Named Weapons

Balin: Wouldn't bother, lad. Swords are named for the great deeds they've done in battle.
Bilbo: What are you saying? That my sword hasn't seen battle?
Balin: Not sure it is a sword, to be honest. More of a... letter opener.

— The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

People like naming their weapons. The reasons for this are varied: maybe it's the first weapon they've ever had, maybe it's the strongest weapon they've ever had, or maybe they're just weird. If the weapon becomes well-known enough to be a Legendary Weapon, its name will be sung far and wide. If it's a smaller, less formal naming, it's just an example of I Call It "Vera", but an example of I Call It "Vera" can evolve into a Legendary Weapon, given time and deeds.

The weapon is usually magical or special in some way. The most famous of these are Public Domain Artifacts, but sometimes they're just ordinary weapons. This started with Norse cultures, whose sagas recorded both the heroic leaders' exploits and the legendary, named weapons they used. Swords seems to be most common, but any kind of weapon can be given a name, such as shields and spears. The most famous named weapons would be passed down through the generations. In more modern fiction, guns may be given names.

This trope mostly shows up in Speculative Fiction but also shows up in that strange thing we call Real Life.

Subtropes include I Call It "Vera" (for nicknamed weapons), Legendary Weapon (for well-known and mythical weapons), and Stock Weapon Names (for common named weapons). Names Given to Computers is superficially similar to this, though computers usually actually use their names on networks.

Note: This trope does not apply to purely descriptive labels like +1 flaming longsword. Tabletop and video games make use of such labels, but they are not a trope.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Black Clover: Asta's anti-magic swords are all named: the Demon-Slayer Sword, Demon-Dweller Sword, and Demon-Destroyer Sword. After Yami's katana becomes part of his grimoire and another anti-magic sword, he calls it the Demon-Slasher Katana.
• Bleach:
  • All Shinigami imprint their soul onto an Asauchi (unnamed blade) to produce a Zanpakutou ("Soul Slayer"). A Zanpakutou has three states: sealed (a regular sword), Shikai (the sword starts to grant special abilities), and Bankai (the ultimate form). Most Shinigami can never move beyond producing a Zanpakutou, but some talented Shinigami develop enough of a bond with their weapon to learn its name, which is the key to unlocking their power in the form of Shikai. A small proportion of Shikai users are so talented that they can unlock a Super Mode called Bankai. This entails forming a very strong bond with their Zanpakutou, which in essence means coming to terms with the truth about themselves, warts and all. A Zanpakutou in Bankai form has its own name, which in most cases is the basic name with a prefix and/or suffix added and possibly some Alternate Character Reading, but sometimes it's entirely different. Normally, it takes a decade to achieve and master the release, but Urahara invented a way to "cheat" and unlock Bankai in just three days... or die in the process. It's eventually revealed that on rare occasions it's possible for a shinigami to achieve an incomplete bankai, which has a different name than the true bankai. Likewise, it's possible for a Shinigami to only partially release a shikai by calling it by the wrong name, in order to hide its true nature.
  • Arrancar are Hollows that have ripped off their masks in search of shinigami-like power. As a result, they possess zanpakutou, but unlike Shinigami Zanpakutou, the Arrancar Zanpakutou are neither a Talking Weapon nor an Empathic Weapon. They are essentially locks, restraining the Arrancar's true form when they were a pure Hollow. In short, the Arrancar themselves are the true weapon. But like a Shinigami's shikai, an Arrancar's release involves speaking a release phrase and the zanpakutou's name. The exception is Starrk, whose true zanpakuto is not his sword at all, but rather his Fraccion, Lilynette.
  • Quincies name their weapons. However, there's suggestion of sentience to neither the traditional Energy Bow nor the more modern Energy Weapons. The practice is clearly a cultural tradition.
• Crimson Spell gives us the cursed sword Ygg Veilund, which only members of the royal family of the Alswieth can use at all (though even they suffer a curse if they use it).
• Many Digimon have named weapons - like Omegamon, who wields the Grey Sword and the Garuru Cannon.
• Weapons Lyrical Nanoha almost always have names since they have AIs and are considered to be their users partners (the only real exception are generic Storage Devices, which forgo developed personalities in favor of faster processsing speeds).
• D.Gray-Man : The innocence is a mysterious substance from which we create weapons. Every weapon is named by the Black Order. In the case of Lavi, it overlaps with I call it "Vera" as Lavi doesn't like the name the Order gave to his weapon and he nicknamed it "big hammer little hammer"
• In Delicious in Dungeon, both Laios and Marcille named their weapons, a sword and a staff respectively.
• The artifacts from Negima! Magister Negi Magi In Latin, of course. Also, Setsuna's sword is called Yunagi.
  • Motoko's sword in Love Hina from the same martial art school as Setsuna is named Hina.
• Most of the guns used by Alucard and Seras in Hellsing are named, though the names are seldom mentioned (with the exceptions of Alucard's Jackal and Seras' Harkonnen) and appear not to be universally known.
• Naruto features a few of them.
  • Most notable is Kisame's/Killer Bee's Samehada (Sharkskin).
  • Orochimaru also uses the Kusanagi (see above) at one point.
  • Each of the swords wielded by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist are specifically named, including Zabuza's Executioner's Blade/Kubikiribōchō (literally "Decapitating Carving Knife").
• The Weapons in Soul Eater all have names, justified by the fact they're shape-shifting humans. Many names are appropriate to their Demon Weapon nature. For example, the protagonist's human name is Soul "Eater" Evans. His weapon name is "The Demon Scythe".
  • There's one recurring character who uses regular swords, and he mentions no names. Presumably because it would take a while.
• The Volt Weapons that the Pandora use in Freezing. For example, Satellizer's is named Nova Blood.
• K:
  • The disciples of Ichigen Miwa, the former Colorless King, have swords given to them by their master, with names. Kuroh's is Kotowari, Yukari's is Ayamachi.
  • All members of Scepter 4, the Blue Clan, have named sabers. This is a new system implemented by the current Blue King, Reisi Munakata, as a way of boosting spirits - previously they used serial numbers. Munakata's is named for the Japanese name for the star Sirius, Tenro. Awashima's is named after a flower. Fushimi didn't want to give his a name, so Munakata named his — Subaru, a constellation, in theme with his own.
• In Kagurabachi, each of the seven enchanted swords made by Kunishige has a unique name depending on its abilities. In the order they are introduced, their names are Enten, Kuregumo (also known as Cloud Gouger), and Shinuchi.
• One Piece has the Meitou (swords famous enough to have a name). Zoro has had five: Wado Ichimonji (inherited from his dead childhood friend), Sandai Kitetsu (given for free after he proved his luck was more than a match for its curse of inevitable death), Yubashiri (given for free alongside Sandai Kitetsu; eventually destroyed through unnatural rusting), Shuusui (willingly given away by zombie samurai Ryuuma for besting him in honorable combat, later returned to its country as a national treasure), and Enma (given in exchange for the previous one, one of the only swords known to have injured Kaido of the Four Emperors!). Other Meitou include the enormous Yoru, wielded by the world's greatest swordsman Mihawk and considered the highest-quality Meitou of them all, and Shigure, wielded by Marine Captain Tashigi, a rival of Zoro who bears an uncanny resemblance to his childhood friend.
• In Infinite Stratos, the personal I.S. machines of the main characters are all named. Said names also reflect, to some degree, the personalities of their owners. Houki's I.S., named Akatsubaki, is named after the flower of the same name (red camellia). In Japan, this flower represents love...except for samurai, for whom it means "unluckiness". Houki, being the Kendo ace she is, uses both meanings of the flower in the name of her I.S. Charlotte's I.S., befitting her pragmatic nature, is named exactly what it is: Rafale Revive Custom II. Also like her time hiding her true gender and masquerading as a boy, the Rafale Revive hides a lot of weapons up its metaphorical sleeves (the "Custom" part is probably this; the average I.S. only holds two or three weapons. Rafale Revive Custom II holds twenty.)
• Escaflowne in The Vision of Escaflowne is the ancestral guymelef of the royal family of Fanelia. It is apparently unique on Gaia, although it is implied that its model may at one time have been mass-produced by the mysterious Ispano clan, who come from Another Dimension.
• In High School D×D, every single Sacred Gear has a name and an ability that comes with it. The protagonist wields the Boosted Gear gauntlet which is one of the most powerful Sacred Gears in this series which is capable of doubling the power of the user every ten seconds.
• In Lupin III, Lupin's samurai companion Goemon has a legendary sword:
  • The manga names it Nagareboshi in the original Japanese, or Ryusei in the English version. Both translate to "falling star," since the metal came from the heavens.
  • The anime calls it by its more well-known name, Zantetsuken, which translates to "iron-cutting sword". It does Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• The Severing Crime Edge: All killing goods have a rather long name that describes what they do such as Kiri's scissors (The crime edge of cutting and severing) and Yamane's needle (Injection of Coma Death).
• Inuyasha: It's a cultural tradition for warriors to name their weapons. Therefore every significant weapon that becomes connected to a warrior is named. Tellingly, a named weapon tends to also be an Empathic Weapon; their degree of sentience may be quite limited depending on the weapon, but they do at least have the ability to choose or reject wielders who may want to become their masters.
• In Sword Art Online, several of Kirito's weapons have names, most notably Dark Repulsor. He keeps it far longer than he should, going to a great deal of effort to keep it upgraded despite its low level, simply because he thinks a sword with that name is destined to defeat the final boss. It doesn't. The Big Bad of the first arc shatters it during their duel, and Kirito then uses his wife's fallen rapier Lambent Light to finish him.
• In Tokyo Ghoul, the Quinque used by Ghoul Investigators are given a name and if multiple pieces exist, a fraction. In a morbid example, many are named after the Ghoul that was killed and used to create the Quinque. Examples include Doujima 1/2, Fueguchi One and Fueguchi Two, Narukami, and Jason.
• In Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night, all of the Servants' Noble Phantasms have names, including the weapons. Seeing as the Servants are meant to be legendary heroes from the past, there is some overlap with the "Myth & Legend" folder above. In Fate/stay night, Archer has access to every weapon, named and otherwise, that he's ever seen, as well as his personal favorites, the twin falchions Kanshou & Bakuya. There is one known exception: Gilgamesh's weird drill-sword-lance thing is unnamed, since it preceded the very concept of names at all. Gilgamesh calls it "Ea", but also says that that's more of his own pet name for it; Ea is not its true name.
• Magical Warfare has "Twilight," the famous sword used by one of the Fifteen Grand Wizards. Takeshi also gives its consciousness a more personal name, "Towa."
• Black Knight Bruford from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure wields a sword named "Luck". After Jonathan defeats and briefly restores his true noble nature, Bruford spends his few remaining seconds of un-life passing on his sword to Jonathan. Bruford also adds a letter "P" to the "Luck" that is engraved on the blade using his own blood, thus renaming the sword "Luck&Pluck" in honor of Jonathan's courage.
  • Since nearly all Stands are named in the later parts, all of the weapon-based stands count as this, such as Emperor the Gun, Anubis the Sword, Dolly Dagger the Dagger, etc.
• Konosuba: Kazuma has received an enchantment that gives his sword a special name and contemplates what to name it. Unfortunately, Megumin names it the ridiculous sounding Chunchunmaru while he wasn't looking.
• Henkyou no Roukishi Bard Loen: Younger Bard Loen used to have a demonslayer sword called Moragravielo.

