Follow TV Tropes

Following

A Lizard Named "Liz"

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alizardnamedliz_9.jpg

Baz: Imagine you're a pixie […] and you have a daughter, and you name her Trixie. Trixie the pixie. […] It's like being a fairy named Mary.
Snow: Or a vampire named Gampire.
Baz: Gampire isn't even a proper name, Snow. You're terrible at this game.
Penelope: In Trixie's defence, the pixies probably don't go around calling themselves "pixies." I mean, you could be a human named Newman or a boy named Roy, and no one would think twice.

An animal (or sometimes a monster/alien) character whose name is related to their species. It could sound similar (a leopard named Leonard or Leopold), or be related to some characteristic of the animal (a duck named Quack, a bee named Honey).

Since this can overlap with Alliterative Name, please only add examples that go beyond simple alliteration. Conversely, if someone has a name that is their species (whether in English or in another language), that's Species Surname, A Dog Named "Dog" or A Dog Named "Perro". Supertrope to Werewolf Theme Naming. Also closely related to Stock Animal Name, and sometimes Punny Name. Compare A Pig Named "Porkchop" for when an animal name follows this pattern, but based off of a meat or food product.

See also Steven Ulysses Perhero, for characters whose name or surname allude to their occupation instead of species.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Aggretsuko has several examples:
    • Giselle the gazelle, Lucille the seal, Doug the prarie dog, Scatherine the Komodo dragon, Armadonna the armadillo, Amir the meerkat, Wolfgang the maned wolf, Carrie the caracal, etc. Some of these overlap with Bilingual Bonus (for instance, Eaglette is actually a secretarybird, but that's because the Japanese word for secretarybird literally translates to "snake-eating eagle") or Genius Bonus (For instance, Zelda, who's a fennec fox, has her name derived from Vulpes zerda, the fennec's scientific name). Yokosawa the axolotl, named after her voice actor, Natsuko Yokosawa, could also possibly be one of these, as the "sawa" in her name means "swamp" in Japanese.
    • The original Japanese names (and by extension, the Netflix names) had them too, just in different forms. Zelda was Fenneko, Giselle was Tsunoda ("tsuno" is Japanese for "horn" or "antler"), etc.
    • Retsuko herself, while likely named more because of her anger ("retsu" is Japanese for "furious"), may also be one of these, as she's a red panda. The other named red panda character in the series, Lester (Resasuke in the original Japanese TBS version and the Netflix version), gets his name from "lesser panda," another name for the red panda.
  • Azumanga Daioh has Mayaa, an Iriomote cat named after the Okinawan word for the species (yamamayaa).
  • Beastars: A grizzly bear named Riz.
  • BNA: Brand New Animal has several: Michiru Kagemori the tanuki (kage: shadow, mori: forest), Shirō Ogami the wolf (ōkami: wolf), Kuro the non-anthropomorphic crow (the name both sounds like "crow" and is Japanese for "black"), Marie Itami the mink (itachi: "weasel," which minks are related to and which Marie is often mistaken for), Nina Flip the dolphin and Giuliano Flip the beluga (their surname referring to flippers), etc.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers has Kumajirou, the talking polar bear that serves as Canada's constant companion; "Kuma" means "bear" in Japanese. Additionally, Word of God says that if Kumajirou had been named in English, his name would be Will-bear.
  • The characters in Wolf's Rain, who are wolves, have names which translate to "claw", "fang", etc.
  • Inu-Yasha is a dog demon... whose name in Japanese means "dog demon".
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Misato named her pet penguin "Pen-Pen."
  • Nurse Hitomi's Monster Infirmary:
    • Taiga Toura is a humanoid tiger. His given name is the Japanese transliteration of the English word tiger, and his family name is based on the Japanese word for "tiger", tora.
    • Nezu-kun is a mouse person who's name is based on the Japanese word for "mouse", nezumi.
    • Okutou the octopus girl has a name that's based on the Japanese transliteration of octo.
    • Kaneko the Cat Boy has a name containing the Japanese word for "cat", neko.
  • One Piece:
    • The Minks, a race of Beast Men, frequently have names relating to their species. Among a few we meet early in the arc that introduces them are the canine Wanda ("wan" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for "bark"), her rabbit colleague Carrot, a lion musketeer named Shishilian ("shishi" means "lion"), a squirrel girl named Tristan (playing off the Japanese for "squirrel", "risu"), and a goat doctor named Miyagi ("yagi" means "goat").
    • Several fishmen and merfolk have names relating to their species. Examples include Jinbe ("jinbeizame" means "whale shark"), Ikaros ("ika" means "squid"), and Hyouzou ("hyoumondako" means "blue-ringed octopus").
    • Tony Tony Chopper. "Tony" originates from tonakai, "reindeer" in Japanese, and "Chopper" was given in reference to his horns.
  • Pokémon: The Series
    • In the original series, Meowth's backstory involved him falling for a female Meowth named "Meowzie" ("Nyadonna" in Japan). She was the reason he learned to speak and walk on his hindlegs. Meowzie rejected him due to that behavior being weird for a Meowth.
    • Mairin from Pokémon the Series: XY named her Chespin "Chespie" ("Hari-san" in Japanese, for Harimaron) and her Flabébé "Bébé" ("Fla-chan" in Japanese).
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Kyubey, the Mentor Mascot to the protagonists, turns out to be this: He's from a race of aliens known as "Incubators". Making him an Incubator named Kyubey".
  • A Little Snow Fairy Sugar: Robby the Robin, although, he's actually a sparrow.
  • Superior has a bear demon named Umberto who also happens to be Angelica's grandfather.
  • All of the Yōkai in Mononoke Sharing have names like this (for example, the yuki-onna is named "Yuki").
  • Plus-Sized Elf:
    • The non-human women tend to have names referencing their race, usually as either homophones, Alternate Character Readings, or a direct play on the species name. Homophone-wise, Elfuda is a homophone in Japanese for "is an elf". Kuroeda's name combines "kuro" (dark/black) and "eda", which also sounds somewhat like "is an elf". Gonda's name is a homophone in Japanese for "is a dragon" and includes the kanji for "snake".
    • The first two Japanese characters in Kusohanada's name mean "flowering plant". Raika's name is similar to "raikansuroopu", the Japanese transliteration of "lycanthrope", and may also be a Shout-Out to Laika, a stray dog who became the first animal to orbit the Earth. Mero's name comes from either "merrow" or "mermaid". Honeda's name includes the character for "bone". Hitome literally means "One Eye".
    • Olga, Oku and Hobi's names all derive from their English species names of ogre, orc, and hobbit, respectively.
  • Any animal in Oumagadoki Doubutsuen that isn't already A Dog Named "Dog" qualifies for this trope. There's Shishido the lion (shishi), Chita the cheetah, Popo the hipopotamus, Toytoy the toy poodle, the list goes on. Even the humans cursed into animals get in on it: Shiina has a kanji in his name that means "mallet", an item associated with the Moon Rabbit of folklore, Isana is a play on the old Japanese term for whale (isa), and Shikuma turns into a brown bear (higuma).
  • Monster Musume: Most of the monster girls have names based on their species, though this may not be obvious to non-Japanese speakers
    • Each of the Cute Monster Girls in Kimihito's harem has her name derived from her species name — Miianote  from Lamia, Papi from harpynote , Centorea from Centaur, Suu from Slimenote , Meroune from Mermaidnote , Rachnera from Arachne, and Lala from Dullahan. Heck, even Kimihito himself has the word hito (person) in his name.
    • It isn't limited to the main cast either, see also: Zombina the zombie, Doppel the Doppelgänger, Draco the dragonet, Yukio the yuki onna and, yes they use the exact trope name with Liz the lizardwoman.
    • Even Ms. Smith qualifies, her given name is Kuroko (kuro meaning black and ko being a feminine suffix) and she is a female MIB.
    • An invoked trope for both Suu and Kii, who were named by Papi. She named them both, but was too bird-brained for more complicated names. "Suu" is the first part of the Japanese word for Slime, as with above, and Kii is the Japanese word for tree.

