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alt title(s): Detractor Nickname A name given to a character by fan communities. It is sometimes possible to read an entire forum about a show and never see a direct reference to the character's scripted name. A natural result if the producers take too long in providing a character with an official name.
Sometimes fan communities give nicknames to entire groups of characters, if the series doesn't already give a name. Anime fans often use [Main Character]- tachi, or "the group associated with [Main Character]". Other option is - gumi, meaning [Main Character]'s (metaphorical) troop. These can also be applied in jest to Western fandoms: Harry-tachi, Frodo-gumi.
These aren't limited to characters, either. Common sets, props, and special effects can also earn nicknames from the fans. Even the series itself can be referred to with a nickname (see 24 below for an example). Works suffering from Recycled Title syndrome, are very common to have a fan nickname to avoid confusion.
See also In Series Nickname, Portmanteau Series Nickname, Portmanteau Couple Name, and Red Baron. Not to be confused with Fan Community Nicknames, which are names for the communities themselves. Actual canon nicknames used onscreen, however witty, also don't count, unless they were adopted by the producers as a Shout Out to the fans, or are used far more extensively in the fandom than in- canon. Also compare Name Inserted Here, which is a Fan Nickname applied to a nameless hero who was given that name in adaptations.
Television Without Pity is a fertile breeding ground for Live Action TV nicknames.
Has become long enough to be split. At the moment, we have these sub-pages:
Other examples:
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Fan Fic
- "Enoby" - Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way in My Immortal. Comes from
many several a few hundred over 9000 misspellings in the fic itself. That's not exaggeration— there are literally over 9000 misspellings in the story. Even MS Word complains about it.
Military
- Military technology is covered in nicknames, both official "reporting names" used for quick communication and unofficial nicknames. Some of the best...
- The World's Leading Distributor of MiG Parts - the F-4 Phantom II, for shooting a lot of the Soviet-built aircraft down. The F-4 has a lot of nicknames, including The Double Ugly, Flying Brick and the Louisville.
- The troper`s favorite nickname for the F-4 is the German nick: "Luftverteidigungsdiesel", or "The Air Defence Diesel" (its engines trail out black smoke).
- Warthog or the Hog - The A-10 Thunderbolt II.
- This is even better on Osan Air Base in Korea. Where a statue of a Warthog is a major landmark, and referred to as the "Pig on a Stick"
- Grach (rook) - The Russian Su-25 "Frogfoot", from the callsign its pilots used in the Soviet-Afghan War.
- Another well-known Russian machine, Mi-24 "Hind" was nicknamed "Crocodile", probably for its distinctive silhouette and nasty "bite". The Mujahadeen referred to it as "The Devil's Chariot" for its leathal effectiveness.
- Russian fighter jets generally do not have "popular names" like Western aircraft do (such as the F-15 Eagle or F-14 Tomcat), however the MiG-29's NATO reporting name, "Fulcrum," has become popular among its pilots, making it both this trope and Sure Why Not.
- Viper - The preferred pilot name for the F-16, which is officially the Fighting Falcon. Don't use the latter around F-16 pilots.
- Also known as the "Yard Dart." The F-16 handles like a Ferrari, but it's a tad ... unforgiving. Wherever it was deployed, it was said that every yard near the base had one stuck in it.
- The B-52 bomber, officially nicknamed the "Stratofortress", is far more often called the BUFF, or "Big Ugly Fat... Uh... Fellow." Yeah. Fellow. That's the ticket.
- The F-111 was known to its pilots in the U.S. as the "Aardvark", a name that was actually made official at its retirement ceremony, the Australians took it further by nicknaming it "the pig". Two possible reasons for this: the charitable one is due to its terrain following radar allowing it to 'hunt amongst the weeds' much like a pig, the less charitable reason is the colloquialism 'pigs might fly'.
- In a somewhat morbid example (considering the reference point) a common nickname in the swedish military for Claymore-type mines is Lille Skutt
- The Vought F4U Corsair was affectionately(?) nicknamed 'the bent-wing bastard from Baltimore' by British pilots.
- Also the "Ensign Eliminator" for its temperamental flight characteristics.
- Another Vought fighter that also earned that nickname was the F7U Cutlass. Sadly, the Cutlass was nowhere near as good a fighter as the Corsair was, as it didn't have the latter's redeeming characteristics.