Comic Books

• Black Knight: The Black Knight's Ebony Blade.
• CrossGen: In Way of the Rat, Bhuto Khan's army has a massive cannon at their disposal, which is dubbed the "Finger of God."
• Doctor Strange: Doctor Strange has wielded many magical artifacts and weapons over his career that are named after other mighty mages and deities. In Doctor Strange 2018, he forges a Cool Sword that can cut through dimensions and he names it the Scalpel of Strange.
• ElfQuest: Cutter's sword New Moon. He's about the only character in the series we actually see name his weapons, though (in one backstory issue, he had a knife he dramatically called "Blood Drinker" when younger); if anyone else bothers to do so, even elves who are named for their favored weapons in turn, we don't find out about it.
• Hound: Halfway through the story, Skye bestows a magical spear named the Gae Bolga on Cú Cullan. The Gae Bolga is referred to as 'she' and has epithets such as "The Stretching Spear" and "The God-Killer".
• The Mighty Thor:
  • Mjölnir is likely the Ur-Example in the Marvel Universe.
  • Beta Ray Bill wields Stormbreaker.
  • Jarnbjorn, the axe that Thor forged and wielded in his youth which he wields again after Mjölnir no longer considers him worthy after the events of Original Sin.
  • Surtur, the lord of the Fire Giants wields Twilight, the Sword of Doom.
  • Valkyrie's sword Dragonfang.
  • Odin wields the self-named Odinsword.
• The Outsiders: Katana's sword, Soultaker.
• Prince Valiant: Prince Valiant wields the Singing Sword, Flamberge.
• Usagi Yojimbo: Usagi's swords are named "Willow Branch" and "Young Willow". It's only really mentioned in the scene when he recieves them, so it's easy to overlook.
• Wonder Woman:
  • The Lasso of Truth was named for its function at the time of its creation and has proven an invaluable tool for her over the years.
  • In Wonder Woman 600 Aegeus has stolen the "Knife of Vulcan", which he claims can cut through anything.

Fan Works

• The Immortal Game has a lot, many of them meaningful. Rarity's Vorpal, Celestia's Zenith and Luna's Nadir, Unimpressive's Vindictive, Titan's Singularity, Terra's Exogenisis, Esteem's but initially Valiant's Carsomyr, Astor Coruscare's Sangrophile and Twilight Sparkle's Equinox.
• Nine Days Down: The weapons of deities are additional souls made manifest in the physical world, with their own personality and sense of self, and as such all bear their own distinct names. Celestia's sword is named Hyperia, Luna's set of floating blades is Thousand Glittering Shards in the Darkest of Nights, and Twilight's sword is Insight.
• The Powers of Harmony has several, most of which have some kind of association with their owner: Celestia's Nova, Luna's Perigee and Apogee, Tendoncutter's Cardinal Blades, Granny's Aconitum.
• In Past's Playmate Godric Gryffindor stated that if a weapon was magical, it was given a name. In addition to Excalibur, we also have Libur, Mordred's sword; Kaleiri, a dagger and Leirin, a fancy longbow.
• In FREAKIN GENSOKYO, the entirety of Brad's arsenal. As of chapter 79, it consists of the following plant-hangers: Hard Winter, Fairy Harp, Swordbreaker, Youkai Inconveniencer, Flame Salvo, Vortex Hanger, Deep Blue, Sharper than Darkness, Bee-Sheventeen-Bawmber, Million Bucks and Market Gardener.
• In addition to several of the weapons which appear in Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Lord Inquisitor in All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird crafts a pair of daggers for himself which he names "Andruil's Blessing" and "Gift of Sylaise."
• In Ghosts of the Past, sequel of Child of the Storm, Harry eventually gets a sword of his own, a sabre designed along the lines of a shashka (Russian Cossack cavalry sabre). At first, it doesn't have a name, but after his first fight with it - where Dracula, a far more physically powerful and experienced swordsman easily disarms him and stabs him with it, before using it as an impromptu lightning rod, a process that with a few spells from Doctor Strange, actually reforges it - he decides to give it a name. Considering how it got powered up, Carol suggests he call it "Kebab". In the end, he names it Curtana, after the legendary sword of mercy and justice.
  • There are also several other named weapons, such as Jarnbjorn (an axe formerly wielded by Thor and gifted to Uhtred), Laevatennin (a wand masquerading as a phoenix feather which is almost certainly sentient, and possibly used to be a sword), Van, the Sword of Hope, and, of course, Mjolnir and Gungnir.
• Half Past Adventure features the Root Sword, which debuted in Adventure Time proper, and which protagonist Macy receives from Finn as a gift.
• The Lost Hero: The superheroes all have named weapons. Clark Kent has a katana called Dawnbreak. Maxima had a katana called Inevitable. Conner Kent has a katana called Inexorable. Mae Kent has a katana called Synthesis and a wakizashi called Antithesis. Ariella Kent has a katana called Raikiri and a wakizashi called Benkei. Billy Batson has a sword called Firebolt. Diana Prince has a sword called Godkiller. Cassandra Sandsmark has a sword called Tempest. Vartox has a broadsword called Magnum Opus.
• Service with a Smile: In addition to all the canon named weapons (Jaune's sword/shield Crocea Mors is the most plot-relevant one), Roman mentions that after he told Neo that all good weapons have a name, she named her parasol/Sword Cane "Mr. Stabby." This was before its canon name was revealed to be "Hush."
• Linked in Life and Love: While Roman still has his cane/rifle "Melodic Cudgel" from canon, he also has a sword/Tommy gun "Black Valentine" from his days as a Huntsman. Qrow has been keeping it upgraded for him, since Roman abandoned it when he became a criminal.
• Paradoxus: Barring the ones borrowed from Warcraft's lore, which are usually wielded by the plot-relevant characters, we have King Oritel's canonical sword that gets a name in this fic, Istel, and Galadwen's bow Delune, which references that she's the goddess Elune's Chosen One.
• SAPR: In addition to the weapons from canon RWBY there are several unique weapons introduced in the story.
  • Sol Invictus, Sunset's revolver rifle with attached gas-powered extending bayonet.
  • Distant Thunder, Ciel's collapsible anti-materiel sniper rifle.
• Tattered Capes Under a Shattered Moon: Alabaster uses a flamethrower rifle that splits into machetes named Burning Edict. He takes the tradition seriously and gets annoyed when he realizes that he's the only one on the team who named their weapon.
• With Strings Attached: Two. Blackfire, the Hunter's BFS, and Brox's Kiss, a pink shortsword that can make members of the opposite sex fall in love with you.
• With This Ring: After obtaining the Ace of Winchesters, which burns demons in golden fire, Paul works with several magic users to produce similar guns using different sources of magic, such as the Ace of Chaos empowered by one of Eris' golden apples of discord. When he makes one from demonic kaahuite, for fighting angels? He calls it the Hellblazer.

Films — Animation

• The giant cannon in the opening siege scene of the Hungarian animated film Treasure of Swamp Castle (Szaffi) is called Brunhilda.

