Meaningful Name / Live-Action Films

aka: Film

In films, the name of a character can at times foreshadow a deeper connection to the plot itself.

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• In the live-action adaptation of 101 Dalmatians, in addition to the aforementioned Cruella De Vil, there's also Mr. Skinner, who skins animals for their fur to give to Cruella.
• 8 Ball Clown: 8-Ball's name is more than likely a nod to his heroin addiction, 8-Ball being the nickname for the typical amount heroin is purchased and administered in.

A-E

This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your examples in the right place. Thanks!

• The police chief from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is called Lois Einhorn ("one-horn" = unicorn). If you've seen the film you can't help but notice the irony.
• The title character in All About Eve. On the one hand, her name makes her sound like an everywoman, which makes her easier to sympathize with. On the other hand, it allows the title to be taken two ways: the film is all about the character, but it also deals with women in general and what it means to "be a woman" in contemporary society.
• In American Beauty, the provocative underage girl Angela has the surname Hayes which sounds exactly the same as fictions most famous underage provocateur Lolita Haze.
• American Justice: The protagonist is named Jack Justice. He's a cop.
• And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird!: The robot is named Newman because he'll be a "new man" when they get his artificial intelligence working. It turns out to have a double meaning when the robot is used to allow Matt to come back from the grave and interact with his family again.
• In Armored, Palmer is a former gangbanger who experienced a Faith Heelturn. A palmer was a medieval European pilgrim who had visited the Holy Land, and they were regarded as holy men.
• The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! franchise gives us Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene. He's a bad guy.
• In Await Further Instructions, a family find themselves trapped in their house, with their only contact to the outside world being a television that displays increasingly ominous warning and instructions - a line of dialogue eventually reveals that the family are the Milgrams, and they live on Stanford Street - both names are references to well-known psychology experiments related to power and obedience to authority, the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment.
• In Awake (2007), one member of the protagonist's surgical team is a young British woman named Penny Carver.
• In Back to the Future, the outrageously strict principal Mr. Strickland (and how!).
• In Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III, the irritating Needles.
• In Be Cool: Exemplified by "Sin" LaSalle (played by Cedric The Entertainer), who will go to any lengths, up to and including murder, to get what is owed to him... or just to get even with those who disrespect him.
• In Better Off Dead, the Jerk Jock antagonist? His name is Roy Stalin
• Bicentennial Man:
  • The NDR series are called that because they are a NDR-oid model robots. This is not present in the original Isaac Asimov story because he saw all of his robots as "man-like", with a few exceptions.
  • Galatea, the Fembot, is named after a story in Classical Mythology; Pygmalion was a sculptor who carved Galatea from stone and fell in love with her. Aphrodite brought the statue to life so that they could be together. At the ends of the film, it's hinted that Galatea has become self-aware as well.
• In Big Fat Liar, perpetual liar Jason Shepherd has his English paper stolen by Hollywood executive Marty Wolf and Jason isn't believed when he explains this. Their last names refer to Aesop's fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".
• Black Lightning (2009): Kuptsov (Merchant) is an ironic name for an amoral businessman.
• Black Swan's protagonist is named Nina, a Russian name that means "little girl." Lily, meanwhile, sounds like Odile, the black swan in the ballet, and Lillith, a demonic seductress.
• Blade Runner 2049 has a beautifully simple yet effective use of this with the two main female characters’ names. Luv, the intense Number Two of the antagonist Wallace and Joi the sweet Hologram girlfriend of the protagonist K. Joi as you would be expect by her name represents unconditional bliss and happiness as the literal and figurative source of joy in K’s life and her own happiness at being treated as “real”. Luv on other hand like her namesake is passionate, cruel, impatient, forceful (both stabbing and kissing K) and relentless. This comes to a head when both artificial women come face to face and “Luv kills Joi”. A sentiment rooted within the philosophy of the franchise.
• Blood of the Tribades is set in a village called Bathory, which is inhabited entirely by vampires and was founded by a vampire called Bathor. Both the village and its founder are meant to sound much like Elizabeth Bathory, a real-life Hungarian noblewoman and serial killer whose story became attached to vampire folklore. This foreshadows a plot twist at the end of the movie: the male-dominated cult of Bathor keep referring to their savior with male pronouns, but she turns out to actually be a woman. In a more minor case, the credits reveal that a minor character who is killed while bathing is named Bathsheba, and she is one of a few vampires with Biblical names involved in a vampire cult that has an obvious similarity to Christianity.
• The Blues Brothers begins with "Joliet" Jake Blues being released from Joliet Correctional Center.
  • Not to mention he and his brother have formed a band to play blues music...
• The Boy Who Cried Werewolf: Varcolac, a name from Romanian folklore that can refer to (among other things) a werewolf. Somewhat appropriate for the servant of a werewolf, like Madame Varcolac is here.
• Bram Stoker's Dracula. When Harker shows him a portrait of his father, Dracula describes him : "The Order of the Dracul. The Dragon.", and explains that his forefathers belonged to this "ancient society" which protected Christianity against Muslim Ottomans, and that "we, Draculs, have a right to be proud". The scene skips the meaning of -a in Dracula though.
• Broker: Woo-seong means "winged star". His mother, So-yeong says she gave him the name in the hopes that he gets to rise up high.
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier:
  • The name "Winter Soldier" has at least three levels of meaning unrelated to how it was chosen in-universe. Not only can it be taken to refer to how the character spent most of his time in cryostasis, it's also a reference to the real-world Winter Soldier Investigation (intended to challenge US military policy in Vietnam), which in turn was a reference to Thomas Paine's quote about how "the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot" would turn their backs on their country when it asked a lot of them, while presumably a corresponding "winter soldier" would stand up for the US even in dire circumstances, appropriate for an American WWII veteran who nearly died for his country and is now trying to resist repeated brainwashing.
  • Like his comics counterpart, The Falcon has the civilian name Sam Wilson. Samuel Wilson was the name of a meat packer who was allegedly the inspiration for Uncle Sam.
• Lilith, from Case 39. This doesn't need any guesswork.
