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Officially Shortened Title

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"Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends", "Thomas and Friends", and "Thomas the Tank Engine".note 

A newly premiered work has a long and/or elaborate title. If the show survives to become popular, however, a certain phenomenon is known to occur: This long and elaborate title is shortened to just half its original size, if that, and advertised as such.

While this is obviously done often among fandom, especially on the internet, this trope is specific to when the show is officially advertised with its shortened name in promotional material. The former can sometimes cause the latter, if the shortened name becomes much more well known than the full title. Other legitimate causes include events within the show or in real life necessitating a change. It's also quite common for a work with an Either/Or Title to jettison the "or" section.

Other reasons could be that perhaps the long title served to attract attention to the series and, mission accomplished, can go to a shorter title. Or perhaps network executives thought Viewers Are Morons and wouldn't pay attention to or be able to read a long title. This has a mundane application as well: Advertising time is extremely expensive, so the less time they have to spend saying the name of the recognizable title the better.

Portmanteau Series Nickname is a related trope, mostly applying to Japanese-language works; indeed, both are VERY common with Light Novels. Also compare Short Title: Long, Elaborate Subtitle.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

    Asian Animation 

    Fanfiction 
  • Lothíriel by JunoMagic had a longer title, Lothíriel - The Tenth Walker! Novel, but the author shortened it.
  • Paper Mario X is usually referred to in Child's end-of-chapter notes simply as PMX.
  • Due to character limitations on titles on DeviantArt, Better Living Through Science and Ponies is referred to simply as Better Living there. The thumbnail uses the full title, though. Pen Stroke's interview in regards to Past Sins also refers to the story as Better Living.
  • Cassandra Cain's new, religious-oriented superhero title in Angel of the Bat is... Um... Angel of the Bat. But since that's a mouthful, the rest of the cast and the narrator usually stick to calling her Angel.
  • With Pearl and Ruby Glowing is frequently referred to by the authors as simply WPaRG. This is even the title of the series on Archive of Our Own, despite the full title easily fitting within character limits.
  • Thirty Hs' official title is in fact a string of thirty Hs. Spelling and pronouncing it as "Thirty Hs" is a lot less time-consuming.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Zack and Miri Make a Porno was usually advertised as just Zack and Miri. This is an interesting case in that the abbreviation had nothing to do with the title being too long; there are just places where you can't get away with referencing porno.
  • Independence Day was also marketed as "ID4" (4 being a reference to the 4th of July).
  • Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and love the Bomb.
  • Posters for Mission: Impossible III shortened the title to "M:i:III". As a result, Stephen Colbert made a Running Gag out of pronouncing it "Meeeeeeeeee". Its predecessor's posters called it "M:i-2". This stopped happening with the fourth film in favor of subtitles.
  • The live-action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was simply called The Grinch in all posters, trailers and commercials.
  • Attack of the Morningside Monster became simply Morningside Monster for the blu-ray release, with the full title appearing nowhere in the packaging or title menu. It had originally screened in festivals under the longer title, and IMDB (as well as numerous published reviews) still use it.
  • All the Star Wars movies implement this to varying degrees:
    • The original movie was just called Star Wars, during production of The Empire Strikes Back they decided on maintaining the big 'Star Wars title screen identical to the first film and then for the Opening Crawl include "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" as a continued throwback to the old serials. In 1981 they released the original Star Wars with a new opening crawl with the label "Episode IV: A New Hope." The original posters for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi have a border around them with a much smaller Star Wars label, to maintain brand continuity. Thus officially the names of the films are their original theatrical names, but as a franchise their name is technically "Star Wars: Episode Number: Subtitle" with emphasis on the subtitle to differentiate.
    • The Prequel films placed emphasis on the Episode number in its marketing and logo design (as well as the Star Wars brand being the largest emblem) as such referring to each film as Episode I, II or III became commonplace.
    • After the Disney acquisition and production of the sequels, the logos are now the subtitle placed between "STAR" and "WARS", with no mention of the episode number. The Opening Crawls however retain the full title as in the Lucas films. Films involved include The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
    • Averted with the standalone films: the lengthy subtitles they share, "A Star Wars Story", is included in the frame encircling the title in the logo, to make them distinct from the core films.
