Musical Theme Naming

Yes, they're named after THOSE Cars, AC/DC, and Wham!^note Text from the scanlation. The official transliterations of these names are "Kars", "Esidisi", and "Wamuu". Not pictured: Santana/Sanviento.

"A set of guns masterfully crafted by the famed demon-smith Rodin, waiting for their time to finally be put to use. Individually, their names are Prelude, Minuet, Toccata and Nocturne."

— Description of the weapons "Love is Blue" from Bayonetta 2

Ah, music. Everybody likes some form, and so it's only natural that many authors name their characters after the sounds they like.

Musical Theme Naming comes in a few flavours. A common form is to name the characters after a well-known musician. Others name characters after musical genres, instruments, or concepts.

The particular entity after which a character is named sometimes reflects their personality. For example, someone named after a rock star tends to be hard-drinking, hard-partying, and hard-living, while one named after a classical composer will be more refined, intellectual, and graceful. However, it's also not uncommon for these names to simply exist for the sake of keeping a theme and just so happen to be musical, and may only exist purely for the audience's amusement.

A Sister Trope to Titled After the Song, where the show, movie, or whatever itself is named after a song. Hence, if the work is named after a character therein, and the character is named after a song, you get both tropes.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bastard!! (1988):
  • Some of the characters, all of the cities and countries, and every last one of the magical spells in are named after heavy metal and hard rock bands. For licensing/trademark reasons, this has been extremely obscured in the official North American release — for example, the kingdom of Metallicana becomes Meta-Ricana, the nation of Judas Priest is referred to simply as Judas, etc.
  • In a more thematic theme naming, Dark Schneider is named after Udo Dirkschneider, and the spell to release the seal on him is named after Dirkschneider's band Accept.
• Bocchi the Rock!: Fitting for a show about a rock band, each member of Kessoku Band takes their family name from a member of Asian Kung-Fu Generation, specifically the one whose choice of instrument matches her own. Hitori Gotoh is named after Masafumi Gotoh, Nijika Ijichi is named after Kiyoshi Ijichi, Ryo Yamada is named after Takahiro Yamada, and Ikuyo Kita is named after Kensuke Kita.
• Those three recurring old geezers on Cowboy Bebop had thematic names — Antonio, Carlos and Jobim. Put them together and you get the name of a famous Brazilian musician. Also, every episode title has either a genre or musical reference ("Asteroid Blues", "Ballad of Fallen Angels", "Jupiter Jazz", "Mushroom Samba", "Bohemian Rhapsody", etc.).
• From the original Dragon Ball series we have Demon King Piccolo and his henchmen Tambourine, Cymbal, Drum, and Piano. Though Dragon Ball Z reveals that in-universe, Piccolo's name comes from the password used to open the hatch on the spaceship on which he came to Earth, and "piccolo" means "another world" in his native Namekian language.
• In Fairy Tail, main character Lucy and her family have names from songs linked to The Beatles: while she and her father take their names from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Hey Jude" respectively, her mother shares her name with Eric Clapton's "Layla," a song inspired by an unrequited love who happened to be George Harrison's wife. Other than Lucy's own, however, the author has yet to acknowledge the reference.
  • An early arc features a rival guild called Phantom Lord, whose ace is the Iron (aka, metal) Dragon Slayer, Gajeel Redfox. Gajeel's dragon parent was even named Metallicana.
• From the second season onward, FLCL chose to name its sequel series after different types of rock music, which is rather fitting given Haruko's weapon of choice (a Rickenbacker bass guitar) and the musical contributions of The Pillows. So far, there's been Progressive, Alternative, Grunge, and Shoegaze.
• Two of the main characters of Interstella 5555 are named Octave and Arpegius (the latter deriving from the term "arpeggio").
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and its sequel Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny combine this with Merchandise-Driven, having several of the Humongous Mecha named after licensed music that appears in the anime's soundtrack. Examples include the Mecha Expansion Pack METEOR units ("Meteor" is a song by TM Revolution, which is unsurprisingly used as the device's theme song), the Akatsuki ("Akatsuki no Kuruma," the sad song that plays when Nicol bites it), and the GOUF Ignited ("Ignited" is one of Destiny's title themes).
