They Call Him "Sword"

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"I, I am the blade, I am the promise unmade
I, I am the knife, I bring death to your life
I, I am the axe, to stop you dead in your tracks
I, I am the sword, I bring the fear of the Lord"

—I Am The Sword by Motörhead

Sometimes a warrior with a Sobriquet can have very specific nickname or title that compares him to some kind of weapon, often to his Weapon of Choice. Large Ham, Badass or similiar people will like to announce this right after yelling his real name, especially during My Name Is Inigo Montoya moment.

Swords are the most popular weapon to call heroes after, followed by axes, hammers (both are the most popular among dwarves in standard High Fantasy worlds) and daggers. A Superhero can name himself after a weapon and many bizarre combinations including some kind of it were common during the Dark Age of Supernames.

A subtrope of The Magnificent and Sobriquet.

Contrast I Call It "Vera", when somebody gives a human name to his weapon.

Examples of They Call Him "Sword" include:

Swords

  • Sanger Zonvolt, The Sword that Smites Evil, and his rival, Wodan Ymir, The Sword Of Magus from the Super Robot Wars game series.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima: Jacobus Rakan, the Thousand Blades.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.
    • Technically speaking, the Sword of the Morning is a title handed down to the wielder of the greatsword Dawn. However, Ser Arthur was the most recent, was particularly famous, and was once closely connected to several of the viewpoint characters, so he's the only one we ever hear about.
  • Tekkaman Blade has the title character, and Tekkaman Sword. Tekkaman Evil in U.S. version - Teknoman - is known as Sabre. Miyuki/Shara is Tekkaman Rapier.
  • Digimon: Alphamon Ouryuken Mode (Ouryuken translates to "God Dragon Sword".)
  • Turin in The Silmarillion becomes known as "Mormegil", Elvish for "black sword."
  • Trigun: Rai-dei the Blade.
  • Star Wars Expanded Universe: Jaina Solo, Sword of the Jedi. She spends a while trying to figure out what exactly this title is supposed to mean.
  • In The Elder Scrolls III and IV the powerful sword Umbra is cursed and tends to possess its owners, resulting in them becoming obsessed with the sword and adopting its name as their own.
  • In the first episode of Shakugan no Shana, Shana is named after her sword, the Nietono no Shana.
    • Parodied in one Shana Abridged episode (the 2nd episode of the series):

Shana: I don't need a name. (Plus there's everything else that's wrong with that sentence.)
Yuji: Then what can I call you?
Shana: I'm the Flame Haze with the sword Nietono no Shana.
Yuji: Then I'll call you Nietono-no!
Alastor: If you're going to name her after the sword, Shana would sound better.
Yuji: But Nietono-no sounds more Japanish.
Shana: Don't I have a say in this?

    • Ironically, if Yuji really is Japanese he would not have left the "-no" part in since that is a particle and would make no sense without the "Shana" part. Also, precisely because "Nietono" is more Japanese that he didn't choose it because then all the Japanese would be saying "Who the hell gave her such a bizarre name?" That's besides the point though.
  • Kamen Rider Blade. In this case, named for the tarot suit of Swords.
  • A.A. Attanasio's The Last Legends of Earth has, as a minor character, a folk hero who is actually simply named "Sword".
  • Tobari from Nabari no Ou is named after Roland's famous sword, Durandal.
  • In the D&D parody The Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters, the heroine is named Sick Sword. Confusingly, her sentient broadsword is named The Sick Sword.
    • The sequels take this ball and run with it, with characters (and their respective weapons) named Disgusting Sword, Ridiculous Sword, Gross Sword, and Unbelievable Sword.
  • Saber, from Fate/stay night. Which is the name of her class, a sword-user. ...which is an interesting language quirk, as the other classes were Lancer, Caster, Archer, etc.
  • The DC superhero Katana, named for her magical...
  • Kargath Bladefist from Warcraft have hands made of, well, blades.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Roy's family name, Greenhilt, comes from his Ancestral Weapon. Durkon as well, with the last name Thundershield.
  • The Arabic name "Saif" means "sword". The common Arabic surname prefix, "al-" means "of", so it's effectively describing the bearer of the name as the warrior of someone or something. To give an example, Saif al-Allah means "Sword of God".
  • Real Life Example: Henry Morgan (as in Captain Morgan, the guy on the rum bottles), perhaps the most famous and successful Privateer in history was known as The Sword of England.
  • Kamika from Shikabane Hime has the title/nickname "Sword Princess".
  • The assassin Broken Sword from Hero.
  • Gallade from Pokémon.
  • Eric Brooks is better known as Blade by the vampires, due to his weapon of choice.
  • In the Codex Alera Master Swordsman Aldrick is known as "ex Gladius" for his preferred weapon- the midlength sword common in the Aleran legions. On occasion he's simply referred to as "the Sword".
  • In The Annals of the Chosen everyone goes by a name related to their profession or peculiar trait. As a result, each Chosen Swordsman has a name such as "Blade" or "Sword".
  • The 7th century general Khalid ibn al-Walid came to be known as Sayf Allah al-Maslul, which translates as The Drawn Sword of God. He earned that name.
  • The legendary early D&D supplement The Arduin Grimoire had in its list of NPCs a fighter by the name of "Thara Brightblade".
  • Raj Whitehall refers to himself at least once as "the Sword of the Spirit of Man." Subverted because his troops are more likely to call him "Messer [Master] Raj."

