Often used as a cheap and easy way to make a name into a pun. Just stick a Mc or Mac onto the front and everyone will know that it's a surname. Of course you can do this with any other common onomastic prefix or suffix: e.g., Paddy O'Adjective, Hassan Ibn Description, Baron Von Word, Verbal Verbson etc.
A common feature of Buffy Speak and Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head. Sometimes used in snarking.
Compare Awesome Mc Cool Name.
Examples:
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Comic Strips
- Knights of the Dinner Table: After Bob's character Knuckles has his leg chopped off, Dave starts referring to him as 'Stumpy McTwitcherson'.
Fan Works
- In The Bitter Hug of Mortality
Harry refers to Voldemort as "Nosy McNosison."
- In Black Diaries Bonnie refers to Cedric as "Hottie McHottie" during a gossip session.
- In Browncoat, Green Eyes Mal comments that Zoe must not have gotten the wake-up call from "Cheery McSmiles-a-lot."
- In Cinema Snob Reviews Frozen (a fan comic where The Cinema Snob reviews Frozen (2013)), Snob calls Hans "Prince Hunk McGeneric".
- In this Glee fanfic, Dave Karofsky calls Blaine "Eyebrows McHairgel".
- Hellsing Abridged has a joke early on when Alucard, in full troll mode, dares Integra to get that guy who can stop him, naming him "Michael McDoesn'tExist." This gets a glorious callback at the very end of the series, when Alucard, having gotten rid of all of his millions of souls except for Schrodinger, the quantum catboy who made him disappear for thirty years, states that he's everywhere, and yet nowhere, and Integra says, "Then welcome home, Michael McDoesn'tExist."
- In I'll die before I lose you again Jane comments that Darcy is a bit hyperbolic and Darcy replies: "The only person more hyperbolic than I is Hyperbole McHyper- oh I see what you mean."
- In In the Unlikeliest of Places Draco refers to his summer teacher as "Tutor McStinky-Breath."
- In Just Bearable Lyra refers to Voldemort as "Evil McEvil".
- In Like a Red-Headed Stepchild Harry refers to Lockhart as "Evil McEvilstein."
- In Lovegood, Boobs Gooder Harry refers to Draco as "Ferret McPoncy Van Death Gobbler".
- In Potter Harry and several of his friends call the animated snowman they built "Bally McSnow."
- In Searching For The Power Harry refers to Snape as "Greasy McBatterson".
- In Sympathetic Properties Hermione's father mentally refers to a goblin he encountered earlier as "Grumpypants Stealyourwallet".
- In Trickshot Harry refers to Snape as "Vampire McBlack."
- In A Witch, a Wizard and a Mechanic Kate comments that werewolf Remus Lupin's parents basically named him "Wolfy McWolf Face."
- In You Get What You Give Belladonna refers to Voldemort as "Voldy McMonologue."
Film — Live-Action
- Smokey McPot, Chester/Jesse's alias in Dude, Where's My Car?.
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu features a news reporter by the name of Cynthia McMaster, a surname created for the film as a nod to Cynthia's status as the Sinnoh League champion and her reputation as one of the most powerful Pokemon trainers in the world.
- The hot steamy man hunk that is McLovin of Superbad fame.
Jokes
- What's Irish and sits out in the rain? Patty O'Furniture! Back in the early 1980s, voted the worst joke on UseNet. Not to be confused with the Drag Queen by the same name.
Literature
- In Animorphs, Melissa Chapman has a cat named Fluffers McKitty, whom Rachel morphs to sneak around their house.
- There's a kids' book called Disgusting McGrossface about a creature called just that, who has gross habits.
Live-Action TV
- Blackadder "He's mad! He's mad. He's madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of this year's Mr Madman competition."
- Also from Blackadder, the man who cleans the toilets at Aberdeen station is referred to as Wee Jock "Poo Pong" McPlop.
- And "Stumpy" O'Leg McNoleg, whose record with running marathons is compared to Baldrick's record with successful cunning plans.
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow describes herself as "Finey McFine-fine" in one episode.
- From Castle: "So, Sweaty Von Sweats-a-lot, his alibi is holding."
- Daredevil: Before Foggy learns about the true reason behind why Matt has a burner phone, he assumes Matt bought it to secretly call one-night stands, like "Hottie McBurner Phone".
- The Gilmore Girls are fond of this. In one episode, Lorelai can't remember the name of a guy she describes as "short and fat." She asks her daughter, Rory, for his name. Rory responds, "Johnny McShort-and-Fat?"
