Aerith And Bob / Webcomics

Aerith and Bob naming conventions in webcomics.

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• The aliens in Alien Dice have this problem. Especially jarring is Riley's family. His sister's name is Trasik, and one of his brother's is named Mauki, yet he got the name Riley.
• Antics features the two characters Fletcher and Copernicus.
• Blindsprings is comic strip featuring the Princess Protagonist, Tamaura Bernice Rhodizia Adelaide Llyn, Princess of Aberwelle., and her Patient Childhood Love Interest, Harris. The latter calls the former "Tammy." Justified since they're born 300 years apart.
• Blood Bank has characters called Pain, Brutal, and Humpty Dumpty alongside Jack and Eric.
• In Champions of Far'aus, There are normal names like Daryl, Will, and Seamus, alongside Leilusa, Parthelax, and Skullcrosis.
• In Charby the Vampirate the supernatural characters normally end up with odd names like Menulis, Zerlocke, Mina, and K'ale due to their old age or just being from a very different culture than humans while humans generally have names like Annabelle, John, June, and George.
• Present in Dragon Sanctuary. It's generally justified with more common folk having realistic or realistic-sounding names like Dean, Ellen, and Meale. Meanwhile, the nobility have more fancy names like Merno, Utero, and Rhul. Of course this only applies to humans—all other races have much different names from humanity and all sound equally fantastic.
• The Dreamer has this used subtly, with Beatrice's mother named Sarah and her uncle named Hercules.
• Driftbreak's protagonist is named Kaycee. Her best friend is called Landyn and her first rival is named Zephyrine.
• In Dubious Company, we have Walter, Leeroy, Mary, Sue, Marty, Gary and (possibly) Sal mixing with Tiren, Elator (Elly), Izor, Kreedor, etc.
• Flork of Cows has Clark from Conneticut, a tiny crudely drawn man, and Malfina, an animesque witch.
• In Freaking Romance, we have Zylith, Zelan, Verose...and then George.
• Forming features common Biblical names like Adam and Noah alongside Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu.
• Furry Comics in general tend to be bad about this, often due to the inclusion of characters created by other people.
  • Considering this trope's prominence in Furry Comics, the comics The Class Menagerie and ISO avert this trope almost without fail, with a parade of ordinary names for not-so-ordinary characters: Allie, Boris, Brad, Cindy, Cody, Damon, Dani, Doug, Jake, Jeanne, Jeff, Kevin, Lisa, Maureen, Mikey, Robbie, Sam, Scott, Thor, Todd, Tony, Trevor, Tyrone, Wendell, Zach, etc. And their surnames are largely just as ordinary too. It's actually harder to think of an unusual name in these series, and most of the ones that come to mind are The Cameo of other creators' characters.
  • Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures features Jyrras, Pyroduck, Merlitz, Alexsi, Azlan... and Dan. The strip features both common English names (Seth, Edward, Abel) and more exotic ones (especially with Creatures, although there are exceptions).
  • Fuzzy Things, with brothers Ixiah and... Fox. Try to guess their species. This is acknowledged in one strip, however.
  • Jack mixes realistic names (like "Jack") with exotic ones (the pretty if unpronounceable "Arloest"), and a handful of absolutely ridiculous ones ("Central" and "Silverblue"). Most of them are Meaningful Names including Jack himself, since he is a jackrabbit. (And apparently, parents don't name their children Jack anymore...)
  • Last Res0rt has plenty (names of characters range from Jason and Daisy to Jigsaw, Adharia, and Golden), but it's justified since we're talking about several different species (and cultures). Within species, things are pretty consistent.
• Galaxion has Fusella, Aria, Vessa, Scavina, Zandarin and Darvin as main cast. Along with Anna, Patty and Alex.
• Garanos appears to have this, with a mix of invented or symbolic names for some characters (Garanos, Styx) and ordinary names for other minor characters.
• Girl Genius has the main character of Agatha Clay (a pseudonym, granted), and, say, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach or Tarvek Sturmvoraus or Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!)
