I Am Not Shazam - Television Tropes & Idioms

A popular example is Shazam, the title used for most works involving DC Comics' Captain Marvel. Due to a trademark agreement with Marvel Comics, DC cannot use the character's name for the series title, so they use his transformation phrase instead; this leads to people mistaking the phrase for his name. This is especially strange, considering he himself has to be careful about using the phrase.
- This is exacerbated in the Hero Clix game, where any of his figures have to have Shazam written where the name is instead of Captain Marvel.
  - This seems to be the case for almost any DC-licensed product he appears in, as promotional material for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe referred to him as "Shazam" as well, but the game itself used "Captain Marvel".
- A humorously similar case occurs with CM3, originally Captain Marvel Jr, a DC character who himself briefly changed his superhero name because the original is his magic phrase. This was also highlighted in a possible future where he eventually became Captain Marvel, which he, of course, couldn't say.
  - Recent developments in The DCU have had Captain Marvel take the (late) wizard Shazam's place, with CM3/Captain Marvel Jr. being groomed to take the role of The Hero — with the codename "Shazam". This may not go over well.
The title of Alan Moore's Watchmen is thematic and poetic, not literal; there is a team of heroes called 'The Minutemen' and a later, failed attempt to form one called 'The Crimebusters', but there is no team called 'The Watchmen'. Moreover, the title of the book, despite some reviewers' confusion, is not "The Watchmen".
- And in the movie based on the graphic novel, the organization called 'Crimebusters' in the book is called 'Watchmen', probably done to provide a Title Drop. Great, now people will be making this mistake for ANOTHER two decades.
The lead character of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman goes by many names, but "the Sandman" is never one of them. The closest he comes to acknowledging this name occurs when he is moved to laughter — for the first and only time in the series, and even then, with a mask covering his face — by the presumption of a human superhero calling himself "the Sandman". There's a certain irony in this, as the superhero Sandman comes from an older, defunct DC series; although in the continuity of Sandman Morpheus is of course much, much older than Hector Hall, in real chronology Hall had the title first.
- The third published collection (or one version of it anyway) contains a script for one of the stories along with commentary by Gaiman. He mentions that he always refers to the character as The Sandman himself, as well as in the script. He never mentions why other characters don't do the same, though.
Neither Eric, nor any of the later vengeful souls from the comics or films of The Crow, are ever referred to as "The Crow". The title refers to the bird that brings them back to life. They go by the names they held in life, if anything (though the crow in the original comic constantly refers to Eric as "Musician").
- In the TV series, "Crows" are what the series calls the "good" avenger-type revenants like Eric, whereas the "evil" sadist/hedonist-type revenants are referred to as "Snakes".
John Constantine is not called "Hellblazer". (Except in an Alternate Universe where the Vertigo Comics setting mixes with Silver Age tropes, and he's a sort of magic-using Batman under that name.)
- Let me guess: it was YOUR idea that the movie version be called "Constantine", right?
  - The author really wanted to use Hell Raiser (which makes a lot more sense, given John's personality) but that was already taken.
The star of Usagi Yojimbo is actually called Miyamoto Usagi. The title, which translates to "bodyguard rabbit" is what Usagi does. The series isn't helped by the fact that, during the characters' appearances in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, he was referred to as Usagi Yojimbo.
Runaways is the name of the book, not the name of the team. The kids don't have a name for themselves, just like they don't have costumes or code names. This is made more confusing because most fans do refer to them as "The Runaways", mostly because it's easier than saying, "those teenagers that star in the comic series that is called Runaways."

Close Comic Books

Possibly ur-example: Frankenstein is not the name of the monster, but the last name of his creator.
- It didn't help that the film Bride of Frankenstein involves "brides" for both Frankenstein himself and the monster, but the monster bride is way, way, more famous and associated with the film. Likewise, the title Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein appears to use the name for the monster. However, the mistake exists in the title alone; in the film itself he's always simply called "the monster."
  - The sequel/remake, The Bride, from 1984 plays with this; the Monster is given the name "Viktor", the creator's first name, by circus dwarf Rinaldo — "He will win his heart's desire". (Strangely, the doctor — played by Sting —is given the first name "Charles" in this film.)
- Possibly possibly possibly justified by Frankenstein being the creator's last name — presumably, if the monster has a last name, then it is also Frankenstein. It's questionable whether or not a writer puts this much thought into it, though. Presumably then his name would be "Adam Frankenstein".
  - Grant Morrison did; he used it in one of his issues of Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein. A throwaway line between the titular hero and the Bride has him admitting that he did indeed eventually take his creator's name.
  - In the comedy sketch Lee and Herring's Reasonably Scary Monsters one character nitpicks the creator/monster issue, and the other claims the trope is justified because the monster could have been named after the creator. The nitpicker claims that's ridiculous, and insists on using "Frankenstein's monster", as well as "Mr. Hoover's electric vacuum cleaner" and "The Earl of Sandwich's egg between two slices of bread snack".
  - This was the argument used to justify the title of the movie Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein in the comic Major Bummer. One character points out that Frankenstein doesn't even appear in the movie.
    Lou: See, Marnie, this worries me, 'cause what's happening here is that you've bought into the highbrow snobbery that pollutes all Frankensteinalia. And that ain't right. Yeah, the doc's named Frankenstein. No $#!+! So let's think about this a sec. If the doc created the monster, and he did, that makes the monster like his son, right?
    Marnie: I guess.
    Lou: Then there it is for you. Frankenstein is the monster's last name. Just like his daddy.
    Marnie: What? That has to be the stupidest... okay, what's his first name then?
    Lou: C'mon, use your head! Did Michelangelo need a first name? Did Liberace?
- Mary Shelley herself supposedly referred to the monster as "Adam" during reading of her novel. This moniker is almost never used in adaptations. In the book itself, the Monster at one point says that he has no name.
  - Buffy The Vampire Slayer featured, in its fourth season, a Big Bad that was essentially a super-intelligent Frankenstein's monster. (Mind you, the original monster was also super-intelligent.) Its name was Adam, a direct reference to this.
  - The Ravenloft setting for Dungeons And Dragons also features Adam, the creation of mad scientist Victor Mordenheim. As you may have guessed, they are essentially Captain Ersatzes of Victor Frankenstein and his monster.
  - Also, the Marvel version of the monster occasionally uses the name Adam.
  - Promethean: The Created has the Monster going under the name "Mr. Verney", the lead character of Shelley's other novel, The Last Man.
  - The 1994 film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein gives the monster the title "The Reanimant".
  - Dean Koontz's Frankenstein remake/homage has the monster take on the name Ducalion, which is the name of a son of the mythological Prometheus. The subtitle of Shelly's book is "The Modern Prometheus."
  - Dark Shadows featured a Frankenstein's monster-esque character, created as a vessel to store a vampire curse and cure another character's vampirism. He was named Adam, and later even got a lover created for him named Eve.
- This is the reason that This Troper believes that the wrestling move known as the Frankensteiner should instead be called the Frankensteinsmonsterer.
  - Ah, but that move isn't named after Frankenstein's Monster (except by way of oblique reference); it's named after Scott Steiner, who popularized it in the US.
The Lord Of The Rings is Sauron, the Big Bad, not any of the heroes in the series. This misunderstanding is already cleared up in the the book: Pippin at one point calls Frodo the "Lord of the Ring", only to be hastily corrected by Gandalf. Frodo later titles the Red Book of Westmarch as The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King. The popular film version also pointed this out ("There is only one Lord of the Rings, and he does not share power"), so there's probably less confusion on this one nowadays.
- The first episode of the 1981 BBC Radio version begins with an establishing pre-credit narration that ends "There it was hidden, even from the searching eye of Sauron - The Lord of the Rings". (Cue opening theme tune). This also qualifies as a Title Drop.
- People also might believe "Return Of The King" to be referring to Sauron's attempts to obtain the one ring and conquer Middle-earth, instead of Aragorn's ascension to the throne. This, too, was clarified in the movie of the same name; when Denethor is angry about Aragorn's coming, Gandalf tells him, "Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the king." Some people even thought Denethor was the king. (He's the Steward, by the way; a regent that rules when the king is away.)
- Completing the tradition of using the titles in the movie, during "The Two Towers", Saruman explains the two towers to be Orthanc, Saruman's own tower in Isengard, and Barad-d�r, Sauron's stronghold in Mordor. However, Tolkien himself was never clear on which of the several towers in the book were the "Two Towers". A note at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring book concerning the events of the next two, however, says that the towers are Orthanc and Minas Morgul, the tower of the Ringwraiths which is close to the secret entrance to Mordor used by Frodo and Sam. (Although Minas Morgul is briefly shown as Sam and Frodo pass it.)
  - Also, the dustjacked cover drawn by Tolkien shows Orthanc and Minas Morgul.
  - Tolkien was never happy with this title, largely because even though he had decreed Orthanc and Minas Morgul to be the titular towers by Word Of God, Barad-d�r, Minas Tirith, and the tower of Cirith Ungol all play significant parts as well, giving the reader five towers to deal with. Why, yes, the plot is somewhat complicated.
  - And then there's people who insist that Frodo and Sam are symbolically the two towers.
- The first Swedish translation rendered "The Lord of the Rings" as Härskarringen, lit. "the ruler ring", apparently assuming that the "Lord" in question was the One Ring itself. This is justified, as Tolkien's text sometimes calls the One Ring the Ruling Ring. Not to mention that whole thing about "One Ring to rule them all..."
  - Note that "Härskarringen" is an ambiguous word. It can mean both "The ring which rules" and "The ring of the ruler", although the former is a more natural wording. ("Ringens Mästare" would be a fine literal translation of "Lord of the Rings" - one wonders What Were They Thinking.)
Referenced in the book Are You A Geek?, where one of the things that gets you points is "You get annoyed when people assume that the name of the film is also the name of the main character, shouting things like 'Come on, Die Hard!' and 'Get 'em, Total Recall!'"
Many people who have not read Rebecca, or who do not remember it very well, refer to the narrator by that name. It is actually the name of her husband's first wife, who is dead before the story begins. The narrator's name never comes up.
- Parodied in a Mitchell and Webb sketch. Hitchcock's Film Of The Book is being made, but Executive Meddling demands that if it's named Rebecca, it has to be about Rebecca. They don't change the names, though, they just replace all instances of "first wife" with "second wife" and vice versa.
The main character in Johnny Got His Gun, a fairly horrific story about a World War I soldier waking up in a hospital, is often mistakenly referred to as "Johnny;" his actual name is Joe. The title's a Literary Allusion Title to the patriotic pro-war song Johnny Get Your Gun.
- The video for the Metallica song "One" was inspired by the film version of this novel, and this troper's high school English class got to watch it after finishing the book. In an interview following the video, Lars Ulrich informed us that he had been deeply moved by the story of poor Johnny. While the version Lars saw may have actually given the character such a name, I prefer to think he's just an idiot.

