Odd Name, Normal Nickname

"Gus is the cat by the theatre door
His name, as I ought to have told you before
Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss
To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus."

— "Gus, the Theatre Cat" from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (and by extension Cats)

Alice has always assumed that her friend Bob is really named "Robert." Then one day she gets a look at his driver's license and discovers that his first name is actually... Beelzebob?

Basically, a character with an unusual name uses a more "normal" nickname. Generally this is because their actual name embarrasses them, though it could also just be hard for people to pronounce, reveal some secret about their identity, etc.

What counts as "odd" or "normal" is relative to the setting and type of story. It could be a Gender-Blender Name, like if a man named "Sally" wants to go by "Sal." It could be culturally specific, like an Indian-American named Krishna deciding to go by "Kris." Or it could be outright fantastic, like a disguised alien named Zaxblupon calling himself "Zack."

This can be Truth in Television for those with names from another culture their current location is less familiar with. This typically manifests in one of three ways; they shorten their name if possible, go by a different name or have said different name forced on them by others (the last of these is typically seen as extremely rude to the person, who tends not to appreciate the lack of effort in pronouncing their full name.)

Super-Trope to Some Call Me "Tim". Compare/contrast Aerith and Bob, Embarrassing First Name, Embarrassing Middle Name, Embarrassing Last Name and Embarrassing Nickname. May be subject to a Given Name Reveal, though possibly one that people won't believe. A Naturalized Name is a more formal and bureaucratic version for immigrants to a new country. Protagonists following this trope would be a Hero with a Unique Name. Could subvert An Alien Named "Bob".

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• One of the Class 3-E students in Assassination Classroom is named Justice, spelled with the kanji for "justice" but pronounced as the English word. He usually goes by Masayoshi, a name written with the same kanji, due to his embarrassment over the Gratuitous English name his police officer parents gave him.
• In the English dub of Inazuma Eleven, Samguk is called Sam for short.
• Servamp: One of The Mother's subclass vampires is named Ray, which is short for Rayscent.

Comic Books

• The Flash: Back in the Silver Age, Barry Allen's first name was "Barrence", though it has since been retconned to "Bartholomew."
• Harley Quinn's real name is Harleen Quinzel; "Harleen" is not a real name (although "Arleen" is, and is downright the name of Harley's first voice).
• Inverted in Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. For whatever reason, the title character prefers to go by "Nny" instead of his ordinary real name. At one point he meets a Loony Fan Jack the Ripoff named Jimmy, who goes by "Mmy" in tribute.
• In The Old Guard (as well as in the film), Andromache of Scythia goes by the nickname "Andy".
• According to Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), Molly Hayes' birth name was "Mollificent Hayes". She prefers to be called "Molly".
• In some versions of Shazam!, Beautia goes by "Tia". She quips that using her real name is just stating the obvious.
• Star Wars Adventures 19: "Roger Roger": A Separatist B1 battle droid gets hit in the head with a stray blaster bolt deflected by Obi-Wan's lightsaber. This gives it a conscience that determines Obi-Wan and Captain Rex are greatly outnumbered by "bullies" (its fellow droids) and spontaneously decides to side with the Republic warriors. Its designation is B1-0516, which Captain Rex declares "a bit of a mouthful, even for a battle droid", so Rex decides to call the droid Bats instead.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: In most continuities, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo are often called Leo, Donnie, and Mikey, respectively. Inverted with Raphael — while already not a very common name, "Raph" is hardly a real name at all.

Comic Strips

• Invoked in Garfield. When Jon and Liz first meet, he hits on her by telling her "Liz" is a beautiful name and asks if it's short for Elizabeth. Liz blankly tells him it's actually short for Lizard. Later strips make it clear she was just messing with him.

Fan Works

• Bait and Switch (STO): Depending on which Andorian language she's using at the time, the USS Bajor's first officer is known either as Tesjha Phohl or Siritesjha sh'Phohlhi. She usually goes by "Tess".
• In Bastard, Gilderoy Alien hates his first name and insists on being called the more normal-sounding Gil.
• Eleutherophobia has Bountiful Sunshine Park, better known as Bonnie. According to Tom, her parents were "whacky hippie atheists".
• Nuzlocke Comics: The Pokémon Black and White arc reveals that protagonist Ruby's name is Ruberto. When others question whether that is even a real name, he annoyedly tells them that they should go back to calling him "Ruby".
• Krusty the Clown's daughter in The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H. is named Livna, a Hebrew name that means "white". However, she's usually referred to with the nickname "Liv", which is traditionally short for Olivia.