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day had a "T2" logo used in many marketing materials. It was especially prominent on the cabinet art of the Licensed Arcade Game, and the T2-3D attraction at Universal Studios.
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen used the abbreviation LXG on many marketing materials.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • 3rd Rock from the Sun eventually became Third Rock.
  • 8 Simple Rules was originally Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. Though this case was justified a bit by the death of John Ritter, who played the father on the show.
  • America's Funniest Home Videos is now known as AFV. Even the abbreviation used in-show was once "AFHV." Maybe it's because the videos aren't necessarily taken in people's homes?
  • Live with Kelly and Michael and its variants are sometimes simply called Live!
  • It is now customary to refer to Good Morning America as GMA in all but the most formal circumstances.
  • Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place became Two Guys and a Girl. In fact, the Two Guys and a Girl trope page even mentions the series because of the likelihood of people looking for the show finding it. Like Eight Simple Rules, though, this was justified because there was Character Development and the Guys no longer worked at the titled Pizza Place.
  • Emmerdale Farm became Emmerdale. This was because the focus of the series had moved from the farm itself to the nearby village (which was originally called Beckindale, but was renamed shortly before the title change).
  • Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane became Zoe.... The commercials called it "Zoe dot dot dot".
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer's name was never officially changed, but network promos shortened it after a while to just Buffy.
  • Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was likewise shortened in promos to Studio 60.
  • Most of the "Late Show with..." and similar late-night shows become known by their host.
  • The now-forgotten Brit Com Lollipop Loves Mr. Mole was renamed Lollipop for its second (and last) short season.
  • Absolutely Fabulous = Ab Fab
  • Lock Stock, The short-lived series of the film Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.
  • The fourth and final series of Monty Python's Flying Circus attempted to shorten the show's name to Monty Python. However, the new title sequence actually includes the full name as well.
  • Degrassi: The Next Generation became just Degrassi starting in season 10, because all of that particular generation had moved on from the titular High School.
  • Inverted with Hannah Montana, which was adapted for and marketed to Japanese audiences as Secret Idol Hannah Montana.
    • Also inverted with the fourth and final season, billed in the US as "Hannah Montana Forever."
  • Before NCIS aired, it was branded as Navy CIS. Then CBS decided to change it to Navy NCIS for all of season one. CBS's reasoning for it, despite Donald P. Bellisario's protests, wanted to attract new viewers who didn't know the acroynm and not have it be related to CSI. You read that right, NCIS was called Navy Naval Criminal Invesigative Service for an entire season. Needless to say, the title was eventually shortened because of how successful the first season was.
  • Hiroshi Sekiguchi's Tokyo Friend Park II was often referred to as Tokyo Friend Park II (although Hiroshi Sekiguchi remained host for the show's entire run from 1994 to 2011), and the show got a new logo at the start of its 5th season (April 1998) which read merely "TFP2", albeit often accompanied by the show's full title in smaller lettering underneath.
  • Misshitsu Nazotoki Variety Dasshutsu Game DERO! (roughly "Solve a Variety of Puzzles Behind Closed Doors: Escape Game DERO!") had a simpler version of its logo which simply read "Dasshutsu Game DERO!"; this version of the logo had been in use since the pilot episode. Meanwhile, the show would often get referred to as simply "DERO!".
    • Likewise, its Spiritual Successor Takara Sagashi Adventure Nazotoki Battle TORE! (roughly "Treasure Hunt Adventure: Puzzle Battle TORE!") also has a version of its logo which reads just "TORE!", and the show is often referred to as just "TORE!" as well.
  • Parks and Recreation is advertised as Parks and Rec.
  • In-Universe example; 30 Rock's Show Within a Show was originally called The Girlie Show, nicknamed TGS. When Executive Meddling added Tracy Jordan to the roster, it was officially renamed TGS with Tracy Jordan, though it's still generally referred to as just TGS.
  • The Netflix reboot of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy is just called Queer Eye, which is what the original show often was called for short anyway. The shortened title also allows for some flexibility of the premise: Unlike in the original iteration, the people they're making over aren't necessarily "straight" or "guys".
  • The long-running (1978 to present) BBC Scotland gardening show The Beechgrove Garden shortened its title to Beechgrove in 2019, co-inciding with the departure of the last original presenter Jim McColl. The shortened title never really "took" with audiences, and the change was reverted in 2023.
  • Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck became just Whammy! for its second season.
  • After 52 years on air, the BBC panel game A Question of Sport officially dropped the "A" from its title in 2022.

