One-Word Title

Advertisement:

A title of a work that's only one word long. Not much more to say.

If the title is a noun, it is possibly also other tropes. Titles that refer to characters either by name or by job (e.g. "Rose", which refers to the character Rose Tyler; or Bartender, which is about the bartender protagonist), they go under Character Title or Job Title, as well.

If the name is the location the work is set in, that's The Place.

Words composed of two or more words that are not usually written as one also count as examples of Portmantitle.

Subtitles do not disqualify a title from this trope.

When adding examples, please give whatever context you can, even if it's as simple as "It's called Wings because all of the main characters are associated with a flying service." Or "It's called Friends because it's about a group of friends." If Word of God or Word of Saint Paul exists for why the title was chosen, give that. Sometimes, such a short title is picked because it's memorable.

Advertisement:

Verbed Title and Mononymous Biopic Title are subtropes. Compare to One-Letter Title and Short Titles. Contrast to The Fantastic Trope of Wonderous Titles and Long Title.

---

Example Subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Fan Works
• Films — Live-Action
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Music
• Theatre
• Video Games
• Webcomics
• Western Animation

Other Examples:

Asian Animation

• Akis: Akis is the "first name of the protagonist" type.
• Bernard: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Canimals: About a bunch of cute animals with cans for their bodies.
• A few of the official English Happy Heroes episode titles consist of only one word.
  • Season 7 episodes 1 and 2 (Multi-Part Episode), "Extraterrestrial".
  • Season 8 episode 11, "Floating".
  • Season 8 episode 18, "Counterattack".
• Kodama: Antagonist-type Species Title.
• Kuiba: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title, except that the protagonist doesn't know he has that name.
• Lamput: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Larva: Protagonist Species Title.
• Mermaid: Named for an important character. An Antagonist Title, revealed only at the end.
• Oddbods: Titled for the protagonist group's name.
• Stitch & Ai: The episodes "Gotcha!", "Spirals", "Brothers", and "Monstrosity"; "Nuo Opera" was also promoted as "Creatures" for the United States when the show was on DisneyNow.
• Tobot: Vehicle Title for general name of the Humongous Mecha in focus.

Comic Books

• 1963: Named for being Retraux to look like it was published that year.
• Aero: The wind-elemental eponymous heroine's codename.
• Ant: Codename of Protagonist Title.
• Barracuda: Not only the series as a whole, but also each of the individual volumes, which are (in English):
  • Barracuda: Vehicle Title for the ship of the protagonists.
  • Plural Idiosyncratic Episode Naming for most volumes:
    • "Slaves"
    • "Scars"
    • "Duels"
    • "Revolts"
    • "Cannibals"
    • "Deliverance".
• Bizarrogirl: Named after the titular anti-hero and co-protagonist.
• Blackbird: Named for an In-Universe status. "Blackbird" means a paragon who is a loner and not part of a greater cabal.
• Blackhawk: The name of the titular military unit.
• Bone: A play on Species Title, as the Bones are named after their species, or possibly their species is named after their surname.
• Burlap: Name given to mysterious Sackhead Slasher vigilante targeting Serial Killers.
• Catstronauts: Something Nauts, Portmantitle referring to cat astronauts.
• Chassis: First Name of Protagonist Title.
• Chew: A Epunymous Title. "Chew" is a homophone for "Chu", the last name of the main character who also has a superpower based around eating.
• Chlorophylle: Name of the main character.
• Copperhead: The Place where the story is set.
• Criminal (2006): Job Title of all the protagonists, as a deconstruction of the crime genre.
• Crucible: Named after the titular super-hero academy.
• Jeff Lemire series using Idiosyncratic Episode Naming ["Direction Verb"-er]:
  • Descender
  • Ascender
• Die: Double-Meaning Title: As the name of the tabletop game that's being played, and as the singular of "dice".
• Dolltopia: The Place that the protagonist goes and also becomes under threat.
• Duster (2015): Appears to be a Job Title for the protagonist's crop duster job.
• Excalibur: Team Title:
  • Excalibur (Marvel Comics)
  • Excalibur (2019)
• Farmhand: Job Title-type Pun-Based Title for farming hands with Organic Technology and another name for a farmer.
• Fatale: As a reference to the Femme Fatale supernatural power of the protagonist.
• Funnyman: Codename of Protagonist Title.
• Ghostopolis: The name of the supernatural city where the story is set.
• Girrion: In-Universe name for a type of technology.
• Gunsmoke: Name of Protagonist Title.
• Halcyon: Previously called Utopian. Current title is a Team Title.
• Happy!: Secondary Character Title. Happy's a little blue flying horse that assists the protagonist.
• Harleen: First Name of Protagonist Title.
• Haunt: Named as protagonist is being haunted by a ghost.
• Hide: Verb for the protagonist's need to.
• Hillbilly: Job Title of protagonist.
• Hinterkind: Group title Antagonist Title.
• Horizon
• Invincible: Codename of Protagonist Title.
• Irredeemable and its spinoff Incorruptable: Irredeemable is about a Superman-expy going off the deep end after accidentally going past the tipping point, and then not looking back although in the end while he can't be redeemed, by sacrificing himself he planted the seeds for redemption in a convoluted, multi-verse-y way. Incorruptable is about the opposite, a Card-Carrying Villain forced to become good because with the events of Irredeemable, the world is in too much danger for him to be eeeeeeevil.
• Kabuki: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title
• Killtopia: The Place where the story occurs.
• Monstress: Implied to be Protagonist Title, as she's carrying a Monstrum in her body.
• Nailbiter: Job Title-type Protagonist Title.
• Neonomicon: Reference to the Necronomicon of H. P. Lovecraft, whose works this is based off.
• Norby: Most of the comics in Boys Life appear as one word entries in the Table of Contents. The chapters themselves use the name of the original book.
• Owly: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title
• Postal: Named for an important character being a postal worker.
• Providence: Double-Meaning Title, of H. P. Lovecraft references: A reference to Lovecraft's birth city, but also means a divinely ordained chain of events. It is implied throughout the story that Black's journey is due to forces above his own volition and he is continuously referred to as a "herald".
• Psychonaut
• Red: A reference to "red status", a.k.a being an active CIA agent which the protagonist returns to after retirement, and also the color of blood, in a story where there is a lot of murder.
• Saga
• Seconds, named after the restaurant in which most of the plot transpires. Also a Double-Meaning Title, as it's referring to both "Seconds" as in a second helping of a meal, and the idea of a second chance (as the book has a Peggy Sue plot).
• Shadowhawk
• Shadowland
• Shadowpact: Team Title.
• Silverblade
• Sleepless
• Snowman
• Stray
• Tomahawk
• Tomboy
• Trees: Subverted Species Title. It's not actually about the plants. It's just what the humans call the huge alien towers that landed on Earth.
• Trouble: Implied Event Title, likely referring to the Teen Pregnancy trouble of the story.
• Typhon: First name of Protagonist Title.
• Vibe
• Yasmeen
• Watchmen: The comic takes its name from the quote "who watches the watchmen?" which refers to both the notion of the protectors needing protection, and the protectors abusing their protectorate.
• Yellowjacket
• Zero: Last name of Protagonist Title.
• Zion

