Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Edible Theme Naming

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capture1_207.PNG
No wonder Kirby eats everything in sight.
"They sound more like a grocery list than kittens."
— Carlotta, Cat Pack: Carlotta's Kittens and the Club of Mysteries

A rather silly form of Theme Naming is to name characters after food and drinks. This tends to be done in comedic and child-oriented works, because it is very difficult to take someone named "Sausage" seriously. However, such a character may be afforded some dignity by being named after a food in a foreign language; somebody named "Okonomiyaki" sounds rather more impressive to an English speaker than one named "Pizza".

In video games this will also often result in a Level Ate, and the clothes they wear would most likely be an Edible Theme Clothing. Compare A Pig Named "Porkchop", for when an animal is named after their products that are edible.

Works with their own pages:

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Air Gear: The Noyamano sisters (members of Sleeping Forest) all have names that are related to fruits: Rika ("pear blossom"), Ringo ("apple"), Shiraume ("white 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.
  • Anpanman: Thanks to most of the characters being themed around food (some actually being the food that they're themed around), this is very common. A few non-food characters named after food include Uncle Jam (Anpanman's father figure), Batako (meaning "Butter Girl", Uncle Jam's assistant), and Cheese (Anpanman's pet dog). Also, all of the horses are given food names based on who their owners are (Hamburger Kid has Pickles, Yakisobapanman has White Sauce, Croquette Kid has Ketchup, and Princess Salad has Vinegar).
  • Atashinchi: The heroine is named Mikan (mandarin) and her brother is named Yuzuhiko after the yuzu fruit.
  • Bleach:
    • The names of the Kurosaki siblings are all puns on fruits. (Ichigo = strawberry, Karin = quince, Yuzu = citron).
    • Momo Hinamori, whose first name means "peach" in Japanese.
    • In the anime adaptation, Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio protests against Ichigo calling him "Don Panini".
  • Cap Revolution Bottleman has a bit of a beverage theme going on.
    • Cota Coga is a pun on "Coca-Cola".
    • Goemon Ōi is named after Ōi Ocha, a Japanese tea drink.
    • Suezō Hokari's name is based on Pocari Sweat, a Japanese sports drink.
    • Dew Yamato's name, directly translated, means "Mountain Dew".
  • Case Closed: The members of the Black Organization are given liqueur codenames like Gin, Vodka, Vermouth, Kir, etc. Also used as a Red Herring with a woman named Jodie Saintemillion, after a famous wine-producing region in France. She was believed to be a member of the antagonist group, but she actually is an Action Girl opposed to them.
  • Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk: Shimazaki and his cosplay friends' Bishōnen personas are all named after different types of noodles—Udon, Ramen, Soumen, etc.
  • Doctor Slump:
    • Arale Norimaki and her creator Senbei are both named after types of rice crackers, Norimaki senbei and norimaki arare.
    • Superhero wannabe Suppaman is a portmanteau of Superman and "suppai", the Japanese word for sour.
  • Dog Days Most of the main female casts are named after bread and sweets, either in their first or last names - Princess Millhiore F. Biscotti, Tsundere Eclair, Mad Scientist Riccotta, Samurai Brioche d'Arquien, Ninja Yukikaze Panettone, etc...
  • Galaxy Angel: The five girls of the two main 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 video games have an alcohol theme going on, which explains Tequila's possession in the first game in which she appears.
  • Girls und Panzer:
    • The Anzio Girls High School, which is based on WW2 Italy, has Anchovy, Pepperoni and Carpaccio. (All of those are ingredients often used for making pizza.)
    • And the St. Gloriana Girls High School (WW2 Britain) gives us Darjeeling, Assam and Orange Pekoe, which (fittingly) get their names from types of tea.
    • And the Ooarai Girls High School Turtle Team uses fruits (Anzu means apricot, Momo means peach and Yuzu is the name of a citrus fruit).
  • Hanaukyō Maid Team: Besides Taro, there's also his personal maid staff, who are all named after foods.
    • Season 1: Lemon, Marron (chestnut) and Melon
    • Season 2: Ichigo (strawberry), Ringo (apple) and Sango (maple)
  • Heavy Object: Surnames are names of cocktails, the one exception being Sarasa Gleamshifter whose last name is merely based on the gloom lifter cocktail. More specifically, Legitimacy Kingdom names are brandy based drinks, Information Alliance names are gin based drinks, Capitalist Corporations names are rum based drinks, and Faith Organization names are whiskey based drinks. There's also one exception to these themes: Wydine Uptown, as that was a fake name taken by an Information Alliance agent while pretending to be from the Capitalist Corporations.
  • Ice-Cream Baby: All the characters' names come from food and drinks.
  • Is the Order a Rabbit?: The main cast's names are all related to drinks that are typically served in a coffee shop. (For the sake of explanation, the examples below are written in surname-first order.)
    • Hoto Cocoa: Hot cocoa
    • Kafuu Chino: Cappuccino
    • Tedeza Rize: Thé des Alizés, a green tea-fruit blend.
    • Ujimatsu Chiya: Uji matcha, one of the more famous Japanese green teas.
    • Kirima Sharo: Kilimanjaro, which in the Japanese context nearly always refers to Tanzanian coffee.
    • Natsu Megumi: Nutmeg (Natsumegu)
    • Jouga Maya: Jogmaya, one of the major tea estates in Darjeeling.
    • Hoto Mocha: Hot mocha (She's the Cool Big Sis of the aforementioned Cocoa)
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • In Stardust Crusaders, while Vanilla Ice and his Stand, Cream, are named after the rapper and band respectively, their names combine to form Vanilla Ice Cream.
    • Most of the characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind are named after Italian foods or just Italian words for foods:
      • Bruno Bucciarati: buccellati are a variant of cuccidati fig-filled cookies
      • Leone Abbacchio: abbacchio means lamb meat
      • Guido Mista: insalata mista is a mixed salad
      • Narancia Ghirga: arancia means orange
      • Pannacotta Fugo: panna cotta, a kind of pudding
      • Polpo: means octopus
      • Mario Zucchero: zucchero means sugar
      • Sale: means salt
      • Sorbet and Gelato: named after two kinds of Italian ice desserts
      • Formaggio: means cheese
      • Pesci: means fish
      • Prosciutto: is a type of cured ham
      • Melone: means melon
      • Ghiaccio: means ice
      • Squalo: means shark
      • Carne: means meat
      • Vinegar Doppio: named after, well, vinegar
      • Risotto Nero: risotto nero is a type of rice dish prepared with cephalopod ink
      • Cioccolata: means chocolate
      • Scolippi: scaloppine, a meat dish named after the thinly-sliced cuts of the meat used
      • The Golden Heart, Golden Ring light novel spinoff has the character Rigatoni, named after the pasta of the same name.
      • The Purple Haze Feedback novel also adds Cannolo Murolo, named after the Sicilian dessert of the same name.
  • King of Bandit Jing: Most of the characters (and all of the place names) are named for alcoholic beverages. "Jing" is actually supposed to be "Gin" (the spelling is intentional on the author's part, since "Gin" would connote a much different pronunciation in Japanese); Kir (Jing's bird sidekick) is a cocktail of creme de cassis and white wine; and their signature attack "Kir Royale" is a variant of the cocktail made with sparkling wine.
  • Magical Pokémon Journey: Many of the characters (Hazel, Almond, Coconut, Peanut, Pistachio, Walnut) are named after nuts. Other food names include Ginger, Apricot, Plum and Caraway.
  • This is egg-stra prominent in Mardock Scramble. Once you crack open the novels or anime, you find:
    • Rune Balot (a chick boiled inside its own shell)
    • Œufcoque (from the French for soft-boiled egg, Œuf à la coque)
    • Doctor Easter
    • Shell Septinos