Close Literature

The Pink Panther refers to a gem in the first movie, not Inspector Clouseau, like some people thought. The studio initially tried to clear it up (the first sequel, A Shot In The Dark, didn't have the gem, and the next, The Return Of The Pink Panther, featured the return of the gem), but eventually gave up and ran with the idea, titling the final sequels The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Trail of the Pink Panther, Curse of the Pink Panther, and Son of the Pink Panther, despite the gem only figuring into the plots of Trail and Curse (which were shot at the same time and tell one long story between them).
- Many younger fans don't even realize there is a diamond, and only know the Pink Panther as the rose-colored feline in the animated shorts and the Owens-Corning insulation commercials.
  - The Pink Panther animated series, which featured said feline as the main character (who was even named The Pink Panther in the show) didn't help either.
- This troper remembers the end of the first film as stating that the in-movie newspapers got it wrong and accidentally knicknamed Clouseau "the Pink Panther", and the other films just stuck with it.
The title of the film The Last Samurai actually refers to the entire group of fighters at the end of the movie, but like "sheep," the word "samurai" can be both singular and plural. Thus, many think it refers exclusively to Tom Cruise's character, especially given that he is the only one to survive. This misinterpretation crept into at least one international translation of the title, in a language that does make a distinction between singular and plural for "samurai".
The titular Thin Man in the original novels was actually a man the title characters were pursuing. In the movie series, it came to refer to Nick Charles himself, the protagonist. In the book, Nick was actually overweight, but the actor who portrayed him was thin; the first couple of sequels resisted taking advantage of the resultant confusion, using awkward names like After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man, but eventually the series decided that if people thought Nick was The Thin Man anyway, they might as well go along with it.
Ratatouille is simply a cute pun for the title of the film, and the featured dish at the film's climax, not the name of any of the rats actually in the movie. The main rat character is named Remy.
- Made all the more frustrating by an All Play round in the second edition of Disney Scene It, where players are asked to "Name The Character" and the answer turns out to be Ratatouille. Did Pixar not contribute to the making of this game at all?
The woman from Chasing Amy is named Alyssa. Amy is Silent Bob's ex, and even "Chasing" doesn't mean what you think.
- "Chasing Amy" is also the comic book Holden makes based on Holden and Alyssa's relationship. So, in a sense, Alyssa IS Amy.
Many people believe that the titular character of The Big Lebowski was that played by Jeff Bridges, although, as he clearly explains to the real title character (played by David Huddleston), "I am not Mister Lebowski! You're Mister Lebowski! I'm The Dude!" Furthermore, it is this exact confusion which drives the plot of the movie. (Both characters are named Jeffrey Lebowski.)
The titular whale of the film Free Willy was not named "Free Willy". The whale was named simply Willy; the title comes from a scene where Jesse says "let's free Willy!" It doesn't help that the sequels used "Free Willy" in their titles.
- To combine with I Am Not Spock, some people even call the real whale playing the character "Willy", even though his name was Keiko.
- Further confusion ensues in Norway, where "Free Willy" sounds like "frivillig" (voluntary).
Jaws is not the name of the shark in the movies of the same name. The shark doesn't have a name at all, although on the set it was referred to as Bruce, after Spielberg's lawyer.
The creatures from the movie (and television series) Tremors are called "Graboids". So many viewers have called the creatures "Tremors" that this has been brought into the series; at one point a tourist mentions a "tremor", prompting a main character to exclaim in exasperation, "They're called Graboids!"
Endor is the gas giant planet, the Sanctuary Moon is one of its moons and is home to the Ewoks. This mistake made it to the Ewok Made For TV Movies and Animated Adaptation.
- Probably a little bit George Lucas' fault-calling it the "forest moon of Endor", it sounds more like they're being really weird about calling the moon itself Endor, rather than "Endor's forested moon." Also, in the film Darth Vader tells Palpatine that a Rebel force has "landed on Endor," further confusing the issue.
  - The same happens from time to time with Yavin from Episode 4, which is really the fourth moon (Yavin IV) of another gas giant.
The protagonist of the movie Kung Fu Panda is named Po. In Disaster Movie, he was referred to as Kung Fu Panda, but the writers are of course idiots.
- In another example in that movie, they refer to Guru Pitka as "Love Guru".
- And again, Giselle from Enchanted is credited as "Enchanted princess".
This one isn't as prevalent as some of the others, but it still comes up sometimes, so to set the record straight: The character is Betelgeuse. The film and cartoon series is Beetlejuice. The fact that they're pronounced the same is the joke.
- WRONG◊
  - Uh... that's from the cartoon series.
  - But it lists "Beetlejuice" as the name of the character.
- Apparently, the titular (or not) character is from the American afterlife, since Betelgeuse is usually pronounced bay-tul-juice in other English-speaking countries.
  - It's the name of a star, and even American astronomers tend to pronounce the star's name as bay-tul-juice or bay-tul-jews. This troper can't remember how it was pronounced in the Hitchhikers Guide series, seeing as it was the home solar system of Zaphod Beeblebrox.
  - In the original radio series it was pronounced exactly like the Michael Keaton character's name.
  - Well, since the character was summoned by correctly pronouncing his name, maybe Beetle' utilized an alternate spelling to keep from being summoned by every run-down schmuck who saw his ad?
This troper has heard people refer to Edward Norton's character from Fight Club as "Jack." The character is never actually named; the Jack thing comes from him reading medical articles written in the first person ("I am Jack's colon, I get cancer, I kill Jack") and occasionally imitating it ("I am Jack's complete lack of interest," "I am Jack's wasted life").
- This may be more a fan nickname for an otherwise unnamed character than a genuine mistake.
- Some DVD covers refer to him as "Jack" in the blurb. I think he was called that in the script (not in dialogue but in the sense of "JACK: Who are you? TYLER: Tyler Durden."
  - The Cheap as Hell Props Page from Restraining Bolt.com, a movie prop replica site, contains this drivers license◊, which bears the name Jack Moore. Most likely taken from a still-frame or similar source.
- It's a change from Joe, which is the name in the book, as well as the actual name from the Reader's Digest articles referenced. More than likely changed for legal reasons.
- As far as this troper knows, the official name for the character is "The Narrator", although whenever the movie airs on television the captions always refer to him as "Rupert", which is one of the many aliases he uses when attending the various support groups.
The title character of Local Hero is Ben, the old beach bum who stands alone in blocking the oil company from demolishing the town and eventually saves it by convincing the company's CEO to drill elsewhere. The main character Mac is neither local nor a hero.
- That's somewhat ambiguous. In the novelization of the movie, the title phrase is used only once, and refers to Murdo, the African-born reverend.
Comic Book: The Movie features an in-unverse example of the trope's title example: a woman is condescendingly corrected by her four year old that the action figure his father has just bought is Captain Marvel, not Shazam.
Many people do not seem to know that the name of the princess in Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty is Aurora, not "Beauty".
- Likewise, the heroine of Beauty And The Beast is named Belle (which does mean beautiful, but is not the same as being named Beauty). Although, while her name is Belle in the original, that is because it is in French, and is actually meant to be literally Beauty.
  - Because the name was "La Belle et la bete" (The Beauty and The Beast), and Belle was a pun. It's still a pun in English, but moreso in French.
Cinderella was a nickname.
This troper and his friends settled an ongoing and already sarcastic debate about whether Blood Diamond referred to the concept of illicitly procured conflict diamonds, or the giant rose-coloured diamond itself which the revolves film around, by agreeing that Blood Diamond was actually the nickname of Leo Di Caprio's character, Danny Archer, due to his violent personality which masks an otherwise good soul.
In Bride of Re Animator, the titular Bride is being constructed for Herbert West's heartbroken assistant, not for Herbert West the Re Animator himself.
The "Bug Alien" from the movie Men In Black is NOT named Edgar. Edgar was the name of the farmer that the Bug killed and disguised itself as (by wearing Edgar's own skin as a suit...).
- Unfortunately, it doesn't help that the animated Spin Off and toy line both called the Bug "Edgar"...

