This name gives him a hard time with airport security.
"As they come around now for the bell lap. Rooin Mahmood the Indian, Pissenmiov the Russian, just behind, the Italian, Beinsilli... there's another runner there on the inside, Whoskrapisdacsz from Poland, and dropping away now, the Swede, Lars Persson."
Sometimes, a name isn't exactly meaningful or hiding something, but there's still something about it that is weird. And then you read it really fast, and go, "Oh!" and have your chuckle over the pun.
Punny Names are just that: Names that make puns. They don't have to be Meaningful Names, but often are. An overlap would be with Steven Ulysses Perhero, where the pun lines up with the character's job, e.g. a baseball player named Homer (of which there have been several actual Major League Baseball players with that moniker, although a few were pitchers). Works aimed at children, and comedies in general, often give characters these kind of names.
The pun name is a staple of the prank caller, who will disguise it just right so the other guy doesn't get the pun until he blurts it out.
A subtrope is Sir Verb-a-Lot. Another subtrope, for TV or radio stations with punny names, is WPUN. Camp Wackyname is also a subtrope, and "Miss X" Pun is one when used for names. If the name is a Double Entendre, then it's a Euphemistic Name. If a lot of characters in a given work have a punny name, it could be an example of Punny Theme Naming. If a group of people's last names forms a pun, it could relate to The Law Firm of Pun, Pun, and Wordplay. Also overlaps often with Real Joke Name, where someone laughs at what they think is a pun only to be told that that's actually the character's real name. (And they've Never Heard That One Before.)
See also: Who's on First? and Who Names Their Kid "Dude"? For a list of tropes with Punny Names, see Punny Trope Names. May overlap with Say Par Ate Ted Words Gag.
If it's a title, then it's Pun-Based Title. If it's the name of an entire species designed around the pun, see Pun-Based Creature.
Example subpages:
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- Comic Books
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- Live-Action TV
- Music
- Tabletop Games
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- Real Life
Other examples:
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Advertising
- A lot of fictional products seen in the Energizer Bunny commercials have these kinds of names. These include Sitaginnote hemmorhoid ointment, Ligamintnote back medicine, and Darnitolnote headache medicine with Easamigraine.note
- Eet (eat) a donkey, and Ern (earn), a piggybank. "Eat and earn". They appear in Eet and Ern advertising codes to earn prizes on their website from boxes of Kellogg’s cereal.
- Superman vs. Nick O'Teen: Nick O'Teen. Nicotine. He's a drug addict who tries to get children addicted to cigarettes.
- An Australian ad for Dare Iced Coffee has a man, Mr. Murray, name his newborn son "Callum". After drinking the coffee he has several flashforwards of his son being called "calamari" and then opts for a different name.
- The personable ski mask-wearing burglar with the interesting mustache who serves as the spokesman for SimpliSafe home security products is named Robbert Larson, a name that invokes both robbery and larceny.
- The 1980-90s British Telecom ads featuring Maureen Lipman as Jewish Mother Beattie Bellman. Lampshaded with a 1993 poster campaign about the second round of shares going on sale, which showed a confused-looking Mr Bellman with the caption "Get a piece of BT's other half".
- Tommy McAnairey: In keeping with Tommy's "any fuel can harm" message, this PSA for Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week 2016
features a song title dedicated to a deceased relative of Tommy named Annie Fuel. In the background there's a memorial picture of her posing with coal, turf, gas and wood.
Art
- Creepazoids: A lot of the monster's names are puns. For example, the first image has Helena Handbasket, a mix of demon and Red Riding Hood.
Asian Animation
- BoBoiBoy Galaxy features a group of Monster Clowns named the BAD DUDES. Besides fitting their villainous personalities, "bad dude" sounds like "badut", the Malay and Indonesian word for "clown". One of its members is named Jugglenaut, a combination of "juggle" and "juggernaut" referring to how clowns juggle and how Jugglenaut is the biggest of the BAD DUDES who are shown.
- In Doby & Disy, Caesar is a thief who often impedes Doby and Disy's adventures by stealing important items they need to progress. Fittingly, his name sounds like "seizer".
- In Fruity Robo, Berry-Donna's name is a pun on "Bella Donna", a name that means "beautiful lady".
- Happy Friends: In Season 2 Episode 6, Headmaster Tele sounds like he's complementing his students when in reality he's talking to the bus driver, who is named Tong Xuemen (同学们, pinyin "tongxuemen", means "classmates"; the name of Tong Xuemen the bus driver is one Chinese character off but pronounced the same way). The English version of the episode reworks the joke so that the bus driver is instead named Avery One, a soundalike of "everyone".
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf:
- Weslie's Chinese name is Xǐ Yángyáng. This is meant to be a pun on the Chinese idiom "Xǐqìyángyáng", which means "full of joy", and the homophonic "yáng" which means "sheep" or "goat".
- The wolves' Chinese names end in "太狼" ("Tàiláng"). This is a pun on the Japanese language. "太狼" ("Tàiláng") and "太郎" ("Tàiláng") are homophones in the Chinese language, and "太郎" is also the Japanese name Tarō, meaning "the first son". Japanese names can appear aggressive in the Chinese language, and this fits the evil wolves.
- Brother Tai, in the Chinese original, is known as Tài Gē. That's pronounced like the English word "tiger", a reference to what his species is.
- The Simple Samosa episode "Space Snax" features a musk melon named Melon Musk as a stand-in for Elon Musk.
- Tombik & B.B.: The name B.B. refers to the character's species, a bee, since both that word and the letter B are pronounced the same (in English).
