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Overly-Long Name
"Salacia Deloresista Amanita Trigestatra Zeldana Malifee..." He paused, turned over several pages, and said, "I think we can skip some of these, but they end 'von Humpeding'."
Thud!

Aka: Incredibly Long Name to Have to Try and Say.

In the broadest sense, whenever a character has more than the usual (in the Anglosphere) first, middle, and last name, they are in possession of an Overly-Long Name. Also included are people who have the right number of names, but one or more of them is absurdly long, for example Ulla Inga Hansen-Bensen-Janson-Tallen-Hallen-Svaden-Swanson in the remake of The Producers. (This is actually just her first name. They "don't have the time" to hear her last name.)

Can be used simply as a humor device, getting cheap laughs out of an absurd name; played to the extreme this would be a type of Overly Long Gag, being so long as to be tedious and thus deriving its humor; or it can be a non-joke to the audience because characters with strange names are expected in the type of show/book/planet/whatever, but cause the characters involved trouble as they try not to react to, or at least comment on, the oddity of the person's name.

If the character is not from around here, it might be an example of As Long as It Sounds Foreign. If there is one normal name when all the others are are ridiculous, or vice versa, it can be Aerith and Bob. In all cases, one of these makes for a good Unpronounceable Alias.

Truth in Television: There are too many actual people, places and things with absurdly long names - it's really better if you just go to the other wiki, where there is a whole article dedicated to this. Doesn't that just simplify everything?

Compare Embarrassing Middle Name, Overly Long Gag, Some Call Me Tim, The Unpronounceable, Sesquipedalian Smith, and Try to Fit That on a Business Card. Often results in Fun with Acronyms.

Related to Long Title. A Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom will almost always be overly long.

Example subpages


    open/close all folders 

    Attractions 
  • In the latest Disney attraction, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, there is a droid in the queue named G2-4T, but he introduces himself as a droid with a much longer name, and he says that that's the short version of his name.

    Newspaper Comics 
  • Dilbert. Most notably Elbonians.
    Elbonian: Hello, how may I help you? My name is Kruphnehdahpheweundikaniswalyniaphorganopop... I mean, Carl.
  • In Garfield, there is a character in a TV show called Gouda May Freegenweegenswallodribbenfraxenlaxenismabittle.
    • Garfield himself lengthened his own name in one strip, resulting in Garfield Horatio III, Esq.
      Jon: Embellished our name, did we?
      Garfield: (pointing at his resized food dish) Fill 'er up!
  • In the Popeye comics, Swee'pea's real name is actually Scooner Seawell Georgia Washenting Christiffer Columbia Daniel Boom. "Swee'pea" is merely a term of endearment.

    Radio 
  • The Dickens spoof Bleak Expectations featured a lawyer whose full name took 20 minutes to say. He charged by the hour, so "his name was his greatest asset". The show would either fade out as he was saying his name, or he would be interrupted. His name began with Wyckham-Post-Forburton-...
  • A song, possibly known as 'The Baby's Name', has which the chorus is: "The Baby's name is Kitchener-Carrington-Methuen-Kekewich-White-Cronje-Plumer-Powell-Majuba-Gatacre-Warren-Colenso-Kruger-Cape Town-Mafeking-French-Kimberley-Ladysmith-Bobs-The Union Jack-Fighting Mac-Lyddite-Pretoria-Blogs" or something to that effect.
  • Doug Berman, the producer of Car Talk, is referred to in the credits with an overly long succession of Embarrassing Nicknames. The longest version is "Doug 'the Subway Fugitive' 'Not-a-Slave-to-Fashion' 'Bongo Boy' 'Frog-Man' 'Punkin Lips' 'Cute-Cute-Cute' Berman".

    Visual Novels 
  • Ever17 gives you 'Tanaka Yuubiseiharukana' and Tanaka Yuubiseiakikana in The Kid's route's.
    • In Takeshi's route, when trying to think of a nickname for the Kid, Coco suggests "Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Hora Juan Novecino Marie de Los Remedios Siburiano de la Santessima Trinidado Luis Picasso". The Kid decides to just stick with "the Kid". (The scary thing is, this is based on the full name of Pablo Picasso, which in Real Life was even longer).
  • In Lucky Dog 1, the protagonist is known as Giancarlo Bourbon del Monte. Since his full name is obviously quite a mouthful, he is more commonly known as Gian.
  • Little Busters: Kud's Russian name is Kudryavka Anatolyevna Strugatskaya.

One Letter NameNaming ConventionsPatronymic
Overly Long GagAdverbly Adjective NounOverly-Long Scream
PokémonKids' WB!Max Steel
Overly Long GagComedy TropesOverly-Long Scream
Overly Long GagSelf-Demonstrating ArticleOverused Running Gag

alternative title(s): Long Name
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