    • Dimsdale Boiled
    • The Bandersnatch Company: Mince, Welldone, Rare, Medium, Fresh/Flesh.
    • The flying house Humpty (which overlaps with the Lewis Carroll-based Shout-Out Theme Naming)
    • The Eggnog Blue Casino
    • "We go for the yolk, not touching the shell or the white."
    • And of course, the title: Mardock Scramble.
  • Martian Successor Nadesico's Magical Girl parody Show Within a Show, Magical Princess Natural Lychee, includes an antagonist of the titular character who is named Rambutan (Lychee and Rambutan are both Asian tropical fruits).
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: Biscuit Griffon's family are all named for pastries. His younger twin sisters are Cookie and Cracker, his brother is Savarin Canele, and their grandmother is Sakura Pretzel.
  • Naruto:
    • The titular character is named after narutomaki, a type of kamaboko (fish paste) used as a topping in ramen — that is, his favorite food. In Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja, his counterpart in the Limited Tsukuyomi world is named Menma, which is the name of another ramen topping.
    • All of the known members and aspirants of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist (with the exception of the most likely non-canon Raiga Kurosuki from Filler) have surnames dealing with produce: Momochi (momo = peach), Hoshigaki (dried persimmon), Hozuki (Chinese lantern fruit), Akebino (akebi = chocolate vine), Kuriarare (kuri = chestnut), Munashi (nashi = Asian pear), Ringo (apple), and Suikazan (suika = watermelon). Even Chojuro, who has Only One Name, is named after a particular type of Asian pear.
  • NG Knight Lamune & 40: Much of its cast named after child-friendly drinks like Ramune soda. VS Knights Lamune & 40 Fire, and its Hotterand Sexier OAV Knights of Ramune/VS Knights Lamune Fresh have this trope, although the latter seems to have a lot more characters to this effect.
  • One Piece:
    • Early on in the manga, Usopp's "pirate crew" is made of 3 little boys named Ninjin/Carrot, Piiman/Pepper, and Tamanegi/Onion. Their hairstyles resemble the food they're named after.
    • Sanji being a Chef of Iron, he names many of his attacks after food items and other culinary terms, like Brochette, Concasse, or Premier Hachis.
    • Many Minks are named after something related to the animal they are based on, some of them being named after Stock Animal Diet. This also includes Carrot (not to be confused with Ninjin above).
    • The entire Charlotte family is named after sweets and other kinds of food, befitting the matriarch Charlotte Linlin (Big Mom)'s Sweet Tooth. The family name itself comes from a French dessert, and all of Linlin's 85 children are named after other kinds of food; Pudding, Brûlée, Moscato, Praline, Katakuri (starch), Cracker, Smoothie, et cetera. Her sole known former husband, Pound, is named after pound cake.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • One episode of the anime featured an elderly woman named Abigail and her Pikachu, Sugar, who was named such because it helped her to bake cakes.
    • Another episode had Ash and friends using Line Of Sight Aliases: Tom Ato, Ann Chovy, and Caesar Salad.
  • Pretty Cure: Food theme-naming is used more than once.
    • In Yes! Pretty Cure 5, the mascots are all named after food; Coco and Nuts (their names are a pun on 'coconut'), Milk, Syrup. All the Palmier Kingdom inhabitants, simply put.
    • Similarly, in Fresh Pretty Cure!, not only the mascots, Chiffon and Tart (not the ones mentioned above), follow the same pattern, but the Cures also do, as their Cure forms are named after fruits: Cure Peach, Cure Berry, Cure Pine (as in 'pineapple', not 'pine tree'), and Cure Passion (as in 'passionfruit'). Cure Peach gets bonus points for her surname, Momozono, containing the Japanese word for "peach".
    • In HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, the Cures' dance-themed Form Changes are all named after different foods along with the kind of dance styles they're based on (i.e Cherry Flamenco, Lollipop Hip-Hop, Sherbet Ballet, Popcorn Cheer, etc.).
    • The Cures in KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode are named after different kinds of sweets: Cure Whip (as in whipped cream, not the weapon), Cure Custard, Cure Gelato, Cure Macaron, Cure Chocolat, and Cure Parfait.
    • All of the main heroes in Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure minus Cure Precious have a name related to food and how people react to it; Cure Spicy, Cure Yum-Yum, Cure Finale (as in, dessert being the finale of a meal), Black Pepper, and Rosemary (as in the spice).
  • Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The chapter names were all food puns until the author ran out of ideas.
  • Ranma ½: The Musk Dynasty has Herb, Lime, and Mint, while 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 Happōsai) fell victim to a whole other kind of Theme Naming, but he met Rouge, and a different Saffron.
  • Rosario + Vampire: The Vampire sisters are named Moka/Mocha and Kokoa/Cocoa, their elder sister Karua/Kahlua, and their adopted (and thus named not quite to theme) sister Akua/Aqua. Just about the whole family is part of the theme naming father Issa (lit. "one [cup of] tea"), Kahlua and Kokoa's mother Gyokuro (a type of green tea), and dog Earl Grey.
  • Saber Marionette J: The main marionettes are named after fruits.
  • One of the Sailor Moon movies has a team of villains who are all named after sweet items.
  • Samurai Pizza Cats: There's a characters are named after pizza toppings and other foods. Speedy Cerviche gets partial credit, as his name is a pun on both the word "service" and ceviche.
  • Shaman King: There's Chocolove McDonell. His Guardian Spirit, Mic the Jaguar, is a different kind of theme naming.
  • Sorcerer Hunters: The heroes are all named for foods, mostly sweets or pastries ("Tira Misu" and "Marron Glace", for example). Meanwhile, the main cast of spinoff Sorcerer On The Rocks is named after liquor.
  • Tamako Market: The Kitashirakawas all have names related to mochi:
    • Tamako is named after their mochi shop Tamaya—"-ya" is a business suffix and "-ko" is a feminine name suffix.
    • Anko is named after the red bean paste filling.
    • When you put the names of their father Mamedai and grandfather Fuku together, you'd get Mame-daifuku, Tamaya's specialty. Lampshaded in episode 10.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew: The girls 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 (Quiche, Tart, and Pie).
    • The hentai parody based off of this, Sex Warrior Pudding (Famiresu Senshi Purin), takes this a step further by giving the female characters actual names (sans the titular Pudding and her mother Miruku/Milk), but their codenames as well as that of the main antagonist's dragon which she keeps after joining the good guys—which are all based on desserts and confectioneries from Europe or the Americas—are often made of a spelling of their first names with different hiragana/katakana for a similar pronunciation (e.g. Serika=Jelly, Harue=Parfait, Chiyoko=Choco) or combine parts of both their last name and first name (e.g. Kitamori Nako=Panna Cotta, Terai Misuzu=Tiramisu, Sudou Ai=Ice as in "Ice Cream"). Even the named restaurants are the "Alamode" and "Trifle", the former being a French word which in U.S. expression means to serve something with ice cream on top and the latter being an English dessert to go with the English castle design. The titular heroine keeps with the food theme even when she becomes "Black Pudding," her Superpowered Evil Side, but it's a Scottish blood sausage instead of a dessert as if to say there's nothing sweet about this Pudding.
  • In Urusei Yatsura, there is a group of Unknown Rivals to Lum, Oyuki, and Benten. They are named Sugar, Ginger, and Pepper — collectively known as the "Spice Girls".
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: The Heroine Yuzu is named after the citrus fruit. This would later become important near the end of the series, when her father Shuzou ends up finding a citrus and other items associated with her after she's Ret-Gone. This would help him remember that she's missing.