Comedy
- A mainstay of the The Twelfth Man audio comedies, especially with parodies of foreign sportsmen's names. Examples include "Wasee A-Crim" (Was He A Crim), a remarkably prescient reference to Wasim Akram some years before the match-fixing controversy; "Hafeez Andmissin" (Half His Hand Missing), a parody of Azeem Hafeez, who was born without two fingers on his right hand); and "Imheer Sohail" (I'm Here So Hail), Aamir Sohail.
- A Rowan Atkinson skit titled "Role Call" featured this trope in which Rowan played a teacher calling role, all of the student names he called out were punny and also rather inappropriate (e.g. Herpes, Ima Dick, Up Yorsh, My Prick, Your Prick, and On Top)
"If you fall asleep again, Ontop, I shall be very annoyed!"
- David Letterman. (Example: Kim Jong-Il's cousin Menta Lee-Il.)
- Every Private Eye Monologue done by The Capitol Steps starts out something like: "I'm a private detective. My father named me Hugh. My mother named me Jim. My last name is Bissell. So people call me... Huuuugh Jim Bissell".
- The Cheech & Chong sketch/song, "Basketball Jones" features a character named Tyrone Shoelaces.
- "Radio Quiz Game" on Monty Python's Previous Record features a panelist named Lord Elpus.
Comic Strips
- In Calvin and Hobbes, the author of Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie is named Mabel Syrup. Also, Calvin's Film Noir alter ego is named Tracer Bullet.
- Dick Tracy: The title character's name. ("Dick" is slang for "detective".) One storyline included the characters Chris Chendo, Virgil Ohso, and Phil Harmonic. Guess where the action is taking place.
- Kudzu: Rev. Will B. Dunn.
- Peanuts:
- Snoopy fills his stories with punny character names such as Kitten Kaboodle. His names are considerably more clever than his stories.
- In one run of pre-Christmas strips, Sally is playing a shepherd in a Nativity play. She tells Charlie Brown that "I give my line, 'Hark!' and then Harold Angel starts singing." Initially Charlie Brown thinks she's making a malaprop, until the end of the arc where he meets Harold Angel.
- Popeye: The Oyl Family: Olive, her brother Castor, parents Cole and Nana...
- Rick O'Shay centered around the title character, a deputy sheriff in the Old West. Most of the supporting cast also had punny names, including love interest Gaye Abandon and Tagalong Kid Quyat Burp.
- Happens sometimes in Striker. Warbury Warriors was once owned by Mustapha Futti Kalub. Get it? Must have a footy club!
Fan Works
- In the Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society, Jared's Sealed Army in a Can, the Little Plastic Green Beret, all have names that make puns when used with their rank, such as General Idea, Major Detail, and Captain Crunch.
- Bad Traffic SMP Ideas: In the hypothetical season Jesus Life, a non-Life series creator, fWhip, is whitelisted as an admin who "can smite players for half their health whenever he wants". The reason he's chosen is to play on his username and how Jesus used a whip of cords to drive marketers and money-changers out of the Temple.
- Examples from the Calvinverse:
- The Brainstorm family. The Calvin & Hobbes: The Series episode "Lightning Man" adds Percy Lightningstorm.
- The C'mon Inn from Calvin and Hobbes II: Lost at Sea. Calvin doesn't get it.
- The Changeling of the Guard: The title of the story, Idol Hooves, the main character, and Wasta Matter as well.
- From the Death Note fic A Cure for Love:
L: Just go to sleep. You... ha, you go out like a light.
Light: I've heard them all before, L, and they weren't funny the first time. - The Kingdom Hearts fic Destiny Vault has Sora, while visiting Agrabah, lampshade the pun in Abis Mal's name. Aladdin doesn't get it, because he's not technically speaking the same language as Sora, though Kairi giggles when Sora points it out.
- In Device of Life, the name of the digital city where Miku lives is Silicon's Gate, a pun of Silicon Valley and Bill Gates. Also, the social media that Iroha and Miki use is the "NicoTube", a portmanteau of Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.
- Diaries of a Madman likes this trope. Elementals and changelings all use punny names, and there's also Kat, a cat.
- In Doors to the Unknown one of the two POV groups is Taylor Hebert and Co, abbreviated to THACo. This is a play on "to hit armor class 0" (THAC0), a common rule from 2e Dungeons & Dragons.
- The author of Eleutherophobia decided to name Tom's controller-girlfriend "Bonnie" because it's an old slang word for a pretty girl, which is all we know about her in canon.
- In Equestria: A History Revealed, most of the names fall into this trope. The in-universe conspiracy theorist narrator Loose Change, the real-life author, Hoofry Poneigher, and most of the authors listed in the bibliography all have unashamedly punny names. At a point, the bibliography has a field day with crystal pun names before promising to stop.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfics Hakkōna and Kaitō Kokoro: Kiku is basically a Henge version of a nekomata known within both stories as a "nekomataneko", with the "nekomata" referencing the nekomata characteristics, and the "neko" referencing the base human form with cat features.
- Half Past Adventure has plenty, in the vein of Adventure Time, including the main character's brother, the Marquess Pen of Nuts.
- From The Hamsterball Show:
- Nowya Simi, AKA Nowya Dont. She has the ability to turn invisible.
- Pokey Dot.
- Alicia Lily Aska. Guess where she's from.note
- Ella Vator. She's an elevator from the Up Race.
- Haylie the Comet. Yes, that's how her name's spelled. She's actually not from any canon race, but rather, from a race created by the author: the Space Race.
- Minnie the Mini 8-Ball.
- Hitman Miami, near the beginning, mentions the name "Vladimir Cutzurnutzov". The humor in this story isn't very subtle.
