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Hint: it's the one whose name doesn't rhyme.note 

"Join Mandy, Brandy, Andy, and Scurge as they learn how to give a care."
— Mock commercial in Strong Bad Email #155 "theme song"

In a group of characters with Theme Naming, sometimes one just doesn't fit the pattern.

To the viewer, this is about as subtle as placing a big, blinking neon sign saying "HEY, LOOK! THIS GUY'S IMPORTANT!" above their head even before the character has a chance to do anything, and whether or not they really are important is a matter of debate. For some reason, this character tends to be named Bob, due to the inherent hilarity of the name "Bob". He may also be a Special Person, Normal Name.

Sometimes identifies The Runt at the End. Can also apply to a lapse in Idiosyncratic Episode Naming.

Compare Aerith and Bob, Tom the Dark Lord, Uniformity Exception. Often occurs with Famous, Famous, Fictional.


Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

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    Asian Animation 
  • BoBoiBoy: The Five Scammer Commanders are a group of Card-Carrying Villain alien brothers who specialise in, as the name suggests, scamming. They are Bago Go, Baga Ga, Bagi Gi, Bagu Gu, and their leader Tom. However, Tom is a scammer of names, so whether that truly is his name or not is unclear.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Most of the wolves' Chinese names end with Tàiláng or at least something similar to it. Wilie's Chinese name is Xiǎo Huīhuī, which is much different from the rest.

    Comic Books 
  • In Asterix, all Gaulish women have names ending in -ine, except for Falbala. In the English edition, however, all their names end in -a.
  • The Authority: The Gamorra Brothers are named Sum, Wai and Kaizen. Possibly apt, as Kaizen Gamorra was the evilest, killing Sum and Wai in a power grab.
  • Names used by the Abrahamic God in The DCU: The Source, The Presence, The Voice, The Hand, and "Wally." He claims that the last one is how you're supposed to pronounce YHVH, and we've simply been using the wrong transliteration.
  • When they started out, three of the Fantastic Four gave themselves highfaluting polysyllabic, two-word codenames: Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl (later the Invisible Woman) and the Human Torch. Only Ben Grimm got landed with the prosaic and monosyllabic appellation, the Thing. On the other hand, Reed Richards as the leader is the only one with a codename that is not used with a definite article, and has the only codename that contains an honorific.
  • The Jordan family in the Green Lantern comics. There's Jessica Jordan, and her sons Jack Jordan and Jim Jordan... and Hal Jordan, who's considered the Black Sheep of the family. Notably, though, he's the Black Sheep because he defied his mother to become a pilot—following in the footsteps of his deceased father Martin Jordan, who also has an Odd Name Out. It serves as an early sign that Hal relates more to his father than to his mother (unlike his brothers, for whom the opposite is true).
  • Harley Quinn's Gang of Harleys have code names that are each a variation of Harley's name. The only Harley who breaks the Theme Naming is Coach, who refuses to be designated as "Handicapped Harley".
  • In Hero Camp, Dina Might's family, the Might Family superteam, which is made up of David (father), Donna (mother), Desmond (brother), and Charlie (uncle).
  • The Metal Men consist of (in the most recent series anyway) Gold, Lead, Mercury, Tin, Iron, Copper, and Tina (which is admittedly just a nickname for "Platinum".)
  • In New Super-Man, the Justice League of China use hyphenated names to differentiate themselves from their Justice League counterparts: Super-Man, Bat-Man, Wonder-Woman. The exception is Avery Ho, who's just "the Flash" (of China, if one needs to distinguish her).
  • In The Sandman (1989), all seven of the Endless are named for abstract concepts that begin with "D," but the protagonist, Dream, is the only one who isn't a "De-" word. (The others are Death, Despair, Destiny, Destruction, Delirium and Desire.)
  • The Three Lieutenant Marvels from Shazam! comics: Tall Marvel, Fat Marvel, and Hillbilly Marvel.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Mikey can't help but get a dig in: "All the good ones end in O!". In most of the Japanese and Italian localizations, they ALL do - Raphael is called "Raffaello" in those dubs. Like all the turtles, Raphael is named for the painter, who was born Raffaello Sanzio. He's just the only one whose Anglicized name still sounds exotic. Compare Leonard, Donald, and Michael.
    • On another level, Donatello is named after the only artist among them who is not generally considered a contemporary of the others, having died in 1466, when Leonardo was a teenager, and Michelangelo and Raphael had yet to be born. Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael are generally held to be the three most important artists of the High Renaissance, while Donatello was active during the Early Renaissance, decades earlier.
  • XXXenophile: "Now Museum, Now You Don't" features the four goddesses Okaraska, Boolatraaca, Xynotreen and Trixie.

    Comic Strips 
  • "Irish" Murphy's three dogs in Footrot Flats; Tiger, Wolf and Creampuff.
  • The Van Pelt siblings in Peanuts: Lucy, Linus, and Rerun (though that's not his real name; just a nickname Lucy chose after complaining that having another brother was like a "rerun" of Linus's infancy).

