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Theme Naming
Obelix: "O chief Vitalstatistix, the Normans are landing! And they've got ever such funny names! They all end in 'af'!"
Asterix: "That's right! Their chief is called Timandahaf!"
Vitalstatistix: "Ha, ha, ha! Did you hear that, Getafix, Cacofonix, Operatix, Acoustix, Polyfonix, Harmonix?"
—Asterix & the Normans

"Gwen and Ken Tennyson? What are your parents' names, Sven and Jen? I'm talking to you, Ben!"
— Kevin Levin, Ben 10: Alien Force

Characters in an anime or manga often show a consistent theme in their names which isn't always obvious to English speakers and may sometimes be convoluted puns in Japanese. Often it results in Prophetic Names.

Japanese names have obvious or straightforward meanings, unlike in English, but the meanings can change depending on which kanji are used to write them. Each kanji is a word in itself as well as a sound, sometimes resulting in a name that sounds like one thing, but can be read as something completely different. Furthermore, there are multiple kanji for various sounds, allowing many valid "non-standard" spellings of words. Complicating matters beyond that, Japanese also has two phonetic alphabets — one of which is reserved solely for foreign words — that can be used to spell names in a way that obscures their specific meaning and opens them up to multiple interpretations.

The Yuppie Couple, Those Two Guys and Creepy Twins sometimes have thematic names that link them. Theme naming is also common for characters with unusual names (in the case of anime, western style ones) as a mnemonic in order to keep track of a huge cast; Dragonball's Akira Toriyama once admitted this is very helpful.

This also applies in English-language media.

Variations:

See also Meaningful Name, Prophetic Names, Whos On First, Steven Ulysses Perhero and This Is My Name On Foreign.
Examples:

Anime
  • In Excel Saga, the members of ACROSS are named for hotel chains, and most everyone else is named for neighborhoods in the city of Fukuoka ("F City, F Prefecture" in which the anime takes place, even if the manga keeps it as "Fukuoka, Fukuoka"). "ACROSS" itself is named after a convention center (one translator said it was like a New York based cult being named "Javits").
  • Sailor Moon's villains are frequently named after minerals or jewels, with varying obscurity. This began with the first-season villains, who are in fact named exclusively for green-colored jewels and minerals. The Senshi themselves have "civilian" names that are easy puns on their hero identities and/or their planets (e.g. Tsukino Usagi, sounding like the phrase "rabbit of the moon," which refers to a Japanese fable as well as her Moon Kingdom history, it' written with different kana though).
    • Actually, only in the dub are the villains technically named for green things. Malachite's original name was Kunzite, which is pink. And Nephrite is more of a yellow colour than a green one anyway.
    • The swedish translation dropped the ball on this, though; Jadeite is renamed Jedyte (?) and Nephrite is renamed Nevius (???). The heroines were also given completely arbitrary names, though this troper lost interest after that.
  • The natives of Cephiro in Magic Knight Rayearth are named after models of cars (like Cephiro itself). The heroines have names that reflect the magical elements they command. (Hikaru="fire", Umi="ocean", Fuu="wind".) The Latin American dub decided to maintain the game, and translated the heroines' names: Hikaru became "Lucy" (a pun in "luz", meaning "light"), Umi was reamed Marina (a name derives of "mar", sea), and Fuu became Anais (supposedly alluding to her "air" element after a famous perfume, but also seems to point more to her gracefulness).
  • Likewise, many of the magical beings in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha are named after cars: the Opel Signum, Opel Vita, Opel Zafira and Maserati Shamal are the most prominent and were brought to attention by the fansubbers. Subaru Nakajima's name appears to be normal Japanese, but the fact that it's in Western format draws attention to the fact that both her names come from cars. Same with Fate Testarossa (Ferrari Testarossa) and her mother Precia (Nissan Presea, also seen in Rayearth), and Yuuno Scrya has been suspected of actually being spelled Euno for Mazda Eunos. Given that, like Rayearth, Nanoha is primarily about Magical Girls who use techno-magical artifacts, this may be a direct homage to the earlier series.
  • Similarly, many characters in Flame Of Recca have names that reference the elemental powers they possess (Recca="wild fire", Fuuko="wind child", and so on).
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion is filled with people named after Japanese warships from WWII and pieces of nautical equipment, and the Angels' names are mostly lifted straight out of the Talmud and the Old Testament pseudepigrapha.
    • Additionally, series creator Hideaki Anno claims that there is a "hidden convention" to character names found in episode 15.
      • That would be the Horaki sisters, who are named after three train services of Japan's first bullet train line, the Tokaido Shinkansen: The Hikari service was the original, followed by the slower Kodama, and then by the much faster Nozomi (i.e. older = slower, younger = faster).
    • Rei Ayanami's given name is never spelled with kanji, only phonetically (as are all character first names), and could be any of over a dozen words pronounced "ray" having meanings ranging from "zero" to "spirit", many of which are eerily appropriate to her role(s) in the plot.
      • "Bow" and thus custom/manners as well, appropriately.
      • Neon Exodus Evangelion, a fanfiction based on the series, took it a step further: Rei also has "sisters" (actually, clones) named for the numbers one through twelve.
    • Similarly "Shinji" could have several meanings (one being the Buddhist equivalent of "deacon"), but might be best interpreted as "new man" (the live-action adaption would be well served to call him "Seth").
      • Even better interpretation of his name is "holy sign".
      • Ahem... "shin" is one way to say "god" in Japanese, and "ji" is a common ending for male Japanese given names, literally meaning "second" (as in "second son") or "next". So "Shinji" can be approximated to "son of god"; kind of ironic, considering his usual enemies in the anime.
      • Shin could be god, but it could also be new (that's how they use it in the title after all). Given the other childrens' names, I'd lean towards new.
      • Another interpretation of the name is "truth," though this one is not as rife with symbolism as the rest.
    • "Asuka" means "scent of tomorrow". All the children's names fit being born immediately after a catastrophe.
    • The central female characters are all named after Aircraft Carriers (Asuka is named after 2 of them: one Japanese and one American, while her mother's comes from a German one) with the exception of Rei. This is ironic because the Japanese for "Aircraft Carrier" is "mother ship". Doctor Ritsuko Akagi is probably the trend-setter here (Dr. Akagi is a noted Japanese novel), while "Langley" was likely chosen because it links to the film 2001 (Doctors Chandra and Langley built the HAL 9000) despite being an English name. Misato was likely just named to match the other two.