    Music 
  • The Pink Floyd Sound lost half of their name by the time of their first album; the longer version was used on some early singles. You'll occasionally hear them still referred to with the definite article, especially as "the Floyd".
  • The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo shortened their name to Oingo Boingo when they reformed and changed their sound. Later, they shortened it even further, to just Boingo.
  • The Justified Ancients of MuMu shortened their name to J.A.M, but then had to change their name to The KLF because there was already a (rather well known) band called The Jam.
  • For legal reasons, The Jackson 5 had to become The Jacksons when most of them left Motown and Jermaine stayed on.
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex became T. Rex when they went electric.
  • MGMT used to be "The Management".
  • Havalina Rail Co. went both ways with this. They started off just as Havalina, then slapped Rail Co on the end to avoid confusion with another band named The Havalinas. (This all happened before they recorded their first album, so most fans outside their hometown were introduced to them by the extended title.) Years later, they shortened the name back to just Havalina in response to several band members leaving.
  • Chicago was originally called Chicago Transit Authority, but the real Chicago Transit Authority was not amused and threatened to sue, so they shortened it.
  • The Grateful Dead later changed their name to The Dead when they had reunited without the late Jerry Garcia.
  • Jefferson Starship (originated from Jefferson Airplane) became Starship.
  • Revelation Theory shortened their name to Rev Theory because it sounded cooler.
  • Savatage's first Rock Opera is formally known by the band as Streets, as they were unhappy that Executive Meddling forced the official title to be Streets: A Rock Opera.
  • Big Audio Dynamite II (formerly Big Audio Dynamite before some members left) became Big Audio for an album.
  • Wire became Wir for one album out of respect of drummer Robert Gotobed, who fired himself when he came to the realization that a drum machine could do his job better than he could.
  • The 21st-century revived Dexys Midnight Runners is just Dexys.
  • The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion became simply Blues Explosion for their 2004 album Damage, stating the need to emphasize that they were a democratic band, not a solo artist with a backing group. The name change didn't stick—2012's Meat + Bone was again credited to The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
  • Revolting Cocks are occasionally billed as Revco on soundtrack appearances and even on their own album covers. The former seems to be an issue of censorship, but the latter is apparently just for aesthetic purposes.
  • After partially reuniting in 2007, Halo Of Flies officially became H*O*F.
  • KMFDM was billed as Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleidnote  at their first show. Supposedly it was changed when Englishman Raymond Watts joined the band and couldn't pronounce the name. The original name still shows up every so often in song lyrics or packaging, but it's obscure enough that many people still think it stands for Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode.
  • The Unicorns' Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? has sort of a long title, which couldn't fit on the side of the CD packaging (especially because the album comes in a slim cardboard case)—accordingly, the title is rendered as W.W.C.O.H.W.W.G there, although the rest of the artwork always uses the full title.
  • Sultans Of Ping F.C. became Sultans of Ping, and eventually just The Sultans. The latter change reflected a Growing the Beard moment as they moved away from the cartoonish feel of their earlier (and more popular) material.
  • The Cult were another case of a band name gradually getting shorter over time: Southern Death Cult, then Death Cult, and finally The Cult.
  • King Missile (Dog Fly Religion) became simply King Missile starting with their 1990 album Mystical Shit: The parenthetical part of their name was the idea of co-founding member Dogbowl, so when he amicably left the group to pursue his own music, they shortened the name out of respect.
  • The ska band Run For Your Life decided that was a bit too long to comfortably fit on a poster, so they shortened it to Runforyerlife. That was the name they used for their only album.
  • Afro Celt Sound System shortened their name to Afro Celts for the album Seed. Partly because fans were already calling them the Afro Celts anyway, and partly because they wanted to emphasize their status as a band, not a DJ with backing musicians. note  However, this just confused people about whether they were the same band or not. They went back to using the full name quickly, and even reissued Seed with their old name.
