Basic Trope: A character's name has a well-known meaning or comes from mythology or history, but it is not a Meaningful Name.
- Straight: Alice and Bob have a baby daughter and name her Artemis after the Greek goddess of hunting. When little Artemis grows up, she has no connection to hunting or Ancient Greece, nor does she turn out to be a demi-goddess or anything like that.
- Exaggerated:
- After Artemis is born, Alice and Bob have more kids and name them Zeus, Athena, and Hercules. None of Alice and Bob's kids grows up to even remotely resemble their god or goddess namesake.
- Artemis actually grows up to hate, or be no good at, hunting and she's also the only character without any otherworldly characteristics.
- Downplayed:
- Alice and Bob name their daughter Marina. Marina doesn't have any connection to the ocean, but her name is relatively common so it's not that surprising that her name isn't meaningful.
- Artemis does end up relatively good at hunting, but other characters are better at it than her.
- Justified: Alice and Bob just liked Greek mythology and/or thought "Artemis" was a nice name.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob seem like normally-named people, but their names turn out to be meaningful: Alice, whose name means "noble", becomes a queen, and Bob, whose name means "bright fame", becomes a famous king.
- Subverted: Then, Artemis turns out to be a demi-goddess and gets given a bow and arrow.
- Double Subverted:
- Parodied: Alice and Bob's kids are called Artemis, Zeus, Athena, and Hercules but they all act the complete opposite of their namesakes. Meanwhile, Alice and Bob become famous nobles and claim it was their destiny because of their names.
- Zigzagged:
- Alice and Bob name their kids Artemis, Zeus, Athena, and Hercules. Artemis becomes The Ace at hunting and Hercules gains superhuman strength, but Zeus and Athena don't live up to their names.
- Artemis seems like a normal young woman but then a man appears, claiming she's a demi-goddess and giving her a bow and arrow. Then, it turns out that he was making it up because he likes to cause chaos... and his name is Loki.
- Averted: Everyone lives up to their names, or no names sound particularly meaningful.
- Enforced: "There's nothing supernatural in this setting and having a protagonist who hunts animals might rub some viewers the wrong way... but 'Artemis' is such a cool name!"
- Lampshaded: "Yes, my name is Artemis, no, I am not like the goddess."
- Invoked:
- Exploited:
- Defied: Alice and Bob refuse to give their kids meaningful-sounding names.
- Discussed: "There was this woman I worked with whose name was actually Artemis! She wasn't at all like the goddess, though."
- Conversed: "That character is named after a Greek goddess but isn't like one."
- Implied: Alice and Bob's daughter, who doesn't have any otherworldly traits or any connection with hunting or Ancient Greece, seems to have No Name Given but does briefly sign a contract with the name "Artemis Walker".
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama:
Back to Squat's in a Name.