• Cherry Falls is a Slasher Movie about a killer who attacks virginal teens, so the kids are all rushing to disqualify themselves by getting it on with each other. In the town of Cherry Falls. Virginia. Did you spot the meaningful name yet?
• In Chicago, the only two innocent characters in the musical have names that imply that they are fools:
  • Hunyak, the only wrongly convicted prisoner, and the only one to be executed. "Honyock" is an ethnic slur that was popular in America from the 1880s through the 1950s. It is derived from a Hungarian word meaning (among other things) "simpleminded" and "loser." Mostly directed at Central-Eastern Europeans.
  • Amos, whom Billy calls "Andy" when he steps down from the witness stand. This is a reference to Amos 'n' Andy, a race comedy radio series originating from Chicago radio station WMAQ beginning in 1928. Most of the series' male characters were performed by two white comedians who had worked in minstrel shows on vaudeville. In the series, Amos was a schemer and Andy was innocent and a bit simpleminded (this is a happy accident as the name Amos is a carryover from the original play and silent movie which both predated Amos 'n' Andy).
• Crematoria from The Chronicles of Riddick, a planet where anyone unlucky enough to get caught in the sunlight is incinerated.
• The central character in Clerks has the unusual first name of Dante. Work, and life in general by extension, is hell for him.
• Click:
  • The Angel of Death is named Morty.
  • Also, the main character's last name is Newman, implying his change over the course of the film to literally become a "New man".
• Hud (Head-Up Display), the camera-wielding POV character from Cloverfield.
• In Closely Watched Trains, there's a train dispatcher and The Casanova Hubička, which means ‘a little kiss’ in Czech.
• Cloud Atlas:
  • Two of the Corrupt Corporate Executives of Seaboard in the Luisa Rey story have the last names "Hooks" and "Wiley".
  • Sixsmith partially inspired Frobisher's creation (smithing) of the Cloud Atlas Sextet (a piece written for six players).
  • Jocasta, the composer Vyvyan Ayrs's wife. In Greek Mythology, the wife of King Laios of Thebes and mother of Oedipus. In the film, Depraved Bisexual Robert Frobisher (son figure) makes love with Jocasta (mother figure), the wife of Vyvyan (father figure)
  • A "meronym" means something that is part of a whole.
  • "Ayrs" sounds like "airs": an air is, quite simply, a musical composition.
• Most of the characters in Clue. Mr. Boddy is the Designated Victim.
• In The Comebacks, Lambeau Fields is a college football coach. Lambeau Field is the Green Bay Packers' home field. One of his players is the talented receiver Aceal Tare, pronounced a-SEAL ta-REE, who has a long successful future ahead of him unless he suffers a freak debilitating injury. Coach Fields repeatedly mispronounces his name as "ACL tear", a serious injury that often ruins sports careers. You can probably see where this is going.
• Constantine (2005):
  • Beeman is obsessed with insects and dies by being infested with them.
  • Hennessy is a heavy drinker and is killed by being made to drink himself to death.
• Contracted: BJ has a tattoo of "Abaddon" on his hand, and says "Abaddon's coming" at the end of his rant calling for humanity's destruction. "Abaddon" literally means "destruction" in Hebrew, and is given to an angel in the Book of Revelation who brings a plague of locusts against humanity, and sometimes also a bottomless pit in which the dead dwell, both very appropriate to invoke.
• All the characters of Cube are named after prisons. Quentin is named after San Quentin State Prison in California, Holloway after the Holloway Prison in London, Kazan after the prison in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. Rennes is named after a prison in Rennes, Britanny, France, Alderson after the prison in Alderson, West Virginia, and Leaven and Worth after the prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. The characters themselves reflect the prisons in their traits. Kazan (the autistic man) is a disorganized prison. Rennes (the "mentor") pioneered many of today's prison policies. Quentin (the policeman) is known for brutality. Holloway is a women's prison. Alderson is a prison where isolation is a common punishment. Leavenworth runs on a rigid set of rules (Leaven's mathematics), and the new prison is corporately owned and built (Worth, hired as an architect).
• In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the ape Koba was likely named after Josef Stalin's pre-Revolutionary alias. There are certain similarities in character traits.
• Mr. Madson in Dead Again. He is quite mad, and kills on behalf of his mother.
• Dead in Tombstone has Guerrero de la Cruz, which is Spanish for "Warrior of the Cross". Guerrero is a warrior, and he bears a inverted cross in his chest.
• Deadtime Stories: Volume 2: In "The Gorge''—a story about survival cannibalism—it is probably no coincidence that Donna's name is a homophone for Donner, the leader of the most infamous case of survival cannibalism in US history.
• In Desktop Desperadoes, The animated protagonist's name is Pointer. This derives from his physical appearance which was influenced by the pointed graphic used to represent the position of the mouse on any giving desktop. Originally his earlier name was to be "Mouse" but that was withdrawn through fear of confusing the audience as Pointer's design is about as far from a literal mouse as you could possibly conceive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc1tr1cwiZs
• Die Hard:
  • The FBI agents named Johnson. It's a generic name fitting faceless government suits, It's probably also a penis reference, especially since they're called Big Johnson and Little Johnson in the credits.
  • The Jerkass reporter is actually named Dick. Go figure.
• In The Dirty Dozen, a squad of Boxed Crooks is tasked with assaulting a chateau full of Nazi officials and assassinate them, even if it costs them their lives. Maggott is the worst of the bunch, a misogynist rapist serial killer who is revolting enough to live up to his name. During the mission he runs off into the house to torture and stab a random woman to death and then shoots at his teammates when they try to stop him, alerting the Germans to the attack and forcing the squad to kill him and then improvise the rest of the operation.
• Doctor in Love:
  • Sally Nightingale is a nurse who shares her surname with a famous nurse by the name of Florence.
  • An Ambiguously Gay doctor's name is Dr. Flower.
