History Main / GiverOfLameNames

* Subverted then played straight in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': When a co-worker catches Mike yelling at Sulley, Mike plays it off as rehearsing for the company musical, improbably named "Put That Thing Back Where it Came from, or So Help Me...." Later played straight when it's revealed that they actually did put on the musical.

* ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' has Professor Poopypants, who created the Name Change-O-Chart 2000 to give everyone on Earth a silly name. The school principal, Mr. Krupp, became Lumpy Pottybiscuits, which the kids found hilarious until they too were forced to change their names.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12436175/1/ Days at The Namikaze-Uzumaki Household]]'', Kakashi, Obito, and Rin are aware that their teacher Minato is lousy at names, with Obito being baffled that Minato's daughter name, Miruku, is a rōmaji of "milk", while Kakashi recalls that even if Naruto was named after TheHero from Jiraiya's book his name still means "fish cake". Rin suggests that Miruku's name is a combination of her family's name ("Mi" from Minato, "Ru" from Naruto, and "Ku" from Kushina), but it's clear she's trying to salvage the situation.

** Long before that, in the [[Anime/PokemonTheOrigianlSeries Johto region]], Ash and his friends encounter a band of Diglett thieves who call themselves "The Band of Diglett Thieves." Their leader admits that they used to have a more creative name, but the old geezers who they harass could never remember it.

* A running gag in the ''XY'' series of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' is that Clemont, Ash's BunglingInventor friend, can only give his inventions names that amount to ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. His younger sister Bonnie gives him no end of grief, but [[HypocriticalHumour ironically]] isn't that much better. She calls her newly-found Pokémon "Squishy" because of its squishy body and calls Greninja's SuperMode Ash-Greninja because it resembles Ash.
** Long before that, in the Johto region, Ash and his friends encounter a band of Diglett thieves who call themselves "The Band of Diglett Thieves." Their leader admits that they used to have a more creative name, but the old geezers who they harass could never remember it.

* A lot of things that gnome and goblin engineers make in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Wrench? No no no, it's an Arclight Spanner. Screwdriver? No, that's a Gyromatic Micro-Adjustor. Heat Sink? Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector. Fishing Lure? Aquadynamic Fish Attractor.
* Karol from ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia''. Unluckily for him, his name suggestions are always rejected and he is klonked on the head.
* Simultaneously averted and played straight by a civic group in ''[[Radio/GTARadio GTA: Liberty City Stories]]''. Citizens United Negating Technology For Life And People's Safety. Try making an acronym out of that. (Acronym NSFW)

* If you don't type in a player name on ''VideoGame/YouDontKnowJack'', the host will assign you a completely random name like "ladder" or "toilet."
* Rouge from ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' turns out to be this in one audio drama. When pressed to give a name to the Baby Elves, a pair of cute, ball-shaped EnergyBeings, she seriously proposes "Literature/CrimeAndPunishment". This gets her into an argument with the other operator where they accuse each other of being this.
* ''VideoGame/{{Nibblers}}'': Flappydactyl, the boss of Cloud Peak Cliff, criticizes his parent's choice of name for him, and he wished they'd give him something [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast that's menacing, like Terrordactyl]].
* In ''VideoGame/SengokuRance'', Kou decides to call the dungeon in Oda the "Miso Katsu Dungeon". Rance is probably an even worse namer, suggesting "The Biographies of Eight Satomi Dogs" (which actually turned out to be [[CassandraTruth somewhat accurate]],) as a good dungeon name. And then there's the [[ICallHimMisterHappy hyper weapon]]...
* In ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'' episode ''Strong Badia the Free'', you can have one member of the WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad (any will do) attempt to name a cat "Miss Jumblepuddins". Then the cat's mother - actually a saber-toothed tiger -- appears and eats the girl for giving her cub a lame name.