    Fan Works 
  • In The Best Laid Plans Fleur and the other Gringotts apprentices have lunch together on their first day. The goblins present introduce themselves as Slashcrack, Sawknee, Sickcurse, Stonegouger, Eyestink and George.
  • The Black Hearts is the only solo story in the series The Makings of Team CRME that doesn't have the POV character's first name, Mercury Black, in the title. The others all contain the POV characters first name as a bit of theme naming (My Name Is Cinder, An Emerald Unearthed, Roman's Empire), but The Black Hearts only has the his last name which is shared with his parents, the other two main characters of the story, so you can't say it's his name specifically. The author originally titled the fic Mercury's Pain to keep up with the naming convention, but they didn't really like it that much. Thus, the title was changed.
  • The Bolt Chronicles: In “The Seven,” the three female dogs Blaze first encounters in the puppy mill are named Corabell, Dorabell, and Mae.
  • The Differentverse: Scootaloo's middle name, Madeleine, which is a tribute to her voice actress, and to another of the author's favorite characters (Pinkie Pie) also having a human-sounding middle name.
  • In A Door Ajar the Advanced Transfiguration teacher at Harry and his friends' new school owns cats named Mercutio, Romeo, Juliet and Oscar.
  • In First Try Series Sasuke, through artificial insemination to ensure he wouldn't be the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha, ends up having three children: Fugaku, Mikoto and Aiko.
  • Good Bye, Farewell, So Long, Fuck You:
    Gingy: Gingy, Bouncy, Truite, Puppi and Bob found all the Potter family things.
  • In Hogwarts Dawn as part of their "life improvement plan" for Harry Fred and George enlist several hulking students nicknamed Smasher, Gnasher, Thrasher and Crusher as bodyguards.
  • I Didn't Ask For This (But I'm Going to Abuse it Anyway):
    Ragnok: Ripnose, Hardfist, Terrorclaw, Wringneck, Bob, Heavyhead and Sharphammer! Come. We must rid this world of the vilest act of evil.
  • In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: the penguins in the Plush Penguin Car are all named after ice cream flavors (Strawberry, Minty, Emperor Neopolitan, etc.). The only exception to this is the penguin based off of sea salt ice cream: Nico.
  • In the Charmed fan fic, Justice, the Charmed Ones met up with the group of elders who are responsible for the trial. They are: Darban, Esttai, Briel, Serris, and George.
  • Kedabory's Elmore Chronicles: Steve Small (later renamed Sybil Small) is the only member of their birth family whose name does not begin with "B", against their parents Bill and Brenda and their brother Boris.
  • Learning to swim:
    Older merman: Swims slowly, Silver flutter, Weed drifter and Shelly, take these... children and put them on the beach by Weedy face. Everyone else, intercept the players.
  • In the Harry Potter fanfic My Immortal, Ebony's full name is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. Out of her middle names, "Raven" is the only one that isn't an abstract concept, doesn't begin with "D", and is an actual girl's name.
  • Downplayed in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, which sees the Chinese branch of NERV (effectively a front organisation for the Chinese government) working on its own Evangelion project by modifying one of the Mass-produced Evangelions. Rather than getting a number like the main Evangelions, the result is called "Unit-A".
  • In Novocaine the Potter Hall elves are called Minnie, Tinnie, Kinnie, Finnie, Rinnie and Annie.
  • Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): "Chapter 21: OMAKE 3 Halloween": The list of spies' names:
    The spies were named Saitou, Saizou, Suzukaze, Seiji, Seto, Seta, Souta, Shinichi, Shinpachi, Shinji, Sanosuke, Sho, Saburo, and Hikaru.
  • In the Star Wars/Mass Effect/Borderlands/Halo crossover Origins, the villain (for some of the story anyway) is a super-powered Siren. Her acolytes fall under Aerith and Bob (mainly the "Aerith" part). Other Sirens are named from canon: Maya, Lilith, Angel. Her name is... Sarah. She doesn't take this well when her underlings laugh at the Special Person, Normal Name, though later on it's revealed that "Sarah" is simply the closest convenient translation of Eridian language for her given title, the "Selfless Servant of the Mantle".
  • Pokémpanions:
    • Magikarp is the only member of his family whose name does not begin with G (Gyrados, Geraldine, Gary).
    • Plusle is the only member of the Mon 4 whose name does not begin with M (Machoke, Magikarp, Minun).
  • Pokémon Reset Bloodlines justifies it in a sidestory for Misty. Unlike her sisters, Daisy, Violet and Lily who were named after flowers, she got her name because her parents saw her as "nothing but a little mist", reflecting her status as a non-wanted child and The Unfavorite.
  • In PreCure in a Nutshell, Yoyo Nijigaoka (a.k.a Yo-Yo Ma) is the only member of her family whose parody name isn't related to the word "marshmallow", against Marshmallow (Mashiro), Marshmommy (Mahiru), and Marshman (Akira).
  • The Pride That Never Was: Bianca, AKA Zira, is the only character whose name isn't Swahili.
  • Punch-Out!! fanfiction:
    • In Ma Fille, Piston Hondo (Riki) is the only member of his family without a three-syllable name (late mother Akemi, sister Natsumi, grandmother Miyoko, and niece Sakura).
    • In the Shining and Sweet chapter "Sleeping Fabulous", the four fairies are the Bear Fairy, the Tiger Fairy, the Kitten Fairy, and the Piston Fairy (played by Bear Hugger, Great Tiger, Chaton Cheri, and Piston Hondo, respectively).
  • The Chateau level names in Something are based on the elements in the French language (Feu, Eau, Vent, and Terre), but the final Chateau has the name of Chateau Finale.
  • In the Total Drama Comeback Series, Mandy has four pet rats: War, Famine, Death and Snowball. It was a snowy day when she named that one.
  • Tomorrow (there'll be more of us) is a Star Wars fic about Finn's example inspiring other Stormtroopers to defect from the First Order. One squad that defects as a group all have serial numbers beginning with JS, so they take the names James, Jess, Jills, Jessie, Jacks, Jermies, Jers, Jace, Jaques, Jads, Jules, Jims, Jackies, Jens, and Ralph. (They were running out of names, and Ralph already had a nickname because he suffers from airsickness and once threw up inside his own helmet.)
  • In Watch a number of goblins are present for an information extraction session. The roll call includes Spikenose, Nailripper, Toecutter, Ballcracker and Dentist.
  • In The Weasley Plot the Weasleys have more powerful wards put up by a goblin warding team whose members are named Stiffinger, Roknag, Blathook and Steve. The latter explains that goblins acquire new names later in life and choosing his own involved "three Australian wizards, a large lizard creature with huge teeth called a crocodile and a very large quantity of beer."
  • In Where Talent Goes to Die, Kaori Miura, the protagonist, is the only member of her family whose name isn't a Shout-Out to Another. Her father is Kouichi, her mother is Mei, her older sister is Misaki, her paternal grandparents are Yosuke and Amane, and her mother's maiden name was Fujioka.
  • In Which Harry Potter Harry mentions selling ward stones, rune stones and glamour rings in Knockturn Alley.
    Voldemort: Where did you get those?
    Harry: I made them. Picax, Naota, Ragn, and Frank taught me how to make them.
  • In the Animaniacs fan series Zany To The Max:
    • The female Warners are named Dot, Jot, and Ko. Downplayed with the male Warners, who are named Yakko, Wakko, Pakko, Makko, and Zak. The Conjoined Twins are Zak and Ko. Interestingly, Zak is the only Warner whose name does not have an O in it.
    • Every member of the Kat Krew is close to A Dog Named "Dog", with the exception of Narf the Mouse. The other members of the Kat Krew are Kat the Cat, Doug the Dog, Shirley the Squirrel, Min the Mink, Drake the Duck, and Bonnie Rabbit.
    • The Siamese Quadruplets, consisting of Kat the Cat and her three sisters: Kate, Katie, and Jessica.