Films — Live-Action

• 3:10 to Yuma (2007): Ben Wade's black-handled, gold-cross bearing pistol is called the Hand of God, stated to carry a curse so that everyone who touches it that isn't Wade will die violently.
• A very important part of Alice's quest in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) is the recovery of the Vorpal Sword.
• Alita: Battle Angel: Zapan and later Alita has the Damascus Blade, which is referred to by name in-universe. The Damascus Blade is an ancient Martian monomolecular scimitar capable of being energized with plasma from a Berserker cyborg body.
• Thor and Eitri the Dwarf forge a replacement for Mjölnir during the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Eitri dubs the newly forced weapon, in accordance with prophecy, "Stormbreaker."
  Rocket Raccoon: Yeah, that's a bit much...
• Green Destiny, the super-sword in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
• In Gods and Generals there is a four-gun Confederate battery consisting of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Those are the names of the battery of cannons at the Virginia Military Institute.
• Orcrist and Glamdring in The Hobbit. Discussed by Bilbo and Balin when Bilbo hears Elrond describing the history of those swords and he looks down at his own elvish sword. Balin then tells him not to bother because only swords are named for their deeds and Bilbo's sword was "more like a letter opener". Bilbo did eventually name it "Sting" after some spiders referred to it as such.
• In The Horse Soldiers, a Confederate artillery battery consists of the guns Peter and Paul.
• In The Last Witch Hunter, while Kaulder has never gave name to his sword, the world came to call it Hexenbane, as it's extremely proficient at witch-slaying.
• In Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the Germans use an artillery cannon on the escaping Holmes, Watson, and Gypsies, dubbed "Little Hansel."