- In an episode of Glee, Santana calls Artie "Stubbles McCripplepants."
- Grey's Anatomy: Oh yeah, about half the male cast, and the adjective is normally just another word for attractive.
- Later added to become a convention for naming anything. "She's got my McDreamy, she's got my McDog, she's got my McLife!"
- "McDreamy did the McNasty with a McHottie? That McBastard!"
- "Allow me to choke back some McVomit."
- Later added to become a convention for naming anything. "She's got my McDreamy, she's got my McDog, she's got my McLife!"
- Friends:
- Ross used to make up names like this for his students when he lectured and he eventually went out with Cutie McPretty.
- 'You don't want to end up known as Professor McNailshisstudents.'
- One episode of Malcolm in the Middle shows a newscast from Dewey's point of view, with the anchor saying only "Boring, boring, boring", and calling himself Boring McBoring.
- The Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode of Space Mutiny featured Big McLargeHuge, Thick McRunfast, Gristle McThornbody, and, for added Dutch flavor, Bolt VanderHuge.
- All of Tony's nicknames for McGee in NCIS. Usually followed by a noun, and varies depending on the circumstances (McGoogle, McGullible, McKilljoy, McBackstabber, etc).
- During an episode of Screenwipe, Charlie Brooker nicknamed an angry protester in some news footage 'Shouty McHeadwoundman'.
- CeCe from Shake it Up who wanted her stage name to be Crystal McHotness.
- Shasta McNasty.
- Whose Line Is It Anyway? (USA Version):
- As the lead anchor on a game of Weird Newscasters, Brad Sherwood names himself "Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs."
- Wet Biscuits McGlee!
- Rodney McKay on Stargate Atlantis does this with his fellow scientists. The one that comes immediately to mind is when he refers to Zelenka as "Fumbles McStupid."
- In an episode of Veronica Mars, Logan bemoans the possibility of being thrown into a jail cell with "Fisty McRapesalot".
Literature
- At one point in Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, the author irreverently refers to Robert Todd Lincoln as "Jinxy McDeath": Including his own father's death, he was coincidentally present or nearby for three presidential assassinations.
- A cassette/book combo called Papa's Rainbow that told of a young girl who went to the rainbow to learn about God's promises, which were revealed to her in song by the Water Colors, who all had names to go with their colors, although only one fits this trope: Splash O'Red. (In case you're curious, the others were Shinin' Yellow, Sparklin' Orange, Shimmerin' Blue, Glimmerin' Green, and Pure Purple.)
Radio
- The Stephanie Miller Show: Stephanie Miller loves this trope; John McCain => John McSame (as in same as George W. Bush who is Chimpy McFlightsuit).
- Her Wiki lists twelve examples of this trope as of this edit.
- Her Wiki
Theatre
- In All My Sons, Chris admiringly calls his father "Joe McGuts" for beating the rap for selling cracked cylinder heads to the military and becoming a respectable businessman again. (His admiration doesn't last.)
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: One of the Factio Pugni's goons is called Old McGee, a small-timer testing his might in street fighting tournaments.
- Acquiring the minimum amount of crafting ability in the Arkandian Legends series earns the title "Crappy McRuinsthings."
- Borderlands:
- In Borderlands, there is an achievement called "Speedy McSpeederton" for going around a racetrack in the game in less than 30 seconds.
- Borderlands 2 contains an NPC named Face McShooty, who gives you a quest to shoot him in the face.
- In Bookworm Adventures Lex calls Maladin "Mr. Tricky McTricksterman" after he tries to talk Lex out of taking the genie lamp.
- In Dell Seer: Dragon Dell accuses Mel of thievery when they first meet. "You MUST be evil! Just look at that face; it screams 'I'm Evil McEvilton!'"
- Dwarf Fortress: Doesn't apply in the game itself (in-game names follow the Luke Nounverber pattern), but the commonly-accepted generic dwarf name is Urist McMadLibs, where MadLibs is generally the dwarf's profession (Urist McMiner, Urist McLegendarySpeardwarf), or an insult based on whatever stupid thing the dwarf was doing and the player is complaining about (Urist McUselessNoble, Urist McOnFireButDoesntCare, Urist McIdiot).
- Fallout 4: If you choose the "Sarcastic" option when confronting Eddie Winter at the end of the quest "Long Time Coming," you adopt a silly Irish accent to introduce yourself as his old friend, "Marley McFuckyourself."