- Curtiss SB2C Helldiver bomber was called "Son of a Bitch, 2nd Class" even by admirals due to the wide variety of reliability problems and structural flaws, that initially even prevented it from performing its supposed main task - divebombing.
- The F-105 Thunderchief is called "Thud," The B-1 is called the "Bone," the Vought A7 was called the "SLUF" (Short Little Ugly Fellow), heck, if it's an aircraft, chances are that it's crews call it something else. Hell, here's a webpage of some of them.
- It's worth noting that the B-1 has a proposed second version; the B-1R. You do the math.
- The tiny, notoriously unsafe F-104 Starfighter was often called "The Missile With a Man in It" or, less affectionately, "The Widowmaker", particularly among German pilots who were a disproportionately large portion of Starfighter pilot fatalities.
- "Sprucans"- Spruance-class anti-submarine destroyers, due to the traditional description of destroyers as "tin cans".
- "Lusty"- HMS Illustrious.
- "The Grey Ghost"- USS Enterprise (the CV-6 one)
- The SR-71 Blackbird, when it was operational, was nicknamed the Habu, after a deadly snake found on Okinawa, from which the Blackbirds operated.
- The Douglas A-3D Skywarrior was by far the largest plane ever deployed from a carrier, thus the nickname "Whale." When reconfigured for electronic countermeasures, it became known as the "Electric Whale." And, since it had a crew of three and no ejection seats, it was also referred to as "All Three Dead."
- The McDonnell Douglas-General Dynamics A-12 Avenger was intended to replace the venerable A-6 during the Nineties, but was cancelled due to cost overruns. Its triangular shape, for stealth purposes, earned it the inevitable nickname "The Flying Dorito."
- The Douglas SBD Dauntless divebomber was known as the "Slow But Deadly" to its crews: despite their relative slowness in comparison to the fighters of the time period, SBDs managed to sink a number of Japanese vessels, most famously the aircraft carriers at Midway. The Dauntless was also, although 50 mph slower than the A 6 M Zero, nimble and well-armed, and thus one of the only bombers of the period to have a "plus" score against fighters, meaning it shot down more enemy aircraft than Dauntlesses shot down. Slow but deadly indeed.
Newspaper Comics
Other
- Many of the trope names listed here on TV Tropes could ultimately be considered fan nicknames, or at least fan nicknames of literary conventions established elsewhere when applied to a specific show, genre, or situation.
- Scilons or, more crudely, scifags for scientologists by Anonymous (which had a strange effect on this troper's viewings of Battlestar Galactica); also "clams" by the protesters, particularly the pre-Chanology ones, at OperationClambake.com due to one of L. Ron's "thought experients" being to imagine clams "snapping open and shut! Open and shut! Open! Shut!" on a beach (I think it had something to do with perceiving the universe or thetans).
- Clams are what Hubbard believed humans had evolved from. (Being Hubbard, Did Not Do The Research is a given.)
- Replacing the s in any of these, including the real name, with a $ is also quite common. This happens to Micro$oft too.
- The 1970s style handlebar mustache is popularly known as the "Pornstache".
- Weapon X in X-men Origins: Wolverine has been referred to as "Barakapool", "Dudepeel" and "The Merc Without a Mouth"
- Australian free-to-air television network SBS, jokingly said to stand for "Sex Between Soccer", or "Sex, Blood and Soccer".
- Leona Helmsley was been referred to as the "Queen of Mean" (see The Other Wiki for details)
- In the various entertainment industries (i.e., not just one in particular), if the offspring of a previously (or even still) well-known celebrity becomes a celebrity in their own right, those unfamiliar (or even familiar) with the fame of the parent will often refer to the parent as "[offspring]'s [parent]". For example, Lionel Richie has been referred to by fans of his (adopted) daughter Nicole Richie as "Nicole's father".
Other Sites
- "The Pit of Voles" - Fanfiction.net. "The Pit" for short.
- AKA "The Pit of Shrews"...although, confusingly enough, that name seems to also be applied to Quizilla.com.
- Skynet is sometimes used to refer to the Pit's administrators.
- "The Pit of Rabid Horny Weasels" - AdultFanfiction.net
- Sometimes also called "The Pit of Uber-Voles," "The Uber-Pit" for short.
- "The Picture Pit" - Fanart Central, in its role as the fanart equivalent to Fanfiction.net.
- "Rapidshit" - "Affectionate" nickname for the file-sharing
online dictatorship site Rapidshare.