• It doesn't take long for even the most casual viewers/readers of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to realize that author Hirohiko Araki named just about every character in the damn thing after something. By far the most prominent references are to Western music, such as Big Bad Dio Brando (Ronnie James Dio and Marlon Brando), numerous characters throughout the entire series' run and just about every Stand originating after Stardust Crusaders. To start with, Stands were named after tarot cards combined with a color (Jotaro Kujo's Star Platinum, Noriaki Kakyoin's Hierophant Green), though the colors were quickly dropped and later Stands would just be named after the card. During the latter half of Stardust Crusaders, villains were introduced with Stands named after members of the Egyptian pantheon. From Stardust Crusaders' end onwards, Stands would join in on the Western music theme (Crazy Diamond, Goo Goo Dolls, Super Fly, Killer Queen). This caused problems for international distribution in English until the anime's premiere in 2012, when Dub Name Change entered full effect. Later Stands get names that skirt the issue, such as Nut King Call or Les Feuilles (pronounced as "Autumn Leaves"). The Pillar Men, named after Wham!, The Cars, AC/DC and Santana (not shown), provide the current page image.
• The main characters of K-On! each take their family name from a member of defunct New Wave band P-Model. Yui Hirasawa is named after frontman Susumu Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka is named after drummer Sadatoshi Tainaka, Mio Akiyama is named after bassist Katsuhiko Akiyama, Tsumugi Kotobuki is named after keyboardist Hikaru Kotobuki, and Azusa Nakano is named after bassist/keyboardist Teruo Nakano (though Azusa herself actually plays second guitar).
• Many of the fairies in Ojamajo Doremi are named for the notes of the musical ladder (Dodo, Rere, Mimi, etc), and even those that don't fit this mold have the same syllable repeated twice as their name (Baba, Hehe etc.). In the English dub, this was also extended to the dub names for Doremi, Hazuki and Aiko (respectively, Dorie, Reanne, Mirabelle).
• Pokémon 2000 features a girl named Melody and her older sister Carol. Carol is known as Yodel in the Japanese dub.
• RahXephon has all of the Dolems named after musical terms, and there's a fair amount of people getting Mayan-mythology-inspired nicknames. However, these names are much more intentional than normal; art (particularly music) and Mayan Mythology are central elements to the show.
• In Rave Master, a lot of the cities are named after music genres: Garage Island (garage rock), Punk Street (punk rock), Hip Hop City, Ska City, the main continent Symphonia and others. What planet does this series take place on, the Planet of Music Genres?
• One episode of the 2001 anime of Shaman King featured a team of shamans called Team "Sabbath", and the members were named Ronny, Ouji, and Aiyomi. Their spirits have moves named after Black Sabbath songs (with White Snake having moves named after Dio songs), and Rose and Big Pig's names were changed to "Neon Knight" and "War Pig" in English, further pushing the reference.
• The English DVD release of Simoun gave each volume a musical title: Choir of Pairs, Orchestra of Betrayal, Rondo of Loss, Crescendo of Lamentation, and Song of Prayer.
• Many characters and special attacks in Soul Eater have music influenced names. Examples include Maka Albarn (from Damon Albarn, of Blur and Gorillaz fame), probably Soul himself, Sid Barett (Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd), Kim Diehl (Kim Deal, The Pixies), Blair's Smashing Pumpkin, Kilik's Aphex Twin, the list goes on...
• Suite Pretty Cure ♪, obviously. There are very few characters that don't have either a kanji relating to sound or music in their names, or names that directly relate to music in general.
• Ditto Symphogear, which even has several Shout-Outs to Suite Pretty Cure ♪.
• Violinist of Hameln has just about everyone named after musical instruments and terms (Guitar, Bass, Cornett, Oboe). The only exceptions are the hero, Hamel, who is named after the violinist of legend (and who plays a huge violin), and Pandora (who opens the box that sealed the Mazoku inside). Places are also named appropriately, such as Stacatto Village and the kingdom of Dalsegno. Additionally, the four generals of the Mazoku are named Bass, Guitar, Sizer (Synthesizer, or keyboard) and Drum, the main instruments of a rock band; the heroes are Hamel (violin), Raiel (a kind of piano, which he carries on his back — a mean feat, since it's made of gold and weighs 500 pounds!), Oboe, Flute and Trom Bone — all instruments of classical music. Big Bad Kestra (or Chestra, depending on translation) could mean orchestra or simply refer to the chest he was trapped in (pictures of him depict a chest with an eye glaring out of the darkness). Others include Vocal and his partner Orgel, a German loanword that in the Japanese language means "music box", and in German means "organ". The writer even manages to further the themey-ness with sibling pairs like Lute and Flute, and the Net siblings Clari Net and Cor Net.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, three villains are named Jose, Placido and Luciano, after the Three Tenors.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics: In That Wilkin Boy, Bingo Wilkin's bandmates are Teddy Tambourine and Buddy Drumhead.
• Batman: The loyal henchmen of Bane are named Bird, Trogg and Zombie, all 60s rock groups. (Unfortunately, there's no such band as "The Banes" to complete the set.)
• Judge Dredd: The villains in the three strands of the Judge Dredd / The Simping Detective / Low-Life Cross Through "The Cold Deck", are Dirty Judge Carolyn Bachman, Church of Simpology leader Turner and Corrupt Corporate Executive Enormo Overdrive.
• X-Men:
  • The Morlock Beautiful Dreamer is named after a song by Stephen Foster.
  • Negasonic Teenage Warhead is named after a song by Monster Magnet.

