History Main / WackyAmericansHaveWackyNames

* A first name that is very much associated with the United States, and would be unusual in another English-speaking country (e.g. Hank, Dwight, Quincy or Hiram) or is somewhat grandiose.

* A middle initial (the actual middle name is rarely specified, making it a MysteriousMiddleInitial).

* A surname which has a Germanic and/or Jewish sound to it.
* If the character is a really over-the-top comedy character, the name may end with "Junior", "Senior" or a Roman numeral e.g. "Hank T. Picklehammer III".
* Women subjected to this trope will often be given a hyphenated name like "Mary-Sue" or "Mary-Beth", with the ironic result that anyone subject to this trope called Mary-Sue is probably not going to be a {{Mary Sue}}. She's far more likely to be the butt of the joke. The hyphenated name may crop up for men, too, with characters from the Southern states or rural parts of the United States particularly likely to get this kind of moniker.
* DeepSouth or rural characters may alternatively get obscure Biblical names, perhaps reflecting assumptions about the prevalence of religious belief in those areas.

[[AC:Comics]]
* The now-defunct British comics ''Whizzer and Chips'' and ''Buster'' had ''Junior Rotter'', a version of ''{{Dallas}}'' (see below) with child characters. Unsurprisingly, these followed the names of that series, including Sue Helen, J.R.'s sister. J.R. himself, of course, averted the trope in this version.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Quincey P. Morris from ''{{Dracula}}''. Although he isn't exactly comic, he is a [[AmericansAreCowboys rootin', tootin' and shootin' American man of action]].

** In ''FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', there's Impey Barbicane, president of the Baltimore Gun Club.
** In ''{{Around the World In Eighty Days}}'', there's Col. Stamp W. Proctor, whom Phileas Fogg challenges to a duel.
* The characters of ''Literature/GoodOmens'' include a televangelist called Martin O. Bagman

[[AC:Live Action {{Film}}]]
* TheMarxBrothers (specifically Groucho) loved this trope, perhaps enough to make them {{Trope Codifier}} if not {{Ur Example}}:-
** Rufus T. Firefly in ''DuckSoup''.
** Otis B. Driftwood in ''ANightAtTheOpera''.
** Dr Hugo Z. Hackenbush in ''ADayAtTheRaces''.
** Wolf J. Flywheel in ''The Big Store''.
** S. Quentin Quale in ''Go West''.
** Waldorf T. Flywheel (again!) in Groucho and Chico's radio show ''Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel''.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Comedian Lenny Henry's comic character Theophilus P. Wildebeeste, an over-the-top parody of various 1970s soul singers like Barry White.
* The early 1990s comedy show ''TheMaryWhitehouseExperience'' included a sketch showing what might happen if English football was run by Americans. The results included cheerleaders chanting, "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough," commentators who mispronounce English place names and a player called Dwight Speigelhacker. Several major English football teams now actually have U.S. owners, who it's fair to say haven't gone for any of these "innovations".

* ''TheWaltons'' had a full complement of these under their roof, too, with John-Boy, Jim-Bob, Zebulon (Grandpa), Esther (Grandma) and Mary Ellen.
* In ''TheBeverlyHillbillies'', a lot of the humour came from the rural vs. urban culture clash, so unsurprisingly the Clampett family included Daisy May (Grandma) and Elly May.
* ''{{Dallas}}'', which centred on the Ewing family, key members of which were J.R. (John Ross) Ewing and his wife Sue Ellen.
* ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' gave us a sketch with a movie mogul by the name of Irving C. Saltzberg Jnr. This was the last sketch in the episode; in the credits that followed, the cast were named as [[ThemeNaming Graham C. Chapmanberg, John C. Cleeseberg, Terry C. Jonesberg]] and so on.

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* Possibly invoked by English country singer and dentist (yes!) Hank Wangford when he adopted his stage name, especially given the closeness of "Wangford" to the derogatory term "wanker".

* In the CharlesDickens spoof ''BleakExpectations'', Philip "Pip" Bin, the (English) protagonist and inventor of the rubbish bin, has his invention stolen by an American industrialist called Hiram Trashcan (simultaneously parodying NamesakeGag and {{justif|iedTrope}}ying a well-known example of SeparatedByACommonLanguage).