- In Letter Quest Remastered the achievement for swapping the available letter tiles forty times is called "Swappy McSwappington."
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, Franziska Von Karma calls Detective Gumshoe "Scruffy McTrenchcoat" after finding Phoenix in Juan Corrida's room.
- Sonic Colors: Thanks to the Wisps, Sonic quickly took up calling Eggman "Baldy McNosehair." (Though it's worth noting that the original translated Wisp name for the doctor was "Baldy Nosehair," Sonic just put a spin on it.)
Visual Novels
- Laws Of Attraction: One of the candidates to be hired at your firm is named Lucy McReady.
Web Comics
- 8-Bit Theater uses these way often. For example, Fighter referred to Red Mage as Talky McNoPlan (ironically, in the one time that Red Mage actually had a workable plan and was in the middle of explaining it).
- Fighter himself confirmed that his last name's McWarrior and Red Mage is in fact Statscowski.
- Black Mage Evilwizardington might count as well.
- Blindy O'Sightless, the greatest Zoologist in the order of red mages.
- The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: Dr., Sean, Dan and Mitzi McNinja. Dr. McLuchador also fits this trope.
- anti-HEROES: When an innkeeper asks for his name, Aldran, bribe in hand, introduces himself as "Goldy McShutyermouth".
- Ryan from Dumbing of Age liked to drug girls at parties. When a group of girls publicized this fact, he went after one of them with a knife. Ryan picked the wrong target, earning himself the nickname "Druggo McStabbed".
- The Homestuck Kids and Trolls enjoy this one. John has called Jade "miss knowitall mcpsychicpants", Rose "miss wordypants mcsmartybluh" and Vriska "marquise bossyfangs mcsekret"; Jade has called Dave "mister braveybrave mcheropants"; Dave has called Equius "tooly mcsnoothole", Vriska has called Kanaya "Miss Meddlesome McFussyfangs"... IT KEEPS HAPPENING.
- In Mac Hall, after Micah is dumped by his girlfriend Helen, one of the characters call him Sobby McEmopants.
- Never Mind the Gap has a young Lisa call Jim "Nerdy McNosington".
- In The Non-Adventures of Wonderella Wonderella once referred to Whitney Houston as "Snorty McCrackspoon."
- Belkar Bitterleaf (of The Order of the Stick) once refers to dwarven cleric Durkon as "Beardy McBeerstein".
- Questionable Content:
- Faye calls the pretentious, music-snob clerk at the record store "Nappy McTurtleneck."
- An earlier strip has Dora refer to Faye as "Indie McEmopants."
- Truly absurd example: In an out-of-continuity strip of Shortpacked!, David Willis informs the readers that due to the writers strike, his team of writers won't be avaliable. They are Abe Rosenberg, Israel Finkelstein, and Jacob McJewlastname.
- Sluggy Freelance has Riff and Torg occasionally adopt such unimaginative pseudonyms as Turg LeTurgturg and "The Ambassador from Castle Riffenstein".
- Aubrey of Something*Positive once referred sarcastically to Davan as "Honkey McRoundeye".
- In SwordCat Princess, James Barrington refers to the kilt-wearing Avalonian Guard Captain, Ribwort, as "Scotfaerie McFreeballer".
Web Original
- Allison Pregler likes to give characters in movies she's reviewing names like this. Sometimes they're one-off jokes, sometimes they're all she'll call the character, as for example "Lord Hammington" in Witchcraft 5
- In Atop the Fourth Wall's review of Uncanny X-Men #424, Linkara said that Chuck Austen "could not fail any more if [his] name was Faily McFailing Fail!"
- In Englishman, one of Hitler's subordinates is General Von Vurd, who only exists so the writers can do "Not von vurd!" puns.
- JonTron refers to Krystal as "Blueboobs McFurrydream" in his review of Star Fox Adventures.
- A Let's Play of the VR Troopers Fighting Game named the character of Ryan Steele "Pepsi McFulgore" because 1) his red-and-blue color scheme made him look like a Pepsi can, and 2) his Lightning Hand attack looked lifted from Fulgore from Killer Instinct.
- In an episode of Midnight Screenings, Dave calls a character in Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas "Cunty McMomface", much to his cohorts' amusement.
- Minilife TV has Chris and Ian's gay friend, Todd McFabulous, and his sister, Genevieve McFabulous.
- The character Nutty McShithead, created by Camp Chaos for the Napster Bad series of animations which satirized music industry and were a hit in early 2000s. Observe.
