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Not to be confused with I Am Not Spock, of course.


  • Andromeda: Anyone starting to watch mid-series might be confused at the Rommie/Andromeda distinction. "Andromeda" is the shortened form of the ship's full name, the Andromeda Ascendant and refers to the ship's on-screen and holographic avatars. "Rommie" specifically refers to the android avatar built by Harper, who is frequently in conflict with her on-screen and holo selves. It gets more confusing once you add Doyle into the mix (an android avatar of the same ship who looks completely different).
  • The protagonist of The Andy Griffith Show was named Andy Taylor.
  • In the first season of Arrow, Oliver Queen's crimefighting persona went by "The Hood" or occasionally "The Vigilante", which didn't stop many viewers from calling him "Arrow". (When they didn't just go ahead and call him Green Arrow.) Became a moot point in the second and third seasons, which saw him change his name to "The Arrow", but this trope has reared its head again in the fourth season now that he's going by Green Arrow officially.
  • In-universe example in Atlanta, where one of Earn's coworkers asks him "What are you, '12 Years a Slave'?"
  • The host of the Food Network cooking show Barefoot Contessa isn't actually named Contessa, but rather Ina Garten. Yes, really.
    • She occasionally refers to herself as THE Barefoot Contessa, though, suggesting that "Barefoot Contessa" is a title rather than a name. It's actually the name of a gourmet food store where she used to shop, though it has closed down.
  • In Better Call Saul, it's made very clear that Saul Goodman is a really bad coping method that Jimmy McGill eventually gets lost in when Kim leaves. You still have people and articles naming him Saul, even when it's a flashback of him as a child.
  • Some people have referred to the lead character of Bewitched as if her name was actually Bewitched, not Samantha. "I was watching that episode where Bewitched's mother turned Darrin into a goat..."
  • Big Brother is the all-seeing eye-like camera system that records the contestants 24/7 (and the disembodied voice that speaks to them from time to time). The name is a reference to the villain in a dystopic novel by George Orwell. But this doesn't stop some people from calling the contestants "big brothers".
  • The Frankenstein issue was lampshaded in Bones, when Booth calls the monster by the eponymous name and Brennan corrects him, saying it was the creator. Booth's response? "Yeah, because THAT would make sense." Also, the show itself is kind of an example—Brennan is called Bones by Booth but it's just a nickname...one she doesn't even like at first. A Season 5 episode shows that she grew not only to accept but actually like the nickname.
  • The sisters in Charmed have Halliwell as a last name (and their half-sister is Matthews). They're the Charmed Ones, not the Charmed sisters.
  • In an opposite effect, Chelsea Handler complains several times on her show that her name is not Chelsea Lately, the name of her show. She has, however, accidentally referred to herself as Chelsea Lately, which doesn't help.
  • Community: Britta and Elroy's favourite band Natalie Is Freezing gets this a lot. "Why would any of us be Natalie?"
  • In The Cosby Show, the main character's name is Cliff Huxtable. Some people mistakenly thought Bill Cosby was using The Danza. It's not rare to hear The Cosby Show called The Bill Cosby Show, but that was actually the title of an earlier (1969-71) sitcom, where Cosby played a character named Chet Kincaid. And later he was in a series called Cosby.
  • Jon Stewart of The Daily Show is occasionally mistakenly called "Jon Daily" and the show's title has been called "The Jon Daily Show". Naturally they've used this several times for laughs on the show itself.
  • Dark Angel is not a name used by its heroine, Max.
  • Inverted with Dateline: To Catch a Predator, where some people refer to it by the host, Chris Hansen.
  • In The Dick Van Dyke Show, the main character's name is actually Rob Petrie.
  • The main character of Doctor Who is "the Doctor", not "Doctor Who". He is, however, a Phrase Catcher for anyone he introduces himself to.
    • The character was credited as "Doctor Who" for the first eighteen seasons of the classic series and in the first season of the reboot, and was often referred to that way in the earliest expanded universe material. Of course, since the Doctor's true name has yet to be revealed in a canonical work, it might very well be "Who" after all.
    • Strangely, "The Next Doctor" calls the Doctor "Doctor Who" in the credits, making it the only episode of the new series outside of Series 1 to do this.
