Scientific and Technological Theme Naming

Characters, places, or things in a work are named after themes and concepts from science, technology, and engineering. This is a very broad pool of words to draw from — each field of science, technology, engineering, and math has bevies of potential terms to use.

Chemistry is one of the most common name sources, as one could name a character after any of the 118 chemical elements on the periodic table or the millions of compounds that can be formed from them. Names from other scientific fields may trend towards obscurity, ranging from mathematical shapes and curves, to biomes and landforms, to tools and machines. If all else fails, one can still name characters after famous Scientists and Inventors, who often have laws, theorems, or units of measurement already named after them, in which case it would overlap with Named After Somebody Famous.

This sort of Theme Naming usually indicates that there is something scientific or technological about these things, the setting, or the story.

This is a Super-Trope of:

• Animal Theme Naming: Naming characters after animal groups or species.
• Colourful Theme Naming: Naming characters after colours, i.e. specific ranges of wavelengths of light, or combinations thereof.
• Diseased Name: Naming characters after bodily afflictions like diseases or pathogenic bacteria.
• Floral Theme Naming: Naming characters after plants and other botanical concepts.
• Numerical Theme Naming: Naming characters after numbers.
• Rock Theme Naming: Naming characters after gemstones, common metals, minerals, and/or rocks.^note The line for what would classify as a 'common' metal would likely be how likely someone without a formal scientific education would be aware of the metal's existence, so characters named Gold and Silver would be Rock Theme Naming while, say, Vanadium and Yttrium would be this trope.
• Stellar Name: Naming characters after concepts from astronomy and celestial objects like stars and planets.

This page is for examples that don't really fit into any of the above sub-tropes. Those that do should be placed on the appropriate sub-trope's page.

A related trope is Dr. Brainpart, where a super-intelligent character or Mad Scientist is named after the brain, mind, or another bodily component that is associated with intelligence. See also the other sub-tropes of Theme Naming.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• An in-universe example in Chapter 18 of Asteroid in Love, adapted as part of Episode 5. Misa, the local Teen Genius, names the koi fishes at the school pond after several nuclear physicists: Feynman, (Paul) Dirac, (Enrico) Fermi, and (John) Cockcroft. While a Schoolgirl Series, this series has an astronomy/geology theme.
• While the main characters of Day Break Illusion have meaningful names referring to their associated tarot card, the talking animals, Laplace and Schrödinger, are named for thought experiments in physics on the nature of causality. In case you haven't guessed, the show has a destiny theme.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion has the location named Central Dogma and Terminal Dogma, named after the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology.
• Shaman King:
  • The members of the Pache tribe are all named after elements of the periodic table: Silva (silver), Goldva (gold), Kalim (kalium, AKA potassium), Rutherfor (rutherfordium), and so on.
  • Among other examples of Theme Naming, we get an example of Drug Theme Naming. Specifically, a British shaman named Lyserg Deithel (from lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD) and his Spirit Morphine (whose name is even more blatant). In the English manga, Morphine's name is changed to 'Morphea' (but that's probably just to make it sound more like a name), and in the English anime dub, it's changed to 'Chloe', removing the reference entirely.
• The four generals in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are all named for the four chemicals in DNA, while Beastmen in general, as well as Lordgenome, all have a genetics-based name (Viral, for instance). The other halves of their names come from the four Alchemic Elementals. Thymine + Sylph = Thymilph, Adenine + Undine = Adiane, Guanine + Gnome = Guame, and Cytosine + Salamander = Cytomander. The villains' DNA motif on the whole fits with their Mix-and-Match Critters status and the series' overall emphasis on spirals.
• The Card Professors in Yu-Gi-Oh! R are named after Intel project codenames (Mendo Cino from Mendocino^note the 300 MHz P6 Intel Pentium II Centrino chip and Kirk Dixon from Dixon^note the 333 MHz 1.6V Intel Pentium II chip, for example), which explains why some of them are much more "unique" than others. This overlaps somewhat with Location Theme Naming, as many of those codenames were originally taken from the locations of various Intel plants (Tilla Mook is derived from Tillamook^note the Embedded 266 MHz Intel Pentium MMX chip, Oregon, and Willa Mette is named after the Willamette^note Intel's 1.5 GHz P7 Pentium IV River from the same state).
• The Sky People from Zoids: Genesis are named after transition metals: Fermi from Fermium, Prome from Promethium, Palla from Palladium, and so on. Anyone quick to spot this may have worked out who else was a Sky Person before it was revealed: Ron Mangan (Manganese).