Literature

• A Shadow Bright and Burning: When Henrietta gets her stave, she's told to name it to give herself a little bit more control over it. Her chosen name? Porridge. She was having porridge for breakfast at the time.
• Most weapons don't have their own names in the world of Astral Dawn, but there are a few that do.
  • Magali, one of the Aash Ra, created the Sword of Fracture from her own extradimensional energy. Though it is made of pure energy, the sword appears as a physical sword with a beautiful crystal blade.
  • Another weapon from the series was never intended to be used as a weapon. Even so, Devlyn used the Unified Stone to greatly increase his power. He became more powerful than any high spirit and had gained the power he needed to remake the world.
• J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth world (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion) is filled with this trope: Some especially cool weapons get several names. A few examples:
  • The sword forged for Turgon, King of Gondolin, and later acquired by Gandalf the Gray, is named Glamdring ("Foe-hammer" in the Noldorin language). The Orcs call this sword "Beater", and hate it and anyone who carries it.
  • At the same time as Gandalf finds Glamdring, Thorin Oakenshield finds its companion weapon Orcrist ("Goblin-cleaver"), known in orc-language as "Biter."
  • Bilbo names the elven dagger he found Sting, after killing a great spider with it. The spider was trying to poison him, and he responded by "stinging" it back.
  • Morgoth's great hammer Grond, whose name was also used for an Orcish battering ram in the Siege of Gondor.
  • Gil-galad wields a long spear named Aeglos.
  • Elendil's Narsil, broken in two as Elendil fell on it while falling to Sauron and reforged by the Elves into Aragorn's Andûril, Flame of the West.
    • In Peter Jackson's film adaptation, Narsil is shattered into many shards, after Sauron steps on it.
  • The Rohirrim name old and well-known blades; Eomer has Gúthwinë, while Theoden King wields an "ancient blade" named Herugrim.
  • Fingolfin's sword Ringil; sister-swords Anguirel and Anglachel (later when wielded by Túrin Turambar known as Gurthang, "Death Iron"), and knife Angrist; Tuor's axe Dramborleg.
  • Beren's sword -inherited from his father Barahir-, Dagmor.
  • Beleg's bow, Belthronding.
  • In his minor works, Giles' weapon Caudimordax ('Tailbiter') in Farmer Giles of Ham.
  • In fact, in Middle Earth protocol apparently requires you to formally introduce your sword or other weapon to opponents and prospective allies alike, e.g. "Here is the sword that was broken and is forged anew!" It'd be disrespectful to your sword to introduce yourself but not introduce the sword, after all.
• The Long Ships also has several named weapons, most significant are the (not magical but very high-quality) swords Redbeak and Bluetongue. Another sword is named Lullaby, and an axe is named Widowgrief.
• The characters in The Wheel of Time mostly keep their swords unnamed, except for Callandor — but that's only incidentally a sword.
  • Towers of Midnight introduces Mah'alleinir, a magic hammer.
• Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn has the titular three swords, but a few more ordinary ones crop up as well.
• One of the main characters in Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road had a Viking ax "whose name, cut in runes along its ashwood haft, translated roughly as 'Defiler of Your Mother'."
• The Elric Saga: Elric of Melnibone has his cursed sword Stormbringer and it's "sister" Mournblade.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire: Westeros has a long tradition of passing down storied and ancestral weapons with their own names.
  • Rare and valuable Valyrian steel swords generally have Meaningful Names, usually tied in to the Animal Motif or motto of the House they've been passed down through. Examples of such Ancestral Weapons include Longclaw (House Mormont, bear/wolf motif), Brightroar (House Lannister, lion motif), Ice (House Stark, "Winter is coming"), Dark Sister (House Targaryen, designed for and wielded by an Action Girl), etc. A once-significant rival royal branch was named "Blackfyre" after a sword their bastard founder inherited, taking it as a sign that his father wanted him to inherit the throne.
  • The Thunderbolt Iron greatsword Dawn is passed down to the best warrior in each generation of House Dayne, who is given the title "Sword of the Morning."
  • When Tywin Lannister gifts his grandson Joffrey a newly forged Valyrian steel sword, the Royal Brat gets an opportunity to name it. He considers a bunch of ludicrously crass and grandiose names before settling on "Widows' Wail." Long after his death, his uncle-father Jaime utilises it, and though he kept the name he treats it as an Embarrassing Nickname as his Character Development by this point has made him uncomfortable with the mentality Joffrey had when naming it. The sword it was forged alongside was given to Brienne of Tarth and named "Oathkeeper".
• The characters of Snow Crash learn that it's a good idea to listen to Reason.
• Heralds of Valdemar:
  • Alberich, a weapons training master, sourly notes that he hates this trope. People get overconfident, and then when they don't have the named weapon they don't fight well enough with unnamed ones. He won't let his pupils practice with any weapons but those found in the salle, and if he finds out that one of them has picked a favorite sword or whatever he has it melted down. He's a good guy, just so you know.
  • Need is a sword to which an ancient mage/fighter bound her soul centuries ago. She's a Legendary Weapon and practically a person even before she wakes up and starts talking, so it would be rude not to name her. However, she's so old that she has forgotten what her original name was, so everyone just calls her "Need."
• Pops up a couple of times in the Tortall Universe. Alanna picks up the strange magic sword that she calls Lightning in Song of the Lioness. Later she sacrifices it, and it's not mentioned if she named any of her other swords. There wasn't another named weapon until the end of the third book in the Protector of the Small quartet; Alanna gave Kel a sword, Kel dubbed it "Griffin," Kel never mentioned it again, since she preferred her glaive.
• Subversion in the Star Trek novel Time For Yesterday: Kirk asks Spock's son Zar whether his sword has a name. The reply is telling.
  "Name? Zar looked puzzled for a moment, then understanding dawned. "Oh, you mean a name like 'Excalibur' or 'Fred', something like that?". The gray eyes were bleak. "It's doesn't have one, Jim. 'Killer' maybe, because that's what I use it for. Frankly I hate what I do with it, but I've learned to be damned good at it. Lately, none of us has had much choice."
• The Dresden Files has the three swords of the Knights of the Cross: Amorracchius, Fidelacchius, and Esperracchius. (That's Love, Faith, and Hope.) Amorracchius is suspected to have once been Excalibur...
  • And Esperracchius is Durandal. Fidelacchius is Kusanagi.
  • There's the Blackstaff, the official weapon of the White Council's enforcer. Currently the position is filled by Ebenezer McCoy.
• Book of Swords: There are twelve "Swords of Power" and each one has a different name related to its magical ability (Woundhealer, Doomgiver, Dragonslicer...) add Dual Wielding in and the situation gets Serial Escalation. The full list:
  • Coinspinner: anything and everything its current owner does works out for his or her benefit. Everything. Win money, catch lucky breaks, survive certain death through freak chance (which also works out for your benefit), enemies suffer incredibly bad luck. The downside is that it moves from owner to owner a lot, apparently on a whim.
  • Doomgiver: Turns an attacker's powers on themselves. It's done stuff like protecting a mortal from Aphrodite's power and turning her influence back on herself, turning arrows back at the person who shot them, and folding people-eating demons into their own guts. One of the series' Big Bads refused point-blank to take the sword when he had a chance because there was no way of knowing what it'd do to him in retaliation for various heinous acts.
  • Dragonslicer: It cuts dragons, which are so tough that they're immune to almost all other weaponry, and guides the wielder to a dragon's vital areas. The downside is it leaves getting out of harm's way up to the wielder.
  • Farslayer: You get a good wind-up and throw it while thinking of a specific person. Be they man, god, or monster, and no matter where they are, Farslayer flies directly into their heart and kills them. This would be the end of the matter, except the sword doesn't return to you. So anyone near your victim will be able to pick it up, and tell the sword to target the person who just killed their friend...
  • The Mindsword: When unsheathed, it commands fanatic and lasting devotion from all within eyesight or ear shot. Men, demons, and gods — including its maker — all bow before the Mindsword's wielder.
  • Shieldbreaker: It trumps all the other swords (normally). When drawn, it defends its wielder against any weapon, any magic, and destroys other weapons at a touch, while making the wielder superhumanly fast and strong. The downside is it won't harm an unarmed person and refuses to let itself be dropped until a battle's over, leaving the wielder susceptible to Good Old Fisticuffs.
  • Sightblinder: It makes other people view the wielder as someone or something they completely and totally love, or something they completely and totally fear. Often alternately and randomly within the space of a minute. And the illusion is so complete that viewers are always convinced. It also augments the wielder's vision, including letting him or her detect spoken falsehoods and, in at least one case, realize hidden details of another character's personal history.
  • Soulcutter: When drawn, it makes people in the area so apathetic that they will immediately stop what they're doing and just sit down and wait to die. Including the wielder. Given that its maximum reach is enough to encompass a good-sized battlefield, just the threat of using Soulcutter is enough to induce cooperation.
  • Stonecutter: It cuts all mineral matter like it's butter. Useful for sieges, tunneling/mining, and artwork/jewelrymaking. Its downside, such as it is, is that in any other context it's simply a very well-made sword.
  • Townsaver: A little like Shieldbreaker, except it only works when in defense of groups of people, and it will use the wielder's body as a shield, if need be, to defend those people. The upside is that whoever you're protecting will almost certainly be protected because the sword keeps the wielder going in the face of any wounds until the battle is over. The downside is it won't stop you from dying from your injuries after the battle is over.
  • Wayfinder: If you crossed a Magic 8-Ball with a divining rod/magic compass and a sword, it'd be Wayfinder. In response to queries (mental or spoken), it guides the user's hand to point at the correct one/direction ("Which person is lying to me", or "where is my son", or "which plate of food is poisoned", or "which path isn't trapped", or what have you). The downside is that, unless you specifically request a safe path to what you're looking for, it will invariably point you towards the most dangerous one that will lead to your desired destination.
  • Woundhealer: The king of all Healing Shivs. It can fix any disease, any injury, cure any ailment, regrow any limb, and fix anything (including the effect of Soulcutter) except death. Also, stabbing it into yourself and leaving it there means you'll be constantly healed and probably won't die no matter what happens to you (it doesn't stop you from feeling pain, though.) The bit of verse Saberhagen associated with Woundhealer more-or-less says straight out that it can bring back the dead:
    Whose flesh the Sword of Mercy hurts has drawn no breath;
    Whose soul it heals has wandered in the night,
    Has paid the summing of all debts in death
    Has turned to see returning light.
• In the Sword-Dancer series by Jennifer Roberson, both magic and mundane swords may have names. Tiger's original sword, which is entirely mundane but a very good sword nonetheless, is named "Singlestroke." The magical swords called jivatmas also have names, and knowing the sword's name is necessary to unlock its powers.
• Satirized (like many other Heroic Fantasy tropes) in Jack Chalker's River of Dancing Gods series. All magic swords in this world are required to have names. When the protagonist acquires one, he names it Irving, after his estranged son.
• Judge Dee carries a heirloom blade 'Rain Dragon' — and knows how to use too. Definitely a case of Rank Scales with Asskicking.
• Warhammer 40,000 Expanded Universe:
  • Dawn of War:
    • In C.S. Goto's trilogy, Rhamah's Vairocanum. Made from part of a Wrecked Weapon that had been Forged by the Gods of the Eldar themselves. It makes Wisdom look like a cheap butter knife in comparison when it comes to craftsmanship.
    • In Chris Roberson's novelization of Dawn Of War II, Wisdom. Explicitly described as a rare sword so marvelous as to have a name.
  • In Chris Roberson's novel Sons of Dorn, Taloc wants to get into the fight so he can name his sword, which is a Rite of Passage. Which is why he is deeply pleased when he gets it back at the end.
• In Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Percy's sword, Riptide/Anaklusmos, Luke's sword Backbiter, Clarisse's spear Maimer (or Lamer).
  • In the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus, we can add Jason's first sword, Ivlius (Julius when Anglicized) and Piper's knife, Katropis (The Looking Glass).
  • In Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, there is the Sword of Summer, or Sumarbrander, a talking sword that once belonged to the god Frey. He prefers to be called Jack.
• In the first Safehold book, Off Armageddon Reef, Merlin presents Cayleb with a katana much like the one he himself uses (i.e. incredibly sharp and made of a nearly indestructible hi-tech alloy). Cayleb can't resist asking if the weapon has a name, like in tales of past seijin. Given the name of the one giving Cayleb the sword, it should come as no surprise that Merlin names it Excalibur.
• The cannons on the Sophie are all named by their crews. Notable is Barett Bonden's gun Sudden Death.
