Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,623
edits
(→Web Original: Cracked) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (Copyedit (minor)) |
||
(24 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|
When a person, (often a superhero, villain or more grounded criminal) takes his name from a nickname, an insult, or a botched pronunciation, spoken or spread in print by someone else.
Line 6:
In real life, this could extend to criminals who adopt the moniker given them in the press. A subversion could be a criminal corresponding with the press to "correct" the error like Son of Sam or Jack the Ripper.
Can be a form of [[Insult Backfire]] when the name was meant to be derogatory. (And when applied to a group, can lead to [[N-Word Privileges]].) Arguably a form of in-universe [[Ascended Fanon]].
Compare: [[Line-of-Sight Name]], [[NameDar]], [[Title Drop]], [[Ascended Meme]]. Compare and contrast [[Named by Democracy]] where someone is often forced to accept the name others use instead of willfully adopting it.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* "Chad" of ''[[Bleach]]'' got his name when Ichigo met him, and mispronounced his real name "Sado" (the Japanese dub uses "Chado").
* In ''[[Rave Master]]'', the name of the [[The Syndicate|Demon Card]] was originally supposed to be Demon ''Guard'' instead (as they were an anti-demon security force before their [[Start of Darkness]]), but the original founder painted it the wrong way and failed to notice it in time. However, the name stuck.
* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Light is quickly dubbed Kira ("killer" approximated in Japanese) by the media, and decides to use that name in his dealings with others. He's
* ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' got their name from reporters mishearing Ichigo's introduction of "Uh, we're from Cafe Mew Mew in Tokyo...", partially thanks to Minto, who, having some sense, muffled her to protect their secret identities.
* Played straight in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' with Patrick Colasaur. He survives getting his ass kicked by the Gundams enough that he earns the nickname "Colasaur The Indestructible". He seems oblivious they're disparaging him.
** [[Colonel Badass|Kati Mannequin]] tries to explain it to him once; apparently, he doesn't know what "disparage" means.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Zoro was frequently called the Pirate Hunter, as he was a bounty hunter, and pirates were the most likely people to hold bounties. But the reality was that Zoro needed their bounty money to pay for food and to repair his swords. Also, this could have easily been the epithet for any other bounty hunter.
**
* Jeremiah Gottwald of ''[[Code Geass]]'' lands the nickname Orange in association with the scandal to which he was linked by Zero. Eventually he takes it as a symbol of loyalty {{spoiler|once he learns of Zero's identity and motives.}}
* [[Hunter X Hunter|Gon]] names his Rock-Paper-Scissor (Janken) move Jajanken after he stutters on the first syllable and his opponent thinks he called it Jajanken on purpose (Jajan! as a surprise, and Janken for the rock-paper-scissors)
* In the backstory of ''[[Saiunkoku Monogatari]],'' Ko Houju was called "kijin (weirdo)" as an insult. After he was rejected by a woman for being [[So Beautiful It's a Curse|too much more beautiful than herself]], he began wearing masks constantly and calling himself Ko Kijin, which is the name that most of the other characters of the series know him by.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
Line 37 ⟶ 32:
* ''[[Invincible]]'' got his name from someone saying to him "What do you think you are, invincible?"
* The ''[[Heroes Reborn]]'' [[Continuity Reboot]] attempt had the Hulk and [[Iron Man]] do this to each other when their origins were mashed up into a single storyline. (Tony used the H-word when he first saw the mutated Banner, and the Hulk liked the sound of it; the other side was just applied [[Hulk Speak]].)
** Similarly, when Betty Ross first saw the Gamma-transformed Emil Blonsky, she described him as "some kind of... abomination!" Guess what his supervillain name became...
* [[Justice Society of America]]'s "Atom" got this name for his short stature. He kept it after he became a vigilante.
* [[Daredevil]] was a mocking name Matt Murdock received back in school for not playing sports. Later parodied in the comic strip "Bullpen Bits".
* This has become the default way of explaining why superheroes have their superhero names: somebody in the media giving it to them. The 80s reboots of both [[Superman]] and [[Wonder Woman]] have them get their names this way.
* Hollis Mason of ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' was given the sarcastic nickname "Nite Owl" by a co-worker irritated by Mason's early bedtime. At the same time, he was looking to become a "costumed adventurer," but was stuck for a name...