    Art 

    Asian Animation 
  • In the Simple Samosa episode "Anda Bhatija", a fried egg alien lands in Chatpata Nagar and Samosa names it Yolky... in the original English version, at least. In the episode's English redub, he names it Bua instead since it only says "bua".

    Comic Books 

    Eastern European Animation 

    Fan Works 
  • In the My Hero Academia/KonoSuba crossover Blessed with a Hero's Heart, one of the demihuman slaves Izuku comes into possessions is a Gator-woman that he names Liza. He lampshades that it's not very creative of him.
  • Born to Be Wilde: Ursula Friedkin. Ursula means she-bear.
  • This is subverted in the Sonic the Hedgehog fic Descent into Darkness. Maria named one of the lab lizards "Lizzie", but later changed it to "Biolizard" because she thought the original name was too childish.
  • In Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK, Empress the basilisk counts. How? "Empress" is the English translation of her Greek name, "βασίλισσα", pronounced "basílissa".
  • In The Hater Good G 2, Slog is more sloth-like, but his name is the same, which fits.
  • In Infinity Train: Boiling Point, one of the main members of the Ruby Sulphur Trio is a crystal ball named Chris.
  • In a sidestory of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Ash's Butterfree meets a female Vivillon who becomes his sparring partner and potentially Second Love after the Pink Butterfree. He decides to call her "Viv" to tell her apart from the other (nineteen) Vivillon owned by Ash, and because he thinks it sounds cute.
  • In Vow of Nudity, Fiora the forest witch has a (short-lived) toad familiar named Toadysseus.