  • Hank Green's song "The Anglerfish Song Regarding the Human Mentality in Respect to How to Interpret Perpetually Felt Emotions While Educating You on the Subject of Anglerfish" has only ever been referred to in full once. On all other occasions since its dubbing it has been called "The Anglerfish Song". This shortened title extends to albums which feature the song.
  • Clan of Xymox shortened their name to Xymox during the 1990's, but reverted afterwards.
  • MC Hammer became Hammer during his 2 Legit 2 Quit era.
  • Old Crow Medicine Show often promotes themselves as OCMS, which they used for their self-titled album.
  • Say Hi To Your Mom officially changed their name to Say Hi in 2008, saying that the full name no longer fit the way the band wanted to present themselves.
  • ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is also known officially as simply "Trail of Dead".
  • Witness the oddly involved story of how the new wave band Daniel Amos shortened their name: In the early 80s, they started introducing themselves at live shows as "D.A." Then the Vox Humana cover art had "DA" in large letters, with "Daniel Amos" inside those in much smaller text. Then Fearful Symmetry solely referred to them as "DA". And then Darn Floor Big Bite turned that into the monosyllabic "Da". Kalhoün carried the silliness to its conclusion and gave the name a gratuitous umlaut—"dä". And finally, on Motorcycle, they became Daniel Amos again—and remained that until the present.
  • Dismember were originally going to be named Dismemberizer, but they couldn't fit the name on the tape.
  • Fall Out Boy, a band famous for their long song names to begin with, released their song "I'm Like A Lawyer With The Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You)" as a single. The song is titled "I'm Like A Lawyer... (Me & You)" on the single's cover.
    • The B-Side to the previous single, "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" from the same album, is a song referred to as "G.I.N.A.S.F.S" which had been previously titled "Gay Is Not A Synonym For Shitty" on setlists.
  • The band Disneyland After Dark, for obvious reasons, soon renamed themselves D.A.D. (And later D:A:D and D-A-D as well.)
  • Kajagoogoo shortened their name to Kaja for Crazy Peoples Right To Speak and the U.S. version of Islands. This coincided with original vocalist Limahl's exit from the group, but apparently had more to do with the band wanting to have a more mature image after being pegged as a "bubblegum pop" group. Nevertheless, once they reunited with Limahl, they started going by Kajagoogoo again.
  • You Were Spiraling shortened their name to Spiraling by the release of their first proper album.
  • Van der Graaf Generator were billed as simply Van Der Graaf for two consecutive albums in the late 70s (The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome and Vital: Van Der Graaf Live). After reuniting in 2005, they reverted to the longer name.
  • In 2019, Marina And The Diamonds shortened her stage name to just Marina (stylized as MARINA)
  • In 2020, Lady Antebellum officially became Lady A. Fans had been calling them that for short anyway, but the change was primarily due to controversy over the term "antebellum" - in the US, the word is associated with the pre-civil war south, so using it in a Southern musical group's name could be seen as glorifying slavery.
  • The first track on Green Day's 39/Smooth, "At the Library with Waba Sé Wasca", had its title clipped to "At the Library" when it was released on the 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours compilation the following year.
  • Japanese utaite group "Strawberry Prince" is shortened to STPR (which itself is short for the Japanese romanization of the name, "Sutoroberii Purinsu", which itself can also be shortened to "SutoPuri")
  • David Bowie:
    • The 1990 and 1999 remasters of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars shorten the album's memorably unwieldy title to Ziggy Stardust; the full title is still included on the CD and LP disc labels (as well as on cassette labels outside North America), however.
    • The full title of Outside, as presented on the album cover and interior insert, reads 1. Outside: The Nathan Alder Diaries: A Hyper-Cycle. It's typically referred to as just 1. Outside or Outside in official material.
  • Chumbawamba's thirteenth album is almost always shortened to just The Boy Bands Have Won, primarily because the actual title is ludicrously long at 156 words, actually holding a Guinness World Record for the longest album titleThe full title... .
  • Most of the Remixes by Soulwax, whose full title contains over 100 words.
  • When the Pawn... by Fiona Apple, whose full title contains 90 words.
  • Two albums and an EP by Clan of Xymox were simply credited to Xymox. The EP in question, Subsequent Pleasures, was actually their debut, and was later reissued under the Clan Of Xymox name.