• In C.S.Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia Peter Pevensie wields Rhindon, a sword given to him by Father Christmas.
• His Dark Materials has the Subtle Knife, which has various other names in various myths in various Alternate Universes. One of the most impressive is "Æsahættr", meaning "god destroyer".
• In the Midnighters universe, weapons with a 13 letters long name cause aggravated damage to the darklings.
  • A serious example being "Resplendently Scintillating Illustrations", yes that is three 13 letter words.
• The Empirium Trilogy: Several characters give their weapons names; Audric's casting is named Illumenor and Eliana named her chief dagger Arabeth and one of her knives Whistler.
• Monster Hunter International features Abomination, a fully automatic shotgun with a silver-inlayed bayonet and a grenade launcher. The sequel introduces Leviathan, a Kraken-sized harpoon gun.
• The Stormlight Archive:
  • In The Way of Kings (2010), we see two named Shardblades: Dalinar's Oathbringer, and Elhokar's Sunraiser.
  • In the second book, Words of Radiance, it's mentioned that most people give their Blades names. Adolin is the exception, having decided that since his weapon belonged to one of the Knights Radiant back in the Shadowdays, it already has a name, he just doesn't know what it is. As it turns out, the Radiant's Blades were their own bonded spren, and all the modern Blades are the corpses, dead spren killed by the broken oaths. So not only is Adolin right, but three new ones are created and named through the course of the book: Kaladin's Sylphrena, Shallan's Pattern, and Jasnah's Ivory. In the novella Edgedancer, Lift's spren Wyndle joins the party. Though he doesn't want to be used as a sword. He's fine with turning into a sword and being admired as a work of art though, or turning into a fork and being used to eat dinner though.
  • In Oathbringer, Adolin learns that the spren that is his blade was named Mayalaran. He calls her Maya.
  • All present-day Knights Radiant who have achieved the first ideal have a named weapon by default. This is because their weapon is actually a spren who already had a name before they bonded. Squires (junior knights who borrow power from a full knight) haven't made a bond and are restricted to mundane weapons.
• Karl May's Old Shatterhand had two guns, one a rare, but at least theoretically not unique Henrystutzen (Henry short rifle), the other named the Bärentöter (bear-slayer). His friend, the Apache chief Winnetou, used the unerring Silberbüchse (silver rifle), so named because it was decorated with silver stud-nails all over. The comic relief character Sam Hawkens said he wanted to be buried with his rifle, the somewhat temperamental Liddy.
• In The Chronicles of Amber, Corwin's sword Grayswandir is inscribed with a portion of the Pattern, which comes in handy on at least one occasion. Also Merlin's strangling cord Frakir and Brand's sword Werewindle.
• Wax and Wayne contains a really awesome gun named Vindication.
• Dragaera has the seventeen Great Weapons, Empathic Weapons so powerful they can kill even the gods. The names they're referred to by the main characters are shortenings of their original Overly Long Names given to them by their creators. For instance, "Magical wand for creating death in the form of a black sword" is shortened to simply "Blackwand".
• Inheritance Cycle has the swords of the Riders be named in the Ancient Language. Most of the names are apt, including some that predict the owner's fall to the dark side. Eragon manages to accidentally name his sword by its True Name. Brisingr. He sets it on fire. A lot. Sometimes on purpose. He considered naming it sheep-biter. Eragon is a very silly individual.
• The Legend of Drizzt:
  • Drizzt's scimitar Twinkle is a named weapon. He gives his other scimitar the nickname Icingdeath after the dragon he stole it from.. Icingdeath is a case of Named After Somebody Famous (it was the nickname of the dragon whose hoard Drizzt recovered it from), while Twinkle had that name when he got it.
  • Catti-brie has a longbow named Taulmaril and an intelligent sword named Khazid'hea.
  • Artemis Entreri has an intelligent (but less chatty) sword called Charon's Claw.
• Gaff and the Slasher are the battle spurs that belong to Chauntecleer the rooster in The Book of the Dun Cow. They are only worn during times of war.
• In The Chronicles of Prydain, Prince Gwydion wields the magical sword Dyrnwyn, whose name is inscribed on its blade.
• In John C. Wright's The Count to the Eschaton, the Chimerae name their weapons once they have killed. Menelaus, feigning to be one of them, tells them of his stone Rock. Later, he realizes that it stems from intelligent weapons.
• The Testaments from Of Fear and Faith seem to all take the appearance of Cool Swords and are named after the positive trait they represent (Love, Faith, and so on).
• Ultimate Hero has 'Fate' and 'Mortality', weapons designed to kill superbeings.
• In Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun", torturer Severian is given an exquisitely made headsman's sword named "Terminus Est". It's name is variously translated as "This is the line of division" and "This is the place of parting" by characters in-story, all of whom overlook the more obvious translation "This is the end". The sword is signed by Jovinian. It is not magical, but incorporates a channel of mercury to reduce the inertial moment of the sword held at the top of the upswing.
• In Gene Wolfe's "Wizard Knight", the knight Able searches for the sword "Eterne". This sword is decidedly magical; whenever it is drawn the spirit of each undeserving previous wielder is conjured to fight for (or against) the current wielder.
• The Hammer and the Cross has a lot of them: Brand's axe Battle-Troll, Shef's halberd Thrall's-Wreak, Cwicca and Osmod's ballista Dead Level, Erkenbert's trebuchet War-Wolf, and others.
• The sword Sikanda in The Neverending Story. Bastian named it in order to claim it. As a human, only he had the ability to give things their rightful name and with that name, things had pasts and their own stories.
• Subverted by Fafrhd and the Gray Mouser in Fritz Leiber's series. While they both names their swords, the names stay the same no matter how often they're lost and replaced with different, but similar ones.
• In the Jacob's Ladder Trilogy, the nanotech-empowered swords called unblades are given names like Charity, Innocence, and Mercy.
• Journey to Chaos: The sword used by Basilard Bladi is called "BloodDrinker" because it is a special sword that marks the leader of the Bladi Clan. It's also a Living Weapon, and so it has a proper name like everyone else.
• In A Land Fit for Heroes, Kiriath blades tend to have names. Archeth's swords are named "Bandgleam", "Falling Angel", "Laughing Girl", "Quarterless", and "Wraithslayer". Ringil's sword is named "I am Welcomed in the Home of Ravens and Other Scavengers in the Wake of Warriors, I am Friend to Carrion Crows and Wolves, I am Carry Me, and Kill with Me where the Road Ends, I am not the Honeyed Promise of Length of Life in Years to Come, I am the Iron Promise of Never Being a Slave"... though since that's rather difficult to say, he usually calls it "Ravensfriend" for short.
• The Adem mercenaries in The Kingkiller Chronicle have a collective stock of Ancestral Weapons, each with its own name and detailed history. Kvothe receives the 2000-year-old sword Saicere in The Wise Man's Fear and is required to memorize the names and deeds of its 236 previous owners.
• In The Balanced Sword, all the Justiciars have signature weapons forged by an Ultimate Blacksmith that have names and unique special powers. Then there is Poplock's sword, Steelthorn.
• In The Dinosaur Lords, Jaume's famous blade is named Lady's Mirror.
• Discworld
  • In Night Watch, the Ankh-Morpork City Watch's siege engine is called Big Mary.
  • In the backstory of Unseen Academicals, Badass Preacher Mightily Oats brings Forgiveness with him during his missionary work in Überwald. "Forgiveness" is his possibly-holy battleaxe.
• The Heroes: Whirrun of Bligh is the current bearer of the Father of Swords, a legendary and ludicrously large greatsword that is said to bring glory and strife to its wielders. Tradition holds that it must taste blood if drawn, a rule that Whirrun unenthusiastically follows.
• Second Apocalypse: Kellhus carries a strange, long-handled sword across his back since leaving Ishual, presumably of Dunyain manufacture. When he sets himself up as the Warrior-Prophet, his followers take to calling it Certainty. This is both ironic and fitting, because people who know Kellhus best say that the certainty of ignorance is Kellhus's best weapon.
• The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal: The family sword Aettartangi, the "family pole", is given its name by Ingimund when he acquires it. It is always owned by the current head of the Vatnsdal clan.
• The Girl from the Miracles District: All of Nikita's guns have their names, with her favourite one being called Inquisition.
• Old Kingdom: In this fantasy series a bunch of weapons and magical artifacts have names.
  • The foremost are the 7 bells wielded by necromancers and the Abhorsen, that give the user the power to control death itself. There are multiple sets of these bells, so the names refer to the place and powers of each bell within each set. They are named after the ancient powers that joined together to form the Charter.
    • Ranna: The sleeping bell. the smallest bell used by a necromancer, brings silence in its wake and is able to make the living or dead fall asleep.
    • Mosrael: The Waking bell, when rung, all who hear the sound are brought closer to life while the ringer is moved towards death.
    • Kibeth: The Walking bell. A difficult and tricksome bell. It seeks to ring of its own accord. When rung it can bring freedom of movement to the dead, or force them back into death. but be warned, many a necromancer has walked where they shouldn't have with Kibeth.
    • Dyrim: The Speaking bell. A clear and musical bell, when rung it can give voice to the dead, or take it from the living.
    • Belgaer: The Thinking bell. A strong and cunning bell, when rung can restore individuality and memories to the dead, but just as easily erase them.
    • Saraneth: The Binding bell. The deepest and lowest bell, when rung can force the dead or the weak willed living to obey the ringer.
    • Astarael: The Weeping bell. The largest and most powerful bell, when rung all who hear the terrible noise will be forced deep into death, even the wielder.
  • Named swords also exist, usually ones forged by the Wallmakers, like the Charter Marked sword given to Lirael named "Nehima", or its sister sword "Binder" used by Chief Librarian Vancelle (once borrowed by Lirael).
• Egil's Saga:
  • In the Battle of Vinheid, Egil wears a sword called Adder which he looted in Courland and which he uses to kill Jarl Adils. Later Egil receives another sword, Dragvandil, as a gift from Arinbjorn, which he seems to prefer after that.
  • Thorolf Skallagrimsson uses a sword called Long.
• In The Spirit Thief, Awakened blades (basically, magic swords) can be recognized by the fact that they have names, like Heart of War or Dunlea.
• Kings of the Wyld: Pretty common among higher-level mercenaries. Gabe has the sword Vellichor (the most valuable artifact in the world, a gift from a dying immortal), Clay has the shield Blackheart (carved from the corpse of the treant Blackheart), Matrick has the knives Grace and Roxy (named after the prostitutes he lost his virginity to), and Ganelon has the axe Syrinx (origin unknown, but its magic only comes alive in his hands). Lastleaf has three swords, all forged by his father: Tamarat (forged to bring his wife back from the dead), Scorn (a "volatile weapon"), and Madrigal (the singing sword, a gift from Lastleaf's father to an Exarch).
• Tale of Yashima: One of the main characters is searching for a mythical sword named the Raikiri.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: Given it's part of the xianxia genre, every notable character has a personal blade and sometimes other spiritual weapons (i.e. flute, guqin); all of them are named. For the former we have Wei Wuxian's Suibian (which means 'whatever'), Lan Wangji's Bichen, Lan Xichen's Shuoyue, Jiang Cheng's Sandu, Nie Mingjue's saber Baxia, Jin Zixuan's Suihua which gets passed onto his son Jin Ling, Jin Guangyao's soft sword Hensheng, Xiao Xingchen's Shuanghua, Song Lan's Fuxue, Xue Yang's Jiangzai, and Su Minshan's Nanping. For the latter, there's Wei Wuxian's flute Chengqing, Lan Wangji's guqin Wangji, Lan Xichen's xiao Liebing, and Jiang Cheng's Lightning Lash Zidian which he inherited from his mother Yu Ziyuan.
• Initially averted in military science fiction Victoria, where (unlike in the present-day United States) warships usually have only numbers, not names. However, protagonist John Rumford eventually resurrects this tradition, and names two aircraft carriers after famous martyrs of the Confederation's liberation struggle: the John C. Adams and the John Kelly.
• Played with in "Okuyyuki". The sentient, magical Japanese sword Reilly picks up used to be a Legendary Weapon with an elaborate name that everyone recognized (at least in Japan), but has been forgotten by the world at that point. Having trouble with her Japanese name, he nicknames her "Audrey" instead.
• In the Kane Series story "Undertow" young barbarian Dragar has a Cool Sword that he calls Wizard's Bane. It was forged of "star metal and can negate magic — it glows blue when it encounters a demonic creature, which flees instead of confronting Dragar. Unfortunately for the owner, anti-magic does not help against a superior swordsman.
• Vasilis, The Sword of Light and Darkness, in "Fablehaven", a flaming sword which must be wielded by a worthy person or be all but extinguished.
• Named weapons don't play much of a role in The Belgariad. There are two noteworthy ones, though:
  • Riva Iron-grip, the first King of Riva, forged an enormous two-handed sword to carry the magical Orb of Aldur. With commendable simplicity, this sword is called simply "the Sword of the Rivan King", or "the sword of Riva Iron-grip."
  • The Dark God Torak, being more hip to this trope, calls his huge sword "Cthrek Goru".
• In the Monster Hunter Memoirs series, Chad Gardenier carries a katana named Mo No Ken: "Sword of Mourning".
• In the Forgotten Realms novel Azure Bonds, Dragonbait's fancy broadsword is named Hill Cleaver.