    Film — Animation 
  • In a Barbie movie, the Flairies (wingless fairies) are named Shine, Shimmer, and Glimmer. Glimmer's name doesn't alliterate with the others, while Shine's doesn't rhyme with the others.
  • In Brave, the royal children are named Hubert, Hamish, Harris, and Merida (who has three syllables and an M-name instead of an H-name).
  • In The Brave Little Toaster we get Toaster, Lampy, Radio, Blanky, and... Kirby? It's a type of vacuum, but still.
  • Jim is the only crow from Dumbo that actually has a proper name. All the others are actually named after their distinguishable outfits.
  • Frozen:
    • All of the main characters have four letters in their names, Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Hans, Sven, and the Duke (of Weselton), except Kristoff. Even Elsa calls her and Anna's parents the four-lettered "Mama" and "Papa" (their first names however, are Agnarr and Iduna).
    • All of the main non-animal characters (Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff) have two-syllable names, except for Hans and the Duke. Maybe this difference foreshadows that those two are both antagonists.
    • "Frozen Fever" has Olaf name the snogies with names like Flake, Drift, Slush, and... William.
  • The Terrafirminator from Gnomeo & Juliet is the only lawn mover available that is not named after a cat.
  • Forrest Woodbush from The Good Dinosaur has several critters that ride on his frill and horns. They include a salamander named Fury ("He protects me from the creatures that crawl in the night"), a fox named Destructor ("She protects me from mosquitoes"), a tusked gopher named Dreamcrusher ("He protects me from having unrealistic goals)", and a bird named...Debbie.
  • Hoodwinked! has this example:
    Boingo: Dolph, tie up the brat. Lisa, hold the book. Vincent, get the truck. And Keith... darn it, change your name, please! It's not scary and I'm embarrassed to say it. Boris! Try that!
  • In Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Ned has 96 daughters and one son. All of the girls have "H" names, while the son is named Jojo. One wonders if they planned any more "J" names for other sons.
  • How to Train Your Dragon has the six teenage Vikings: Hiccup, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut... and Astrid. Granted, all these names were (probably) normal for the time period, but "Astrid" is the only name that would really be considered normal today.
  • The Incredibles: The two older children have names and powers that are symbolic of their time of life — hyperactive ten-year-old Dash, who has super speed, and shy fifteen-year-old Violet, who can turn invisible. Her name is also symbolic in that ultraviolet is invisible to human eyes, and because a "shrinking violet" is slang for a shy person. Then there's the baby, Jack-Jack, who doesn't appear to have any powers or a significant name. But "Jack-Jack" sounds like it may be a nickname rather than his real name. Subverted in the last act of the first film, we see that he has a veritable cornucopia of powers, thus making him a "Jack" of all Trades, which is explored in the sequel.
  • It's easy to spot the characters in The Jungle Book (1967) who were made up for the movie, since they have names like Louie and Winifred.
  • The LEGO Movie has the Crazy Cat Lady's six cats: Angie, Loki, Leroy, the two Fluffys (Junior and Senior), and Jeff. Jeff's name has one syllable and doesn't end in a "y" or an "-ie" sound. He also sticks out in that his meow is deeper than the others'.
  • In The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, the cats have all gotten edgier names (like Scarfield, Metalscratch, and Toxintoes) to fit in with Apocalypseburg's grittier society...that is, except for Jeff, who keeps his old name.
  • Scar's henchyenas Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed from The Lion King (1994). Scar himself is one of the very few characters in the film who doesn't have a Meaningful Name in Swahili.
  • In The Little Mermaid (1989), all seven of Triton's daughters' names begin with the letter "A". All of them also end in the letter "A" and have their accent on the middle syllable, except protagonist Ariel, whose name ends in an "l" and has its accent on the first syllable.
  • Migration: Delroy's family most have names that start with the letter "D"... except for one named Winston.
  • Monsters, Inc.:
  • The Sugar Rush world of Wreck-It Ralph has such oddball (but fitting) names like Vanellope von Schweetz, Minty Zaki, Taffyta Muttonfudge... and then there's the racer known as Candlehead. Also King Candy's simpler name stands out amidst all the fancy names. It serves as a clue that he isn't really part of the game.
  • Ralph Breaks the Internet: Four of the five main characters from the ultra violent (for a kid's movie) online racing game, Slaughter Race are named Shank, Pyro, Felony, and Butcher Boy, which is very fitting for the game's gritty and violent theme similar to Carmageddon or the Grand Theft Auto series. But then the fifth main character who is just as rough-and-tumble in her actions and apearance as the other Slaughter Race characters, is named Little Debbie (sometimes she's referred to as just Debbie for short which is just as odd). Like the snack brand, it's not as hard core as the others' names.
  • Shrek:
    • Donkey's and Dragon's children are named Peanut, Cocoa, Bananas, Parfait, and Debbie. The last one doesn't directly fit the food-related Theme Naming but is likely a Shout-Out to the pastry brand "Lil' Debbie."
    • There's also the Ogre family as of Shrek the Third: Fiona, Fergus, Farkle, Felicia, and Shrek.