    Roleplay 

    Theater 

    Theme Parks 

    Video Games 
  • Of the BEMANI games, Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania are often collectively referred to as "GitaDora" (taking the first two katakana of each title) even on Konami's official site.
  • Persona games are often referred to by "P", followed by the nearest number or letter (i.e. PQ for Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, P4 for Persona 4, etc.). This applies to their rereleases and sequels as well, typically adding another letter to represent the subtitle (P3P for Persona 3 Portable, P5S for Persona 5 Strikers). Exceptions exist, such as the two games that make up Persona 2 (Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment) instead only abbreviating the subtitles.
  • Some directories of the Wangan Midnight official websites refer to the game as "Wanganmaxi."
  • When the Game Boy RPG Pocket Monsters was localized, trademark trouble with Monster in My Pocket led to it going by its Portmanteau Series Nickname, Pokémon. The first few games likely would have been a lesser example even without this, as the eponymous Mons are called "Pokémon" in-game even in the original Red and Green due to character limitations.
  • The Call of Duty spinoff series Modern Warfare began with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but the sequel is generally referred to simply as Modern Warfare 2 in the game and advertising, with Call of Duty only remaining on the box for brand recognition.
    • Inverted on the cover for Modern Warfare 3, which is referred to there as Call of Duty: MW3.
  • Akanesasu Sekai de Kimi to Utau is referred to as "AkaSeka" and written in katakana (アカセカ).
  • The Contra series was briefly shortened to just "C" when Konami was trying to distance the games from the Iran-Contra affair that occurred shortly before the first Arcade Game's release. As a result, the NES version of Super Contra was retitled to Super C, while the later Game Boy version of Contra was renamed Operation C.
  • Nintendo:
    • The Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is officially called the Family Computer, but is better known as the Famicom. However, its successor is officially named the Super Famicom and not the "Super Family Computer". Averted with its western counterpart, which is officially named the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and commonly abbreviated as the Super NES or the SNES, or just the Super Nintendo.
    • "Super Nintendo" was the official French name of the console: On PAL cartridges, there was a warning about Region Coding that stated "This SUPER NINTENDO cartridge is not compatible with the SUPER FAMICOM or SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM".
  • Happens in-universe in The King of Fighters, with the eponymous tournament often simply referred to as KOF. The Maximum Impact series also officially shortened (The) King of Fighters to "KOF" for those games' titles, though some fans will invert this and say the full name aloud (i.e. "The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact"). To be fair, though, the announcer in these entries does the same, and gets particularly hammy with it in Maximum Impact 2.
  • The full title of SD Snatcher is Super Deform Snatcher, but this is displayed less prominently.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Advanced Variable Geo is "Advanced V.G." on the games' covers and title screens.
  • The sequel to Defense of the Ancients is officially known as Dota 2 (not even in all-caps, on its Steam store page) for the sake of Writing Around Trademarks.
  • The Madden NFL series was originally known as John Madden Football until the '94 edition.
  • The title screen of Five Nights at Freddy's 3 has its title shortened to FNAF3.
  • The World Ends with You's manual and a handful of fourth-wall breaking post-game threads abbreviate the game's title as WEWY. In a case of The "The" Title Confusion, the fanbase almost universally ignored this and referred to the game as TWEWY. Solo Remix and Final Remix just gave in and changed the acronym.
  • Blood Bros has its title thus abbreviated on the title screen and international flyer, but it is written out in full as "Blood Brothers" on Fabtek's flyer for their licensed US release as well as on the arcade PCB itself.
  • Many games in Namco's Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium series of baseball games have gone simply by the Portmanteau Series Nickname Famista, starting with the fourth Famicom installment (Famista '89). The competing series by Jaleco, Moero!! Pro Yakyuu (known in the US as Bases Loaded), similarly reduced the series title to MoePro! for its 1990 and 1991 Famicom installments.
  • Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony is sometimes shortened by its developers to simply Jamestown. Even the PS4 port is only titled Jamestown+.
  • FTL: Faster Than Light carries the subtitle only to make it searchable, otherwise its developers call it simply FTL.
  • The sequel to International Karate has its title reduced to IK+ on screen and in almost all of the packaging and promotional material.
  • Zigzagged with The Legend of Zelda; the second game was relased in the West as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The next game went back to the full series title, which has been used ever since, but was sometimes referred to as "Zelda III" in advertising.
  • Invoked by the 2019 Unity ports of Doom with its version of the Back to Saturn X mods, which was simply named BTSX likely to avoid possible trademark infringement with the band Guided by Voices, as the mod's title and level names are based off the band's songs and albums.
  • The Misadventures of Flink goes simply by Flink except on its title screen.
  • When Jetpack Joyride 2 was revealed and soft-launched in 2021, it was known as Jetpack Joyride 2: Bullet Rush. The subtitle wasn't used by the logo and game's advertisements and was phased out completely by the time it got a release on Apple Arcade.
  • Minecraft was known very early in its development as Minecraft: Order of the Stone.
  • Brutal Orchestra has the full title of Hieronymus Bosch's Brutal Orchestra
  • YEAH! YOU WANT "THOSE GAMES," RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET'S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM! has the official short title of Those Games.
  • A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: In the in-game song list, there's "Cyborg Babes..." BeBop Deluxe explains the ellipses:
    The full name of this song is "Cyborg Babes from the Hotrod Nebula." Who cares about what it's called, though...
    It just gets me super pumped!