Films — Animated

• The protagonist's love interest in The Aristocats is named Abraham De Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley, but it's shortened to just Thomas.
• In Disney's Hercules, an Anachronism Stew setting, Hercules's mentor Philoctetes and Love Interest Megara are often called simply "Phil" and "Meg", which sound like fairly normal English names.
• Puss in Boots: In the bonus short "The Three Diablos", one of the eponymous bandit kittens is named Sir Timeteo "Timmy" Comonterego III.
• In Turning Red, Chinese-Canadian protagonist Meilin Lee goes by "Mei", which sounds like the Anglophone name 'May'.

Films — Live-Action

• Cats & Dogs: When the Brody family adopts a beagle puppy, the unimpressed son, Scott, names the dog Loser. His mother later shortens this to Lou. Butch soon appears to recruit Lou into the secret canine organization meant to safeguard humans from wicked felines. When Butch asks what goofy name the humans gave him, Lou responds, "Lou." Expecting a Stock Animal Name, Butch is taken aback by this.
• Inverted in Cinderella (2015). Her given name in the film is Ella, but like in the other adaptations, her stepmother and step-sisters give her the mocking nickname "Cinderella" because her chores leave her covered in cinders.
• In Down Periscope, one of the submarine crew is called "Nitro" — full name "Michael K. Nitro", as mentioned in the script. When someone else tells him that's a cool nickname, he tells them it's his real name but he's been thinking of calling himself "Mike" as a nickname.
• The Gauntlet: Detective Shockley arrives at the Las Vegas jail to retrieve Gus Mally. Shockley is told, "There's no guy here by that name." He's then taken to a woman in lock-up named Augustina Mally.
• In Renfield (2023), gangster Teddy Lobo is actually named Tedward.
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Stormtroopers are revealed not to have formal names, but rather identification numbers assigned at birth. When one Stormtrooper, FN-2187, defects and joins the Resistance, Poe Dameron gives him the name "Finn". Finn likes his new name and goes by it for the rest of the trilogy.