    • In "The Three Diablos", which is a bonus movie from Puss in Boots (2011), the eponymous bandit kittens are named Perla, Gonzalo, and Sir Timoteo Monterego the Third (who is the only one whose name includes a title).
  • In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the dwarfs' names are adjectives that describe their personality - Grumpy, Happy, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy, and Sneezy. The one hold out is Doc, the self-appointed leader. Walt Disney said Doc got his name because every doctor he knew was a bit of a bossy know-it-all, even if they were well meaning.
  • Turning Red:
    • In the core Lee family, there is Meilin "Mei/Mei-Mei", Ming, and Jin. Meilin's name is the only two-syllable name (though for the majority of the film, she goes by Mei), and Jin's name is the only one not to start with "M".
    • Ming has two sisters, Ping and Chen. Chen's name is the only one of the three not to rhyme.
    • Within the core friend group, Miriam's name is the only one with three syllables, as the rest (Meilin, Priya, Abby, and Tyler) all have two-syllable names.
  • Up: Dug is the only dog whose name is not a Greek letter. The other names are implied to be ranks, but it still highlights Dug's position as their Butt-Monkey.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In one of The Addams Family movies, Wednesday becomes the only Addams sibling not to have a name beginning with P, since her brothers are Pugsley and Pubert.
  • In the movie Animal Crackers, Captain Spaulding (Groucho Marx) dictates a letter to his lawyer, Charles H. Hungerdunger of Hungerdunger, Hungerdunger, Hungerdunger, Hungerdunger, and McCormick.
  • Star Wars: There's the original film A New Hope, which is the only film (in the Skywalker saga at least) to not have "the" in its name. Even taking into account that it was originally titled simply Star Wars.
  • In the beginning of Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, the pet crocodiles belonging to the Queen all have names ending in "is" (as do all Egyptian characters) except for one called Serge.
  • Black Christmas (2019): Not obvious at first, but four of the five main female characters (Riley, Kris, Marty, and Jesse) has masculine or unisex names. The fifth, Helena, turns out to be The Mole working for the fraternity/cult.
  • The Van Waldenberg siblings in Blades of Glory are named Stranz, Fairchild, and Katie. Guess which ones are world-class figure skaters and who "cheers on the sidelines".
  • Dude, Where's My Car?: "My name is Zarnoff. This is Zabu, Zellnor, Zelbor, Zelmina, and, Jeff." The latter one is (literally) crazy.
  • In the Live-Action Adaptation of George of the Jungle Lyle's henchmen are named Gunner, Gunter, Hans, Jans, and Phil.
  • Ghostbusters (1984): The main group's first names are Peter, Egon, Winston, and... Ray, who only has one syllable in his name.
  • In The Godfather, Vito Corleone's biological children are Santino ("Sonny"), Frederico ("Fredo"), Constanzia ("Connie"), and... Michael. Appropriately, Michael is (initially) the only one of the Corleone children who wants nothing to do with the Mafia.
  • Halloweentown had the witches in the Piper family: Aggie, Marnie, Sophie, and of course, Gwen.
  • In Heathers, protagonist Veronica is the only member of the title clique not named Heather.
  • Indiana Jones:
  • In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, we have Missy, Chrissy, Sissy, and Justice. The latter one does a Heel–Face Turn by the end of the movie. It's even lampshaded when the others are talking behind Justice's back.
  • In Jurassic World, Owen's raptors take their names from military callsigns as an allusion to Owen's past in the US Navy. You have Echo, Delta, Charlie and... Blue.
  • The Karate Kid: The gang of bullies that are out to get Danny consists of Johnny, Bobby, Jimmy, Tommy and Dutch.
  • At one point in The Kentucky Fried Movie, a protagonist faces off against three masters of Kung Fu. Their names are Hung Well, Long Thang, and Enormous Genitals.
  • In MirrorMask, all the Monkeybirds are named Bob. Except Malcolm. Malcolm also has a different-coloured beak so he can be visually distinguished from the others.
  • The Mummy: Abdul, Muhammad, Bob.
  • The Odd Angry Shot: During the scene on the range, the range corporal asks the four protagonists for their names as he is reprimanding them. On the spur of the moment, he is given four false names; Grey, Green, Brown & Oakover.
  • A Prairie Home Companion: Yolanda, Rhonda, and their sister Wanda have names ending with "nda", while their sister Connie (and their baby brother Johnny) don't.
  • The names of the quints from Raising Arizona are Harry, Larry, Garry, Barry, and Nathan Jr.
  • Pretty Woman: In the mostly ad-libbed shopping scene, the store manager (Larry Miller) calls to the shopgirls:
    Store Manager: Mary Pat, Mary Kate, Mary Francis, Tovah, let's see it ...
  • In Snow White (1916), the seven dwarfs are named Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick, and Quee.
  • In ¡Three Amigos!: Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander.
  • In The Three Stooges short A Pain in the Pullman, the booking agency's name is Goldstein, Goldberg, Goldblatt, and O'Brien. Of course, O'Brien is the one who speaks with a Yiddish accent.
  • In Zorro, the Gay Blade, there's a scene where the dons (landowners) are introducing themselves, and saying from where in California they've travelled:
    #1: Don Diego, from San Fernando.
    #2: Don Francisco, from San Jose.
    #3: Don Fernando, from San Diego.
    #4: Don Jose, from San Bernardino.
    #5: Don Luis Obispo, from Bakersfield.