      • Rei, while missing out on the aircraft carrier theme, does share her first name with the Rei shiki Kanjo sentoki (Type 0 Carrier Fighter) aircraft, known in America as the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
      • From Wikipedia: "The Ayanami (綾波) was a Type II Fubuki class destroyer in the Imperial Japanese Navy that saw service during World War II."
      • Kozo Fuyutsuki, NERV's three Bridge Bunnies, and the officially non-canonical Mana Kirishima have their last names taken from Japanese WWII naval vessels — with the exception of Maya Ibuki, whose first and last names are both taken from WWII Japanese warships. Also, Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida's names and the Horaki surname are taken from Ryu Murakami's Fascism in Love and Fantasy (愛と幻想のファシズム, Ai to Gensō no Fashizumu).
    • Other names' meanings: Ikari = Anchor; Rokobungi = Sextant; Kiel (German) = Keel.
      • Kaji = rudder, helm.
      • Ikari (written with a different character) also means rage.
  • Flowers are popular.
    • Most of the members of the Imperial Floral Assault Division in Sakura Taisen (aka Sakura Wars) have names taken from flowers. (Although the latest generation of warriors in this setting, appearing in Sakura Taisen V, all have names with astronomical or astrological significance.)
    • Similarly, most of the various ships and ship classes, mecha and alien devices in Martian Successor Nadesico are also named after flowers — although this is deliberately obscured at times in the North American dub. ("Chulips" are, in fact, "tulips".)
    • Continuing with the flower theme, there is Revolutionary Girl Utena, which is rife with floral imagery. "Anthy" is a Greek name meaning "flower". "Utena" is the Japanese word for "calyx", the protective covering that shields a developing blossom.
    • The ferry girls in Yu Yu Hakusho: Botan (peony), Ayame (iris) and movie-only Hinageshi (red poppy). Sensui is an anagram of "suisen," meaning daffodil, while Itsuki means "flowering tree." As they also worked for Spirit World, this is likely deliberate and a play on their Face Heel Turn.
    • Flower names also appear, a little more subtly, throughout Weiss Kreuz: Ran means "orchid" and is referenced several times within the series; Sakura, of course, refers to cherry blossoms; Yoji may refer to Mirabilis jalapa; and all of the Aoba Center Kritiker personnel have flower names (although these are probably codenames): Kikyou (chinese bellflower), Kuroyuri (black lily), and Tsubaki (camellia).
  • The various Seishi (holy warriors) in Fushigi Yuugi are named for the constellations defined by the astrological/geomantic system described briefly in the entry on The Four Gods; of course, this is central to the plot.
  • Some of the characters, all of the cities and countries, and every last one of the magical spells in Bastard!! are named after heavy metal and hard rock bands. For licensing/trademark reasons, this has been extremely obscured in the official North American release — for example, the kingdom of Metallicana becomes Meta-Ricana, the nation of Judas Priest is referred to simply as Judas, etc. This editor also thinks he recalls a King Harris, who led the Samurai of the Iron Maiden.
  • In Sol Bianca, the all-woman crew of the starship Sol Bianca bear the English names of months, or simple variations thereon: Jan, Feb, April, May, June...
  • The heroes of Bakuretsu Hunters (aka Sorcerer Hunters) are all named for foods, mostly sweets or pastries ("Tira Misu" and "Marron Glace", for example).
  • Likewise the five girls of the two main Galaxy Angel casts are also all named after foods, mostly desserts. Both Karasuma Chitose and Iyazoi Natsume, each the Sixth Ranger of her group, have fairly normal Japanese names. The villains of the Galaxy Angel Gameverse have an alcohol theme going on, which explains Tequila's possession in the first game in which she appears.
  • Dragon Ball and its successors feature a number of themed names. Saiyans are named for vegetables or occasional other food (Kakarot(Carrot), Nappa(Cabbage), Vegeta(ble), Raditz(Radish), Gohan(Rice); "Saiya", is an anagram of "yasai", meaning "vegetable"...). One major character's entire family is named for undergarments (Bloomer, Trunks, Bra, Dr. Briefs), a joke which for various reasons is only partially carried over to the English translation. The sentai parody team the Ginyu Special Corps has members named after dairy products, Ginyu (cow's milk), Butta (butter), Gurd (yogurt), Jheese (cheese), Reacoom (anagram of cream). There's also a nod to Disney's Cinderella with the ancient mage Bibidi, his son Babidi, and the demon that they created, Buu ("Bibbidi bobbidi boo!"). Freeza and his family are all named after English terms for cold, or cooling kitchen appliances (King Cold, Cooler etc.). Mr. Satan is named after the biblical Satan, while his daughter Videl's name is an anagram of "devil". And, the granddaughter Pan gets two references with it meaning "bread" and referring to the satyr, Pan, who has the physical form we associate with Satan. From the original Dragon Ball series we have Demon King Piccolo and his henchmen being named for musical instruments, Tambourine, Drum and others. In the later DBZ, every Namekian besides Piccolo is named for Slug, Snail or a dish which uses those as the main ingredients.
    • Even better: The traditional rivals of the Saiyans are the Tsuffles. In Japanese, that'd be pronounced "tsufuru", an anagram of "furutsu", which is how you pronounce "fruits." So you end up with, yep, fruits vs. vegetables!
  • In Rumiko Takahashi's manga/anime Maison Ikkoku, set in a boarding house, the various tenants all have names that reflect the numbers of their rooms (Mrs. Ichinose and her son in room 1, or "ichi"; Godai in room 5, "go", and so on). Even characters that don't live in Ikkoku-kan have numbered surnames, e.g. Mitaka ("mi", 3), Nanao ("nana", 7), etc.
  • In Inuyasha, the three characters from the youkai exterminator village who are actually named all have names related to semiprecious stones: Sango (coral), Kohaku (amber), and Kirara (mica).
    • The Band of Seven / Shichi'nintai have names ending with "kotsu" (骨), meaning "bone", which might signify that they are undead. The other kanji in each of their names also signifies something about each of them.
  • The four main girls of Ichigo 100% are named after the four cardinal directions: Toujou Aya (tou=East), Kitaouji Satsuki (kita=North), Nishino Tsukasa (nishi=West), and Minamoto Yui (minami=South). And, of course, the main character, Manaka Junpei (naka=middle).
  • In the anime Gundam Wing, many characters (including the Five Man Band) have names based on numbers which are used by fans as abbreviations (e.g., '2' for Duo Maxwell). This naming scheme also served as a shorthand for yaoi pairings in the fandom. An interesting line can be drawn between the two canon gay characters, Quatre and Trowa; their names sound surprisingly similar to the words, "Catcher" and "Thrower"...