• In Dracula Untold, Vlad is from the "House of Dracul" or House of the Dragon, from whence "Dracula" is derived. Although it can be translated to "son of the Devil," "Dracula" actually means "son of the Dragon". Vlad says the dragon symbolizes a protector of the innocent, but the Elder Vampire says it stands for the Devil (as in the Bible). By the end of the film Vlad does claim to be the "son of the Devil". In real life, his father Vlad II was a member of the anti-Ottoman Order of the Dragon, hence they were known as Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon) and Vlad Dracula (Vlad son-of-Dracul).
• Dr. Strangelove has General Buck Turgidson and General Jack D. Ripper. There's also Colonel "Bat" Guano, President Merkin Muffley, and Premier Kissoff. Strangelove is also a reference to the war-as-sex motif throughout the film.
• The two protagonists in the slapstick comedy Dumb and Dumber are named Harold and Lloyd, a reference to slapstick pioneer Harold Lloyd.
• The computer in The Dungeonmaster is called X-CaliBR8, a play on the name of the sword Excalibur.
• Edge of Tomorrow has Major Cage, who's locked in his time-loop, and Rita Vrataski (possibly from the slavic "vrata", meaning "door"), who shows him the way out.
• Elysium was heaven in Greek mythology. Sure enough, The Hero dies there.
• Equilibrium: "Libria", the name of the totalitarian state, is close to "Libra", balance in Latin, evoking what they claim as their aim-social harmony. So does Equilibrium, which in the film is the center where the emotion-suppressing Prozium has been issued to citizens.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — Clementine Oh my darlin' Clementine...You are lost and gone forever...
• All four characters of Ex Machina get meaningful (plot-relevant) names.
  • Caleb has multiple possible meanings in Hebrew- from "dog", which fits how he is almost Nathan's "pet" to "as if it understands" which fits how he apparently understands Ava's "emotions", to "a basket or a cage with contents" which mirrors his subject Ava's caged status and his own state at the end of the movie.
  • Nathan means "gift" or "gift of God", which is fitting for a man gifted with the talent to create artificial intelligence.
  • Ava is a variant of "Eva" or "Eve", meaning "life" - and the whole question is whether or not Ava is "alive" in the sense of having a conscience.
  • And then there's Kyoko, whose name has several possible meanings, one of which is "mirror child", which is fitting for an android who reflects her creator's taste in women.
• Extreme Measures: Burke and Hare, the dirty cops working for Myrick, share their last names with the two infamous Scottish murderers that killed people then provided their cadavers for medical research, similarly to the film (although the actual pair's motives were far less altruistic).

F-L

• Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Ferris Bueller. It just makes sense for a Fun Personified con artist to have a name that calls to mind a carnival. Ferris also means "made of iron" — quite fitting given the universe's tendency to bounce right off of him.
• Filibus: The Baroness de Troixmonde does indeed live in "three worlds" (trois mondes in French): she has identities as a local posh lady, a visiting posh count, and the Sky Pirate Filibus.
• Final Destination 3 has characters named Ashley and Ashlyn, whose deaths involving heavy burning by tanning beds.
  • the first movie goes for a theme of naming characters after directors known for their work in the horror genre, but at least one character's name is significant beyond that: Tod is named after Tod Browning (director of Freaks and Dracula), but "tod" is also German for "death", and he's the first character to die in a film where the plot revolves around people dying in supernatural freak accidents after cheating death.
• The villain of First Knight is named Prince Malagant. He was once a part of the Round Table, but turned evil, making him "malignant."
• The less-than-genetically "perfect" hero of Gattaca is named Vincent Freeman; the man whose identity and "second to none" genetic code he assumes is named Jerome Eugene ("good genes") Morrow. Irene Cassini's surname is taken from a space probe which was, at the time of filming, on its way to Saturn's moon Titan. In the film, Vincent is preparing to embark on a manned space mission to Titan.
• Ferriman in Ghost Ship, who is an infernal accountant collecting enough souls so he can ferry them to Hell and please his masters.
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: The crazy scientist performing illicit nanobot experiments happens to be named Dr. Mindbender.
  • Also Cobra Commander's real name is "Rex", which means "King".
• The Godzilla series and other Toho kaiju films have this in spades.
  • Godzilla himself in Japan is the combination of the words "Goilla" and "kujira". His name now officially means "God incarnate".
  • Rodan's Japanese name, Radon, is adapted from "pteranodon," but was changed to Rodan for English-speaking markets so as to avoid confusion with the chemical element radon.
  • Mothra is just the Japanese word for "moth", "mosu", with the common kaiju name suffix "ra" on the end (thus, "Mosura", or "Mothra" in Western markets).
  • Ebirah's name is similar - "ebi" is Japanese for shrimp or lobster.
  • Minilla is a contraction of "Mini Godzilla."
  • Kumonga's name comes from the Japanese "kumo," meaning spider.
  • Hedorah comes from "hedoro," or sludge.
  • King Shisa/Ceasar/Seesar/Seeser takes his name from an old Okinawan legend, the Shisa.
  • Battra comes from "Battle Mothra." The original Japanese name, "Batora," came from "Bad Mothra," but the name was thought to be awkward to pronounce so Toho changed it to its final form.
  • Kamoebas (Kameba) comes from "kame," which is Japanese for turtle.
  • Anguirus (spelled "Angilas" in that film) is derived from the ankylosaurus, which it resembles (it's said to be an "angilosaurus," which is pronounced roughly the same in Japanese).
  • Zilla's name in Japan is Jira, which is part of the word kujira, which means whale.
  • Kiryu's name is derived from the words kikai or ki ("metal"/"machine") and ryu ("dragon"); thus Kiryu combined means either "metal dragon" or "machine dragon".
  • King Ghidorah's name is a play on the Japanese word for "hydra", hidora, and was also inspired by the appearance of the Yamata no Orochi (large, multi-headed serpent).
    • In his MonsterVerse continuity incarnation, his Multiple Head Case three heads are named Ichi, Ni and San, meaning One, Two and Three in Japanese and denoting the order of most to least intelligent head. The "King" in his name also carries special relevance with this incarnation, as he's initially only referred to as Ghidorah, the implication being that he only gains the name King Ghidorah when he successfully usurps Godzilla's kingship over the other Titans for a time.
  • See the folder further down for MonsterVerse examples.