  • There's also the crypt of Castle Heterodyne, containing the remains of Caligula, Mordred, Oxalof, Vicuna, Slantax, Niffedfi (?), Iscariot and Bob.
  • Not seen in the crypt, but still on the Heterodyne family tree are Egregious, Igneous, Satyricus, Black, Faustus, Bill and Barry.
  • Also the Mongfish sisters — Lucrezia, Demonica and Serpentina — daughters of Lucifer Mongfish, who is just a normal Mad Scientist.
  • And von Zinzer brothers, who despite not being related to Mad Scientists included Omar and Moloch. This little mystery eventually got unveiled.
• In El Goonish Shive, immortals usually pick elitist names for themselves from mythology. Jerry the Immortal finds the resulting hissy fits between two immortals who picked the same name quite hilarious.
• GUE has names that range from uncommon but plausible (Ouranos, Melrose, Hermes, Roman) to completely fantastical (Calbain, Zoroasterix)... and then there's Will.
• Gunnerkrigg Court has people named Surma, Antimony, Gamma and Zeta and Sir Eglamore as well as Jack, Janet, James and Andrew Smith.
• Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name: Hanna, Toni, Conrad, Abner, Lee...then we've got names like Ples(and his last name Tibenoch), Veser, the variety of names Hanna gives {...}, Adelaide, Lamont, Casimiro, Finas...the list will probably continue as Tess adds more characters. Hanna is a guy. Despite having a girl's name.
• In Hazard's Wake, names range from Alexander and James to Malbez and Exor.
• In the world of Helvetica, the first word you say after death becomes your name in the afterlife. This leads to names like Good Heavens, Steak, Fedora, and Lucille.
• Since Hero Material brings together characters like King Arthur and the Greek hero Heracles from completely different settings, this is inevitable.
• The trolls in Homestuck have unusual names such as Karkat Vantas, Terezi Pyrope, or Vriska Serket. In contrast, the humans all have common four-letter first names (e.g. John, Rose, Dave) with six- or seven-letter last names (e.g. Egbert, Lalonde, Crocker...).
  • The trolls were named by fan-suggestion, generally representing some aspect of their star sign, leaving a disconnected mixture of references. Hence, there is much mixing of languages such as Equius Zahhak (Latin and Iranian) or Vriska Serket (Egyptian and Hindi) and some more bizarre combinations (Karkat Vantas gets his first name from a Hindu astrological sign and his surname from a treatment for prostate cancer).
    • This becomes even more jarring in Alternate Universe fanfics where every character is human but the trolls still have their original names.
  • The Story Within a Story Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff has half the duo being named Bro, a friend named Geromy, and the completion of the duo... Jeff.
• The House Of Craziness has a variety of characters and a variety of names, ranging from Conner, Edward, Bre, Michy, and Mairi, to Gamer, Shady, Gokento, Paria, Draby, and Runeflame. But you can presume that some of their names are justified with where they come from, though.
• Kila Ilo - The main character, Kila, and her companion, Richard Ferris.
• Klunscomic: On one hand, you've got characters named "Missy", "Willow", and "Linnie". On the other hand, there are characters called "WW", "Tajer", and "Blopy".
• Looking for Group has the characters Cale'Anon, Ben'Joon, Krunch, Pella, Aelloon, Sooba and... Richard! This does not go unremarked upon.
• In The Mansion of E, humans have Bob-type names. The various other species can have anything.
• In Monster Lands you have names like Othera and Exris and then you have names like Marcus.
• Used for comedic effect in Lore Sjöberg's Monster Manual comics. Any time two monsters introduce themselves, the first has some fantastical monster name (Shirzah'neh, Vsselmiar, Shersssh, Scion of the Hidden Wind...). The second one is Dave.
• morphE features Amical, Adrestia and Curio alongside Billy, Tyler and Rick.
• My Impossible Soulmate: Inhabitants of The Other World have standard Japanese names like Nara, Nagisa, and Eiji; western names like Keegan, Redginald, and Theodor; and then names like Belial, Sonneillion, and Eligos. Justified, as the latter are demonic names formed as a result of corruption and weren't originally their birth names.