Literature

• In the 1632 novels, Frank, Ron and Gerry Stone will never use their birth names of Faramir, Elrond and Gwaihir unless they absolutely have to.
• Air Awakens: Seems to be the case for men in the Charem family. Vhalla's friend Fritz is really called Fritznangle — which surprises Vhalla when prince Aldrik addresses him using his full name — while his father Orel is actually called Orelerienum.
• Animorphs:
  • Ax is not exactly a normal name, but far less conspicuous than his full name, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. He also goes by Phillip or No while appearing as a human.
  • While living on Earth in human disguise, Elfangor goes under the name Alan Fangor.
• The Baby-Sitters Club: Stacey's real name is Anastasia. She's ashamed of it and didn't tell anyone her real name for a long time.
• In Carrie, Carrie's full name is Carrietta. This is Adapted Out of every film version, probably due to this trope, and borders on being forgotten in the book itself, as she is Only Known By Her Nickname.
• In the The Cat Who... Series novels, protagonist Qwill's librarian girlfriend is Polly Duncan. Very few people know that Polly's father was such a Shakespeare devotee that all of his children were named after characters from the plays, and Polly's real first name is actually Hippolyta.
• The Caves of Steel: Jezebel Baley usually goes by "Jessie".
• In Croak, protagonist Lex and her twin sister Cordy have the full names Lexington and Concord.
• Judy's given name in Daddy-Long-Legs is Jerusha.
• In Deep Secret, Nick Mallory's full first name is revealed to be Nicothodes. Presumably it's a more common name in his home world.
• Discworld's Unseen Academicals: One of Unseen University's bledlows goes by Al. A fellow bledlow is surprised to learn it's short for Alphonse (a Quirmian name) rather than Alfred but goes no further due to Al obviously being sensitive about it.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Harry nicknames the Demon Chaunzaggoroth "Chauncy", which matches its incongruous Oxford accent. It also distracts him from the fact that Chauncy is still an unholy Faux Affably Evil monster, which nearly leads him to make a deadly misstep.
  • The Denarian Polonius Lartessa is nearly always just referred to as Tessa. Her husband Nicodemus Archleone is also sometimes shortened to Nick, though in his case, usually only by Dresden himself.
  • Harry's second daughter, Bonea, a spirit of intellect, is usually called "Bonnie".
• In Fire & Blood, the Targaryens are a Foreign Ruling Class whose names are derived from their native Valyria, in contrast to the rest of Westeros, who go with names that are or evoke familiar English. Princess Rhaenyra's elder two sons are named Jacaerys and Lucerys, but go by the more mundane/Westerosi-sounding Jace and Luke respectively.^note Jacaerys's father Laenor had originally wanted to name him the Westerosi Joffrey (Geoffrey/Jeffrey), but his grandfather vetoed it for a more traditional Valyrian name.
• Good Omens: "Pepper" isn't necessarily the most normal nickname out there, but compared to her real name, "Pippin Galadriel Moonchild", it's practically Jane Doe.
• The Great Gilly Hopkins: Gilly is a nickname for "Galadriel". She initially didn't like it but came around when she learned that Tolkien's Galadriel was a powerful queen.
• Harry Potter:
  • Nymphadora Tonks defaults to Last-Name Basis with most people, but her father calls her "Dora."
  • In the Distant Epilogue, Harry and Ginny's son is named Albus "Al" Potter.
• InCryptid: Antimony Price usually goes by Annie, though sometimes she uses Tim.
• Madeleine L'Engle's Kairos novels have Polly O'Keefe, who was given the name "Polyhymnia" by Canon Tallis. Her parents didn't let him pick names for their later children.
• In The Lighthouse Duet, Valen and his siblings were all named by their cartographer father, who had little imagination and thus just named them after geographical features, forcing them to come up with less embarrassing nicknames. Valen himself was born Magnus Valentia de Cartamandua-Celestine.
• Lord John And The Private Matter: Percy Wainright allows people to believe that Percy is short for Percival, but he eventually admits to Lord John that it's actually short for Perseverance.
  • Lord John's sister-in-law goes by Minnie. It's short for Minerva Cunnegunda Wattiswade Grey.
• The Lord of the Rings: Sam Gamgee and Merry Brandybuck seem to be the only Hobbits with human names, but their actual names are Samwise and Meriadoc.^note This is an in-universe Translation Convention. In the original Westron, Merry's full name is Kalimac, shortened to Kali (meaning "jolly"), and Sam's full name is Banazîr (meaning "halfwise, simple"), shortened to Ban.
• In the Malediction Trilogy, trolls have real names that are very long and complicated—and magically binding. Therefore, every troll uses a shortened version of their name on a daily basis; for example, Tristan is really called Trisanthysium and Anais is Anaistromeria.
• In the My Merlin Trilogy the main character is named Arriane (Morganne Brittany DuLac), but shortens it to "Ryan" instead.
• My Teacher Is an Alien includes one alien whose name is a throaty sound like "Uhrbhighgjououol-lee." A character hears this as "You're Big Julie," which is what the humans wind up calling him.