Close Film

Many thought the main spaceship in Firefly was named "Firefly." Actually, it was the name of the class of ship it was; "Serenity" was the name of the ship, which, naturally, became the name of The Movie. And the pilot episode. And the comic miniseries. To be fair, it's an easy mistake to make.
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.
- At least it is the name of the ship, or perhaps more accurately, the MacGuffin everyone in the film version is after, unlike the above example.
The name of 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.
- Most people I know call the car KITT, and call Michael Knight himself "Knight Rider".
- No, the name of the AI is KITT. The car is referred to as KITT when the AI is in it, but in both the original series, various movies, and the recent revial have all places where the AI was removed from the car, at which point the AI is called KITT and the car is just called 'the car' or 'the Trans Am' or whatever type car it is.
- This mistake occurs in the Futurama episode "The Honking":
  Calculon:[...] the windshield wipers from that car that played Knight Rider.
  Fry: Knight Rider wasn't evil!
  Calculon: His windshield wipers were. It didn't come up much in the show though.
The main character of Doctor Who is "The Doctor", not "Doctor Who". (Note, however, that there were two non-canon, Non Serial Movies in an Alternate Universe starring a human being who was named "Doctor Who".) However, the character has been credited as "Doctor Who" for much of the series, including for the first new season. It was changed back to "The Doctor" when David Tennant - himself a fan of the series - came on board, at his insistence. Furthermore, "The Doctor" is not the character's actual name — that name has never been revealed. (An aborted script element would have had the first companions, Ian and Barbara, refer to the Doctor as "Doctor Who" when he wouldn't reveal his real name.)
- At one point, an intelligent super computer refers to The Doctor as "Doctor Who". This is probably a mistake.
- The Doctor himself also plays into this confusion at times, going by aliases such as "Doctor von Wer" ("wer" being German for "who") or signing his name as a question mark.
- The Doctor was actually referred to as "Doctor Who" in the text of several early novelisations of the series.
- It is a running gag, though, that whenever someone hears about The Doctor for the first time, their response is "Doctor who?"
  - And in the story Inferno, the Doctor's in an alternate universe and gets asked: "Doctor what?" Apparently people in alternate universes ask alternate questions.
- This troper had just been confronted by a chap who still referred to the Doctor as Doctor Who because the NOVEL STORIES are called "Doctor Who and the blank", serious Facepalm moment, RIGHT THAR.
- In the Alternate Universe movies, Peter Cushing's human doctor really is called "Doctor Who."
- A common joke is that, since the Doctor's name is never revealed, it could turn out to be "Who" for all we know (although the Doctor's reaction to the name on a few occasions when it is used probably Josses this).
- Even the closed captioning on the Sci Fi Channel refers to the character as "Doctor Who". (Though, this troper only noticed it during one of the 9th Doctor episodes. It might have been changed later when the aforementioned credit switch was made.)
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 be belong to.
- Although further confusing things is that the Kurgan calls Connor MacLeod "Highlander", in the same way that Connor calls the Kurgan "Kurgan". The Kurgans were the tribe that the villain was descended from, and Connor is from the Highlands.
- Since Connor and Duncan do come from the Highlands, calling either of them "Highlander" is accurate.
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).
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.
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.
"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").
- Individual episode titles are prone to such misunderstandings as well. For example, the title of the pilot episode, "Children of the Gods", refers to the Goa'uld (that's what their name literally means in their language).
This editor has, more than once, met people who were under the impression that Star Trek was the name of a spaceship used in the series.
- Also in Star Trek, 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; however, a later episode showed a shuttle of the same registry number bearing the name Galileo II (though it was actually the third shuttle of that name).
Which one of you guys is Monty Python?
In The Cosby Show, the main character's name is Cliff Huxtable. Some people mistakenly thought Bill Cosby was using The Danza.
- Ditto The Dick Van Dyke Show (Rob Petrie) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Mary Richards).
- It's still common 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.
- This (relatively young) troper was shocked to find out the protagonist of The Andy Griffith Show was named Andy Taylor.
This Troper has heard Jon Stewart refered to as Jon Daily on more than one occasion. Whether or not this is more prevalent in Canada where there is an actual Jon Daly Show is as yet unknown.
- A surprising amount of people refer to The Daily Show as "The Jon Stewart Show." Besides being wrong, it's the name of an actual show that he used to host, which he misses terribly.
- Jon, you're not helping.
In an opposite effect, Chelsea handler complains several times on her show that her name is not Chelsea Lately, the name of her show. On one occasion this troper saw her accidentally call herself Chelsea Lately.
Hardly anyone called Home Improvement by its actual title, instead referring to it as Tool Time, even though that was just the name of the Show Within A Show.
- This troper doubts that, remembering numerous reference to Home Improvement he heard in middle school before learning it was a sitcom, rather than the home repair show he assumed it to be based on the title.
- Along the same lines, this troper cringes whenever he hears someone refer to Family Matters as "The Urkel Show".
This trope is almost certainly why Game Show Network named its revival of Press Your Luck (AKA "Whammy" or "The Whammy Show"), "Whammy: The All-New Press Your Luck".
The Frankenstein issue was lampshaded in Bones, when Booth calls the monster by the titular name and Brennan corrects him, saying it was the creator. Booth's response? "Yeah, cause 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.
In a sort of inversion of the trope, this troper and his mom always referred to Perfect Strangers as "Balki" (ie, "Balki is on!") and still refer to I Love Lucy simply as "Lucy.")

