the time they went to screened ones that allowed mixed-case and the extra space the franchise had long since committed to "Degrassi" as one word. |
| 374 | * Apparently how Pauly Montgomery Shore got his name. His mother passed by a Pauly Automotive and a Montgomery Ward on her way to the hospital. Though this could be an urban legend. |
| 375 | * Music/{{Luther|Vandross}} ''Ronzoni'' Vandross was so named because his mother saw a commercial for Ronzoni brand pasta in the hospital. |
| 376 | * The writers of ''Film/TronLegacy'' were looking for a good name for [[BigBad Clu's]] [[TheDragon Dragon]]. One of them had a Star Wars Encyclopedia on the desk, and one of the authors of ''that'' book had the surname "Rinzler." |
| 377 | * The creators of ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'' needed a project name that sounded like something a pretentious, self-absorbed film student would come up with: they picked two words at random off separate advertising signs. |
| 378 | * Variation: turns out ''VideoGame/TheGunstringer'' was a Line of Sight ''Premise'': the creators of the game were forced to scrap their previous idea due to technology issues shortly before the pitch meeting with a Microsoft exec in a Tex-Mex restaurant, forcing them to come up with a completely new game idea while said exec was in the bathroom. They had previously discussed a game involving marionettes and the restaurant had a painting of a skeleton cowboy. And the rest is history. |
| 379 | * At the end of the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar US Civil War,]] many former slaves that had previously been listed with their master's surname or no last name at all made up their own. "Freeman" and "Freedman" were popular choices, for obvious reasons. |
| 380 | * The most frequent OriginStory behind the hundreds of unfortunate babies with the classical GhettoName Usnavy (and its variations) is that the future mothers either saw a boat of the U.S. Navy on the road of the hospital or were attended on Naval installations. |
| 381 | * This is how the Music/PinkFloyd song "Atom Heart Mother" was named--the co-composer for the piece, Ron Geesin, gave Roger Waters a copy of the Evening Standard and told him to take the song title from within. The song came from the headline "Atom Heart Mother Named". The name "Pink Floyd" counts as well. One of the early names the band used was "The Tea Set", but at a gig they found out another band also using that name was performing before them. They needed a new name on the spot, so Music/SydBarrett combined the names of two American bluesmen he happened to be reading about earlier that day from the liner notes of an album in his collection: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. |
| 382 | * [[http://www.jmanga.com/features/girl-friends-final-volume An interview]] with Creator/MilkMorinaga reveals the story of how she got her pen-name: |
| 383 | -->'''Milk Morinaga:''' I was talking with a friend on the phone trying to decide on a pen name. I was eating strawberries at the time and there happened to be some condensed milk made by [the company] Morinaga right in front of me. Looking back, I feel like I should have thought about it more seriously... |
| 384 | * According to the founders of Website/TheOnion, the question how to name their newspaper came up while being in the kitchen. Where one of them happened to be cutting an onion. |
| 385 | * Creator/DouglasAdams was trying to think of a suitably exotic name for a rock star character in ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'' when he spotted an estate agent's sign in the garden of a house he was driving past. The firm (which still exists) was "Hotblack Desiato" and they went through a phase of people calling them up and accusing them of copying their name from Adams... |
| 386 | * Tommy James (of Tommy James and the Shondells) came up with the title for his song "Mony Mony" when he saw a MONY sign on a Mutual of New York building. |
| 387 | * Actress Creator/WinonaRyder, born Winona Horowitz, took her stage name from musician Mitch Ryder, as one of his albums was playing when Creator/JohnHughes had asked her how she wanted her name to appear in the credits for ''Lucas''. And her mother named her Winona for the nearby town of Winona, Minnesota. |
| 388 | * Born William Jason Reso, pro wrestler [[{{Wrestling/Christian}} Christian Cage]], better known simply as Christian, took his name from his two favorite actors, Creator/ChristianSlater and Creator/NicolasCage. |
| 389 | * Australian actress Creator/TabrettBethell was named after her parents disagreed on what to name her while still at the hospital (her mother wanted "Siobhan" and her father wanted "Murray"). Her father went for a drive, saw the name "Tabrett Street" in Sydney, and returned to the hospital to suggest it to her mother, who said, "Yes, that's it!" |
| 390 | * Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin came up with the titular town name for her short story "Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas" after seeing a road sign for "'''Salem, O'''regon" reflected backwards in her car mirror. |
| 391 | * Creator/JJAbrams got the name ''{{Film/Cloverfield}}'' from a freeway exit in Santa Monica. |
| 392 | * Martin Nodell, the creator of the original ''Franchise/GreenLantern'', claims that he came up with the superhero's name after he saw an engineer at a train station using a green lantern and a red lantern to signal to trains when to run and when to stop. If he'd arrived at the train station a few minutes later, we may well have ended up with a superhero called ''Red Lantern''. |
| 393 | * A very common trick at hypnosis shows is for the performer to hypnotize the participants into forgetting their own names. When subsequently asked to identify themselves, many will say the first thing they see written down, so you'll get people saying their name is "Exit," "Staff Only," or similar. |
| 394 | * [[Music/LadyGaga Stefani Germanotta]]'s former producer Rob Fusari claims that she came up with the stage name "Lady Gaga" from a botched text message that he sent her. As a private joke, he would frequently sing Music/{{Queen}}'s song "Radio Ga Ga" to her as she arrived in the studio for recording sessions, calling it her "intro song". One day, he tried to text the words "Radio Ga Ga" to her, but he accidentally misspelled "Radio", and his phone autocorrected it to "Lady". As Germanotta was struggling to come up with a decent stage name at the time, she supposedly looked at the text message and immediately exclaimed "That's it!" |