Fan Works

• Pokémon Crossing has multiple characters and chapters named after music. The subtitle of the main fic is Fly Me to the Moon, after the jazz song. Several chapters are named after songs as well. Characters names include Tank Pepper, Wolfgang LeBon, Apollo Hawkwind, and Celia Carlise.
• In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, several dual bloodliners (who are implied to be half siblings of Ash Ketchum) have names related to music. These include: Cleff (as in the Trebel Cleff, a musical symbol), (Grayson) Bebop (a style of Jazz), Ringo S. Beddle (The Beatles by way of a Jojo-style name), Fender (a real life manufacturer of string instruments and amplifiers), the Lono twins (a Hawaiian deity whose purview includes music), Biwa (a Japanese lute) and Minuetto (Italian for Minuet, a style of French dance). Some of the Seven Brothers from Orre (who are paternal uncles of the previous ones) also have musical-themed names: Accentus, Capriccio and Descant.
• Psychedelic Epiphany Series: Psychadelic has this theme for its Idiosyncratic Episode Naming of its chapters, via Fun with Acronyms, each being an instrument:

  1. "Of Crusaders And Righteous Images Naturally Atypical": OCARINA
  2. "Agricultural Capacity Can Organize Radical Discussions Intellectually Of Note": ACCORDION
  3. "The Amusing Meanderings Become Observational Understandings Regarding Inquisitive Natural Equines": TAMBOURINE
  4. "Before Oblivious Now Grasping Objectives": BONGO
  5. "Staring Into The Alternitive Rythym": SITAR
  6. "Hearts Analyze Nebulous Destinies Pondering Attitudes Nextwave": HANDPAN
  7. "Discord Inevitably Decides Green Equines Rate Indescribably Desirable On Occupation": DIDGERIDOO

• Taylor's Eldritch Abomination friends in Starry Eyes are named Aria (a shoggoth), Melody (a Nightgaunt), and Rest.
• The Kokiri in Zelda and the Manacle of Cahla are named after solfège notes: Dorma, Renz, Midge, Faun, Solvey, Lalee, Tiber, and Dobbi.

Film

• The entire cast of Across the Universe (2007) has names taken out of The Beatles songs. There is (Hey) Jude, Lucy (In The Sky With Diamonds), Max(well's Silver Hammer), (Dear) Prudence, (Sexy) Sadie, and Jojo (a reference to the song "Get Back").
  • Its Spiritual Predecessor, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, also used this naming theme. There's Billy Shears (named for a character that appears in the album the movie's named after), Strawberry Fields (Forever), (Being for the Benefit of) Mr. Kite, Dr. Maxwell('s Silver Hammer) Edison, (Mean) Mr. Mustard, Lucy and the Diamonds, and the Hendersons (another reference to "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite").
• In the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Cyborg (1989), the main characters are all named after models of guitars and other instruments.
• The Force Awakens introduces the character Ello Asty, named after the Beastie Boys album Hello Nasty. The Visual Dictionary and other Expanded Universe works introduced more characters from that species that take names from MCA, Ad-Rock and Mike-D's band: Ilco Munica, Roodown, Awls Ooteek, Brasmon Kee, Oddy Muva and Sowa Chuan.
• In the Prehysteria movies, there are five dinosaurs named after singers and musicians: Elvis, Madonna, Jagger, Paula and Hammer.
• The three main characters in the John Hughes film Some Kind of Wonderful all have names that relate to The Rolling Stones. Watts after Charlie Watts, Keith after Keith Richards, and Amanda Jones after the song Miss Amanda Jones.
• The movie Transylvania 6-5000 has a pair of servants named Radu and Lupi, named after pianist Radu Lupu.
• In Knives Out, all of Harlan Thrombey's children and their respective spouses are named after musicians. His eldest daughter, Linda, and her husband Richard are named after Richard and Linda Thompson. His late son Neil and surviving daughter-in-law Joni are named after Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Finally, Walt and Donna are named after Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.