{{quote|
* [[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]
* [[Hawkman]] villain Ira Quimby was called IQ by his criminal associates not only because of his initials, but [[Ironic Nickname|as an ironic statement about how stupid he was.]] When he discovered a trinket that gave him incredible intelligence, he decided to keep the name.
* The [[Ultimate Marvel]] version of Mysterio.
{{quote|
* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'': The term "The New Scum" was coined by presidential candidate Gary "The Smiler" Callahan as an insulting reference to Spider Jerusalem's audience; the term was appropriated to a degree during the scandal that broke out after Spider leaked that outburst to the public.
** "Because of you, everyone calls me 'The Beast' now. The press, my staff, my own fucking children."
* Marvel's adhesives-based villain The Trapster ''started out'' calling himself Paste-Pot Pete! [[Never Live It Down/Comic Books|He's regretted it ever since.]]
* In ''[[PS238]]'', the
* ''[[Mad]]'' artist Don Martin created ''Captain Klutz'', whose name derived from the insult ("You Klutz!") of a robber he captured by accident. (Young Ringo Fonebone had actually been attempting suicide when he landed on top of the fleeing crook.) When a police Captain asked for his name, the dazed Fonebone replied, "I'm a Klutz, Captain." Perhaps not a pure example, as Fonebone was briefly amnesiac, and actually thought it was his real name, at least at first.
* The [[New Warriors]] got named when a random reporter referred to them that way, and Night Thrasher hurriedly announced they'd be sticking with that before any of his team could come up with anything more embarrassing.
* It's often said that Batman gave [[The Flash|Bart]] the codename "Impulse" as a warning. This is actually a [[Retcon]]; he created it himself during ''[[Zero Hour]]'' (though all-but-confirmed in his second appearance a month before and reinforced a few issues later in the main ''Flash'' ongoing), a fact even his [[Mark Waid|creator]] forgot.
* In ''[[Batman]]: The Man Who Laughs'', Brubaker and Mahnke's re-interpretation of the Joker's first appearance, he is actually given the name "Joker" by the press. He claims it's "funny [he] didn't think of it."
** Also, the Penguin. Oswald Cobblepot was mercilessly teased as a child, and "penguin" was a common insult. Eventually, as a villain, he dressed like a penguin and started using the name.
* In Chapter 2 of ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]'', we see the Beagle Boys evolving from river pirates to who they are today, except they had a bit of trouble naming their group -- throughout the comic they considered naming themselves "the Mardi Gras Gang" (their employer, Porker Hogg, got their masks from said event), "the Dirty Double-Crossing Dogs", and "the Masked Marauders". Eventually, when Scrooge tricked the gang and saved the day, he announced to the nearby government ship, who came to investigate, "These are the awful '''Beagle Boys!'''"▼
* [[Spider-Man]]'s enemy Doctor Octopus. Before he was a villain, he was a [[Doctor Jerk]], and his colleges called him "Doctor Octopus" behind his back. He heard them, but he barely cared. Upon becoming a villain, he adopted the insult as his ''nom de plume''.
{{quote| '''Beagle Boy 1:''' "The Beagle Boys"! Catchy! Simple, yet elegant!<br />▼
▲* In Chapter 2 of ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]'', we see the Beagle Boys evolving from river pirates to who they are today, except they had a bit of trouble naming their
'''Beagle Boy 2:''' Not bad! Rolls off the tongue! }}
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] [[Bamse|Krösus Sork]] ("Croesus Vole") apparently adopted "Krösus" as his given name based on an ironic derogatory nickname in school (as [[The Unfavourite]], he never had any money). AFAIK, we have never seen his real name - but an earlier version of him was called "Sigge", so [[Wild Mass Guessing|presumably]] he was Sigmund Sork or something.
* Arseface from ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]'', after hearing Cassidy say he has "a face like an arse" and then seeing his father shoot himself. He takes up his new moniker in a straight send-up of many classic scenes:
{{quote|
** It's worth pointing out that Arseface [[Did Not Do the Bloody Research|doesn't actually know what the word "arse" means]].
