History Main / NamedAfterFirstInstallment

** The movie adaptation is titled "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," combining the names of the first two books. Despite this, it leaves out the plot of the second book in favour of adding original storylines and random elements from later books.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' was so named because Squaresoft originally wanted to call it ''Fighting Fantasy'', but couldn't due to copyright issues. So they changed the first word and published it. It was never intended to be the "final" anything, but subsequent games in the series kept the name despite having nothing to do with the story of other games in the series, eventually becoming the Squaresoft flagship series.

* The first game in the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series is simply titled ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Assassin's Creed]]'' (aside from its TV Tropes page title: ''Assassin's Creed I'').

* The first game in the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series is simply titled ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Assassin's Creed]]'' (aside from its TV Tropes title: ''Assassin's Creed I'').

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' is named after the first arc, which took place in the titular DeadlyGame. While the rest of the arcs take place in other games and virtual worlds, the effects of the time spent in ''Sword Art Online'' and the technology that built it linger throughout the series.

In all cases, the first installment is also a TitleDropChapter.

* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'': It works on NumberedSequels, with the first game given a "1" by us, for disambiguation purposes.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series does NumberedSequels, with the first game being called ''VideoGame/Borderlands1''. The series is so named because it takes place on the borderlands of galactic exploration.

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* ''Film/{{Final Destination|1}}'' is a pun themed after the plane crash the main characters avoided, referring to a "final destination" for a flight route and death being the "final destination" of life. The sequels that made up its [[Film/FinalDestination film series]] had the initial death the cast avoids involve accidents other than planes, with the title honing in on the second meaning instead. [[spoiler:Its original meaning returns in ''Film/FinalDestination5'', if only because it was a StealthPrequel to the first and ended on the Flight 180 crash that started the series (thus making it also the ''final'' destination of the film).]]

* The ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series ''VideoGame/DevilSummoner'' originated from a side game titled ''Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner'' and is named after the game’s subtitle.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': The series is named after the character Index, who served as the focus of the first arc back when the author, Creator/KazumaKamachi, first wrote it as a one-shot. This is despite her being rather OutOfFocus in later chapters. When he later decided to adapt it into a full series, he chose to just keep the original title so as to avoid confusion.

* The ''Franchise/FateSeries'' is titled after the visual novel that began it, ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''. When other stories were released to expand on the universe, the ''Fate/'' part of the title stayed, while the text after the slash indicated its theme.

* The ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series is named after the subtitle of the first game, ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. It got a little convoluted in the sequels, which are ''technically'' called ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice For All'' and ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations''. Starting with the fourth game, "Phoenix Wright" was dropped, and "Ace Attorney" became the proper series title (due to Phoenix stepping aside for new attorney Apollo Justice).
** The Japanese games avoided this entirely, being called "Turnabout Trials".

* The ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series is named after the subtitle of the first game, ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. It got a little convoluted in the sequels, which are ''technically'' called ''Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Justice For All'' and ''Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations''. Starting with the fourth game, "Phoenix Wright" was dropped, and "Ace Attorney" became the proper series title (due to Phoenix stepping aside for new attorney Apollo Justice).

* Originally, ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'''s title was to help differentiate its adaptation of "Ghost" from the live-action music video that came out earlier, similar to how fan animations of clips from a series get an "[X] Animated" title (i.e. ''WebOriginal/GameGrumps Animated'' or the various "Reanimated" [[MultiAnimatorProject Multi-Animator Projects]]). When it became a full series, the title stuck.

* The ''Anime/PrettyCure'' series began with ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'', with "Pretty Cure" as the group name of the initial two heroines that shared the powers. Over time, "Pretty Cure" was generalized to anyone who had the powers, and the teams themselves got larger, so the "Pretty Cure" part of the title was incorporated as a descriptot in later installments.

* The first short film that kickstarted the ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia'' franchise was simply titled ''[[Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2013 Little Witch Academia]]''.

* The Megami Tensei series, ''VideoGame/DevilSummoner'', originated from an SMT side game titled ''Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner'' and is named after the game’s subtitle.

* The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series is named after its first installment, ''VideoGame/PaperMario64''. Played with in Japan, where the same game was titled ''Mario Story'', while the series gained the ''Paper Mario'' moniker starting with ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' (there known as ''Paper Mario RPG'').