    • However, 12th Doctor actor Peter Capaldi calls his own character "Doctor Who" all the time (probably a dozen times in the documentary Who: Earth Conquest — The World Tour alone), because only fans know it's a misnomer and he wants to include non-fans. This is more common than fans might think, even — many of the older Doctor actors refer to the character as "Doctor Who" when talking about it as a role or a job, even though they know better than anyone that's not his actual name. It's likely they simply don't want to confuse this Doctor with other fictional doctors, many of whom are also referred to simply as "the doctor" in their own respective works. Conversely, both Peter Davison and David Tennant actually asked to be credited as "The Doctor" after taking on the role from an actor credited as "Doctor Who", due to the latter being canonically incorrect. In Davison's case, crediting the role as "Doctor Who" had been standard practice up to that point, while in Tennant's case, Christopher Eccleston was simply the first actor to be given the erroneous credit since Tom Baker, Davison's immediate predecessor.
    • In the alternate-canon films Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., his name actually is Doctor Who.
    • In "World Enough and Time", Missy claims that his name literally is "Doctor Who". While she would know his real name, the Doctor denies it, and the implication is that she's just screwing with Bill and Nardole (and that a certain head writer is screwing with the audience).
    • Some pose a third argument that the Doctor's name is just "Doctor", without the "the". However, the fact that the Doctor, themselves, refers to themself with the definite article frequently, most commonly when introducing themselves, rather puts paid to this idea.
      Four: You may be a doctor, but I'm the Doctor. The definitive article, one might say.
  • "Duck Dynasty" is not the name of the family-owned business profiled in Duck Dynasty. The business is called "Duck Commander".
  • Farscape is the name of the program that gave birth to Crichton's experimental shuttle (the FarScape One), not the living ship that becomes his home (Moya).
  • Firefly:
    • The ship is called Serenity. It is, however, of the Firefly class.
    • Somewhat averted in the movie, which is aptly titled Serenity.
  • In Game of Thrones, the character Daenerys Targaryen is married to the khal of a Dothraki khalasar (Mongolian like nomadic horse people) giving her the title of Khaleesi. Since most characters refer to her by her title alone many people confuse the title to be her name.
    • It's gotten so out of hand that one of the most popular baby names for girls is now "Khaleesi". "Daenerys", meanwhile, isn't nearly as popular.
    • Also, there are many, many fans who think Drogo's first name is "Cal" or "Karl" (they think they just don't hear the "r" because of the British accents), not realizing that his name is just "Drogo". "Khal" (not Cal or Karl) is his title, not his name.
  • Many people who grew up with The Good Night Show are prone to call it "Nina and Star."
  • In Have Gun – Will Travel, Paladin's business card read, "Wire Paladin/San Francisco". This led many to assume that Paladin's first name was Wire. Paladin's first name (or, for that matter, his real name) was never mentioned in the series.
  • There is no character named Henry Danger. It's Henry Hart, alter ego Kid Danger.
  • Highlander refers to Connor (and later Duncan) MacLeod's origins as a Scottish Highlander, not to the race of Immortals that he turns out to belong to.
  • This trope was the origin of Howdy Doody. When Bob Smith started out doing a kids' radio show set on a ranch, one of the voices he did was Ernie the ranch hand whose catchphrase was "Howdy Doody!" But so many kids showed up at the station asking "Where's Howdy Doody?" that when the radio show got turned into a TV show, he just went with it.
  • JAG refers to the Judge Advocate General of the United States Navy. Spoofed in one episode of the Bette Midler sitcom Bette, wherein Midler's character, set to appear on JAG as an extra, wonders when she'll get to meet "Jag".
  • The '80s British police drama Juliet Bravo was about a police station under the leadership of a female inspector. Many viewers thought that the lead character was named Juliet Bravo, but in fact that was her radio call sign. The first three seasons starred Stephanie Turner playing Inspector Jean Darblay; seasons 4-6 starred Anna Carteret as Inspector Kate Longton.
  • In one episode of Just Shoot Me!, a character is berated for thinking that Die Hard is the name of Bruce Willis's character, John McClane. A nearly identical gag was used in Brother's Keeper.
    • In The Simpsons, Bart makes the same exact mistake during the scene where "Die Hard" jumps barefoot through a window.
      • Also in the scene where "Wall Street" gets arrested.
  • Some children writing in to Jim'll Fix It thought that was the name of the presenter, Jimmy Savile and would start their letters with "Dear Jim'll".