* ''VideoGame/{{Lufia}}'':
** Guy pulls this one off during one conversation in ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals''. After giving Maxim and himself nicknames designed to inspire awe to the listener, he calls Selan "The Magical Wife." She is less than amused.
** Dekar gives the rest of the party their nicknames instead in ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals''. ''Everyone'' hates the nicknames he gives them.[[labelnote:*]]Guy is [[DumbMuscle "The Strike First and Think Later Man of Pure Muscle"]], Maxim is [[PlayingWithFire "The Burning Swordsman"]], Tia is [[ImprobableWeaponUser "The Girl with the Mysterious Giant Hook"]], and Selan is—naturally—"The Magical Wife".[[/labelnote]]
* Nema from ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger: Guardian Signs'' zig-zags this trope. Most of her inventions' names, despite accurately fitting their purposes, tend to be much longer than needed, such as "Call Pokemon by Drawing Fun Signs with Lines Mode", which is shortened to just "Sign Mode". On the other hand, though, she does sometimes scale it back and a couple names are kinda catchy (like the "Battery Flattery Mini Charger"). This was taken to an extreme in a post-game Quest, where Nema tried to help give Booker Bridge a new name. The name is long enough that they had to put ''three signs'' by the bridge to show it all.
* Lucretia, TheStrategist from ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'' has a habit of giving things such as your army or your castle, overly long pseudo-poetic names which everyone else finds clearly embarrassing, thus letting [[TheHero the Prince]] taking the choice.

* King Asgore Dreemurr from ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''. It's a RunningGag that most monsters think that he's a great guy and a fantastic king, but he really sucks at naming things. His name for the monsters' original home in the Underground? "[[ShapedLikeItself Home]]". And when they moved to a new location, he called that "New Home". The town with all the snow? "Snowdin". The area with all the lava? "Hotland". The area with the waterfalls? "Waterfall". [[spoiler: Even his son's name, Asriel, is a combination of his name and his wife Toriel's.]] This even extends to his own boss theme, which is literally just his name in allcaps. The intro, however, actually has a creative and MeaningfulName: "[[KingInTheMountain Bergentrückung]]". Worse yet, it seems to be [[spoiler:''hereditary'' -- Asriel's resurrected form, a self-aware Golden Flower, refers to himself as Flowey the Flower.]]
* The eponymous ''VideoGame/{{Transistor}}'' ends up naming a lot of the different enemy types on the fly. Some of them are sort of creative (Younglady, The Spine,) some are just him insulting the enemy during their first appearance (Creep, Jerk). And then there's the last two enemy types (a humanoid and an ActionBomb that's normally attached to the former's head) named by him when he's delirious after [[spoiler: the second Spine starts screwing with his head]], where he lazily calls them Man and Haircut.
* [[ImmortalImmaturity Remilia Scarlet]] of ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': in a world where CallingYourAttacks is the norm, Remilia can't quite seem to get the hang of the whole "naming" thing. This results in spellcard names that range from the cliched melodramatic trying-too-hard-to-be-badass (like ''Midnight Sign [Devil King Cradle]'' or ''Destiny [Miserable Fate]'') to the truly '''baffling''' (like ''Demon [Remilia Stretch]'' or the infamous ''Scarlet Devil [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment [Scarlet Devil]]]'').

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' has a RunningGag with fireteam names across both games. Apparently between ''Destiny 1'' and ''2'' the Tower switched to a name generator because letting [[BunnyEarsLawyer Guardians]] name their own fireteams led to gems like [[LampshadeHanging "Fireteam The-bad-guys-don't-care-what-we-call-ourselves-do-they?"]] In the second game, while the generator usually assigns reasonable names, it occasionally spits out things like "Babydog," "Piccolo," and "Oboe," which [[MissionControl Zavala]] takes [[TheComicallySerious as seriously]] as he can muster. [[DeadpanSnarker Cayde]] and [[{{Corpsing}} Devrim]], not so much.
* In the Nintendo DS game of ''VideoGame/PuzzleAndDragons'', one of your friends who is known for being a ditz suggests you name your new dragon companion Drake the Souped Up Muscle Dragon. Actually choose it and your new companion rips into you about how lame the name is.
* Sucrose from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' isn't great at naming her specimens beyond extremely literal/numerical scientific descriptions. For example, she calls a strain of sweet flower that she worked on as "Sweet Flower Project 9, Version 28, Scent-Strengthening Trial." This applies to her ingame combat skills as well, known only as "Astable Anemohypostasis Creation [[LudicrousPrecision 6308]]" and "[[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Forbidden Creation]] - Isomer 75 / Type II." Ironically, she dreams of making a fairytale-like paradise with her work, but she can't come up with more fantastic names for her specimens; she ends up deciding that, if it's a paradise of her making, she's free to name the flora in it the way she likes best.