    Asian Animation 
  • Bread Barbershop: As shown in "Father Bread", Bread's father is named Breaden, and he has brothers named Breadwin and Breadward. They're all literally bread.

    Comic Books 
  • Archie Comics: The children (and pet) of the Jones family consist of Jughead, little sister Jellybean, cousin Souphead, and Hot Dog the... dog. In their case, they're all nicknames (except for Hot Dog).
  • Chew: Tony Chu has the eponymous nickname "Chew" as a direct result of his power of being able to see how anything was killed by eating it. Every other character in the series has some kind of food reference in their name: just ask Amelia Mintz, John Colby, Mike Applebee, Evan Pepper, Marshall Mellow, Herschel Brown...
  • Dollicious: Every single character is named after a food and personalise it : Ramen, Lazania, Guarana, Bubblegum and Tiramisu to name the few.
  • New X-Men: This was attempted but accidentally subverted at the last second when a different writer took over the series. Grant 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, they'd only given the names of four of them during their run (Sophie, Phoebe, Celeste, and Esme) and they hadn't told anyone about the Easter Egg, so Chuck Austen unknowingly dubbed the fifth Cuckoo Mindee, accidentally messing up Grant's intentions. Later corrected by stating her real name is actually Irma in a narrator's bubble.
  • The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich: The story is set in the Kingdom of Fromage and everybody in the main cast is named after cheese. The protagonist is called Camembert, her love interest and princess of the kingdom is Brie, their closest friends are Ricotta and Gorgonzola, Cam's maid is Feta, and even Brie's pet dog is called Gouda. In contrast, the stuffy, older guy Brie is arranged to marry is called Broccoli, and he's from a neighboring kingdom.
  • Sunfire and Big Hero 6: Three members of the Big Hero 6 have this: Wasabi No-Ginger, GoGo Tomago (corruption of Japanese tamago), and Honey Lemon.
  • Wonder Woman: All members of the Candy family have names that play on the food qualities of their last name, excepting Etta's neice Suzie. There's Etta Candy (eat a candy), Mint Candy, Hard Candy and Sweet Candy.

    Comic Strips 
  • In the Mr. Potato Head comic strip, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head have a daughter named Julienne (like Julienne fries) and a son named Chip (like potato chips).
  • The main characters in Thimble Theater were Ham Gravy and his girlfriend Olive Oyl, before Olive's attentions and the focus of the strip were both diverted to a sailor named Popeye. Olive's family also includes a brother named Castor Oyl and their mother Nana Oyl (banana oil). (Their father Cole, Castor's wife Cylinda and Castor and Cylinda's daugher Deezil are kind of Odd Names Out being puns on inedible oils.)

    Eastern European Animation 
  • The three main characters in Kid-E-Cats are siblings named Cookie, Pudding, and Candy. In the Russian original, they're named Shortbread, Compote, and Caramel respectively.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • The Animated Adaptation of Big Hero 6 keeps the naming of three of its heroes (though Wasabi No-Ginger is shortened to just the first word). Additionally, the cat's name is Mochi. The odd nature of them is lampshaded by Hiro; Tadashi mentions the names being given by Fred. Wasabi's in particular came from a Never Live It Down incident, while the origins of the ladies' respective nicknames goes unsaid.
  • Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Sid the Sloth finds three unhatched dino eggs that he adopts as his children. He draws faces on them and names them Eggbert, Shelly, and Yoko.
  • In Ratatouille, Alfredo Linguini's surname comes from a real-life type of Italian pasta called "Linguine", commonly written as "Linguini".
  • Every Sugar Rush character from Wreck-It Ralph, most of whom use the specific sub-genre of candy. Where they got the name Muttonfudge, nobody knows.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Bullet Train has the assassin brothers Tangerine and Lemon.
  • The antagonists of Django Unchained appears to have a sweets theme for their names. In addition to Big Bad Calvin Candie (owner of the Candyland plantation), there are also three bad guys called the Brittle brothers. Appropriately, one of the heroes is a dentist.
  • The Penderghast family in Easy A are all named after food. Daughter/Protagonist Olive, Mother Rosemary, Father Dill and Brother Chip. The unseen brother is apparently called Kale.
  • Hudson Hawk has four CIA agents named after candy bars (Snickers, Kit Kat, Butterfingers, Almond Joy).
  • Brand-name junk foods are used for this purpose in Idiocracy, where Joe Bauers' attorney is named Frito and the President is Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.
  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle: This movie introduces the American version of the titular group, the Statesmen. Unlike the Kingsmen, which are named after Knights of the Round Table, they are named after alchoholic beverages. The three agents introduced are named Tequila, Whiskey and Champagne, and their support member is called Ginger Ale (which is not alchoholic by itself, but is often mixed with alchoholic beverages to make drinks).
  • Sweet Smell of Success uses a lot of food metaphors to describe people in the film, including ice-cream, a barrel of pretzels, waffles with syrup, a tangerine that peels in a minute, a chicken in a pot, cookie full of arsenic, a bowl of fruit, and so on.
  • In What a Girl Wants, two of Daphne's debutante friends are named Peach and Pear. They apparently have a sister named Parsnip; she doesn't get out much.
  • The Whole Truth (2021): Pim, Putt, and Mai have a pet cat that they named Latte.