| 395 | * According to one teen magazine, actor Penn Badgley was so named because his parents were trying to think up a name for their new baby, while Badgley's mother was bouncing around a Penn tennis ball. It became HilariousInHindsight as Badgley (about 8 years prior to his work on ''Series/GossipGirl'') [[HeAlsoDid ended up doing some minor voicework for, of all things,]] ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'' on the Platform/{{Nintendo 64}}. |
| 396 | * It is possible to invoke this trope while playing a drama improvisation game, commonly called "The Detective" but does have other names. It can be invoked by the people playing the singular criminal upon being asked "What is your name?" |
| 397 | * Mary Doria Russell named the protagonist of ''Literature/TheSparrow'' (Father Emilio Sandoz) after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novartis#Sandoz the manufacturer of her son's cold medication]]. |
| 398 | * Creator/DiabloCody took her stage name from listening to the [[Music/DuranDuran Arcadia]] song "''Diablo''" in her car while driving through [[FlyoverCountry Cody, Wyoming]]. |
| 399 | * Italian comic book artist Creator/{{Zerocalcare}} in his youth needed a handle to register to an Internet forum and he chose this nickname in reference to the ads of a then-popular descaling product. The nickname stuck and became his pen name as a published author years later. |
| 400 | * Music/AliceInChains got their name from an episode of ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' that the band watched one day, where Ralph remarked that he'd like to see his wife (whose name was Alice)... well, in chains. |
| 401 | * The Flemish satirical consumer affairs show ''Basta'' once tried to expose that Belgium's copyright royalty society SABAM had been attempting to collect royalties from non-existent musicians. They literally made up musical acts from the names of items in a kitchen ("Kenwood", "Kimberly Clark", "Mr. Cocktail and the Party Mix", etc.) and recorded songs for them. Then after they received a bill for playing their music at en event, they went to SABAM's office to try and have their "artists" sign up to receive the royalties. Of course, this was when SABAM realized that they had been trolled. |
| 402 | * A fake ending of ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlueTheBloodGulchChronicles'' has the introduction of a character named Jenkins. Burnie Burns stated the name came from the Jenkins 2.0 font that the show used for its logo and title cards. (And in a HilariousInHindsight moment, he'd later be engaged to Ashley Jenkins.) |
| 403 | * The cult Memphis PowerPop band Music/BigStar took its name from a supermarket across the street from the Ardent recording studio. |
| 404 | * This is common trend among 2010s {{Emo}}-revival bands. Music/TitleFight and Music/ModernBaseball both took their names from random books lying around their home, and other bands such as Citizen and American Football are along similar lines. |
| 405 | * Music/StevieNicks saw a road sign for [[UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Silver Spring, Maryland]] from Music/FleetwoodMac's tour bus, thought the name was beautiful and later used it to title the song "Silver Springs". |
| 406 | * CountryMusic singer Kippi Brannon got her stage name this way: her real last name was Binkley, but she changed it after seeing a store called Brannon Auto Parts. |
| 407 | * Bono of Music/{{U2}} took his stage name from a hearing aid store called Bono Vox. |
| 408 | * When Creator/LFrankBaum was writing ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', he got the name for the Land of Oz from a file cabinet containing "O-Z". |
| 409 | * OlderThanFeudalism: Sappho of Lesbos (the one you're thinking of) was apparently married to a man named Kerkylas of Andros, mentioned in a few texts. This is most likely a joke, as "Kerkylas" is derived from the greek word for "Penis" and "Andros" is derived from "Man". Kerkylas of Andros could thus be translated as "Dick Allcocks from Man Island". |
| 410 | * Halfway through recording his first (and ultimately [[OneBookAuthor only]]) album ''Big Harvest'', Gordon Peterson drove from California to Mexico one day, and noticed that the last town he passed through before crossing the border was called Indio. He likes the sound of the name and decided the album shouldn't be classified as a solo effort, so it was released under the name Indio. |
| 411 | * Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit found their name by randomly flipping through an English dictionary. |
| 412 | * Argentinian rock band Vilma Palma e Vampiros got its name from a graffiti on the shutters of a closed store in Rosario. The graffiti originally read "Vilma Palma e hijos, vampiros de los obreros" (Vilma Palma and (her) children, vampires of workers) but had degraded to just Vilma Palma e Vampiros. |
| 413 | * In 1848, a couple named Daniel and Margaret Reilly boarded a ship to North America to escape the UsefulNotes/IrishPotatoFamine. During the voyage, Margaret gave birth to a baby boy. The ship was called the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanie_Johnston Jeanie Johnston]]'' and one of the ship's owners was named Nicholas Donovan, so they named their newborn son Nicholas Johnston Reilly. |
| 414 | * In August 2021, an Afghan woman went into labor on a military evacuation flight and gave birth to a baby girl shortly after the plane landed at Ramstein Air Base. The baby's parents named her Reach because the flight's call sign was Reach 828. |
| 415 | * While writing ''Film/BullDurham'', Creator/RonShelton gave Annie the last name "Savoy" from a matchbook on his desk. |
| 416 | * Creator/IanFleming chose the name "Literature/JamesBond" while trying to think of a name that was as generic as possible, and was inspired by an ornithology book that he owned: ''Birds of the West Indies'' by James Bond. |
| 417 | * Léo Malet gave the name "Nestor Burma" to his fictional PrivateDetective (also adapted into a [[Series/NestorBurma series]] starring Creator/GuyMarchand) after seeing the former colonial name of UsefulNotes/{{Myanmar}} in a ''Literature/FuManchu'' novel. |
| 418 | [[/folder]] |
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