- A bunch in Later, Traitor. There's Bonfear (a fiery amalgamation representing anxieties), Freezie (an icy clone of Frazie), and the Drag-on, a dragon that represents Vern-on's tendency to 'drag on'. Also, the latter is a book wyrm.
- Léon and Lucette Trémaux, Lycée de Mirabeau's resident bully and his Spoiled Brat sister in The Legend of Royal Blue and La Sylphide. The first half of their name sounds like très, meaning "very," and last half, maux, is the plural of mal, meaning "bad/evil." Hence Gabriel calling the siblings "Très Mal" or "Very Bad" behind their backs.
- Kirby: Dream-Pop City introduces a brand new character, a media director, named Dinah Rector.
- Lupine Tree Has Lumber Jack, who picked his own name. Coincidentally, he is also the titular tree.
- In the Punch-Out!! fanfic Ma Fille, Soda Popinski has a wife named Ivana Kycurassis ("I want to kick your asses").
- Mega Man Recut has Governor Parson and Mitchell Deacon.
- In Monsters In Paradise, residents of the Pokémon the Series universe are analogues of those that live in Gensokyo in some way, shape or form. In one such case, Reisen's counterpart turns out to be named Shayla Moon.
- Little Miss Matched, a Mr. Men fan character.
- My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic: Dr. Penny Sillion. Her name is a pun on penicillin.
- Pokéumans: Larry Bellowich the Loudred MC, who has NO INDOOR VOICE.
- Pretty Cure: Magic of the Rainbow: In "Fun at School", Mana Aida's supernatural luck is referred to as "Mana Sue", being a play on "Mana" and "Mary Sue". Doubles as a Fandom Nod, as "Mana Sue" is a common nickname used by detractors who dislike Mana for being overly perfect.
- Putin-P: Urusei Teppenov, the Russian agent of Japanese descent, has this. "Urusei" is from urusee, a Japanese slang meaning "shut up". Teppenov is derived from Teppu-P, the real-life Vocaloid producer he's based on.
- The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H. has several characters with pun-based names.
- Simon Skinner-Chalmers is always bossing people around and telling them what they can and can't do at school. "Simon Says", anyone?
- Robbie Turley likes to steal things; in other words, he robs people.
- Axl Mann's name is not only a reference to Axl Rose, it's a pun on "axle", which is a part of a car or bus. Overlaps with Family Theme Naming; his father Otto's name is a pun on "automobile".
- Skylanders: Return to the Ruins:
- "Grease fire" (Fire Element Skylander) + "ire" (anger issues) = Grease Ire.
- "Amino acid" (acid powers) + "amigo" (friend) = Amigo Acid.
- Deconstructed in Spirits of the Blitz, where puns in a spy codename are a potential security leak. Spy handler Reggie Diceman is at odds with her superiors for insubordination, specifically pointing out that giving a spy named Kurt Goose the codename of 'Gander' is a bad idea.
- Tales of the Undiscovered Swords has a Gargle Blaster concoction called Ichigo Hitokuchi (roughly "One Life, One Sip"). The name of this drink is based on -kuchi being the counter for both bites (of food)/sips (of drink) and swords, and the sword Ichigo Hitofuri.
- Talk the Talk has Gordion Nott.
- A Therapy Animal: Caine made a giant seagull NPC and named it "David Featherman".
- Turnabout Communication, aside from being a crossover between Ace Attorney and Komi Can't Communicate (both of which are rife with this trope), throws a bit of Lampshade Hanging in Chapter 12, when the Wright Anything Agency lawyers are investigating about an incident that happened in Itan High seven years ago, and learn that the defendant was called Carl Pritt. Najimi laughs at this and asks if that was his actual name, which Apollo confirms. Najimi then jokingly asks if the victim's name was something Vick Timm or Deid Mann (which coincidentally was the name of the victim in the second KG-8 incident).
- With Pearl and Ruby Glowing: Several characters pick punny nicknames for themselves.
- "Herne the Hunted" is a Shout-Out to a god in Discworld, based loosely on the folkloric Herne the Hunter.
- "Dantes Infernal" is a revenge-obsessed torture survivor.
- "The Line of Fire" is a multi-generation family whose traumatic stories are all related to war and who all pick fire-themed individual nicknames for themselves.
- Out of universe, the group the narration calls "the Friends of Dorothy" are literally the friends of Dorothy Gale, in a story about queer history.
- Hermione Granger is a trans girl and uses the screen name Womandragora.
Manhua
- 13-Dot Cartoons: The name of 13-Dot's father means "made of money", her mother's "hot for her age". The names of most regular characters are likewise puns.
- Kitchen Goddess And The Assassin: Many of the assassins. Notably, Sol Crest and Dom Ping, also known as Salt Crust and Dumpling.
Manhwa
- Miss Not So Sidekick: The story holds a whole bunch of these: a stalker named Zeelove Cray, the family medic Doctor Tordoc, and a protagonist named after a café latte.
Pinball
- Medieval Madness: Used everywhere, especially with the kings and knights — the King of Payne, Lord Howard Hurtz, Sir Lanceless...
- Revenge from Mars: Two of the modes are named "Tower Struggle" and "Mars Kneads Women".
- The Simpsons Pinball Party: The "Itchy & Scratchy" episodes are "Spay Anything", "Kitty Kitty Bang Bang", "Field of Screams", and "Esophagus Now".
- Batman Forever (Sega) calls The Riddler's saucer "Mr. E" (mystery), while one of the game modes is named "Face Two-Face" (face-to-face).
- White Water: Wet Willie (as in, the schoolyard prank).