• The Graduate: "Mrs. Robinson" (first name Lydia) was the name of the older, married woman with whom Branwell Brontë (the brother of Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, and Anne Brontë) had a notorious affair, while Benjamin Braddock shares Branwell's initials.
• In Heatwave, the leading developer of the Community-Threatening Construction project is named Houseman.
• High School (2010):
  • The drug dealer that Henry and Travis steal from is named Psycho Ed. True to his name, he is very intense, and physically confronts the two in their school about the drugs they stole from him.
  • One of Psycho Ed's friends is named Paranoid. Why is he called Paranoid?
  Paranoid: What? Why you wanna know, man?!'''
• Hot Fuzz:
  • The hero is named Nicholas Angel, his chubby partner is Butterman, the farmer with a large weapon stash is called Webley and many of the townsfolk have names associated with their jobs (the grocer is Skinner, the gardener is Tiller. Mr. Treacher is named after The Siege of Treacher's Farm, the novel on which Straw Dogs was based (there are repeated references to Straw Dogs throughout the film); the vicar is called Philip Shooter (P. Shooter); Eve Draper, the gossip, is a phonetic pun on "eavesdropper."
  • Word of God has also stated that the preservation of the old tradesman's names is not only for punnery, but also an indication of how deeply insular, reactionary and endogamous Sandford actually is.
• In Hot Shots! one of the characters is nicknamed "Deadmeat". He dies.
  • Another one is nicknamed "Washout". He doesn't take his treatment against walleye vision (and he is a pilot).
• The Hunger Games:
  • "Panem" means "bread," which is a reference to the Roman phrase "Bread and Circuses," which are the ways that a tyranny can keep its population under control. People from the capital have Roman names, another reference to the trope. Peeta the baker's name sounds like "pita," a type of bread. You could predict Seneca Crane's fate if you know anything about his namesake, the Roman Seneca the Younger. He was also forced to commit suicide by his superior, Emperor Nero.
  • As many species of cats are deadly hunters, we have Katniss who is pretty good at hunting herself.
• If You Believe: The protagonist's name is Susan Stone and she is a shrewish book editor. What could her heart be made of?
• Everybody in Inception, the most obvious being Ariadne, "The Architect" (or weaver) of the dream worlds. She is named for the character in Greek mythology who gives Theseus a ball of string to help him navigate the labyrinth. There's also Cobb, who cobbles together his crew, and his love Mal, which is a root word for bad, wrong or evil, as in malevolent. Yusuf is the Arabic form of the name "Joseph"; one Joseph in The Bible was known as a dream interpreter. Also, the various character's names add up to spell "DREAMS": Dom, Robert (Fisher), Eames, Ariadne/Arthur, Mal, Saito. You should have seen that coming.
  • There is also the fact that Eames is a medical man, i.e. Dr. Eames (remove the period and space and read it out loud).
• The Invitation (2022): Deville of course standing for "Devil", as a fitting name for a charming, seductive vampire.
• The lesbian bartender in Island of Death is named Leslie. Doubles as a Punny Name.
• The James Bond franchise is legendary for its female characters' names having obvious sexual subtext. Pussy Galore, anyone?
  • For Your Eyes Only has a subtle one in Bibi Dahl, a play on the Tennessee Williams play "Baby Doll".
  • Also, Auric Goldfinger, who is obsessed with gold.
• Needy from Jennifer's Body. You'll never guess what her defining personality trait is.
• Victoria Thorne, the prosecutor in the Apocalypse film series movie Judgment, which makes you wonder how she ever managed to get to the top of her profession.
• Jupiter Ascending:
  • Jupiter has the name of an extra-terrestrial body. Jupiter is also the name of the king of the gods, as Jupiter is the queen of the interstellar magnates. In-universe, her name is meaningful to her family as her father named her after his favorite planet, and she was born with Jupiter in Leo.
  • Stinger Apini is part bee. (Apinae is the subfamily for most bees in Taxonomy).
  • Caine is part canine. He's also a badass who starts out working for a bad guy, fitting with Name of Cain.
  • Kalique is said the same way as Caligula — the corrupt and decadent dictator.
  • Knock off the 'm' from Balem and you have Bale, as in evil and spite.
  • Abrasax is from Greek Mythology, the name itself refers to the order of the seven classical planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). In the context of the movie, it refers to how their dynasty "owns" all of the planets.
  • The elephant splice pilot is named Nesh, after the Hindu Ganesh.
  • Gugu Mbatha-Raw's character is a deer-splice and Titus' right-hand woman. Fittingly, her name is Famulus, which means "assistant or servant."
• The Swedish Jönssonligan series renamed all the characters from its Danish parent series, Olsen-banden, with some mundane names being swapped out with meaningful names:
  • Egon Olsen's counterpart Charles-Ingvar Jönsson usually gets nicknamed "Sickan" by his compatriots even though it annoys him. His actor, Gösta Ekman, has stated in interviews that he came up with the nickname because he found the idea of the character getting called a girl's name funny, and chose Sickan specifically as a play on his initials C-I. Sickan would go on to disguise himself in drag the most times out of the protagonists^note twice in his five appearances in the original film series, once in the first out of two licensed games, so it fits that he would be the only one with a Gender-Blender Name.
  • Benny Frandsen's counterpart, Ragnar Vanheden, has a last name that doesn't exist in real life. However, it is a mildly corrupted form of the word "vanheder", meaning dishonour; very fitting for a con man who occasionally takes on fake personas for his cons.
  • Benny's brother "Dynamite"-Harry became Ragnar's cousin in the adaption, and consequently gained the last name Krut (sometimes Kruth). This is a legitimate last name that also happens to be a homophone with explosive powders.
  • One of the characters created specifically for Jönssonligan is a psychiatrist named Max Adrian Busé who eventually joins the main gang. This can be interpreted in two ways that both foreshadow his career change:
    • His first names as initials and last name spell out M.A. Busé, alluding to the literary character Dr. Mabuse.
    • "Buse" without an accent on the E literally translates to hooligan, but is also commonly used to describe comedic, often buffoonish criminals in fiction.