Advertisement:

Comic Strips

• Baldo: Nickname of Protagonist Title.
• Blondie: First name of Secondary Character Title.
• Conchy: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Dilbert: Starring the eponymous engineer, except when it doesn't.
• Garfield: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Marvin: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Peanuts: So called because it was a slang term for children in its creator's day. Prior to that, he'd called the strip Lil' Folks.
• Pickles: Family Title. The surname of Earl, Opal, and their daughter Sylvia, is Pickles.
• Zits: Referencing its pubescent protagonist and how the comic is about his life.

Fairy Tales

• Morozko: Only One Name-type Secondary Character Title.

Films — Animation

• Abominable: Protagonist is a yeti, a.k.a abominable snowman.
• Anomalisa: Upon seeing how Lisa is an "anomaly," Michael dubs her "Anomalisa.", so a type of Secondary Character Title, and Portmantitle.
• Antz: It's a movie about ants. The "z" in the title isn't just Xtreme Kool Letterz but also a reference to "A-to-Z."
• Beowulf: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Brave: Brave is presumably named for the emotion, displayed by its protagonist, Merida, given the Title Drop:
  Merida: Fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it.
• Cars: Set in a world of anthropomorphized cars.
• Coco: A Secondary Character Title, named for protagonist Miguel's great-grandmother, whose history is relevant to the plot of the movie.
• Coraline: Protagonist Title.
• From the Disney Animated Canon:
  • Aladdin: Protagonist Title.
  • Bambi: Protagonist Title.
  • Bolt: Protagonist Title.
  • Cinderella: Protagonist Title.
  • Dinosaur
  • Dumbo: Protagonist Title.
  • Encanto
  • Fantasia In music, a ""Fantasia" is a selection of popular tunes woven into a loosely bound composition. The film is a group of separate animated shorts, each one inspired by a popular classical music composition.
  • Hercules: Protagonist Title.
  • Moana: Protagonist Title.
  • Mulan: Protagonist Title.
  • Pinocchio: Protagonist Title.
  • Pocahontas: Protagonist Title.
  • Tangled: An example of the Sub-Trope Verbed Title, but the Working Title was originally going to go with an example of both this and Protagonist Title, Rapunzel, until late in production.'
  • Tarzan: Protagonist Title.
  • Zootopia: It's a world of animals.
• Epic:
  • EPIC: Days of the Dinosaur
  • Epic (2013): Likely a reference to its Epic Movie-style.
• Ferdinand: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Home (2015): Likely a Double-Meaning Title, for how the Boov made Earth their new home, while moving basically all humans out of theirs, to relocate just on Australia.
• Hop: A reference to the rabbit protagonist.
• Madagascar: The Place where the protagonists are accidentally sent.
• Minions: Species Title.
• Onward: As a general direction of travel for the protagonists, presumably.
• ParaNorman: Also an example of a Portmantitle, made of "Paranormal" + "Norman", and the Epunymous Protagonist Title references the protagonist, Norman, and his paranormal ability to speak to the dead.
• Ratatouille: Often mistaken for a Protagonist Title by those who only know of the film through its advertising. The film actually stars a rat named Remy, and the title is a pun on the titular dish that the chef he idolizes specializes in.
• Renaissance
• Robots: Species Title.
• Rio: The Place where the protagonist wants to go.
• Shrek: Protagonist Title.
• Sing: What the protagonist wants to do.
• Storks: Species Title of the protagonist.
• Trolls: Species Title of the protagonists.
• Turbo: Double-Meaning Title: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title and his wish to go fast.
• Up: Protagonist's direction of travel.
• Wolfwalkers: Species Title of protagonists and source of conflict.
• Zarafa: A Only One Name Character Title.