Literature

• In Amagi Brilliant Park, many characters have names that are puns on musicians. These include Kanie Seiya (Kanye West), Sento Isuzu (50 Cent), Latifa Fullanza (Queen Latifah), Ashe (Usher), and Kyuubu Aisu (Ice Cube).
• In the Animorphs book The Secret, Cassie rescues a litter of four skunk kits. The Animorphs take over tending the kits, with Tobias doing much of the skunk-sitting while the other Animorphs are in school. Marco ends up naming the skunk kits after members of The Ramones — Joey, Johnny, Marky and C.J.
• Bumped by Megan McCafferty has this trope combined with Theme Twin Naming in the case Separated at Birth identical twins Harmony and Melody.
• All the between-chapter dialogues in Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid are titled after musical works by Johann Sebastian Bach or puns thereon.
• A favourite trope of beloved best-seller Haruki Murakami, with the songs his works are named for (at least the title under which the song was marketed in Japan) also holding some relevance to the plot.
• A (very) minor character in Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey is named Floyd Pinken. Doubles as a Punny Name.
• While the starships in the Luna-class in Star Trek: Titan fall under Stellar Name (named after moons in the Solar System), Titan's shuttles were named by Captain Will Riker, who is big into 20th-century jazz...and thus named his shuttles after 20th century jazz musicians. He has to tell a Vulcan subordinate that the shuttlecraft Armstrong is named after Louie, not Neil (she assumed he'd continued the theme of the starships).
• In the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, we have the triplet princesses (whose magical talents incidentally are related to music) named Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm.

Live-Action TV

• It's common for characters in Angie Tribeca to be named after rock musicians — for example, Jay Geils and Alan Parsons.
• The majority of episode titles for Degrassi: The Next Generation are songs from (usually) the 1980s. Just look at all of them. It's a friggin' iPod playlist. ...Damn, that's a good idea! (Hannah Montana sure must have thought so...)
• Series 4 (Season 30) of Doctor Who introduces a character named River Song, and a couple of seasons later, there is someone named Melody Pond. And they are the same person, with River Song being a case of This Is My Name on Foreign.
• Jessica Huang from Fresh Off the Boat revealed in one episode that she took her name from the song by The Allman Brothers Band.
• Neighbours had the Brown family who named their children after The Beatles, though the connection was only gradually made explicit. George was introduced first under an alias, Frazer Yeats, but a guest character, Johnny Brown, identified him as his brother. After their much younger brother Ringo showed up the following year, it came as little surprise that they had a sister named Pauline (who never appeared in person). Frazer later finds out that he had a younger brother named Paul, who drowned when he was barely a year old.
• When choosing an alias, Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural like to name themselves after classic rock stars. The episode titles, too, are often references to classic rock.
• That '70s Show had seasons with episode titles named after songs by Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Queen.

Music

• The names of The Traveling Wilburys (that is, their names in the liner-note fiction that they're a group of half-brothers, sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr.) sometimes reflect other musicians: In Volume 1, George Harrison was Nelson Wilbury; Jeff Lynne was Otis Wilbury; and Roy Orbison was Lefty Wilbury (after his personal hero Lefty Frizell). In Volume 3, Harrison was Spike Wilbury and Tom Petty was Muddy Wilbury.

Puppet Shows

• Apart from their leader Destiny, all the Angels in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons have musical code names: Harmony, Melody, Symphony and Rhapsody.

Tabletop Game

• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The low-level Melodius monsters are named after musical terms, while the high-level monsters are named after famous music composers.

Theater

• A lot of Jukebox Musical (both in theatre and in film) tend to do this based on whose music they're doing. Among them are:
  • American Idiot, based on the Green Day album of the same name: Naturally, the characters share the name of those from the original album.
  • An American in Paris, based on the music of George Gershwin music: Lise is named after "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)"
  • Moulin Rouge!, based on multiple artists: It's oddly restrained, given the nature of this film, but the showgirls of the titular club are called The Diamond Dogs.
  • Rock of Ages, based on '80s glam rock: the main character's surname is based on the song "Sister Christian"
  • We Will Rock You, based on the music of Queen, has SOOOOOOOO many examples of this, from the main characters to the ensemble, resulting in musical references that reach beyond Queen. To focus on just the main cast, there is Galileo Figaro, Scaramouche, Killer Queen, Commander Khashoggi, Brit(ney Spears, who is a macho rebellion leader) and Meat (Loaf, who is an Action Girl rebel).
• The New York African-American girl singers in Little Shop of Horrors are named after New York African-American girl groups of the 1960s — the Crystals, the Ronettes, and the Chiffons.

Toys

• My Melody and her family from the Hello Kitty universe.