    Gamebooks 
  • From GrailQuest, King Blogwort's royal advisers in Kingdom of Horror: Tom, Dick, Harry and the Reverend Plantagenet O'Rourke.

    Jokes 
  • Played with in an old children naming joke: [name]'s mother had four children, and named the first three Spring, Summer, and Autumn. What was the fourth child named? Obviously, it's the name given at the very start of the question. (Other versions of this joke exist, swapping out the names as appropriate.)
  • During the initial furor around the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a joke made the rounds in the form of an Al Qaeda memo:
    We have learned that the Americans are attempting to infiltrate our hiding places. To prevent this, we will have around the clock watches. The first watch will be Abdul, followed by Malik, then Steve, and finally Hassan.
  • Averted, or maybe inverted, by a Scottish military joke:
    "O'Brien?" "Present, Sir." "Cohen?" "Present, Sir." "Woinarowski?" "Present, Sir." "Right, Cameron Highlanders present and correct, Sir!"

    Music 
  • The Dio led version of Black Sabbath consisted of Italian origin Ronnie James Dio, Vinnie Appice, Tony Iommi and the very British Geezer Butler. This led Ozzy Osbourne the former frontman to derisively call them “Geezer and three wops”.
  • KMFDM normally names their albums with five letters, words, or symbols, but dropped this convention for two albums; Hau Ruck and Tohuvabohu. Also, the remix album Brimborium, whose title has no relation to its parent album.
  • The Monkees released an album in 1967 titled Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.. While the zodiac names are the horoscope signs of the band members, Davy Jones was singled out because he and Michael Nesmith shared not only the same sign, but the same birthday (December 30).
  • The girls in Preschool Popstars are named Hailey, Bailey, and Jazz (although there's no way of telling who is whom).
  • Songdrops: In the song "The Name of My Frog", the singer's frog Mr. Jumpers's real name is Francis Felix Fenton Fabian Finley Farnsworth Falco Fallon Flannigan Fairfax Freddy McGrog Farley Fernando. McGrog is the only one of his names that doesn't begin with F.
  • Country Music trio Tompall and the Glaser Brothers: Jim, Chuck, and Tompall (which is actually just a shortening of his first and middle names, Thomas Paul).
  • Relient K during the dedication on their song "Bee Your Man":
    ''Thank you very much from John, Matt, Jon, Matt, and Da- Ethan.
  • The non-John members of They Might Be Giants currently consists of Danny, Dan, and... Marty.

    Podcasts 
  • In the Firefly game of Cool Kids Table, Todd's henchmen are named Ace and King, because he had to keep the theme going. The crew complains that if he really wanted the theme to stick then he should've called himself "Jack".
  • Belle from Pokemon: Adventures in the Millennium names all her Pokemon after historical figures, except for Klondike the Seel—she's named after the geographical region.