- Ditto "Megafail" among others for Megaupload - though despite being more active in moderating what you can upload, at least non-member files don't have a 10-download limit like on Rapidshit.
- The Other Wiki - Used here to refer to the one that's all Serious Business.
- "Moontube" - Japanese streaming video site Niconico Douga ("Smile Video"). Inspired by the meme of referring to the Japanese language as "moonspeak", and Niconico's equivalence to Youtube.
- Encyclopedia Dramatica refers to DeviantArt as "DevianTart", and its users as "Tartlets". And, for some certain users, they've come up with a LOT of nicknames.
- The Hive Mind, Wiki-tachi, Critical Analysis Drones: Those would all be this wiki's contributors.
- Dr. Fight - toonzone.net nickname for Joaquim Dos Santos, director of several episodes of Justice League Unlimited and in the later half of Avatar The Last Airbender (including the last two of the Grand Finale).
- "Game FAGS" for Game FA Qs
- The comedy site That Guy With The Glasses has a forum. In one of its topic, the fans talk about an episode of the Nostalgia Critic that slammed the Rob Reiner movie North. In this movie, there is a boy named Wilson who, later on in the review, becomes the villain. The Nostalgia Critic made a joke that he acts like Dick Cheney. Because of this, everyone in the North topic calls Wilson, you guessed it, Dick Cheney.
- Teh Floodz. Bungie.net's Flood forum.
- HuluTube - You Tube, after it began promoting full-length movies and TV shows on its site (Many of which are also available on Hulu. Usually in a derogatory manner by users who've had suspensions because of DMCA violations.
- And presumably because of the ads on the those officially distributed videos.
Politics
- British tabloid fans and the more lighthearted monarchy watchers are known to refer to Queen Elizabeth II with her tabloid nickname 'Brenda.'
- Australian senator Stephen Conroy is often derisively referred to as "Conjob", due to his surprise plan (not mentioned during the election) to include a nationwide internet filter that the government will have complete control over. This, naturally, is one of his kinder nicknames.
- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been nicknamed K-Rudd - 'cause he's down with the youth, y'all.
- His other nickname is the Ruddbot, due to his mannerisms and lack of personality.
- Krudd, anyone?
- George W Bush was referred to by his middle initial so people wouldn't get him confused with his father in conversation. It quickly degraded from 'double-you' to 'dubya'.
- Wouldn't a Roman numeral after be more simply?
- George Walker Bush (son) is a different name from George Herbert Walker Bush (father), so junior or II would not be appropriate. They can be distinguished as "41" and "43".
- Dave Barry nevertheless mockingly called him "George W. Bush, jr., III", in reference to George Washington and to his impaired relationship with 41, who always loved Jeb best, and to the many tyrannies of Mad King George III of England, as called out in The Declaration of Independence.
- Mollie Ivins called Bush "Shrub" in a book of the same name. Liberals everywhere started using it immediately afterwards.
- Some British journalists called him "George Wanker Bush" or a starred version of same.
- How could anyone ever forget "The Wushie"?
- Some Conservatives upset with his softness on border issues took to calling him "Vicente Bush" or simply pronouncing the W as "doble-veh."
- Das Governator, Der Gubernator: Arnold Schwarzenegger, current Governor of California.
- Shouldn't it be Der Governator? It's arguable. The robot Terminator was definitely an "it".
- yes, that's even his nickname in German news shows
- And specifically, the German terms for Governor (and the linguistically-borrowed term for Robot) are masculine nouns - so if it weren't sufficient that he has, you know, a Y chromosome, it would still be more accurate to use 'der' than 'das.'
- He's also been called "Conan the Republican".
- He's also been referred to as Herr Gropenfuhrer.
- The king of Sweden is dyslexic, earning him the nickname "knugen" among the Swedes. "Knugen" being a jumbled up version of "kungen", which means "the king". (On occassion, he has also been referred to as "the knig" by Swedes talking about him in English)
- Prince Carl Philip has also earned the not-so-distinguished nickname Calle-Phille, or simply CP.
Sports
- Jared Lorenzen was a quarterback for the University of Kentucky who attracted a ton of nicknames when he was drafted by the New York Giants. It was really an unholy combination of the NY Media's love of nicknaming things, and the fact that he was 70 pounds heavier than the average player of his height. The best of the lot? J-Load, The Battleship Lorenzen, The Round Mound of Touchdown, The Pillsbury Throwboy and The Hefty Lefty.