    Literature 
  • Discworld examples:
    • Many of the rats in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents are named after food (like Dangerous Beans, Peaches and Sardines) or words related to food (like Additives and Nourishing). This is because they have learnt a lot of their vocabulary from reading food packaging.
    • Two countries on the Discworld are named Djelibeybi (jellybaby) and Hersheba (Hershey bar). Word of God is that Pratchett came up with Hersheba upon finding out that many of his American fans didn't get the jellybaby pun, which led him to wonder which US-specific candy he should have named it after instead.
  • One of the Animal Ark books features this loosely done. Because the mother cat James and Mandy are looking after is named "Blossom", they decide to name her three kittens after fruit trees. The two girls are dubbed Peaches and Cherry and after some thinking, their brother is dubbed William for William Pears.
  • A Bad Case of Stripes has Camilla Cream, Dr. Gourd, and Mr. Mellon.
  • In Bored of the Rings, thanks to Parody Naming, most members of the Fellowship are named after foods or soft drinks: Frito, Spam, Moxie, Pepsi, Legolam, Gimlet, Arrowroot (exceptions: Goodgulf, Bromosel). There's also the tensions that boil over between the fair city of Minas Troney and the foul city of Chikken Noodul.
  • The male cats in Cat Pack decide to name Carlotta's kittens Hamburger (named for its large size), Mustard (named for its yellow pelt), Sugar (named for being mostly white), Catnip (who is the runt), and Scamper (named for being wiggly). Carlotta lampshades the weirdness.
    Carlotta: They sound more like a grocery list than kittens.
  • The Fudge series gives us Farley Drexel "Fudge" Hatcher, and little sister Tamara Roxanne "Tootsie" Hatcher. Peter, their older brother and the books' resident First-Person Smartass, lampshades this at one point by commenting that his parents really wanted a candy shop.
  • The novels in the Genie Team G Jiken Note are all titled after desserts: cake, cookies and donuts. This may be due to the fact the protagonist is a Genius Sweet Tooth.
  • Anything Japanese in Good Omens is named after food, including a model of car called the Wasabi and a ship called the Kappamaki.
  • Hercule Poirot: Possibly by accident, but the famous Belgian detective's surname literally translates as "little pear" (poire= "pear", and -ot is a diminiutive found in French names), and he then proceeds to hire an English secretary by the name of Lemon.
  • Baker's son Peeta Mellark of The Hunger Games is presumably named for his parents' profession (as in pita bread). It becomes a theme when Katniss and Peeta's son is said to be named Rye. And to top it off, the country itself is called Panem, a Latin word for bread.
  • Monster of the Month Club: Rilla privately names the cats in the barn after sweet food and drink - the mama cat is Oreo, and the kittens are Pepsi, Dorito and Milk Dud (who gets renamed Milky by Tina when she adopts him in book 4). The theme continues with the dog Taco, who joins them in book 2.
  • Rainbow Magic:
    • Saffronnote  the Yellow Fairy, Cherry the Cake Fairy, Honey the Sweet Fairy, and Madeleinenote  the Cookie Fairy.
    • In post-2016 European French prints, Heather is renamed Prune.
    • In German, Ruby is renamed Emma Erdbeerrot. "Erdbeerrot" is the German word for "strawberry".
    • In Greek, Saffron is renamed Lemonia.
  • In Thelma Hatch Wyss' A Stranger Here Jada's Uncle Mac planted an herb garden at his wife's request. Only the parsley grew, so he named all twenty-four of his cows after the herbs that died.
  • Warrior Cats:
    • Apparently the Erins were hungry when they wrote the book SkyClan's Destiny; it introduces several cats named after food: Egg, Onion, Nutmeg, and you could even count Velvet if you think of red velvet.
    • In Darkess Within, a cat and his two kits have the names Pancakes, Bacon, and Eggs. Another cat who appears in the book is named Cheddar.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Adventures of Slim Goodbody: A variation: agents of Body Control are named after B-vitamins. It's stated in passing that there are other agents of Body Control who we never see on screen who are named after other vitamins.
  • In At Home With Amy Sedaris, Patty Hogg, her granddaughter Nutmeg, and Ronnie Vino, Regional Wine Lady all have food in their names.
  • In the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode "House Mouses", Scully and Hitchcock concoct "Operation: Beans" to take down a drug ring. They get into the spirit with the code names they make up: Jake is "Pinto", Terry is "Mung" and Hitchcock is "Chickpea".
  • In-universe example in the BBC comedy drama Cruise of the Gods. The creator of a short-lived cult sci-fi series finally tires of the fandom trying to find hidden meanings in the exotic character names and reveals that they were all just anagrams of dishes at his local curry house. (And you're right, it does stretch credulity that nobody would have noticed this before.)
  • On Doctor Who, the Fifteenth Doctor's companion Ruby Sunday has a grandmother named Cherry - making her, to the Doctor's delight, Cherry Sunday.
  • On Glee, all of Will's love interests are named after food: Terri Delmonico (a type of steak), Emma Pillsbury, Suzie Pepper, and Rachel Berry.
    • Holly Holiday. While Holly is technically edible, it's only edible in the sense that you can eat it, not that you should.
  • Hannibal names its episodes after the sequential order of the courses in a multi-course meal. Season One titles are from French cuisine, Season Two Japanese, and Season Three Italian.
  • iCarly: The baby chicks hatched in "iHatch Chicks" are named after egg-related meals and terms: Shelly (eggshell), Huevo (spanish for "egg"), Omelet (an egg recipe), Benedict (another common egg dish), Yoko (as in "Yolk"-o), and Poachy (egg being cooked outside its shell).
  • iCarly (2021): Millicent names her pet fish Donut.
  • When Sunes Jul first got released on VHS, it was divided into four cassettes, all named after gratin in some fashion:
    Sunes vecka 1: potatisgratäng (Sune's week 1: potato gratin)
    Sunes vecka 2: morotsgratäng (week 2: carrot gratin)
    Sunes vecka 3: broccoligratäng (week 3: broccoli gratin)
    Sunes vecka 4: ingen gratäng (week 4: no gratin)
  • The core five members of Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger are named after variations of tea. Namely, Ban = bancha (common green tea), Hoji = hojicha (charcoal roasted tea), Sen = sencha (whole green tea), Jasmine = jasmine tea, Umeko = umecha (tea with plum).
    • To a lesser extent, the Alienizers from Planet Algol all have names related to alcoholic drinks: Volka (Vodka), Whinsky (Whiskey), Giin (Gin), Brandyl (Brandy) and Baurbon (Bourbon).

    Music 
  • Kids Praise: The anthropomorphic mouse choir from the fourth album are all named after different kinds of cheese.
  • Richard Cheese and all of the other members of Lounge Against the Machine, including Bobby Ricotta, Frank Feta, Billy Bleu, have a cheese theme naming.

    Podcasts 
  • The Adventure Zone: Balance: Zig-zagged with Taakonote  and his family, who at one point were supposed to be named after Tex-Mex foodstuffs. Taako mentions his grandfather Tostada, and his twin sister was supposed to be named Chalupa. This was later ret-conned due to possible racist connotations, especially since people had widely begun headcanoning Taako as Latino. Tostada was never mentioned again, and Chalupa's nickname "Lup" became her official name, leaving Taako the only one with a food-related name.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Candice Michelle's finishing moves, Candywrapper, Candylicious and the Sugar Rush.

    Roleplay 

    Software 
  • From versions 1.5 to 9, every major release of Google's Android operating system was named for a sweet or dessert item, each starting with the next letter of the alphabet.note  However, the trend was discontinued with the release of Android 10 (previously Android Q) in 2019; Google argued that the dessert names are "not inclusive" to international users, although dessert names are still used as internal codenames. The version names are as follows:
    • 1.5 - Cupcake
    • 1.6 - Donut
    • 2.0 - Eclair
    • 2.2 - Froyonote 
    • 2.3 - Gingerbread
    • 3.x - Honeycomb
    • 4.0.x - Ice Cream Sandwich
    • 4.1 - Jelly Bean
    • 4.4.x - KitKat (the first trademarked one; getting the licence with Nestlé even earned some cross-promotion)note 
    • 5.x - Lollipop ("rejected" candidates include Lava Cake, Licorice and "L'Oreo")note 
    • 6.0.x - Marshmallownote 
    • 7.x - Nougatnote 
    • 8.x - Oreo (another trademarked one, this time from Nabisco)note 
    • 9.x - Pie
    • Android 10 - codenamed Quince Tartnote 
    • Android 11 - codenamed Red Velvet Cake
    • Android 12 - codenamed Snow Cone
    • Android 13 - codenamed Tiramisu

    Tabletop Games 
  • The members of the Madolche card archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh! are all named by a portmanteau of a word related to what they are, and a dessert name. Thus, you have the cavalry rider Chouxvalier, the Ridiculously Cute Critter Cruffsant, and are ruled by The High Queen, Tiaramisu, and they all live in the Madolche Chateau (y'know, like "gateau").

    Toys 
  • Several Lalaloopsy dolls are named for the foods they're themed after. Some examples include the Cookie sister, Crumbs Sugar Cookie and Sprinkle Spice Cookie, the Waffle Cone sisters, Scoops and Spoons, and Mint E. Stripes.