Close Live Action TV

No character in Cowboy Bebop is actually named "Cowboy Bebop". "Cowboy" is an in-universe slang term for bounty hunters, and the ship used by the main group of hunters is named the Bebop. See also Cowboy Bebop At His Computer.
- Many people confuse the name of the villain Mad Pierrot with the episode in which he appears ("Pierrot Le Fou"). Though since he appeared in one only episode, where his name is rarely mentioned, it's understandable. Particularly since "Pierrot le Fou" means "Mad Pierrot" (Well, "Mad Clown") in French...
  - And Mad Pierrot's actual name is Tongpu.
  - Really? This troper thought that Tongpu was the name of the project that created him.
- Even the back cover of the DVDs makes this mistake: "A new generation of outlaws came into being. People referred to them as Cowboy Bebops."
The heroine of Escaflowne is named Hitomi, not Escaflowne. Escaflowne is, of course, a giant mecha.
The teacher/main character of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei prefers to be called Itoshiki Nozomu and freaks out when his name is written as "Zetsubou."
Magic Knight Rayearth is not the name of the Magical Girl team featured, who are just referred to as the Magic Knights (plural). It specifically refers to the lead Genki Girl and her machina named Rayearth.
"Hina" in Love Hina doesn't refer to any of the main characters, but to the name of the inn where characters live, itself named after Keitaro's grandmother.
The main character in the series Tenchi Muyo is named Tenchi Masaki. The title of the series is a complicated Japanese pun (involving, among other things, the standard Japanese labeling for "This End Up!"), and not the name of the main character. This caused some confusion when the movie Tenchi Muyo! In Love came out, because misreading the title as the name of the main character implies that Tenchi falls in love in the movie, which he doesn't.
- Also, Ryoko has been called "Tokoton Ryoko" on at least one fan web site. Tokoton Ryoko is actually the title of a book about her, and means Thoroughly Ryoko. Her name is in fact just Ryoko, although she is sometimes (but never to her face) called Ryoko Hakubi, due to her relationship with Washu in the OVAs.
The title character of Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok is not named Loki Ragnarok; he's just Loki. In fact, the god Loki, from Norse Mythology.
The protagonist of Trigun is known as "Vash the Stampede". The title refers to his three weapons: the silver revolver, the machine gun hidden within his prosthetic arm, and his Angel Arm.
The main character of Sumomo Mo Momo Mo is named Momoko, not Sumomo or Momomo. But most people are just lucky to say the tongue-twister title correctly, so try to cut them some slack on getting the characters right, too.
When City Hunter was adapted to Italy, Ryo, the main character, had his name changed to... City Hunter (Hunter was the first name, City the surname, apparently).
- Of course by Angel Heart people who don't know Ryo very well are calling him "City Hunter" the same way people will call Hal Jordan or Allan Scott "Green Lantern".
  - This was also prevalent in the original City Hunter manga, where "City Hunter" (often rendered "CH" in english with Japanese furigana above it in dialogue balloons) was implied to be the name of Ryo and Kaori's organization.
A lot of people who are not anime fans think Dragon Ball is the name of Son Goku.
- Even worse, Goku and his friends are sometimes referred to as "The Dragonballz".
When Yu Yu Hakusho came to Israel and was dubbed into Hebrew, Yusuke Urameshi's name was changed to...you guessed it... "Yu Yu Hakusho".
Tokyo Pop is guilty of this; in their translation of Tokyo Mew Mew, Mew Ichigo was initially referred to as if "Mew Mew" was her name. In fact, "Mew Mew" is a title granted to all the series' Magical Girls. When the group is given the name "Tokyo Mew Mew" in the second volume, the translators realized their mistake and started calling her Mew Ichigo. Too bad they didn't fix everything, though.
Due to the title, there's confusion over the name of the protagonist in Mahou Sensei Negima. It's "Negi", not "Negima" (and as of this writing, the author has not given a reason why there is an extra "ma" in there).
- The only time it's mentioned is during a Title Drop. Negi's friends briefly call themselves the "Negima Club" until Evangeline makes them change it.
  - Given that the collection covers refer to the full title as "Mahou Sensei Negi Magi", it seems reasonable that the "ma" could just be a shortening of "magi".
  - The writer loves foreign languages; it's actually an anagram of Enigma.
The manga Rin! isn't named after a character, but is a kanji used to refer to something that gives one shivers of awe.
This editor has had to explain many times to the Key/Visual Art's uninitiated that Tsukimiya Ayu's name is not Kanon, nor is it the name of any other member of the Unwanted Harem. Kanon refers to Kanon D-dur, a piece of German classical music known in English as "Canon in D" or "Pachelbel's Canon".
- So, her name is...non-Kanon?
In the Akira comic books and movie, most of the action is seen from the perspective of two young men, Shotaro Kaneda and Tetsuo Shima. Akira might almost seem to be a MacGuffin up to the point at which he is revealed.
Nobody in Doctor Slump is named like this. It's a insulting nickname for Bungling Inventor Senbei Norimaki.
- This troper recalls seeing the pilot of the failed Harmony Gold Macekre of Dr.Slump sometime back, in which Norimaki was indeed renamed as such. The dub also included such 'punny' names as "Tammy La Fox" (for his love interest Midori).
Before Yotsuba&! got its official translated name, a lot of folks thought the main character's name was Yotsubato.
Chobits is not the name of the female lead of the series (of the same name). It's Chii. "Chobits" is the class of persocom Chii belongs to.
Yu-Gi-Oh means "king of games" and would refer to the title everyone who plays the series' card game is trying to achieve. Although the English dub tosses around the term "king of games," it also has a scene where the (originally Nameless) Pharoah tell Yugi he is known by many names, including Yugioh and Yami. Can you hear the collective facepalm?
- He can be known by any name he wants, because he's voiced by Dan Green!
- To be fair, he probably was the king of games in his own time...but that's just grasping at straws.
The heroine of Princess Mononoke is named San, not Mononoke. Mononoke is just the type of demon that the residents of Irontown believe her to be. Additionally, she's not actually a princess, either.
- Perhaps to avoid this confusion, the English dub mentions "Mononoke" only once in dialogue. A few other instances seem to have been glossed as "wolf girl."
Lum and the other Onis in Urusei Yatsura come from the planet Oniboshi. The title is a complicated Japanese pun that is partly based on "urusai" and "-sei" (meaning star or planet, the same kanji used for -hoshi/-boshi). The meaning of the title was explained in the Viz manga, so it became widely known, and fans have misinterpreted that as meaning that Urusei is the actual name of the planet. Fanfic then spread it further.
- "Urusai yatsura" means literally "those noisy guys", but idiomatically refers to annoying next-door neighbors. Combining the idiom with "sei" makes it something like "those noisy other-planet neighbors".
  - You could do roughly the same gag in english with "Annoyliens".
  - Or as Anim Eigo puts it, "Those Obnoxious Aliens", which also has the fun of sounding like a '50s sitcom.
A misconception about Full Metal Alchemist is that Alphonse Elric is the character referenced in the title (since he is literally "full metal"), when it is actually Ed who is the Full Metal Alchemist. This misconception is even Lampshaded in the series.
- There's also confusion as to the title of their state's leader, Bradley, who is called both "The Fuhrer" and "King Bradley". The thing is, "President" is his governmental title , "Fuhrer" is his military title, and "King" is his first name.
  - The English dub seems to have made this mistake itself; in the eighth episode, Roy refers to Bradley as "the king" as if it were his title. This was fixed in later episodes.
- All the more fitting considering his other name in the Anime, Pride
A similar confusion to Bradley is the name/title of the Spiral King in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Most English speakers hear his name and think it's "Lord Genome" with "Genome" being his name and "Lord" being his title. The thing is, Gainax thought that would confuse Japanese viewers, so they combined it so that "Lordgenome" (one word) is his actual name. Thus the dub always pronunces it as one word.
A common source of confusion in translated anime is the fact that family names are given first in Japanese, and many Japanese will call each other by their family names as a form of respect. Mildly confusing in itself, but add to this the fact that different translators will handle this differently (some reverse the order to English standard, some keep it the way it is), the occasional last name that sounds like a first name in English (Lynn Minmay, which is Chinese to boot), and a general inconsistency in which name to use (Seto Kaiba is usually called Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba is usually called Mokuba), and the fact that the Japanese are just as confused about Western names...
Despite what fansubbers would have you believe, his name is Hamel. He comes from Hameln.
The main character of Daphne In The Brilliant Blue is called Maia. "Daphne" refers to a subplot involving her grandfather's last words.
In the Streamline Pictures' dub of the ''Fist of the North Star'' movie made it seem as if "Fist of the North Star" was a title that Kenshiro and his brothers were fighting for rather than the name of their martial art style Hokuto Shinken (never mind that the title Fist of the North Star isn't exactly an accurate translation of the Japanese name Hokuto no Ken).
In the brazilian dub of Kaleido Star, the dubbers for some reason decided to change the name of the Kaleido Stage to Kaleido Star, for easier recognizing I guess. The term "Kaleido Star" is used in-show as the title to the best artist of the circus. In the brazilian dub, this term became "Estrela do Kaleido Star" (literally, "The Star of the Kaleido Star").