  • Technically, the car itself doesn't have a name, but the name of the AI inside Michael Knight's black Trans Am is KITT, not "Knight Rider". The title Knight Rider doesn't refer to the car at all, but rather, to the man. Note that this is made pretty obvious in the Opening Narration. Additionally, the hero's name wasn't Knight Rider, it was Michael Long. His operative name, Michael Knight, is taken from the company that hired him, Knight Industries.
  • The protagonist of the series Kung Fu (1972) was named Kwai Chang Caine, which was both his Chinese and American family names combined. However his Chinese name was often mistaken as being Kung Fu. Even worse, however, is that "kung fu" is often mistaken solely for the name of his style of martial arts, rather than the entire philosophy by which he lived and found peace in a violent world — while likewise teaching others through example, with each episode featuring Caine resolving a conflict peacefully (by Old West standards) through the wisdom of his kung fu masters.
    • This confusion predates the series. Legend has it that early European explorers who first witnessed a martial arts exercise in China asked what it was called, and were told "kung ku". Kung fu loosely translates as "excellence" or "mastery", so the explorers were being told they were witnessing masters in action, not that the martial art was called kung fu.
  • You'd be amazed by how many people think (or thought, during the year or two when the show was somewhere near the public consciousness) Zev is named Lexx. It doesn't help that from the second season the name was spelled "Xev" (although pronounced the same) after the character was recast and canonically killed and resurrected.
  • The 1970s BBC children's series Lizzie Dripping caused some confusion for people assuming that was the name of the heroine. Her name is actually Penelope Arbuckle. 'Lizzie Dripping' is an Oop North expression referring to a Plucky Girl who has trouble telling fantasy from reality.
  • Maddigan's Quest is not a story about a girl named Maddigan, it's about a girl called Garland Maddigan who belongs to a circus called Maddigan's Fantasia. The confusion is understandable considering Margaret Mahy's original book was called Maddigan's Fantasia (after the circus) only for the television show to go with "Quest" so as not to impinge on any Disney copyrights, making the "Maddigan" of the title sound like an individual instead of a group of people.
  • Mary's surname in The Mary Tyler Moore Show is Richards, which causes some confusion.
  • When CBS brought Match Game back in 1973, many viewers thought it was called Match the Stars, which Johnny Olson stressed in the opening line of the intro. It was called Match Game '73 then, but newspaper listings billed it as The New Match Game.
  • In an episode of Modern Family, Phil is shown mistakenly referring to the protagonist of The Blind Side as "Blindside".
  • The Frankenstein example is brought up in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk Goes Home Again", where a man in a Frankenstein monster costume is terrorizing trick-or-treaters. Stottlemeyer and Monk just call him Frankenstein, leading Monk's brother Ambrose to repeatedly correct the both of them each time they make the mistake.
  • The titular Mr. Robot is simply a supporting character and mentor to the protagonist, Elliot Alderson, yet Elliot is often called "Mr. Robot" by those unfamiliar with the show. Subverted when it's revealed that they're actually the same person.
  • In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Prince of Space, Mike and the 'bots repeatedly refer to the film's villain, Phantom of Krankor, as "Krankor" (the name of his home planet). When Krankor makes a "guest appearance" in a host segment of Invasion of the Neptune Men, they initially call him by his correct name, but then switch back to Krankor. (He doesn't seem to mind.)
  • The short-lived series Odyssey 5 does not refer to a mission or a spacecraft named Odyssey 5 but to the fictional space shuttle Odyssey and the five people who end up being sent back in time to prevent Earth's destruction.
  • Once Upon a Time remarks on this in-universe; Dr. Frankenstein laments that though he wanted his name to mean life, people think it's the name of a monster. Of course, they're right in this version, as the monster in question was his brother and so had the same name.
  • A sketch on Only an Excuse? 2019 pastiching Line of Duty had them arrest DI Matt Burke from later series of Taggart (played by his original actor Alex Norton) for impersonating Jim Taggart. Burke explained that after years of people shouting "Oi, Taggart!" at him, he just got confused.
  • There is no character or project that is referred to in-universe as Orphan Black. The title may have a secret codename significance that has not yet been revealed, but it probably refers to the status of various characters as orphaned or fostered children, and their creation as part of a black project. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped people from thinking Tatiana Maslany plays a character by that name (which is justified because she plays so many characters on the show people use it when referring to the characters as a collective). And since the series is, at the moment, Maslany's only real claim to fame, she has been Spocked as "Orphan Black". In the final episode of the show, it's revealed to be the title of Helena's memoirs.