    Video Games 
  • In the Spanish translation of Animal Crossing, Isabelle's name is "Canella" (Cinnamon).
  • Animal Restaurant: A trio of friends, Prawny, Beancurd, and Rice Cake, have food-themed names.
  • The titular protagonist of Barry Steakfries games, whose last name comes from one of the French fries variations. Later games feature his Distaff Counterpart, named Betty Beefpies.
  • Boutalles has a bit of pudding theme naming going on with characters named Plumm, Figgy, Sticky, Toffee and Kutia.
  • In Brave Fencer Musashi, most of the inhabitants of Alucaneet Castle are named after meat (eg. Princess Fillet, Acrobat Sausages, Scribe Shanky, Butler Livers) while most of the characters from the Thirstquencher Empire are named for drinks (Gingerelle, Bubbles, etc.).
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia's cats are all named after different ingredients.
  • In Chicory: A Colorful Tale, in a land called Picnic, everyone is an animal named after food (in fact, the screen where you enter the name of your Player Character asks you to enter your favorite food instead of your name). Conversely, foods in Picnic are all known by different names—coffee is "joe", donuts are "holeys", pizza is "slice", and so on so forth.
  • The Goldfish Poop Gang from Chrono Trigger, in the Japanese original, was named after dressings: Vinegar, Mayonnaise and Soysauce. The sequel Chrono Cross features Solt and Peppor, the Shaker Brothers, who are at one time joined by Ketchop. Not coincidentally, Akira Toriyama was involved in the making of Trigger.
  • Two of the main female characters from ClaDun: This is an RPG are named after dessert foods (Pudding and Sherbet).
  • Clockwork Knight: All the knights and Soltia's names are based on spices - Ginger and Pepper's are pretty self-explanatory, Oneon's is based on onion, Garluch's is based on garlic, and Soltia's is based on salt.
  • All of the chefs in the Cooking Academy series have names like Henri Fromage note  and Xavier Benedict.
  • Cooking Diary: All the districts in Tasty Hills have food related names like Brocclyn and Ketchunnaise.
  • In Cooking Mama, Mama's daughter is named Ichigo (strawberry) while her son is named Ringo (Apple).
  • Theater Bell team from Dankira!!! -Boys, be DANCING!- have two Theme Naming schemes, one of them is after alcoholic drinks. Sōma Yagami is named after a ritual wine in Indian religions, Seito Tsubaki's first name is a historical Unusual Euphemism for clear sake, and Nozomu Miki is named after ritual Shinto sake.
  • A Dark and Stormy Entry by Emily Short has a variety of different endings depending on what you choose from the numbered menu. In one of the sillier endings the player character decides to write a cheese-themed story, resulting in hero Prince Gruyere and his love interest Mozzarella, advisor Lord Parmagiano, magician-in-disguise Ardrahan, the enigmatic Roquefort and the villainous Processed Cheez Food.
  • In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, the angels are named after desserts. Flonne (pronounced as flan) and Seraph Lamington are examples.
    • Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? and its sequel go with spice-themed names; Bok Choy, Cardamon, Turmeric, Anise, Kim and Chi (Natsu and Meg in JP), Basil and Chervil, Marjoram, Sage, Mustard, Wuxiangfen, Garam and Masala, Chili, Pow and Der.
  • The Prince of Cannock and Princess of Moonbrooke of Dragon Quest II are officially named Cookie and Pudding in Japanese supplemental material. No points for guessing why.
  • From his appearance, Montblanc from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance seems to be named after the Mont Blanc pastry.
  • The playable characters from the land of Solm in Fire Emblem Engage are all named after Italian desserts, such as Timerra (derived from tiramisu; her Japanese name Misutira is even an anagram) and her brother Fogado (from affogato).
  • The names of Death Adder's minions in Golden Axe are all references to alcoholic beverages (with some of the spellings changed to avoid trademark infringement): we have Heninger (Henninger), Longmoan (Longmorn), the Zuburoka (Zubrowka) amazons (whose individual members are named after different brands of vodka), the Bad Brothers (a mistranslation of "Bud", as in "Budweiser") and the Bitter knights.
  • Bosses from Golden Force, for some reason, are named after Mexican food. You fight a krakken called General Salsa, there's a mechanical shark called Nacho, General Burrito is a massive ape behemoth, while General Tortilla is a tree-demon and General Tacos is a gargoyle.
  • 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.
    Gum Drop: ...so the programmer gave us strange names, you have a problem with that?
  • Jeannie's red dog in Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is named "Ketchup".
  • Most of the locations and buildings in Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility are named after a confection of some sort. (Waffle Town, Ganache Mine, Mt. Gelato, Caramel River, Brownie Ranch and Sundae Inn to name a few.)
  • Every character in Hi-Fi RUSH is named after some kind of food or drink. The heroes are all named after flavors of tea (Chai, Peppermint, and CNMNnote ), except for Macaron, who is instead named after a French cookie. The villains are a bit more assorted; the Big Bad is named Kale, while his subordinates include Rekkanote , Zanzonote , Korsicanote , Mimosanote , and Roquefortnote .
  • In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, some of the colonists are named after food, such as Marzipan, Nougat, and Tiramisu (aka Tirah).
  • Kirby:
    • Kirby's Adventure has levels named: Vegetable Valley, Ice Cream Island, Butter Building, Grape Garden, Yogurt Yard, and Orange Ocean.
    • Repeated in Kirby's Return to Dream Land: Cookie Country, Raisin Ruins, Onion Ocean, White Wafers, Nutty Noon, Egg Engines, and Dangerous Dinner.
    • Also, in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror: Cabbage Cavern, Mustard Mountain, Carrot Castle, Olive Ocean, Peppermint Palace, Radish Ruins and Candy Constellation.
    • Kirby Super Star's "Dyna Blade" has Peanut Plains, Mallow Castle, Cocoa Cave, and Candy Mountain. They weren't named in-game originally, but Japanese strategy guides for the SNES game, in addition to all translations of Ultra feature their names.
    • The first world in Kirby Star Allies has the stages Donut Dome, Honey Hill, Fruity Forest and the secret stage Extra Eclair.
  • The Legend of Tian-ding has an unlockable character, Tian-ding's foster sister Hong-Gui, who's named after Chinese Red Tortoise cakes. Yes, really. She even wears an all-red outfit and a hat shaped like the pastry itself!
  • Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!: All of the women are named after varieties of wine.
  • The Little Tail Bronx universe by CyberConnect2 loves this trope:
    • Tail Concerto has the twofer food reference with its main character Waffle Ryebread, and his assistant is named Panta.
    • Its Spiritual Successor Solatorobo: Red the Hunter follows suit. Not only do Waffle and Panta make appearances, but the main character is Red Savarin, with his sister being Chocolot Gelato. A lot of the NPC have food names as well, ranging from obvious to obscure: Toffee, Biscuit, Frito, Raisin, Vanille, the quest broker Flo Financier (short for "fromage", cheese, and a financier is type of cake), Frassier (another cake), Suzette (as in crepe suzette), Kouglof (a french dessert)... in other words, talking about the cast of this game is like reading the menu of a French diner.
    • Fuga: Melodies of Steel kicks this into high gear, with nearly every character having a food-related name: the main kids controlling the Taranis, Socks notwithstanding, have surnames based off of dessert foods (e.g. Malt Marzipan, Boron Brioche, Jin Macchiato, etc.); Gasco military officer Merlot and his assistant Muscat are named after wines and the grape varieties used to make them; and the Berman Empire officers are named after Germanic dishes (e.g. Shvein Hax being a pun on "schweinshaxe" or German pork knuckle, Flam Kish being derived from the bread dish flammekueche, and Doktor Blutwurst and Colonel Pretzel being straight examples).
  • Lonely Wolf Treat, taking place in the same universe as Syrup And The Ultimate Sweet, has food-themed names in spades.
    • It takes place on Mount Sorbet, where lies the wolf settlement Vanilla, the fox village Ginseng, and the rabbit town Frosting.
    • The rabbits include the friendly bunny Mochi, her racist cousin Manjuu, the shopkeeper Dango, Mochi's aunt Castella, the guardsman Mousse, and the wealthy rabbit Senbei.
    • The wolves include Trick and Treat (best friends), Cotton and Candy (Treat's parents), and Fennel and Powder (siblings).