Myths & Religion

• Norse Mythology: Odin's spear Gungnir, Thor's Thunder Hammer Mjölnir, and Loki's/Surt's sword (or wand) Laevateinn. For weapons wielded by mortal heroes we have Sigurd's sword Gram and the cursed sword Tyrfing, heirloom of the berserker Angantyr and his descendants.
• From the Nibelungenlied, the Middle High German version of the saga of Siegfried the dragon-slayer, we have his sword Balmung. In the Scandinavian version, the Saga of Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer, the sword is called Gram, while Richard Wagner called the sword of Siegmund and Siegfried in The Ring of the Nibelung Notung (or Nothung, in 19th century spelling).
• Beowulf's own sword, Naegling, and the one he borrowed, Hrunting. Neither of them do him much good against the monsters. The ones that work are unnamed.
• Arthurian Legend is full of them: Arthur's sword Excalibur, naturally, but also Lancelot's sword Anadight/Arondight and Gawain's Galatine. Early Welsh versions call Arthur's sword Caledfwlch, and also give him a dagger called Carnwennan, a shield called Wynebgwrthucher (or Prydwen), and a spear called Rhongomyniad (or Ron.) The Middle English Alliterative Morte Arthure gives him a second sword, Clarent, meant for peaceful purposes (e.g., ceremony) rather than war.
  • Osla Bigknife who only features in a couple of Welsh stories carries a knife large enough to be used as a bridge named Bronllafn Ferllydan, also sometimes called just Bronllafn or Bronllafyn
• The Bhagavad Gita has many. Sri Krisha had a conch named Panchajanya, Arjuna had Devadatta, Bhima had Paundra, Yudhishthira had Anantavijaya. Arjuna also had the bow Gandiva.
• Irish myth gives us the sword Caladbolg (which is cognate with Caledfwlch; some pundits therefore believe Excalibur was based on Caladbolg), Cú Chulainn's spear Gáe Bolg, and his sword Fragarach or Answerer. There's also the sword Moralltach, or the Great Fury, wielded by Aengus Óg and which he later gave to Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. Also associated with Diarmuid are the smaller sword Beagalltach (Little Fury) and the two spears Gáe Dearg and Gáe Buidhe.
• Korean Mythology has Yonggwang-geom (Sword of Dragon's Light), belonging to Sun god Haemosu. Also, General Kim Yushin, who united three kingdoms of Korea, had a sword named Cheonryonggeom (Heavenly Dragon Sword), that was blessed by two stars (by shining their starlights on the sword). According to legends, it even flew from its scabbard and into Kim Yushin's hand when he was furious.
• Several in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, including Lu Bu's Sky Piercer and Guan Yu's Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
• The Vietnamese king Lê Lợi/Lê Thái Tổ bore a supposedly magical legendary sword by the name of Thuận Thiên (Heaven's Will).
• Among the Three Imperial Regalia of Japan is the Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, a.k.a. "Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven", which contrary to popular belief is a double-edged straight-bladed tsurugi, not a katana. It dates to long before the katana, or even its immediate predecessor the tachi, was invented. Mythology says that it was found in the tail-bones of Orochi when Susano'o (god of storms) slew it. Then it bounced around Japanese mythology until it eventually comes into possession of the Emperor. Notable in that this sword was later renamed 'Kusanagi', a.k.a. "Grass-cutter", in the legend where an Emperor saved his own life in a fire by cutting off the grass fueling it. Supposedly the current Emperor still has it. And no, you can't look at it.
• The Southeast Asian Keris blades (especially the masterwork ones and/or those which are supposedly magical in nature) almost always bore names, although often the names are simply denoting its make and kind. Well-known examples are Taming Sari (a Sumatran one, belonging to the historical figure Hang Tuah) and Setan Kober (a Javanese one, belonging to a Javanese hero). One legend averts this, however; The famed "Keris Mpu Gandring," which played a large part in the history of Singosari kingdom in Java, had no formal name because it was unfinished at the time it was used to kill its creator (of which the Keris is known as from thereon).
• There are three swords, all named, that are nowadays the stuff of legend. A part of the legend says that they are cast of the same steel. (Curtana bears the engraving "My name is Curtana, of the same temper as Joyeuse and Durandal")
  • Durandal, the sword of Roland (a.k.a. Orlando, if you're Italian), a paladin in the service of Charlemagne. The sword's hilt was said in The Song of Roland to contain a tooth of Saint Peter, the blood of Saint Basil, hair from Saint Denis, and a scrap of Mary's clothing. The tale has Roland last using it to hold off an army of 100,000 long enough for Charlemagne's army to retreat into France.
  • Roland's Uncle Charlemagne wielded Joyeuse, a sword said to shift in colors and was supposedly one of the most beautiful swords in existence.
  • The last was Curtana (Or Cortana), wielded by Ogier the Dane and Sir Tristan of the Knights of the Round Table. This sword was known as the broken sword or the Sword of Mercy; legend says its tip was broken by an angel to prevent a wrongful execution. It is currently one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom and has been part of the coronation ceremony since 1236 at the latest, if not 1189 (when Richard The Lion Heart was crowned) - though a new sword used to be forged for each coronation and the current sword dates to the 1580's, being first used at the coronation of Charles I in 1626.
  • A fourth from the same epic, reputedly (in the epic, at least) inspired by Charlemagne's use of a named blade, was the blade Précieuse/Precious, wielded by the Saracen king Baligant.
• Older Than Dirt: In the New Kingdom Egyptian story of the conquest of Joppa, a fiction that may or may not be based on a true story, the Pharaoh Men-kheper-Re has a named staff/cane. He secretly hides it in the luggage of the guy he sends to put down a revolt, and it allegedly has special powers. The protagonist (Djehuti) uses it to kill the rebel leader, but unfortunately the text is damaged so the name and special powers of this weapon are unknown. The name seems to end in "...tautnefer."

Podcasts

• The Jade Regent RPG Actual Play podcasts from RPGMP3 feature a weapon called Oathtaker. During their travels, the adventurers stumbled across this magical tetsubo (a huge Oriental bludgeoning weapon). Apart from its obvious uses, it can also force people under a Blood Geas. It's currently wielded by Harold Shinken, who discovered that the Viking women of the Linnorm Kingdoms were very impressed by the weapon's... craftsmanship.
• The Adventure Zone: Balance features a weapon called Railsplitter. During an intermission, Magnus Burnsides wins the ax from the Fantasy Gashapon. Apart from it being a regular ax, it can split through trees in one single chop (once a day). This ability is used on Trent the Treant which wields good results, splitting him in half and causing him to fall over into the side of the Goldshire Bank.

Pro Wrestling

• Mick Foley's sock, Mr. Socko and his bat wrapped in barbed wire, Barbie. "Barbie" has since shown up in WWE.com photo shoots, in the hands of Paige (she's yet to use "her" on anyone).
• Christian's "People's Steel Chair", a dented folding chair The Rock used on Goldberg.
• Black Reign's spike, Darkness Falls.
• Abyss's spiky 2X4 Janice. Bram also calls "her" Janice after he stealing the thing.

Roleplay

• In The Gamer's Alliance, a few characters have named weapons, some of which end up playing a big role in the plot. The most notable weapons are known as Dawn, Dokubaraken, Dusk, Inferno, Krystallopyr, Morninglight, Smaragdos, and Twilight.