- And, of course, the Round Mound is a derivative of The Round Mound of Rebound, one of many nicknames for Charles Barkley.
- Duncan Disorderly, Drunken Ferguson - Scottish soccer player Duncan Ferguson.
- Current Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton, known more for his
unfortunate facial hair than any of his on-field accomplishments(he IS 6 - 1 now) is known as "The Dread Pirate Neckbeard".
- Jesus Shuttlesworth is none other than the Boston Celtics' star Ray Allen.
- William Perry, a.k.a. "The Fridge" or "The Refrigerator" for his large size (ironically, he'd probably be dwarfed by modern-day defensive line-backers).
- "A-Train" is a popular fan-nickname in sports as well, given the level of forces involved when you have 200-300 pounds worth of almost pure muscle running around the field.
- Julius Erving, a.k.a. "Doctor J".
- Going back quite a few years, there was also "Pistol Pete" Maravich, who got his nickname from the peculiar position he could shoot the basketball from; "Broadway Joe" Namath, so-called because of his jet-setter lifestyle, highly irregular among professional athletes at the time and "The Kansas Comet", Gale Sayers, a running back for the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1971, nicknamed for his speed on the field.
- The Spanish Davis Cup team is nicknamed The Invincible Armada and The Spanish Armada, the name has caught on so much that the players themselves can be seen wearing caps with the name on them. It's also more widely used to refer to the top tier Spanish tennis players.
- Marion the Barbarian- Marion Barber, Dallas Cowboys.
- Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones put up over a billion dollars to construct a new Cowboys Stadium, which he seems to treat as a favorite child. This has lead the fans and local media to refer to it as: The Boss Hog Bowl, Jerry World, "Jerry Jones' Penis", and the like. The enormous TV screen in that stadium is known as "Jerry Jones' Prince Albert", among this troper and friends.
- After 2009's NBA playoffs and the hype surrounding it, LeBronze James. Also LeBrick James, Lebron Lames, etc.
- Detroit Pistons announcer George Mason and fans are the champions of this trope. The starting 5 in the 2004 Championship season alone were:
- Chauncey Billups - "Mr. Big Shot"
- Richard Hamilton - "Rip" (though that was before his professional career)
- Tayshaun Prince - "The Prince of the Palace" (they play in The Palace of Auburn Hills)
- Also "The Long Arm of the Law", for his ridiculously awesome blocks and wingspan
- Also "The Silent Assassin", for his incredible contributions that go generally unhyped
- Rasheed Wallace - "Sheed", "Guaran-Sheed", etc.
- Ben Wallace (no relation) - "Big Ben"... hey, he's the center. What do you expect?
- Cris Collinsworth - "Collinsworthless" according to some of the people who don't like him.
- Chris Berman - "Boomer"
- ...and in deference to Mr. Piston above...Berman is the champion of this trope. So much so that fans are pretty much tired of the schtick.
- Allow this troper to Aussie this page on up with the grand list of AFL nicknames.
- When he's not having 'you beauty!' attached to the end of his name, Alex Jesaulenko is abbreviated to a fairly standard Jezza.
- Brendan 'Fev' Fevola
- Peter 'Macca' Mc Conville
- Alex 'Marcel' Marcou
- Phil 'Shark' Marlin
- Ken 'Bomber' Sheldon
- Anthony 'Kouta' Koutoufides
- Ricky 'Chicken Legs' Nixon
- Stephen 'SOS' Silvagni
- Stephen 'Sticks' Kernahan
- Spirro 'Kokka' Koukamiles
- Jimmy 'Bucks' Bucksly
- Michael "Air" Jordan (also "His Royal Airness", which was actually used in the movie Space Jam.)
- The King - Not Elvis Presley, but rather legendary NASCAR driver Richard Petty.
- For decades, the New York Yankees have been called the "Bronx Bombers".
- "The Curse of the Bambino" has been used to refer to the Boston Red Sox' inability to win a World Series after trading Babe Ruth (the "Bambino" in question) to the aforementioned Yankees. The finally won in 2004, and again in
2006 2007.
- The aforementioned World Series has been called the "Fall Classic", because of when it occurs (usually in October...in the fall).
- The also aforementioned George Herman "Babe" Ruth has been called "The Babe".
- Shaquille O'Neal, AKA: "Shaq"
- "The Irons": West Ham United FC
- Also known as "The Academy of Football", partly because many well-known players start off at West Ham (which has a good coaching regime) and then go elsewhere. An official nickname now.