Magazine

• Analog:
  • Given how large the original title made Astounding compared to the rest of the title (Astounding Stories), you could be forgiven for assuming the title was simply one word. The changes to the title only reinforce the idea that the magazine is simply Astounding.
  • Analog still sometimes shows up with a subtitle (such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact), but the cover usually shows only the one word prominently enough to be associated with a title.

Manhwa

• Ensemble
• Goong: Hangul: 궁, literally Palace. The Place where the protagonist is.
• Laon: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• Noblesse: Referencing the "nobles" of Lukedonia, a powerful race once worshiped by humans, which the protagonist is one.
• One: Secondary Character Title: In the first and only the first volume, Eumpa Won's last name is changed to 'One', presumably to fit with the title.
• Priest: Job Title of protagonist.
• Rebirth: Event Title about the protagonist's resurrection that happens early on in the story and continues from there.
• Rure
• Thesis
• Trace: Named after the singular for the superpowered people of the story.
• Veritas: Arc Word.
• Yureka: Only One Name-type Secondary Character Title.

Myths & Religion

• Theogony: Greek for "genealogy of the gods," and is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Ramayana: A compound word in Sanskrit roughly meaning "The Journey of Rama," which narrates the story of Prince Rama, the 7th incarnation of the god Vishnu.
• Mahabharata: Another Sanskrit word, roughly meaning "Epic of the Bhaarats." Notably contains Bhagavad Gita, the famous sequence of Prince Ajurna's dialogue with his charioteer Krishna, the 8th avatar of Vishnu.
• Dianetics: One of two books by L. Ron Hubbard, one subtitled The Modern Science of Mental Health and the other subtitled The Evolution of a Science. Generally speaking, the short title refers to the former.
• The Bible: Many of its internal Books, when discussed, usually omit the "Book of", such as the Book of Genesis, Book of Exodus, and the Book of Judges.
• The Qur'an: Again, depending on if the "The" is omitted. Its original title in Arabic is Al-Qu'ran, which is technically a compound word, so it fits.

Pinballs

• Avatar: Named after the film it's based on, Avatar.
• Barracora: Character Title, Only One Name-type. She's laid out under the pinball table.
• Breakshot
• Caveman: Protagonist Title of the mini-game inside.
• Checkpoint
• The Williams Electronics "rollercoaster" series, named after such featured in the games:
  • Comet: Named for a popular coaster at Chicago's (now closed) Riverview Amusement Park, Comet takes players for a fun time at the carnival.
  • Cyclone
  • Hurricane
• Congo: Based on the film, Congo, based on a novel that all use the name.
• Contact: Named after the electrical "contact" (switch) to initiate the action.
• Corvette: Released to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Chevrolet Corvette.
• Diner: The Place. Taking place in a 1950s-style train car diner.
• Earthshaker!: Event Title about the big event of the game. And it's about earthquakes.
• Embryon: Important word. Hit the two captive balls in the middle of the playfield to spell EMBRYON, and it's a game about embryos-ish.
• Fathom: Because of its underwater theme. One Working Title also counts: "Barracuda", but not the others, "Deep Threat", "Reef Threat" and "Black Coral".
• Fire! (1987): It was loosely based on the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
• Fireball
• Firepower
• Flash: Referencing its flash lamps effects, presumably.
• Gamatron: Character Title for the robot depicted.
• Genie: Character Title for the genie depicted.
• Gladiators
• Hyperball
• Kingpin: Job Title for where the mobster protagonist wants to become. Also a Character Title for who the voice of the game is from.
• Mayfair: It is an unofficial adaptation of the 1964 film adaptation of My Fair Lady.
• Meteor: It was a tie-in to the 1979 disaster movie of the same name.
• Paragon: The Place where the game is set.
• Robot: Antagonist Title, as fighting a Robot War.
• Rollergames: It is based on the short-lived roller derby 'sports entertainment' television show of the same name from 1989.
• Sapporo: The Place. Commemorates the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.
• Seawitch: Job Title and Character Title, given the two seawitches fighting.
• Sorcerer: Job Title-type Antagonist Title for the Evil Sorcerer depicted.
• Spectrum: A Mastermind-type Puzzle Game involving colors. A.k.a the color spectrum.
• Taxi: Vehicle Title for the Player Character, who is driving one.
• Wizard!!: Artifact Title, What Could Have Been: According to designer Greg Kmiec, he originally intended Wizard! to be centered around a white-bearded medieval wizard who used magic to turn over the Flip Flags.
• Varkon: Only One Name-type Antagonist Title.
• Victory: The game is, quite simply, a fictionalized auto race in pinball form. Event Title for the goal.
• Viper: The viper in question is the "Roto-Shooter," a rotating turret in the center of the game's playfield.
• Whirlwind: The game is themed around a rampaging tornado.
• Xenon: Secondary Character Title. The game centers around Xenon, the supercomputer at the heart of a futuristic society.