- The Champion Pub: One of your opponents is the Australian Dan Unda (down under).
- The Party Zone: Used all over the place, starting with your host, Captain B. Zarr.
Podcasts
- Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe?: The fake ID that April gets for Gwen as she leaves for London is named "Wanda Vanbach". April still blames Gwen for borrowing her van way back in The Wolfman and not giving it back.
Gwen: Bitch, I don't have your van!
- In The Chimera Program arc of Cool Kids Table, Golden's ability is silence.
- The Counsel of Trent is a pun of the Council of Trent, the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church which was convened to definitively determine the doctrines of the Church in answer to the Protestants during the Reformation.
- Hello from the Hallowoods: Like all the revenants made by Irene Mend, Diggory Graves was named after his function - he was created to dig graves.
Print Media
- Private Eye has writers called Phil Space, Polly Filler, and Lunchtime O'Booze. This dates back at least to shortly after Bloody Sunday, when they printed a number of obviously-made-up letters about the atrocity, nearly identically worded and all including the phrase "But we all know who is to blame —". One blamed "IRA gunmen"; the "author" was a Mrs. Ira Gunman. For a while in The New '10s, genuine letters signed with punny names became a regular slot on the letters page called "Pseuodonyms", until it got out of hand and the editors put a stop to it. There are still occasional letters printed with punny signatures, usually discussing whether or not they should bring back "Pseudonyms".
- In his youth, astronomer Patrick Moore and his friends delighted in winding-up the editors of crackpot magazines by submitting spoof articles under pseudonyms such as "N. Ormuss" and "Professor Meisenratz".
- MAD naturally has some. For example:
- In a western segment that parodied contemporary (Fifties and Sixties) sci-fi movie exposition tropes...
Professional Wrestling
- It is fairly common for wrestlers to use punny ring names. It should be noted that the punny names listed below tended to be from the early and mid-1990s, which is regarded as an Audience-Alienating Era by many wrestling fans. Notable examples include:
- Justin Credible
- Dr. Isaac Yankem (a wrestling dentist from Decatur, Illinois)
- Irwin R. Schyster (IRS, a wrestling tax inspector)
- Hugh Morrus (who later changed his name to Hugh G. Rection, claiming that WCW management had given him the name 'Morrus' to make him look stupid. No, really.) (he did eventually get to use his real non-punny name in the WWE Bill DeMott)
- The Undertaker's manager, Paul Bearer.
- Adam Bomb
- The guy that would eventually become Triple H actually made his national TV debut in WCW under the name Terra Ryzin.
- Punny names in the post-Attitude Era are toned tone a bit.
- Even wrestling moves can have punny names. One such example is the Fisherman's Suplex, so named because it involves 'hooking' your opponent's leg. Wrestler's finishing moves sometimes have puns based on their ring name, such as "Air Bourne" or "Paige Turner".
- Progress Wrestling has a wrestling priest called Pastor William Eaver. His name can be shortened to Bill Eaver.
- The Dupps, a Wrestling Family of hillbillies represented over the years by Jack Dupp, Bo Dupp, Stan Dupp, Puck Dupp, and Fluff Dupp. Their names were all puns on the word up - jacked up, bowed up, and so on.
- Paige Turner, a wrestling librarian.
- Kimona Wanalaya, a stripper-turned-valet in Raven's Nest in ECW in 1996. WCW renamed her Leia Meow.
- Former wrestler Alex Wright's wrestling school is called The Wright Stuff.
- Not a punny name, but rather a punny Red Baron—WWE's web bio of La Parka opens with "One of the more popular Mexican competitors to make his way to WCW, La Parka didn’t earn the nickname 'The Chairman of WCW' for his business acumen." During his WCW run, he habitually entered the ring carrying a steel chair, often playing air guitar on it, and wasn't above using it on his opponents.
- Chikara had The Swarm - a trio of evil counterparts to popular ant-themed luchadors The Colony. Their names were puns on the word Ant - combatANT, assailANT, and deviANT.
Radio
- The Bob & Tom Show: The "Paging Richard Smoker" segment is an "adult" example of punny names with the prank call motif.
- There was also Warren Piece, but as a pretty horrible sterotype he was gradually retired..
- Staple of radio show Car Talk, which has a fictional production staff consisting almost entirely of bad puns such as their Russian meter feeder Nikolai Putin (Nickle I Put in), seat tester Mike Easter (my keister) or resident single mother Erasmus B. Dragon (Her ass must be draggin'). The Chief Legal Counsel for the show is Hugh Louis Dewey (aka Hughie Louie Dewey) of the notorious firm of Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the creators and hosts of Car Talk, so love this punny name that they named their production company "Dewey, Cheetham and Howe" (the window of the DC and H corporate offices, at the corner of Brattle and JFK Streets, are a source of constant amusement to residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts).
- The most complete list of the Car Talk staff can be found at the show's Web site.
- The most complete list of the Car Talk staff can be found at the show's Web site
- James Bond is referenced in Hideo Kojima's insane IdeaSpy 2.5 radio drama, where the spy's old flame has the name Call Now.
- Back when W00t Radio still did live shows, even the autoplay list had its own DJ. His name? Otto Plair.
- A Prairie Home Companion: When Garrison Keillor is the only writer, Sarah Bellum will be the only credited writer, referring to Gary's brain. Norman Conquest, Paige Turner, Natalie Dressed, Emanuel Transmission, Warren Piece, Guy Wire, Amanda Reckinwith, Hugh Jass, Pete Moss, and Sandy Beech have also been credited occasionally.
- In Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues, the editor of the Lake Wobegon Herald-Star is Harold Starr.