    Poetry 
  • There's a poem about three characters named Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • The first generation of the Vachon Wrestling Family that got started in the NWA consisted of Paul, Maurice, and Diane, under their respective ring names Butcher, Mad Dog, and Vivian. That being said, the guys were often Paul "Butcher" Vachon and Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon, but never Diane "Vivian" Vachon. Considering the second generation were Pitbull, The Beast and Luna, "Vivian" was this to the entire family.
  • The Monroes Jet, Rocket and Sputnik were all well known for their era. Bubba, not so much.
  • The members of the Spirit Squad (a heel stable of male cheerleaders) were Johnny, Mikey, Nicky, Kenny, and Mitch.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 
  • In The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Leaf's siblings are Marigold, Brook, Pinecone, Landscape, Raisin... and Paul.
  • The five main players in Altar Boyz are Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan, and Abraham.
  • In Annie, the seven named orphans are Annie, Molly, Pepper (not a common real name, but a real name nonetheless), Duffy (again, a rare name, but a real one - it's Irish), Tessie, Kate... and July. The 1982 film's novelization explains that her birth name was probably Julie, but her uneducated parents misspelled it in their note when they left her on the orphanage steps as a baby.
  • Happens in the musical Chicago during the "Cell Block Tango" number. Mona tells of her ex-boyfriend, Al Lipschitz, who would try to find himself and on the way "found" Ruth, Gladys, Rosemary and Irving. Also amongst the murderesses, there is Velma, Roxie, Mona, Liz, June, Annie, and Hunyak. Hunyak is the only one who is truly innocent and the only one we see get hanged. In this case, it's a bit justified - the character is Hungarian and the fact that she is foreign and unable to speak English is why she's in jail to begin with.
  • Grease: The main teen characters almost all have names that end with a long "e" sound, except for one boy and one girl each. The boys are Danny, Kenickie, Doody, Sonny... and Roger. The girls are Sandy, Betty (Rizzo), Frenchy, Marty... and Jan. Appropriately, Roger and Jan become a couple. Downplayed in the case of the girls, since Rizzo usually goes by her last name, and averted in the movie, where Roger is renamed Putzie.
  • The Merchant of Venice: The Dramatis Personae in some editions lists "companions to Antonio and Bassanio": Salarino, Solanio, Salerio, and Gratiano. The latter one ends up being important.
  • In The Merry Widow, there is a sextet of chorus girls called Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo and Margot.
  • Larry Shue's farce The Nerd features characters named Willum, Tansy, Axel, Warnock, Clelia and Thor. The title character’s name? Rick. This is subverted in The RevealRick is actually an actor named Kemp Hall.
  • Othello:
    • Iago is the only one without an Italian name. His name is Spanish; this makes it a prophetic name, as in early seventeenth-century England, Spanish people were considered Always Chaotic Evil (thanks to the Anglo-Spanish rivalry at sea and the not-untraumatizing experience of the Spanish Armada). Also, 'Iago' is the Spanish version of Jacob, otherwise known as James. And what was one of Saint James's titles? The Moor Killer.
    • The Hebrew meaning of Jacob is "the supplanter," which also fits Iago — or at least what he wants to be — pretty well.
  • In Neil Simon's Rumors, the four male leads are Ken, Len (short for Leonard), Glenn, and... Ernie.
  • The 1912 adaptation of Snow White was the first to name the seven dwarfs; they were Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick, and Quee. The latter was also the youngest (at about 99).

    Toys 
  • The Barbie Sisters' names rhyme, except for one: Barbie, Stacie, Chelsea/Kelly, and Skipper.
  • In the Bratz toy line, the witchy cousins "Bratzillazs" are named Yazmina, Cloetta, Megana, Sashabella, and Jade.
  • Transformers: Generation 1: The Dinobots all have aggressive names. Grimlock, Snarl, Slag/Slug, Sludge, and Swoop are the base five, but other stories have added new members named Grimmaster, Skar, Strafe, Slash, and Paddles. Also, Grimlock is the only member of the main Dinobots whose name is more than one syllable and doesn't begin with S.

    Visual Novels 
  • Fitting in with the Ambiguously Christian nature of the setting, almost every character in Bad Faith has a name that has some amount of significance in Judaism or Christianity... every character except Cerise. There doesn't seem to be any particular meaning to this break of the trend, althought it might be a morbidly playful bit of Foreshadowing— "Cerise" is a shade of red, and she earns an exceptionally violent demise.
  • Danganronpa: In the three main games, there is always a student that doesn't have a traditional Japanese first name, with these being Leon Kuwata, Sonia Nevermind and Angie Yonaga. Sonia is explicitly stated to be a foreign exchange student from the Kingdom of Novoselic in Europe while Angie is implied to be Indonesian, but Leon on the other hand is Japanese.
  • Doki Doki Literature Club! has Natsuki, Sayori, Yuri, and Monika—the last isn't Japanese in origin and doesn't end with the letter I. While the other three have a route in the game, Monika doesn't. Until she hijacks the game to give herself one. Additionally, it's revealed in Plus that her name actually stands in for Monitor Kernel Access.
    • In some of the promotional material for Plus, the player character is given the name "Ive". This gives him an even odder name than Monika, as it's monosyllabic, has a different "I" sound compared to the girls, and resembles a pronoun contraction. All indicating he's not supposed to naturally exist in the game.
  • The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog: This is one of the clues that you uncover while you're trying to figure out who "killed" Sonic in the murder mystery game. Knuckles and Vector spent the hour they had to commit the "murder" trying to get the highscore in the arcade machine. Aside from their names on the scoreboard, the other names follow a Food Theme Naming - except for the score titled as "ULTIM". It turns out that theis is Shadow's signature on the scoreboard (standing for Ultimate Lifeform), which helps him establish an alibi after he's framed for the "murder".
  • In the Mystic Messenger, the five main characters' birth names are all typical Korean names: Yoosung, Jaehee, Hyun (although he prefers to be called Zen), Jumin... except for Luciel. Lampshaded in one chat where Jaehee and Yoosung agree that "Luciel" is a weird name to say.
  • At the start of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, the players in the Nonary Game decide to start referring to themselves by code names in case mastermind Zero is listening in on them and gathering personal information to use against them. They decide to base their code names off their bracelet numbers (i.e. an Ace in a deck of cards, Snake eyes, the 8 petals of a Lotus flower,) but some exceptions are Seven (who doesn't bother with a referential code name and just goes by the number directly), Junpei (who doesn't get a code name, because after June blabbed about his real name nobody else saw any point in it), the Ninth Man (who doesn't go along with the whole code name thing, and soon after breaks off from the group and gets himself killed), and Clover (who secretly used her real name as her code name).
  • In Overflow Universe:
    • Hanon Nijou is the only daughter of Wakaba whose name doesn't contain kanji for number, instead relying on the "non/none" part for a reference to number zero.
    • Inori Ashikaga is the only daughter of Shun Hazama whose name isn't related to number/time/world, instead meaning "to pray". Justified since she was abandoned by Natsuhi when she was still a baby.
    • Moeka Inou is the only daughter of Moegi to not be named after dance of music, instead named after her mother.

