When something's title becomes outdated, it may be renamed, but often the original name sticks because of familiarity or because it would be difficult to change. Sometimes, however, the creators deal with this by changing not the name, but the meaning of the name. This can happen in different ways, such as changing the meaning of an acronym, or using wordplay that conveniently fits the original name. If the title refers to someone or something ambiguous, it may be re-explained as actually referring to a different character or plot point. This can come as a result of a of Retcon.
May also be a case of Permanent Placeholder if the title/name was originally meant to be replaced but kept once a fitting reason to keep it came along. Can be considered a meta form of Renamed the Same.
Contrast Meaningful Rename.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- All the different continuities of Gundam feature a very powerful (line of) mobile suits called "Gundam", but what the name refers to varies, when it even has a specific meaning:
- In the original Universal Century continuity, "Gundam" doesn't have an exact meaning*, but it was part of a line of suits with a "Gun[X]" name formula, the others having the more descriptive names "Guntank" and "Guncannon". The name then took on a life of its own after the One Year War, gaining an almost religious meaning.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, their name refers to "Gundanium" the hyper-durable metal alloy they're uniquely constructed from. It's also a reference to the "Gundarium alloy" Gundams were made of in the UC, though there it was the alloy being (re)named after the suits.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, "GUNDAM" is an acronym for the suits' operating system, though there are many different version of what the letters stand for.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Gundam refers to mobile suits that utilize the "GN Drive," a reactor powered by protonic decay producing the GN particle as a byproduct that makes them outperform every other machine. Interestingly, the name was coined by the founder of Celestial Being centuries before it was even clear what kind of machine a Gundam would even be.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, every line of mobile suits use a distinctive inner frame. Gundam are 72 machines that use the "Gundam Frame" which is built with two Ahab Reactors's working in unison instead of the standard one. They were invented three centuries in the past as humanity's solution to a Robot War against the Mobile Armors (which in this continuity refers to genocidal AI-operated Robeasts).
- In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, "GUND-ARM" is derived from the "GUND Format" that links the suit to the pilot's nervous system with Gundam being a common nickname. An easy way to recognize a Gundam in this setting is the black "shell unit" that glows red Tron Lines when GUND Format is activated. They're also nearly the only suits that use wireless Attack Drones.
Comic Books
- Black Canarys superhero name took on a different meaning when the "Canary Cry" was introduced in the '60s.
- In Runaways, Nico Minoru's Staff of One was originally named because it could only cast any spell once. In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), it's revealed that the name actually comes from the fact that it's powered by an entity called The One. The same series also retconned the origin of the Gibborim's name; apparently, they're not really fallen angels (as the name implies) but three godlike beings who happen to be named Gib, Bo, and Rim.
- S.H.I.E.L.D. originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division; 30 years later, it became Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate; and, in the current and probably most famous incarnation, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division.
- Superman:
- What the "S" on Superman's chest originally meant changes from version to version. Originally, it was simply an "S" inside of a shield-like logo which obviously stood for the character's chosen codename. When his costume as a whole was later retconned to be derived from traditional Kryptonian fashion, the "S" was also retconned to be a family crest that belonged to the House of El. Later still, the family crest itself was revealed to mean "Hope" in the Kryptonian language, and that meaning has remained ever since.
- Brainiac's name was originally just a portmanteau of "brain" and "ENIAC" (the world's first electronic computer.) After the word became a slang term for genius, it was retconned to be a an abbreviation of Brain interactive construct.
Fan Works
- All For Luz: In the show, Augustus Porter is given the nickname "Gus" by Luz, due to knowing some one in her school who went by that name. Here in the story he's already called that, due to Augustus being "too wordy" in conversations.
- Medicated: In canon, Polly named Frobo after the robots in a game Anne was playing on her phone. Here, she originally named him "Frobro", but kept mispronouncing it.
Films — Live-Action
- In Alien Nation, Sam tells Sykes that he named his son Richard after Richard Nixon; Sykes tells Sam that in the future, he should tell people that he named him after Richard Burton.
- In the 2004 film adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate, "Manchurian" is used in reference to an in-universe corporation, rather than the region in China as in the original novel and film.