  • The girls of Tokyo Mew Mew are all named after plants or desserts, and their last names follow the pattern of Color Place (Momomiya = Peach Shrine, Midorikawa = Green River, etc.) Their alien foes are named after filled pastry items.
    • The main marionettes from Saber Marionette are named after fruits... though it's unknown if there's any bloodberry around.
  • Almost everyone in Scrapped Princess is named after a type or brand of firearm or ammunition.
  • The family of Sanosuke Sagara from Rurouni Kenshin has names that contain kanji relating to directions: Sanosuke has in his name the kanji for "left" (read as "sa" in this compound or "hidari" when alone), his sister Uki the one for "right" (u/ migi), his little brother Outa the one for "center" (ou), his father Kamishimoemon has both "up" (kami/ ue) and "down" (shimo/ shita) and the name of his mother Naname means "diagonal".
  • The protagonists of Tokyo Babylon have names related to stars: Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, Hokuto for the Big Dipper, and Seishiro has the kanji for star (sei) in his name.
  • Aside from the Hinata family's seasonal convention (Fuyuki =Winter Tree, Natsumi=Summer Beauty, Aki=Fall), many names in Keroro Gunsou are shown as 3-numbered codes because the syllables sound like numbers. This makes for especially odd English titles.
    • This is probably a reference to the numbering convention for Japanese military units, best exemplified by the notorious Unit 731.
    • Likewise the trio More Peach Summer who do many of the songs for the show are appropriate voice actors (Angol Moa, Momoka, and Natsumi).
  • The four main characters of Wolf's Rain are all named for aspects of the wolf; Kiba (Fang), Tsume (Claw), Hige (Whisker), and Toboe (Howl). The pun in the title of the second episode, "Toboe, Who Doesn't Howl", is thus lost in the English translation.
  • Most of the military characters from Fullmetal Alchemist are named after WWII aircraft: Mustang, Hughes, Bradley, Hawkeye, Hayate, etc.
    • And let's not forget that the homunculi bear the names of the Seven Deadly Sins: Envy, Pride, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, and Sloth.
  • The three recurring old geezers on Cowboy Bebop had thematic names — Antonio, Carlos and Jobim. Put them together and you get the name of a famous musician.
  • The same for goes for the adopted children of the eponymous character of Eureka Seven: Maurice, Maeter, and Linck after the Nobel Prize winning essayist and author of The Blue Bird Of Happiness.
  • In Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go!!, the main characters' names, Retsu and Gou, are a pun on "Let's go!". Also, combined with their friend Jun, the three are named for Jun Retsugou, the stage name of Yoshiji Watanabe, one of the members of a 70's Japanese manzai comedy trio.
  • Almost everybody in Jojos Bizarre Adventure is named after a band, movie, or rock star. Dio Brando, the main villain, is named after both Ronnie James Dio and Marlon Brando.
    • The only exception is the main character, who is a member of the Joestar family, and has a surname that allows the nickname 'Jojo'. Such as Jonathan Joestar, Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, Jolyne Kujo...
    • Even the Joestars are not immune. Get back, Jojo.
    • The Stands have gone through several name themes as well. Initially they were named after the tarot, sometimes with a color added; Magician's Red, Star Platinum, Tower of Grey, Wheel of Fortune, etc. When they ran out of major arcana cards, they switched to Egyptian tarot (named after Egyptian gods). Once those ran out, they fell back on the musical theme, naming the Stands after bands, albums or songs (Crazy Diamond, Goo Goo Dolls, Superfly, Killer Queen).
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch uses puns on the girls' origins ("Noel" from the Arctic, "Coco" from the South Pacific) sometimes, and just about every name in the series has a reference to the sea somewhere.
  • In the anime and manga series Fruits Basket all the members of the Juunishi except Yuki are named after archaic names for months. For example, Isuzu 'Rin' Sohma is named from 'Isuzukure tsuki' (meaning 'June') and Hatsuharu 'Haru' Sohma is named directly from 'Hatsuharu', which means 'January'. This was revealed by the author Natsuki Takaya in Volume 14 of the manga.
  • Film example: the sisters in My Neighbor Totoro are named "Satsuki" and "Mei"; the word "satsuki" is the old Japanese name for the month of May.
  • Detective Conan (AKA Case Closed in North America) is full of these, whether related to the plot or not, with too many instances to count in this wiki. For example:
    • The second movie The Fourteenth Target centers around a series of attacks on a group of people, with the order based on the numerical element in the kanji or pronunciation of the target's name (starting at 13 and working down). As it turns out, though, the culprit was actually after only three of the people; the rest were simply to disguise his true intentions.
    • Technically, it started at Joker, since the numerical order was based on playing cards. The aforementioned "Joker" is a criminal who Kogoro had apprehended years ago, and who the culprit framed for the crimes.
  • Many of the fairies in Ojamajo Doremi are named for the notes of the musical ladder (Dodo, Rere, Mimi, etc), and even those that don't fit this mold have the same syllable repeated twice as their name (Baba, Hehe etc.). In the English dub, this was also extended to the dub names for Doremi, Hazuki and Aiko (respectively, Dorie, Reanne, Mirabelle).
    • Three of their classmates are known as the SOS trio, from their names: Sagawa, Oota and Sugiyama. The 4K version kept this with Simon, Oliver, and Stewart.
  • Pretty much every character of note in Tenchi Muyo. To begin with, almost all the names initially came from locations and landmarks in the Okayama area. But there are additional meanings within them depending on what variety of Japanese is used to translate them.
    • This is especially noticeable in Big Bad Kagato. His primary theme is that of a snake, with his hair designed to mimic a cobra's hood and his principle minions being gigantic serpents. Thus, his base of operations and starship, the Soja, translates its name to "Serpent's nest". Kagato's name itself can translate as "I am God-like", "God Ego Man", or "I have an overwhelming mind", all of which are rather accurate for him. However, in common Japanese, the name merely translates to "heel". Again, rather fitting.
    • Ayeka similarly has multiple variations, being translatable as "willowy", "frail", or "needing the support of a man". While the latter two apply to her initial personality, the willow is a reference to a tree known for its ability to withstand great stress by being flexible, and is also traditional in Japanese folklore as a repeller of demons, thematically opposing her to Ryoko, whose name literally means "Bringer of Demons".
  • Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has this with the entire cast; all important cast members have pun names that explain their most important character traits once written out horizontally in Kanji, except a teacher and the first student, who are named after a philosopher and a writer. The titular character is a prime example of this: Nozomu Itoshiki appears fairly normal when written vertically, but the characters become the word "Zetsubou," which means despair, once written horizontally. As expected, he is always depressed about something, and attempts suicide enough that he has a kit he carries with him to facilitate in these endeavors.