* In ''Punisher Noir'', Detective Martin Soap nicknames the mysterious vigilante who's been wreaking havoc on the Manhattan underworld "[[The Punisher]]", after a popular radio drama he theorizes inspired the man. He's partially
* [[Captain Mar-Vell]] made his debut when he stopped a killer robot sent by his own superiors in the Kree army that was sent to [[Kill All Humans]]. During the battle the robot kept addressing him by his rank and name "Captain Mar-Vell". Bystanders misheard and assumed that Mar-Vell was a new superhero named "Captain Marvel". Mar-Vell decided to go along with it.
* According to ''The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix,'' [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] [[X-Men/Characters/Villains|enemy]] [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Mr. Sinister]] got his name from the curses of his dying wife. Appropriately enough for a guy who became a supervillain in the 1800s, you don't get more gothic than that.
* Stretched to the breaking point for [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|the Impossible Man]]. The Thing, amazed by [[Great Gazoo|the new alien's metamorphic powers and glib attitude, says the alien is "impossible", as in exasperating.]] The narration automatically claims it as a moniker, calling the alien the Impossible Man.
* ''[[Astro City]]'': Infidel took his name from the insult his enemies had hurled at him countless times across the centuries.
* In the John Bryne ''Superman'' reboot immediately [[Post-Crisis|after the original ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'']], Lex Luther referred to a failed, white-skinned semicrystalline clone of Superman as "that [[Bizarro|bizarre... oh!]]" before storming off in anger.
== Film ==
* ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'': Harvey Dent started his career in [[Internal Affairs]] prosecuting dirty cops. The cops, none too happy about that, called him "Two-Face" behind his back.
* ''[[Unbreakable]]''
{{quote|
* In ''[[The Incredible Hulk (film)|The Incredible Hulk]]'', a student on the news says "It was like some kind of... Hulk!" Also, {{spoiler|when Blonsky is forcing Stearns to give him Hulk powers, Stearns warns him that the combination of the [[Super Serum]] and Gamma Radiation might result in "An ''Abomination''". Both of these are straight out of the comics.}}
** ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' has a case similar to the latter, {{spoiler|where Stane uses the name of his comicverse alter ego, "Iron Monger", in casual conversation with Tony.}}
Line 83 ⟶ 79:
** Green Goblin was also named by the press, as was Dr. Octopus in the sequel.
* ''[[Rain Man]]'' was named by his little brother, who couldn't pronounce "Raymond."
* In ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger]]'', the name "[[Captain America (comics)]]" was given to Steve during the USO tours, but he would use that name during his first military mission. The soldiers he rescued would also use that name without any sarcasm.
* [[Subverted Trope]] in ''[[Mystery Men]]''. The protagonists spend most of the film without having thought of a name for their team. After saving the day at the end:
{{quote|
'''The Sphinx:''' Wait! Wait, that's it! We are... '''The Super Squad!''' }}
* ''
== Literature ==
Line 94 ⟶ 89:
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is full of nicknames, some of them falling into this trope:
** Tyrion Lannister actually tells Jon Snow to use this trope.
{{quote|
** Sandor Clegane is known as the Hound due to the hounds on his coat of arms and his perceived total lack of ethical concerns interfering with his loyalty to his master. The self-loathing Sandor wears a helm crafted into a horrible dog-face.
** The ex-smuggler Davos Seaworth was knighted for delivering food to a besieged city. The other nobility look at him as a common thug who bought his knighthood with onions, dubbing him the Onion Knight, but Davos proudly put the onion on his coat of arms.
** Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is lord of a tiny tract of worthless land on a group of peninsulas called the Fingers, and is also physically short. He goes by the name as part of his scheme to get people to underestimate him.
** Jaime "Kingslayer" Lannister got his name for murdering Aerys Targaryen, who he had previously sworn to protect. He uses the name and the reputation that comes with it to get away with a lot.
** Brienne is often referred to as "Brienne the Beauty" but not for the reason you'd
* Galinda in ''Wicked'' (both [[Wicked (theatre)|the musical]] and [[Wicked (novel)|the book]]) is called "Glinda" (notice the lack of an A) by her talking Goat teacher. When he is killed, she changes her name to Glinda in his memory.