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures frequently refers to itself as DMFA.
  • Neglected Mario Characters is NC. 'No one knows why the "M" is missing.'
  • College Roomies from Hell!!! has officially been renamed CRFH.
  • Not Always Right, Not Always Real is often shortened to just Not Always Real.
  • Goblins: The full title was originally Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes. Nowadays, though, this subtitle is rarely ever mentioned, including on the official website, where the comic's title is simply Goblins.
  • El Goonish Shive frequently refers to itself as "EGS". This goes double for EGS:NP which hasn't referred to itself with the full title (El Goonish Shive: NewsPaper) since 2008.
  • MS Paint Adventures is officially abbreviated to MSPA. The title is attached to the MSPA Reader character, who was made to joke about the site's audience.
  • The Best Gamepiece Photocomic is usually referred to as TBGPPC, including in the title of the comic's Discord server.

    Western Animation 
  • Nickelodeon does this in advertising for some of their own shows.
  • Dexter's Laboratory's own ending theme song and most of the promos called the show simply Dexter's Lab, though it's still always written in full.
  • An in-universe example, with the characters within the Total Drama series occasionally abbreviating the title of that season when speaking about it: TDI, TDA, TDWT, etc.
  • Between the pilot and series premier of Adventure Time, the full title became Adventure Time with Finn and Jake. The long version was scarcely used from the beginning, to the point the opening only shows "with Finn and Jake" one of the two times the logo is flashed (on a banner held separately). It was abandoned by basically every official source within the show's first year.
  • The Simpsons episode "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples, Teens and Gays" had its episode title shortened to "Marge vs. Everyone" or "Marge vs. SSCCTG" because its original title was too long.
  • Inverted with Recess in Japan, where its title was lengthened to Recess ~Our Break Time~.
  • Also inverted with Codename: Kids Next Door in Japan, with the added sub-title Great Nonsensical Operations.
  • The Kids' WB! compilation series The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show was often shortened to The Big Cartoonie Show in promos.
    Announcer: Stay tuned for more of the... show with the really, really big, long name.
  • Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is typically advertised as Miraculous Ladybug, and sometimes just Miraculous.
  • The New Scooby-Doo Movies: When it aired on Cartoon Network, the show was often called Scooby Movies.
  • Starting in late 1999, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends was shortened to Thomas & Friends in promotional material. The TV show would eventually adopt it properly in 2003.