    Films — Animation 
  • The Cameraman's Revenge: Zhuk is the Russian word for "beetle" (and in fact some English versions simply call the couple Mr. and Mrs. Beetle).
  • The Land Before Time:
    • Cera (pronounced "Sarah") the Triceratops. The movie also gives us Petrie the pterosaur, Spike the spike-tail (AKA Stegosaurus) and Ducky the Saurolophus (for its duckbill).
    • Most of the characters in the film's many sequels have names derived from their genus name, such as the third film's trio of bullies being a Hypsilophodon, Nodosaurus, and Muttaburrasaurus respectively named Hyp, Nod, and Mutt; the seventh film's trio of pterosaurs being a Pteranodon, Cearadactylus, and Rhamphorhynchus named Pterano, Sierra, and Rinkus; and the twelfth film's Microraptor being named Guido, for the specific name, Microraptor gui.
  • Joanna the goanna from The Rescuers Down Under.
  • Cathy the kitten, from the Hungarian animated film Cat City.
  • Sir Hiss and Lady Kluck from Robin Hood (1973); a snake and a chicken, respectively.
  • The Rugrats Movie has a character Stu created named "Dactar", a mutant pteradactyl.
  • The Lion King: Simba means "lion" in Swahili.
  • Zootopia: Many (if not most) characters have names like this. Lionheart, Otterton and Weaselton's surnames all puns on their species name. Judy Hopps and her parents are rabbits, known for their hopping. Chief Bogo's name comes from M'bogo, Swahili for cape buffalo. Bellwether is an expression for a sheep leading a flock. And there's also Finnick the fennec fox and Yax the yak.
  • Sing: Ms. Crawley is a lizard that crawls.
  • A non-animal example would be a frankfurter named Frank in Sausage Party.
  • Onward has a manticore nicknamed Corey.
  • The Pebble and the Penguin has a Rockhopper Penguin named Rocko.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Angela Nicely: The Nicely cat is named Pusskins.
  • Arthur:
    • The title character, who is an anthropomorphic aardvark.
    • D.W. Reed named her inflatable shark "Sharky."
  • The Baby-Sitters Club: The Papadakis pets are named Myrtle the Turtle, Noodle the Poodle, and Pat the Cat.
  • Castle Hangnail: The castle's handyman is a minotaur named Angus, which is also the name of a breed of cattle.
  • Demon Lord, Retry! has Eagle, Luna's childhood friend, who's a Falcon Demihuman.
  • Dragons Can Only Rust and Dragon Reforged by Chrys Cymri are about the robot dragon Gonard's quest to learn whether or not he has a soul. He's been on the quest for a long time before a mystical vision of his dead creator reveals, among other (mostly cruel) things, that his name is just an anagram of "dragon," and Gonard feels like a fool for not having realized it.
  • Durarara!! has Celty, a dullahan of Celtic folklore.
  • The Faerie Queene: The first generations of elves all have elf in their name. They are all descended from Elfe, whose sons were Elfin, Elfinan, and Elfinine, who themselves had kids named Elfinell, Elfant, Elfar, and Elfinor. Then Elifcleos founded Faerie and the theme naming is finally broken with his son Oberon, who was special enough to get his own name. His brother Elferon didn't warrant such special treatment, and died young to add insult to injury.
  • In Fengshen Yanyi, the Seven Monsters of Mount Prune are all animal spirits disguised in human form. Most of them have names containing a hidden pun, usually based on homophony, to their real form. For example, their leader Yuan Hong is actually an ape demon (yuan in Chinese), or Wu Long, a centipede demon whose first ideogram sounds similar to Wu as in centipede. This is actually lampshaded by the text.
  • Maggie from Firstborn is a magpie. The rest of her siblings and both of her parents also had names that started with "m". The fact that Maggie's name is this doesn't get lost by other characters or Maggie herself, who finds it embarrassing.
  • Karius and Bactus: Karius and Baktus' names respectively draw from Caries (cavities) and Bacteria, with the former being the primary cause of the latter.
  • Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!: The eldritch abominations all have names that sound similar to their species. For instance, some of the Nyarlathotepians in the series are named Nyarko, Nyar-o, and Nyarue.
  • The Orphan Train Adventures: In "A Family Apart", the dog of the Cummings family is named Barker.
  • In the children's book Rocky, the Cat Who Barks by Donna Jo Napoli, the youngest of the five female cats who initially terrorize the titular canine is a calico kitten named Cally.
  • Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: From Princesses in the Darkest Depths, an ant-woman is named Antonia Tertia.
  • In Ratburger, when Sheila asks Zoe why her pet rat is named Armitage note , Zoe asks what Sheila would name a rat. Sheila comes up with "Ratty", which Zoe thinks is unoriginal.
  • Reynard the Fox became this retroactively in French: "goupil" was the normal term for a fox, but it was seen as bad luck to use the name, so the protagonist fox's name "Renart" was used instead, becoming modern French "renard".
  • Run Wild features a fox vixen named "Vickey".
  • In the Redwall series, hedgehogs usually have last names like "Spike", "Quill", and "Stickle". Otters will sometimes have last names incorpating "dog", like Barbowla Boulderdog and Kroova Wavedog, (from the fact that otters sometimes get called 'riverdogs' or similar) or their watery habitats, like Streampaw, Boldstream, and Brookback.
  • Drogon the dragon from A Song of Ice and Fire. (It's coincidental that they're similar; Drogon was named after a human character.)
  • Although most characters from Winnie the Pooh fall under A Dog Named "Dog", Kanga and Roo the toy kangaroos and Tigger the toy tiger are examples of this trope (although Tigger refers to his own species as "Tiggers", in plural).