  • Noein has the Dragon Knights, who are all named after different birds(Karasu=Crow, Fukurou=Owl and so on) that were representative of their personalities. I guess being called Dragon Knights sounded cooler than being called Bird Knights.
  • Code Geass uses Theme Naming for its Humongous Mecha, drawing from Arthurian legend. More subtly, some fans have noticed that several major characters (Lelouch, Suzaku, Kallen, Lee Shinkuu) have names that include the word "red" in one language or another.
    • Interested in the later theory, this troper tried researching it further and discovered a forum post that translated Lelouch, Suzaku, and Karen's names as "Red Lamp", "Vermillion Bird", "Crimson Moon", respectively. He would be very grateful, however, if someone pointed out how exactly were this translations made...
      • "Lamperouge", Lelouch's surname, is "Red Lamp" in French. "Suzaku" literally means "Vermillion Bird" but is typically treated as a phoenix (see: Fushigi Yuugi). "Kouzuki", Kallen's Japanese surname, is written with the kanji for "Crimson Moon".
  • In Bleach, virtually all the Arrancar have double letters in their names. Example: Yylfordt, Cirucci, Nnoitra, Grimmjow, Luppi, Zommari...
    • And speaking of the Arrancar, the top ten, the Espada, are all named after, of all things, Mexican architects and designers.
    • Also, the Shiba siblings follow a pattern: Kaien means "sea swallow," Ganju means "rock eagle," and Kuukaku means "sky crane."
    • Then there's the Kurosaki siblings, whose names are all pronounced the same as fruits.
  • Many characters in Appleseed had their names taken straight from the Greek mythology, starting with Briareos Hecatonchires and Athena...
  • A lot of the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann characters have some sort of theme:
    • The four generals are all named for the 4 chemicals in DNA, while Beastmen in general, and Lord Genome, all have a genetic-based name (Viral, for instance).
      • Furthermore, the generals' mechas are named after The Four Gods.
    • The main band of characters are named for directions Kamina (above/up), Simon/Shimon (below/under), Yoko (beside), Nia (a play on near), and Rosshiu (an anagram of ushiro, behind)...
      • Darry and Gimmy use Theme Twin Naming to fit nicely into this. (Dari = hidari, or left, Gimi = migi, or right.)
    • The Black Siblings' names all start with ki: Kittan, Kiyoh, Kinon, and Kiyal.
      • That's because they're flipped like Gimmy and Darry, and are all emotions or states of mind: tanki means quick temper, youki means cheerfulness, nonki means various things including carefree and optimistic and yaruki means willingness.
  • In Naruto, most Hyuugas (so far except for Neji) have names having to do with the sun, light, or fire. The Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi families also seem to have their names include Shika (deer), Ino (boar/pig), and Chou (butterfly) after a hand in a Japanese card game. The Inuzukas family has names having to do with dogs, such as Kiba (fang), Hana (nose) and Tsume (claw). Many other names are individually puns as well, though not strung together in a theme.
  • ARIA has all main characters' names start with 'A', like Akari, Athena, and Aika. That there are both an Alicia and an Alice only adds to the confusion—and Akari often gets mixed up with Akira.
  • In Ranma 1/2, most Chinese characters are named after cosmetics, spices, or Indian food: the Joketsuzoku (or "Amazons") have Cologne, Shampoo, and Mousse. The Musk Dynasty has Herb, Lime, and Mint. The Phoenix Tribe has Saffron (after the rice), Kiima (after keema), Koruma (from "korma", a curry dish) and Masara (masala, a mix of spices.) Herbology martial artists Pink and Link have Theme Twin Naming. The Guide (who is named after his profession) has a daughter named Plum. And let's not forget Lychee, from Big Trouble In Nekonron, China. Pantyhose Taro (who was baptized and named by Happosai) fell victim to a whole other kind of Theme Naming, but he met Rouge, and a different Saffron.
    • There's also Ranma himself. The word Saotome translates to "rice-planting girl", a reference to his curse.
      • Actually, spelled with different kana, "Saotome" can also be read as "Instant Girl".
      • This is one of the most common mistranslations of the name "Saotome" in the Ranma 1/2 fandom: "sa" does not mean "rice-planting" in any way. Also, Ranma's surname is clearly written with the kanji for "quick maiden"; you can check his Wikipedia article for yourself.
      • Probably true. However, running the whole word as kanji through an online dictionary — even a good one like WWWJDIC — does come up with "rice-planting girl."
    • Ranma translates most literally as "Wild Horse" and "Genma" as "Dark Horse", both reflections on their personalities.
    • The Tendos are named after clouds, which also represent their personality. "Tendo" (or Tendou, depending on the romanization) can mean "Way to Heaven" or "Path of Heaven." "Akane" means "crimson," "Nabiki" means "to sway" (which her victims tend to do,) and "Kasumi" means "mist," referring to her wispy nature. "Soun" means "fast cloud."
  • All of the beings from the world of Guze in Shakugan No Shana take names out of various mythologies. Just to name a few: there's the "Seeking Professor", Dantalion; Margery's battle-hungry lord, Marchosias; and Shana's lord, "God of Judgment" and "Flame of Heaven", Alastor.
  • Three of the four Organoids in the Zoids Chaotic Century anime have names related to light effects: Shadow, Ambient and Specular (whose name is translated as Specula in the dub).
  • In Weiss Kreuz, the members of Weiss all have cat-themed codenames: Bombay, Siberian, Abyssinian, Balinese, Manx, Persian and Burman.
  • The original Mobile Suit Gundam has several members of the White Base crew derive their names from WWII-era fighter planes; Amuro Ray comes from the Mitsubishi A6M Zero (A6M in Japanese is "A-Roku-Mu", and "zero" is "Rei"); Kai Shiden from the Shiden Kai, and so forth.
  • In Shaman King, several of the Native American shamans are named after metals: Silva (silver), Goldva, Kalim (from kalium, the German word for potassium), Nichrome (who has a brother named Chrome), Bron (bronze), Rutherfor (rutherfordium), and Zinc.
    • The Asakura family also has something of a theme going, with all of its members having kanji representing parts of plants in their names. The most common is 'leaf', found in Hao ('leaf emperor'), Yoh ('leaf') and Yohmei ('wise leaf'), but there's also Keiko ('stem child'), Mikihisa ('tree trunk'), and Kino ('of wood').
  • Three out of four of the main characters from Burst Angel are named after characters from the book Little Women (Jo, Meg, and Amy, with Sei being the Odd Name Out).
    • In an interview, the creator mentioned that Sei's middle name was Bethany, thus making her still technically fit.
