Odd Name Out / Literature

• The Sandra Boynton book 15 Pets had fourteen animals named Bob, but the turtle has an Overly Long Name: Simon James Alexander Ragsdale the Third.
• 1632: Michael and Rebecca Stearns' children are named Sepharad, Baruch and Kathleen.
• Honey Bear, the youngest of The Berenstain Bears, is the only member of the Bear family that has a proper name. Her parents and her older brother and sister are all named after their relationships in the family.
• This one appears in The Bible, of all places:
  • Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Mesrach, and Abednego. Justified as their names were changed by the Babylonians. Their given names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, which are clearly Jewish. Daniel himself was renamed Belteshazzar, but since he became Prime Minister, he earned the right to be known as Daniel, even in Babylon.
  • See also Noah's three sons: Ham, Shem, and Japheth.
  • Lamech's three sons were Jabal, Jubal... and Tubal-Cain. The first two were from the same mother, the third — and his sister, Naamah — from another. On the other hand, this is only a partial example since Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal rhyme.
  • In the New Testament, the five sons of Joseph: Jesus, James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon.
• In Blandings Castle, Lord Emsworth is revealed to have brothers named Lancelot and another named Galahad (the former deceased, the other a recurring character). His own first name is Clarence.
• In Broken Gate, of all of the siblings, Miyako's name stands out, as it's not necessarily an animal-related name, as her siblings have names relating to what youkai they so happen to be (as mentioned here).
• A set of experimental cannons in A Brother's Price are collectively called the Prophets and given names: Joan, Bonnye, Anna, Judith, Gregor, Larisa, Nane, and Ami. It's never discussed, but "Gregor" is a male name.
• In Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (And The Subsequent Assault Of The Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds), the main villains are three aliens named Zorx, Klax, and Jennifer. The aliens are aware that their names may raise suspicion while disguising themselves as cafeteria ladies, so they go by Zorxette, Klaxette, and Jenniferette.
• Elizabeth Hand's novella Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol features a set of cut-rate Ramones called the Maronis — Tony, Mony, Pony and Tesla. The real Ramones all had names ending in an -ie sound, except for Elvis. And CJ.
• In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Angela Vicario is the only member of the Vicario family whose given name doesn't start with a P.
• Major characters in Codex Alera include Isana, Amara, Fidelias, Maximus, Araris, Invidia... Tavi? Every Aleran character has an awesome Gratuitous Latin name ... except him. Which, as it happens, is foreshadowing. His name is short for Octavian, which is very much in line with the rest.
• Coraline: Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's four dogs: Hamish, Andrew, Angus, and Jock. Jock is the only one with one syllable instead of two.
• Diamond Brothers: In The Falcon's Malteser, the main character Nick is kidnapped by four goons called Lenny, Kenny, Benny and Fred.
• The human characters in Dinoverse all are The Nicknamer to some extent, encountering dinosaurs who don't have names of their own. Mr. London names his new Hypsilophodon friends after personality traits that remind him of scientists - and one evil computer. There's Leo, named for his creativity, Al named for thinking his way out of having to do any work, Carl named for his contemplative nature, and Hal for how he likes things a certain way and throws fits when routine is disrupted.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld:
  • Interesting Times, five noble families from the Counterweight Continent have been fighting each other for centuries: the Hongs, the Sungs, the Tangs, the Fangs, and the McSweeneys, who are no more important to the plot than any of the other families. A Running Gag is that people have trouble with how the last family don't fit into the pattern.
    Twoflower: And the Hongs and the Fangs and the Tangs and the Sungs and the McSweeneys have been killing one another for thousands of years. It's all part of the royal succession.
    Rincewind: McSweeneys?
    Twoflower: Very old established family.
    • This is a Shout-Out to James Clavell's Asian Saga, a novel series about a Scottish family who founded a business empire in China.
  • War's children fit this one, too: Panic, Terror, and, um, Clancy. This may be a Shout-Out to the children of Ares and Aphrodite - sons Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror) and daughter Harmonia (harmony).
  • Leonard of Quirm's inventions include such things as the Going Under the Water Safely Device, the Very Fast Coffee Device, or the Engine for the Neutralizing of Information by the Generation of Miasmic Alphabets, and the Gonne. It's probably an indicator of how different this invention was that he didn't name it something like the "Propelling Pieces of Metal through the Air at High Speed using Chemical Energy Device".
• Also from Jim Butcher, The Dresden Files books all have two word Double Meaning Titles, each with the same number of letters in each word (Grave Peril, Dead Beat, Summer Knight)... Except for the twelfth book, which is simply called Changes.
