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Portmantitle
When people who need a title for a show that sounds original, but still somewhat familiar, they often take two (or more) common words and either:
- A: Make a portmanteau of them or
- B: Just remove the space between them. This is particularly popular in music.
Type A Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Digimon ("Digital Monsters")
- Pokémon ("Pocket Monsters")
- Axis Powers Hetalia - "Hetalia" is a portmanteau of the Japanese words for "hopeless" (hetare) and "Italy" (Italia).
- Bakemonogatari: "Bakemono (ghost)" + "monogatari (story)". "Ghostory", if you will.
- Maoyuu Maou Yuusha: the Maoyuu means exactly Maou (Demon King) + Yuusha (Hero).
- Nyanpire: "Nyan" (meow) + "vampire"
- Aikatsu: "Idol" + "katsudou" (activities)
- Precure: Pretty + Cure
Films — Animation
- ParaNorman: "Paranormal" + "Norman"
Films — Live Action
- Amsterdamned: "Amsterdam" + "Damned"
- Blackenstein: The Black Frankenstein
- Blacula: "Black" + "Dracula"
- Frenemies: "Friends" + "Enemies"
- Piranhaconda: "Piranha" + "Anaconda"
- Poultrygeist: "Poultry" + "Poltergeist".
- Sharknado: "Shark" + "Tornado"
- Sharktopus: "Shark" + "Octopus"
Literature
- Newspeak in 1984 is not only a Portmantitle itself, but is made up of portmanteau words like "Ingsoc" and "plusgood".
- The titles in the Cal Leandros series.
- The first book of The Dresden Files, Storm Front, was almost called Semiautomagic.
- Animorphs as Animal-Morphers.
- Freakonomics - pointing out unexpected (~= 'freaky' or "freak event") causes in the field of "economics"
Live Action TV
- Super Sentai shows have used Portmantitles from time to time, with a few of them throwing in extra double meanings:
- Kagaku Sentai Dynaman: "dynamite" + "man"
- Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger was supposed to be a combination of jū ("beast"), "Jurassic" and "ranger"note , but because of the way the word jū was transliterated (as zyu), the play on words is lost.
- Ninja Sentai Kakuranger: kakure ("hidden") + "ranger"
- Chouriki Sentai Ohranger: Oh (either, Japanese for "king" or an acronym for "overtech hardware") + "olé" (which becomes ohre in Japanese) + "ranger"
- Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: "hurricane" + "ranger"note
- Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger: abare ("rampage") + "ranger"
- Mahou Sentai Magiranger: "magic" + "ranger"
- GoGo Sentai Boukenger: bōkensha ("adventurer") + "ranger"
- Engine Sentai Go-onger: go ("five") + gō-on ("roar") + "ranger"
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: shinken ("true sword" or "earnest", depending on kanji) + "ranger"
- Tensou Sentai Goseiger: goseija ("planet guardian") + "ranger"
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: gōkai ("daring") + "ranger"
- Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: kyōryū ("dinosaur") + "ranger"
- Kikaider: kikai ("machine") + "rider"
- Metal Heroes has also done this a couple of times:
- Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion: "justice" + "champion"
- Choujinki Metalder: "metal" + "rider" (a homage to Kikaider)
- Tokusou Robo Janperson: was supposed to be "jumper" + "person" (i.e., Jumperson), but it got misspelled in the show itself.
- Manimal: "man" + "animal"
- The fans of Supernatural have referenced one of Dean's favorite bands to create the name for his beloved 1967 Chevy Impala: the Metallicar.
Music
- Chiodos' third album, Illuminaudio (illumination + audio - not to be confused for anything to do with the Illuminati).
- The Mars Volta's album Amputechture is a portmanteau of "amputation", "technology" and "architecture".
- WASP album Helldorado (Hell + El Dorado).
- Also the song "Revengeance" (revenge + vengeance) on Dying for the World.
- Michael Jackson compilation HIStory (his story + history).
- Overkill albums Horrorscope (horror + horoscope), Coverkill (cover + overkill) and ReliXIV (relics + XIV).
- Also the song "Soulitue" (soul + solitude).
- U.D.O. album Mastercutor (master + executor).
- The band Helloween (Hell + Halloween).
- Megadeth album Youthanasia (youth + euthanasia).
- Heaven's Gate album Menergy (me + energy).
- Ozzy Osbourne album Ozzmosis (Ozzy + osmosis).
- Torche album Meanderthal (Meander + Neanderthal)
- Savatage formed their name by compining their previous name Avatar with the word savage.
- Used partly in the title of King's-Evil album Deletion of Humanoise (human + noise).
- Lordi's third album The Arockalypse (apocalypse + rock).
- Sepultura EP Revolusongs (revolution + songs).
- Skindred (skin + kindred).
- "Weird Al" Yankovic's Alpocalypse (Al + apocalypse)
- Digitalism
- Fornucopia, a fictional album from Garth Brooks' In The Life Of Chris Gaines, which is a portmanteau of "fornication" and "cornucopia".
- Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication (California + fornication)
- Delirious?'s Mezzamorphis mashed up two song titles from that very album: "Mezzanine Floor" and "Metamorphis".
New Media
- Most Wikis have names like this.