  • Violinist Of Hameln has just about everyone named after musical instruments and terms (Guitar, Bass, Cornett, Oboe). The only exceptions are the hero, Hamel, who is named after the violinist of legend (and who plays a huge violin), and Pandora (who opens the box that sealed the Mazoku inside). Places are also named appropriately, such as Stacatto Villgae and the kingdom of Dalsegno. Additionally, the four generals of the Mazoku are named Bass, Guitar, Sizer (Synthesizer, or keyboard) and Drum, the main instruments of a rock band; the heroes are Hamel (violin), Raiel (a kind of piano, which he carries on his back — a mean feat, since it's made of gold and weighs 500 pounds!), Oboe, Flute and Trom Bone — all instruments of classic music. Big Bad Kestra (or Chestra, depending on translation) could mean orchestra or simply refer to the chest he was trapped in (pictures of him depict a chest with an eye glaring out of the darkness). Others include Vocal and his partner Orgel, a German loanword that in the Japanese language means 'music box', and in German means 'organ'.
  • Saint Seiya's characters foreshadow their destiny. "Seiya" means "Star Arrow" (in reference to his signature "Pegasus Meteor Fist" attack.) "Shiryu" means "Violet Dragon" (and he becomes the Bronze Dragon Saint.) "Hyoga" means "Glacier" (his attacks revolve around freezing the opponent, and he trained in the North Pole.) "Ikki" and "Shun," brothers, mean "Gleam" and "Twinkle" respectively, reflecting not just their relationship but also the shine of the Phoenix's flame and of the Nebula Chain.
  • The six main characters of Kyouran Kazoku Nikki have names that end with "ka": Kyouka, Gekka, Yuka, Ginka, Teika, and Hyouka.
  • In Cromartie High School, all of the schools, including the titular one, are named after foreigners that played on Japanese baseball teams.
  • In Air Gear, the Noyamano sisters (members of Sleeping Forest) are nicknamed after fruits: Rika (pomegranate), Ringo (apple), Ume (plum) and Mikan (tangerine). Ringo's name is lampshaded when Rika threatens her by crushing an apple while hinting obliquely at her fate should she disobey.
  • Rosario To Vampire has vampire sisters named Moka/Mocha and Kokoa/Cocoa, as well as their recently revealed sister Karua/Kahlua.
  • Rah Xephon has all of the Dolems named after musical terms, and there's a fair amount of people getting Mayan-mythology-inspired nicknames.
  • Gundam SEED and its sequel Gundam SEED Destiny combine this with Merchandise Driven, having several of the Humongous Mecha named after licenced music that appears in the anime's soundtrack. Examples include the Mecha Expansion Pack METEOR units ("Meteor" is a song by TM Revolution, which is unsurprisingly used as the device's theme song), the Akatsuki ("Akatsuki no Kuruma," the sad song that plays when Nicol bites it) & the GOUF Ignited ("Ignited" is one of Destiny's title themes).
  • Kamichu does this three ways: All the major characters include a kanji for the numbers 1-4 in their surnames, plus Yashima's name using the kanji for 8; Miko and Matsuri's names mean "shrine maiden" and "festival" respectively; Yurie's assistants (Ino, Shika, and Chou) have names related to the animals they resemble.

Manga
  • In Deadman Wonderland the Deadmen fighting in the Carnival Corpse deathmatches are given bird-themed nicknames: Ganta is Woodpecker, Senji is Crow, and Minatsuki is Hummingbird.
  • Violinist Of Hameln takes this to a ridiculous level—not only are all the characters named after musical instruments or terms, so are the places—e.g., the kingdoms of Dal Segno and Sforzando.
    • The Big Bad Demon King Chestra/Kestra is also a participant in this: The Japanese word for "king" is "Ou," hence he is Ou Chestra—Orchestra, see?
    • The writer even manages to further the themey-ness with sibling pairs like Lute and Flute, and the Net siblings Clari Net and Cor Net.
  • In 7Seed there are five groups, each named after a season, and each group has names based off those seasons.
  • The characters of Eden are named after a Gnostic theme. Those are rarely meaningful (Such as a druglord named Ennoia or Sofia, the freelance hacker). It's very significant in the case of the organisations, though, with a wannabe world-government named the Propater, led by a secret council called Pleroma and calling its Super Soldiers the Aeons.
  • CLAMP's four-volume series Wish uses this for the majority of named characters. The theme is precious and semi-precious stones. Names include: Kohaku ("Amber"), Hisui ("Jade"), Ruri ("Blue Glass"/"Lapis-lazuli"), Hari ("Crystal"), Koryuu ("Garnet"), Kokuyo ("Obsidian"), Sango ("Coral"), and Shinju ("Pearl"). There may be more; these are merely the ones this troper readily recognized.

Video Games
  • The Rockman (Mega Man in English) series uses a musical theme for the main character robots. Dr. Light's first creation is Blues (officially Protoman in English, though Mega Man 3 used Break Man as an alter-ego to fit in the music theme), and then the brother-sister pair Rock and Roll are built. Rockman's support robots are Rush, Tango, and Beat. Dr. Wily adds to this theme by naming his evil counterparts Forte and Gospel (Bass and Treble, respectively). Present in other games were the robots Punk, Ballade, Enker ("enka" being a type of Japanese folk music), and the Elvis-esque King. This is largely dropped in the subsequent Mega Man X series, but reappears in Mega Man X5, where the bosses are all named after members of the band Guns 'n Roses, although this was added for the US release.
    • The Battle Network series uses a computer theme for its main characters (Net/Site or Lan/Hub, Mail, and so on), but contains a nod to the old theme in the third game — the master of the Ura Internet and penultimate Very Definitely Final Boss, Serenade.
    • Also lampshaded in the Battle Network manga, where in an omake the author decides to make Blues a girlfriend named Rhythm. Rhythm and Blues!
    • Back to the original Mega Man, the Stardroids from Mega Man 5 for the Game Boy Color were named after planets.
  • The characters of the Guilty Gear games, and sometimes even their attacks, are named after rock groups and artists, especially Queen. Sol Badguy, for example, is named after Freddie Mercury's Solo album, Mr. Bad Guy. Sol's real name also happens to be Frederick. Similarly, the character Axl both resembles and is named for Axl Rose (at the prime of his career).
    • Not to mention Sol's favorite band, according to his profile, is Queen. Go figure.