Comic Books

• When history was altered so Marvel Comics' third Captain Marvel, Genis-Vell, suddenly had a sister, she turned out to be named Phyla, riffing off the taxonomical classifications 'genus' and 'phylum'.

Fan Works

• Following canon-adjacent trends, The Hunger Games fandom usually assigns science- and technology-related names to characters (original or otherwise) from Districts 3 and 5, as their main industries revolve around technology and electricity, respectively.
  • Cheating Death: Those That Lived plays heavily on District industry-based Theme Naming, with Pi Orbit (22nd Games Victor) and fallen tributes Amp, Calculus, and Socket from District 3; and Shunt Gaspar (12th Games Victor), Isobel Sparks (18th Games Victor), Neon Erg (48th Games Victor), and Wattzon Holmes (55th Games Victor) from District 5.
  • The Hunger Games Fanon Wiki has a staggering list of name ideas for every District; in addition to 3 and 5, they also suggest transportation-related terminology for District 6 characters. They also have the fan-made Districts 14 (mutations) and 15 (medical research), respectively, with names themed around genetics, biotechnology, anatomy, and medicine.
  • The Victors Project has a District 3 victor named 'Gates' (as in Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft) and other tributes from there named Chip, Dattery, Pixelle, and Sonara. While its District 5 characters generally do not follow this naming pattern, there are occasional ones who do, like fallen tributes Aeria, Solaris, and Watts.

Film — Live-Action

• In the Back to the Future trilogy, Doc Brown's dogs are named Einstein and Copernicus, which overlaps with Named After Somebody Famous.

Literature

• A Certain Magical Index: The Kihara Family Theme Naming is math and science terms. Some members are Noukan ("brain stem"), Gensei ("illusory life", "primitive", "primeval", or "resurrection"), Nayuta (a Buddhist term meaning a really big number; alternately 10^60note novemdecillion or 10^72note trevigintillion), Byouri ("pathology"), Ransuu ("random number"), Enshuu ("circumference"), Yuiitsu ("single", "sole", "only", or "unique"), Kagun ("module"), and Amata ("many").
• The Hunger Games: Named characters from Districts 3, 5, and 6 tend to have names pertaining to their districts' industries — technology, electricity, and transportation, respectively.
  • District 3 (technology) has Wiress from Catching Fire and Circ (circuit) and Teslee (Tesla) from the prequel.
  • District 5 (electricity) has no officially named characters from the main trilogy, but The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes features tributes Hy and Sol, likely nods to hydroelectric and solar power, respectively.
  • While there are no named characters from District 6 (transportation) in the main trilogy, the prequel gives us the tributes Otto (as in automobile) and Ginnee (engine).
• The Maze Runner: Most of the Gladers are named after scientists and inventors, having had these fake names planted into their memories: Thomas is named after Thomas Edison, Newt after Sir Isaac Newton, Gally after Galileo Galilei, Alby after Albert Einstein, Chuck after Charles Darwin, etc. The main exception is Teresa Agnes, who is named after Mother Teresa (birth name Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu); the fact that she is named after a religious figure, whom the general public is less informed than scientific ones, is lampshaded in The Scorch Trials when Thomas cannot deduce whom Teresa is named after.
• In keeping with the theme naming trope set by the very thing it's parodying, Sailor Nothing uses the noble gases plus an Odd Name Out technique for the Dark Generals (Argon, Neon, Xenon, Radon, and Cobalt).
• The Underland Chronicles: The mice are named after mathematical principles (Cevian, Cartesian, Euclidian, Heronian).

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory:
  • Episode titles are formatted to sound like scientific terminology — "The Fuzzy Boots Corollary", "The Jiminy Conjecture", "The Zarnecki Incursion", etc.
  • In "The Zazzy Substitution", Sheldon adopts cats and names them after scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, except for one he calls Zazzles.
  • Howard and Bernadette's children are named Halley (after Edmund Halley and the famous comet named after him) and Neil (after Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon).
• The Doozers in Fraggle Rock are all named after tools, machine parts, or gadgets: Flange Doozer, Cotterpin Doozer, Old Man Pipe Wrench, Modem Doozer, etc.
• Logan's Run: In "Man Out of Time", the members of the tribe living in the ruins of the Sanctuary Project facility, a computer archive, all have names relating to computers or their operators. Examples include Analog, Binary, and Lab Tech One.
• Tomes & Talismans: The Users, being technophiles, have many names that are scientific in nature: Tesla, Abakas (abacus), Varian(t), Chroma, Pixel...