• In The Kid Who Would Be King, Alex's knights are Bedders, Lance, and Kaye, each named after King Arthur's knights - Bedevere, Lancelot, and Kay.
• Kingsman: The Secret Service:
  • The codenames of the Kingsmen. Galahad was one of the most pure and devoted of the Knights of the Round Table, and never gave up his quest to find the Holy Grail. Merlin was not a knight, but used his powers to help out the Knights of the Round Table behind the scenes. And Arthur was a noble leader that sought to ensure the survival of the order but died by the hands of someone he trained.
  • Roxy Morton. "Roxanne" is the Greek form of the Persian or Bactrian name روشنک (Roshanak) which means "bright" or "dawn". The first could interpret her high intelligence, while the latter alludes to her becoming the new Lancelot.
  • The target of the Neuro-Linguistic programming test, Lady Montague-Herring, truly lives up to her name given the traditional colors for the House of Montague.
• In The Little Stranger:
  • The name of the wealthy family at the heart of the story is "Ayres", which sounds conspicuously like "heirs".
  • Roderick (Ayres) shares the name with Roderick Usher of The Fall of the House of Usher — another man fallen victim to a decaying ancestral home.
  • Michael Faraday is famous for his contributions to the studies of electricity, specifically electromagnetic induction. The protagonist, Dr. Faraday, treats Rod's leg with electrolysis and, more importantly, serves as a conductor to the supernatural activity at Hundreds Hall.
• Level 16: Vestalis Academy, a Boarding School of Horrors where the girls must follow ideals of "clean" behavior and there are no windows to make them more suitable as donors for buyers desiring rejuvenation via skin transplant. Vestals were priestesses of Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth, who could be punished for unchaste behavior by being Buried Alive.
• Loving Annabelle: Mother Immaculata, a Catholic nun who runs the school, referencing the doctrine of Immaculate Conception in regards to Mary.

M-S

• Mandalay:
  • Madam Lacalle's surname means "the street" in Spanish ("la calle"). She is the former hostess of the "Jardin d'Orient" brothel, so it's very streetsmart.
  • The "Jardin d'Orient" nightclub itself is an example. Translating from French, it means "Eastern Garden", which, while heavy-handed due to the period, is fitting since the film is set in British India — today a conglomerate of countries in Southeast Asia.
• Mandy (1952): As Mandy's mother narrates in the opening scene, "Amanda is Latin for 'one who deserves to be loved.' I don't know about deserving love. She certainly gets it."
• Manila in the Claws of Light:
  • Ligaya Paraiso's first name means joy, and her surname means paradise. She's the beloved of protagonist Julio, but it also takes on a darker meaning when we learn she was forced into prostitution.
  • Julio Madiaga is a Filipino everyman, and his surname is derived from the Tagalog word for hardworking (matiyaga).
• Discussed in Man-Thing, when the main character questions about the town's name.
  Kyle: Why they call it 'Bywater'?
  Boat driver: Because it is by the water.
• Andy Sidaris is an occasional fan of this trope. In his first BBB (Bombs, Bullets, and Babes) film Malibu Express, the race car driver is named June Khnockers. Go figure.
• The Machinist is a dark and creepy movie. The main character's name is Trevor Reznik, which subtly invokes both Trent Reznor (who records dark and creepy music) and Darryl Revok (a character in a different dark and creepy movie). In fact, the actor who played Revok, Michael Ironside, is in The Machinist. He plays another machinist. "Reznik" also means "butcher" in several Slavic languages.
• The Matrix is like the Construct for sci-fi movies. It has:
  • Neo's "real" name Thomas intentionally or not goes with the apocryphal "Gospel of Thomas". The excluded gospel is full of mysterious Koan-like sayings and goes "once you know your true self/become enlightened you become like Jesus" (there are implications that the author learned a bit of Indian mysticism). The name Anderson may be a pun on the Greek "andros", making him the "Son of Man".
  • Neo is The One, the human with the power to manipulate the Matrix and foretold to end the war between humans and machines. "Neo" is an anagram of "one".
  • "Neo" is derived from the Ancient and Modern Greek word "νεα", meaning "new".
  • There is also Trinity
  • Morpheus helps people enter and leave the "dream-world."
  • Cypher, meaning zero and also a type of encryption, i.e. enigma, or a secret. His most famous quote is when he tells Agent Smith, "After 9 years, you know what I have learned? Ignorance is bliss.", which also hints at his desire that the secret of the Matrix had never been revealed to him and that he wants to go back into it. There's also the fact that his "real" last name is Reagan - he wants to forget his past and become an actor!.
  • Agent Smith, at first glance, may not have much of a meaningful name other than the fact that he is a program based on conformity (the agents are Anglo-Saxon, American basic-accented men, even if some of them have Australian actors to play them), but even he actually has a meaningful name: Smith was also used in the Bible, specifically Isaiah 54:16, to which, depending on whether the translation is of the regular or King James edition, it was said: "Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy..." or "Behold, I have created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.", respectively, which essentially foreshadows Agent Smith's attempt at destroying the Matrix and existance as a whole. The Matrix Reloaded lampshades it in Smith's first appearance with his car, of which the license plate number has the symbols IS5416.
• Mean Girls. Regina George, leader of the Plastics. Regina is derived from the Latin for queen. (Her last name is "George," bringing to mind a certain President, or a certain king.)
  • And in the same vein, it's surely no accident that on many different occasions, a character will mispronounce Cady's name, thinking it's pronounced "catty."
  • Janis Ian shares her name with the singer of "At Seventeen," a song about discovering that the "pretty girls" get the love. The real Janis Ian is a lesbian, and was the musical guest on the first episode of Saturday Night Live, the show screenwriter Tina Fey first became famous for.
    • As an aside, Tina Fey later sang a bit of "At Seventeen" in an episode of 30 Rock.
• The precogs in Minority Report, who were used to prevent murders, were named Arthur, Dashiell and Agatha.
• MonsterVerse:
  • See the F-L folder for King Ghidorah.
  • The deceased specimen of Godzilla's species in Godzilla (2014). It was called Dagon (an ancient sea god) by ancient Phoenicians in Godzilla Aftershock.