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', Noah is pretty embarrassed about his naming choices, and usually defers to others when he needs to name something. Although, the new name he gave to [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Lucky Seven]], [[spoiler:Sword of the End]], ends up being both [[MeaningfulName fitting]] and badass.
** Expanded upon in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3FutureRedeemed'' when in the final battle, [[spoiler:N declares Matthew's knuckle weapons to be the "Fists of the End", suggesting he tends to slap "Of the End" onto whatever he's naming.]]

* The sluggies of ''VideoGame/KukooKitchen'' are really bad at coming up with names for things, such as assigning the Fearful (a fearsome monster who can turn invisible and sneak up on ships), their centuries-pursued prey, this name because it's said to keep fearfully evading their weapons every time they try to catch it. As the captain says:
-->'''Sluggy captain:''' We are great {{hunter|OfMonsters}}s, but terrible at picking names...

* ''Literature/CradleSeries'': When asked to give a name to her own [[EnemyWithout blood shadow parasite]], Yerin's initial suggestion is "Big Red," to contrast the other spirit she knows, Lil' Blue. Min Shuei comes up with the even worse name "Blood Yerin," with "Blerin" suggested for short. Everyone stares at her.
-->'''Min Shuei:''' ''[muttering]'' You think I care what you name it? Nobody names their tapeworm.

** Sokka and Toph tend to do this a lot. Suki's sole attempt, however, was considered too lame even by them, and in the last episode they tell her "Leave the nicknames to us, honey."

* Dr. Evil of ''Film/AustinPowers'' has a habit of naming his doomsday devices/plans after cultural references or things not discussed in polite company. In the second film, he calls his plan the Music/TheAlanParsonsProject, the moon-attached death-ray the [[Franchise/StarWars Death Star]] and his doomsday device in ''Goldmember'' is dubbed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preparation_H Preparation H]]. [[MetaGuy Scott]] always points out or laughs at said naming conventions, but is always ignored.

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', the bread at the Suzuya Bakery often have strange names. They call a cream bun "The Fairy's Ocarina", a red tea-flavoured melon bun "The English Maid's Awakening", and meat pies "Literature/TheSecretGarden''. During the [[NewJobEpisode the sixteenth chapter]], both Mira and Ao commented they have a weird naming sense, bordering on {{Chuunibyou}}.

* In ''Webcomic/JupiterMen'', Quintin first idea for a superhero code name is "Super-Ultra-Slime-Man". Nathan tells him to cut it down to four syllables or less, after which Quintin chooses the much more manageable (and slightly cooler sounding) Gusher. Subverted for Jackie, as she likes the name "Powerhouse" that he comes up with. He later comes up with "Spellblazer" for Arrio, but only after going through, "Heat-Hands", "Knight-Light", "Sunstroke", and "Fire-Finger".

* In ''LetsPlay/LetsGameItOut'', if the game lets you [[HelloInsertNameHere change a character name]], Josh will make it something as absurd as possible for maximum comedy. In his playthrough of ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsIII'', for instance, he promptly changes the name of France to "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM", renames his dynasty "Hungie for Brekkie", and names his heirs "Lunchtime", "Second Breakfast", "Brunch", and "Tea Time".

