A Dog Named Dog / Video Games

• Action Fish has the titular Action Fish. And even before he adopted the moniker "Action Fish", he went by Fishbo.
• Adiboo: Magical Playland has a dog named Pup.
• Alisia Dragoon: Alisia's familiars are named Thunder Raven, Will O'Wisp, Boomerang Lizard, and Dragon Frye. Guess what they all are.
• Animal Crossing, for example, has the blue bear cub Bluebear, the cats Kat and Kitty and the wolf Lobo.
  • In the Japanese version, Spork/Crackle is simply called "Pork". Tybalt, a tiger, is called "Harimao"^note from the Malay for a tiger, "harimau"
  • Also happens in other foreign translations:
    • In the Spanish versions Rosie, who is a cat, is named "Minina" and Deirdre, a deer, is named "Venada".
    • In French, Boone, a baboon (but technically a gorilla), is called "Babouin".
• In Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, the dog companion is called "Dog", although before you talk to it its labeled "Worthless Mutt".
• In the Arfenhouse series, one of the major characters is a dog literally named DOG. This is lampshaded in the prologue of the third game, where a normal-talking Commander, trying to think of a suitable formal address, has to settle for calling the character "Mr. Dog." There's also the antagonist of the first two games, a cat named Evil Kitty (who later becomes Good Kitty), and a Pikachu named PIKACHU (or possibly PIAKCHU, no thanks to the deliberate prevalence of typos in the text).
• Bendy and the Ink Machine has a cartoon wolf named Boris, which is Bulgarian for "wolf."
• Breath of Fire series:
  • in all games, the protagonist is called Ryu, Japanese for "dragon" - and he can always transform into a dragon.
  • In the first game, there's Ox, a bovine, and Mogu, a mole ("mogura" in Japanese).
  • In the second game, there's a catgirl named Katt.
• BROK the InvestiGator has Dr. Mink, a mink who is a scientist.
• The titular character of Bug! (1995) is a Cartoon Creature bug. This also applies to the in-universe show he's starring in, Bug!, where he plays the character named... Bug.
• Bug Fables: In the first demo, Vi, Kabbu and Leif were called Bee, Beetle and Moth, respectively. This eventually got changed because it felt strange to have these names in a game where everyone else had proper names.
• cat planet and super cat planet are a planet of cats. okay, cats and all lowercase letters.
• Chrono Trigger gives us a frog named Frog, a robot named Robo, and a wizard named Magus (Latin for wizard). While none of those are actually the characters' real names ^note their real names are Glenn, Prometheus and Janus, that's what they're called most frequently. Crono himself probably counts as well, since he's a time traveler whose name means "time." Chrono Cross also gives us a kid named Kid and an anthropomorphic turnip, mushroom and wildcat named Turnip, Funguy and Lynx, respectively.
• Crash Bandicoot: Crash has a pet polar bear named... Polar.
• Your guardian's ghost in Destiny is named ghost even though other characters' have actual names.
• In Diner Dash, the heroes find an alpaca, whom they adopt and name Al Paca.
• One of the Brothers Bear in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! is named Björn, which is Swedish for "bear".
• Dragon Age: The default name for the Mabari hounds in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II is Dog. Lampshaded in the second game by Hawke's uncle Gamlen, who is the only person in the entire game who actively dislikes the dog; Gamlen doesn't want to call the dog by his name. "Why not call him Dog? Easy enough to remember!"
• Dyna Gear have the two players being the Space Cop, Roger, and Roger's trusty Wolf Man sidekick... Wolf.
• EarthBound (1994) has the character Dungeon Man, the first hybrid of man and dungeon.
• The four canine companions in the Fallout games, "Dogmeat", then "K-9", "Cyberdog" and "Pariah Dog". The third never warranted a real name from its creator, and the fourth generally doesn't keep owners alive long enough to get a persistent name... or at least one that's considered usable in polite society.
• Exit Limbo: Opening have you playing as a Rhino-man named... "Mr. Rhino". The bosses are named after the animal species they belonged to as well, including a Bull named Bullman and a Ram named Junkie Ram.
• The Fighters Destiny games on the Nintendo 64 feature a ninja named Ninja.
• Though less clear in the English localization, the original Japanese release of Final Fantasy VII makes it clear that "President" is, in fact, President Shinra's actual name.
• Lampshaded in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings: your resident blacksmith is a friendly Cu Sith who, when first introduced, objects to being identified as such, saying she doesn't call Tomaj "Hume". Tomaj points out there's a lot of Humes on the airship, but only one Cu Sith, which she seems to accept (or at least, that remains her identifier from that point forward).