• Almost everyone in Franklin is A Dog Named "Dog" or simply referred to by their species surname (Mr. Turtle for example). Franklin is an exception, as is his sister Harriet in the cartoons. Enforced because Word of God says that "Franklin in the Dark" was intended to be a one-shot story with Franklin being the only character. But when she made more stories, she wanted to emphasize the importance of Franklin and that he is the main character by not giving names to the other characters, thus making Franklin unique and important.
• Fudge: Unlike his siblings Fudge (real name Farley Drexel) and Tootsie (real name Tamara Roxanne), Peter Hatcher does not have a candy-based nickname. This highlights Peter's status as the Only Sane Man (as Fudge is a cloudcuckoolander Annoying Younger Sibling and Tootsie is, as of the last book, only a toddler).
• In Fungus the Bogeyman, Fungus is the only member of his household (excluding pets) whose name starts with a letter besides "M" (his wife is Mildew and their son is Mould).
• In Good Omens, the Antichrist and his friends are named Adam, Pepper, Brian, and Wensleydale. ^note His name's Jeremy, but nobody uses it.
• From Harry Potter:
  • Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Though Brian is a perfectly good old name from the British Isles, it's also, you know, still used. Frequently. In the fifth film, this is Played for Laughs when he states his own name, with "Brian" said more quietly and after a slight pause.
  • Out of his siblings, he and his brother Aberforth have more traditional out-there wizarding names whereas their sister, Ariana, had a "normal" name.
  • Everyone in the Weasley family is named after Arthurian heroes and/or British royalty. The family patriarch is "Arthur", his sole daughter is "Ginny" ("Ginevra", the Italian form of "Guinevere"), and his oldest sons are "Bill" ("William"), "Charlie" ("Charles"), "Percy" (which at least recalls "Percival," though that's not actually his full name), "Fred" ("Frederick"), and "George" (..."George"). The sole exception? The youngest son, "Ron", who considers himself The Unfavorite of the family, and spends much of the series dealing with the resulting emotional baggage.
  • Most members born into the Black family use Stellar Theme Naming, but there are a few exceptions. In the case of Narcissa, Word of God says that she came up with her name before choosing the theme and didn't feel like changing it. Another exception is the family's deceased (but still active) patriarch, Phineas Nigellus Black.
  • Harry's children are James, Albus and Lily. Albus stands out as the only "odd" name (though apparently he uses "Al" for short) as well as the only one not named after one of Harry's relatives. On the other hand, their middle names are Sirius, Severus and Luna, meaning that Lily is the only one a.) without an "S" name, b.) with an alliterative name, and c.) who isn't a double Dead Guy Junior. Lily is also the only one without an "S" on the end of her name.
  • Ron also follows this trope by being the only one of the trio whose first name doesn't start with an "H".
• Douglas Adams once said, discussing the title of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish that all the titles of the Hitchhikers books were quotes from the first one. (His editor wanted to call it God's Last Message to His Creation, but that came from Life, the Universe and Everything) He followed this pattern with the fifth book Mostly Harmless. Eoin Colfer's sixth book, And Another Thing..., takes its title from So Long and Thanks, and even quotes the section at the start. It's possible that he wanted to mark it as different to separate it from "the Canon", as implied by the Self-Deprecating introduction.
• In Historia Regum Britanniae, king Constantinus (identified with the Roman usurper Constantine III) has three sons, Constans, Aurelius (Ambrosius) and... Uther Pendragon. Probably because the first two actually existed (though they were not related in real life), while the latter is most likely legendary.
• The German guy from Hoot with the four Rottweilers, called Max, Karl, Klaus, and Pookie Face.
• In Hunter's Moon (1989), most foxes have names like O-ha, A-ho, A-konkon, O-sollo, O-mitz, and A-cam. Camio is the exception because he's a fox from an American zoo. He refuses to change his name.
• The Inheritance Cycle began with Eragon and Eldest, both of which start with "E" and have six letters. Fans speculated that the last book in the trilogy would be called Empire, but the author eventually made it a quartet with the final books titled Brisingr and Inheritance, respectively.
• In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, one of the daughters has four brothers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and Bing. To elaborate, guess which one tragically dies when the daughter fails to keep an eye on him?
• In the Kate Shugak novels, the Grosdidier brothers, who serve as the Park's EMTs, are Matthew, Mark, Luke and Pete.
• All of Lynn Kurland's romance novels are titled after songs, with the exceptions of her novellas (except To Kiss In The Shadows, which was released as a single paperback novel) and her books Dreams of Stardust and Much Ado in the Moonlight. There doesn't seem to be a particular reason for DoS, but MAitM is an allusion to the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing because Shakespeare features heavily in the plot.