* In ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', Uncle Tommy and his band mates called their band The Tits. Apart from being a lame name in itself, it lends itself to many an IncrediblyLamePun.

%% * Konoe Subaru from ''LightNovel/MayoChiki''.

%%* If his solo series ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'' is any indication, King Julien (the Lemur from ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'') is somewhat bad at choosing names.

* Yozora in ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' is consistently bad at naming things. She calls her [[ImaginaryFriend air friend]] "Tomo-chan", which means "Friendy", more or less. The name "Neighbours Club" is one of the many aspects of her club proposal that don't impress Kodaka. She names Sena's dating-game character Semoponume at random, but then keeps using it like it's a sensible name. Even her nicknames are unimaginative, from "Meat" for buxom Sena to "Night" for her own RPG character (it's just the first kanji in her name)... and of course [[spoiler:"Sora" for herself, unwittingly matching Kodaka's equally lazy nickname "Taka" [[note]]Unvoiced consonants at the start of words become voiced when used in a compound word, hence Yo+sora=Yozora.[[/note]]]].

%% * Konoe Subaru from ''LightNovel/MayoChiki''.

%%%* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero''. Naofumi Iwatani.

* Yozora in ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' is consistently bad at naming things. She calls her [[ImaginaryFriend air friend]] "Tomo-chan", which means "Friendy", more or less. The name "Neighbours Club" is one of the many aspects of her club proposal that don't impress Kodaka. She names Sena's dating-game character Semoponume at random, but then keeps using it like it's a sensible name. Even her nicknames are unimaginative, from "Meat" for [[GagBoobs Sena]] to "Night" for her own RPG character (it's just the first kanji in her name)... and of course [[spoiler:"Sora" for herself, unwittingly matching Kodaka's equally lazy nickname "Taka" [[note]]Unvoiced consonants at the start of words become voiced when used in a compound word, hence Yo+sora=Yozora.[[/note]]]].

* [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Finland]] from ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' tried to name his pet dog "Go For It! Bomber" before [[HoYay his partner]] [[GentleGiant Sweden]] stopped him. And then he went for "Bloody Flower Egg"...

* [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Remilia]] [[ImmortalImmaturity Scarlet]] of ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': in a world where CallingYourAttacks is the norm, Remilia can't quite seem to get the hang of the whole "naming" thing. This results in spellcard names that range from the cliched melodramatic trying-too-hard-to-be-badass (like ''Midnight Sign [Devil King Cradle]'' or ''Destiny [Miserable Fate]'') to the truly '''baffling''' (like ''Demon [Remilia Stretch]'' or the infamous ''Scarlet Devil [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment [Scarlet Devil]]]'').

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' has a RunningGag with fireteam names across both games. Apparently between ''Destiny 1'' and ''2'' the Tower switched to a name generator because letting [[BunnyEarsLawyer Guardians]] name their own fireteams led to gems like [[LampshadeHanging "Fireteam The-bad-guys-don't-care-what-we-call-ourselves-do-they?"]] In the second game, while the generator usually assigns reasonable names, it occasionally spits out things like "Babydog," "Piccolo," and "Oboe," which [[MissionControl Zavala]] takes [[TheComicallySerious as seriously as he can muster.]] [[DeadpanSnarker Cayde]] and [[{{Corpsing}} Devrim]], not so much.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], a krogan observer at the Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission thinks one of the Trans-Galactic Republic's ships that was sent to defend Tuchanka has a stupid name--it's "Promenade Sunraise" (which by krogan standards, is pretty lame).

** Sparky Sparky Boom Man. It's later changed to Combustion Man, which is not much better.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In "Eda's Requiem", Raine's band of freedom fighting rebels is called the BATTs (short for Bards Against The Throne), complete with bat-themed masks. When they're later joined by several people from other covens, the name gets changed to the CATTs (Covens Against The Throne). [[spoiler:Darius]] openly ''hates'' the name, insisting over and over that he didn't agree with it and pleading with Raine to not make their battle cry a hiss.