- Nash tends to refers to people in stories as 'Jackass McNutfuck', or some variation thereof.
- The Nostalgia Critic
- When comparing Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog with Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): "Now where is my other student, Fuckup McDumbass?"
- He also had his most annoying fan: Douchy McNitpick.
- In one Olde English Comedy short, one character makes a humorous insult and the other retorts with an unusual instance of this (probably parodying the trope): "Whatever you say, Dave McLetterman."
- In the RiffTrax commentary on Daredevil, when Elektra declines to give Matt Murdock her name, the riffers chime in, "My name's Frigid McTurndown." Then when she and Matt start fighting, they add, "Okay, I lied. The name's Stompy Von Asskick."
- Todd in the Shadows gave Chris Brown the nickname Captain McPunchesAGirl during his review of the artist's song I Can Transform Ya.
- In Wizard People, Dear Reader, Hägar the Horrible tells Harry that their secret should stay stay "between you, me, and little Paddy McGrossout here."
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series:
Yami: Yeah? Well...you're really small. Look at you down there! You're like... Smally McSmall. ...that's your name.
- Zero Punctuation
- In Yahtzee's review for the Darker and Edgier Bionic Commando, he demonstrates the full depth and scope of the title character by calling him Jocky McBigArm.
- And earlier in his review of The Witcher: "If disliking this sort of shit makes me stupid, then call me Retard McSpackypants."
Western Animation
- In an episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Mac is accused of leaving Bloo behind and called "Ditchy McAbandon-pants".
- Freakazoid! gives us Roddy McStew.
- The Beast With A Billion Backs, one of the Futurama movies, gave us this gem: "Chesty McNag-Nag," used by Bender in reference to Leela.
- Gerald Mc Boingboing (A cartoon character that could only talk in sound effects)
- Johnny Test has Speed McCool, an obvious parody/homage to every single action movie hero ever made.
- Andy on Mission Hill would say these frequently, like "Tasteless McMoron," "Horndog McWhakWhak," or "Raunchy McSmutbag."
- Candace of Phineas and Ferb once called her best friend Stacy "Doubty McNonBelief". Stacy's reaction to this is "Why am I suddenly Irish?"
- The Simpsons
- Homer tends to do this when making up names, like "Hooty McBoobs" or "the piano genius from the movie Shine: Shiny McShine"
- Tipsy McStagger's Goodtime Eating and Drinking Emporium and the Telephone Company mascot Phony McRingRing
- From Bob Kane and Al Brodax: Cool McCool.
Real Life
- This Very Wiki: Awesome McCoolname.
- Wrestler Michelle McCool, an anglicization of the Irish family name MacCumhaill.
- As of 2020, the Sun Prairie, Wisconsin fire department has an employee named Les McBurney.
- At a concert in Chicago, Paul Sabourin of Paul and Storm coined the nickname "Beardy McPortalface" for Jonathan Coulton. It seems to be slowly catching on.
- Because Reality Is Unrealistic, this was actually one way you might be named in the era before the Roman naming system caught on (which itself was really only an extension of the convention). This type of name was called a "byname", and the whole system was called the "mononymic" system (because you had only one permanent name). Romans were the ones that invented passing down names to descendants (like nearly everything else in the modern world). Some people wound up with literal Awesome McCoolnames and Unfortunate Names. One last tidbit: This format was one way that a Scotsman might name his son (daughters would be Name NcAdjective). The mononymic system is still used in Iceland (with patronymic [father-derived] bynames, like Snorri Sturlson), and hangs around Slavic names in the form of a patronymic middle name (like Boris Ivanovich Shimanskij).
- In March 2016, the British government put it to an Internet poll to name a new research vessel. The name that got the most votes? Boaty McBoatface.
- As a response to this story, a conductor on a train to London Waterloo used the electronic display to name his train Trainy McTrainface. The Swedish Stockholm-Gothenburg line later held a poll to name four new trains on the line, and duly named one of them Trainy McTrainface in accordance with the results.
- While the vessel itself didn't use that name (it's the RRS Sir David Attenborough), the name was given to one of its unmanned subs.
- At some point a few years ago, highway departments started getting the idea to have residents vote to name their maintenance vehicles (particularly snowplows). There are multiple U.S. states with a "Plowy McPlowFace" in proud service. (Scotland opted for "Nitty McGritty.")
- As a response to this story, a conductor on a train to London Waterloo used the electronic display to name his train Trainy McTrainface