Tabletop Games

• In Exalted, it's customary for daiklaves and other artifacts to be named by their wielders. Given that the aforementioned wielders are demigods who can reasonably expect to live for at least a few centuries and acquire quite a reputation in the interim, many of these weapons have attained legendary status in their own right.
• The Name enchantment in GURPS: Magic prevents a device's magic from functioning if the user doesn't know its name.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The God Emperor of Mankind, in his days in human flesh, is depicted as wielding a Flaming Sword, in conjunction with a Lightning Claw...and are a notable aversions so far. Arguably some of the most powerful and holy artifacts of the Imperium of Man remain unnamed, but that may change in future materials. Future texts of the tabletop game iteration of the HorusHeresy rolls out slowly, in parallel with the Siege of Terra finally being well underway with the novel series, and we might finally get some more information on the weapons wielded by the ever enigmatic Emperor. Then again, the game developers might be hesitant to roll out details about Big E, who is the most powerful general, warrior, and psyker in his day, but at the same time he was busy keeping the world from ending while to participate in the Heresy, even as it ground forward to his front doorstep, though that doesn't necessarily mean we won't get any names attached to those weapons. The Emperor's sword, later taken up by his son Roboute Guilliman, is a powerful relic weapon wielded by two legendary beings, had no known unique name; come 8th Edition, it's been officially named as the Emperor's Sword.
  • A story in Eldar mythology describes Anaris, "The Sword of Dawn Light." Anaris was ultimately the greatest work of the god Vaul, forged when Vaul accepted a bet with Khaine that he could forge 100 of the greatest swords ever within a year. On the last day, Vaul realized that he could not deliver on the last sword, so he hid a mortal sword in with the 99 divine ones. Realizing that Khaine would come for him for the deception, he poured all his skill into making Anaris. Anaris allowed Vaul to challenge Khaine, but he still lost; Khaine crippled Vaul in the fight and punished him by chaining him to his forge. Later, Anaris was used by a Eldar named Eldanesh (brought to him by Falcon) to challenge Khaine to personal combat. Khaine crushed him, and his brutal killing of Eldanesh earned him the title Kahla Mensha Khaine (Bloody Handed Khaine) and he became cursed to drip the blood of Eldanesh from his hand for all time. Whether Anaris was real or purely mythological is an open question, and it's speculated to be the sword currently in the possession of Commander Farsight of the Farsight Enclaves.
    • In spite of his victory, Khaine never used Anaris. His Avatars still wield his signature weapon the Wailing Doom, which sometimes takes the form of a spear, most often a sword, and it has ridges and holes that make it shriek like the damned with every swing.
    • Also, recent expansions to the fluff included a set of weapons Vaul creating a set of weapons known as the Crone Swords from the fingerbones of fellow goddess Morai-Heg. The mythology describes a story in which Morai-Heg asked Khaine to remove her hand so that she might drink her own blood for the gift of prophecy. Her hand was apparently given to Vaul for the purpose of making into weapons.
  • Huron Blackheart sports the "Tyrant's Claw" a power-fist with a heavy-flamer built into it's palm.
  • Abaddon the Despoiler sports the Talon of Horus, the weapon that struck down the Emperor and taken from the Warmaster himself after his death in one hand, and the demon sword Drach'nyen in the other. In Abaddon's case, he has a nice symmetry: the Talon was the weapon that "killed" the Emperor the first time, and Drach'nyen is the weapon that's prophecied to kill him the second time and for good. Time will tell if that's what actually happens.
    • In addition to the Talon, Horus also had a mace named Worldbreaker, said to have been forged by the Emperor himself while Horus was still a faithful and dutiful son. Horus was also skilled enough that he could use his weapons in tandem with little trouble. (In those days, if somebody had multiple melee weapons, they had to choose one, and only one, to use in a turn. Horus had a special rule that explicitly allowed him to split attacks between his weapons as he saw fit.)
    • Also, pretty much every demon weapon has its own personal name, usually the name of the daemon locked into the weapon. Don't let it get the best of you in the middle of a fight.
  • The majority of human technology in the universe is an ancient or passed-down relic of some kind, including spaceships. Many space marines wield a weapon or armor that was used by somebody else. Some of the most powerful or legendary weapons earn a name and become holy relics.
  • Speaking of spaceships, all ships in Rogue Trader that can be obtained by the player is assumed to be older then dirt and have an aged machine spirit. This can prove interesting when you notice the guns start firing themselves or the engine puts itself back together.
  • Open any Codex. Find any Special Character for that army. In their Wargear section you're almost guaranteed to find one or two unique, named weapons.
  • Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters, wielded the twin chain-axes Gorefather and Gorechild. He abandoned them after they were badly damaged during a battle in the early days of the Heresy. Against the Legion's traditions set in place by Angron himself and over his battle-brothers' protests, Kharn retrieved Gorechild and had it repaired for his own use. It has served him well ever since. Gorefather remained lost, though it resurfaced as a relic available to Chaos armies, meaning it changes hands regularly as the previous owner was killed or the weapon scavenged off the battlefield.
  • Tyberios, the Red Wake, of the Carcharodons has his ancient Combi-Power Weapons "Hunger" and "Slake", a pair of Lightning Claw gauntlest with chainblades beneath the palm.
• 7th Sea requires magic weapons created by the Laerdom (rune-drawing) Sorcery to be named.
• Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks will usually have at least one of these, and that doesn't even consider homebrew weapons.
• Each of the five hundred and seventy-two Abhorrent Weapons wielded by the Excrucians in Nobilis has two names: one for the Excrucian host and one to mock Creation.
• Magic: The Gathering has many, often for storyline characters' weapons. These are often represented in game by Legendary Equipment cards, and also depicted in artwork and named in flavor text or accompanying stories.
  • The Blackblade, a Soul Eating sword first forged and used by Dakkon Blackblade, and later reforged and wielded by Gideon Jura. This one is so infamous, when anyone carries it, They Call Him "Blackblade".
  • The Great Sword named (rather appropriately) Worldslayer, which kills ALL creatures, ALL lands, all...well, everything but itself, really.
  • Used by legends of Kamigawa: Oathkeeper, Takena's Daisho, Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang, and Tenza, Godo's Maul
  • Unscythe, Killer of Kings from Alara Reborn seems to turn creatures it slays into zombies.
  • Elbrus which doubles as a Tailor-Made Prison for a monstrous demon, Withengar.
  • The gods of Theros each have weapons, which seem to have a bad habit of getting stolen by mortals.
    • Purphoros, God of the Forge, was disarmed of his chaos sword by Heliod, God of the Sun. It was picked up by Elspeth and eventually reformed by Heliod into the sword-spear Godsend for Elspeth to wield as his champion. He would later use it to kill her.
    • The Shadowspear, formed from nightmares made real into a shadow copy of Khrusor, divine sun-spear of Heliod. As it was used in battle by Elspeth, its power grew more and more real with each public victory she claimed, draining the power of Khrusor in equal measure, until it became the true Khrusor and shattered the weapon wielded by Heliod when the two of them finally clashed.
    • Dekella, the bident of Thassa, God of the Sea, was stolen by Kiora to wield against the Eldrazi back on her home plane of Zendikar.
    • The whip of Erebos, God of the Dead is called Mastix. Nylea, God of the Hunt shoots poachers with her bow Ephixis. Purphoros uses his hammer Akmon for both craftsmanship and war.
  • Embercleave, intended as an homage to Excalibur in the Throne of Eldraine set based on European fairy tales and myths.
• Not seen often in BattleTech, but several 'Mechs and Vehicles get named by their pilots or crews in the Technical Readouts. Some exceptions, however, are seen in the gladiatorial games of Solaris VII, including Yen-Lo-Wang, the Centurion of father and son Solaris Champions Justin Allard and Kai Allard-Liao, or WidowMaker, the Dire Wolf of Col./Galaxy Commander Natasha Kerensky.
• In Warmachine/Hordes almost every single Warcaster or Warlock has a unique named weapon. Some minor characters also have them.
• From Warhammer, the eponymous warhammer wielded by Sigmar is named Ghal-Maraz, or "Skull-splitter".
  • Orc Warboss Grimgor Ironhide wields a double-bladed axe named Gitsnik.
  • Each of the Imperial Runefangs meant for the Elector Counts have their own name, and have changed their name through the years. Most refer to them as the "[Province] Runefang", but they do have their individual names as well: Mother's Ruin (Averland), Goblin Bane (Hochland), Legbiter (Middenland), Crow Feeder (Nordland), Brain Wounder (Ostland), Troll Cleaver (Ostermark), Dragon Tooth (Reikland), Orc Hewer (Stirland), Stone Breaker (Talabecland), Blood Bringer (Wissenland), Grudge Settler (Solland, lost province), and Beast Slayer (Drakwald, lost province).