Close Anime and Manga

This troper's friend has asked him "Do we ever find out the name of the Tomb Raider"?
- The recent games have averted this by renaming the series Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
- To be fair, the title very well may be referring to Lara Croft's vocation.
A number of people seem to be under the impression that Link, the protagonist from The Legend Of Zelda series, is named Zelda himself (which in turn causes some people to believe Link is a girl, such as this editor's mom). Zelda is in fact the princess. (This is one of the offenses that causes one to be Gannon Banned.)
- The fact that the original game's code to go directly to the New Game Plus was to enter "Zelda" as your name didn't help matters...
  - On Ocarina of Time, name your character Zelda. The real Zelda's little speech in the courtyard is pricelss if you do that...
This editor has referred to the main character (Samus Aran) of the Metroid series of games as "Metroid" more than once. The name actually refers to the parasitic aliens the series revolves around.
- To make matters worse, several games in the series have very little to do with the Metroid species. Fusion had almost no Metroids in it, and the story revolved around its natural enemy, the X Parasite. (In that case, the heroine was part Metroid, so at least it came the closest to escaping the trope.) Metroid Prime: Hunters featured no Metroids at all, except in the demo version bundled with the launch editions of the DS.
- This was apparently retconned to change "Metroid" into a Chozo word meaning "great warrior", and used to describe Samus as well as the species.
- The infamous reaction of one internet user unfamiliar to the Metroid series upon the announcement of Super Smash Bros Brawl: "Metroid is a girl?!"
- Of course not, silly. Samus is the girl. She's Metroid's girlfriend.
  - No, Metroid is a girl, and she's married to Halo.
  - Just to set things straight: Master Chief and Samus are just boyfriend and girlfriend. Neither of them is ready for commitment yet.
  - Actually their relationship is slightly more interesting then bf and gf.
- Which is even stranger as she's been called Samus in both the original and Melee...
- This troper once had a friend who thought "Samus" was pronounced "Seamas." Not only did he think Samus was a dude but he was impressed one of Nintendo's flagship character's was an Irishman.
  - This troper once had a friend who thought Samus was the name of the recurring villain (i.e. Mother Brain), hence "Metroid 2: Return of Samus" (even though Mother Brain isn't in "Metroid 2"). The hero was, of course, named Metroid.
- This troper ran into someone who was trying to start a character vs character thread, Zelda vs Metroid. He was saying that while Zelda has a sword, Metroid has an arm cannon. Someone quickly tried to correct him, posting pics of Princess Zelda and a Metroid. The thread creator then posted pics of Link and Samus and insisted that they were Zelda and Metroid. As the augment heated up, things got good.
This Troper is a variation on this trope: I believed that American McGee was a clever nonsense name given to a game studio, rather than the personal name of the developer.
- It seems to be a common mistake, which could have been averted if anyone ever read the credits screen from Doom, where American McGee is listed as a designer.
The main character of Kid Icarus is not named Kid Icarus; it's Pit. This made its way into at least one adaptation, Captain N The Game Master, although Captain N really wasn't trying very hard.
This troper has a young cousin who insists on calling Sonic The Hedgehog Sonic X, after the title of the latest cartoon/anime based on the games.
- 4Kids themselves refer to Sonic the Hedgehog as "Sonic X" on there website.
- In a related example, This Troper's little brother refers to any Sonic character as "Sonic Heroes".
- This troper used to have the reverse problem with Mega Man; he refused to call the protagonist from the Mega Man X series "Mega Man X" for much the same reasons one would refuse to call Sonic "Sonic X" based on the title of his TV series. In fact, when he discovered the existence of a character called "X", he believed it to be a different character! But in the "Mega Man X" series, the main character actually is called Mega Man X, or X for short, and is distinct from the original Mega Man.
I think Halo is a pretty cool guy, eh kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything.
In general, any game with a less obvious title that doesn't include the main characters name runs the risk of this. Of course, there are plenty of games that do have the main characters name in the title, so the confusion is understandable.
Star Fox refers to the mercenary team from the game, not its leader, Fox McCloud.
- Same for Star Wolf, the rival team.
- Parodied in one ending in Command, where Falco's team is called Star Falco.
Which team is Team Fortress?
Slightly related, some people think Mario and Luigi go by the last name Mario because of the Super Mario Bros games. But other than The Super Mario Bros Super Show and The Movie, this has never been officially stated.
- This Troper recalls reading in Nintendo Power someone asked if Mario was their last name and They replied it was.
- This Troper remembers reading on the No E website that the Bros' last name was actually "Mario".
- Also slightly (barely) related, this troper lives in a spanish speaking country, and most people don't know that Bros. is short for Brothers. So I've met a lot of people who think Mario's full name is Mario Bros. They even put an extra l at the end of Bros sometimes.
- Another Mario example, this time in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. While the title itself is pretty straightforward, it's easy to confuse the giant sword pictured in the title screen for the game's Big Bad, Smithy. The sword's name is actually Exor; Smithy is the guy who created it and sent it into Bowser's Keep.
Tales of Symphonia. 'Symphonia' is not the name of the combined worlds, nor is it the name of the tree. The tree's name is Yggdrasill. Although admittedly you don't learn the true names for the world or the tree until you play Tales of Phantasia.
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom calls the protagonist of Karas "Karas" rather than "Otoha" in-game.
- People call Yatterman-1 simply Yatterman. Yatterman is actually the name of the team, and Yatterman-1 and Yatterman-2 are the aliases.
The protagonist of Grim Fandango is named Manny Calavera, not "Grim Fandango". The title of the game is a metaphor for death that is used in one character's poetry.
A common mistake is to think that there is a character named Banjo-Kazooie in the Banjo-Kazooie games, but it is in fact a combination of names of the main characters, a bear named Banjo and his friend, a bird named Kazooie.
- Also Banjo-Tooie. Many thought there was a character added named Tooie, which there wasn't.
When Super Smash Brothers was in development, IGN reported that one of the hidden characters was Blue Falcon. They were, of course, referring to Captain Falcon of the F Zero series, who drives the Blue Falcon.
Similarly, in Twisted Metal, there is an ice-cream truck with a giant clown head atop it. This is Sweet Tooth. The driver of Sweet Tooth is a flaming-headed Monster Clown. His name is Needles Kane. The 989 games got this mixed up, calling both the car and its driver Sweet Tooth; once Incog Inc. (formed by former SingleTrac employees) got the rights back, they restored Needles Kane's proper name back to him.
- Not helped by the fact that TV ads for Twisted Metal III featured convicts spreading the news that Sweet Tooth got out of prison recently.
The house in the first two Splatterhouse games is called the West Mansion - not Splatterhouse.
It's Ace Attorney, NOT 'Phoenix Wright'.
- ...What? It's Phoenix Wright. The series is Ace Attorney.
  - The games are Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Phoenix Wright is the ace attorney in question, not a name of any sort.
  - This is the troper who said the first thing, and d'oh! I meant the series name. There's Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
This troper already met some people who thought the name of the male main character of the Tenchu series is Tenchu. Actually he is called Rikimaru - Tenchu just means "divine punishment" (the point of the game).
The instruction manual for the Sega Saturn port of The King of Fighters 95 refers to principal villain Rugal Bernstein as "Omega Rugal", even when describing him during the time frame of 94, when he wasn't Omega-fied. Consequently, there are fans who refer to even Rugal's ~~normal~~ slightly less SNK Boss style Rugal as "Omega Rugal", despite having absolutely no qualities of his 95 or 98 Boss version.
- There's also some fans who think the O. stands for Orochi.
- That one is semi-understandable since the power Rugal harnesses (And what consequently destroys him in the end) is called The Orochi Power. Of course, all THIS is moot considering that in 95 And 98 Ultimate Match, he has a honking great OMEGA in his lifebar.

Close Video Games

Spoofed in The Simpsons, when Homer tries to entice Mel Gibson to a certain course of action: "Would Braveheart run away? Would Payback run away??" In another episode, it is also mentioned that Homer writes fan letters not to the movie creators but the movies themselves: "Dear Die Hard. You rock. Especially when that guy was on the roof. P.S: Do you know Mad Max?"
- Another Simpsons episodes features an actor asking about playing Homer: "Is he supposed to have some kind of neural impairment, like Rain Man or Awakenings?" The sentence could be read as "...like [in] "Rain Man" or "Awakenings"?", but the voice actor's delivery of the line implies a deliberate invocation of this trope.
  - To be fair, though technically "rain man" is a very young boy's pronounciation of "Raymond", the name of the character that Dustin Hoffman played.
- Also, during a montage of watching movies on stolen cable, Bart says the following: "This is where Jaws eats the boat! This is where Die Hard jumps out the window! This is where Wall Street gets arrested!"
- "Jump, Free Willy! Jump! Jump with all your might!"
The main character of Static Shock uses the alias "Static". Even a villain, Shiv, once says, "Take that, Super Shocker, or... whatever-your-name-is!"
WITCH: To quote Irma, "We're not witches! It's just our initials!"
Van-pires was named for the villains.
- The same goes for The Inhumanoids.
A recent Family Guy episode also spoofed this; Peter is at a hospital and wonders if Scrubs works there, as he wants to meet him, and also Black Scrubs.
Originally, the Masters Of The Universe were the villains, but Filmation dropped this idea at the 11th hour.
- The 2002 remake did use the term "Masters" to refer to He-Man's allies, after a Title Drop in the Five Part Pilot where he praises them as "brave warriors; Masters of the Universe, all."
  - The concept implicit in the original toyline, and explicitly stated in the opening narration of live action movie, was that whoever controlled Castle Grayskull would have the power to become the literal masters of the universe (if they so desired, which the good guys who effectively were in control of it didn't, so they weren't. The Masters, that is.).
Scooby Doo: The original gang was never called "Mystery Inc." or "Mysteries, Inc.":
"All over the web, and now in the movies, you see references to the original gang as 'Mysteries, Inc.' or 'Mystery Inc.' (Including even the childhood gang), if they were already a formally organized detective agency. But the gang was never called this, in the original show. Remember, they were meddling kids; just average teens on typical outings, who stumbled across crimes and the ghost-getups used to cover them up. This is what they were all the way through 1979. Three years later, Scooby got a job working at the Fearless Detective agency, owned by Shaggy's uncle. A year later, Daphne was working as a reporter and returned to the gang, taking them along on her cases. Still 'meddling kids' with no organization of their own. It was not until 1984 when Scooby got his own crime solving business, the Scooby Doo Detective Agency. Scooby slowly worked his way up to the status of an official detective! (The childhood SDDA, was not an official organization, of course.) 'Mysteries Inc.' was originally the name of a cartoon block on the Cartoon Network. It had never even included Scooby! (Though he did appear in some of its promotionals). Scooby was too big to be apart of such a collection of cartoons shows. That one was for the copycat shows, like Jabberjaw, Hong Kong Phooey and the Chan Clan." — The Scooby Story
One episode of South Park, during a parody, mistakenly referred to Peter Griffin as "Family Guy".
An edition of The Weakest Link had Anne Robinson ask a contestant who voiced the train "Underground Ernie" in the CGI series. While the contestant got the right answer , "Underground Ernie" is the name of the human who runs the Underground, not one of the trains.
Animaniacs was the name of the show; it was never officially used as a collective name to refer to Yakko, Wakko and Dot.
- In the theme, they refer to themselves as "The Warner Brothers" and "The Warner Sister", a play on Warner Brothers Films.
This troper was surprised to learn that GI Joe is not the name of any one character, but the name of their organization. The subtitle "A Real American Hero" doesn't help much either, as it implies "A" and "Hero" as in "Singular" instead of "Heroes".
- And that's not at all helped by the fact that in the original 60s GI Joe toy line, he was just one guy. And in the 70s reboot, he was the leader of the GI Joe team.
  - Actually, there was a character called "G.I. Joe" in the Real American Hero continuity: General Joseph Colton, the "original G.I. Joe" who had been given that codename in the '60s when appointed by JFK to create what would later become the G.I. Joe team that we all know. However, he was a relatively minor character in the comics and didn't appear in the cartoon at all, so not many casual fans know about him.
The Rugrats babies committed this trope a lot; one particular instance that comes to mind is when they thought that "Hubert" was the name of the garbage truck, rather than the unseen man driving it.
This troper was surprised to learn that the surname of The Berenstein Bears isn't "Berenstein", as I had thought for decades, it's "Bear". "Berenstein" is the surname of the series' creators.
The heroes of Thunderbirds are International Rescue. The Thunderbirds are their five (eventually six) primary vehicles.