• Night World:
  • Mrs. Rasmussen is referred to as Maddy by her nephew Ash. While discussing names with Poppy, Ash states he prefers for lamia to keep to their old traditions of choosing names associated with nature (such as plants, animals, and gemstones) rather than choosing more 'human-sounding' names to fit in. When Poppy mentions that Maddy isn't an uncommon name, Ash states it's actually short for Madder (a type of plant).
  • Maggie befriends a witch she nicknames Cady, because her full name is a mouthful and Maggie couldn't make it out well due to Cady being seriously ill and slurring her words. It turns out that Maggie misheard her name as Arcadia when it's actually the similar-sounding Aradia.
• In Not-so-Little Princess, a sequel book to the Little Princess series where everybody's names are revealed, it's revealed that the Princess has an Overly Long Name and her first name is Rubella. They just decide to call her Rosie instead, since that's what her initials spell.
• The title character of October Daye goes by Toby. Her mother Amandine is sometimes called "Amy", mainly by her sister the Luidaeg. And then there's Antigone (the Luidaeg's real name), who's sometimes called "Annie".
• The Ordinary Princess: Princess Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne, due to an enchantment of being Ordinary, has it shortened to "Amy."
• Peril at End House: Nick's real name is Magdala. She explains that it is a family name. Her cousin Maggie's real name is also Magdala. Nick murders her in an attempt to claim an inheritance that should rightfully go to Maggie. Subverted in that "Nick" doesn't seem quite so normal once you know that she was originally "Young Nick" by analogy with her grandfather, who was known as "Old Nick".
• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: After a while, Princesses Gwenevrael and Cassandrella, are referred to by the more common Gwen and Cassie. Although, the other few noble presumed humans that've been seen have names like Maralise, and Dulcinea Dolorosa, the latter having a nickname of Dulcy. Presumably, nicknames aren't uncommon.
• Riordanverse: Several parents seem to default to this for their demigod children.
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: "Percy" is short for "Perseus." His mom wanted to name him after another demigod and picked one whose story had a mostly-happy ending.
  • The Sequel Series, The Heroes of Olympus, introduces us to Leonidas "Leo" Valdez.
  • Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, features a Muslim girl (turned Valkyrie) named Sam(ira).
• Rod Allbright Alien Adventures has the Plant Alien Phil, short for Philogenus esk Piemondum. The human-sounding nickname appears to be a coincidence since he had it before he visited Earth.
• Runemarks: Protagonist Maddy's real name is revealed to be Modi.
• In So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Arthur at first believes "Fenny" must be a nickname for some vaguely normal English girl's name like Fenella, but he is stymied when he tries to contact her at a local hospital, which informs him that they have no patients named Fenella. When he and the girl happen to meet again, he is surprised when she tells him she's really named Fenchurch.
• The Squire's Tales: The fourth book introduces Queen Conduiramour, who admits that her mother was "a bit of a loon sometimes." You can call her Connie.
• The Stormlight Archive:
  • Kaladin often went by Kal as a kid, since Kaladin sounded like a Lighteyes name, and thus somewhat pretentious.
  • Cryptic-spren are all given names that are mathematical equations or something similar. Shallan first refers to her spren as "Pattern", which Pattern himself misinterprets and believes that means every Cryptic-spren's nickname is Pattern, but instead they are given nicknames such as "Design" and "Testament", artistic names befitting the artistic Lightweavers to which they are bonded.
  • Adolin befriends a spren named Mayalarin, whom he promptly begins referring to as "Maya."
  • Kaladin's own spren "Sylphrena" gets shortened to "Syl".
• Team Human: Early on, Mel informs us that her name isn't short for "Melanie," and that her brother Lancelot should attest to her parents' poor naming skills. Cathy later calls her "Mellifluous" during a Full-Name Ultimatum
• Viridian Saga:
  • Protagonist Andi's first name is Andromeda. Fittingly enough, the book begins with her having a dream about her mythical namesake, as she's about to be killed by a monster but is saved by a handsome hero who's also the monster.
  • Her Indian-American best friend goes by "Vik" instead of "Vivek."
  • Somewhat related, "Riley" is derived from R'lyeh. It's not the character's real name, but a similar principle. His Uncle Neil and sister Chloe play this trope straight, however, as their real names are Nyarlathotep and Cthaeghya, respectively.
• Young Wizards has the white hole whose name begins "Khairelikoblepharehglukumeilichephreidosd'enagouni"; Kit nicknames him "Fred" based on the only part he managed to catch, "phreid". There's also the great white shark ed'Rastekeresket t'k Gh'shestaesteh, whose name gets shortened to Ed.