    Live-Action TV 
  • Beetleborgs: A mummy named Mums.
  • The show Grimm is kind of clever with this. Like a bee/wasp creature that was a woman named Melissa (Mellis meaning "honey"), a bear creature named Barry (whose last name, Rabe, is an anagram of Bear), and a goat creature named Billy (whose last name was Capra, Latin for "goat"). Grimm has also done the lion/Leo thing. It's even lampshaded.
  • In Maria Clara at Ibarra, Ali, the magical firefly who occasionally accompanies Klay, is short for the Filipino word for it, "alitaptap".
  • In My Favorite Martian the eponymous, unnamed Martian uses the name Martin while stuck on earth.
  • In Knightmare, Lord Fear's lizardman sidekick is named Lissard.
  • Lizzie, a lizard which appears in an episode of Lizzie McGuire.
  • Many of the characters in Pee-wee's Playhouse have names that walk the line between this and A Dog Named "Dog" (e.g., Chairry, Globey, Floory, Clocky, etc.). The straightest example is Pterri the Pteradactyl.
  • Non-animal example: Ultraman Geed has an alien named Pega whose species are known as the Pegassa.
  • In Power Rangers Dino Charge, Tyler nicknames his T-Rex Zord "Rexy".
  • In Power Rangers Dino Fury, the talking cyborg dinosaur Solon identifies herself as a Solonosaurus.
  • Yellowjackets: Lisa, one of Lottie's acolytes and residents of the latter's "intentional community" has a goldfish called Gilly the 14th, suggesting a few instances of Replacement Goldfish.

    Music 
  • Tsukipro idol units SolidS and Quell have a mascot named Lizz, that's... a squirrel (risu in Japanese).

    Podcasts 

    Puppet Shows 
  • In "A Plant Grows in Bear's House" from Bear in the Big Blue House, Pip and Pop are excited at a letter from the Otter World Magazine because they have entered the Otter World Name the Clam Contest with the name, wait for it, "Clammy," and are hoping to have won the grand prize of 100,000 clams. Unsurprisingly, they did not win. They receive a consolation prize of a packet of seeds.

    Toys 
  • BIONICLE did this a lot in 2007 and 2008:
  • Lego's Fabuland toyline runs with Species Surname, but has some characters whose first name is also a pun on their species, such as Lionel Lion, Bonnie Rabbit/Bunny and Cathy/Catherine Cat.
  • Many Transformers based on animals (and one plant) have names like this: Cheetor the cheetah, Rhinox, Ramhorn, and Headstrong the rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?), Rattrap the rat, Airazor the falcon, Tigatron the tiger, Depth Charge the manta ray, Scorponok the scorpion, Waspinator the wasp, Inferno the fire ant, Swoop and Terrorsaur the pterosaurs, Dinobot the Velociraptor/Utahraptor, Nightscream and Ratbat the bats, Laserbeak the condor (presumably, given that his Japanese name is Condor) Lio Prime the lion, Sky-Byte the shark, Bighorn the buffalo, Divebomb and Beast Wars II Skywarp the eagles, Ramulus the ibex, Wolfang the wolf, Botanica the flower, Filch the magpie, Steeljaw the lion (wolf in RID15), Sinnertwin the two-headed monster, Bisk the lobster, Nightshade the owl, Silverhound the bulldog, Malodor the skunk, Barbearian the grizzly bear, Polar Claw the polar bear, Blackarachnia the spider, Tentakil, Scuba, and Ikard (from "ika," the Japanese word for "squid") the squid, Kickback the grasshopper, Air Hammer the hawk/hammerhead shark fusion...
    • In a non-animal example, sometimes this happens with characters who turn into vehicles or other machines: Jetfire, Jetstorm, Skywarp, Ramjet, Thrust, Air Raid, Fireflight, Powerglide, Skydive, Skyquake, Windblade, Brainstorm, Strafe, Barrel Roll, Cyclonus, Dreadwing, and many others turn into jets (and, sometimes, in Jetfire's case, space shuttles, though rocket propulsion is technically a type of jet propulsion), Soundwave often turns into a tape deck, broadcast truck, or supersonic jet, Whirl, Blades, Skyburst, Highbrow, Vortex, and Armada Cyclonus turn into helicopters, Optimus Prime (Japanese name Convoy), Rodimus Prime, and Nemesis Prime turn into semi trucks (in other words, prime movers), Beachcomber and Sandstorm turn into dune buggies, Eject, Flip Sides, Playback, Rewind, and Beastbox (a pun on "beatbox") turn into cassette tapes, the robots who make up Rail Racer turn into trains, Cosmos turns into a UFO, Blaster turns into a boombox (as in, a ghetto blaster), Stratosphere turns into a cargo jet (a propeller-driven cargo plane in Rise of the Beasts), the live-action movie version of Jolt turns into an electric car, Perceptor turns into a microscope/telescope, Blast Off turns into a space shuttle, Hot Rod turns into a Cybertronian sports car, Animated Wreck-Gar turns into a garbage truck, Prowl, Streetwise, Chase, and Barricade turn into police cars, Scraphook turns into a tow truck, Mixmaster and Quickmix turn into cement mixers, Scattershot turns into a space fighter and a cannon (his Cybertron counterpart turns into a missile launching vehicle), Kup turns into a pickup truck, Seaspray turns into a hoverboat, G1 Sideswipe (Japanese name Lambor) turns into a Lamborghini Countach, Armada Grindor turns into a skateboard, Nosecone turns into a drill tank, Metroplex turns into a city/battle station, Warpath, Brawl, and Beast Machines Tankor turn into tanks, Inferno, Hot Spot, Pyra Magna, and Heatwave turn into fire trucks, the Reflectors (Spectro, Spyglass, and Viewfinder) turn into a camera, Hook turns into a crane, Mainframe turns into a supercomputer, First Aid, Ratchet (as repairing a Transformer is equivalent to healing a biological organism), Medix, and Flatline turn into ambulances, Octane turns into a tanker plane and tanker truck, Shockwave (Laserwave in Japanese) turns into a laser gun, Tidal Wave turns into a battleship, Nautica and Deep Dive turn into submarines, Astrotrain can turn into both a space shuttle and a locomotive...
      • On a related note, the original four Autobot Headmasters (robots whose heads become a smaller pilot robot in their alt-mode) had head-related names: Brainstorm, Chromedome, Hardhead, and Highbrow and the robot that formed Fortress Maximus's head was named Cerebros. Two of the three original Decepticon Headmasters, Skullcruncher and Mindwipe, also fit the head theme.

