History Main / AppropriatedAppellation

* Fans of the Green Bay Packers are often called "cheeseheads". You think it pays homage to Wisconsins history of diary reduction but in fact it originated as an insult from a 1987 game between the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. Instead, it came to be a statewide source of pride.

* Spain's Club Atlético de Madrid adopted the moniker of "Los Indios" ("The Indians") derisively handed to them by fans of rival squad Real Madrid due to the number of South American players in Atlético's roster at the time. Further driving the point home, the team's current mascot is Indi, a raccoon with a red and white (the team's colors) Indian-like headdress.

* Robin from ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' took his alias from a nickname his mother gave him, which he initially resented. If you're wondering, UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} origin of the name was Dick paying tribute to Myth/RobinHood. Hence the green outfit, shirt lacing, and so forth.

* The term "glorious PC master race" was originally used sarcastically to poke fun at [[UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole PC gaming elitists]] (thought up by [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation someone who hated PCs and consoles equally]]). PC gaming elitists took it and ran with it, now proudly using the term as they berate "console gaming peasants".

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Ripples}}'' reveals that Miranda's real name is Mimira. It's just that Cedric [[AccidentalMisnaming couldn't be bothered to remember her actual name]] and called her Miranda instead; being young and impressionable at the time of this initial mistake, she convinced herself that he would only be doing this if Miranda was a better name. By the time of the sequel ''Stirred'', the only person who still calls her Mimira is [[ParentalSubstitute Van]].

* In the early days of baseball's American League, manager John [=McGraw=] of the Baltimore Orioles called the Philadelphia franchise a "white elephant". Manager and part-owner Connie Mack immediately had a white elephant patch sewn on the uniforms of his team, and over a century and two city changes later, the Oakland Athletics still have an elephant mascot.

* Louis Vauxcelles, a turn-of-the-20th-century French art critic, had one of the worst track records for insults in history. TheEdwardianEra featured the birth of a new art movement in painting, spearheaded by Henri Matisse and Georges Braque, and characterized by "wild brush work and strident colors". In 1905, upon seeing an exhibit of the works of Matisse's circle next to a statue of Donatello, Vauxcelles declared that it was "Donatello chez les fauves" ("Donatello amidst the wild beasts"). He accidentally baptized the nameless movement as "Fauvism", when the press started using it as a formal name. Several of the artists he was insulting started using the name in reference to themselves and went on to become household names. Three years later, Vauxcelles described the experimental works of Picasso and Braque as "bizarreries cubiques". Today, we call their movement cubism.

* ''Fanfic/OniGaShiku'': Back in middle school [[spoiler:Mikumo Akatani]]'s bullies used to call him "Yamikumo" for being overly gloomy. Years later, he used that name for [[spoiler:his Yakuza family, being refered to as the Yamikumo clan as opposed to the Akatani clan.]]

* ''WebVideo/PiratesSMP'': Many of Jojo's peers on the Isles refer to her boat as an "eyesore" at first glance, noting how the bright lime green sails[[note]](due to dye colour limitations)[[/note]] of the ship clash with the bright pink cherry-wood trim and garish orange acacia-wood hull. Jojo soon adopts the title and names her boat "the S.S. Eyesore", even after she gets [[ArtifactName a nicer hull and some custom dye for her sails]] to make the green look less bright and match her outfit more.

* Far older than all of these is one of the original names for the Israelites: Hebrews. The word for "a Hebrew" in Hebrew is "Ivri", and one of the first times this word appears in the Literature/TheBible is when the Pharaoh's wine steward is telling the Pharaoh about this boy Joseph that can interpret dreams. He's concerned that Pharaoh might raise him too highly, so he calls him a "na'ar eved ivri" - a boy, a slave, and an "ivri", which means a descendant of Eber, but in this case is used in the context of "across", as in "across the border", as in "foreigner". The intended insult would become one of the common names for the Israelites.
* Not an insult, but the Persians called the Hebrew people in their empire (who were all originally from the Kingdom of Judah)[[note]]The Kingdom of Israel having been dispersed[[/note]] "Jews". Today Jew has completely displaced "Hebrew".

--->'''Sovereign:''': '''There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign.'''

* {{Parodied|Trope}} in {{Website/CollegeHumor}}'s "We Are Douchebags."