Live-Action TV

• Buffyverse:
  • Angel's name, though odd for a man, is short for "Angelus", which was his evil vampire identity.
  • Lorne's real name is "Krevlornswath". Truth be told, he doesn't really like the nickname either because combined with his skin, it makes people think of Lorne Greene.
  • Spike often refers to Drusilla as "Dru," which sounds like the more normal name "Drew."
  • Zigzagged with Anya. Originally, her name was Aud when she was a human before D'Hoffrin made her a vengeance demon and renamed her Anyanka, which she went by for hundreds of years. When she was Brought Down to Normal and became a human, she shortened the name to 'Anya'.
  • Inverted with Alexander "Xander" Harris, whose nickname is weirder than his real name. The oddness of his nickname is acknowledged when he gets struck with amnesia and, having only his driver's license to go by, takes the nickname "Alex".
• In the series finale of Boy Meets World, Mr. Feeny reveals Cory's real name: Cornelius.
  Mr. Feeny: So, Mr. Matthews...
  Cory: You think we've known each other long enough for you to call me Cory.
  Mr. Feeny: I think we've known each other long enough for me to call you "Cornelius."
  Cory: Shh! Mr. Feeny, come on! Not even Topanga knows that!
• Charles in Charge: Charles's best friend Buddy's full name is Buddence. His sister Bunny's full name is Bunnence.
• The Commish: Tony's third Chief of Detectives is named Cydavia Madison. She goes by "Cyd" (pronounced identically to "Sid.")
• Doctor Who:
  • Downplayed with Romana, already an uncommon name, whose real name is Romanadvoratrelundar.
  • Defied in "Voyage of the Damned", in which the Doctor comes across an alien named Bannakaffalatta. The name ends up being too unwieldy for the Doctor, so he suggests calling him "Banna" instead... which Bannakaffalatta instantly rejects.
    The Doctor: Well I'm so sorry about that, is there anything we can do?
• The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)'s characters take their name from the works of 19th-century writer Edgar Allan Poe, and thus some sound long, archaic and formal in the show's 21st-century America setting. As a result, some of them have more mundane nicknames — for example, Tamerlane "Tammy", Napoleon "Leo", and Prospero "Perry".
• The Good Place: In a throwaway line, the judge says her name is Gen. It's short for Hydrogen, the only other thing in the universe when she came into existence.
• In iCarly, Freddie's first name is "Fredward," which earns a confused reaction the first time that Carly hears it.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Fin's real name is Odafin. His son's name is Kwasi, but everyone calls him Ken.
• The Mandalorian: Cara turns out to be short for Carasynthia.
• One episode of Night Court introduces us to "Bull" Shannon's mother. She reveals that his real first name is Nostradamus. This is a name not really heard outside of the famous prognosticator whereas his nickname is a commonly used word for a male cow.
• An example pertaining to a last name in Psych: Burton Guster is called "Gus" by his friends. Guster itself is an incredibly rare last name, but Gus (which is normally short for Augustus) is a fairly normal name.
• In Rizzoli & Isles, Det. Frost's first name is Barry. However, all of his workmates are surprised when they discover that Barry is actually short for Barold (an old Irish name meaning 'spear').
• In Scrubs, Dr. Perry Cox's first name is revealed to be "Percival."
• Search Party: Dory's real name is the much less common Adoria.
• Star Trek:
  • Q is a Trickster Mentor member of a race of reality-warping energy beings known as the Q Continuum. The crew of the Enterprise call him Q out of convenience. His individual name is apparently so long that it's wider than the width of the galaxy when written out.
  • Recurring villain Harcourt Fenton Mudd goes by Harry.
  • Star Trek: Voyager: Apparently, when B'Elanna Torres (a Half-Human Hybrid with an alien first name) was a child, she was nicknamed Lana.
• In Stranger Things, Eleven was raised in a secret government facility and never given a real name. When she escapes, her new friends shorten it to "El."
• In Three's Company, Chrissy Snow's first name is Christmas. Jack had thought is was Christine.

Theatre

• Cats has Gus the Theatre Cat. His real name is Asparagus, but other cats have a difficult enough time pronouncing it that they usually just call him Gus.