- Foodista
- A good portion of them are either "something + Encyclopedia."
- Wikipedia
- Bulbapedia - Bulbasaur + Encyclopedia
- Wookieepedia - Wookiee + Encyclopedia
- Uncyclopedia - Un + Encyclopedia
- Conservapedia - Conservative + Encyclopedia.
- ...And then there are the Wiki + Something"s.
- Wikipedia and all of its sister Wikimedia sites
- WikiLeaks
- Fullyramblomatic.com
- Parodied by LoadingReadyRun in The Pub.
- Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad Email "independent", Pom Pom's indie film starts off with the name Meg + Chester, which quickly morphs into Megchester, NY, because it is "the city and state they are from". This is further simplified into City (Comma) State.
- Addventure = Add + Adventure
Theatre
Toys
- BIONICLE = Biological + Chronicle
Real Life
- Plenty of major American corporations have named (or renamed) themselves like this in order to look more "interesting" or "modern:" Verizon, Citigroup, and Microsoft are just a few examples.
- Initializing and syllabizing corporate names became a popular trend in the 1950s and '60s. Instead of being known clumsily and stuffily as the National Biscuit Company, you could modernize and rebrand yourself as Nabisco, complete with a newly revised logo and matching modern font.
- It's not just American companies either. British businessman Sir Alan Sugar's company is called Amstrad, which comes from his initials, 'Alan Michael Sugar' and 'trading'.
- The Japanese language does this a lot, especially to loanwords. For instance, word processor becomes waapuro.
- They do this because the language is syllable-based rather than letter-based - a portmanteau is the closest you can get to an acronym.
- Urban planners seem to like these. "Metrorail, BosWash, and "Suburbanization," for example.
- This was also quite popular in Russia, such as the Komintern (for the Communist International).
- The online event NaNoWriMo, for National Novel Writing Month.
- [Sitcom], [Brit Com], and so on.
Video Games
- The Combatribes = "Combat Tribe"
- Crysis = "Cry" and "crisis"
- Famicom (Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System) = "Family Computer" (which is actually the console's official name
- Guacemelee = "guacamole" + "melee"
- Minubeat = "minute" + "beat"
- Onechanbara = one-chan ("big sis", or "babe" in this context) and chanbara (sword fighting)
- Parodius = Parody + Gradius
- Pokémon was originally the series' nickname in Japan, where it is known as Pocket Monsters. It was adapted as the official overseas title in order to avoid infringement on the Monsters In My Pocket toyline.
- The Spin-Off Pokkén Tournament is what you get when you combine Pokémon and Tekken.
- Policenauts = "Police" and "Astronauts", although in this case "naut" is a legitimate suffix for an explorer, since there are also Aquanauts and Aeronauts.
- Probotector = "Robot Protector" (Probotector being the European version of the earlier Contra games on home consoles)
- Psychonauts, which is actually a real word.
- Recettear and Chantelise are both combinations of the names of two primary characters, Recette + Tear in the former and Chante + Elise in the latter.
- Runark (Japanese title of Growl) = "Rune" and "Ark"
- Slydris: Slide + Tetris, with a dash of Xtreme Kool Letterz.
- Terranigma = "Terra" and "enigma"
- MediEvil = "Medieval" and "evil"
- Carmageddon = "Car" and "Armageddon". Makes sense for a post-apocalyptic car combat game.
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance = "Revenge" and "Vengeance".
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy = "Theatre" and "Rhythm"
- Rakugakids = rakugaki ("doodles") + "kids"
- Nyanpi (a game by Compile for the MSX) = nyan ("meow") + anpi ("safety")
- Star Parodier = Star Soldier + "parody"
- Matrimelee = "matrimony" + "melee"
- Nintendogs = "Nintendo" + "dogs"
- Also used by the Alternate Company Equivalent Kinectimals ("Kinect" + "animals").
Webcomics
- Hell(p) = "Hell" + "help"
- Paranatural = "paranormal" + "supernatural". The extra comics depicting ordinary life in Mayview are titled "Supernormal".
Western Animation
- Animaniacs = "Animated" and "maniacs". Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Type B Examples
Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball is sometimes spelled as Dragonball
- Fans often remove the space in Death Note, because there's no discernible space in the logo. As the label on the artifact itself will show, this is a mistake.
Film
Video Games
- EarthBound
- Audiosurf
- Tokitowa, the Japanese alternate title for Time and Eternity
Music
- Radiohead
- Squarepusher
- Soundgarden
- Audioslave
- MuteMath
- MeltBanana
- Inverted by Sigur Rós, which just split "Sigurrós," the name of the lead singer's sister.
- Pitchshifter
- The Spacemonkeys
- HelloGoodbye
- Deadmau5
- Self's song "ILoveToLoveYourLoveMyLove"
- Nickelback
- Angelspit
- Silverchair
- Foghat (Amusingly, they were actually named after a band member's attempted Scrabble Babble.)
New Media
- This Very Wiki
- Homestuck, as well as loads upon loads of Homestuck fan-adventures and AUs. Schoolstuck, Humanstuck, Sadstuck, Happystuck, Guidestuck, Heinoustuck, Ke$hastuck, you name it.
Real Life
- TriStar Pictures, after the label dropped the hyphen in 1991.
Western Animation