- The Goon Show: plenty, most notably General Kashmychek and Justin Eidelburger ("Just an Idle Bugger"). Hugh Jampton is a more complex version; think of it in terms of Hugh Jass. For non-Brits: It's an example of rhyming slang where the rhyming syllable was later removed. Here Hampton Wick — meaning prick — is being shortened to Hampton then disguised as Jampton, then amplied by Hugh(ge)!
- BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles will sometimes ask his listeners to text other radio shows using this sort of name, then send in the results. Popular names include Toby le Rone (Toblerone) and Cara Mack (Caramac, a brand of chocolate bar). More ingenious listeners come up with multiple names, such as Liz, Anya and Carl Hickbread (lasagne and garlic bread) and a man calling himself Mark who said he was in his car with his baby son Spencer, knowing that the DJ would say hello to Mark and Spencer.
- I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue:
- Will you please welcome Mr. and Mrs. L'point-Of-The-Last-Arrivals-Game and their son Theo L'point-Of-The-Last-Arrivals-Game.
- One episode had a round of "Complete Quotes" focusing on the misstatements of George W. Bush. On Jeremy Hardy's turn, he had Bush claim US forces had located the terrorists Sheikh Rattleandroll and Yassir Thatsmybaby.
- The presenters of Radio Active (and later KYTV) include Mike Flex, Mike Channel and Anna Daptor. (mic flex, mic channel and an adaptor. This is what happens when you come up with silly names for your characters while in a radio studio.)
- Defied by Mr. Sergeant of the Cabin Pressure episode "Ipswich" who chose to become an RAF Warrant Officer so that his rank and surname would not humorously match.
- John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme:
- In the Edinburgh Festival episode, the Storyteller's story is about his encounter with two sinister figures named Pratt and Rabbit. Part of the evidence that leads him to realise they're Grave Robbers is "I'd just worked out the joke in their names" (on notorious Edinburgh grave robbers Burke and Hare).
- In another episode, asked for a tale of "Christmas cheer", the Storyteller says he has a story about his friend, Christopher Muscheer, which happens to be set at Christmas, but is "relentlessly bleak". His wife's name is also very funny when followed by "Muscheer", but the Storyteller can't recall what it was. And their son's isn't, because they didn't want him to be bullied at school.
- The Stan Freberg Show:
- Jet Crash, Bang Gunleigh, among others.
- Edna St. Louis Missouri from Face the Funnies, referencing Edna St. Vincent Millay. Also using the "city name" theme, a character in another episode is named Evanston Illinois.
- "Incident at Los Voraces" has two rival night clubs, the El Sodom and the Rancho Gomorrah. Just as with their namesakes in Book of Genesis, both end up getting destroyed as a result of their sins.
- The Navy Lark:
- In "Captain Povey's Wig", Commander Murray introduces the crew to a game called "Mixed-Up Marriages" where you take a famous girl's Christian name and put it with a famous chap's surname and get a funny answer. Here are some of the highlights:
- Tuesday Weld marries David Knight and becomes Tuesday Knight ("Tuesday night").
- Annie Ross marries John Laurie and becomes Annie Laurie (an old Scottish song).
- Winnie Shaw marries Lot and becomes Winnie Lot ("win a lot").
- Chelsea Brown marries Lloyd Bridges and becomes Chelsea Bridges (a bridge over the River Thames).
- Catherine Parr marries Charles Lamb and becomes a Parr-Lamb (a horse).
- Dinah Sheridan marries Robert Shaw and becomes a prehistoric Dinah Shaw ("dinosaur").
- Goldie Hawn marries Tony Lock and becomes Goldie Lock (Goldilocks).
- Honor Blackman marries Richard Todd and becomes Honor Todd ("on her tod").
- Queen Victoria marries Mark Twain and becomes Victoria Twain (a nod to London Victoria Station).
- The daughter of King William of Orange marries Robert Peel and becomes Orange Peel (fruit rind).
- Susan Hayward marries Edward Heath and becomes a Hayward-Heath (a town in West Sussex).
- Cigarette marries Sydney Box and becomes Cigarette Box (where cigarettes are stored).
- Barbara Windsor marries Roy Castle and becomes a Windsor-Castle (a castle in Berkshire). Alternatively, she becomes Barbara Castle (a British Labour Party politician).
- Fanny Craddock marries Graham Hill and becomes Fanny Hill (Fanny Hill).
- Glynis Johns marries Bill Pertwee and becomes a Johns-Pertwee (Jon Pertwee).
- Robert Stephens marries Barbara Murray and she becomes a Stephens-Murray (Stephen Murray).
- Leslie Caron marries Sid Phillips and becomes Leslie Phillips (Leslie Phillips).
- "Mixed-Up Marriages" is played again in "The Talpinium Shell" with a whole slew of new couples:
- Queen Victoria marries Danny Street and becomes Victoria Street (a street in London).
- Cyd Charisse marries Henry James and becomes Cyd James (Sid James).
- Una Stubbs marries Doctor Who in secret and becomes "Shh!" Una Who ("you know who").
- Sonny Liston marries Doris Day and becomes Sonny Day ("sunny day") — Commander Murray tells off the Padre for cheating by giving the names the wrong way round.
- Ella Fitzgerald marries U Thant and becomes Ella Thant ("elephant").
- Belle Starr marries Ted Tinling and becomes "a Belle that had gone ting-a-ling" (the onomatopoeia for a bell's ringing).