Video Games

• Arknights has an operator name Ceobe whose nickname is Kay, since her name might be hard to pronounce.
• Deltarune: The Arc Villain of Chapter 2 is Q5U4EX7YY2E9N, a.k.a. Queen. Susie initially attempts to reject calling her by the latter name but gives in almost immediately upon realizing how clunky Queen's real name is.
• In Fate/Extella Link, Charlemagne asks that Hakuno refer to him as "Charles", "Charlie", or even "Chuck", saying that as a "newbie Servant", such a kingly name doesn't fit him despite being one of the most famous historical figures in European history. This is the first bit of foreshadowing that Charlie is not the historical Charlemagne but the fantastical version of him written after the historical Karl's death.
• Fate/Grand Order: One of the Crypters is named Scandinavia Peperoncino and many of his acquaintances prefer to call him "Pepe". Though it's very obvious that Pepe's name is an alias and he wants to distance himself from his real name.
• Everyone in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, save for the protagonist if the player invokes Aerith and Bob when they name them, has a name that isn't normally used as a "conventional" name. However, some of them go by nicknames that sound like "traditional" names such as "Cal" for Recalcitrance, "Anne" for Antecedent, and "Tammy" for Aspartame.
• Kingdom Hearts: Squall Leonhart, having matured since the events of Final Fantasy VIII, now goes by Leon.
• The protagonist of the Metal Slug series is named Marco Rossi, which is short for Marchrius.
• Moshi Monsters: One Moshling is named I'm Gonna Get You, but usually goes by his initials, IGGY.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Sith Inquisitor companion Andronikos Revel is addressed by a couple of old acquaintances (his ex-girlfriend Casey Rix and his mutinous former first mate Sylas Wilkes) as "Nicky".
• Super Mario RPG: Geno's true name is a string of symbols (a heart, a music note, an exclamation point, and a question mark) that is unpronounceable outside of the Star Road. He assumed the name of the doll he possessed.
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of the Abyss: Guy, best friend of the main character, and siblings Tear and Van's full names are Gailardia, Mystearica, and Vandesdelca, respectively. Coincidentally, they all come from the same birthplace of the long destroyed Hod.
  • Tales of Berseria: When Magilou makes her first appearance to Velvet, she introduces herself with her full name, Mazhigigika Miludin do Din Nolurun Do, but insists she calls her as just Magilou as she figured it would've been too difficult to pronounce. However, it's later revealed that Magilou's actual name is Magillanica Lou Mayvin, and she was a former top-ranked exorcist under Melchior's wing before he discarded her.
• Them's Fightin' Herds: One of the main characters has a demon assistant with The Unpronounceable name FHTNG TH§ ¿NSP§KBL?. For simplicity's sake, she just prefers to call him "Fred".
• The World Ends with You: Daisukenojo Bito is deeply embarrassed by his own name, and a conversation implies that Neku himself thinks that it does sound a little unusual. As a result, the former introduces himself as "Beat", which correlates to his partner's name, Rhyme.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Phoenix Wright's closest friends, like Maya and Larry, refer to him by the more normal-sounding "Nick."
  • Apollo Justice's name is shortened to "Polly" by his closest companion Trucy.
  • The Great Ace Attorney has the foreign-name variation: the Japanese characters Ryunosuke Naruhodo and Susato Mikotoba are nicknamed "Runo" and "Susie" by their English friend Iris Wilson. Iris also uses the nickname "Hurley" for her partner Herlock Sholmes.
• In Fate/hollow ataraxia, Gilgamesh's child self is given the nickname "Kid Gil" (Ko-Gil).

Web Animation

• Epithet Erased: In the Two-loween special, Molly Blyndeff reveals that her and her sister Lorelei's real names are actually Molly-Wolly-Doodle-All-The-Day and Lorelinebacker. Apparently their mother picked out their nicknames first and their Manchild father chose their full names based on that.

Webcomics

• Grrl Power: While Xuriel goes by Dabbler, neither of which are quite normal by Earth or nickname standards, she has a half-sister called Paraphael, who goes by Parfait. By her own admission she thinks her actual name makes her sound like an old lady.
• Gunnerkrigg Court: Being a literal element on the periodic table, Antimony is not at all a common name. The comic's protagonist, Antimony Carver, often goes by "Annie".
• Ozy and Millie: Ozymandias Justin Llewellyn is one of two main child characters, the other being Millicent Mehitabel Mudd. Ozymandias is called Ozy almost always, mainly because in the first strip, a girl tries to make a cutesy-pie rhyme with Ozymandias, but fails badly.
• Paranatural: Jeff's name is actually Jeffavorite. His full name is Jeffavorite Flavors, so it's no wonder he only goes by Jeff.
• The Petri Dish:
  • Thaddeus's Cyborg is named Brains On Board but prefers to go by his initials, Bob.
  • Bob's girlfriend is another cyborg named Intelligence Relays Enhanced with Neural Encoding, but she likewise prefers the acronym Irene.
• Questionable Content: Evanescent Incinerator usually goes by "Evan".
• Transcendent: Sid's real name is Obsidian.

Web Original

• In Brig Scarlet Flamingo, everyone on First-Name Basis with Alethea Frankson calls her Letty.
• There's a meme on Tumblr and other websites to come up with odd names for normal nicknames, like Jim and Jimothy, or even words that aren't usually names, like Rat and Ratthew.