Theater
- The Phantom Of The Opera due to its various incarnations in many different media is being put here. Most of the nicknames are used to differentiate between the different versions.
- Leroux!Phantom, Leroux!Erik - The original book version. This one wears a black cloth mask over his whole face, has a skull-like face, doesn't have a nose, and smells like death.
- Kay!Phantom - The version from the Susan Kay novel. Noted for wearing a white whole mask, has an addiction to opium, is a chick magnet until he takes the mask off, and apparently had a kid with Christine.
- Crawford!Phantom - This refers generally to the ALW stage version, which is typically portrayed as a distinct entity from the movie version below. The name comes from the actor who originated the part, Michael Crawford.
- While the Usenet newsgroup Rec.Theatre.Musicals was at its most vital, Michael Crawford himself was almost universally called "The Pants".
- Gerik, Movie!Erik, Movie!Phantom - All are commonly used to identify the version from the Andrew Lloyd Webber movie adaptation despite how many movie versions actually exist. The first name is a portmanteau of the name of the actor who portrayed the titular character and said character's actual name despite it never being said once in either the stage or movie version.
- Third degree sunburn - The phantom's "deformity" in the ALW movie.
- The Dread Pirate Roberts Dancers - the background dancers in the "Point of No Return" scene in the ALW movie. Usually somewhat derogatory.
- The Fop - A general derogatory nickname for Raoul. You can guess which part of the fanbase uses this one.
- Use this one with extreme caution. Calling Raoul a fop on certain sites will result in, at best, a lot of virtual eye rolling and pointed inquiries as to whether or not you have read a) the original novel or b) a dictionary.
Toys
Web Animation
- Homestar Runner
- Kidstar - 1-Up from the 20X6 universe. He's the anime equivalent of Homestar, and his idol Stinkoman dismisses him as being "just a kid". His name wasn't officially revealed until a year after he first appeared.
- Marzichan - The 20X6 version of Marzipan who has so far only appeared in a Main Page.
- Visor Robot - A robot with a visor. Oddly enough, the series creators now actually refer to this robot as "Visor Robot".
- Linkin Ball Z - Any of the Trillions of combinations of Dragon Ball Z and the band Linkin Park commonly seen in Fan Vids.
- Fans of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series generally refer to Yami Bakura and Yami Marik as "Florence" and "Melvin", respectively. That may also be their 'canon' names.
- "Melvin" was originally a mocking joke name from Yami "[We came here to fight] Marik! Not his imaginary friend Melvin!" When it took off with the fans, it became his official name starting in the next episode.
Web Original
- lonelygirl15
- BDJ - Bree, Daniel and Jonas collectively.
- TAAG - Teen Angst Adventure Gang. All the main characters as a team.
- The Creators - Always with capitalised initial letters. The executive producers of the show, who often use this name themselves.
- Bambi - Nadia Dalton.
- Pharma Guy - Ted McKinley.
- Handlers occasionally give Survival Of The Fittest characters nicknames based on their personality traits and the like, and occasionally a character gets a malicious nickname made for the purpose of mocking them. Prominent examples of fan nicknames in SOTF include Kenurton Larris for v3 character Ken Lawson, BB for Blood Boy (people tend to prefer calling him by the shorthand "BB" for whatever reason), and in the mocking sense "*charactername* v2" for characters that are obvious clones of previous SOTF characters. "Mariavel v2" = Melina, "Damien v2" = Eduardo, and "Oliver v2" = Gabe Theobaldt, for example.
- A number of members (although it was sparked by the character's handler) have begun to refer to Bobby Jacks as 'Bocelot' due to performing an Offhand Backshoot on another character (and hitting him in the head). Members joke that soon he will be ricocheting bullets off walls, and that before long he will have one of his arms cut off.
- RedVsBlue
- iTex - When it was unclear when Tex exactly was a real person or not, Tex when she was definitely an AI was iTex
- iFrags - AI programs that are a piece of the alpha
- Alpha Church, aChurch, Robo Church - The name for the Alpha AI. To differentiate him from Dr. Church
- Not a character, but the fans have nicknamed the authors of the Whateley Universe stories the 'Canon Cabal'. Occasionally in the forums the acronym TINCC shows up after mentioning this nickname: it stands for 'There Is No Canon Cabal'.
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