• In A Fine Day for Reaping, Death's skeletal horse is named Horse. (According to a parenthetical comment, he isn't exactly known for his imagination.)
• It is revealed in the not-quite-canonical The Legend of Zelda spin-off Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland that Tingle is a Tingle named Tingle, raising a lot of questions that no one cares enough to answer.
• Gacha World: One of Lolita Loli's plush toys is a bunny named Buni.
• The first Gekido game have you fighting a kunoichi with a Right-Hand Attack Dog, a husky named... Asky. From the same game there's also a Killer Gorilla boss named Gorilla.
• Golden Force has it's Token Non-Human playable character, a Draconic Humanoid named Drago.
• Half-Life 2 brings us a partial example with Dog. Dog is actually a robot, and resembles a gorilla more than a dog, but his behavior is rather canine, and a photo◊ in Half-Life: Alyx shows that he was more dog-like before all the upgrades and modifications.
• I Wanna Be the Guy stars a kid named The Kid, who wants to fight a guy named The Guy. These are actual names: one of the former The Guys is the kid's grandfather, named Grandfather The Guy. The game's sequel I Wanna Be the Guy: Gaiden has a lad named The Lad.
• In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, one of the possible names the game suggests for the vriki you can tame in Vertumna is their species name.
• The main character of JumpJet Rex is a T-rex named Rex.
• Kolibri stars Kolibri the hummingbird; "kolibri" is either the word for or a root word for "hummingbird" in several European languages.
• The giant gyphon-like creatures in The Last Guardian are called tricos. The main trico who bonds with the protagonist is only ever called Trico.
• In Lily's Garden, Luke has a dog named "Dog." He justifies his lack of imagination by stating that he's a sculptor, not a writer.
• The Longest Journey brings us a talking corvid named Bird, which, as April notes, does fit. When he complains about his name, she comments that she would have given him a better, more imaginative name, which he eagerly adopts... Crow. Note that he is in fact not an actual crow, and April named him that way because he reminded her of a cartoon character named Crowboy.
• Mad Rat Dead: Mad Rat's heart is named Heart. Averted (and possibly Justified), considering up until a few hours ago, he was not a living heart.
• Magical Tetris Challenge: The weasel character is named Weasel.
• In the classic Mega Man series, the names of the Robot Master bosses all have a Something Person theme, such as Elec Man, Dust Man, Freeze Man, and Commando Man. However, Mega Man 2 gives us Metal Man. Being a robot, that already makes him a metal man like most of the other Robot Masters.
• Metal Gear is no stranger to this trope, with characters named "the Boss" and "Big Boss". Who you fight as bosses at some point in the series. Ditto the fat man named Fatman, the vampire named Vamp, and DD "Diamond Dog" the Diamond Dogs' rescued Dog.
• Played with in the Monster Hunter series, whose entries from Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate onward feature a recurring Felyne character from the setting's equivalent of the Far East. Said character is named Neko, and repeatedly claims that it means "tiger". It doesn't, and the subtitles actually lampshade this by displaying his name as "Neko (Means Cat)".
• In the Flash game "Smells Like Art", there's a literal example: a dog named Mr. Dog.
• Moshi Monsters has six adoptable species: Poppets, Katsumas, Furis, Luvlis, Diavlos and Zommers. The movie has six protagonists, one of each species, all named after their species. The game also has a minor character who's a minibeast named Bug.
• In Ni no Kuni, when not a Punny Name, the default name provided by the game for a familiar is generally either this or A Lizard Named "Liz".
• All of the playable characters in Nuclear Throne are given simple descriptive names, with most being named for what they are. For example, there's a Fish Person called Fish, a sapient crystal named Crystal and a Man-Eating Plant simply called Plant.
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker:
  • The Player Character is not allowed to name their Loyal Animal Companion if they have one, leaving it simply labelled with its type.
  • Ekun refuses to name the wolf that's following him around, reasoning that it isn't 'his' wolf and thus not his to name. He thus refers to it as 'dog'. If Ekun is encouraged to open up to people, he can be persuaded to name it and thus subverting the trope.
• Simon Blackquill from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies owns a pet hawk named Taka, the Japanese name for "hawk". In Japanese he's named Gin, meaning "silver".
• Pokémon: Any and all un-nicknamed Pokémon are referred to by their species name.
  • In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, an NPC in Oreburgh City will mention that "naming Pokemon makes you feel as if they are your very own". The NPC right next to that one says "But he named our Psyduck Yellow just because of its color..."