• According to the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic webcomic Slice of Life, pony surnames are like this.
  "Oh, Cake is just one of those common names. Right up there with Dream, Heart, Glimmer, Radiator, Wish..."
• Most of the humans in Sandra and Woo have ordinary names like Larisa, Zoey, and Landon. And then there's Cloud and Yuna (their parents are massive Final Fantasy nerds).
• Justified in The Order of the Stick, as humans usually have human-like names, while non-humans have more fantastic sounding names There are some exceptions though, such as Nale.
  • And in the Order itself is an excellent example. There are Roy, Haley, Elan who are humans, the others being Belkar, Durkon and Vaarsuvius.
  • Parodied in one Fourth-Wall Mail Slot strip which begins with two goblins walking out, and one introduces himself with "So, uh, hello, readers of The Order of the Stick. My name is Kodrog the Slayer, and this is my buddy Jim."
• In Overlord Academy the Naïve Newcomer meets the main cast: Thaelia, Hiro, Nobara, and... Kevin.
  • To add insult to weird namery, Thaelia isn't Greek, Hiro isn't Japanese, Kevin is French, and the actually Japanese Nobara is called "Nova" anyway.
• In Pacificators, there's a nice variety in the characters' names; there are Daryl Smithson and Breanne Geothe, and then there are Qamra Umar and Captain Invaov. Justified, though, because the names come from a broad selection of countries and cultures, and the characters' names are chosen from those in order to be as accurate as possible. A few characters are named after minerals, as the author is a mineralogist.
• In Pebble and Wren, the main characters generally have normal names like "Wren" and "Donald", but one little monster, named after his(?) great-grandfather, is named Pebbluhneghy, or Pebble for short.
• In Penny Arcade, Tycho gets annoyed at Gabe for not being able to pick out a better name for his Final Fantasy XI character than "Jim". This strip might be considered his revenge, or at least another application of this trope.
  • The PA guys do a series of podcasts for Wizards of the Coast with them playing Dungeons & Dragons with Scott Kurtz of PvP. The party consisted of the cleric Omin Dran (Jerry/Tycho), the dwarven fighter Binwin Bronzebottom (Scott) and the wizard Jim Darkmagic (of the New Hampshire Darkmagics) (Mike/Gabe)
    • They were later joined by Wil Wheaton, who named his character Aeofel; they called him "Al".
  • Gabe has also done a page inspired by the game Comic Jumper, in which Captain Smiley meets a team of Nineties Anti Heroes known as BloodGroup: Scythe, The Gulag, Tiger, and Jeff.
• In The Petri Dish, there's Gordon, Alice, and Betty, but also iBall, Gwog, and Wibbley. Bob and Irene straddle the line because their names are acronyms, as does the protagonist, who's named Thaddeus John Euphemism.
• Pink Black has characters named Sifris, Charm, Igni, Zero, Skorn and... Terence.
• Planescape Survival Guide has Gerand, Telvrin, Eldon, Twagnonalirathon, Milny... and then Fred and Tommy.
  • Note that Fred (a dragon) is short for Frd'gl'fn'd'pq'zter, which he claims he can't pronounce. While Tommy seems to be a parody of badly thought out characters.
• Princess Princess (2012): In the story's world, along with ordinary names like Amira and Sadie, you also have Vladric.
• Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger - "The honorable judges Zilfaxx... Cromulant Noproxis... and Bob. Looks like a Genre Savvy Shout-Out to this trope.
• Questionable Content has Sven Bianchi and Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham, but other than that, no really odd names. Sven's case is justified, as his mom is Swedish and his dad is Italian, and his mom claimed naming rights.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: "Robot Love 2" features a conversation between a robot called X-9000 and another called Sally. There's a reason for this besides it being a joke, because X-9000 is an AI created from first principles, and Sally is an AI one created by emulating conscious biological entities, and the comic is all about their differences.
