Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Rave Master]]'', King Gale Raregroove had...questionable taste in baby names. King's first son got the name Lucia, a [[Gender Blender Name]] which also means light-which would be an unremarkable detail if his son hadn't grown up to be the embodiement of evil with a dark themed power. His stepbrother did not have it much easier, being named Deep Snow for how much it was snowing outside.

* The Italian dub of ''[[Transformers Super God Masterforce]]'' renames the characters with names used for other Transformers from the original series. This includes the Headmasters Jr.s, which are ''humans''. For an example, Minerva is named Phantom. Yes, a girl named Phantom.

 

* Subverted in a [[Zatanna]] special. She wonders how an evil sorceress was able to avoid her spell when Zatanna used what she thought was the sorceress' [[I Know Your True Name|true name]], then suddenly realises that no one is born with a name like "Nimue Ravensong". Zatanna then goes in search of the sorceress' birth name.

* The Clark Kents of Earth-Prime and ''[[Superman]]: Secret Identity'' were both named by parents with a weird sense of humour on ''worlds [[Celebrity Paradox|where Superman comics existed]]''. The Clark Kent of ''Secret Identity'' is shown to be pretty tired of all the jokes. It actually works to his advantage a couple of times: he meets one Lois Chaudhari when friends set them up as a prank and they hit it off and ultimately get married, and the secret government agency searching for a strange flying man dismisses published author Clark Kent because it would just be too ridiculous.

* In either a [[Daredevil]] or [[Spider-Man]] comic book, when Foggy Nelson and Flash Thompson's respective girlfriends introduced them at a restaurant, both of them thought of this trope (but didn't say anything):

{{quote|'''Foggy Nelson''' ''Thinking'': What kind of name is "Flash?"

* In ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]'', a little girl claiming to be Brianna's daughter from the future showed up. Her name? Roquette -- pronounced "Rocket." Someone else said, "What kind of mother would name their--" and [[Trigger Happy|Brianna]] interrupted, "Whoa! Whatta '''cute name'''!"

 

* Invoked in the ''[[Worm]]'' fic ''[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/mauling-snarks-worm.41471/ Mauling Snarks]'' by "CmptrWz":

{{quote|Emily was having a bad time of things. First the Winslow incident had occurred, with Jacob’s niece in the middle of it. Which, because it was Jacob, meant that nobody wanted to get in the way of finding out what had happened. That was the good part. The bad part was that Sophia ''Fucking'' Hess had been one of the instigators.

And who the hell gives any child an actual middle name of ‘Fucking’? No wonder the girl was so screwed up.}}

 

* In ''[[Meet the Parents]]'', "Greg" is short for "Gaylord," which would have been [[Embarrassing First Name|quite bad enough]] even if his last name weren't Focker. The question of what kind of parents would saddle a kid with that name comes up at the end of the movie when his brother-in-law asks if his name really is "Gay Focker", and is answered in the sequel—they're hippies. They even call him "Gay" for short.

** Don't forget his cousins Randy and Horny!

* Discussed in ''[[Hatchet (film)|Hatchet]] II'' by unfortunately named men Chad and Cletus.

* In the documentary ''[[Comedian (film)|Comedian]]'', a number of people react when aspiring comic Orny Adams gives his name, some not even believing that it's real.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', this is basically Mr. Young's reaction to most of the satanist nurse's name suggestions for the baby Antichrist. The American ambassador, whose wife is giving birth next door, is more receptive (or less attentive), and ends up with a son called Warlock.

* An interesting variant can be found in ''[[The Cancer Ward]]'' by [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]. One of the patients in the titular cancer ward is a bureaucrat named Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov. He and his wife chose the name Lavrentiy for their youngest son, so that he should get the same name and [[Patronymic]] as Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, the leader of the secret police under Stalin. The book is set in the later fifties, young Lavrentiy Pavlovich Rusanov is in his teens, and the old Stalin regime is nothing to be proud of any more. Pavel Nikolayevich is somewhat uneasy about the whole thing, but finds comfort in the fact that all his son's friends just call him Lavrik.