Video Games

• Taken Up to Eleven and through the roof with Ar tonelico, which is an entire world that has almost literally runs off music. Anything that has to do with the technology can and will be based off something from music.
• In Baten Kaitos, Lyude's finishing moves have music-related names: Overture, Concherto, Sfrozando, Creshendo, etc.
• In keeping with the game's emphasis on music, every character in Banjo-Kazooie was originally named after an instrument. For some reason, this naming scheme was abandoned, and only the title characters keep their musical names.
• From the Bayonetta series, the Fallen Angel weaponsmith, Rodin, crafts a musically named set of four guns for the titular character in both games. In the original, he crafts the "Scarborough Fair", with each gun individually named Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. In the sequel, he crafts "Love is Blue" (named after the song by André Popp and Pierre Cour), with the individual guns being named Prelude, Minuet, Toccata and Nocturne.
• From BlazBlue, Carl Clover's moves are named after musical terms. Examples include Cantabile, Allegretto, Fermata, Arpeggio of Oblivion, and Symphony of Lament.
• In the English version of Chrono Trigger, the Goldfish Poop Gang are named Ozzie, Flea and Slash. Its sequel Chrono Cross has Nikki, who actually is a rock star. In the original Japanese, they were named after condiments, while in the Japanese version of Cross Nikki was named... Slash. His name was changed since the aforementioned three appear as an Optional Boss.
• Cool Cool Toon's main characters are Amp (amplifier) and Spica (speaker), after musical equipment.
• Cadence, the heroine of Crypt of the NecroDancer. It's a trend in her family; her mother's name is Melody, her grandmother is Aria, and her father is Dorian. The Necrodancer himself was originally known as "Octavian".
• All the missions name in Cyberpunk 2077 are named after Western rock songs. Some of them are In-Universe songs by the band Samurai themselves.
• All the dancers in the Wii DanceDanceRevolution games (save for the BEMANI Trio, obviously) are named after something to do with rhythm and music.
• In Dark Ball 2: Kharma, every level set is named after a metal band album (and usually follow a theme according to their literal meanings): Ghost Reveries, Since the Day It All Came Down, Ashes, Orbit Dance, Timeless Departure, Dark Matter Dimensions, Karma Code, and Come Clarity.
• Most of the Steam achievements in Divinity: Original Sin are named after famous and obscure rock/metal songs. This probably has something to do with Larian Studios being utter geeks and having a Heavy Mithril veteran for a chief composer.
• Characters in Eternal Sonata, except Chopin and other real-world people, are named after musical terms. In addition, each main chapter is named after one of Chopin's famous works.
• Fallout: New Vegas uses this for a lot of quest names. Examples: "Come Fly With Me" (help some ghouls rocket their way to paradise), "Ain't That a Kick In the Head" (character creation, after you've been shot in the face), "Heartaches by the Number" (Cass' companion quest), "Nothing But a Hound Dog" (Rex the cyberdog's quest), "I Put a Spell On You" (stop or assist a Legion spy in an NCR base). Most quests from the base game are named after 1950's songs.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy IX gives us the Black Waltz #1, #2, and #3 bosses. Zidane was right on the money in guessing how many of that threat they'd have to face.
  • Hurdy and Gurdy from the Ivalice Alliance and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles were named after the Hurdy-Gurdy Instrument; this is especially appropriate for the Tactics A2 Hurdy, who is an actual musician, and even has his namesake as a weapon which teaches one of his Bard abilities.
• Axl and Slash in Final Fight. Simons is named after Gene Simmons and G. Oriber (one of the obese mooks) is named after Graham Oliver from Saxon. Sexy transvestites Poison and Roxy also count... and when they were censored and turned into generic male mooks, those mooks were renamed Sid (as in Sid Vicious) and Billy (as in Billy Idol)! There are also the bosses Sodom and Abigail, who shares facial markings with King Diamond.
• An early villain in Fossil Fighters Champions is an Elvis Impersonator named Rockin' Billy. His accomplices, Jerry and Lee, follow suit.
• Guilty Gear:
  • The characters, and sometimes even their attacks, are named after rock groups and artists, especially Queen (series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari is a rock aficionado). Sol Badguy, for example, is named after Freddie Mercury's solo album, "Mr. Bad Guy." Sol's real name also happens to be Frederick Bulsara, respectively taken from Mercury's Stage Name and birth surname. Not to mention Sol's favorite band, according to his profile, is Queen. He even has a copy of Sheer Heart Attack as his most prized possession. Go figure.