Knives

  • The Threepenny Opera: "Someone's sneaking round the corner, could that someone be ... Mack the Knife?". Funnily enough, it's a jack knife.
  • A silly example from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: a mercenary hitman in Nabban carries so many knives about his person and is so fond of threatening people with them that his nickname is "Ave Stetto" (lit. I have a knife). When he pulls this number on Duke Isgrimnur, he finds out the hard way that mere possession of a knife is insufficient to threaten a grizzled veteran.
  • Scott Pilgrim: Knives Chau
  • Millions Knives.
  • Dune: "Saint Alia of the Knive", nickname attributed to Alia Atreides by her followers.

Axes

Hammers

Daggers

Scourges (Whips)


Other

  • Captain Hook from Peter Pan.
  • Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann at some point started calling himself "Simon The Digger" or "Simon The Drill," depending on translation.
  • Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Originally it was said because he used railroad spikes to torture his victims. We later find out was because someone said that he would rather have a rail spike driven through his head than listen to any of William's (Spike's pre-vamp name) poetry that after he turned he went after his former acquaintances with railroad spikes. His other moniker of William the Bloody on the other hand is actually a reference to his "bloody awful poetry", a fact that was apparently lost to vampire biographers.
  • Piers Anthony's early Battle Circle novels: Sos the Rope, Var the Stick, Neq the Sword.
    • Why do I get the impression Piers Anthony wrote those after listening to Mack the Knife?
  • Tekkaman Blade again: Tekkaman Lance. As you can see, this was a theme.
  • There is a god in the Riftwar universe called "The Shield of the Weak."
  • Hanzo the Razor, from the film series of the same name.
  • There was a Danish pretender named "Harald Kesja," where "Kesja" is a kind of spear.
  • Trident, a minor villain from the Teen Titans cartoon.
  • One of the orcs in Dominic Deegan goes by Hukthak, which is the name of the sacred spear he wields.
  • Black Sabbath song "Johnny Blade."
  • The Drasnian queen's spymaster in David Eddings' The Belgariad and The Malloreon series is codenamed Javelin.
    • While the single best assassin, real identity known only to the Queen and Javelin, is known as Hunter.
  • Sylvester Stallone's character in Roger Corman's cult classic Death Race 2000 was named "Machine Gun" Joe. Tyrese Gibson played a similarly-named character in the remake, Death Race.
  • Even Shakespeare uses this trope. Although Pistol fails to appear in more recent screen versions of Henry V, in the play he represents the ordinary rank and file of the English army.
    • Speaking of that, Shakespeare is itself an example of this.
  • A pair of (retired) assassins in Vlad's Dragaera books are known as the Sword and Dagger of the Jhereg. We call them Norathar and Cawti.
  • Kamen Rider Blade: Kamen Rider Leangle (a kind of polearm). Like Blade himself, named for a tarot suit; this time the suit of Wands.
  • More on Túrin/Mormegil: he also named himself Gorthol, "the Dread Helm", and fought alongside his friend Beleg Cúthalion - Beleg Strongbow, that is - in the land that was then called Dor Cúarthol, the "Land of Bow and Helm."
  • Crowbar, from the MS Paint Adventures series Homestuck, is a member of The Felt and wields a crowbar that negates any time-travel abilities or effects.
  • There's a song by mexican band Zoé about a spy known as Razor Blade
  • Sanosuke from Rurouni Kenshin had the nickname Zanza, or Sanosuke of the Zanbato.
  • The word 'German' means 'spear warrior' in old german.
  • They call him... Machete. It's his real name, no less.
  • Nearly 10,000 people in America alone can count themselves examples by virtue of being named Lance.
    • And Dirk, who would belong in Knives, above.
  • Throughout Africa, Kalash is a boys name, thanks to the ubiquitous Kalashnikov.
    • In more recent news, children in the Middle East have been named Facebook and Twitter thanks to each being instrumental in regime changes. May not count unless non-lethal military and political assets are allowed.
  • Another Real Life example, Genghis Khan once declared himself to be "The Flail of God."
    • This "name" itself is a title meaning "Ruler of the Universe" (compare e.g. "the King of Kings"), taken only when Temujin turned into the elected emperor after unifying various Steppe peoples into the single Horde via civil war. The same way as gur-khan, the title of his rival, meant the leader of a tribal alliance (gur).
  • Revolver Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid.
  • Jei-san in Usagi Yojimbo refers to himself as the "Blade of the Gods".
  • Unforgiven featured the Schofield Kid on account of his Smith and Wesson revolver.
  • Michael Carpenter.

"I don't call him the Fist of God as a pet name, folks."

  • Forgotten Realms has a handful of such characters. The great paladin Ralgorax, the "Sword of Tyr" (mentioned in REF5 Lords of Darkness). Sir Ganithar "the Hammer Knight" or simply "the Hammer" (Knight Errant from A Matter Of Thorns). Ranger called "Ren o' the Blade" (from The Pools trilogy).
  • A song by Ruben Blades is named "Pedro Navaja", which translates to Razor Peter (or Peter Razor).
  • Scyther from Pokémon.
    • Similarly, Scizor.
  • In the Graceling spin-off Fire, Archer was born "Arklin," but his skill with a bow caused Fire's nickname for him to stick.
  • Technoblade on the Dream SMP, sometimes only referred to as "The Blade."

Tekkaman Index.

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