• Sleepless Domain starts out by introducing us to the Magical Girl group Team Alchemical. Their real names are Tessa, Sylvia, Gwen, Sally, and Undine. That Undine has the only 'Aerith' name in Team Alchemical is a sign she's the true protagonist. When Undine gives her name to Heartful Punch, her response is to ask if that even is a name. On the other hand, HP prefers to go by her magical girl name because her real name is "Kokoro". When Undine joins Heartful Punch's Magical Girls Power Training Club, along with Undine and Kokoro the club members include Cassidy, Harley, Bud, and Vedika.
• Swords has the gods Argok, Baltad, Bograk, Greg and Kargob.
• The leads of Sluggy Freelance are Torg and Riff...and everyone else in the strip has a normal name, except for minor characters with punny ones and obvious non-humans.
• The (former) Dutch translation of Superego gave the shadows original names. They came up with Karli, Viktoria, Azura, Morgana, Ravenna, Bellona...and Camilla and Elizabeth. The latter might be named after the queen of England, since her space is mainly a castle. Word of God has it that Elizabeth's name was due to hardship with the name, when a thought struck them like 'Why not just do 'Elizabeth'?'.
• Tails of Lanschilandia gives us names like Lanschi and Kakralomino alongside perfectly valid (if sometimes obscure) real world names like Hayfa (an Arabic name, a variation of Haifa) and Phoebe. Parsley Sage Rose Marian Thyme is an interesting case, as her first name is made-up (if at least valid-sounding due to stemming from a plant) while the rest is not.
• In Toasty Angel Toast, there's Emo Wine, Toasty, Ayame, Loastay, and… Dave.
• Tower of God: There are fantasy names like Rak and Anaak, a person is named after his birth date, some characters have Korean, Chinese or Japanese names while there yet others with names like Serena and Rachel. It all seems weird, but with the Tower being a multicultural focal point, the opposite wouldn't make more sense. (Though the three brothers Yama, Doom, and Paul still sound kind of funny.) And then there is a character that's a sharp-beaked bipedal mantis-shrimp called Kukaku Rakukakuka.
• TwoKinds juxtaposed names like "Sythe" and "Trace" with "Flora" and "Alaric" (Roman Empire era name, as in General Alaric).
  • There seemed to be some consistency with Basitin generals, like "Alaric" and "Keyser" (similar to "Kaiser", German for "Caesar"), but this was rather destroyed with General Alabaster...
• True Villains: You have Xaneth Antaris and Lord Attera next to a Tom.
• unOrdinary features characters with normal names, such as John, Remi and Vaughn, as well as entirely fictional names, such as Krolik, Crail and Broven.
• Unsounded: There are a number of different naming conventions at play which make for some interesting contrasts in names, such as Knock-Me-Down Frummagem and Maharaishala Sonorie living on the same content as fistfuls of Saras, Jons and Karls.
• Vegan Artbook has Mike and Cuntons. Seriously.
• VG Cats has Aeris and Leo. Justified in that they're named after the creator's own cats, and Aeris is a perfectly reasonable thing for a gamer to name their pet. Also justified, regardless of the creator's cat names, based on the meaning of the names. Aeris can be short for the name Arielle, which can mean Lioness. Leo also means lion. So the cats are both called lions. Alternatively, both are names of characters in Final Fantasy games that meet an unavoidable Plotline Death.
• The Way of the Metagamer: We've got "Bob", "Fred", "Jane", and "Xavius". Also "Trope-tan".
• The two main characters in Welcome to Hell: Napoleon Maxwell Sowachowski and Jonathan Combs.
• White Dark Life: On the one hand you have Synder, Esther, and Artemis and on the other hand you have Matt, Ben, and Cosmo. Artemis though has an excuse in that she is a thousand years old.
• Yokoka's Quest has characters named Yokoka, Yfa, and Betelgeuse, alongside characters named Grace and Clyde. Some of the more regular names belong to humans, while others could plausibly have been human-influenced.
• Zokusho Comics: The team from the Wayward Cross consists of Akira Yukiro, Shugo-Jin Ryu, Raziel Re'del, and ... Jack.
• Zoophobia has characters called Venganza, Afkinz and Zechariah...then there's Jack, Tom and Taylor.

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