    Web Animation 
  • In the Homestar Runner Show Within a Show Cheat Commandos, everybody has a cool commando name, for instance, Crackotage, Gunhaver, Fightgar, and Silent Rip... and then there's Firebert and Reynold. (Reynold later undergoes a Face–Heel Turn and renames himself "Scrawnjob". Also, there's Mr. Bland, Senor, and... The Robot (the only one who doesn't have a variation of "Mister" in his name, in case you didn't notice).
    • The members of the death metal band Taranchula are Dave Bjornborg, Dave Olafstenston, and Schenkel McDoo. Highlighted in their music video, where the two Daves look like typical Scandinavian death metal rockers while Schenkel McDoo has a Porn Stache and a pink polo shirt.
    • Then there's also the quote above, mentioning characters named Mandy, Brandy, Andy, and Scurge.
  • Meister Futsi's daughters in Japanoschlampen are named Suzy, Sissy, Susu and Kasulouh.
  • Mystery Skulls Animated: The Pepper family siblings are named Belle, Cayenne, Paprika, and Lewis — Fittingly, he was adopted. Among the sisters themselves, however, Paprika is the only one named after a spice, ableit one made from peppers, rather than a plant.
  • Object Connects had an Edible Theme Naming with their teams which follows the naming convention of "The [Adjective ending with "-y"] [Fruit]" such as "The Sleepy Strawberries" and "The Smarty Blueberries". The Reversal Tomatoes sticks out like a sore thumb as not only does it not have a "-y" ending adjective but tomatoes aren't a conventional fruit since most associate it with vegetables.
  • RWBY:
    • All characters are given names that are colour-based, or associated with colours. The Colourful Theme Naming was confirmed by the late Monty Oum long before the in-universe reason was revealed. Eighty years ago a terrible world war ended that had, among other things, tried to destroy artistic merit, individuality and diversity. To remember that, and make sure it never happened again, people all over Remnant have named themselves and their children after colour themes. The exceptions to this rule are Ozpin and Salem, two beings that have a very unique and mysterious past, both with each other and within Remnant itself. From the audience's perspective, Ozpin brings to mind The Wizard of Oz and Salem is a reference to the Salem witch trials, for a "good wizard/evil witch" dynamic. Neither reference exists in-universe.
    • The episode titles of Volume 8 are all One Word Titles, except for the season finale, "The Final Word". The last line spoken audibly in the episode is Cinder declaring "And that's checkmate", implying that the hidden true title of the episode is "Checkmate".