    Other 
  • Originally known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test and later the Scholastic Assessment Test, "SAT" no longer stands for anything.
    • Similarly, "ACT" was originally an acronym for the American College Testing program.
  • Neither does "KFC" mean anything, formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken. This happens to acronyms with surprising frequency, actually.
    • This had more to do with the word "fried" now having some negative (i.e. unhealthy) connotations. As a result, they have also introduced a new item called Kentucky Grilled Chicken.
  • GLAAD used to stand for "Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation", but this association was broken in 2013 when the organization expanded its focus to account for bisexual and transgender individuals.
  • The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is generally known as the United Kingdom or UK.
  • Similarly, the United States of America are often simply the United States, America or the US (with an optional A for America).
  • Also, Mexico's official name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Mexican United States), there was a congress proposal some years ago to legally change it to Mexico, but it wasn't approved.
  • The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen never quite got the hang of it: their official short name, Austria-Hungary, was still quite a mouthful.
  • Federal Express officially changed their name to "FedEx" because "that's what everyone called us anyway."
  • AT&T was founded more than a century ago as the American Telephone and Telegraph company. When the company changed names in 1984, this was formally shortened to AT&T.
  • The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge is typically known by the shorter name of "Jesus."
    • A great number of churches and religious institutions the world over have the same thing going on; rarely does "the Evangelist" appear in the name of a church dedicated to one of Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke or John - and in the latter case, since a church might be dedicated to either "St. John the Evangelist" or to "St. John the Baptist," it might be a good idea to keep that around. And then there are the other designations. "St. John's Cathedral" in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is actually "The Anglican Cathedral Church of the Parish of St. John the Evangelist." Yikes.
  • The American public radio station, NPR, which was originally short for National Public Radio, changed their name officially to NPR in July 2010. They did it because "they are not just radio anymore" (they also do podcasts now). Not really a big deal since everyone called it "NPR" anyway.
  • Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a town on the island of Anglesey, Wales - many locals and visitors shorten it to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, and the Highways Agency now write Llanfair PG on their road signs—presumably to save on paint.
    • This is actually an inversion. The village's original name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (also spelled in two words, Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll) and was brought to its present length as a publicity stunt in the 1860s.
  • Royalty. "Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second," was, according to The Other Wiki: Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, Duchess of Edinburgh, Countess of Merioneth, Baroness Greenwich, Duke of Lancaster, Lord of Mann, Duke of Normandy, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Garter, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Sovereign of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order, Sovereign of the Imperial Service Order, Sovereign of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, Sovereign of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, Sovereign of the Order of British India, Sovereign of the Indian Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of Burma, Sovereign of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, Sovereign of the Royal Family Order of King Edward VII, Sovereign of the Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, Sovereign of the Royal Victorian Order, Sovereign of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.
  • QVC is trying to rebrand itself as the "Q."
  • The featured section of the Sunday New York Times was originally called in 1935, "News of the Week in Review". In 1967, it was changed to the "The Week In Review". In 1994 is was changed to "Week in Review". In 2011 it was changed to "Sunday Review".
  • The original name of Los Angeles, California, was El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula).