    Video Games 
  • Animal Crossing
    • Among the major NPCs, there's Tom Nook the tanuki, Tortimer the tortoise, Pelly the pelican, the cats Katie and Kaitlin, Lottie the otter, Gulliver the seagull, Phineas (from "fin") the sea lion, Chip (as in wood chips) the beaver, Redd the red fox, Saharah the camel, Kapp'n the kappa, and Wisp the ghost (a pun on "will 'o the wisp").
    • The series does this all the time with villagers' names: Bob and Tom the cats, Winnie the horse, Lily the frog, Canberra (named after the capital of Australia) the koala, Gwen the penguin, Hornsby the rhinoceros, Teddy the bear, Bill the duck, Fauna the deer, Pecan the squirrel, Peck the bird, Avery the eagle, Pudge (as bears have extremely fatty bodies) the bear, T-Bone the bull, Egbert the chicken, Inkwell the octopus, Papi the okapi-looking horse, etc.
  • In Antonball Deluxe there's a donkey named Don.
  • Bear & Breakfast.
    • Will the Poorwill, who's a species of nightjar.
    • Fin the Shark mascot of Pawn Voyage.
  • Bound by Blades has an anthropomorphic fish named "Finny".
  • Many characters in Bug Fables have their names related to their species. For instance, there are beetles named Kabbu (coming from "kabutomushi", a Japanese name for rhino beetles, which Kabbu heavily resembles) and Eetl, a mantis named Artis, a wasp named Zasp, moths named Mothiva and Hawk (a hawk moth), a cicada named Huscada, a cricket named Cricketly, and ants named Elizant, Zaryant, Ann and Janet. Bees especially stand out: there are Vi (whose name rhymes with "bee", according to Word of God), Queen Bianca, Malbee, Beette, Doctor H.B., Professor Honeycomb, Chubee (a chubby bee) and etc. The official artbook also reveals the names of several unnamed characters, and several of them also turn out to be species-related puns: the overseer of the Honey Factory is named Beena, a giant border guard bee is named Aebees, and the tarantula wizard's name is Tarantular.
  • Bugsnax: Grumble names a mantis Manny.
  • The eponymous squirrel of Conker's Bad Fur Day is named after a type of nut.
  • Darkstalkers: The Cat Girl character is named Felicia, a pun on "feline".
  • Final Fantasy IX':
    • Sir Fratley, a Burmecian, could be seen as having this type of name (Flatley, as in Michael, because the city where he's first encountered has a Riverdance-like ritual protecting it+rat) if not just one affected by Japanese Ranguage.
    • All three named members of the Qu species have names beginning with that of their species: Quina Quen, Quale, and Quan.
  • Fortnite: Season 1 of Chapter 5 introduced a trio of bird inspired skins, one of which is based on a Budgerigar/Budgie. Its name? Budge.
  • Harvest Farm features a Fox Folk and a Merman who are respectively named Foxy and Fisher.
  • Henry Stickmin Series: Henry Stickmin, like everyone else in the series he comes from, is a stick figure (or stick man).
  • Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal has a pangolin named Pango as one of its characters.
  • Mega Man:
    • In the Japanese version of Mega Man X, the names of the Maverick bosses are corruptions of their species name; examples include X2's Wheel Alligates*, X3's Explose Horneck* and X4's Cyber Kujacker* (from "kujaku" meaning "peacock" and "hacker"). The overseas versions (with some exceptions) resort to Species Surname instead.
    • In the Mega Man Zero series, some of the corrupted names refer to mythological creatures instead - e.g Burble Hekelot (Heket from Egyptian Mythology), Tretista Kelverian (Cerberus), and Heat Genblem (Genbu).
  • A subtle example in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The only member of the moth-like Luminoth who isn't either dead or in hiding is named U-Mos. The "mos" part becomes "mosu" in Japanese, and "mosu" is the English word "moth" transcribed into Japanese.
  • Mortal Kombat X introduces Bee Person D'Vorah to the franchise. Her name is Hebrew for "bee."
  • Mother 3 has a monkey named Salsa, written in Japanese as 'Sarusa'. 'Saru' means monkey in Japanese and 'sa' means "it is", hence his name literally means "It's a monkey!"
  • 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 Dog Named "Dog".
  • The Other: Rosie's Road of Love: The baker's younger daughter has a pet tomato, Anthropomorphic Food, named Toma.
  • One of Overwatch's playable characters is Hammond the hamster, who pilots a mech called Wrecking Ball.
  • Pokémon Red and Blue has only one of the wild duck Pokémon Farfetch'd in the game, and its name is Duxnote . Some bit-part-NPC-owned Pokemon also have nicknames based off their Pokemon species name. This list covers quite a few of them.
