Sometimes, it's a lot easier to have names that more people would know (for better or worse) than the official names the creators give to a character or a particular move. Tekken is no stranger to this.
Characters
- With the rising popularity of Tekken eSports and commentary, especially in Europe, it's become fairly common practice for fans to affectionately swap out any character's name that ends with the letter "a" with "er", or otherwise pronounce their names in sophisticated English, resulting in names like "Kazuyer" for Kazuya, "Zafiner" for Zafina, "Akumer" for Akuma, and so on.
- Related to the above, it's also become common to intentionally Lyric Swap characters' names for comedic purposes. Per this, Dragunov is often affectionately called "Sir Gay" for his first name (Sergei). Asuka is also referred to as "Oscar" while Bryan is referred to as "Byron" for the same reasons.
- Fans were quick to dub Yoshimitsu's new look in Tekken 7 as "Hentaimitsu", due to him having several octopus tentacles adorning his armor.
- Heihachi apparently has a lot of these:
- Mystic Manly Heihachi Muthafuckin' Mishima Bentley, Jr., which is usually abbreviated as Mystic Man Bentley or MMB.
- Polish players refer him as Heniek/Henio, which is a diminutive form of Henry.
- Puerto Ricans, who have a very healthy and active Tekken-playing community, call him "El Viejo Cabrón", which roughly translates to "The Fucking Old Guy." The word cabrón in Puertorican Spanish can refer to both someone who's completely awesome and someone who's a complete dick... both apt descriptions for Heihachi.
- Due to Hwoarang's name being hard to spell by Western players, he got nicknamed Bob. But now that there's an actual Bob on the roster, fans now spell Bob (the nickname, which stands for Boy On Bike) as BOB to differentiate it from the actual character. The nickname has mostly died off however, and most players simply shorten his name to "Hwo".
- Hwoarang's design in Tekken 8 quickly started becoming known as "Korean Nishiki", due to his hairstyle and improved facial structure heavily resembling Akira Nishikiyama.
- "Sumireko" for Julia (particularly her Tekken 7 redesign), due to both characters sporting plaided purple and glasses.
- In Japan, Claudio is referred to as "Osse", which is his line of dialogue where his hand becomes engulfed in blue energy.
- When Jaycee was first revealed in the initial trailers for TTT2, she was given the nickname "Queen" in deference to the existing male luchador King.
- Kazumi is occasionally called Tiger Mama due to effctively being the Mishima Family Matriarch (being Kazuya's mother, Lee's adoptive mother, and Jin's grandmother) as well as being able to summon her pet tiger during a fight at any given time.
- "Gigass" for Gigas. A Punny Name that is either affectionate or derogatory depending on the player, mostly because he's red... and has a very pronounced rear.
- Leroy has earned the nickname "Old Man Woolie", owing to his dreadlocks.
- Fahkumram was instantly christened "Fuckyourmom" by the fans due to being unable to properly pronounce his name and his intimidating appearance. He is also called "Fahk" for short, along with several related puns based on this shortened version of his name.
- "Cutiemitsu" for Kunimitsu II, due to fans finding her voice, appearance, and more open personality compared to her mother cute.
- Some fans have also noted that Kunimitsu II bears a striking resemblance to Speed-o-Sound Sonic (and to a lesser extent, Wraith). Funnily enough, Kunimitsu also shares a voice actress with Fubuki, of all people!
- Ciri for Lidia. Amusingly enough, there's even a mod
that has Lidia cosplaying as Ciri herself! Some also consider her to be Paul's Distaff Counterpart due to her hard-hitting fighting style, similar appearance, and the same Kiai - OSU! - Almost immediately after Reina was revealed, she was being referred to as "Her-hachi", "Heihach-she" "Bae-hachi" and so long, due to essentially being a female Heihachi.
Moves
- The Mishima Spinning Demon (f,N,d,df+4) and any similar unseeable high damage knockdown sweep are called Hellsweeps. Considering the description, it shouldn't come as a surprise that these are hell to block... but in turn they're also hell for the user themselves if blocked, as they are usually launch punishable.
- Similarly, any relatively slow but often high-damaging evasive low sweeps that give a full (usually high damage) combo on hit and are homing are often called Snake Edges after Bryan's move of the same name (df+3).
- Kazumi's Tiger Wind Uppercut (df+2) is, for all intents and purposes, a literal Tiger Uppercut... as in, she uses an actual tiger to launch the opponent skywards.
- A glitch for Lei Wulong involving canceling his back-turn stance for an alternative means of backdashing became known as the "Ha Ha Step", since every time it was performed Lei would constantly make battle grunts that sounded like he was laughing when strung together. It has since become an Ascended Glitch.
- Paul's Phoenix Smasher (qcf+2), and other moves similar to it, are called "Deathfists" by the playerbase, as the move tends to do absurdly high damage, especially if it ends up being a counter hit.
- Claudio's hopkick (uf+4) is known as "Genocide Cutter" due to how similar it looks to Rugal Bernstein's signature move in The King of Fighters. (The actual name on his movelist is "Sky Slash Nova," for those who are curious.) His running punch (wr+2) is also referred to as "Superman Punch" due to it resembling Superman's f+2 from Injustice: Gods Among Us or "Burn Knuckle" due to also resembling Terry Bogard's move from Fatal Fury,
- King's Body Check (f+1+4) is known as "Justice Nipples" because it involves King shoving his bare nipples to push the enemy backwards. While it has low damage, it has high priority and is often vital for King's mixup games. The 'justice' part comes from how King has always been a heroic character throughout the series.
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