  • In Freelancer, a videogame set in outer space within the Sirius sector, most of the planets, stations and areas have Terran names, according to their country's Fantasy Counterpart Culture. Liberty, for example, has Planet Houston, Baltimore Shipyard and the New York system, Bretonia has Planet Manchester, Glasgow Outpost and the Southampton Shipyard, Kusari has the Kansai Research Facility and the Shinjuku Station, while Rheinland has the Dresden system, Planet Stuttgart, and the Battleship Westfalen. The Border Worlds are usually called <Greek letter>-<Number>, the Zoner bases are usually called Freeport <Number>, the non-Zoner bases in the Border Worlds are named after islands like Helgoland, Curaçao, Falkland and Hawaii, and the Outcast and Corsair places have Hispanic names such as Toledo, Cádiz or Moctezuma.
    • According to the backstory the major factions were refugees from a cataclysmic war on Earth and settlers often name stuff after what they're familiar with. Witness just about every city and state name in the northeastern US, also known as New England.
  • The four elemental fiends in Final Fantasy IV were originally named for demons from Dante's Inferno — Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Rubicante. Space limitations in the ROM, as well as the fact that the translators didn't really speak English all that well, caused their names to get changed in the English translation, to Milon, Kainazzo, Valvalis, and Rubicant, respectively.
    • Actually, it was a display issue. The original SNES release used a fixed-width font and could only display eight letters for an enemy name. Later fan hacks added a variable-width font proving that the full names could be stored and displayed. The primary translator was also a native English speaker, but was apparently unfamiliar with the Divine Comedy, which combined with the lack of distinction between "B" and "V", "C" and "K", and "L" and "R" in Japanese fouled even those names which would have fit. All four are also corrected in the official GBA re-release.
  • In the Kingdom Hearts series, the members of Organization XIII each have an "X" in their name. Not only this, but Their names are a letter scrambled version of the names they used to have when they were complete humans, with an "X" added in there somewhere. Not to mention the "Sky, Land, Sea" motif of three main characters names and the music theme of the 'bell' type Heartless (Red Nocturne, Blue Rhapsody, Yellow Opera and Green Requiem in the first game and Chain of Memories; Crimson Jazz, Silver Rock, and Emerald Blues in Kingdom Hearts II).
    • Also, the names of Sora, Riku, and Kairi stand for Air, Land, and Water respectively. The three main characters of the upcoming Birth by Sleep game will follow this pattern, with the names of Ven, Terra, and Aqua.
  • The Koopalings of the Super Mario Bros games are all named after popular musicians at the time: Iggy Koopa is named after Iggy Pop, Lemmy comes from Lemmy Kilmister of the band Motorhead, Ludwig Von is obviously named after Ludwig van Beethoven (sharing his hairstyle), Roy is named after Roy Orbison (sharing his horn-rimmed glasses), Morton Koopa Jr. is named after Morton Downey Jr. (and also has a star over one eye, probably referencing the band KISS) and Wendy O. takes her name from Wendy O. Williams. Larry Koopa's name is unclear, but some speculate Larry King despite him being a talk-show host (although Morton Downey Jr. also hosted a talk-show himself)...
    • Not the only time. All Luigi's Mansion boos are pun names based of words with 'Boo' added to, and all dragons have the word 'Tail' after their names.
    • In addition, the fortress bosses from Super Mario World are called Reznor, after Trent Reznor of course.
  • As befitting of his serpentine nature, Orochi from the Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors crossover Warriors Orochi names his demonic generals after breeds of snakes (Copperhead, Diamondback, etc.)
  • The Human Aliens from the planet Balmar in several of the Super Robot Wars games, virtually without exception, have names taken from the Bible, from Judeo-Christian myth, or other Hebrew words. In particular, there is a whole series of clones who are named after the Seven Churches in the Book of Revelation.
  • Another Western example is from the FreeSpace series of space sims:
    • Terran ships get their names from Greek mythology. Apollo, Athena, Medusa, Hercules, Orion, etc.
    • Vasudan ships have an ancient Egyptian theme: Horus, Serapis, Hatshepsut, Aten, Anubis...
    • Shivan ships have a demonic motif: Seraphim, Basilisk, Lucifer, Sathanas, Ravana, Lilith, and so on. There's also a destroyer class that's simply called "Demon".
    • The first game designated Terran wings with Greek letters (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.). Enemy Terrans were Traitor Alpha, Traitor Beta, etc. Vasudan wings were Zodiac signs (Aries, Virgo, Libra...) and Shivan wings were Hindu gods (Brahma, Vishnu, Durga...). The second game simplified this by simply designating allied wings by Greek letters and enemy wings by Zodiac signs, regardless of race.
  • In the English translation of Trauma Center, all the patients have names that are a mix and match of the characters and actors of House, Scrubs, and ER, three popular medical shows.
  • The first installment of the Disgaea named quite a few of its primary characters after volcanos, including Etna, Vulcanus (From Vulcano, Italy), Maderas (La Madera), Krichevskoy (Kliuchevskoi), and Lamington. Laharl is named after a type of pyroclastic mudslide that occurs after eruptions.
  • Reversed in the Onimusha series of games, in which the names of the major demon antagonists (excepting Onimusha 2 for some reason) are all taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
  • In Final Fantasy XII, all the guns you can equip are named after stars (Altair, Vega and Sirius to name a few).
  • The Legend Of Zelda series has a father and daughter named Marin and Tarin, and another, similar pair named Malon and Talon.
  • In the obscure Game Boy RPG Great Greed (also known as Vitamina Kingdom), all the friendly NPCs and regions have food-related names. For example, the five princesses are named Candy, Cup Cake, Truffle, Gum Drop, and Citrus.
  • Most of the important characters of the Devil May Cry series have names based on The Divine Comedy — Dante, Vergil, Trish (shortened from Beatrice), Lucia *coughcoughwhatareyoutalkingabout* and Mary aka Lady. Seven of the demon types that appear in the third game are named for the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Most of the Humongous Mecha controlled by important characters in the Zone Of The Enders games are named after Egyptian deities.
  • Pretty much every breed of Noise in The World Ends With You has a music reference in its name. Each different animal type actually has its own self-contained theme; for example, penguins are all pop-music themed and wolves are rock-themed.
  • Every single gym leader in Pokemon manages to have a Japanese name that is both the name of a plant or fruit, and has something to do with their Pokemon type. The English names are simply type references.
    • Meanwhile, the professors' Japanese and English names refer to plants. Even "Ash" and "Gary Oak" are references to trees.
    • The first generation of games had color-themed town names (playing the games on the SNES's Super Game Boy would yield a different colour scheme for each town based on the name, allegedly); the second generation, plants; and the third and fourth, widespread nature-themed portmanteaus.
      • The dropping of the colour themed names was actually lampshaded by the description of the first town in Ruby/Sapphire Emerald: 'The town that can't be painted any hue!'.