Close Western Animation

"Pink Floyd" is the name of the band (named after bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council), not the name of any of the members of the band. While this is probably not a common misconception, it is the basis for a clueless record executive in the Pink Floyd song "Have a Cigar" to ask, "Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?"
- Note that the central character in both the film and album The Wall goes by "Pink", possibly adding to the confusion. As well, the end of "Young Lust" has an exchange with a telephone operator trying to place a collect call "From Mr. Floyd to Mrs. Floyd", implying that the character's name actually is Pink Floyd.
  - It's also implied in the movie that his name is Floyd Pinkerton. Which contradicts the phone call, although it could be that Floyd Pinkerton took the stage name of Pink Floyd. The kids in his youth call him, "Pinky".
Jethro Tull often had the same problem. They took their name from the Englishman (1674-1741) who invented the seed drill.
- This was referenced in Armageddon, when Oscar Choi (played by Owen Wilson) says to a NASA psychologist (played by the legendary Udo Kier), "I tell you one thing that really drives me nuts, is people who think that Jethro Tull is just a person in the band." (To which the psychologist replied, "Who is Jethro Tull?")
- This troper, in a hideous reversal, was asked if she had ever heard of Jethro Tull. She asked "the seed drill guy?" and was granted a look of utmost confusion.
Similarly, Franz Ferdinand named themselves after the archduke whose assassination served as a catalyst for World War I. However, surprisingly few people make the assumption that it's a person rather than a band, perhaps because "Franz" sounds like an unlikely name for a Scot.
- Probably also because the war happens to be pretty well-known. Around the world.
Country band Sawyer Brown sometimes has this problem. They took their name from the road where they originally rehearsed.
- This troper remembers hearing once that they deliberately chose a name that could be taken as a person's name to get around country music's (since lost) aversion to bands.
Similarly, this troper thought Sleater-Kinney were the surnames of the two lead singers. Turns out it's also the name of a road (or the corner of two roads) near where they rehearsed.
Australian band Augie March is named after a Saul Bellow novel. The lead singer is named Glen Richards. Nobody in the band is named Augie March.
On the flip side, there are people who name themselves like bands, eg Iggy Pop, The Streets or Badly Drawn Boy, and people whose names just happen to sound kind of like band names, eg Chaka Khan or Ember Swift.
Similarly, My Brightest Diamond is a single musician, Shara Worden, as opposed to the group that the name might imply.
- Likewise with Iron & Wine.
- Also The Mountain Goats, which has no regular members other than John Darnielle.
  - John frequently parodied this at live shows coming on stage alone and introducing himself with "Hi, we're the Mountain Goats"
People often ask members of the band Hootie and the Blowfish "who's Hootie?" No-one's Hootie, and the band is The Blowfish. Lead singer Darius Rucker is, however, remembered primarily as "Hootie" by most people.
- The name, Hootie and the Blowfish, was actually taken from Darius's friends ("Hootie" has round eyes, while "Blowfish" would puff up his cheeks like a blowfish).
  - The moral of this story: Never name a band (even partially) after someone whose nickname sounds like it could be a collective noun.
- Likewise, in early interviews in North America, the UK band Catherine Wheel were asked "who's Catherine?" The band was named for the British term for a firework that spins rapidly when lit, which in turn is named for the torture device allegedly used to martyr Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
Possibly related is confusion over band names that are plural nouns without an article: "The Beatles", "The Rolling Stones" and "The Ramones" all have the in their names, but "Village People", "Arctic Monkeys", "Gorillaz", "Scorpions" and "10,000 Maniacs" do not. A borderline case is Eagles, who technically have no prefixing article but refer to themselves as 'The Eagles', as does everyone else.
- Which in turn may also be related to the widely used joke in which (usually) a clueless parent refers to kids "playing the Halo" or "listening to the rock'n'roll"; or standup Margaret Cho's routine about her mother asking if one of her male friends is "the gay".
  - Yahtzee Croshaw also occasionally refers to it as "The Gay," usually in terms of it being a disease he's afraid to catch, as he's such a strapping macho manly man.
  - To be fair, that's more a feature of mainland east-Asian culture than a misunderstanding.
  - Stephen Colbert is another manly man who refers to "the gay" in terms of a contagious disease.
- "Pixies" also lacks the definite article; there is no such band as "The Pixies." Even the documentary Loud Quiet Loud (subtitled, of course, "A Film About the Pixies") makes this mistake, despite following them around on tour for at least a year or so. This might have been intentional, to make sure people didn't think they were referring to any old group of fairies.
- Then there are examples where the group really does use both versions. The same group has released different albums under the band names "The Offspring" and "Offspring." Same goes for [The] Sex Pistols and [The] Red Hot Chili Peppers. Paul McCartney's post-Beatles group released some albums as "Paul McCartney and Wings" and some as just "Wings" even though the latter also included the former Beatle. (But never The Wings.)
- Although they're often referred to as Smashing Pumpkins, the actual name of the band is "The Smashing Pumpkins" - as in, a group of pumpkins that are smashing, not the physical act of destroying pumpkins.
- Venture Brothers makes a joke about this trope in the Christmas special, where Pete White mentions "The Bauhaus", referring to the band who are known only as Bauhaus.
Five For Fighting is one person. (It's a reference to hockey penalties.) Similarly, there are only three people in Ben Folds Five. (One of them, however, is actually Ben Folds.)
- When asked why they go by the name "Ben Folds Five" when there were only three members, Folds replied "Because Ben Folds Three sounds dumb."
- Ben Folds has since broken up with the five, and tours with two other musicians under the name of Ben Folds. This troper spoke with the other two guys after a show, and they were nice enough not to correct him when he called them part of the Ben Folds Five.
Billy Talent contains no person named William Talent. They're named after a character from the Canadian This is Spinal Tap homage Hard Core Logo.
In one episode of the American Whose Line is it Anyway?, Colin Mochrie (or Ryan Stiles, I forget which) referred to Kid Rock as a band. After Drew Carey pointed out that he's "just one guy", they spent the rest of the episode joking about the mix-up.
Originally Alice Cooper was just the name of the band. After the band broke up, lead singer Vincent Furnier changed his name, thus averting this trope afterward.
- Before the band broke up, they referenced this trope in the song "Be My Lover":
  She asked me why the singer's name was Alice, I said listen baby you really wouldn't understand
- Similarly, Meat Loaf was originally the name of a band fronted by the singer who eventually adopted it as his stage name.
- Alternatly, Marilyn Manson is the name of both a band and its infinitely more well known lead singer (and no, not one of the albums credited to "Marilyn Manson" is a solo effort by their singer).
Stand-up comedian (and occasional singer) Japer Carrott's act included a routine about his name being mistaken for a band's. "My agent got a call saying 'Do Jasper Carrott wanna play Scunthorpe Baths?' And of course, he's no fool. He said, 'Um... they might'."
DJ Sharpnel is a pair of Japanese speedcore artists, Jea and Lemmy.
- Aphex Twin is the of one man, Richard David James. However, according to The Other Wiki, the "twin" refers to his twin brother who died at birth.
Steely Dan is not a person—it's a band, and no one in it is named "Dan". The band is named for a sex toy in Naked Lunch.
Salt-N-Pepa consisted of Cheryl "Salt" James, Sandra "Pepa" Denton... and, um, Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper.
- Similarly, Run-DMC had three members, two of which were part of the groups name: Reverand Run, DMC, and Jam Master Jay.
  - And, tragically, Jay was the first to go.
"Cascada" refers to the German eurodance band, not the singer. The singer's name is Natalie Horler, and the rest of the band consists of producers Manuel Reuter ("DJ Manian") and Yann Piefer ("Yanou").
Even though the name Blondie was inspired by lead singer Deborah Harry's blonde hair, the name refers to the band as a whole and not to Harry specifically.
Strangely, many people think Roxette is the stage name of female performer Marie Fredriksson rather than the name of the band she is in. This is despite the fact that her partner Per Gessle sings lead on almost half the band's hits.
Country Joe and the Fish had a member named Joe, but was not named for him. Inevitably he became known as Country Joe McDonald and the other guy as The Fish.
- To this troper's knowledge, the band originally had multiple members, and was named after the Joe in the group, the remaining members being the Fish (same naming scheme as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). Things only got confusing when the band got down to two members.
One Hit Wonder Gerardo had to suffer the indignity of being called "Rico Suave" during his fifteen minutes of fame, which was the title of the song.
None of the members of The Marshall Tucker Band were named Marshall Tucker. They borrowed it from the owner of a warehouse where they rehearsed.
Only 2 of the original 6 members of The Allman Brothers Band were actual brothers named Allman, and after Duane Allman died in 1971 that left just 1.
None of The Statler Brothers were named Statler and just 2 of them were actually brothers.
Never mind that Jamiroquai is basically lead singer Jay Kay's show. It's the name of the band, not the guy in the fuzzy chapeau.
The musical group Eagles are not called The Eagles, and even (apparently much to the band's chagrin) their advertising department for Long Road Out Of Eden referred to them as "the Eagles" in promotional materials.
Nobody in the band Herman's Hermits was named Herman. The guy people usually refer to as Herman is actually lead singer Peter Noone.
When this troper was 13 years old, he referred to Fred Durst as "Limp".
- Most people still do. *ba-dum-tish!*
This troper once heard someone say "Which one is Led?"
Mark "his name is not Sugar Ray" McGrath. He once did a commercial in which people kept mistakenly calling him by his band's name. At least he has a sense of humor about it.
Most people thought that after making it big, former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry had dropped his first name. Uh, no. He's still Chris Daughtry; his band is Daughtry. Extremely confusing because we know that it is, in fact, named for the lead singer, the natural assumption is that he's a solo artist, which he apparently isn't.
The band The Thompson Twins were often assumed to be a duo, from the name, which could cause a problem when they were booked in a venue whose stage was too small for the trio they actually were. In fact the band's choice of name is itself an illustration of this trope. The name comes from two characters from the Tintin books, who shouldn't really be called "The Thompson Twins". Although they look almost identical, they have different last names, "Thompson" and "Thomson" (Dupont and Dupond in the original French), and they are never said to be related in the books.
Many people this troper has talked to are shocked to discover that Gnarls Barkley is a group (or rather, a duo), rather than the name of large African-American singer.
The Japanese band Angela has a name that is a common given name in many places, leading to people mistakenly believing that singer Atsuko Yamashita is named Angela.
When Procol Harum performed on a talk show, they were naturally asked which one was Procol.
Daniel Amos is not the name of anyone in the band, but rather two books of the Bible.
Even though most/all members of Eisley are related, their shared last name is Du Pree, not Eisley. The name is just a holdover from the band's former name, Moss Eisley, a barely disguised Star Wars reference.