    • The foxes include Moxie, Salt and Pepper (a couple), and Chai. In case you didn't know, Moxie is the name of a soft drink brand.
    • Frosting's border checkpoint is manned by an owl named Nutmeg, and later by a mouse named Nougat.
    • There is also Thyme and Spice, a couple of witches who like to cosplay as Time and Space from her tears were my light.
  • Practically everyone in Magical Starsign. There are different naming themes for different groups of characters. For example, the moles are named after cheeses, and the dwarves are named after sauces. Just to name a few more: the solar system where the game takes place is called Baklava, there's a school principal named Biscotti, a police officer named Brie, two salamanders named Chowder and Bisque...
  • Jelly enemies in Miitopia are named after plants (apple, peach and licorice respectively).
  • Monkey Island:
    • In The Curse of Monkey Island, members of the Goodsoup family have soup-related names like Minerva Stroneheim "Minnie Stronie" Goodsoup. When Guybrush has to impersonate one of them to get into their crypt, the names he can offer include Wonton, Hearty Beef and Potato ("I'm from good Irish stock.") and Split Pea With Ham (which he passes off as a nickname derived from P. Hamilton Goodsoup). There is also a guest at their inn named Charles de Goulash.
    • Escape from Monkey Island has a similar joke with the Cheese family. The only one we meet is Ignatius (a Stealth Pun for "Nacho") Cheese, but he describes a few of his relatives to Guybrush who correctly guesses about half of their names.
    Ignatius: He's (his great-uncle) a renowned holy man who remains steadfastly neutral in any conflict.
    Guybrush: Let me guess, Swiss Cheese?
    Ignatius: Ah, so you've heard of him.
    • Partially subverted in The Secret of Monkey Island with the Fetuccini Brothers. While the brothers' surname and Alfredo's first name play this straight, Alfredo's brother is named Bill.
  • Mother:
  • A halfling fruit vendor in Neverwinter Nights mod A Few Days By the Sea has the rather unfortunate name of Sago Pudding. If you ask about the rest of her family, she states that she has siblings named Rice, Plum and James.
  • Panic Restaurant has levels named after food, full of food-themed enemies.
  • Pizza Tower: The main character is named Peppino Spaghetti.
  • Pokémon:
    • Every single gym leader in Pokémon manages to have a Japanese name that is both the name of a plant or fruit, and has something to do with their Pokémon type. The English names are simply type references.
    • The five 'Partners' or 'Stat Trainers' of the fourth generation games are named after cereal grains in most translations.
    • In Pokémon Black and White's English translation, there are gym leaders named Cilan (cilantro), Chili, and Cress (watercress). They are also waiters, and their names still correspond with their preferred type (Grass for Cilan, Fire for Chili, and Water for Cress).
    • In the Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass, the Master Dojo on the Isle of Armor is run by a married couple named Honey and Mustard. It works on multiple levels as they're both the names of condiments but you can also combine their names to make a third type of condiment, honey mustard.
  • In Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal, some of the Pokemon names are mistranslated as food items. For example, Sandslash is called Bread, Venonat is called Corn, and Flaaffy is called Pea.
  • In River City Ransom EX, members of the Entrees gang have names which are food names (Soba, Sushi, Takos) or are puns on food: Burg ("burger"), Franck ("frankenfurter"), Gheti ("spaghetti"), Menci ("mincemeat"), Piza ("pizza"), Pocke ("hot pocket" or "Pocky"), Raisu ("rice").
  • In Robotrek, the characters from the planet Choco are named after pastries.
  • Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus: All of the Panda King's Mooks have names punning off popular Chinese-American dishes: Kung Pao, General Tso, Won Tons, and Chow Mei.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog characters include Cream the Rabbit, her mother Vanilla, and her pet chao Cheese. There's also Chocola from Sonic Heroes and Milk from the DS version of Sonic Colors.
  • Splatoon has the Squid Sisters, whose names form some sort of seafood-related Pun in several different localizations:
    • Their names are Callie and Marie in English, a pun on calamari.
    • In French they're Ayo and Oly, based on aioli sauce which is frequently served with seafood.
    • In German they're Aioli, the aforementioned sauce, and Limone, "lemon". Both are named after types of condiments.
    • While the original Japanese version doesn't include a food-related pun in their individual names, the Japanese name of their idol duo, Sea O'Colors, is a pun on shiokara, a Japanese dish made from fermented squid.
  • Toro Inoue the Sony cat/Mascot was named for his love of fatty tuna. Fittingly, his owner who gave him the name is a sushi chef. note 
  • The Frost Five in Soul Hackers. Strawberry Frost, Lemon Frost, Melon Frost, Milk and Curry Frost, Blue Hawaii Frost.
  • Most of the major characters in Steambot Chronicles are named for seasonings — with pretty much anyone else who's at all significant being named for a non-edible plant if they ran out. Lampshaded in-game — when you look at the spice rack of Mrs. Echinacea, it says the jars contain seasonings. Or people, it's hard to tell.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Bowser Koopa himself has the Japanese name, クッパ Kuppa, from the Korean dish, gukbap, a Korean soup with rice. Franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to name him after a dish in Korean cuisine, and also had considered naming him ユッケ Yukke (after 육회 yukhoe) or ビビンバ Bibinba (after 비빔밥 bibimbap).
    • Many of the areas of Super Mario World are so named: Donut Plains, Vanilla Dome, Chocolate Island, Cheese Bridge, Butter Bridge, and Soda Lake.
    • Super Mario Kart: Taking cues from Super Mario World, given that many tracks are based on its main locations, this game has the Donut Plains, Vanilla Lake and Choco Island stages.
    • Likely in reference to Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. U's worlds are named are food too. Layer-Cake Desert, Frosted Glacier, Soda Jungle, Rock-Candy Mines, Meringue Clouds and Peach's Castle.
    • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Luigi tells of his adventures in the Waffle Kingdom with Princess Éclair, King Chestnut and Minister Crepe. From his stories and the look of his partners, it seems that the entire Waffle Kingdom is themed after food.
    • In Wario: Master of Disguise, all the villains are named after Italian food. Namely Count Cannoli (named after an Italian dessert), Carpaccio (named after a meat dish) and Tiaramisu/Terrormisu (named after another dessert). They're named after Italian cooking terms in Japanese.
    • Princess Peach: Showtime! pits the titular princess (a Mario franchise mainstay) against a Wicked Witch named Grape. The latter's accompaniment, the Sour Bunch, are known as the Grape Troupe in Japanese.
  • Played With in Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido: Any soldier of the Empire not serving under a General whom Musashi fights is named after something related to eating (such as Gorge or Fammish), cooking (such as Boyle or Baker), or things found in a kitchen (such as Pantree or Spoone...as well as Kichun himself). None of them, however, are actually named after food.note 
  • The names of two (out of five) of the lead characters of Tales of Phantasia is a gag about Mint and Watercress salad, although the "joke" is Lost in Translation because the hero's name is consistently romanized as "Cless."
  • To the Moon: In Finding Paradise, Potato, who gets bullied by Amber for her name in Act I, gets a baby brother in Act II. When their mother Carola says that she's got "another potato" to take care of, Neil hopes that "Potato" isn't his name. Carola clarifies that that's just his nickname... for his real name is Spud.
  • The characters of Tough Love Arena are named after food: Rice, Noodle, Beef, Pork, Onion, and Garlic.
  • The Pinatas in Viva Piñata are named after candies and dessert foods (Mousemallow, Taffly, Horstachio, etc.)
  • In the Famicom disk version of Wardner, the hero is Prince À la Mode of the Choux Kingdom, and the princess is Purin (Pudding) of the Custard Kingdom.
  • Wario Land:
    • Kitchen Island from Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 includes Rice Beach, Mt. Teapot, Sherbet Land, Stove Canyon, SS Teacup, Parsely Woods (with the Fork Tree as a major sub-location) and Syrup Castle. Incidentally, the pirate leader (Captain Syrup) is also named after food, as is her group of minions (Black Sugar Gang).
    • To keep with the theme naming, Princess Shokora (Chocolat) from Wario Land 4.