* In ''[[Ender's Game|Ender's Shadow]]'', Bean gets his name when some other street children are taunting him that he isn't worth a bean. He then immediately lampshades that the name sucks, but the mere fact that he has a name at all is enough of a sign of status that he'll take it.
Line 108 ⟶ 103:
* The Forsaken in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' were mostly given nicknames by people in the Age of Legends to reflect their deeds, such as Ishamael (The Betrayer of Hope), Sammael (The Destroyer of Hope), Moghedian (The Spider) and so on, and by the time of the series have embraces their names to the point of almost forgetting their original names, and certainly the names of most of their fellows. The exception would be Lanfaer (the Daughter of the night), who coined her new name herself.
** "Yes, Betrayer of Hope. So men have named me, just as they named you the Dragon. When they gave me that name they intended to revile me, but I will yet make them kneel and worship it. What will you do with your name? After this day they will call you the Kinslayer, what will you do with that?"
* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (novel)|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'', the Gryffindors' eventual adoption of "Weasley Is Our King" after Ron's first successful turn as Keeper could count as a version of this, similar to the American adoption of "Yankee Doodle." Though, they changed the lyrics to praise Ron and his Quidditch skills rather than keeping the insulting ones.
** In
** In ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (
{{quote|
'''Ron''': Don't call yourself--
'''Hermione''': Why shouldn’t I? [[N-Word Privileges|Mudblood, and proud of it!]] }}
* In the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', it's a joke among veterans that new recruits are "fish," since their flailing around is more reminiscent of a landed fish than a ''legionnaire''. The legion Tavi was assigned to happened to have an outsized regiment of [[Blow You Away|Knights Aeris]]: namely, ones who were powerful enough to qualify but so short on practice that they couldn't fly (which is the entire ''point'' of Knights Aeris). Tavi dubbed them "Knights Pisces." It stuck. Then [[You Shall Not Pass|the battle of the Elinarch]] rolled around, when Tavi stopped the enemy army from sneaking across the river by having butchers and the like dump buckets of blood and offal in the river to attract sharks. Next time we see the Knights, [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks|they've chosen a certain fish as their new insignia]]. They keep the name for the rest of the series.
* In the Discworld book ''[[
** Also applies to his tribe, the D'regs. The name is Klatchian for "enemy". It's noted that it's "not the name they chose for themselves, but they adopted it out of pride".
* In Robert Asprin's ''[[Phule's Company]]'' series, the Legionaire who had chosen the name "Rose" for herself was usually called "Violet" (from "Shrinking Violet") by the others due to her crippling shyness in face-to-face contact. But when it's discovered that over the radio, she's phenomenally good as a communications officer (If she can't ''see'' the person she's talking to, she's fine) and very motherly to everyone in the company, everyone starts calling her "Mother" and she adopts it herself.
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Aragorn's alias ''Strider'' is initially a derogatory nickname given to him by the people of Bree, who see the Rangers as mysterious, dangerous ruffians. When he {{spoiler|becomes king of Gondor}}, he translates the name into Quenya and uses it as his family name.
* In [[Tales of the Magic Land]], the wooden soldiers are called Deadwood Oaks, after their creator's constant insults about their learning abilities. In the end, one of the soldiers called himself that, and Urfin Jus decided this is the perfect name.
== Live
* [[Having a Gay Old Time|Beaver]] from ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]'' got his nickname from his brother, Wally, not being able to pronounce "Theodore" [his given name].
* Richard Hammond of ''[[Top Gear]]'' was nicknamed "Hamster" by Jeremy Clarkson and eventually came to like the name. He even refers to it with his production company, [[Vanity Plate|"Hamster's Wheel"]].
* Several times on ''[[Smallville]]'' , as a [[Mythology Gag]]. When Clark Kent joins an underground fight club, the manager calls him "The Man Of Steel" because he earlier demonstrated he was bullet proof. [[Green Arrow]] called him "Boy Scout" because of his simple-minded idealism. When he becomes an active superhero, the media calls him "The Good Samaritan" (because he helps people in trouble for no reason), "The Red-Blue Blur" (named for the only thing visible when he uses [[Super Speed]]), and finally, "The Blur". Also, when he reveals his secret to Jimmy Olsen, Jimmy goes, "Wow! You're some kind of Super... Super... Guy."