- In "Captain Povey's Wig", Commander Murray introduces the crew to a game called "Mixed-Up Marriages" where you take a famous girl's Christian name and put it with a famous chap's surname and get a funny answer. Here are some of the highlights:
Theatre
- Adler & Gibb: After Louise, high on cocaine, bludgeons Gibb's dog to death and claims it was self defence, she and Sam realise that this was the famous "art-dog" that Adler & Gibb had offered to a museum ("You killed the art!"). This leads to a few puns about the dead dog's name, including Vincent van Dog, Pug-casso and Husky Warhol.
- Cactus Flower features a nightclub named "The Slipped Disc".
- Per the Crazy Horse cabaret's tradition, its nude female dancers have suggestive Stage Names such as "Lova Moor", "Polly Underground" or "Trauma Tease".
- Geometry Humanized plays with the geometrical convention of naming polygons with the letters of their verticies by giving the living shapes names that happen to be acronyms or words; there's Triangles PDQ and IOU, Parallelogram BRAG, and Polygon ADUNCE.
- & Juliet: In an Ascended Meme, Francois declares his love for May through an impassioned performance of "It's Gonna Be Me (May)".
- On the Town has a few of these used for one-off jokes:
- Claire's full name is Claire De Loone.
- John Offenblock is known to all by his nickname, Chip.
- Mr. Uperman, Hildy's boss, is identified by the back of his jacket as "S. Uperman."
- In Penelope, or How The Odyssey Was Really Written, three of the four suitors' names are puns on vocal ranges, with Bassanio being a bass, Haius having a high range, and Barius being a baritone.
- Shakespeare would sneak these in occasionally. Like Bottom the Weaver of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He turns into a donkey. Think about a word that can mean both "bottom" and "donkey", and you'll have it. Gotta love a Punny Name the audience has to construct for themselves! It helps that contemporary English pronunciation was closer to current day American pronunciation.
- Shucked: Maizy, from "maize", the native word for corn. Lampshaded; Grandpa talks about what she was named for, gesturing toward some corn stalks, before saying she was named for her grandmother.
- In Torch Song Trilogy, Arnold's monologue at the beginning of "The International Stud" has him running off the punny Stage Names he's used for his Drag Queen act: Virginia Hamm, Kitty Litter, Bang Bang LaDesh and Bertha Venation.
- Urinetown has the toilet-monopolizing Urine Good Company.
- In the musical Way Out West in a Dress, everyone's name is this. For example, the hairstylist is Rogaine, the criminal is Rob Banks, the one with an ear infection is Eileen, and the judge was Levy Fines.
Theme Parks
- The gangster hijacker on The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios is named Mugsy.
- Walt Disney World: Epcot's The Land pavilion had Kitchen Kabaret (and its brief replacement "Food Rocks"), with a number of Anthropomorphic Foods singing about good nutrition, all with some punny name. "Kitchen Kabaret", for example, included the hostess Bonnie Appetit and dairy-group MC Derry Goods. "Food Rocks", meanwhile, had food-themed parodies of popular musicians like Füd Wrapper (who was even voiced by Tone Loc), the Peach Boys, and Pita Gabriel.
- Lost Island Theme Park has the Udaran musician Bardo.
Toys
- Many Beanie Babies from Ty. Some have a Meaningful Name, too.
- BIONICLE had the Mukau, a bovine combiner model whose name is pronounced the same as "moo-cow". However, the story team thought the pun was silly, and the creature has since been renamed to Mata Nui Cow.
- Often done by Larry Hama in the civilian names of G.I. Joe action figures. Examples include an Arctic trooper named Farley Seward and a Hovercraft pilot named Skip A. Stone.
- The iCy from the iDog franchise. It's a penguin, which is associated with ice. The word "icy" in this case is combined with the CamelCase that comes with the iProduct trope.
- Mixels gives every Mixel a pun based on their abilities, design, or element, such as Flain (a genius with fire-based abilities) coming from "flame" and "brain" or Seismo, an earthquake-causer, coming from "seismograph". Even the name of their enemies, the Nixels, manages to become a pun, thanks to their goal of eradicating all creativity, or nixing it.
- Monster High, as a World of Pun, extends this to all the characters' names, such as Frankie Stein, Draculaura, Cleo De Nile, and Abbey Bominable.
- There are these plush toys called "Mushabellies" which are fat, cuddly plush animals that chatter when you squeeze (mush) their stomachs (the bigger ones, however, make a funny fart-like sound known as grumbling when you squeeze them).
- In Pinkie Cooper and the Jet Set Pets, Pepper's pet dog is named Saltine.
- Transformers:
- Megatron is named after a megaton bomb, combined with Name-Tron. It's subtle due to the "Mega" part easily being mistaken for a simple adjective.
- Some of the more egregious examples are Sea Clamp, Spinister, Jhiaxusnote , and Tentakil, wind up with pun names. At its worst, it's truly Horri-Bull, and that makes us Fangry.
- In Beast Wars, most characters were given names that suited their animal modes. The gorilla is Optimus Primal, the cheetah is Cheetor, Blackarachnia is a (mostly) black arachnid, the pterosaur is Terrorsaur, etc.
Visual Novels
- The Ace Attorney series is practically a goldmine of punny names: Dick Gumshoe, Penny Nichols, Will Powers, Jack Hammer, Sal Manella, Ben & Trilo Quist, Winston Payne, Laurence "Moe" Curls, Ted Tonate, etc. In the Japanese version, they also have pun-based names of sorts: Wright's Japanese name is "Ryuichi Naruhodo" ("naruhodo" meaning "I see"); Winston Payne is called "Takefumi Auchi" (possibly a pun on "Ouch!"); von Karma's last name in Japanese (Karuma) means "hunting evil" - possibly giving a reference to He Who Fights Monsters, and Karuma Mei (Franziska von Karma) literally translates to "Hunting Evil Hades", a reference to how far she will go to fulfill her idea of justice and her eventually trying to sincerely fight for justice by 'hunting' the evil her father set before her. In an attempt to avoid the Japanese puns going unnoticed in the English version (i.e an English player may see a name as being just as normal as the others while a Japanese player gets the pun), they changed all the names to evoke a similar pun in English.