    Visual Novels 
  • The currently-in-development adult otome game The Confectionary has the monster, ahem, companions named after various sweet things: the werewolf Cinnamon, the stallion Butterscotch, the slime Black Puddingnote , the harpy Marshmallow, the naga Sweets, the dragon Jawbreaker, the centipede Gingersnap...
  • In Contract Demon, the contract demons are named after types of tea: Kamilla (camellia), Olog (oolong), and Mazaal (masala).
  • First Kiss at a Spooky Soiree, another spin-off of Syrup, stars Marzipan and her friend Jam, who attend a party with the intention of getting Marzipan her first kiss. Some of the people you can approach for a kiss include the moth demon Poffin (as in the pastry from Pokémon), the incubus Chirval (as in "chervil"), his brother Baezel (as in "basil"), the excitable dog Strudel, and the undead girl Vinegar.
  • This is the case for all of Minaduki family's catgirls in Nekopara. Their names are Vanilla, Chocola, Coconut, Maple, Cinnamon, and Azukinote . Another catgirl is named Milk.
  • In Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet, every character is named after a sweet food: the candy alchemist Syrup, her assistant Pastille, the magical candy golem Gumdrop, the witch Butterscotch and her cat familiar Toffee, the wealthy Chocolate Brothers, and the lonely wolf Treat, who would later star in her own Spin-Off series.