  • In Peep Show, Jeremy thinks the shark from Jaws is actually called Jaws.
  • In Person of Interest, John Reese is referred to as a "person of interest" in the first episode. The Villain/Victim of the Week is always referred to by name or as a "number", not as a "person of interest". (But since the heroes don't initally know if the "number" is a villain or victim, "person of interest" actually describes them well.)
  • The team from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy are called the Galaxy Rangers; the Lost Galaxy is a location they visit during a story arc.
  • Since 1972, the end round of The Price Is Right has been known as the Showcase (a holdover term from the original show during their home viewer participations). When the big wheel was introduced in 1975, the preliminaries to the Showcase were explicitly and verbally called the Showcase Showdown. Somewhere in the mists of time, viewers began calling the Showcase Showdown "The Big Wheel" and the Showcase "The Showcase Showdown."
  • The protagonists of Rake and its American remake have different names, neither of which is Rake. In the context of the title, rake is a term for an immoral man.
  • Smallville is the town in Kansas where Clark Kent grows up. Though Lois sometimes calls him Smallville.
  • The Sopranos revolves around two very different families—a traditional family and a crime family—but only one of them is actually "the Soprano family". The crime family at the heart of the show is "the DiMeo family", even though Tony Soprano and his uncle Corrado both serve as bosses. note 
  • Stargate:
    • "SG-1" in Stargate SG-1 refers to the team, to distinguish it from other SG teams (from SG-2 to at least SG-25), and not to the Stargate (which is referred to as just that: "the Stargate").
    • In Stargate Atlantis, the episode title "The Defiant One" refers to John Sheppard (Wraith: "I will savor the taste of your defiance!"), not the Wraith.
  • Star Trek:
    • Plenty of people who have never watched Star Trek still assume the ship's name is the Star Trek.
    • Spoofed by Patrick Stewart when he appeared on Saturday Night Live. Claiming to be a "Star Trek trivia maniac," he malaprops several names of the characters on TOS, and tells the audience, "Did you know, the name of the ship was not the Star Trek?"
    • In Star Trek: The Original Series, the episode title "The Galileo Seven" is often assumed to be the name of the featured shuttlecraft, when actually it refers to the seven passengers aboard the shuttle Galileo. The title is ambiguous because the shuttle's registry is NCC-1701/7. The German falls to this as well, as the translation is "Notlandung auf Galileo VII" - "Emergency landing on Galileo VII".
    • From the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok", the Tamarian captain who Picard deals with is called Dathon, not Darmok. Darmok is a figure from Tamarian culture, as noted in their saying "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra".
  • An article in the 1980s Bank of Scotland teen magazine Supersaver Extra entitled "You Know You're A True Fan When..." included "When you're only eight years old, but you won't wash your hair until your mum tells you this perfectly ordinary shampoo is the same stuff Street Hawk uses." Since Street Hawk is the name of the motorbike, it probably doesn't wash its "hair".
  • Tenko is not the name of any of the prison camps in the series. It is the Japanese word for "roll call" referring to the daily routine in the camp.
  • Ultra Series: "Ultraman" (both character and series) specifically refers to the original one. All the "seasons" afterwards are sequels, spinoffs, and remakes that feature completely different Ultra heroes (that sometimes appear alongside the original) whose names and series are "Ultraman ____" or "Ultra____". There are times when even TV Tropes can't seem to get that right.
  • The "V" of the series V (1983) wasn't originally meant to be a shorthand reference to the alien "Visitors". Although the word "visitor" happens to start with the letter 'V' is a coincidence, 'V' was the resistance symbol for "Victory". The remake, however does refer to the Visitors as Vs.
  • In Whose Line Is It Anyway?, a mistake in a skit between Colin and Ryan became a running gag.
    Ryan: [as one of Charlie's Angels] What will we do now, Charlie?
    Colin: [as Bosley] I'm Bosley!
    • Also, Africa is a continent, not a country.
  • Stephen Yan, the host of Canadian Cooking Show Wok With Yan, often complained in the show about viewers writing in and calling him "Mr. Wok". He would then remind the viewer than his name was Yan and that the pot he cooked with was the wok.


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