- This is even lampshaded in the first case, when if you call Cindy Stone (the victim) Cinder Block, the judge points out how bad a pun it was. Phoenix Wright seems to be aware of this when he tells a joke:
Phoenix: Why am I a good defense attorney? Because I'm "wright" all the time.
- They also make fun of this a lot in Apollo Justice. Russian waitress Olga Orly presumably pronounces her last name "or-lee" at first, but after it's revealed that she's not really Russian, she says it's actually pronounced "oh really" (like the meme). Sleazy doctor with mob ties Pal Meraktis has the "malpractice" pun in his name pointed out by Trucy.
- The tradition continues in Dual Destinies, where the series's punny name convention is used as evidence. Athena points out that "Hugh O'Conner" sounds like "You're a Goner", which puts the nature of an audio recording of the crime in jeopardy. However, he is NOT the killer.
- Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney actually plays this into the plot: Why does everyone have ridiculously obvious pun names? Yes, this is (part) Ace Attorney, but even by those standards, these are overkill (a wannabe knight called Knightle, a courier called Lettie Mailer, ect). But then at the end of the game it turns out that everyone is a test subject who had their memories wiped and fake names and backstories given to them. The puns in their names are all bad and obvious because they were made up in-universe.
- Spirit of Justice uses the foreign country setting to completely abandon all sensibility in its pun names. Among others, we have a tour guide named Ahlbi Ur'gaid, a hippie monk named Pees'lubin Andistan'dhin, a monk named Tahrust Inmee and his wife Beh'leeb Inmee, another monk named Puh'ray Zeh'lot which is actually a pseudonym — his real name is Rheel Neh'mu, a member of La Résistance named Datz Are'bal, and the Overly Long Name Inga Karkhuul Haw'kohd Dis'nahm Bi'Ahni Lawga Ormo Pohmpus Da'nit Ar'edi Iz Khura'in III. Even in the US portions there's a masked magician named Manov Mistree with the stage name Mr. Reus, and a politician named Paul Atishon (technically Paul Atishon-Wimperson, but he prefers to drop that last part for obvious reasons).
- The Great Ace Attorney duology jumped through some hoops to retain the series' punny nature. Being the first localized game not to change Japan to LA, since relationships between Britain and Japan are integral to the plot and Japanese places/characters are very unmistakably so, several characters got to retain their original names, including protagonist Ryunosuke Naruhodo. However, some changes were still done to make the puns more obvious, like the first witness went from Taizou Uzukumaru (meaning "to crouch") became Iyesa Nosa ("yes sir, no sir", referencing his soldier occupation). Even names intended to be in English were changed to make the pun clearer, such as the second game's William Petenshy (his last name meaning "crook") becoming William Shamspeare (retaining the Shakespeare reference while still indicating his untrustworthiness). This leads to a rather bizarre event when Ryunosuke gets chided for falling for the "obviously" fake name of "Eggert Benedict", even though it's... really not that farfetched compared to everyone else.
- This is even lampshaded in the first case, when if you call Cindy Stone (the victim) Cinder Block, the judge points out how bad a pun it was. Phoenix Wright seems to be aware of this when he tells a joke:
- Ace in Space: "T-3R4" is based on "Terra", which is a name commonly given to Earth in science fiction stories.
- Artificial Nexus: The character Rod has the full name of Roderick Herzing...or in other news, Red Herring.
- A number of characters from the Danganronpa have punny names. There is Monokuma, whose name is a combination of "monochrome" ("monokuroomu") and "bear" ("kuma") in Japanese.
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has Daiya and Mondo Owada, two brothers who are both members of a bōsōzoku gang called the Crazy Diamonds. Their first names, when put together, form 'Daiyamondo', which is the Japanese pronunciation of the English word 'diamond'.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair has Monomi/Usami. Not only does Usami start with part of the Japanese word for rabbit (Usagi), but her new name sounds a lot like the French phrase "Mon amie", or "my friend", much like how Monokuma's name is also a foreign language pun and contains the animal that he is based on. There is also Kazuichi Soda, who has a hefty cola addiction; and Mikan Tsumiki, who has a meek personality (though the last one is an accidental example as Kodaka did not speak English at the time of Goodbye Despair's writing).
- In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, there is K1-B0, whose name for "Kibō" (the Japanese word for "Hope"). To English speakers, it can also sound similar to "keyboard", and it is also the nickname of a Japanese science module for the International Space Station (ISS). There is also Rantaro Amami. In his case, an alternative reading of his name's kanji is "tenkai", which when written with a different set of kanji (展開), can be translated as "plot twist", referring to his "talent" as the Ultimate ???. Another accidental example would be Miu Iruma, whose last name sounds a lot like irrumatio, a sex act.
- Fate/stay night has Fujimura Taiga (who has a strong connection with tigers). Lampshaded in-universe, as even most of her students call her Tiger (despite her hating the nickname).
- The title of Pulltop-Latte's Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort plays on the phrase "last resort" for a reason. At first glance, the best one can see is that the story takes place in a beautiful resort and the protagonist gets to have sex with a bunch of beautiful young women. As for how "last" that resort is, the reason becomes clear once you finish playing all the routes; each woman is in a complicated position in life (afraid to leave the resort due to unresolved guilt, trying to help a friend suffering from depression, earning money to support her bankrupt family, etc.), and their work at the resort is literally a "last resort" for them to get their life together and move on from what's halting them. The phrase is even used in one of the routes.