** Much like the movie and animated TV show, in ''[[The Adventures of Superman]]'' ([[Older Than They Think|from the 1950s]]), Superman gets his name from the Daily Planet. His first public heroic was rescuing a man who had fallen off of an airship, and the man later described him as "some sort of... Super-guy...", and shortly afterwards Lois calls him Superman.
Line 132 ⟶ 127:
* On the self-titled sitcom ''[[Roseanne]]'', one episode has her mother explaining that Jackie's name isn't really Jackie, but Marjorie. Roseanne couldn't properly pronounce her name as a child and it always sounded like she was calling her "My Jackie", and after a while, the name stuck.
* ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'': Radio DJ Gordon Sims initially wanted his [[Stage Name]] to be Venus Rising, but due to a slip-up when he first came on the air, he was introduced as Venus Flytrap, and the name stuck.
* A flashback in ''[[Have Gun — Will Travel]]'' shows that the hero, Paladin, got the name in this manner. A villainous employer falsely made him believe that a gunfighter calling himself Smoke was a villain terrorizing a town. The dying Smoke revealed the truth and sarcastically referred to his killer as a "paladin". His killer adopted that name and to atone, becoming a hero while wearing Smoke's costume.
* ''[[Holby City]]'': Percival Durant, a wildly anti-authoritarian surgeon working in a Ghanaian clinic at the time of his introduction on the show, earned the nickname "Abra" from his colleagues and patients, which he wears with pride. It roughly translates to "troublemaker".
* [[Wonder Woman (TV series)|Wonder Woman TV Series]]: At the pilot:
{{quote|
'''Princess Diana:''' ''I will may you proud of me... and of Wonder Woman.'' }}
* While everybody in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' initially calls him "shol'va" (traitor) as an insult (practically spitting out the curse), [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Teal'c]] pretty quickly warms up to the "title" and a few times even smiles proudly when being called that. Later on, the other rebel Jaffa treat the term the same way.
* In ''[[Stranger Things]]'', the monsters are named by the protagonists who name them after villains from ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', a game they are fans of. This includes Mind Flayer, Demogorgon, and Vecna.
== Music ==
Line 145 ⟶ 141:
** Jourgensen is particularly fond of this trope. Jourgensen's project 1,000 Homo DJs was similarly named after a comment from Wax Trax! owner Jim Nash, who said of the group's demo, "No one's gonna play this. It's gonna take a thousand homo DJs to play this for anyone to buy it." The title of [[Ministry]]'s album ''Filth Pig'' is also lifted from a derogatory reference to Jourgensen, this time from a speech by a British MP.
* When Butch Vig showed some new songs, someone reacted saying it was garbage. Guess how he named [[Garbage|the band who played said songs]]?
* When Stan Ridgway played a friend some music he and Mark Moreland were working on for a film soundtrack, he jokingly compared the layered production to [[Phil Spector]]'s "Wall Of Sound". Because of how unnerving the music was, said friend quipped that it was more like a "[[Wall of Voodoo]]".
* When the Yardbirds collapsed, leaving Jimmy Page as sole remaining member, he recruited three unknown musicians (they knew each other through session work) and carried on. Legal uncertainties caused them to become the New Yardbirds. Then [[The Who]]'s Keith Moon and John Entwistle made a remark about them going down "like a lead zeppelin". They adopted this name, changing the spelling to the familiar [[Led Zeppelin]] at the suggestion of their US distributor, [[Viewers are Morons|who thought people might mispronounce (and misconstrue) "Lead"]] as if it were "'''lead''' a horse to water".
Line 158 ⟶ 154:
** Geelong's nickname of the Cats comes from a story about a black cat crossing the ground and Geelong winning the match.
* In the late 1800s, fans of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (seriously), were derisively referred to as Trolley Dodgers by the pre-dominantly more well-to-do fans of the archrival New York Giants, due to the fact that in order to reach Bridegrooms' ballpark, it was necessary to cross a series of perilous trolley tracks. The Brooklyn fans took it as a badge of honor in a way, as did the team, adopting it as an unofficial nickname until they officially changed it to the Trolley Dodgers in 1911, then shortened it just to the Dodgers. Which makes this trope [[Older Than Television]].
