Appropriated Appellation: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

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.

* ''[[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]] ==

* 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."

* 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!'''"

{{quote|'''Beagle Boy 1:''' "The Beagle Boys"! Catchy! Simple, yet elegant!

'''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.

{{quote|- "Uh wuh huh vuhhyuh uh Juhh Cuhh! Vuhhyuh fuh uh bluh uh muh fuhh! Uh uh uh huh uh fuh luh uh uhh -- ''suh buh uh!'' Uh wuh becuhh '''Uhhfuhh!'''" (I will have vengeance on Jesse Custer! Vengeance for the blood of my father! And if I have a face like an arse -- ''so be it!'' I will become '''Arseface!''')}}

** It's worth pointing out that Arseface [[Did Not Do the Bloody Research|doesn't actually know what the word "arse" means]].

* 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.

 

== Film ==

* 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:

'''The Sphinx:''' Wait! Wait, that's it! We are... '''The Super Squad!''' }}

 

== Literature ==

* 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?"

{{quote|'''Hermione''': I’m hunted quite as much as any goblin or elf, Griphook! I’m a Mudblood!

'''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.

** 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.

 

 

* [[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"]].

* 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.

* ''[[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:

'''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.

 

== Music ==

** 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]].

 

== Theatre ==

* 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.

 

== Web Original ==

** 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".

* 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.

** [[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''.

** 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').

* 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.

** 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|"[[Narm|I hoped I'd never create an account at this site and will probably never use it again. I have no love for vigilante taxonomists.]] [[It's Personal|It's a personal thing.]]"}}

* 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.

* 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.

** 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.

** 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 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]]."

* 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]