  • Rampage has a big Godzilla expy named "Lizzie".
  • Randle Sim Racing:
    • There's Slimyscaly and Lizzie, the longstanding Lizardman/woman couple; Shelly Tortuga the Tortoise; Stally N. Mustang the Ford dealer horse; Hawkton Bryant, a bird character; and Matt Drumsticks, the chicken.
    • There's a subversion with Daveybird. His name is a mix of the creator's real name and his species.
  • In Ring Fit Adventure, the antagonist is a dragon named Dragaux, which is an alternate spelling of "Drago" (a Stock Animal Name given to dragons that equally falls into this trope).
  • In River Tails: Stronger Together, Furple's sidekick is a fish named Finn.
  • Robotic Operating Buddy has R.O.B., which combines this and A.I.-cronym.
  • Shantae and the Pirate's Curse has the boss named Dagron, which is revealed to be a Dragon who had its species misspelled by its owner.
  • Splatoon has a lot of this:
    • Callie and Marie (calimari) the squid idol duo, Crusty Sean (crustacean) the shrimp, Spyke and Murch the urchins, Annie and Moe the anemone and clownfish, Bisk (from bisque, a type of soup made with shellfish) the crab, DJ Octavio and Agent 8 the octopi, Iso Padre the deep-sea isopod, Jelonzo, Jelfonzo, and Jel La Fleur the jellyfish, C.Q. Cumber the sea cucumber, Big Man the manta ray, Gnarly Eddy the nautilus, Nails the snail, Mr. Coco the coconut crab, Mr. Grizz, who is represented by a radio shaped like a bear (and turns out to actually be a bear when you meet him), Sheldon the horseshoe crab, and Cipher the Luciferidae shrimp, just to name a few.
    • A lot more examples are found in the Japanese version, some bordering on A Dog Named "Dog" territory: Callie, a bigfin reef squid ("aoriika" in Japanese), is named "Aori," Marie, a firefly squid ("hotaruika" in Japanese) is "Hotaru," Pearl, a northern pygmy squid ("himeika" in Japanese) is "Hime," and Marina, a webfoot octopus ("iidako" in Japanese) is "Iida."
    • Possibly subverted with Cap'n Cuttlefish: He might actually be a squid, and while he looks much different than the other Inkling characters, we don't know if it's because he's a cuttlefish or just because he's old. On the other hand, cuttlefish are more closely related to squid than other cephalopods, and the Japanese word for cuttlefish, 甲烏賊 (kōika), means "armor squid."
    • Shiver and Frye are kind of a mix of this trope and Steven Ulysses Perhero: In their boss battles, Shiver rides on a giant shark and Frye controls a group of flying eels. A group of sharks is called a shiver and a group of eels is called a fry. Their Japanese names are even more on the nose: Shiver's name is Fūka (from "fuka," a Japanese word meaning "shark") and Frye's is Utsuho (from "utsubo," Japanese for "moray eel").
  • Spyro the Dragon: the eponymous character's name is a play on "pyro" because he breathes fire.
  • Star Fox:
    • Names that aren't A Dog Named "Dog" fall into this. For example a frog named Slippy (for the slime), a rabbit named Peppy (intuitively because rabbits are fast/full of pep), monkeys named Andrew and Andross (the closest thing the series comes to Man) and the straightest example given the trope name, a Chameleon named Leon.
    • There's a subversion with Falco. He's supposed to be a pheasant.
    • Miyu the lynx's name sounds like "mew," the sound a cat makes.
    • Krystal is implied to be an arctic fox, and the word "crystal" comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "ice."
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Mouser the giant mouse, Cobrat the cobra, Ostro the ostrich, Albatoss the albatross (the lack of R isn't a typo; it's a play on "Albatross" and "Toss", as the enemy often drops Bob-ombs while it flies) and Clawgrip the crab (after its claws) from Super Mario Bros. 2. Some sources also suggest that Birdo is a type of bird (despite her feather-less, reptilian appearance), which makes sense since she and Yoshi are dinosaurs (birds are known to have evolved from dinosaurs in real life).
    • The Mario series (especially the RPG series) likes this trope quite a bit. For example, there are Goombas (Goombario, Goombella, Goomez, Private Goomp), Koopa Troopas (Kooper, Koops, Koopie Koo), Lakitus (Lakilester, Lakilulu, Laki, Lakithunder), Toads (Toadette, Toadsworth, Shroomlock) and more.
  • In Le Temple Perdu de l'Oncle Ernest, there's a scorpion named Scorpios.
  • Wild ARMs 2 features a Goldfish Poop Gang duo named Liz and Ard, recurring villains who are humanoid lizards. The pun on their names even carries over from the Japanese version, where they were named Toka and Ge (tokage being the Japanese word for lizard).