Poetry

• Allen Ginsberg's:
  • "Howl 1955"
  • "Kaddish"
• Gregory Corso:
  • "Gasoline"
  • "Bomb"
  • "Marriage"
• Percy Bysshe Shelley's:
  • Mutability
  • Ozymandias: About the king.
• William Blake's London: About The Place.

Theme Parks

• At the Disney Theme Parks:
  • Fantasmic!
  • Horizons
• At SeaWorld:
  • Kraken
  • Mako
  • Manta
• At Universal Studios:
  • Accelerator
  • Backdraft
  • Disaster!
  • Doomsday:
    • 1999
    • 2008
  • Grinchmas
  • Horrorwood
  • Insanity
  • Jaws
  • Kongfrontation

Toys

• Barbie
• Bratz
• Furby
• Hairdorables
• Tamagotchi: Portmanteau of "tamago" (Japanese for "egg") and "watch" (the kind that tells time).

Visual Novels

• Cinders: Protagonist Title, as a work based on fellow single word Protagonist Title Cinderella. With both characters' names based on "cinders", a.k.a partially burned wood.
• CLANNAD: Intended as a reference to the series' themes about family, due to the creator mistakenly believing "Clannad" was the Irish word for "family."
• The Hayarigami series, that starts with Hayarigami, given where the Numbered Sequels place their numbers.
• NekoMiko: Referencing the Catgirls, "Neko" means cat, who are Miko, and start the plot.
• Nicole: First name of Protagonist Title.
• SC2VN: An acronym title for basically Starcraft 2 Visual Novel.

Web Animation

• Chadam is a Protagonist Title.
• ENA. Also doubles as a Protagonist Title.
• Kiwi!: The cartoon is about a small kiwi bird trying to achieve its tragic dream.
• Monsterbox
• Siblings: Family Title about the siblings that are the central characters.
• Sonic: Only One Name-type Protagonist Title.
• SMG4 :
  • "Dreams"
  • "Flashbacks"
  • "Ssenmodnar"
  • "Mineswap"
  • "Yoshrooms"
• The Misadventures of R2 and Miku: Multiple:
  • "Disease"
  • "Clones"
  • "Appendix"

Web Original

• Camdrome, so named after the main focus of the game, the evil AI known as Camdrome.

Web Videos

• Aventures and Starventures: Tabletop Game adventures, and the same, but in Star Wars.
• CLW Entertainment: The video "Thumbs".
• Dad, named after the main character "Dad" and focusing on him and his family.
• Noob
• Mitten Squad: Some video titles:
  • "Let's Play DBZ Budokai HD: Part 9 | Grasshopper (The Devil Incarnate)"
  • "Let's Play DBZ Budokai HD: Part 12 | Boats (Starring Liam Neeson)"
• Numberphile: The video, "16".
• Pikasprey, which is the nickname of the series creator.
• Pokémon Talk: Most episodes, for example, from Season 1:
  
  1. "Genwunners" (previously, "Gen1ers")
  3. "Celebrity"
  4. "Spotlight"
  5. "Eeveelutions"
  6. "Allergies"
  8. "Danger"
  9. "Revenge"
  10. "Finale"
• Seriesly: Reviewing popular film franchises / series one entry at a time. Also Punny Title:
  Hey everybody, and welcome to Seriesly, where we take franchises Serious Business way too seriously.
• Sonic
• Versus: A competitive, co-commentary series of Let's Plays of various games. A.k.a versus each other.

---