    Webcomics 
  • In Achewood, Iolwerth is giving an introduction to his family which has traveled through time in order to attend Molly's wedding. After a lengthy list of 16th century English names, he lands on Taffy, who has a mental disorder and is capable of pwning in video games upon initial exposure.
  • In Band vs. Band, the Candy Hearts are Honey, Coco, Cherry, and Zero.
  • The three protagonists of Daddy-Long-Legs are a harvestman named Mr. Harvestman, a crane fly named Mr. Crane and a cellar spider named Mr. Scapegrace.
  • The webcomic First Contact features six teens, with biblical names like Uriel, Sisera, Adam, Lucas, Isaiah... and then Morgan was introduced. A commenter lampshades it:
    The first one with a non-biblical name. wow.
  • Girl Genius has Ferretina the Weasel Queen's giant anthropomorphic rabbit goons, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Nietzsche.
  • Homestuck:
    • Homestuck has four kids, whose online handles can be shortened to TT (tentacleTherapist), TG (turntechGodhead), GG (gardenGnostic), and... EB (ectoBiologist), which belongs to John, our original protagonist. This discrepancy is actually a Chekhov's Gun; a group of internet/real trolls had forced him to change his handle from ghostyTrickster.
    • Roxy Lalonde is the only human kid with more than one syllable in their first name.
    • Nepeta's Sburb/Sgrub planet, Land of Little Cubes and Tea, is the only planet with an extra word in its name (this was done so that the initials would spell out "LOLCAT"). Similarly, most Sburb planets have "Land of" names where the first noun is one syllable, but aside from Nepeta's planet, Roxy's planet is called Land of Pyramids and Neon, where the first noun is three syllables. and when Caliborn completes the tasks required for a Dead Session, his planet's name is revealed to be "Land of Colours and Mayhem", again breaking the one-syllable rule for the first noun.
    • Carapace names change all the time, but retain the same initials: WV has Wizardly Vassal, Wayward Vagabond, and Warweary Villein. Jack Noir instead becomes Spades Slick, Scurrilous Straggler, Sovereign Slayer, and Bec Noir. The Black Queen became Snowman as well.
    • uranianUmbra (UU) and undyingUmbrage (uu) are the only chathandles that don't correspond to a pair of DNA proteins. Instead they represent uracil, which replaces thymine in RNA. The latter also is also the only handle that isn't in caps.
    • Problem Sleuth has the four poker-playing elves: Ropo, Zobo, Foko, and Blod.
  • The characters from the eponymous video game in Kid Radd are named after slightly mangled pieces of Eighties slang - Radd, Gnarl, and Bogey (from 'bogus', not the British for 'booger'). The only one who isn't is Radd's 'girlfriend', Sheena, who's not only invincible, but who ends up merging with a version of herself from the sequel to her game, and becoming the most versatile fighter in the comic.
  • Kill Six Billion Demons: Angels and Devils both have naming conventions:
    • Angels are named after sentences from the Gods' old law prefixed with their current incarnation, so for example "82 White Chain Returns From Emptiness To Defeat Evil". The odd name out amongst them is Metatron 1, YISUN's scribe, whose name is only a single word (and a real-life Bible reference at that), and has a suffix rather than a prefix as he's never died. The angel 2 Michael is also a break of this standard, but it is implied that "Michael" may not be his full name but is a shortened form of his full name.
    • Devils, meanwhile, collect names and titles every time they form a contract, which can be used to summon and bind them. They constantly add or shed names to their collection in the hopes of earning a single name that fits them particularly well and gets directly associated with that devil's power again and again. This name becomes their "black name", which is so bound to them that they reach the apex of their power and can reach the highest rank in their Fantastic Caste System. An example of this is the blue devil "Ciocie Cioelle Estrella von Maximus the Third" ("Cio" to her friends, if she had any), whose many names (and having been stuck in a single contract where she hasn't built a lot of Villain Cred) means none of them are particularly powerful and neither is she. The odd name out amongst the devils is "Myself" (or "Himself", when adressed by others), which is held by the Eldritch Abomination known as the king of the Devils. As the name implies, it is his name, the only name he's ever been known by, and he gave it to himself without forming a contract, something that is impossible to other Devils.
  • All of the Grand Masters in L's Empire have titles that they got from their abilities... except Stonemaster. It still fits his powers though.
  • Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: The Commander and his siblings/batch-mates are Ace, Jet, Cat... and Rock Lobster. Granted, their "real" names are D37-9E-A53, D37-9E-J37, D37-9E-C47 and D37-9E-B52, which match a whole lot better, but among the used names, Rock Lobster sticks outnote .
  • Played With in No Rest for the Wicked: November is the daughter of King January, and has older sisters named August and September. The queen is named Avril, which follows the Temporal Theme Naming in another language. (They're also missing an October, though Word of God says that's because there's a two-year difference between September and November's ages.)
  • Paranatural has the trio of teenage vampire trhalls: Gage, Paige and Youth Culture.
  • In Pebble and Wren, the main family involves Wren, Phil, and Donald (who has two syllables).
  • In The Petri Dish, the cyborgs are named Irene, iBall, and Bob, whose name doesn't start with I and has one syllable.
  • The three brothers from Plume are Azeel, Aricon and Corrick. Guess who ends up magical and immortal.
  • The main cast of Roommates is James, Jareth, Javert, and Erik.
  • Sleepless Domain: The five girls of Team Alchemical are all named after their respective Elemental Powers, but they differ in how these play into their names. Sally, Undine, Sylvia and Gwen derive their names from the mythological Alchemic Elementals — the Salamander, Undine, Sylph, and Gnome. As there is no elemental associated with a fifth element, however, their fifth member is named Tessa Quinn, a play on the word "quintessence".
  • Tower of God has Baylord Yama, Baylord Doom, and Baylord... Paul. Evidently, the family ran out of their supply of badass names.
  • Tripping Over You: Nora's children are Milo, Molly, Mina, and Sylvia. The latter is also her first child since her divorce, though the theme isn't acknowledged in-universe.
  • Unsounded: Almost everyone in the nation of Cresce has a four-letter name, as it's considered lucky for historical reasons. The known exceptions are the royals (who, claiming the Divine Right of Kings, shouldn't need luck) and Regina Flask (a privateer who's making a deliberate statement).

    Web Original 
  • There was an email that did the rounds a while ago which purported to be a memo from Osama bin Laden to his underlings. In it, he called for Al-Qaeda members to be vigilant of Western infiltrators, and he assigned a patrol group consisting of Muhammad, Akbar, Abdul and Dave.
  • Every character in Behind Closed Doors, no matter how insignificant, follows Musical Theme Naming. The exception is Jessica O'Flannigan, who is also the only Muggle in a cast full of Magic Music users.
  • In Fairies of Notting Cove, all the forest fairies have Irish names, except for The Cook, who is Only Known by Their Nickname. Saga is also an Odd Name Out, justified since she's a foreigner.
  • From Killerbunnies, we have Same-Sex Triplets Fern, Flori, and Tommie Evans and the Junkard sisters Henrietta, Hattie, and Munchie.
  • In Season 2 of the Life SMP, Last Life, Lizzie decided to name her three dogs after things that scare people — "Dragon", "Ogre", and "Taxes".
  • Sailor Nothing, of course, uses it twice: the Fashion Club (Ami, Emi, Umi, and Aki) and the Dark Generals (Argon, Neon, Xenon, Radon, and Cobalt).
  • Fey's three fairies from the Whateley Universe are Trixie, Dixie, and Brunhilda.

    Web Videos 
  • In Sanders Sides, the personified forms of parts of Thomas usually carry a name ending on an -on or -an: Roman, Patton, Logan. The last one was eventually revealed to be named Virgil. This was lampshaded in canon.
  • In the SuperMarioLogan episode, "The New House!", Brooklyn T. Guy is revealed to be part of the Guy family, and has brothers with first names such as This, What, The, A, Chicago, Manhattan, San Fransisco, Miami, and Frank (just Frank).
  • In Vaguely Recalling JoJo, Kakyoin gives cherry-themed names for the group: Jotaro becomes Sakuranbotaro, Joestar (Joseph's last name) becomes Sakuranbostar, and Kakyoin becomes Cherryin. Avdol's name still stays the same.

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Hi Barbie!

In Barbieland, every girl is named Barbie and every guy is named Ken (plus a guy named Allan).

How well does it match the trope?

5 (15 votes)

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