  • WWE no longer stands for World Wrestling Entertainment in advertising; it's officially just WWE as the company shifted gears in the public to being a company that produced more than just wrestling. The only time World Wrestling Entertainment pops up is in legal documents.
  • Burlington Coat Factory eventually changed its name to just Burlington in 2014, a change that was occasionally lampshaded in recent commercials.
  • Beverages and More! (yes, with the exclamation point), a West Coast retail chain specializing in alcoholic drinks, switched to just BevMo! in 2001.
  • CBBC was called Children's BBC from 1985 to 1997.
    • Their rival CITV started as Children's ITV in 1983 and began to phase that name out in 1993, officially becoming CITV in 1996.
  • Nickelodeon is sometimes called "Nick", The Kids' Choice Awards are "KCA's", and Cartoon Network has switched to an abbreviated logo.
  • G4 and Tech TV merged into G4Tech but later shortened it to G4 again.
  • Game Show Network was shortened to GSN.
  • The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) officially shortened its name to "The Y"note .
    • Since neither they, nor the YWCA (The Young Women's Christian's Association) limit the use of their facilities based on age, gender, or religion, it's probably a case of trying to do away with an Artifact Title.
  • Sunny Delight is now formally called Sunny D.
  • Nearly all of The Firesign Theatre's albums have bizarre, long titles, so everyone just refers to "Two Places", "Dwarf", "Immortality", etc., most of the time, including the members of the Firesign Theatre.
  • This is very common in North American railroading. Freight cars have "reporting marks", which are usually the initials or an abbreviated version of the owner's name. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (there are many similar examples) lettered all of its equipment "Santa Fe", and the railroad was officially known both ways. Later, it merged with Burlington Northern to form the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which has been officially shortened to BNSF Railway.
  • MTV: Music Television, and its sister channel, VH1: Video Hits One. Both drifted away from music videos in the 1990s. While the "Video Hits One" name was retired by 1994, MTV didn't fully strip away the "Music Television" part of their name until 2010, so now they're just "MTV", which stands for "MTV".
  • Fruity Loops, later shortened to FL Studio and is now the program's name.
  • Good Old Games was originally a website where you could buy digital copies of out-of-print games that were probably difficult to obtain otherwise, but now that developers can publish their games directly on this site or even let you pre-purchase them, it was sensible to shorten the website's name to GOG.com.
  • TV Tropes was originally known as "Television Tropes & Idioms".
  • Electronic Arts uses the shorthand "EA" for most of its subsidiaries, such as EA DICE and EA Sports (the sports-themed game publishing division).
  • Dunkin' Donuts dropped the second half of its name in 2019. Since then it's almost exclusively referred to itself as "Dunkin'" or "DNKN," though the signage on most locations hasn't been updated to reflect the shorter name yet.
  • The "Old Fashioned Hamburgers" part of "Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers" was technically still part of the restaurants' signage until the chain rebranded in 2013. Advertising and packaging for the chain generally started sticking with "Wendy's" alone around 2007.
  • When the UK branches of cell carriers Orange and T-Mobile merged in 2010, the combined company originally referred to itself as Everything Everywhere. After merging the networks under one roof, the name switched to EE two years later.
  • Unusual inversion: American prepaid wireless carrier MetroPCS switched over to "Metro by T-Mobile" after a 2018 rebrand, making the name more descriptive but more cumbersome all at once. Informally, the company itself (and most customers) simply refer to it as Metro.
  • British newspaper The Guardian was The Manchester Guardian from its launch in 1821, but dropped the location from its title in 1959 in anticipation of a move to London, which took place two years later.
  • Popular sections of Gaia Online's forums are frequently abbreviated by users. At one point, General Discussion was breifly renamed to its abbreviation "The GD". This move was quickly reverted because it caused the acronym to no longer stand for anything; however, the shortened name is still sometimes officially referenced, as are some other forum abbreviations (such as Chatterbox's acronym "CB").
  • Irish bank Permanent TSB - formed from the merger of Irish Permanent and TSB Bank in 2002 - changed its official name to the commonly-used abbreviation PTSB in 2023.

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