Music

• Tub Ring like to name their albums after scientific theories related to the nature of extraterrestrial life: Drake Equation, Fermi Paradox, Zoo Hypothesis…

Tabletop Games

• The Tuner monsters of the Vylon archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh! are shaped and named after three-dimensional geometric figures ("Prism", "Cube", "Sphere", "Tetrah[edron]", "Stella [Octangula]"), and the Union monsters are based on four-dimensional figures.

Video Games

• Arakune's moves from Blazblue are named after mathematical terms, such as If P Then Q, Y Two-Dash, Permutation N R, A+/-B, Equals 0 (which makes you invisible), and Zero Vector. His super moves are N Factorial, F Inverse, F of G, and F Equals, and his Astral Finish is named N To Infinity.
• The Boxxy Quest series: Each game uses various numbers of bytes for its basic weapons' tiers. The sequence is Byte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, and Terabyte.
• The Fallout: New Vegas expansion pack "Old World Blues" includes a collective of Mad Scientists called the "Think Tank". All are disembodied brains floating around in robotic life support units. Their names are Dr. Klein, Dr. Dala, Dr. 8, Dr. 0, Dr. Borous, and Dr. Mobius, who is estranged. All of their names refer to the same thing: endless, recursive loops. This turns out to be a big clue to the nature of their characters.
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist has this as a recurring source of names alongside Floral Theme Naming and Edible Theme Naming. There are characters named Tangent, Fluorescent, Instance, Congruence, Halitosis, and Symbiosis.
• Mega Man Battle Network: To match the series' computer theme, the two main characters' original names are the Japanese words for Net (Netto) and Site (Saito). The dub changes their names to Lan and Hub, respectively. Additionally, Lan's love interest is called Mayl.
• Mega Man X8: The three Navigator Reploids are called Alia^note Aliasing, jaggies, anti-aliasing, Layer^note Background layers, rather important in sprite ripping and Pallette^note Palettes, all graphics related.^note And now you know.
• Rom Di Prisco, in Need for Speed or otherwise, names his songs after various scientific and mathematics terms such as "Quantum Singularity", "Graviphoton", "Subatomic Shifter", "Quantum Velocity", and "Liquid Plasma" (which is a bit of a paradox, those are two different states of matter). The other theme in his music are Stellar Names.
• Pokémon:
  • In Pokemon Heart Gold And Soul Silver, the Rocket admins (Proton, Petrel, Arianna, and Archer) are named after… well, rockets.
  • Pokémon X and Y: Overlapping with Stellar Name, the initials of the five scientists of Team Flare (Aliana, Byrony, Celosia, Mable, and Xerosic) match up with the five classifications of solar flares (A, B, C, M, X).
• Taiko no Tatsujin: The Waru Robots from Dodon~! to Nidaime! are named after chemical elements: Antimon (antimony), Yttrium, Gallium, Tantal (tantalum), Germa (germanium), Tungsten, Tellu (tellurium), and Alumi (aluminium).
• The X-Universe series Terraformer ships use a hexadecimal string (#deca, #fade, #cefa).
• Yandere Simulator: Most of the Science Club members have Punny Name-style Theme Naming, including Kaga Kusha the club leader (effectively Japanese for "scientist"), Horo Guramu ("hologram"), Yaku Zashi (effectively Japanese for "chemist" or "pharmacist") and Meka Nikaru ("mechanical"). Homu Kurusu is the Odd Name Out, though she's named for the alchemical/magical noun 'homunculus'.

Web Comics

• Gunnerkrigg Court: Antimony is named for the element, and both parts of her mother's maiden name refer to it — 'Surma' is (close to) Russian for "antimony", and 'Stibnite' is antimony sulfide.
• Homestuck: The chat client usernames of all the kids (except John's username of "ectoBiologist", but his old username of ghostlyTrickster applies) have initials using only G and/or T, with the trolls adding A and C to the mix, referring to the four nucleobases of DNA. Calliope and Caliborn's handles have the initials uu and UU, referencing uracil, a nucleobase of RNA.
• In Our Little Adventure, all of the elves are named after prescription drugs.
• Shinka The Last Eevee: Various employees of Auranova Industries are code-named after elements on the periodic table. The higher-ups are all named after noble gases, i.e. Krypton, Radon, Xenon, etc.

Western Animation

• Edebits: Four members of the Edebits — Com, Net, Org, and Gov — are named after major top-level domains. The only member not named after one is Arts, which wouldn't become a top-level domain until 2017.
• The Wild Thornberrys: The Thornberrys named their chimpanzee "Darwin", which fits the fact that the parents are both naturalists.

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