  • Similarly, the character Axl Low both resembles and is named for Axl Rose (at the prime of his career).
  • There's also Slayer, Testament, Venom, Ky Kiske, Millia Rage ^note (Meliah Rage), A.B.A, Zappa, Dizzy, I-No, May, Jam Kuradoberi ^note (Cloudberry Jam), Kliff, Fanny, and Eddie. Attack examples include Sol's Napalm Death, Zato/Eddie's Shadow Gallery, Venom's Dark Angel, and Justice's Gamma Ray.
  • Various special techniques, Overdrives, and Instant Kills are likely to be named for rock and metal songs or albums. For example, Sol's All Guns Blazing, Ky's Ride the Lightning, Millia's Bad Moon^note as in "Bad Moon Rising", Testament's Master of Puppet(s), Slayer's Under Pressure, and Kliff's Soul Survivor.
  • Every once in a while, the titles themselves bear some sort of musical theme. The first update to Guilty Gear XX was ♯Reload ("Sharp Reload"), while the fourth main installment (fifth if one counts GGXX Accent Core Plus), Guilty Gear 2, was subtitled Overture.
• Almost everything in HarmoKnight is either named after or has a Punny Name based on a musical term or instrument.
• In the Famicom game Holy Diver (obviously Titled After the Song by Ronnie James Dio), the protagonist and his brother are Randy R. and Zakk W., of the King Crimson family.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • A family of Heartless have a naming scheme involving music. There's Red Nocturne, Blue Rhapsody, Yellow Opera, Green Requiem and Black Ballade in the first game and Chain of Memories; Crimson Jazz, Silver Rock, Spring Metal and Emerald Blues in Kingdom Hearts II; Scarlet Tango, Grey Caprice, Sapphire Elegy, Turquoise March, Pink Concerto, Striped Aria, and Emerald Serenade in 358/2 Days.
  • In 358/2 Days, nearly every one of Demyx's weapons is named for a musical reference; there's even one named after the game's English theme tune (as in, it's still called "Sanctuary" in the Japanese version, in which "Passion" was the theme). The ones that aren't are his joke weapons (a broom and a tennis racquet) and one sitar called the Million Bucks... but the last might just be a missed joke.
• The moves used by Mature and Vice in The King of Fighters are all named for heavy metal groups. For obvious reasons, some were tweaked for the English release (e.g. Deathrow > Death Downer, Deicide > Deceaser or Da Cide, etc.). Oddly enough, one of the names—Vice's Misanthrope (mi-sa-n-su-ro-pu)—was apparently mistransliterated even in Japan. It consistently gets called "Mithan's Robe" (mi-sa-n-su-ro-BU).
• Mordekaiser, a Champion in League of Legends, has abilities named after metal songs.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, two of the Kokiri living in Kokiri Village are named Mido and Fado. The official word is both were named for the syllables of the solfège scale, which, along with Fado's unique design among the Kokiri NPCs not named Saria or Mido and her strong sense of loyalty to Mido, led many to believe they're related (with most Fanon going the Half-Identical Twins route).
  • The names for the royal family of the Zora in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are derived from the Japanese version of solfège: Do-Re (Dorephan), Mi-Fa (Mipha), So-Ra (Zora), Shi-Do (Shido/Sidon).
• Mega Man:
  • The Mega Man (Classic) series uses a musical theme for the main character robots. Dr. Light's first creation is Blues (officially Proto Man in English, though Mega Man 3 used Break Man as an alter ego to fit in the music theme), and then the brother-sister pair Rock and Roll are built. Rockman's support robots include Beat and Tango. Mega Man 8 sees the main character assisted by one Duo, who is also in the second arcade game. Dr. Wily adds to this theme by naming his evil counterparts Forte and Gospel (Bass and Treble, respectively). ^note Conceptual designs originally had the pair as Baroque and Crash to play off of Rock and Rush before settling on their current names. Another, less frequently seen support robot associated with Bass (first appearing in the RockBoard spin-off) is named Reggae. Present in other games were the Rockman Killers Enker ("enka" being a type of Japanese folk music), Punk, and Ballade; a reprogrammed Mega Man from an alternate timeline now dubbed Quint (from the term "quintet"); and the Elvis-esque King. This naming scheme was largely dropped in the subsequent Mega Man X series, but reappeared in X5, where the bosses are all named after members of the band Guns N' Roses, although this was only added for the U.S. release at the suggestion of Claire Redfield's voice actress, who handed the game's localization. (The Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 rerelease would revert back to the original Japanese names.)