  • Haunter's name in Japan is simply "Ghost" and the Ghost-type is still referred to as such over there. The names of some of the earlier Pokémon in Japan are also just whatever they're based on in Gratuitous English. For example, Kakuna is "Cocoon", Pidgeotto is "Pigeon", and Krabby is "Crab". Meanwhile, Yanma (in English) is literally the Japanese word for dragonfly, and it's Japanese name "Yanyanma" just means "large dragonfly".
  • As a non-living example, there's also the Psychic-type move called "Psychic". In Japanese, it's the more specific "Psychokinesis," but that name couldn't be used in English due to character limitations in the first game.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
    • The various Pokémon the player meets are all named simply by species. (One wonders what happens if two Bulbasaur ever show up in town.) The player, however, can rename their own character and any Pokémon that join their rescue team.
    • Lampshaded in the second game. A Teddiursa and Ursaring who were paired together couldn't tell each other apart when the former evolved.
    • Your partner is something of an odd case in the first two games, as they introduce themselves with whatever name you chose for them, which potentially makes them the only Pokemon in the world who has a proper name. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity avoids this by having your partner introduce themselves as their species initially, then having them ask you to give them a nickname later (which they'll claim is the best name ever even if you didn't actually change it).
  • In Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal, Spearow is called "BIRD" and Remoraid is called "FISH."
• Project Remedium sees you playing as a nanobot named "Nano".
• A major character in the Puyo Puyo Franchise is an Alaskan Pollock named Suketoudara, which is Japanese for Alaskan pollock.
• The Quest for Glory series features two: The most obvious is Wolfie, a Canine merchant from Punjabi who is basically a humanoid German Shepard. However as a bit of Bilingual Bonus, the jackal-like meat merchant of Tarna is named Kalb, which is "dog" in Arabic.
• Rabio Lepus stars a mecha rabbit called Usagi, a name which has to be written in romaji to distinguish it from the common Japanese word for rabbit.
• In Rainbow Mosaic 3: Love Legend Yoichi marries a kitsune called Kitsune.
• The homebrew DOS game Rallo Gump was created by a small game development company appropriately named "Homebrew Software."
• Your magical ring-shaped companion in Ring Fit Adventure is named Ring.
• Rhythm Heaven Fever has Monkey and Mandrill as the hosts of the first game and it's later more difficult counterpart.
• Romancing Saga 3 is just overflowing with creativity, featuring characters named "Elephant", "Fairy", "Snowman", and "Young Boy". The fan translation didn't even bother leaving their names in Japanese. The official localization, from the 2019 rerelease, give the former three the names of "Rukh", "Peony" and "Flurry". Young Boy stays Young Boy, however.
• In Roots of Pacha, the totem animals are named after their own species, like Owl and Monkey.
• Similarly, the Samurai Warriors series has a kunoichi named Kunoichi.
• Shadowrun Returns: Eiger is a troll, who takes her name from a beautiful but dangerous mountain in the Swiss alps, whose name means... Troll.
• Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Talking to Uncle Mimic when possessing the broken Coffee Machine has him mention Wrench and how "He's half wren and half finch you know!", making his name his component species in a portmanteau.
• The protagonist of She and the Light Bearer is a firefly-girl simply called "firefly", though she gets referred as the "Light Bearer" at some points. Meanwhile, NPC characters are plants whose names corresponds with their species, like the Orchid sisters, the Berry, Acorn, Mr. Reed, King Potato, and so on.
• Dialogue in the Apple Arcade mobile game Simon's Cat Story Time reveals that Simon named the eponymous cat and his kitten housemate "Cat" and "Kitten" respectively.
• Skully has it's titular character, a friendly sentient skull.
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  • All the characters' surnames have their species in them, barring a few, early exceptions. Oh, and the human characters.
  • Sonic Adventure features Big the Cat, a big cat, but that isn't the worst of it. Big has a pet frog, aptly named, Froggy.
  • Sonic Chronicles retroactively makes Knuckles an example of this, not because of his species, but because the clan he is descended from was literally called the "Knuckles clan".
• Splatoon:
  • Pearl is named "Hime" in Japan. While it references her background as a daughter in an exceedingly wealthy family ("hime" is Japanese for "princess"), it also references that's based on a "hime-ika" (northern pygmy squid), thus explaining her short height. Her Japanese surname, "Houzuki", averts it, as it's derived from the Japanese term for the giant squid.