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* ''OBrotherWhereArtThou'' does this. Vernon T. Waldrip and Ulysses Everett McGill come to mind.

* OBrotherWhereArtThou does this. Vernon T. Waldrip comes to mind.

* Set in Georgia, ''SmokeyAndTheBandit'' centres on the doings of Bo "Bandit" Darville, Cledus "Snowman" Snow and Sherriff Buford T. Justice.

** In ''From the Earth to the Moon'', there's Impey Barbicane, president of the Baltimore Gun Club.

Some of the grander names have a ring of the Old West about them, perhaps because AmericansAreCowboys. If in non-U.S. media, such characters may well be {{Hawaiian Shirted Tourist}}s. If so, they will comment at some point that wherever they are is "quaint", even if "wherever they are" is next to a nuclear power station.

** Or that [[FailO'Suckyname Randy Bumgardner]] is a real person.

* Really, the US doesn't help itself escape this portrayal when Brits find out that [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage Randy is a first name]]

'''Josh:''' [[BoardingSchool Phillips Exeter]], [[IvyLeague Princeton]], [[{{Oxbridge}} Rhodes Scholar]], [[IvyLeagueForEveryone Harvard Law Review]], for which he was, oh yeah, the ''editor'' -- did I ''mention'' he was dean of Harvard Law School? Did I mention that his father was Attorney General to ''Eisenhower''?\\

!!Examples

* In {{Axis Powers Hetalia}}, there is a character named Alfred F. Jones, who is the personification of America.

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Live Action Film]]

[[AC:Live Action Television]]

[[AC:Music]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* There have been several American presidents whose names qualify, especially Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but the Congressman who nominated him to West Point forgot the "Hiram" on the paperwork) and some of the subsequent Gilded Age "what did he do again?" presidents (Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland), and of course Dwight D. Eisenhower.

* Really, the US doesn't help itself escape this portrayal when Brits find out that [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeparatedByACommonLanguage Randy is a first name]]

[[AC:Anime/Manga]]
* In Axis Powers Hetalia, there is a character named Alfred F. Jones, who is the personification of America.

[[AC:Anime/Manga]]
* Alfred F. Jones in ''AxisPowersHetalia'' is, fittingly enough, the name given to the character representing America.

* Quincey P. Morris from ''{{Dracula}}''. Although he isn't exactly comic, he is a rootin', tootin' and shootin' American man of action.

* A surname which has a Germanic sound to it.

* ''TheGoodies'' had Major Charles M. Cheeseburger in one episode.

* ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Perseus "Percy" Jackson whose best freinds are Grover Underwood (somewhat justified because he's a saytr), Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, and Thalia Grace. Other charicters Piper [=McLean=], Nyssa, Clovis, Lou Ellen, and Reyna. Even when the completly human Paul Blofis meets Poseidon, Poseidon openly says that is his name, even lampshading it and Paul doesn't bat an eye.

* There have been several American presidents whose names qualify, especially Ulysses S. Grant and some of the subsequent Gilded Age "what did he do again?" presidents (Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland), and of course Dwight D. Eisenhower.

* Travis Touchdown of ''NoMoreHeroes'' is a bizarre example - in Japan, his name sounds really awesome, but in the U.S. it sounds over the top and weird.

* ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Perseus "Percy" Jackson whose best freinds are Grover Underwood, (somewhat justified because he's a saytr) Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, and Thalia Grace. Other charicters Piper [=McLean=], Nyssa, Clovis, Lou Ellen, and Reyna. Even when completly human Paul Blofis meets Poseidon, Poseidon openly says that is his name even lampsading it and Paul dosn't bat an eye.

* Percy Jackson and the Olympions: Perseus "Percy" Jackson whose best freinds are Grover Underwood, (somewhat justified because he's a saytr) Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, and Thalia Grace. Other charicters Piper McLean, Nyssa, Clovis, Lou Ellen, and Reyna. Even when completly human Paul Blofis meets Poseidon, Poseidon openly says that is his name even lampsading it and Paul dosn't bat an eye.