    • The MUTO Prime in Godzilla Aftershock is called Jinshin-Mushi, meaning "earthquake-beetle", an accurate description of the creature's anatomy and its effects on the environment.
  • Twofold with the Skullcrawlers. The name they're mainly known by references their distinct skull heads and their lomotion on a single pair of arm-like limbs and also that Skull Island is crawling with this invasive species of monster. The Godzilla vs. Kong novelization reveals their real name among the Iwi is Halakrah, which translates to "persistent enemy"; a succinct description of their hunting behavior.
  • In Godzilla Awakening, the antagonist monster (Shinomura) is named after Shi No' Mure which literally translates into "swarm of death". This make sense due to the fact Shinomura is really a conglomerate monster made up of smaller creatures.
  • Apex Cybernetics — the two words in their name refer to their agenda to make humanity the uncontested apex species (as lampshaded by Walter Simmons), and the means they plan to use to accomplish this.
  • In Skull Island (2023), Annie named her loyal Kaiju dog "Dog".
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The aptly-named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film. Also, Patsy.
• More Dead Than Alive: The protagonist Cain is steeped in blood that he can never wash away, no matter how hard he tries. His dogged pursuer is named Karma, and Cain cannot escape, no matter how far or long he runs. Eventually Karma strikes him down without warning or mercy, only explaining afterward that this was payback for the murders Cain had committed in his previous life.
• Ms. 45: "Thana", the name of the Villain Protagonist, is derived from the name for the Greek god of Death, "Thanatos". Thanatos can also refer to the term coined by Sigmund Freud, which refers to death instinct in humans.
• A Murder of Crows: ** Lawson, a defense attorney (before he was disbarred) and son of a judge.
  • Also the aliases that the killer, a professor of drama, uses: Christopher Marlowe and Goethe. Both famous playwrights, known especially for their versions of Faustus, in which an ambitious man is destroyed by selling his soul for power, a non-too subtle jab at Lawson in particular and lawyers generally, according to him.
  • On top of that, Crows are part of the genus Corvus. The killer's name is Arthur Corvus.
• In Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, one (gay) supporting character, when Nick asks his name, replies "Whatever you want it to be." Later, he finally reveals it: Lothario. Also, the eponymous couple have the same names as the happy couple in The Thin Man movies.
• Night Nurse: Lora Hart is all heart, and it's what helps her save some little girls from an evil plot.
• No Escape (1994): Absolom is a variant of Absalom, David's son in The Bible who rises up against him before being killed. Perhaps appropriate (at least in the warden's mind) as the name for a prison to house the prisoners who have rebelled somehow in other prisons. If one knows the name's original meaning ("Father of Peace") it doubles as an Ironic Name, as the island is torn apart by war with the Outsider prisoners frequently attacking the Insiders (who actually try to live a peaceful life there).
• Pacific Rim:
  • Jaeger is the German word for hunter.
  • "Scunner" is a Scottish word that basically means "scumbag".
  • "Pentecost" is the feast celebrating the power of God (the holy spirit) coming to man.
  • Cherno as in Chernobyl. As a Mark I it's nuclear powered.
• A couple in Parallels:
  • Ronan is a fighter without a purpose. A Rōnin is a warrior without a lord.
  • Polly is one of at least three. "Poly-" means "many".
• Phantasm: The Tall Man. He is indeed very tall.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • The three main characters all have names that have to do with birds. Captain Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann are obvious, and William Turner is the name of a famous ornithologist.
  • Tia Dalma's name is an anagram for Dalmatia, a famous haven for pirates.
  • Barbossa's name is rather close to Barbarossa, another famous pirate. It also means "Bonebeard", a probable reference to the skeletal undead the Aztec curse turned him into in the first film.
  • 'Norrington' may be (consciously or otherwise) more or less a compound name of Nelson and Wellington (both commanders were a little young for this period, but it's close; the character- at least in his first appearance- has had a career more like Admiral Nelson's, but is more like General Wellington in personality.)
  • Syrena from the fourth film. The name is Greek for "siren" and, in the movie, is pronounced as the Spanish word for mermaid, "sirena." (Could count as a Bilingual Bonus)
    • Which made the Spanish dub sound like "The mermaid's name will be... Mermaid ".
• Please Turn Over: In Naked Revolt, Aunt Una nicknames the skeleton in Dr. Gay's office "Boney", as he is made of bones.
• Averted in Prisoners, at least for honest, hardworking Detective Loki. There's also a (probably coincidental) Alex Jones, who is quiet and creepy but harmless and gets brutally tortured when he says one inflammatory thing too many.
• Pulp Fiction. Esmeralda asks what Butch's name means. Although it's obviously a nickname meaning "tough" and "manly," fitting a boxer, he just says, "I'm American, honey. Our names don't mean shit."
• The Largo men in Repo! The Genetic Opera are named Luigi, Pavi and Rotti, after Luciano Pavarotti.
• Mason in The Rock notes that Stanley Goodspeed's surname means "godspeed."
• Sappho: Sappho had no idea of the import her name has until Helene tells her about the historical Sappho of Lesbos, whose name is the origin for lesbianism and sapphism. The pair become lovers after this.
• Sky High (2005)
  • Warren Peace which wasn't just a pun on the famous Leo Tolstoy novel, but also symbolized his inner turmoil due to his blood; he was the son of a supervillain (war) and a superhero (peace).
  • The Strongholds (both Will and his dad have superstrength)
  • Principle Powers (which, since she's the principal of a school for superpowered teens, is significant)
  • Though it may have been unintentional, Ethan is derived from Hebrew and means 'solid/enduring', which could be considered ironic given that Ethan's superpower is to melt.
  • Magenta, who seems to only dress in various shades of purple.
• Played with mercilessly in Spaceballs. The ship is crewed with Assholes. And sleepy Prince Valium.
• Spider-Man: Homecoming: In the comics, the Vulture was so-named because of his withered, wrinkly appearance in conjunction with his bird-themed flight suit. In this film, the Vulture is not quite as geriatric, but the name still fits because the villain uses alien technology left over from the Battle of New York to make money as an arms dealer, not unlike how real world vultures survive by scavenging carcasses for food.