Close Music

The name Peanuts was a great frustration to Charles M. Schulz, whose original title for the strip, Li'l Folks, had to be changed for copyright reasons (and not because it's a candidate for lamest title ever). This led many new readers over the years to assume that Peanuts was the main character's name. (Beyond this, Schulz simply didn't like the title, which had nothing to do with the comic; this is why the names of collections, TV specials, and so forth usually avoid "Peanuts" in favour of "Charlie Brown" or "Snoopy".)
- In fact, until recently the Sunday Peanuts strips added the subtitle "Featuring: Good Ol' Charlie Brown" to the title to avoid confusion.
  - The Brazilian version tries to justify: Charlie Brown is nicknamed "Minduim" (from amendoim, "Peanut").
- In Argentina, the strip was always known as "Snoopy".
  - In Spain too. Makes sense, I suppose.
- This troper boycotted Peanuts in junior high school when she found out all of her friends thought it was called "Snoopy." In retrospect, she has no idea what she was trying to prove (and if she lived in Argentina, it never would have happened, thus saving her angry rants and embarrassment).

Close Newspaper Comics

The titular character in The Merchant of Venice is Antonio, not the more well-known Shylock, or the protagonist Bassanio (who is a student). This is made explicit by the front cover of the 1600 quarto: The moſt excellent Hiſtorie of the Merchant of Venice. V Vith the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe towards the ſayd Merchant, in cutting a iuſt pound of his fleſh: and the obtayning of Portia by the choyſe of three cheſts.
The song "In the Hall of the Mountain King," the most famous piece in the incidental music Grieg wrote for the play Peer Gynt, is often simply called "Peer Gynt".
The extremely famous opening chorus "O Fortuna," from a certain cantata by Carl Orff, is often referred to as "Carmina Burana", ignoring the rest of the work.