- Paper Perjury has quite a few pun-based names, due to drawing many cues from Ace Attorney. For example, a magician who likes using a card select trick is called Annie Carde("any card"), with the stage name Maggie Shawn("magician").
- Tavern Talk:
- One of your customers is a giant Earth Echo named Clay More, like the Scottish two-handed sword.
- In the Guestbook, Turkoisefire compliments the choir and singing acts directed by A. Nony Mouse.
Web Animation
- FreedomToons: "What White Knights Actually Believe" features an internet white knight named "Chris Cucker".
- The three knights among the Knights of All Realms. Sir Lee the Irritable, Lady Bugg the Diminutive, and Sir Loin the One who is the Fat One.
- Ultra Fast Pony: In the episode "The Pet Games", one of the color commentators is named Dick Hardman. Mainly he has that name as an excuse to cram as many dick jokes into the dialogue as possible. "Yes, farting in your opponents' faces is a classic Dick move."
- Gameoverse: "Kit Bodega" is a pun on bodega cats, working cats that serve as pest control for local stores.
- Grim Reaper Flag-chan!: Mobuo's and Mobumi's names are a reference to the Japanese slang word mobu, which is used to refer to background characters or NPCs.
- As Ninomae Ina'nis of hololive EN is a Pungeon Master of the highest degreenote , it should come as little surprise that when the girls played a tabletop RPG campaign together, she named her character "Yuul B. Alwright". Game Master Calliope Mori then decided to run with the joke by populating Ina'nis' tutorial session with characters with equally punny names, such as Yuul's friend Nitta Friend, the teacher/Mad Scientist Ail S. Stonishyu, and the cronically late Justin Time. Lampshaded when an NPC asked for Yuul's name.
Yuul: Ummm... Yuul B. Alwright
Victor: Yeah, I'll be fine, but what's your name? - Manga Soprano: Some antagonists have names based on puns about their defining traits.
- "My Sister Robbed My Fiancee! However, the person who looted it was…" [sic]: Burimi's name means "acts like [a] beauty," which coincides with her trying to prove she's prettier than Kanade, she is actually a cartoonishly Gonky Femme.
- "Mom Friend Makes Me Pay For Her Restaurant Bill → But When I Said I Canceled My Reservation…": Kechimi's name comes from kechi, which means stingy or cheapskate, which fits her personality as a penny-pinching mother and housewife who leeches off a richer one like Haru to get free stuff.
- "My Sister Robbed My Fiancee! However, the person who looted it was…"
- Mona Lisa's Silly Talk, in a manner similar to Grim Reaper Flag Chan, has three characters named Mobumi, Moburo, and Mobuko, often called the "Mobu Trio," a reference to the Japanese slang word mobu, which is used to refer to background characters or NPCs. And indeed, the three characters rarely play a major role in any episodes.
- Robotbox and Cactus: Cactus's boss from "Outside the Box" is named B. Sting.
- RWBY: The Cenitaur is an evolved form of the Centinel, a giant centipede Grimm. Its name is a play on the "centaur"; while the bottom half remains a centipede, the top half evolves to take on some humanoid elements, such as having a pair of arms that end in spikes that match the centipede legs instead of having human hands.
- The Fruitless Quests of Nabiu: Karoto sounds "carrot" and he looks like one.
- Dayum: In “Types of Patients Portrayed by Minecraft”, Luis tells a joke that goes, “My wife gave birth in our car on the way to the hospital. I named him Carson!”
- Tittie Tussle: "Minnie" is the petite one, while "Chessica" (Chest + Jessica) is the large one.
Web Videos
- 1980sGamer: Seymour Butz is an example of this as his name sounds like "See more butts." He is a reference to The Simpsons.
- Channel 10 - Manila: The titular channel's call sign, KTKT, is a play on the Tagalog/Filipino word katakot, which not only means "scared" but is also short for katakot-takot, which means "scary". Given the nature of the titular TV station as a cursed place, it's not surprising it would have such horrific programming.
- In the Daniel Trasher video "When you have hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia", Ann T. Disestablishmentarianism is a pun on the word "antidisestablishmentarianism", because the video focuses on long words. The "T" stands for thermoluminescence.
- DougDoug A.I. Invasion:
- Sun Tzu is the name of Chat's artificial sun in the Space Campaign.
- To an extent, all of Chat's names, mashing the word "Chat" into other words, except for the first one. Atlantis, Saturn, and Otters: Chatistan, Chatlantis, Chaturn. and the Cult of Chotters.
- iTomFoolery: The eponymous Tom Foolery's name is a pun on the word "tomfoolery" which means a silly behavior.
- The host of the educational YouTube series Knowing Better is known for keeping his real name a secret, generally behaving as if "Knowing Better" is actually his name.note For a joke, his video on the US Postal Service briefly features him playing a US Army sergeant in World War I named "Noah L. Moore". The "L" stands for "Little".
- Dimension 20: Every single character in Mentopolis has a pun named based on a function of the brain. The player characters are Hunch Curio (hunch/curiosity), Imelda Pulse (impulse), Anastasia Tension (attention), The Fix (hyperfixation), Conrad Schintz (conscience), and Daniel Fucks (...pleasure).
- In the Tony Zaret skit "The Satisfying Downfall of Mister Annoying", Mister Annoying's editor's real name is "Eddie Tor" (editor).