** Both teams
== Theatre ==
Line 180 ⟶ 175:
== Web Comics ==
* Subverted in ''[[Angels 2200]]'' when the six girls of Icebreaker Squad in all receive scornful call signs that are either disparaging or ironic comments on their characters: "Hammer", (the vacillating leader), "Quetzecoatl" ([[The Neidermeyer]]) "Whiskey" (the [[Bottle Fairy]]), "Bubblegum" (as in: [[Dojikko|can't walk and chew it at the same time]]), "Loser" (self-explanatory), and "Kid" ([[The Ingenue]]). It does NOT help them bond as a team, and their attempts to "make these names their own" just makes it worse.
* In the ''[[Ciem Webcomic Series]]'' and its [[Ultimate Universe|Comprehensive Universe]] novel, the media give Candi the "Ciem" moniker, as it's short for ''[[Gratuitous Spanish|Ciempies]]'', so named for saving a Latin Town village from a [[Paedo Hunt|pedophile]].
** In the book, {{spoiler|she saves an Apacheland mission from brown supremacists [[Straw Hypocrite|who decide that Apache don't count]], [[The War On Straw|especially if they love the American republic and scorn Marxism]]. Candi being [[Ambiguously Brown|Indo-Mulatto]] but speaks a tiny amount of Spanish, they view her as a [[Straw Traitor|confused little girl]].}} But she still doesn't get the Ciem moniker officially until she returns to Evansville and saves Maria Sanmarcos.
Line 186 ⟶ 181:
* In ''[[Drowtales]]'', "Tainted" was originally an insult towards Drow who failed to control a summonned demon and got infected/partially possessed by it. Then some started to do this deliberately to gain immunity against full possession. They were derided and persecuted to some degree, but eventually adopted "Tainted" as their designation.
* The "Freak Angels" from ''[[Freak Angels]]'' have been called "sick freaks" and "angels of destruction," according to Luke.
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', with Chinook the "[//www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-06-11 Goddess of Earth, Wind and Plumbing]".
== Web Original ==
Line 210 ⟶ 206:
** Slight subversion: Grimlock named himself after Megatron bemoans his "prospects are grim, locked in this prison of a lab."
** Wreck-Gar gets his name from Angry Archer's abbreviating what he previously called himself, "worthless-wreck-walking-pile-of-garbage".
* Crash Nebula in the [[Show Within a Show]] on ''[[The Fairly
* The band "U Stink" from ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' got their name like this.
* Robin from ''[[The Batman]]'' took his alias from a nickname his mother gave him, which he initially resented.
** If you're wondering, [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]] origin of the name was Dick paying tribute to [[Robin Hood]]. Hence the green outfit, shirt lacing, and so forth.
* Invisibo is named by ''[[Freakazoid!]]'' himself.
** [[No Fourth Wall|To be fair, they already had title cards made up and everything]].
* The [[Bratz]] get their name from Kirstee and Kaycee in ''Bratz: Rock Angelz''.
Line 228 ⟶ 224:
** As did the song, originally used as a marching song by the British Army.
** Although one theory has it that the name was actually originally a ''Dutch'' insult, the settlers in New Amsterdam calling their British neighbors in Connecticut ''Jan Kees'', the "s" then getting mistaken for a plural. According to Webster Jan Kees means "Jack Cheese", but this is quite far off the mark; ''Jan'' is the Dutch version of John, and ''Kees'' is a shortened form of ''Cornelis'', the Dutch version of Cornelius. It is not uncommon for Dutch men to be named ''Jan Kees'' or ''Jan-Kees''; in fact, as of January 2012, the Dutch minister of finance is called Jan Kees de Jager ('John Cornelius the Hunter').
* Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. picked up his (nick)name from when his sister was a toddler and called him "buzzer" as a mispronunciation of "brother". This was shortened to "Buzz", which he later made his legal first name. He is known for walking on the Moon (then, in his seventies, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|he punched a guy in the face for saying he hadn't really been there]]) and being the source of the name [[Toy Story (franchise)|Buzz Lightyear]].