  • In Mega Man X8, Lumine's One-Winged Angel form's attacks are named Refrain, Legato, Bel Canto, Gravé , Unison and Oratorio. And Paradise Lost.
  • A group of singing enemies in Mega Man Star Force are named after famous singers: Lupinatra (for Frank Sinatra), Lupelvis (for Elvis Presley), Lupavarot (for Luciano Pavarotti), Lupadonna (for Madonna), and Lupbach (for Johann Sebastian Bach).
• The 7 Magypsies in Mother 3, Ionia, Aeolia, Doria, Phrygia, Lydia, Mixolydia and Locria, are named after the 7 modular scales in music theory, as suggested by the composer of the game's soundtrack. Locria is the most elusive one, since the Locrian mode is a theoretical construct that does not correspond to any of the medieval modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian) or the modern major and minor modes (Ionian, Aeolian).
• Nearly every character from Ontamarama has a musical term attached to his/her name (Beat, Alto, Coda, Aria, etc.)
• Overwatch features a pair of monks named Zenyatta and Mondatta, after The Police's 1980 album Zenyattà Mondatta.
• In Pokémon Black and White, Ghetsis Harmonia, the true mastermind behind Team Plasma, and his foster children, Anthea, Concordia and N Harmonia all have names based on musical terms. Harmonia is the Greek goddess of harmony, and N Harmonia is a play on "enharmonic", which is two differently named notes that play the same tone (such as C sharp and D flat). Meanwhile, Anthea's name comes from "anthem" and Concordia is the Roman equivalent of Harmonia. Ghetsis' name comes from the G and C-Sharp (or Cis) notes, which even get used in his battle theme's kettledrums. G and C-Sharp form a tritone, notes that are three full tones apart, and as a result are prone to dissonance if not handled carefully. Even better, in medieval Europe, tritones were nicknamed "Diabolus en Musica", or "Devil in Music". So, G/Cis Harmonia, Tritone Harmony... disharmony.
• River City Ransom:
  • The Rockers gang from the GBA remake has members named after famous rockstars, e.g. Jimmy, Ozzy, Trent.
  • In the GBA version, the Home Boys gang members have names referencing famous rappers, e.g. 6Paq, Dre...
• In Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?, the main antagonists' mechas are named after various forms of musical compositions: Symphony, Prelude, Berceuse, March, Nocturne, Serenade and Aubade.
• Action Girl Rhia from Sands of Destruction has her special moves named after musical term, ranging from Sonatta to Requiem.
• The Koopalings of the Super Mario Bros. games are all named after popular musicians at the time: Iggy Koopa, Lemmy Koopa, Ludwig Von Koopa (sharing his hairstyle), Roy Koopa (sharing his horn-rimmed sunglasses), and Wendy O. Koopa. Exceptions were talk show host Morton Koopa Jr. (though that one also sung and worked as a DJ, and the character's star over one eye is probably a KISS reference), and Larry Koopa — "he's not Larry Mullen Jr. from U2 or Larry King—he just looked like a Larry." In addition, the fortress bosses from Super Mario World are called Reznor, after Trent Reznor of course. And Boos were at first known as Boo Diddley, after Bo Diddley.
• Tales of the Abyss:
  • Some of the characters are named after musical terms, such as "Arietta" or "Largo".
  • The Capacity Cores have names based on various speeds and styles of musical notation.
  • Military ranks also contain references to the various musical Modes, such as "Dorian General", "Locrian Sergeant", and "Ionian Sergeant". By the same token, Fon Master Ion may well be an other reference to the Ionian mode.
  • Most if not all of the shops are also musical terms, such as A Capella (Sheridan), Crescendo (Grand Chokmah), Virtuoso (Baticul) and Serioso (Chesedonia). The game runs circles around the concept of this trope. It's stated that other positions in the military are the Grand Maestro, the just plain Maestros, and Dist's title is that of a Conductor. Five of the Six God Generals (save Asch) are theme named by music- Syncopation, Distortion, Allegretto, Largo, and Aria. The original sixth, Cantabile, follows the theme as well, and his/her name can be seen in a book in Daath as the Commander of Special Operations.
• Every breed of Noise in The World Ends with You has a music reference in its name, and almost all of these are genres. Big Band Frog, for instance. Each different animal type actually has its own self-contained theme; for example, penguins are all pop-music themed and wolves are rock-themed. Really, the UG as a whole is largely music-themed, with the Reaper hierarchy including a Producer, Composer and Conductor. As well as the brother sister duo, Beat and Rhyme.