- In Star Trek (2009), Leonard McCoy gets his nickname "Bones" after joking that all his wife left him in the divorce were his bones. This is a change from the original TV series, in which it's an old Civil War nickname for a doctor (and McCoy is from Georgia). "Bones" from "sawbones" i.e. battlefield amputations.
Literature
- In the original tale of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty received her nickname because she's so beautiful. In Robin McKinley's Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast, when she first learned the meaning of her real name, Honour, as a child, she said she would rather be named Beauty, and from then on everyone called her that, even after she became a homely teenager.
- In Warrior Cats, the Clans were originally named for their personality/territory: per the books' official site at the time, RiverClan was named for the river they live by and swim in, WindClan was named for their windy moorland territory, ShadowClan for their shadowy marsh, and ThunderClan for the Thunderpath (road) that borders their territory. When they later came up with an origin story for the Clans, this was retconned so that the Clans were named after their founders instead (River Ripple, Wind Runner, Tall Shadow, Thunder, and Clear Sky.)
Live-Action TV
- The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have a nice understanding of this trope:
Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?
Grant Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
Maria Hill: And what does that mean to you?
Grant Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "shield". - Doctor Who: Throughout the Classic Series, UNIT stood for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, and they lived up to the name by providing security at a peace conference in "The Mind of Evil". However, when they were brought back for the Revival Series, a viral marketing campaign revolving around a website for the organization caught the attention of the actual United Nations, who accused the use of their name of violating the Geneva Convention and threatened legal action against the BBC. Consequently, the acronym was adjusted to instead mean Unified Intelligence Taskforce.
Video Games
- The Lufia series is named after a character who only appears in the first game, Lufia & The Fortress of Doom. Since this game was never released in PAL territories, the German translation of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals not only changed the game's name to simply Lufia but also renamed the Dual Blade to "Lufiaschwert" (Lufia Sword).
Web Animation
- In The Railway Series and Thomas & Friends canon, Skarloey the engine is named after the Skarloey Railway, which is named after the Skarloey Lake. But since engines come pre-named in The Stories of Sodor, the railway used to be called the Crovan's Gate Railway, but was later renamed the Skarloey Railway after the engine became famous.
Webcomics
- Done in-universe in Schlock Mercenary. Originally, the crew built a cargo-unloading robot dubbed LOTA, for "Longshoreman Of The Apocalypse
". After it gets control of a weapon that can fire an unstoppable plasma beam anywhere in the galazy, it gets renamed "Long-gunner Of The Apocalypse".
- Sluggy Freelance started out as a Word Salad Title (at least as far as the audience knew), but as the story has gone on more and more possible meanings for it have been revealed. And in fact, the current conflux of people and events with the name appears to be the result of a Long Game by Uncle Time.
Western Animation
- The original She-Ra: Princess of Power had a Shared Universe with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983). She-Ra and the Princesses of Power lacks apparent connection to any He-Man continuity, but She-Ra still transforms with the phrase "By the honor of Grayskull!", even though Castle Grayskull (the source of He-Man and She-Ra's power) apparently doesn't exist. One of the last episodes suggests an alternate meaning when a recording of a rebellion against First Ones lead by a previous She-Ra mentions a "Grayskull Squadron".
Real Life
- The restaurant chain Five Guys Burgers and Fries was founded by a couple with four sons, naming the restaurant "Five Guys" after both the children and their father. When a fifth son was born, the "Five Guys" now referred to the five children.
- King County in Washington State was originally named after former vice president William R. King, but in the 1980s was renamed after Martin Luther King. Partly because hardly anybody remembered William R. King, and partly because the people who did remember him remembered him for being a virulent racist and possibly being James Buchanan's secret lover.
- Oldsmobile had a car called the 4-4-2. The original model ('64-67 based on the F-85) got its name from its four barrel carburetor, four speed transmission, and dual exhaust. The name became an Artifact Title for the next three generations (the second debuted in '68 and the fourth ended in '84) before the '85-'87 model (based on the Cutlass Supreme) had the same qualifications as the original, justifying the use again. Then the sixth generation ('90-91 based on the Cutlass Calais) revived the name, having it refer to the car's four cylinder engine, four valves per cylinder, and two camshafts.