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, all dragons have names relating to fire: Hibachi (a kind of barbecue), Zippobic (Zippo and Bic are two brands of cigarette lighter), Napalmo, Miss Briquette, and Lady Ember Acetylena.
  • Awful Hospital has Maggie and Magatha, both of whom are maggots.
  • Prequel: The main character, a female khajiit, is named Katia Managan. Because she's a cat.
  • Most characters in Kevin & Kell, including the eponymous couple. Kevin Kindle (a rabbit) gets his surname from the technical term for rabbit birth. Kell Dewclaw (a wolf) gets hers from a piece of canine anatomy.
  • Unsounded: Sette picks up a pymaric haunted by a ghost, and names her little ghost friend Boo.
  • Mr. Crane, one of the three protagonists in Daddy-Long-Legs, is a crane fly. And he's friends with a harvestman named Mr. Harvestman and a cellar spider named Mr. Scapegrace.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo: Two of the ghosts from the Chest of Demons have a name referring to their species.
    • "That's Monstertainment" has a zombie witch named Zomba.
    • "Scooby in Kwackyland" has a demon named Demondo.
  • Alfred J. Kwak: Alfred is a duck with the family name Kwak (i.e. "quack").
  • All Hail King Julien: Indri are also known as Babakoto.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball:
    • Among Gumball and Darwin's schoolmates include Clayton, who is a blob of clay, Bobert (a robot), Ocho (an 8-bit spider), Carmen (a cactus), etc.
    • Richard's middle name is revealed to be Buckley in "The Roots". While normally associated with deer, "buck" can also refer to male rabbits (which Richard is).
  • Amphibia: The amphibian characters often have names related to their species. This includes Polly Plantar the pollywog (another name for tadpoles), frogs named Hopadiah (after hopping) and Mrs. Croaker, a toad named Mayor Toadstool, and a giant salamander named King Andrias (after the genus Andrias where giant salamanders belong). Toadie is a subversion: he's a frog despite his name implying otherwise.
  • Animal Mechanicals has a dinosaur named Rex and a dragon lizard named Komodonote .
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The main characters are a non-animal example: Master Shake is a milkshake, Frylock is a box of French fries, and Meatwad is a meatball.
  • Atomic Betty: A fish alien named DeGill.
  • Ben 10 has some egregious examples, such as literally all of Ben's aliens, species, and home planets. Some notable examples are Simian, an alien resembling a monkey, Bivalvan, an alien resembling shellfish, and Zs'Skayr, a ghostly alien who literally has "scare" in his name.
  • Ben And Me: The main protagonist is a mouse named Amos Mouse.
  • Bluey: The title character's first name is derived from her breed, a Blue Heeler (a colloquial term for an Australian Cattle Dog with bluish-gray fur). The name is a common pick for such dogs in real life.
  • BoJack Horseman: Several characters who are domestic animals follow a Formally-Named Pet-style name (for example, Mister Peanutbutter, a dog, Princess Carolyn, a cat, and Officer Meow Meow McFuzzyFace, another cat). Additionally, most non-human characters are named after their species. The Horseman and Sugarman families are both made up of horses, Lenny Turtletaub is a turtle, Sextina Aquafina is a dolphin, Rutabaga Rabbitowitz is a rabbit, Queen Anthonia is an ant queen, and so on. However, subverted with Vanessa Gecko, who after being mentioned a couple of times, she turns out to be... a human (though she may have taken her husband's surname; we never see her husband or kids onscreen).
  • The Animated Adaptation of Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars! has the titular character's first name referencing their rabbitty buck teeth, and his family name sounds like "hare".
  • A Bug's Life: Manny the mantis and Gypsy the gypsy moth.
  • In Can You Teach My Alligator Manners?, Mikey's pet alligator is named "Al".
  • Chip from the Chip 'n Dale shorts and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a chipmunk.
  • In "Flying Chip" from Chip and Potato, Chip and her family meet an armadillo named Armando and his mother, Dila.
  • City Island (2022): One of Watt's classmates is a marker named Mark.
  • Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: The characters' stuffed animals (which themselves on the show are known as "stuffies") are named this way in three instances. Daniel has his stuffed tiger Tigey, Margaret has a stuffed panda named Pandy and Miss Elaina has the astronaut Astrid. Notably, the one of them that actually is a lizard, Prince Wednesday's stuffed animal, is actually called Mr. Lizard. However, Prince Wednesday does have a pet rock that he named "Rocky." Daniel also has a wooden duck toy named "Ducky" and is shown in one episode playing with a giraffe plush named "Raffi."
  • Defenders of the Earth has Zuffy the zuffoid, zuffoids being a species of small bipedal creatures native to the planet Mongo.
  • Dinosaur Train: Don Pteranodon's name is the last syllable of his genus, Annie Tyrannosaurus' name rhymes with her genus' second syllable, and Hank Ankylosaurus and Jess Hesperornis both have names that rhyme with the first syllable of their genera.
  • Dinotrux has the bulk of its characters with names derived from their fictional species name, which is lampshaded when a pair of Dozeratops named Zera and Tops introduce themselves, the latter of which isn't sure where his name comes from and is stunned to learn it's short for Dozeratops.
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
    • The duck Professor Ludwig von Drake. "Drake" is the word for a male duck.
    • Darkwing Duck has a handful of examples: Taurus Bulba the bull, Grizzlikoff the grizzly bear, and the title character's civil alias, Drake Mallard. Gosalyn's name seems to be a play on "gosling", even though she's a duck rather than a goose.