• Subverted in Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff. All of Balthasar's concubines have elaborately long names usually referring to sex, such as "Tiny Feet of the Divine Dance of Joyous Orgasm" and "Delicate Personage of Two Fu Dogs Wrestling Under a Blanket", with the sole exception of Sue ("Short for Susanna"). Naturally, if any of them are going to be important, it'd be her — right? Nope. When the demon Balthasar was keeping sealed gets unleashed and starts killing everyone, it's Joy (Biff's name for Tiny Feet of the Divine Dance of Joyous Orgasm, because she didn't take kindly to being called "Orgasm") who survives the ordeal and has the biggest role.
• In The Lightlark Saga, all the realms and their respective peoples have names ending in "ling", bar one: there's Wildling, Starling, Skyling, Sunling, Moonling and... Nightshade. It's never specified why Nightshade is named differently.
• In Little Women, of the four March sisters, Amy is the only one to go by her full first name, presumably because it's so short to begin with, while her sisters Meg, Jo and Beth all go by nicknames. She's also the only one whose name is two syllables instead of just one. On the other hand, when we remember Meg, Jo and Beth's full names (Margaret, Josephine, and Elizabeth), then Amy's name stands out as the shortest.
• According to The Muppets Character Encyclopedia, Foo-Foo, Miss Piggy's pet dog, has five siblings. Their names are Oui-Oui, Poo-Poo, Num-Num, Goo-Goo, and Fred.
• In the novel Murder at Avedon Hill, the five children in the Avedon family are named Richard, Carin, Edvard, Jon, and Julienne. Edvard is a vampire-bite victim and Julienne has some sort of magical affinity.
• The villains of My Work is Not Yet Done are named Harry, Barry, Perry, Sherry, Mary, Kerrie and... Richard.
• In Nobody, Him, and Me, Nobody's name has three syllables instead of one.
• The Outsiders is more like "normal name out" with the Curtis brothers: the eldest's name, Darry (short for Darrell), is a bit unusual, but the younger two are Sodapop and Ponyboy. The latter is the protagonist.
• In the Rainbow Magic series, one of the Showtime Fairies, Darcy, is referred to as a Diva instead of a Fairy.
• In Ramona Quimby, the oldest Quimby sister Beatrice is the only one not to have an R-name. Her sisters are Ramona and Roberta.
• In Roys Bedoys:
  • Most of the boys have made-up names (Roys, Loys, Maker, Coder) but then there's the minor character Hopper, and that is a real boy's name, if rare.
  • Likewise, most of the girls have real, if obscure, names — Wen, Truly, Flora. However, Roys and Loys's sister Joys is the only girl in the series with a made-up name.
• Sam the Cat: Detective: The Flying Fangs (former circus cats) are named Wang, Chang, Drang, and Strum. Interestingly, Strum is the only one who doesn't take part in the others' attempts at making rap music, and seems to find the whole thing embarrassing.
• In Daniel Handler's A Series of Unfortunate Events:
  • Sunny, Klaus, and Violet Baudelaire. Violet was actually the name of Claus von Bulow's lawyer.
  • Isadora, Duncan, and Quigley Quagmire
  • Frank, Ernest, and Dewey Denouement.
  • While the names of the first 12 books are alliterative, the last book is simply called "The End".
• The Sneetches and Other Stories: Sylvester McMonkey McBean is a double whammy— "Sylvester" is the only one of his names without a "Mc", while "McMonkey" is the only one that isn't a real name.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • The direwolves are named Nymeria, Ghost, Summer, Lady, Grey Wind, and... Shaggydog, who was named by a three-year old. It's also an ironic name, given that Shaggydog is the most wild and savage. In a different way, Nymeria is also the odd one out, as she is not named after an English word, but rather an in-universe person: Nymeria of the Rhoynar, the historical ancestor of the Martells, who led her people to Dorne.
  • Stannis Baratheon is the only one of his siblings not to have an R name: Robert (older) and Renly (younger).
  • The bastard surnames of every Kingdom: Flowers from the fertile Reach, Sands from the deserts of Dorne, Hill from the rocky Westerlands, Snow from the freezing North, Stone from the mountainous Vale, Waters from the Crownlands, Storm from the Stormlands, Rivers from the Riverlands... and Pyke from the Iron Islands. It's marginally justified, since Pyke is the name of the largest Iron Island, but it still doesn't fit with the theme; bastards from the Reach aren't called "Highgarden". Something like "Salt" or "Sea" would fit the pattern much better.
  • Dorne is the only region of the Seven Kingdoms not named after an English word, and it is therefore always capitalized.
  • Prince Duncan Targaryen is the only member of the royal family ever to have a non-Valyrian name, as he was named for his father's commoner best friend.
  • Rhaenyra Targaryen's children are named Jacaerys, Lucerys, Joffrey, Aegon, and Viserys. Out of these five, only Joffrey had a non-Valyrian name, since he was named after his father's friend and probable lover, Joffrey Lonmouth, whose house was of native Westerosi origin.