    • And, lest we forget, the original Legendary Birds were Artic UNO, Zap DOS and Mol TRES.
  • Pac-Man's ghosts were named Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. Additionally, in the original Japanese Puck-Man, the ghosts had alternate nicknames of Macky, Micky, Mucky, and Mocky.
  • Characters in Eternal Sonata, except Chopin and other real-world people, are named after musical terms. In addition, each main chapter is named after one of Chopin's famous works.
  • In Leisure Suit Larry 6, all of the girls Larry has a chance at scoring with are named after alcoholic beverages, from Char Donnay to Thunderbird.
    • Also, in the dating game at the very beginning of Larry 6, the female contestants all have names that start with Charla, like Charla Magne and Charla Tan.
  • And in Leisure Suit Larry 7, all of the girls have names that reference female Hollywood stars, such as Drew Baringmore and Jamie Lee Coitus.
  • Wild Arms 2 also drew inspiration from the Divine Comedy, as the terrorist organization the party fights through the first arc is named "Cocytus" (the ninth and lowest circle of Hell), with its four main generals named after the concentric zones within: Caina, Antenora, Judecca, and Ptolomea.
  • In House Of The Dead, the various boss monsters are named after Tarot cards of the Major Arcana. Some of these names fit the description of the zombie (Strength from House of the Dead 2 is a hulking giant armed with a chainsaw), others not so much (Chariot from the first game is an armored humanoid with a spear)
  • In Final Fantasy X, the main couple is named oppositely: Tidus is a romanization of "Tidaa", which is Okinawan for "sun"; Yuna, on the other hand, is Okinawan for "night".
  • How did nobody get on Metal Gear Solid on this one? The villains of MGS, members of a group called FOXHOUND, are all named after animals. The majority of the bosses in MGS 3 are named after the emotions they "carry into battle," such as The Pain, who is covered in hornets. Furthermore, in MGS 4, The Beauty and the Beast unit takes this trope one step further, combining the animal names of FOXHOUND and the emotions of the Cobra Unit (for example, combining Vulcan Raven and The Fury to make Raging Raven.)
    • The theme naming for Raiden is explicitly spelled by the evil AI during MGS2's Gainax Ending. Raiden was the name of a type of Japanese plane in World War II, and "Jack" was the American nickname for that same plane. With about as much subtlety, his girlfriend was named Rose. In the previous game there was a Dave, a Hal, a Frank, a Naomi, and a Miller, and there was a submarine called the Discovery.
  • The two main Sufficiently Advanced Aliens factions in the MMORPG Tabula Rasa are the Eloh and Neph. Elohim and Nephilim are divine beings described in the Hebrew Bible — which makes some sense given that they're the Precursors.
  • In killer7, the names of the three spirits Iwazaru, Mizaru, and Kikazaru in Japanese mean 'speak no evil', 'see no evil', and 'hear no evil' respectively.
  • Though the player can change the character's name at the start of the game, Ryuu in Breath of Fire III is named for his lineage, in that he is a member of an ancient dragon species called The Brood, and Ryuu literally means "dragon".
    • Early on in the game, the player is asked by a mysterious cloaked figure for assistance, and after nobly accepting the job without first asking for details the man reveals his name to be "Loki", which should immediately set off red flags in any Genre Savvy player's head. It turns out that his "job" for our heroes ends up turning the starting town against them and making them a target for a dangerous crime syndicate.
    • Case in point, don't trust anyone named for entities renowned for causing mischief, death, discord, or going back on deals.
  • Tales Of Hearts has its main characters named after minerals: Shing (last name Meteoryte), Kohak, Hisui, Innes, Beryl, and Kunzite. For those of you who missed it, Kohak and Hisui are sister and brother, and their names are Amber and Jade respectively in Japanese.

Comic Books
  • In the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie comic book series, many relations to the main characters are named after historical figures: members of the Brotherhood of Guardians are named after peaceful revolutionaries and/or physicists/philosophers, same as their fire-ant compatriots (Rembrandt, Sojourner, Hawking, Archimedes, etc.), while Tails' father and uncle are named Amadeus and Merlin, respectively. Similarly, Knuckles' mother seems to have an affinity of naming her children after body parts (Knuckles and his half-brother Kneecapeon "Kneecaps" Mace).
  • The names of characters in Asterix are all puns; one of the reasons why the English-language version became popular was the art the translators showed in creating English puns out of French puns. Also, most of the names in Asterix have the same ending, usually different for each culture the characters are from. Gaul names finish with -ix (Asterix, Fulliautomatix), Gaul female names finish with -a (Falballa, Bacteria, Influenza), Roman names end with -us (Squareonthehypothenus, Detritus), Briton names end with -ax (Notax, Hiphiphurrax), Hispanic names finish with -on and often have some Spanish parts (Soupaloignon y Crouton), and so on.
  • The villainous robots/cyborgs in Metal Guardian Faust are named after Santa's reindeer, and have name-appropriate enhancements (Vixen has robotic tails, Blitz generates Electro Magnetic Pulses, Dasher is incredibly fast, etc.).
  • In The Sandman, all the Endless have names that start with D — Dream, Death, Desire, Destruction, Destiny, Delirium, and Despair.
    • The Discworld parody versions had names beginning with "S": Sleep (Dream) and Snuff (Death) are mentioned; presumably Sulk (Despair) also exists.
  • In the 3rd Annual issue of ALF, Gordon relates how he met the New Age Melmutant Abstract Turtles, a parody of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, if that wasn't blindingly obvious. They, too, were named for artists: Calder (after Alexander, Mondrian (after Piet, Picasso (after ...you know, or I hope you do, and Pollock (after Jackson). Each turtle's weapon's ability was related to their namesake's most well-known art's style (boomerangs that hang villains from mobiles, a t-square that creates abstract geometric walls, a paintbrush that turns villains into cubist creatures, and a bucket of paint that... splatters villains, respectively).
  • Attempted in New X-Men but accidentally subverted at the last second when a different writer took over the series. Greg Morrison had intended to name the five Stepford Cuckoos — who are essentially younger clones of Emma Frost, created from ova harvested by scientists while she was comatose — so that the first letter of each of their names would spell "spice." However, he'd only given the names of four of them during his run (Sophie, Phoebe, Celeste, and Esme) and he hadn't told anyone about the Easter Egg, so Chuck Austin unknowingly dubbed the fifth Cuckoo Mindee, accidentally messing up Grant's intentions.
  • In the earlier issues of Marvel Adventures: Avengers, there was something of a naming theme going on in some of the issues. "Finding Zemo", "A Not-So-Beautiful Mind", "Attack of the Fifty Foot Girl"(complete with an obvious Homage on the cover to the poster), "The Avenging Seven", "From Russia With HATE", and probably a few more.