* That's how the followers of popular [[MSTing|Anti]]-[[Mary Sue]] [[
** Similarly, members of [https://web.archive.org/web/20110902053221/http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Main_Page Fandom Wank], a community devoted to the mocking of [[Serious Business]],
*
* Quite common for religious movements:
** The term "Christian" was originally an insult. Christians used to call themselves "followers of the way" but called themselves Christians after being called that consistently as an insult.
** Mormons, originally derogatory nickname for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has passed into common usage, including among church members.
** Ditto for Quakers (the Society of Friends) and Santeria (Lukumi).
Line 244 ⟶ 240:
** Not an insult but the Persians called the people from Judah "Jews". Today Jew has completely displaced "Hewbrew".
** Jesus Freaks, originally applied to Christians Hippies.
*** [[
** Non-religious and anti-religious types occasionally (and more commonly in recent years) adapt the title Infidels.
*
{{quote|
* When ''[[Dungeons
* As a joke on his strained relationship with the press, then-Minnesota governor (sigh) Jesse Ventura issued media credential badges to his press corps labeled something along the lines of "Press Jackal." The issue-ees were none too pleased, but the badges soon became collectors' items among the better-humored.
** This is how Minnesota got the nickname 'The Gopher State'. A political cartoon called Minnesotan legislators a bunch of gophers and for some reason it stuck.
* Fans of the erotic artist Julius Zimmerman are known as the Flaming Horde after an incident in 2003. An inker was discovered to be tracing Julius' art and auctioning it as his own and fans of Julius filled his inbox full of complaints. When Julius e-mailed his image host asking who it was, the response was something like: "No one you or your horde of flaming fans need to worry about any more" and he ceased hosting the tracings. Though Flaming Horde was intended as an insult, the group embraced the novel designation.
* The astronomer Fred Hoyle, a proponent of the Steady State model of the Universe, coined the term "Big Bang" as a dismissive term for the rival model. The name was taken on by proponents of the theory, at first ironically but later in all seriousness.
** Similarly, when the idea of a number line at right angles to the reals was first proposed, many mathematicians considered it to be ridiculous and called them "Imaginary Numbers".
Line 275 ⟶ 271:
* After reclaiming the title of World Chess Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik was being fawned upon by his fans. He tried to keep the celebration restrained by telling the well-wishers, "No, no, I am not a patriarch, you know." Guess what his nickname was after that.
* This is how pilots get their callsigns.
* During [[World War
** However, the quote from which the appellation was taken was fabricated by British propaganda.
* [[wikipedia:Indo-Caribbean|Indo-Caribbean people]] (Caribbean nationals who are descended from indentured servants brought from India to the Caribbean), particularly those from [[Guyana]] or Trinidad & Tobago, are known as "Coolies." This started out as an insult by their former masters (the British plantation owners), as the original meaning was that a person being called a Coolie was a low-class worker. However, in recent decades, Indo-Caribbean people adopted it as an affectionate nickname for themselves. An Indo-Caribbean politician in Trinidad famously made a speech declaring himself to be "Coolie to the bone" to emphasize his heritage. Also, [[Big Applesauce|New York City's]] sizable Indo-Caribbean community also generally uses the word Coolie to describe themselves.
* Members of the online celebrity news community [http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/ Oh No They Didn't!] proudly call themselves "jackals" after being referred to as such by an online columnist.
* In the same vein, the word [[Eminem|Stan]], once used on the site as a derogatory term for overly-obsessed fans of any given subject, has now been adopted by said fans and is even used as a verb ("Who do you/I stan for _____"). This is mostly in female fanbases, popular shows, and mainstream american culture.
** Some [[Britney Spears]] fans who actually like her, and support her accept being called a "Britard".
** [[Lady Gaga]] calling her fans Monsters is a double subversion, they had this name before, but due to the more questionable things they have said and done (like all fan bases, mind you) they are called "Real Monsters" to thoses who really don't like or get them and how they deal.
* The Crystal Palace was the purpose-built venue for London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 and a wonder of the Victorian Age, being the product of a brilliant and innovative design. Its iconic name, however, was originally coined by a writer for ''Punch'' magazine, as a backhanded euphemism for the proposed structure in one of their typically flippant comment pieces.