  • Daenerys' three dragons, in a way. Two of them (Rhaegal and Viserion) are named after Targaryen figures, hence their names are technically Valyrian. The other one, Drogon, is named after her late husband, who hailed from a foreign culture, the Dothraki.
• Star Wars Expanded Universe: Wookiees, across both canon and Legends, generally have Only One Name (Chewbacca, Tarfful, Gungi, etc)... except for Burryaga Agaburry from The High Republic, who has a last name for some reason.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Comes up in the X-Wing Series novel Wedge's Gamble. A pilot sees a freighter named Contruum's Pride and knows it's not legit because it doesn't fit that planet's naming system. There are holes in his theory — couldn't this ship be ignoring tradition, or not an official Contruum ship? — but as it turns out it's full of TIE fighters.
    Cracken: Contruum's my homeworld. Naming conventions for ships restrict virtues to capital ships. Transports are named for beasts of burden and rivers.
  • Han and Leia's children: Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin? Not intentional, just that the people behind Dark Empire didn't know Jacen and Jaina existed.
• In Superfolks, the narration says: "Beyond Edgeville the land gradually flattened, and was covered, in turn, by Nearville, Fairville, Floralville, Gardenville, Oakville, Pleasantville, Vistaville, Sunnyville, Strongville, Roseville, Middleville, Townville, Ladyville, Robinville, Flatville, Spudville, Branchville, Farville, Tideville, Oceanville, and Parsons Corners."
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit: Peter Rabbit's sisters were named Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. This gives us two examples in one family: "Peter" as the only rabbit sibling with a human name and "Cottontail" as the only sister without an "-opsy" name.
  • Parodied in Tom Strong, where Tom's Funny Animal counterpart, Warren Strong has three daughters (Tesla's counterparts) called Topsy, Turvy, and Fluffytail. Fluffytail prefers to be called Delilah.
  • Also parodied in Girl Genius's filler side story, with Flopsy, Mopsy, and Nietzsche.
• Similarly, in The Tale of Tom Kitten, Tom is the only kitten who has a human name; his sisters are Moppet and Mittens. His name is also a Meaningful Name, since "tom" can mean "male cat" and he's the only boy.
• In Team Human, Mel doesn't want to tell us her own first name (Mellifluous), while her younger brother is named Lancelot. She's a little bitter that her older sister, Kristin, was born before her parents decided to get "creative."
• Thursday Next: In First Among Sequels, Thursday's children are Friday, Tuesday, and Jenny. Except that Jenny doesn't actually exist — the villain from one of the previous novels planted fake memories of her in Thursday's brain.
• Tortall Universe: Princess Vania of Conté, youngest of Jon and Thayet's six children, is the only one of her siblings, and indeed the only one of the known children of any of the series' various protagonists, who is not in some fashion a Dead Guy Junior or named in honour of a deceased character. Her older siblings are named after, in order, her paternal grandfather (Roald), her maternal grandmother (Kalasin), her great-grandfather (Jasson), the late Shang Dragon (Liam) and her paternal grandmother (Lianne).
• John Ringo's Troy Rising: In Live Free or Die, on an alien space station that no human has ever heard of or been to:
  "What do you mean you can't keep up? It's just Ingr, Gurcaur, Hathan, Fandent, and Bob. How much can they be drinking?"
• In Warrior Cats, the majority of the 1000+ characters have compound names like Bluestar, Mudclaw, Russetfur, Cedarpelt, Whitestorm, etc., due to the Clans' naming format. So when there's a cat living in the Clans with a name like Boulder, Daisy, or Millie, it sticks out and signifies that the cat isn't originally from the Clans and feels strongly enough about their identity not to change their name.
  • Played for laughs in Graystripe's Vow. A group of kittypets has decided to form their own Clan, and have given themselves new Clan-style names for when they hang out together: Monkeystar, Clawwhistle, Fireface, Bugeater, Bigteeth... and Chester. Due to Graystripe's bemused reaction, Chester explains that having two names was too much to bother with and that he's happy with keeping it as-is.
• In Wings of Fire, the six queens of the RainWings are named Magnificent, Splendor, Dazzling, Grandeur, Exquisite, and Fruit Bat. Kinkajou lampshades this when introducing them to Glory.
• Wise Child: Wise Child's cousins are named Conor, Domnall, Seumas, Fingal, Morag, Mairi, Colman, and Bride, making for a bunch of Irish Gaelic and Scottish names along with an English word that's not even traditionally a name. Unlike other examples of this trope, though, Bride is a minor character like the others (save for Colman).
• In The Witcher there's a passing mention of royal quadruplets from Ebbing, called Putzi, Gritzi, Mitzi and Juan Pablo Vassermiller.