Web Video

• One short Kurtis Conner video has a kid named Evan thank his dad for giving him a normal name instead of something like "Stormy." However, the dad knows "Evan" is short for "Evanescence."

Western Animation

• Adventure Time:
  • Marceline the Vampire Queen is often called "Marcy" by Finn and Jake.
  • Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum is sometimes called "Bonnie" by close friends.
• In some episodes of American Dad!, Stan's name is said to be short for Staniel, while other episodes have his name as the more normal Stanley or Stanford. In the former, this is entirely Roger invoking the trope, as he once called Francine "Franiel".
• Big Mouth:
  • Connie's sister is named Bonnie, but her full first name is "Bonrad."
  • Season 5 reveals that Jay's name is short for "Jayzarian." His full name is "Jayzarian Ricflairian Bilzarian."
• In Dave the Barbarian, the title character's talking sword Lula once got a visit from her sister Molly, who turns out to be Thor's magic hammer, Mjolnir.
• The Dragon Prince has an Earthblood elf named Terrestrius whose name is often shortened to "Terry".
• DuckTales (2017): While Huey's real name of Hubert is somewhat common, Dewey and Louie's — Dewford and Llewellyn — are not.
• Elena of Avalor: Flo's name is derived from "(parade) float", which she mistook as her real name, so she goes by the shortened Flo because it's more fun.
• Family Guy:
  • A Cutaway Gag reveals that Meg is short for Megatron and not Megan. (You can thank Peter for that.)
  • "The Heartbreak Dog" reveals that Bonnie's name is short for "Bonald".
• The Futurama episode "A Bicyclops Built for Two" features an alien named Alcazar who goes by Al in order to set up an homage to Al Bundy from Married... with Children.
• In Gargoyles, team Smart Guy Lexington usually has his name shortened to "Lex" by his brothers, Elisa, and pretty much everyone else. The more formal Goliath and Hudson are pretty much the only characters to use his full name.
• In King of the Hill, Kahn wanted a son so badly that he named his daughter Kahn Jr. She goes by "Connie."
• My Life as a Teenage Robot:
  • The eponymous robot, XJ9, calls herself Jenny to try and be more like a normal teenage girl.
  • "Love 'Em or Leash 'Em" has a male teenage robot named Kenny, created as a cheap knockoff of Jenny. His real name is YK9, which in addition to being XJ9 with each letter shifted up by one, alludes to him being part dog.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Pinkie Pie has a sister named Maudalina, who prefers to be called Maud. Pinkie's own nickname is also more normal compared to her given name, Pinkamena.
• Quack Pack: Dewey's full name is Deuteronomy, in stark contrast to his siblings Huey (Hubert) and Louie (Louis).
• In The Simpsons, Ned Flanders' full first name is revealed to be "Nedward" in "I'm Going to Praiseland."
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: The full names of Brad Boimler, Sam Rutherford, and chief engineer Andy Billups are "Bradward", "Samanthan," and "Andarithio", respectively.
• Steven Universe:
  • The protagonist's Missing Mom was known as Rose Quartz, but often just went by "Rose" for short. This fits the Crystal Gems' Theme Naming where each one is named after a gemstone but also functions as a normal name. This is further enforced after "A Single Pink Rose," which establishes her real name is the more obviously alien Pink Diamond.
  • When Steven accidentally takes over Lars' body in "The New Lars", he learns that his real name is "Laramie." Only Lars' parents have ever called him Laramie, and Steven didn't even know that was his real name.
  • Parodied in "Hit the Diamond", when Steven gives the Crystal Gems "human" names to keep the Ruby Squadron from knowing they're the fugitives they're looking for. While Amethyst and Sapphire are called "Amy" and "Sophie", Pearl is called "Earl" and Lapis is called "Bob".
• Teenage Euthanasia: The character Euthanasia goes by the name "Annie".
• Teen Titans (2003): Robin's Bat-Mite counterpart is named Nosyarg Kcid ("Dick Grayson" spelled backwards). Beast Boy offers to just call him Larry, which he takes a liking to.
• Total DramaRama: "Trousering Inferno" reveals that Izzy's real name is the more obscure "Laurencia."

Real Life

• Former United States President Barack Obama went by "Barry" growing up rather than his more unusual given first name.

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