Visual Novels

• Melody has a few examples:
  • Melody herself, of course.
  • Hank Sharp, who runs Melody's eventual record label.
  • Becca's cat, Benatar, is named after rocker Pat Benatar.

Webcomics

• The heroes of '32 Kick-Up are each named after musicians.
• All of Aqua Regia chapters are named after songs, they are also called "Tracks" instead of episodes. Word of God flat-out admitted loving music and basing plotlines or covers on his favourite music albums.
• In Coga Nito, Niko is clearly trying to go for this, naming both her and Eric's Pieces [their fighting forms] for musical references [hers is Smooth Criminal, Eric's is Red Special]. Matt realizes what she's doing, though, and deliberately names his Super-8 to break the pattern. Later on we get Apex[sic] Twin and Delirium Trigger, though it's not yet clear exactly who named those.
• In Cucumber Quest, characters have names that relate to where they live, so characters who live in the Melody Kingdom have names related to music.
• Sleepless Domain: The named members of the Magical Girl team and pop band Team Forte are all named after female musicians who have shared their respective instruments. Forte Lead's name is Roni, which she shares with Venus and the Razorblades' lead guitarist and vocalist Roni Lee; Forte Drums is named Debbi, after The Bangles' drummer Debbi Peterson; and Forte Bass is named Gail for bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, best known for playing alongside David Bowie.
• All the contestants in SWAP Ensemble are named after their primary instrument, mostly by splitting up the French word for the instrument and tweaking it a bit. Turie Bassa, the tuba player, is one of the more straightforward ones. Half of the contestants also have a musical term for a surname, including the aforementioned Bassa.
• In Vatican Assassins, every Assassin character is named after a musical instrument. Particularly, the di Largolinios are all named after string instruments (Basscello, Cello, Harp, and Viola).

Web Original

• Atop the Fourth Wall: According to Linkara, all versions of Liz's alter ego are named after some kind of hard rock act, the main being Iron (Maiden) Liz. Judas (Priest) Liz has shown up and there has been mention of Lita (Ford) Liz on the forums from Linkara.
• Behind Closed Doors is far less subtle about names than its predecessor, SWAP Ensemble. Most of the surnames and some of the first names come straight out of a music dictionary, including Sonia Cadenza, Tulio Hocket, and Clé Chroma (implied to be short for "Clémentine"). Only Harry Boisen defies this convention because he first appeared in SWAP, so he is named after the French word for oboe, "hautbois".
• In MyMusic, most of the characters are nicknamed by their favorite music genre. (Metal, Indie, Dubstep, etc.)
• SCP Foundation:
  • Alto Clef. According to his file, he insists his "true name is that of an A major chord played on a ukelele, which it carries around with it at all times should other entities wish to address it by name." Back in the Global Occult Coalition, he was Agent Ukelele, working under a "Scary Lady" named "D.C. al Fine."
  • In one of the Foundation Tales, we're told that the "Clef" name is kind of a Legacy Character: when Alto dies, the next agent to take the designation becomes "Treble Clef."
  • The SCP Foundation also features many Mobile Task Forces named after song titles - Most notably the O5 council's special MTF-Alpha-1 "Red Right Hand".
• We Are Our Avatars: Roxie's Pokémon are named after members of the Ramones. Also, Melody, the demon who's teaching Roll how to use some demonic power, fits into the music theme of Mega Man (Classic), but she's less than a Mega Man character (due to supernatural origin). Interestingly, the name fitting into the theme was an accident.
• In What You Are in the Dark, each blog post during the final arc is the name of a song by The Beatles.

Western Animation

• The episode titles of The Beatles cartoon show were titles of Beatles songs.
• The Brothers Grunt are all named after old timey musicians, though the creator insists this is coincidental.
• The four main characters of High Guardian Spice are named Rosemary, Sage, Parsley, and Thyme, which are not only all herbs but are specifically the herbs mentioned in the beginning of Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair".
• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, the Dazzlings, an evil Girl Group, are named Sonata, Adagio, and Aria.
• In Oggy and the Cockroaches, the cockroaches are named after members of The Ramones (Dee Dee, Joey and Marky).
• In an episode of Sealab 2021, the Bebop Cola vending machine has different flavors, each named after jazz musicians, including Mingus Dew.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bebop and Rocksteady are named after styles of jazz.
• In The Venture Bros., Action Man and Major Tom are named after two David Bowie songs: "Ashes to Ashes" and "Space Oddity".

Other

• Many Honda cars have this theme: Prelude, Concerto, Quint(et), Ballade, Beat, Jazz, and Domani (the last one being the name of a song).
• Trenitalia named several of its newer regional trains after music genres: Blues (Hitachi Masaccio), Rock (Hitachi Caravaggio), Pop (Alstom Coradia Stream), Jazz (Alstom Coradia Meridian) and Swing (Pesa Atribo).

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