• Star Trek Into Darkness: The USS Vengeance is described as a Dreadnought-class ship. The class is named after the HMS Dreadnought, a British battleship that made all other battleships obsolete when she was built. The Vengeance is supposed to do something similar to the warships of the non-Federation states in the Star Trek Universe. Considering how Harrison helped design and build her, the name Vengeance might allude to what he planned to do with her if he ever got the chance. Its name is also similar to the name of a ship from the Mirror Universe episodes of Enterprise, hinting that it stands for something opposite of what a Starfleet ship should.
• In Star Trek Beyond, the crew of the Enterprise use a loud and powerful song to attack a swarm of ships by overwhelming them and causing them to explode. The name of that song? "Sabotage" by The Beastie Boys
• Star Wars:
  • The Sith Lords have meaningful Names to Run Away from Really Fast. Darth Plagueius was an Evilutionary Biologist, Darth Sidious (Palpatine) was an insidious force overturning the Republic from within, Darth Maul is The Brute, Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) wanted to rule the galaxy, and Darth Vader has both invaded several Rebel ships and bases, and has a name that's Dutch for 'father'.
  • Han Solo starts out the series as a loner who is out for himself. Hence he's "solo." Even more after Solo reveals he has that name because he's a loner and had nobody, thus the Imperial officer that recruited him in the Imperial Navy gave him that last name.
  • And the death stick dealer Obi-Wan encountered in Episode II is named Elan Sleazebaggano (though this got retcon'd to Elan Sel'Sabagno.)
  • Remember the somewhat overweight X-Wing pilot from A New Hope? His name is Porkins. Nicknamed "Piggy".
  • The Skywalker family has an innate affinity for piloting. So naturally adept with the vehicles of the sky they might as well be able to walk in it.
  • Additionally, his name was originally going to be Starkiller. Somewhat appropriate for the guy who blew up the Death Star.
  • The Rodian species, composed largely of bounty hunters and other hired guns, may be named after the killer in Crime and Punishment, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. And speaking of Rodians, guess what Greedo the bounty hunter is like?
  • General Grievous. This one speaks for itself.
    • In Star Wars Legends he choose that name. The Yam'rii, the enemies of his people the Kaleesh who had enslaved them for centuries and were threatening full blown genocide, killed his mate in battle... And so Qymaen jai Sheelal assumed the name of Grievous, wiped their presence on Kalee, and then started exterminating the Yam'rii on their own colonies, at least until the terrified Yam'rii didn't obtain an intervention from the Jedi and the Republic to stop him.
  • Padme is part of "om mani padme hum," a Buddhist chant. It means lotus flower.
  • Luke Skywalker's first name equally evokes Luke, the author of one of the Gospels, and the Latin word "Luce" (a variant of "Lux") meaning "Light"—both being quite fitting for an eager young Jedi apprentice who becomes a champion of the Light.
    • Overlaps with Author Avatar as the Spanish form of "Luke" is none other than "Lucas".
  • "Rey" (first introduced in The Force Awakens) has a name that's a homonym of "Ray", also hinting at her status as a champion of the Light. Fittingly, she becomes Luke's apprentice—figuratively becoming the "Ray" descended from Luke's "Light". Rey is also a variation of the name Rei which means "spirit" in Japanese as she puts it to good use by channeling all the spirits of past Jedi in the final battle against Darth Sidious.
  • Many ships get in the game: in Rogue One the ship that sacrifices itself to break Scarif's shield and allow the recovery of the Death Star plans is the Lightmaker, in Return of the Jedi the Alliance flagship is Home One, Vader's ship in Rogue One and A New Hope is the Devastator (and proves just why it has that name at the Battle of Scarif), and in The Empire Strikes Back he's on the Executor.
• So, the protagonist of Stations of the Cross is in an offshoot of the Catholc Church that sees every other denomination and religion as an arm of Satan's empire, so what is the name of the one non-fundamentalist person she gets to talk to? Christian, a mainstream Catholic who befriends her, defying her expectations of a Satanic pawn.
• In Stay the main character's last name, Letham, is both an anagram of Hamlet and one-letter-different from "lethal", both of which are fitting as the plot is about his struggle with the question of whether To Be or Not to Be.
• Stonehearst Asylum:
  • "Mickey Finn", which is slang for knockout drugs, hence "slipping a mickey". Of course this is what the character with this name did to the real staff, and almost does to Newgate. There's some Lampshade Hanging involved, as Newgate points out the significance of Mickey Finn's name just before he lives up to it.
  • "Silas Lamb" sounds like a sneaky reference to a chapter in the story of another fictional madman - Hannibal Lecter.
  • Doctor "Newgate" (also the name of a famous prison in London).
• The Stunt Man. "Cameron" is close to "camera on", and "Eli Cross" has obvious religious implications.
• Swelter: "Gabriel Bishop", which, we find out later, was chosen by Doc and Carmen specifically because of its angelic implications, marking the transition of the amnesiac criminal into an incorruptible lawman.

T-Z

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014): The Corrupt Corporate Executive is named Eric Sacks, which sounds akin to a Westernized version of Oroku Saki, the real name of the Turtles' Arch-Enemy Shredder. Sacks is the Shredder's Mouth of Sauron.
• The antagonist of The Three Stooges' 1962 film The Three Stooges Meet Hercules is the odious King Odius, who has usurped the throne of Ithaca from Ulysses.
• The main character of There Will Be Blood is named Daniel Plainview.
• Inverted in George Lucas's THX 1138, as everyone has nondescriptive generic cyber-names... which is the point, and thus itself descriptive of the characters and the society they live in.
• Tragedy Girls is a Perspective Flip of the typical Slasher Movie, so its main characters are named after two directors famous for their slasher flicks: Sadie Cunningham, after Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th, Freddy vs. Jason), and McKayla Hooper, after Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
• Will Caster from Transcendence. His consciousness is uploaded digitally, and the degree that this consciousness still retains his humanity is central to the film's plot. Also, Evelyn Caster, as her consciousness is also uploaded, and she becomes Will's 'original woman'. The remnants of her and Will still exist at the end of the movie in their garden.