    • DuckTales (1987): Many characters who don't have an outright Species Surname (like Donald Duck and his nephews, or the Beagle Boys) often have names that are duck- or bird-related puns. We have Launchpad McQuack, Mrs. Beakley, Webbigail Vanderquack, Fenton Crackshell (a reference to eggshells), etc.
    • DuckTales (2017) naturally follows this trend like its predecessor, with names such as Mark Beaks, Roxanne Featherly, Zan Owlson, and Indigo and Tyrian Sabrewing (referencing shades of purple due to their species being violet sabrewing hummingbirds).
  • Felix the Cat: Felix's name means "lucky", but also sounds like "felis" (Latin for "cat")
  • The Flintstones: Dino (pronounced DEE-no, not DAI-no) the Dinosaur.
  • Futurama: During a war with the Decapodians, a Decapodian spy in a Paper-Thin Disguise calls himself Hugh Mann. There's also the bending robots Bender, Flexo, and Angleyne.
  • The Hair Bear Bunch featured denizens of Wonderland Zoo with names like Stretch the Giraffe, Stripes the Zebra, Furface the Lion, Giggles the Hyena and Pipsqueak the Mouse.
  • Kaeloo features a duck named Quack Quack as one of its main characters.
  • Littlest Pet Shop (2012): In one episode, Henrietta Twombly had a few pets with her who are trying to keep the evil Biskit Bandits out of her house. Their names are Dog the Dog, Mongoose the Mongoose, Skunk the Skunk, Monkey the Monkey, Hedgehog the Hedgehog Gecko the Gecko, and Panda the Panda. Not just A Dog Named "Dog", it's A Dog Named Dog: The Dog.
  • Lizzie, a web short series from DreamWorks Animation, features a high school setting with a girl-turned-lizard named Lizzie Green as the protagonist.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • One scientific name for housecats (and wildcats) is Felis silvestris, which was used to name Sylvester the Cat.
    • Marvin the Martian is a non-animal, non-earthling example.
    • Porky Pig and Tweety Bird combine this with Species Surname.
    • Pepe le Pew, a skunk whose name references his foul odour.
    • Foghorn Leghorn's last name refers to "leghorn" being a breed of chicken.
  • The Magic School Bus: The Trope Namer is Liz, Ms. Frizzle's pet chameleon.
  • Maisy has a squirrel named Cyril.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Twilight Sparkle's pet owl is named Owlowiscious (a creative spelling of Aloysius).
    • Fluttershy's animal friends include Elizabeak the chicken and Hummingway the hummingbird.
    • Maud's beloved pet rock is named Boulder; later, her fiancé Mudbriar is shown to have a pet stick named Twiggy.
    • "Party of One": Pinkie's "guests" are a bunch of turnips in a bucket named Mr. Turnip, a pile of rocks called Rocky, a big lump of lint by the name of Sir Lintsalot and a sack of flour named Madame le Flour.
    • "A Horse Shoe-In": Starlight's new plant is a philodendron named Phyllis.
  • Ni Hao, Kai-Lan: Tolee's stuffed panda toy is named Pandy.
  • Ned's Newt has the titular newt, whose name is Newton.
  • The Owl House has Hooty and Owlbert, who are both owls.note 
  • Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: A fair few guest instruments have names like this. Specifically, there’s Susis the sousaphone, Mike the microphone, Annie the fan, Cyd the cymbals, Monica the harmonica, Kaz the kazoo, and Juan the one-man band.
  • R.O.B. the Robot is about a robot named Rob.
  • Shaun the Sheep, apart from being an alliterative name, also sounds like "shorn" in British English, the passive form of "shear", the act of cutting a sheep's wool.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob himself, Patrick Star, Mr. Krabs, Sandy Cheeks the squirrel, Mrs. Puff, Larry the lobster, etc. Also shows up in a lot of one-off and minor characters - Flatts the Flounder, Bubble Bass, and so fourth. Subverted with Squidward and Squilliam; their names are portmanteaus of "squid" and "Edward/William", but they're supposed to be octopi (but are sometimes called squid in the series) and are only called that because using "octo" would sound awkward. Played straight with Squidina, an actual squid who's shown up in more recent episodes.
  • ThunderCats (1985): Most characters have names referencing their real-world animal equivalents. Lion-O looks like a lion, Panthro looks like a panther, Cheetara looks like a a cheetah, Tygra looks like a tiger... you get the pattern.
  • Tom and Jerry: Tom is a tomcat, i.e. a male cat.
  • Tuca & Bertie: The titular characters are a toucan and a "birdie."
  • Wander over Yonder: A rare non-animal example: one episode features a sapient planet named Janet.
  • Welcome to Tonka Town has a boat named Bobo.
  • Wild Kratts: A running gag — Martin Kratt gives punny or alliterative names to most animals they meet. Like Elvis for an elf owl, baby crocodiles names Chompella, Munchette and Snappifer, beavers named Twig and Timber...
  • Woody Woodpecker has a first name referencing the wood woodpeckers dig through in conjunction with his Species Surname.

    Real Life 
  • Sven, a Scandinavian boy's name, means "boy" or "young man".
  • The masculine name Andrew and its many foreign variants come from the Greek word "andros", meaning "man" (as in, male human).
  • The name Guy is actually an inversion: it became used as a noun to mean a generic man only after it had been in use in the English language for some time. The name itself is Germanic in origin and is cognate with names like Guido and Witold.
  • Laika, the name given to the ill-fated first dog in space, is Russian for 'barker' (given to her because she barked a lot.)


Top

Connie the Coin

The mascot of Cryptoland.

How well does it match the trope?

4.67 (3 votes)

Example of:

Main / LivingCurrency

Media sources:

Report