Close Theater

Many companies are so heavily associated with some of their more famous products that they are actually confused with them. Numerous are those that refer to Apple Computer Inc. as "Macintosh".
- Another famous example is the Mercedes-Benz. The name of the company which manufactures it is Daimler. Naturally, they don't make Daimler cars, Jaguar does.
  - And just to clarify and since it's somewhat related at least, people named "Mercedes" are not named after the car, it's the other way around (named after the daughter of a wealthy Spanish benefactor to ensure his backing).
  - Not always true. This Troper knows a "Mercedes" who was, indeed, named specifically after the car.
  - It would be more accurate to say that the name predates the car - by at least seven hundred years.
- Many years ago the paint manufacturer Berger ran a campaign in the UK to try to raise awareness of its own name rather than that of its various paint brands. The campaign succeeded at least to the extent that this troper remembers it...
- ThisTroper had it reversed: as a youth, referring to an old Apple II as a Mac, because everyone knows Apple makes Macintosh-brand computers...
- Of further note are several companies which, while they did not originally share their names with their better-known brand names, have changed their names to avoid confusion. Convienience-store chain 7-Eleven's corporate presence was known as Southland Corporation until the early 2000s, and fast food chain Jack in the Box was incorporated under the name Foodmaker until 1999.
  - With 7-Eleven it's a bit more complicated. To make long story short, the company just went bankrupt and was bought out by its Japanese partner, Seven & I. Holdings.
  - In the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, a Burger King wanted to open up. As Lake Forest is a fairly wealthy suburb, Burger King approached the city under the name of the corporate owners. When the Burger King went up, the city protested as they didn't want a fast food place, but had already signed off on the restaraunt.
  - Here's a particularly fun one: Mars, the maker of the eponymous candy bar, changed their name to Masterfoods in 2001, to try to distance their non-candy brands from that of the well-known chocolate bar. Then five years later, they changed their name back to Mars because the new name wasn't as memorable.
- In several cases, a conglomerate has renamed itself for its most prominent acquisition: examples include CBS (repeatedly), Warner Communications (later Time-Warner), Westinghouse (in the end renamed itself to CBS), Wells Fargo, etc.
Sportscaster Sam Leitch once said of a victory by a Scottish football club named Raith Rovers that the fans would be dancing in the streets of Raith. Only problem is, Raith isn't a settlement.
- Lampshaded when TNS won the League of Wales and a sportscaster announced that fans would be dancing in the streets of TNS. TNS is Total Network Solutions, the name of the club's sponsor.
- The first stage-show based on Scottish football comedy series Only An Excuse featured two fans shouting abuse at the teams, including "Get back tae Raith!"
The ballpoint pen was invented by a man named Biro, which became the generic name for ANY brand of ballpoint pen in the UK.
- Idem for Bic ballpoints in Europe and Brazil.
Mr. Hoover's invention, the vacuum cleaner, with the added distinction of becoming both the generic name and the verb for what one does with them. Especially in the UK. America has DustBusters and Dirt Devils instead of Hoovers.
- No, we have Hoovers here in the U.S. too.
- Not to mention that every wet/dry or industrial strength vacuum is a "Shop-Vac".
Some companies go out of their way to make sure that this doesn't happen to their products; the results often aren't pretty, and usually don't work.
An honorable mention also goes to "Xerox machine" for all copiers (and Xerox copies for the slips of paper they spit out, and even xerox for the action of copying). "Coke" wins the title, though, becoming a term used to refer to any soft drink, and becoming short for Coca-Cola (at least, in certain parts of the U.S.) against the will of its makers, to the point that they finally trademarked "Coke" as well to be sure no other company would make a drink called Coke and steal their customers.
- Remember the last time you went into a restaurant and ordered a "Coke", only to have the waitstaff ask if a Pepsi is acceptable, or vice versa? That's because Coke and Pepsi send agents into restaurants to find out if companies are passing off their competitor's product as their own. They have to in order to protect their trade names.
  - Actually the waitstaff often do this because Coca-Cola and Pepsi don't taste the same. You only get yelled at by an irate customer once before you learn to ask, doubly so for the diet versions.
- Howard Johnson's got sued once when it sold HoJoCola to people who ordered Coca-Cola. And lost.
- Famously parodied by Saturday Night Live's Greek diner sketch where anyone asking for a Coke would be told, "No Coke, Pepsi", and the next week someone asking for a Pepsi would be told, "No Pepsi, Coke".
- Eastman Kodak's efforts to popularize its small, easy-to-use cameras had the unintended side effect, in the early part of the 20th century, of bringing the word "kodak" briefly into common usage as a synonym for "small camera" or even "snapshot": a character in Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here packs "a kodak album" in her luggage. Eventually the company had to resort to the slogan, "If it isn't an Eastman, it isn't a Kodak!" lest Kodak� go the way of Aspirin�, Cellophane�, and Heroin�.
In some countries, older people refer to all refrigerators as "Frigidaire", an early popular brand of fridges. Even in American media, you can hear people doing this in older series.
If you ask the lawyers, a "WalkMan" should not be called a "WalkMan" unless it's made by Sony, since they own the trademark. The generic term is "personal stereo" or "freestyler" or some such. Similarly, a "DiscMan" is any personal CD player.
- Similarly, all personal MP 3 players are "iPods". (Ironic, since Apple's preferred format is MPEG-4.)
Strictly speaking, Big Ben is the name of the bell that strikes the hour in the Great Clock at Westminster, rather than the clock itself or its clock tower.
In Puerto Rico, Belgium, and Russia, all diapers are called "pampers" because Pampers was the first widely available brand.
Similarly, in the Philippines, "Colgate" is an acceptable replacement for "toothpaste".
Unlike the Tony and Oscar awards, the Emmy award is not named after anyone. It is named after an object, the "Image Orthicon Tube," which was the key component in early TV cameras. The term was abbreviated to "immy" (why is lost to history — perhaps "image orthicon tube" was too unwieldy?) and the name somehow got attached to the award and mutated to "Emmy."
"Ping-Pong" is not the name of the sport, but rather the name of a company that designs equipment for said sport. Its "real" name is table tennis.
In Brazil, razor blades are "Gilette" and chewing gum is "Chiclets", among others. Some people call beer "Brahma", leading to a memorable phrase by "genius" sports executive Vicente Matheus: "I'd like to thank Antarctica for the Brahmas they sent us". (Some would say this is a Reverse Funny Aneurysm, since both breweries merged later.)
- For a minute, your example gave this troper the mental picture of beer being sent to Brazil from the continent Antarctica.
  - Worse, this troper got the mental picture of Hindu gods being sent from the continent Antarctica.
  - This troper got the picture of a brewery sending someone a shipment of sacred bulls, despite the mis-application of the term.
Even dinosaurs are subject to this trope — the dinosaur commonly known as Brontosaurus is, in fact, technically an Apatosaurus. The confusion stems from a paleontologist thinking he'd discovered different kinds of fossils when they were actually members of the same species; since the Apatosaurus discovery came first, that's the "official" name. However, "Brontosaurus" has arguably more name-recognition and appeal with the general public. As well, famous paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould prefers it, as he explains in Bully for Brontosaurus.
- To be fair, or perhaps add to the confusion, the next classificatory level up is Brontosaur - so Apatosaurus (genus name) is a type of Brontosaur (clade name).
The founder of "Wendy's" was Dave Thomas. "Wendy" refers to his daughter.
- Even worse, many people in Las Vegas firmly believe that Wendy's was named after Dave Thomas' NIECE. Specifically, his FAVORITE niece.
In the days before the Playstation became popular, the term "Nintendo" was commonly used by non-gamers to refer to any gaming machine. The term "Atari" before that.
- Years ago, this troper subverted a parental ban on "Nintendo"- by only playing Sega Genesis games over at his friend's house.
Genericized trademarks! (Or at least well-on-their-way to generic...icity...ness)
- Any tissue is a "Kleenex".
- Dumpster, as pointed out in an episode of The Simpsons, is a brand.
- Band-aids.
- Sticky tape is usually known by its trademarks, Scotch tape in most places but Sellotape in the UK and apparently Durex in Australia (which confusingly is the trademark of an entirely different product in the UK.)
  - "Durex" refers to that "different product" in America as well (though that particular product is usually referred to as "Trojans")
  - WE'RE TALKING ABOUT CONDOMS!
  - This Australian troper had never heard of 'Durex' until she read this. Her mother says this is because it's a brand of condoms in the UK so once people started travelling it died out.
  - In Venezuela, clear sticky tape is known either as "Teipe" (a corruption on "Tape", probable from the first product who came), or "Celoven" (after the most important local manufacturer of the product).
- Xerox, both as a noun and a verb.
- IEEE 1394 is commonly referred to the public as "FireWire", which is an Apple trademark. Sony calls it "i.LINK", but it is less common.
- Vaseline. This troper to her mother: "What the hell is petroleum jelly?"
The "Mormon Church" is officially The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Note the capital "The", the hyphen after "Latter", and the lowercase "day." The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is is a small offshoot sect. The largest offshoot sect used to be called The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but changed their name to Community of Christ in 2001. The Fundamentialist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is an offshoot that infamously practices polygamy (which the main church banned in 1890). The term Mormon comes from The Book of Mormon (Mormon was the book's putative compiler) and has never been part of the church's official name. The abbreviation LDS is common in Mormon circles. The Community of Christ used to call themselves the RLDS, and the Fundamentalists call themselves the FLDS. Needless to say, non-Mormons tend to be extremely confused by all this. This tropper had a RELIGIOUS Studies professor (incidentally a non-Mormon), a man who studies American religion for a living, constantly slip into "The Mormon ch-LDS".
In Venezuela, there is a kind of precooked maize flour specially developed to made arepas and other maize sub products, known informally as "harina pan" after "Harina P.A.N.", the trademarked name put in it for their developers and comercializators back then in the late fifties when it was first released. Eventually other companies learned the method, and released their own precooked maize flours; but despite numerous and expensive advertisement campaigns their products are also known as harina pan, to their despair. Isn't unusual to hear in the grocery store some old woman asking "gimme an harina pan Juana brand, please".
A Norwegian TV channel would consistently introduce any animated feature, regardless of origin, as a Disney movie.
Roller Blades are a specific brand of in-line skates.
The toilet was not invented by Thomas Crapper, but his company did stamp the name on a lot of them, which is where the name and confusion comes from.
Sushi is not raw fish. It is vinegared rice, which is often served with raw fish, but can also be served with cooked fish, vegetables, or eaten alone. The proper term for raw fish is sashimi.
Peter Funt of Candid Camera fame has said that as a child, he used to think the cameraman's name was Rollem, because that was what his father always shouted to the cameraman. ("Roll 'em!")

Close Real Life

Sluggy Freelance. Ten years on, and we still haven't found out what the title actually means, we just know it's not the name of any of the characters.
Subverted in Nintendo Super Squad, which attempts to read like a comic drawn by an idiotic thirteen-year-old boy. The comic is about to introduce "Metroid", who the characters all mention is a strong woman who looks great in a bikini, so we naturally assume that Metroid is Samus Aran, the hero of the Metroid games — but when Metroid arrives, she actually is a Metroid, the titular monster of the series.
- ...but played straight in Skin Horse, when Wholesome Crossdresser Tip is challenged to name one (other) trustworthy crossdresser.
El Goonish Shive is apparently its creator's old nickname and has no other connection to the story. They lampshade this in one strip, bringing in a hired goon for one panel to "put the goonish in El Goonish Shive".

Close Webcomics

Baseball teams in Japan identify themselves with their corporate sponsor, not their location. Thus, while the "Nippon Ham Fighters" are the Fighters sponsored by Nippon Ham, many outside of Japan think they are the Ham Fighters of Nippon. Presumably because the idea of pigs beating people up is humorous.
- "Ever heard of Kung Fu? Well, get ready for Pork Chop!"
A number of US professional sport teams have team names, which are incongruous with the location of the city. Since, many franchises often relocate from one city to another for a multitude of reasons, like failure to reach a new stadium deal, languishing revenue sales, waning interest, or for whatever reason the owner/management just wants to leave the host city. Best examples of this trope would point to pro teams, like the Utah Jazz (who moved from New Orleans in 1979), Los Angeles Lakers (who are originally from Minneapolis), Memphis Grizzlies (previously from Vancouver), and both New York City NFL franchises (Jets and Giants) are actually located in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Averted (though most likely coincidentally) - Other relocated franchises actually ends up in a city that compliments its team name, one example are the Houston Rockets (who were previously in San Diego as the Rockets), as Houston is home to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Close Pro Sports

lonelygirl15 is a semi-example; technically, lonelygirl15 is the main character (Bree Avery), since it's her screenname, but she is never called that in the series itself. Neither Sarah nor Emma should be referred to as lonelygirl15, however.
There is no character in KateModern who is actually called "KateModern". There is a character whose screenname is "MyKateModern", but that belongs to a minor character, Sophie. Kate's screenname is "AbstractHeart". The series name is a reference to the Tate Modern art gallery, and the fact that Kate is an artist. Note that the show itself is not entirely consistent on this, with a character at one point referring to her as "KateModern... whatever".

Close Web Original

The Ultra Dimensional Fighter Vic Viper from the Gradius series was once immortalized as a Yu-Gi-Oh! card. When the card was released in English, it ended up being called - you guessed it - "Gradius". (Apparently not even Konami, the company behind both franchises, knows the difference between the planet and the spacecraft defending it.)
- However, there is (at least in the video games, particularly "Yu-Gi-Oh GX: The Beginning of Destiny") also a 'Victory Viper' card, presumably a reference to the same aforementioned ship.
This troper's father called Transformers, Gobots, and all similar toys "the Voltrons."
When I moved home, Pickfords packed all my Gundam kits in a box which the labelled Transformers
In some places, such as South Korea, "Gundam" is so ingrained a word for Humongous Mecha that Sunrise is unable to get it copyrighted there.

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