  • Marina's surname in both Japanese and English is "Iida" (spelt "Ida" in English), taken from "iidako", the Japanese term for the webfoot octopus. In this case, "Iida" is also her Species Surname.
  • In Japan, Callie and Marie are likewise named after species, though it's unknown how much this actually affected their designs. Callie is named "Aori" after the "aori-ika" (bigfin reef squid), while Marie is "Hotaru" after the "hotaru-ika" (firefly squid).
  • Your Smallfry companion in Splatoon 3 is literally just named "Smallfry".
• Star Fox has Fox McCloud, Wolf O'Donnell, Katt Monroe and many, many more along this vein. Snake lampshades their lack of creative names in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (mostly in Wolf's case).
  • There are a few characters that play with this by having the animal names as their surnames instead, like Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare.
  • Averted with Falco Lombardi, who is a pheasant.
• Super Action Adventure: The main protagonist for the games is a bear named Bear. The villain of the first two games is known simply as Rabbit, and the two villains of Heroes are known as Bird and Cat. There is also another bear introduced in the second game who is also named Bear.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Yoshi, Birdo, and Toad are apparently not only the names of three characters, but of their entire respective species as well. In Birdo's case, the manuals say she'd rather be called "Birdetta", however the games themselves just call her "Birdo".
  • Later games debut a female Toad named Toadette.
  • It gets worse when the iconic green Yoshi that debuted in Super Mario World is called just Yoshi, but there are many more green Yoshis around, and the ending of Yoshi's Island DS strongly hints that the green Yoshi that saved Baby Mario is not the same green Yoshi that befriended adult Mario.
  • Kamek the Magikoopa shares his name with generic Magikoopas in Japanese.
  • In the Yoshi series there's a dog named Poochy that the player can ride over spikes.
  • Unagi the giant eel as well, "unagi" being Japanese for eel.
  • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, there are 7 MacGuffins you must collect called the "Crystal Stars". Each of them have the names of gemstones in their names, such as the Sapphire Star and Garnet Star (and then, there's the Gold Star), but for some reason, the last one is simply called the "Crystal Star".
  • Due to Executive Meddling, many new characters of old species were subject to this in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Wiggler, the Snifit host and the many Toads are the most noticeable of this phenomenon.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Snake takes issue with the fact that in Japan, how R.O.B. is called... Robot. He settles with calling it R.O.B. when Otacon points this out.
  • This returns in Smash 4, only this time, it's Pit and Palutena pointing it out. Pit attempts to come up with a better one.
• Kitty May Cry has the player character, a black cat named "Kitty". There's also an NPC, an otter named Otto.
• Tekken has Heihachi Mishima's bear bodyguard, Kuma; Kuma being Japanese for "bear". Likewise, Xiaoyu owns a Panda Bear named "Panda."
• Touhou Project has an example. One of the many youkai races is the mind-reading satori race. When we meet one person from said race, her name is...Satori. However, in this case, her name could mean "enlightenment" or "understanding", rather than just be an indicative of her species. Somewhat weird since we later meet her fellow satori sister, Koishi, who is not named after her species.
  • A later game features a nue named Nue. However, her spellcards, dialog, and the fact she's the only known nue in the series suggest that she might be the Nue.
• Because King Asgore is known as a Giver of Lame Names in Undertale, many of the location names within the world tend to be this. The area with waterfalls is named Waterfall, the land filled with lava and a high temperature is named Hotland, etc. The monsters' new home is eventually named...you guessed it...New Home.
  • Asgore doesn't fare well when giving names to living beings either. His son's name is a contraction of his parents' names.
• Village Monsters: One of the residents of the Monster Town is a female bird named... Birdie.
• Fairly common among the young children who name their pets in Webkinz. In-game, there's "Ms. Birdy", a bird who runs the Adoption Center.
• Inverted in Wildcard by Ace and Kris's dog, who's named Katt.
• Wonder Project J2: The main heroine's Animal Companion is a bird named "Bird".
• World of Mana:
  • Secret of Mana features a cat merchant named Neko. Japanese for... well, guess. In the remake, he has a habit of inserting various permutations of "mew" and "meow" into his dialogue, such as saying "Be seeing mew!" when saying goodbye.
  • Trials of Mana features a fairy named Faerie.
• Will You Snail? has a heroic AI represented by a unicorn avatar named...Unicorn.
• In World of Warcraft, many hunters have this — pets start out named "Dog" or "Cat" or "Devilsaur" etc., but they can change the name once. (unless they get a Certificate of Ownership from a scribe).

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