* A character in ''[[Catch-22]]'' was secretly named Major Major Major by his father, who kept the fact from his mother. The army computer misinterprets his name and mistakenly assigns him the rank of Major when he enlists, making him Major Major Major Major. [[Almighty Janitor|Ex-PFC Wintergreen]] intercepts any attempts to promote or demote him because he thinks it's funny.

* Siegfried and Tristan Farnon in the ''[[James Herriot]]'' books. Maybe not so much now, but back in 1930s Yorkshire, those names, bestowed by their [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]]-loving father, would have stuck out a mile.

* In ''The Vatican Cellars'', one character decided to name his girls after plants, and not saints, for the sake of atheism. The firts two have it good - Véronique and Marguerite - but the third one is named Arnica.

 

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'': Sarah and John spent a lot of time moving around, so on one occasion they had to switch from a rural pig farm to a hippie commune which could easily be characterised as the place where the kids are named after tree species.

* Lampshaded in the ''[[Leverage]]'' episode "The Fairy Godparents Job."

* Also on ''[[30 Rock]]'', there is one Kenneth Ellen Parcell.

* ''"[[Buffy]]"'' the Vampire Slayer. Contrary to some fan opinion, it is not a diminutive form of "Elizabeth." That's her name. This is [[Lampshading|pointed out]] when [[Hypocritical Humour|Spike]] asks who calls their kid Buffy (in response to Buffy insulting his name, to be fair). Buffy then gets rather offended at this insult to her mother, so she's probably not bothered by the name.

** "Buffy" was actually a fairly common name in the late 70's when the character would have been born, probably inspired by the character of the same name from [[Family Affair]].

* In ''[[Friends]]'', when Ross learns Chandler's middle name:

* In the soap opera ''[[Las Juanas]]'', there is Doña de Salguero, most usually called "Doña Doña". To wit. in English, the equivalent is naming a girl "Mistress" or "Ma'am".

* On ''[[Modern Family]]'', all of Mitch and Cam's friends have stereotypical "gay" names. One of them, Longinus, remarks that his mother forced him to become gay with it.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* An example of [[Calling the Old Man Out]] on the back of this trope is, of course, the old [[Johnny Cash]] song "A Boy Named Sue". Of course, in this case the bad name was intentional — as Dad explained, he gave his son a name that would make his childhood a living hell precisely so the boy would be forced to grow up mean and tough, to compensate for growing up without a father figure. Sue appreciates the logic behind this decision and forgives his father, but makes it clear that he wouldn't dream of doing something like that to his own son.

** [[Word of God]] from songwriter [[Shel Silverstein]] is that he got the inspiration for the song after hearing a (male) judge named [[wikipedia:Sue K. Hicks|Sue K. Hicks]] speak at a judicial conference in Gatlinburg (a town which is also mentioned in the song). Hicks was named after his mother, who died in childbirth.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

'''Bunny:''' "I prefer Teal and Puce." }}

* 5 from ''[[Peanuts]]'' was named that because his father had strange ideas about where society was headed. His siblings were likewise named after numbers.

 

 

* The titular ''Mother Courage'' names her youngest son Schweizerkas - "Swiss cheese". Well, nobody said she was the best mother.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In the visual novel ''Lamento -beyond the void-,'' Bardo suffered so horribly from this he went right ahead and changed it to something less-bad. Not only was it a painful name, it was a ''girls''' name. Literally. His mama called 'im Cheryl. And she's still the only person that does, going by the end of his route.

* The ''[[Postal]]'' series features The Postal Dude.... snippets seen around in Postal 2 reveal is legal name is actually The Postal Dude, Jr., as it's what's on his driver's license when he goes to pay a parking ticket and his father's grave says "T. Dude, Sr".

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]''.

* In the 2012 adaptation of ''[[The Lorax (film)|The Lorax]]'', the Once-ler's name actually is Once-ler, despite having two brothers named Brett and Chet. This is in contrast to the original, where Once-ler is hinted to be more of a title/nickname than anything.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

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