    Web Animation 
  • Chikn Nuggit: All the characters are named after some kind of fast food product, albeit misspelled.
  • Mystery Skulls Animated: The Pepper family's daughters are named Paprika, Cayenne and Belle. Lewis, the eldest of the kids, subverts it, while their parents go unnamed.
  • Object Connects had all the teams named after various fruits with an adjective ending with "-y" in front of it: The Firey Melons, The Happy Berries, The Noisy Gooseberries, The Punchy Mangoes, The Reversal Tomatoes, The Sleepy Strawberries, The Smarty Blueberries, The Smelly Peaches, The Sneezy Oranges and The Speedy Dragonfruits.
  • RWBY
    • Team CFVY has this not just in the team name (it's pronounced "coffee"), but also for its individual members: Coco is named for the cocoa bean, Fox is named for fox hunter pie, Velvet is named for red velvet cake, and Yatsuhashi shares his name with a Japanese sweet made with bean paste.
    • Neo Politan is named after the neapolitan ice cream, which usually is composed of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors; this also explains Neo's color palette of brown, white and pink.

    Webcomics 
  • In Adventurers!!, Karashi's sister's name is Mizuna. Karashina and Mizuna are both Japanese mustard plants. Not a coincidence; when the two square off against each other, the name of the story arc is "Mustard Wars".
  • Most of the named magical girls in Apricot Cookie(s)! have some reference to food and drink: Apricot Cookie, Butter Punch, Jammy Smasher, Meal Deal, Cream Tea, Sunshine Jubilee, Moonlight Spritzer, and Princess Almond. Apricot's real name, Anzu,note  also fits the pattern. The only girls who avert it are M'ecky (who has a Punny Name instead, being a Robot Girl) and Starlet Pony, who can't transform naturally.
  • The Warhammer 40,000 fan webcomic Gone to Ground's Imperial Guardsmen's names are chock full of this trope — Sergeant Cooke, Private Eggleston (who's nicknamed 'Eggs' by his friend anyway), Corporal Hamm...
  • Charby the Vampirate: King Samrick's flock of colorful winged assistants all named themselves after their favorite foods.
  • Cucumber Quest is the story of Cucumber and his sister Almond, seeking to save the Donut Kingdom and its various food-named inhabitants from an ancient evil. Along the way, they even run into a Quirky Miniboss Squad whose members are named Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato.
  • Dragon Ball Multiverse: The Saiyan/Vegetable theme naming continues with Hanasia (some sort of aloe), Mahissu (maize, as in corn), Romanesco (a kind of cauliflower) and Gerkin (like the pickle).
  • In Dragon Mango pretty much all characters are named after things you can eat, mostly fruits and other grown edibles for humans and dragonslayers, and desserts for elves, but other names naturally exist. Among them we have the protagonist Mango, her "friend" Bleu Berry, the little brat Cherry, the prospective Lolita Knights Eclair, Cupcake, and Candy, and Agent Vinegar.
  • The time-travelling mobster group known as The Felt from Homestuck has two members named Eggs and Biscuits. Notable for being the only ones in their group with food-based names, they are always seen with each other, acting as the group's Bumbling Henchmen Duo and often working together to take down their foes.
  • The Sandwich family in Housepets!: Earl's pets are Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly, and there's also an Uncle Rueben. Earl himself is a more subtle reference to the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who gave his name to the snack. His wife finds the whole thing ridiculous, and has no idea why he finds her own name being Jill funny.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, all police are named after ice cream, with a pair of feds named Ben and Jerry, and pair of local cops named Baskin and Robbin. A recently introduced female cop is named Sorbet.
  • Mob Psycho 100 is set in Condiment City (sometimes translated as Spice or Seasoning City). Fittingly, all the schools and landmarks have a spice and condiment theme running on; the main character goes to Salt Middle School, and one of his former enemies goes to Black Pepper Middle School.
  • All the witches and their familiars in Pepper&Carrot are named after spices, vegetables, or other edibles (like Spirulina for a water-dwelling witch). Due to the author's association with Blender Foundation, a couple of the familiars are likely named after the codenames for films (see the Western Animation section).
  • In Saffron And Sage other than the titular duo being named after spices there's also the characters Coriander, Cinnamon, and Toast. As well as a mentioned but as of yet unseen character named Milk.
  • Shotgun Shuffle gives us the seven Buckingham girls, who are all named after foods, particularly spices. Ellie's birth name is Lavender, but she legally changed it the second she turned eighteen, which annoyed her parents.
  • Sleepless Domain: Members of the punk-themed magical girl trio Team Outrageous are all named after different fruits — they consist of Outrageous Lime, Outrageous Lemon, and Outrageous Apple. According to an interview, Lime had chosen her title first, and upon teaming up, the others (however reluctantly, in Lemon's case) adopted fruit-based titles to match the theme.
  • Trigger Star: The Five-Man Band (including the Team Pet) and most of the antagonists are named after food items. For instance: the "hero" is Avocado Guacamole and the Big Bad is called Black Licorice.
  • In Vatican Assassins, the Assassins' Wicca counterparts from WITCHNIGHT are named after spices.
  • In Weak Hero, Teddy names cats after beverages; his adopted one is called "Co", short for Cola, and the stray that he finds at school is named "Sprite". This endearingly silly pattern comes from cola being Teddy's favourite drink.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • In Biker Mice from Mars, the Plutarkians are all named for cheeses — for example, Lawrence Limburger, who certainly lives up to his name.
  • The Blender Foundation's movies all have assorted names relating to their plots (which are completely separate from each other) but the codenames during development are all fruits, some of which appear as Easter Eggs in the movies themselves.
  • Bojack Horseman:
    • The Sugarmans, Beatrice's family side, has this as their surname due to their Family Business, similar to the Apples example above. Special mention goes for CrackerJack Sugarman, Beatrice's deceased older brother. It also functions as a bitterly Ironic Name since their history....is less than sweet.
    • Their peers, the Creamermans, also shared this trait, mainly due to their surname related to their company of dairy products and the facts they're all goats.
    • Butterscotch Horseman, Beatrice's husband and BoJack's father, has this as well.
  • Chip and Potato has Chip, her mouse Potato who everyone else thinks is a plush toy, her older brother Spud and baby sister Tot.note 
  • Monterey Jack's family from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers are all named after types of cheese.
  • All the characters on Chowder are named after food. We have Chowder, Mung Daal note  Panini, Schnitzel, Gazpacho, Truffles, Kimchi, Gorgonzola, Endive, Ceviche, Pâté, Reuben, Stilton, Chestnut, Kiwi, Mr. Fugu, Lo Mein, Marmalade, Rosemary, and many, many more.
  • DuckTales (1987) featured Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Dijon, and later introduced his upstanding brother, the monk Poupon. Both are named after types of mustard.
  • Sylvester Calzone, a parody of Sylvester Stallone from The Fairly OddParents!.
  • Mac and Cheese from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Then there's Coco, Berry, Fluffernutter, and Crackers.
  • The 1960s/70s British stop-go animation children's program The Herbs and its spin-off The Adventures of Parsley, have in addition to the eponymous lion, characters called Dill, Basil, Sage, etc.
  • Piri Piri from Harvey Beaks is named after a type of chili pepper plant from Africa.
  • Dino Spumoni and Nick Vermicelli from Hey Arnold! both have names referencing Italian cuisine.
  • Lilo & Stitch: The Series:
    • Experiment 062, Frenchfry, can serve irresistible meals such as French fries.
    • Experiment 625 was unnamed until finally being given the name "Reuben" ("The classic corned beef and sauerkraut on rye") in the Finale Movie Leroy & Stitch, given his obsession with sandwiches.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • The Apple family. For example, the most important characters who come from said family are named Applejack, note  Apple Bloom, note  Big MacIntosh. note  and Granny Smith. note 
      Applejack: I've got apple pie, apple fritters, apple tarts, apple dumplings, apple crisps, apple crumblers, and apple brown betty... uh, the dessert, not my auntie.
    • Also, Pinkie Pie works for Mr. Carrot Cake and Mrs. Cup Cake in a bakery, and also babysits their children, Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake.
    • Pinkie's last name isn't a one-off, either; she's a member of the Pie family. In a Season 4 episode, we meet her sister Maud Pie.
    • And in the episode "Pinkie Apple Pie", Pinkie and Applejack discover that they're fourth cousins twice removed by way of a common ancestor named, well, Apple Pie.
    • In "Pinkie Pride", guest star "Weird Al" Yankovic provides the voice for a pony named Cheese Sandwich.
  • The Owl House does this with some Palismen.
    • Hunter's red cardinal Palisman is named Flapjack. This actually hints at his origins — flapjacks or pancakes aren't a thing on the Boiling Isles, suggesting that he was previously owned by the person Hunter is cloned from, the human Caleb Wittebane.
      • In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, Hunter is shown to have carved himself a new Palisman after Flapjack's death in "Thanks to Them", a blue jay this time. According to Word of God, her name is Waffle.
    • Luz's Palisman is a shapeshifter named Stringbean, likely because her Shapeshifter Default Form is a snake.
  • The titular characters of PB&J Otter.
  • The Proud Family has Dijonay and her siblings named after spices. Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Basil, Salt, Pepper, Dijonay (obviously), Cayenne, Paprika, and Tabasco.
    • In the Proud family is Suga Mama and Auntie Spice
    • And the production company is Jambalaya Studios.
  • In Ready Jet Go!, the Propulsion family, with the exceptions of Jet and Zerk, are named after vegetables because they think those names are proper "Earthie" names. Examples: Carrot, Celery, Eggplant, Zucchini, and Spinach. Jet even calls himself Cucumber in the Halloween Episode.
  • In The Save-Ums!, two members of the titular team are named Noodle and Custard.
  • Toffee from Star vs. the Forces of Evil, though he's much less comical than his name suggests.
  • Many of the humans of Beach City in Steven Universe have food-based names, often related to the restaurants on the boardwalk:
    • The Frymans and the Pizzas; both families own restaurants. Guess what they serve. The Fryman kids themselves are named for McDonald's mascots: Ronaldo (Ronald McDonald) and Peedee (Speedee)
    • Sour Cream and Onion are half-siblings and Vidalia* is their mother. Vidalia's husband/Onion's father is a fisherman named Yellowtail, possibly intended as a "fish and chips" pun. Marty, Sour Cream's absentee biological father, is an Odd Name Out.
    • Less blatant than the others, but Sadie Miller works at Big Donut, and a "miller" is someone who grinds wheat into the flour baked goods are made from.
    • This is even lampshaded in the episode "Onion Gang", when Steven correctly guesses Pinto's name based on the fact that her brother, Garbanzo, is also named after a bean.
  • Many of the characters in Strawberry Shortcake are named for various desserts.
  • As the title indicates, all the members of the Sushi Pack (and their Evil Counterpart, the Legion of Lowtide) are named after the kind of sushi they are.
  • Tumble Leaf - the protagonist is named Fig, and the chickens who tend his gardens and fix his food are all named after vegetables: Butternut, Squash, Zucchini, and Rutabaga.
  • The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald gives Ronald McDonald a dog named Sundae.

    Real Life 
  • In Brazilian politics, conservatives are pejoratively known by the Left-wing as "Coxinhas" (a popular Brazilian chicken croquette), while the Left-wing is called "Mortadella" (an Italian kind of sausage, originator of the American bologna).
  • Also from Brazil, sailors Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze had a tradition to name their boats after foods from where the competition is held - the one in which they won the Olympic Games at home was Açaí, and there was also Acerola, Mango, (Brazil), Manuca Honey (New Zealand), Maple Syrup (Toronto), and Kombucha (Miami).
  • Overlapping with Floral Theme Naming, several streets in Lancaster, Pennsylvania are named after fruit, including Orange, Lime, Lemon, Plum, Mulberry, Cherry, and Strawberry.
  • Albert R. Broccoli. Though his surname probably predate the vegetable of the same name.
  • The Porsche Cayenne, a high-performance SUV that was named after a piquant pepper.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

All Our Names Are Like That!

In this one twolegplace, all the kittypets have breakfast-themed names. (In canon there were only three, Pancakes and his children Bacon and Egg.)

Example of:
Theme Naming

Alternative Title(s): Food Theme Naming, Drink Theme Naming, Beverage Theme Naming

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

All Our Names Are Like That!

In this one twolegplace, all the kittypets have breakfast-themed names. (In canon there were only three, Pancakes and his children Bacon and Egg.)

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

Example of:

Main / ThemeNaming

Media sources:

Report