• The eponymous "true man" of The Truman Show may actually be an in-story example, as the entire point of his adoption and upbringing was that he was the most "real" person on television. Then there's the fact that the Big Bad is named "Christof" and all the named characters in Seahaven are named after actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
• Twelve O'Clock High: General Frank Savage is assigned as the new commanding officer of the 918th Bombardment Group specifically to get the Group out of its doldrums so it will perform up to expectations. He does it by being such a hard-ass that the men of the Group come to fear him more than the enemy.
• In Unbreakable, the killer turns out to be Elijah Price. Given that Elijah is a biblical character known for genocide, this is not exactly unexpected. At that point, it seems reasonable to take his surname on face value.
• Undercover Brother. The white woman is named Penelope Snow.
• The Underworld series:
  • The main protagonist is named Selene, which is Greek for "moon".
  • The original immortals share the Corvinus surname with the historical Matthias Corvinus, a Hungarian monarch and a political rival of Vlad Tepes. Yeah, that one.
  • Kraven (i.e. coward) is aptly a cowardly Smug Snake.
  • Lena is a Nordic vampire with Mystical White Hair. Her name is the diminutive form of Elena or Helen, which means "shining" or "bright".
  • Her father Vidar is named after the Norse God of agriculture and vengeance
• Unforgiven: The film's own title, given a recurring theme is Deconstructing Honor Before Reason and Revenge Before Reason. The prostitutes can't forgive Quick Mike for cutting Delilah's face. Little Bill can't forgive the prostitutes for putting a hit out on the cowboys. The Schofield Kid can't forgive himself for killing Quick Mike. And Munny can't forgive Little Bill (for torturing Ned to death) and himself (for being such a child-killing monster in the past). The inability to forgive and their penchant for using Disproportionate Retribution to solve every problem they face, leaves nearly every named character dead, dying or emotionally crushed by the events of the film by the time the credits roll.
• Up Pompeii films:
  • Up Pompeii:
    • Voluptua, Titta, Boobia, and Biggia all have large breasts.
    • Scrubba is a pretty, young, promiscuous girl, while "Scrubber" is slang for a tart.
    • Villanus, or "villainous", which fits such a menacing strong-arm man involved in the plot to assassinate Nero.
    • Rumpus, similar to "rumpy pumpy" which suits an attendant at Ludicrus Sextus' orgy.
    • Sutra, named for the Karma Sutra, fitting of someone trained in all the erotic arts of the East.
    • Plumpa is on the heavy side.
  • Up the Front:
    • Lord and Lady Twithampton, slang for a stupid person which fits the Upper-Class Twits.
    • Groping, meaning to feel around blindly with the hands, which makes sense as he's always after Fanny:
      Lurk: "Groping". What? That's not only his name, that's his hobby.
    • Fanny, means "vagina", fitting for a young woman who loves to have it off.
    • Although only stated in the credits, the other Officer in charge of Lurk is called "Corporal Lovechild", meaning the child of two who haven't been married, perfect for an utter bastard such as himself.
• In The Villain (released as Cactus Jack in the UK and Australia), Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Handsome Stranger is named after his father.
• Vixen! (1968): The eponymous character is named Vixen Palmer. And funnily enough she isn't chaste and virginal.
• Wild Wild West. All of Loveless' mistresses: The lip reader is "Miss Lippenreader," the one who mans the weapons he calls "Munitia," the tallest is "Amazonia", the Asian girl is named "Miss East" and he dubs West, while in disguise, "Ebonia."
• The World's End:
  • All of the pubs, and in the last scene of the film, The Rising Sun - the dawn of a new civilization without the Network's influence.
  • The main characters' last names reflect their roles in the gang: (Gary) King is The Leader (and "a very irresponsible King Arthur", as Edgar Wright puts it); (Steven) Prince is the Always Second Best lancer, and the one to get the girl in the end, as in Prince Charming; (Andy) Knightley is the best fighter, and Gary's most steadfast friend; and (Peter) Page and (Oliver) Chamberlain are the ones to hold the least influence in the group.
• X-Men Film Series
  • Wolverine was born as James Howlett; his surname is a nod to his animalistic nature.
  • Professor X's middle name and surname form the name of a saint (Francis Xavier), so they hint at the character's "saintly" personality.
  • Erik means "ruler" and Lehnsherr can be roughly translated as "feudal lord" (lehn = fief, herr = master). Magneto's birth name betrays his ambition to rule over humans.
  • Raven Darkholme. When de-powered in X-Men: The Last Stand, she's seen with Raven Hair, Ivory Skin.
  • William Stryker "strikes" at mutants.
  • Warren Worthington III's code name Angel refers to his angelic looks, which include large, white wings and blond curls. (This applies to both Ben Foster's and Ben Hardy's portrayals.) In the case of the latter, he becomes Apocalypse's "angel of death" in X-Men: Apocalypse.
    Ben Hardy: Angel is pretty angry, and he casts a shadow of death across the land.
  • Remy must be handsome, because his last name (LeBeau) directly translates as the masculine form of "The beautiful."
  • Emma Frost has a frosty temperament, as her surname suggests.
  • Viper's alias as Yashida's doctor is "Green," and she frequently wears green clothing. "Viper" also alludes to the classic fable "The Farmer and the Viper", which perfectly describes Logan's relationship with her master.
  • In Real Life, En Sabah Nur means "The morning light" (he represents the dawn of mutantkind), but the comics translate it as "The first one."
  • It's no accident that Jubilee's given name is Jubilation because she carries a sunny disposition.
• In You Cant Cheat an Honest Man, W. C. Fields plays a shady carnival operator named "Larsen E. ['larceny'] Whipsnade". This would later inspire The Wizard of Id to create an homage to Fields, "Larsen E. Pettifogger".
• Youth (2017): Liu Feng's name is similar to that of Lei Feng, a supposed historical figure who is held up as a model citizen. Liu Feng is praised as a living example of Lei Feng because he is always helping others and willing to do dirty work.

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