Western Animation
  • The American cartoon Kids Next Door does this to some extent. The names of the main characters are a reference to their numbers. Nigel Uno / Numbuh 1 (uno = 1, Spanish), Hoagie Gilligan Jr. / Numbuh 2 (Jr. after a name = 2nd in the family to use such name; also, Gilligan was second in command of the Minnow on Gilligans Island), Kuki Sanban / Numbuh 3 ("sanban" = third, Japanese), Wallabee Beetles / Numbuh 4 (The Beatles = Fab Four), Abigail Lincoln / Numbuh 5 (Abraham Lincoln = US $5 bill), and the first names of Numbuhs 1, 3 and 4 are a reference to their country of origin (England, Japan, and Australia respectively), the first name of Numbuh 2 is another name for a club sandwich (perhaps a reference to his size), but the first name of Numbuh 5 is just a name, unrelated to her French national origin. (Although it does resemble Abe, as in Abraham Lincoln.)
  • The main girls in Trollz are named for jewels: Amethyst, Ruby, Topaz, Sapphire, and Onyx.
  • Winx Club: Except for Bloom (whose search for her power source is a major thread in S1) and Layla (the newcomer in S2), the Winx girls have names that recall their power source (that is, the theme of their attacks): Stella (sun and moon, although most of her attacks are solar), Musa (music), Tecna (technology), and Flora (plants).
  • All the characters on Chowder are named after food. (Chowder, Panini, Schnitzel, Gazpacho, etc.)
  • Many of the characters in Strawberry Shortcake are named for various desserts.
  • Almost every character in Kim Possible has an utterly puntastic name. The titular character ("impossible"), her sidekick Ron Stoppable ("unstoppable", though he often proves simply "stoppable"), and so on. Across the aisle is Shego (probably a take on "watch her go"), and her theme-named superhero siblings Hego (big tough He-Man type), Mego (self-centered), and Wego (multiplication powers... also probably twins, but with that power it's tough to judge). See also Lord Montey Fisk (AKA Monkey Fist... they really are), Senor Senior, Sr. and his son Senor Senior, Jr., DNAmy, and so on.
  • In Dexters Laboratory, Dee-Dee's two friends are named Leele and Meemee.
  • In Biker Mice From Mars, the Plutarkians are all named for cheeses — for example, Lawrence Limburger, who certainly lives up to his name.
  • On The Fairly OddParents, the Rogues Gallery of superhero The Crimson Chin are The Body of Evil, whose members are (naturally) all named for body parts: Bronze Kneecap, Golden Gut, Iron Lung, and Titanium Toenail, among others.
    • Then there's the Crimson Chin himself. Voiced by Jay Leno doing a Weird Al Effect. His real name is Charlies Hampton Indigo and his initials are C.H.In, it kinds of gives away his secret identity.
  • The main characters in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after famous Italian artists from the Renaissance.
  • Odd one out time: The penguins of 321 Penguins are named Zidgel, Fidgel, Midgel... and Kevin.
  • Samurai Pizza Cats has two characters named after pizza toppings. In the japanese version there were three cats named Michael (after Michael Jackson), Madonna, and Prince (after Prince and Madonna).
  • As the above quote notes, Ben10. (At least Levin is an actual name.)
  • In a mixture of Theme Naming and Meaningful Name, Gargoyles had the titular characters choose names from their surroundings once they awoke in modern times. They chose their names from landmarks and districts in Manhattan: Hudson, Brooklyn, Lexington, Broadway and Bronx. Normally they do not have names, except with characters like Goliath. The Pack had names after wild canines: Fox, Wolf, Jackal, Dingo, and Hyena (OK, a hyena isn't actually a canine, but they look and behave similarly). The cyborg gargoyle was called Coldstone, with two robotic gargoyles Coldsteel and Coldfire.
    • Several of the other Gargoyle clans revealed later in the show also practiced theme naming, being all named after gems or angels or the like.
  • In Avatar The Last Airbender, The Hero Aang and his initial Arch Enemy / The Rival Zuko had names on polar opposite ends of the alphabet.
    • Also, Zuko may have been named after Zhoukoudian, a site in China that has the first evidence of humans controlling fire.
  • The 1960s/70s British stop-go animation children's program The Herbs and its spin off The Adventures of Parsley, had in addition to the eponymous lion, characters called Dill, Basil, Sage, etc.
  • Utilized in the Nightmare Fuel Dr. Seuss movie Halloween is Grinch Night with the Who family of Josiah, Mariah, and Uchariah (unrelated to the "homeschooled" family on Saturday Night Live's recent season premier)
  • All of the Wombles in The Wombles are named after locations in Great Uncle Bulgaria's atlas: thus we have Orinoco, Tomsk, and Wellington, to name but three.
    • For the revival Bulgaria's maps must have shunk in the wash from an atlas to an A-Z as the new wombles are named almost exclusivly after London Buroughs.
  • Transformers usually have meaningful names based on their altmodes, with the result that members of a given team usually have related names; for example, the Aerialbots all have flight-related names, while the Stunticons all have driving-related names. Even so, there are some definite theme named teams in the series. Dinobots tends to have names that start with S (Slag, Sludge, Snarl, and Swoop; Grimlock is the Odd Name Out). Autobot Headmasters tend to have head- or brain-related names: Chromedome, Hardhead, Highbrow, Brainstorm, and Cerebros.
  • In King Of The Hill, Bill Dauterive's seductive cousin and cousins-in-law are named Rose, Lily, and Violetta. (For additional theming, each wears a color suggestive of the flower she is named for.)

Literature
  • In the Discworld books, all trolls are named in some way after rocks or minerals. Female trolls tend to have the names of precious stones, whereas males tend to be named after more mundane minerals. (One book, however, features a troll called Big Jim Beef. This is explained as a "macho" nickname, similar to a human being called Rocky.)
    • Pratchett — naturally — also spoofs theme naming with the Carter family. The daughters are named Hope, Chastity, Prudence, and Charity, whereas the sons received the names Anger, Jealousy, Bestiality, and Covetousness.
      • He couldn't resist the irony, though — Hope is a depressive and Chastity is making a career in Ankh-Morpork's seedier districts, while Anger is a calm and reasonable fellow and Bestiality is known for his kindness towards animals.
    • In Thief of Time, after the Auditors take human form en masse, they name themselves after various colors, possibly a nod towards Reservoir Dogs. Since there's so many of them, they're hard pressed for available colors, such as one furiously arguing that y