* The Chamber of Horrors in Madame Tussaud's Waxwork Museum in London acquired its name in the same manner. A ''Punch'' writer coined the term while commenting on the newly opened "separate room" (as it was originally referred to) in 1846.
Line 288 ⟶ 284:
* Jack Thompson came up with the term "pixelante," a mix of pixel and (for some reason) vigilante to describe video game players. The GamePolitics forum wasted no time in appropriating the name for themselves, much to Thompson's annoyance.
** Similarly, "pixel-stained technopeasant" was coined by Howard Hendrix as an insult to his fellow science-fiction writers who were demeaning "the noble calling of Writer" by posting their work on the net for ''free'' (*gasp*). They now have [[wikipedia:International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day|their own holiday]].
* Both [[Michigan
* The [[Space Opera]] genre was originally called that as an insult- the term opera was used along the same lines as [[Soap Opera]] and Horse Opera to connote that a work was filled with unbelievable characters, plots, and settings. Now, the term [[Space Opera]] is value neutral and just means a work with "grand themes" that's probably on the softer end of the [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness]].
* Fans of [[Atlus]] games, particularly the [[Shin Megami Tensei]] series, like using the term Fatlus to refer to themselves, despite its origins as a derogatory term.
* "[[Stilyagi]]" was the insult in the [[Soviet Union]] for youth who rebelled by dressing in wild styles and listening to [[Rock and Roll]]. They later used this name as a point of pride.
* Many people with the nickname "Bubba" got it because a sibling couldn't properly pronounce the word "brother."
** Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.'s sister pronunced it "buzzer". As of 1988, [[The Space Race|Buzz Aldrin]] has been his legal name.
* Basically every name for every artistic movement ever was found this way. The Impressionists are so called because a critic said that "they can't draw anything other than an impression", the Fauves (which translates as 'beasts') are so called because a critic called them beasts... and the list goes on.
* The sports teams of Ohio State University named themselves buckeyes after many a comment made by visiting teams about the large number of buckeye trees on campus.
* The title [[Jack the Ripper]] was actually given by the media around the time of the murders, the original murderer never left behind any such [[Calling Card]]. However, as soon as the newspapers were published, cue hundreds of fake notes sent to the police station claiming to be from Jack the Ripper himself, at least one of which even says [[Lampshade Hanging|how he enjoys his new nickname]].
* [[Margaret Thatcher]] was nicknamed "[[Iron Lady]]" accidentally, by the Soviet newspaper Red Star. They tried to use already existing less than complimentary moniker "Iron Maiden", but [[Blind Idiot Translation|it was lost in two mistranslations]], from and then to English. Thatcher's response: "[[Badass Boast|They are right, I am an iron lady, Britain 'needs' an iron lady]]."
* In a slightly more scary example, the pink triangle often used as a symbol for gay pride was originally used by the
* After a Rhode Island teenager called Jessica Ahlquist got an illegal prayer banner removed from her school one of the ''many'' negative reactions she suffered was a Rhode Island representative dubbing her "an evil little thing" during a radio interview. [http://www.youtube.com/user/AnEvilLittleThing This is her You Tube channel]
* Outlaw motorcycle clubs have appropriated the "1%er" appellation from an apocryphal story about how the American Motorcyclist Association or another body said something along the lines of "1% of motorcyclists are the problem." They take it as a badge of honor, as in they are the most hard-case 1% and everyone else on two wheels is really just a [[Rule-Abiding Rebel]] or a wuss. These are the guys who put the grain of [[Truth in Television]] in [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels]].
** Which might've inspired the "Ninty-nine percenters" to name themselves such, since allegedly 50% of the world's wealth belongs to 1% of the population.
* The N-word, which was (and still is) used as a racial slur against Black people, is now used by many [[N-Word Privileges|within the Black community themselves]]. However, there are also plenty of Blacks who strongly oppose the use of the word due to its extremely negative original meaning.
* In the early 2000s, Ben "Gryphon" Hutchins of [[Eyrie Productions, Unlimited]] made an incautious comment about how fans of ''[[Undocumented Features|Symphony of the Sword]]'' had the patience of "rabid crack weasels". Naturally the fans embraced the term, with one even going so far as to set up a CafePress site selling Rabid Crack Weasel merch. It eventually fell out of use again, after ten years or so.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:
|