Video Games

• In Dragon Quest, the Miracle Sword, the Sword of Kings (Erdrick's Sword), the Blizzard Blade, the Thunderbolt Blade, Mountaincleaver, Orochi's sword, the Zenithian Sword, and the Sword of Ramias.
• The trio of weapons used by the ranger Talion and his bound Elven wraith companion in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Being in the The Lord of the Rings universe, they have appropriately epic names and origins; Urfael is Talion's personal sword, Acharn is half of his dead son Dirhael's sword which Talion uses as his dagger, and Azkâr is the elf's bow.
• The vast majority of wargear in the single-player mode of Dawn of War II is named. Justified as a good 90% of all human technology in the Warhammer 40,000 universe is some form of ancient relic or passed down weapon. It's understandable that basically every found item is named or at least has a story behind it.
  • Very oddly averted in the case of the one item in the series that should by all rights have had a name; the Daemon Sword, usable by Eliphas the Inheritor. Considering that daemonic weapons in this universe are the result of literally putting a powerful daemon of Chaos in a sword or axe or something, they tend to be named after that particular daemon. Yet, Eliphas' blade is drably named simply as the 'Daemon Sword'.
• Any game based on Dungeons & Dragons will have examples of this trope: From Baldur's Gate for instance we have Blackrazor, Carsomyr, Celestial Fury, Crom Faeyr and Lilarcor.
• In Darksiders, each of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse has a weapon of choice with a name:
  • War has a BFS called Chaoseater.
  • Death's Morph Weapon which primarily takes the form of a Sinister Scythe is named Harvester.
  • Fury also has a Morph Weapon. In her case it is usually a Whip Sword and is named Scorn.
  • Strife wields two guns named Mercy and Retribution.
• In Muramasa: The Demon Blade, each of Muramasa's sword has its own name. The Vita re-release translates many of them into English.
• Via the Romance of the Three Kingdoms example, it's an inevitable carry-over to the Dynasty Warriors series and other Musou Warriors-related titles. The original names in the Asian ports for the weapons all tend to not only match the source material a lot more closely, but they're rife with Rule of Symbolism for several of the characters/historical figure portrayals each.
• Likewise Final Fantasy, although it is important to note that not all FF weapons with an odd name are this trope: many are simply names for types of weapons.
  • All of Irvine's guns are named after battleships, and in FFXII they are named after stars.
  • The Final Fantasy weapons are unique in that the best are consistent from game to game, while the weapons that are unique to a specific game tend to be either very powerful or plot-important. For example, Excalibur, Masamune, and the Ultima Weapon are all very powerful in Final Fantasy 3 through 7. The Mythgraven (or Legend) sword is plot-important in 4 (and can be reforged into the Excalibur; second or third strongest sword, depending on the remake), and so on.
• Most attainable weapons and all Keyblades in Kingdom Hearts have a name. The only exception is Xehanort's Keyblade. Its creator didn't bother to name it, though its first wielder playfully called it "No Name" as a joke.
• In Perish, all its weapons are granted mythological-sounding Greek names, like Ponos (the default sword), Labrys (an ax), Zophos (the revolver), Eos (a stiletto dagger), and so on.
• Literally every weapon of blue or better rarity in World of Warcraft will be an example of this.... and there are a lot of weapons of blue or better rarity. A list of even just the well-known ones would require not only a separate page, but a whole separate website.
  • "Classic" alone (meaning the game without any expansion packs) had:
    • 540 blue weapons, from Firebelcher, Serpent's Kiss, Black Malice, and Skycaller to Doomulus Prime and Thoughtblighter;
    • 244 purple weapons, like Quel'Serrar, Ashbringer, Benediction, and Destiny; and
    • Four orange or "Legendary" weapons: Sulfuras, Thunderfury, Atiesh, and Andonisus, Reaper of Souls. The latter is not well-remembered because it was only used once in a specific quest chain and would disappear when taken out of the dungeon in which that quest took place.
  • Many weapons were also featured in lore without, or before, becoming available in-game. These include:
    • Frostmourne, the sword that stole the soul of Arthas Menethil and turned him into a Death Knight and the future Lich King in Warcraft III.
    • The Doomhammer, stone hammer blessed by the elements held by Ogrimm Doomhammer then Thrall.
    • Gorehowl, the axe wielded by Grommash Hellscream and later his son Garrosh.
    • The Warglaives of Azzinoth, wielded by Illidan Stormrage since Warcraft III.
    • The Ashbringer, forged by King Magni Bronzebeard and wielded by Alexandros Mograine against the undead Scourge.
• Soul Series has Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. Every character has also their own named weapons, like Ivy's Valentine or Voldo's Manas & Ayus.
  • Edge Master averts this because he believes that weapons are nothing more than tools and that a strong soul is what makes a strong warrior. All of his weapons are nameless.
    • SoulCalibur II's Weapon Gallery implies at some point he came across Xianghua and gave her a jian to replace the one that Soul Calibur had been masquerading as in thanks for vanquishing Soul Edge and Inferno. Xianghua in turn does not name the weapon herself out of respect for his philosophy.
  • Yoshimitsu runs with this concept and turns it into an Inverted Trope: the sword is named "Yoshimitsu", named for the man who first used it. Everyone who has used the sword since is simply known as "Yoshimitsu", which means the identity of whoever wields the sword is meaningless to the Manji Clan, they are simply the avatar of the blade's will. This tradition carries through to the modern day.
• Nearly all mid-tier weapons onwards in the Dark Cloud series, whether they are swords, bracelets, guns, or hammers.
• Due to the very nature of the works it's based on, (see Literature), The Lord of the Rings Online adapts this trope in a few ways. First, like most MMOs various special characters, quest rewards and drops feature unique names. Second, any crafted weapon of sufficient quality allows a crafter to "name" it, with the name appearing as a field for that weapon's tooltip. Finally, with the introduction of "Mines of Moria" a Legendary Items mechanic was introduced, allowing players to acquire special weapons with their own advancement (first by drops, then by crafting) that allowed, among other things, the ability to rename your weapon on a "reforge". Unlike the crafting example however, this name is displayed predominantly at the top in the actual item name's section of the tooltip.
• Fallout 3 features a wide assortment of small, big, unarmed, melee, and energy weapons, but the ones with names (Ol' Painless, Vengeance, Eugene,) are always better than their mundane counterparts.
  • Fallout: New Vegas does this with weapons like Maria, Ratslayer and The All-American while including some totally unique weapons like Euclid's C-Finder and "That Gun". The 'always better than their mundane counterparts' aspect is less true, though, due to the introduction of the modular upgrading system — the named weapons can't be upgraded, while their mundane counterparts can, though in some cases the named version already has an upgrade or two inherently attached to it.
  • Fallout 4 allows you to give any weapon you have a name (with a few exceptions like Ashmaker due to how it's gained and coded) as well as some already named ones like Final Judgement, Deliverer and Old Faithful.
• Titan Quest has two tiers of such weapons; the Heroic and Legendary weapons. While some do have mundane names (e.g. Chromatic Staff), there are other, more impressive-sounding weapons (e.g. Magebane)
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The series has countless examples. Almost every single Legendary Weapon and Infinity +1 Sword has a name, and even a great number of lesser weapons are named. A list can be found here.
  • If you enchant a generic weapon, you can name it whatever you want.
• All weapons in Fate/stay night not only have a name, they do cool stuff when you call the name out. Example, Excalibur turns into a Wave Motion Sword and Gaebolg stabs you in the heart, no matter what.
  • The series' ultimate weapon plays with the trope: it is a sword so powerful that it has the capability to annihilate the entirety of Earth and everything on it. However, as it preceded humanity, it has no name, unique among all the weapons in the game. Gilgamesh calls it "Ea", but admits that that is just his name for it, not its "true" name (which doesn't exist).
• NetHack has multiple pre-named artifact weapons, but it also allows you to give a name to any weapon, and even nonweapon items. A running gag among players is to use an absurd item (like a thoroughly-rusted tin opener) to do in Vlad the Impaler, widely considered to be a Breather Boss at most, and subsequently naming the joke item "Vladsbane". Certain weapons, the act of naming them something in particular MAKES them an artifact. Orcrist and Sting from elven broadsword and elven dagger respectively.
• In Diablo II, all magic weapons are named. Names in yellow are random Noun+Verber; names in green are part of a set (and usually named for the set); names in brown are unique epic-level weapons. As a quest reward, you can ask a person to inscribe one of your objects with your name.
• PAYDAY 2 lets players name any of their guns. Many of the optional weapon skins (like Vlad's Rodina or The Colonel) have descriptions implying they're a specific notable gun from in-world history.
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning goes a step further with its unique loot. Not only do these items have names, but each one also comes with a short paragraph about its history.
• In The Godfather: The Game, the level 3 upgraded weapons have special names: "Saturday Night Special" for the .38 snubnose, "Assassin's Pistol" for the pistol, "Python" for the Magnum (though this probably refers to the Colt Python rather than being a unique name), "Dilinger" for the Tommygun and "Street Sweeper" for the shotgun.
• The Fire Emblem games usually have names drawn from legends for legendary weapons; lesser named weapons may also appear in some games, such as Lyn's Mani Katti from the seventh game and Ephraim's Reginleif from the eighth.
  • Owain from Fire Emblem: Awakening staunchly believes that naming a weapon grants it special powers. He's often right... but not always. His very own unique sword, Missiletainn, for example, is only slightly better than a generic steel sword. Its legendary cousin Mystletainn, on the other hand...
    Owain: A name confers a soul unto an inanimate object and grants it power! It transforms a mere tool into a divine instrument possessed of limitless potential!
    • Turns out he was right, because in Fire Emblem Fates, Owain, now named Odin has a character-unique skill where a forged weapon with a name with at least 12 characters will increase the character's critical hit rate by 10%.
  • The sword of the royal family of Akaneia, wielded by Marth himself, is named Falchion. When you consider that that's also the name of a type of sword, it sort of feels a bit like A Dog Named "Dog", though it doubles as Non-Indicative Name^note A real falchion's blade is single-edged and curved like a machete, while Marth's Falchion is straight and double-edged.
• Deus Ex: Invisible War has a few, such as the Hellfire Boltcaster.
• Quest for Glory has Soulforge, a paladin's sword. When it is lost to stop the demon invasion in the third game, you acquire a new paladin sword that, notably, does not have a name.
• Castlevania has the Vampire Killer; a whip which does just that. For bonus points the series is quite stuffed with various other Public Domain Artifacts from the mythology section.
• Legacy of Kain gives us the Soul Reaver, key plot element in many games. In a more minor example, the axes Kain wielded in the original Blood Omen were called "Havoc and Malice".
• In Team Fortress 2, you can do this with your weapons, even with names other than "Sasha". The standard names given to unlockable weapons largely follow this style as well, as opposed to being mundane descriptions or technical-sounding model names, though they are not unique.
• Creatures in Dwarf Fortress occasionally name their own weapons if they kill a historically significant figure, giving the weapon semi-artifact status.
  • Even if said figure is a resident of your fortress.
  • Artifact weapons created by moody dwarves also get names. Although the randomly-generated names (or rather the English translation of the names) are often somewhat underwhelming. Such as Totmontorir, The Flowery Void, a giant leopard bone battle axe (which, for the record, is encrusted with bismuthinite and studded with electrum, menaces with spikes of native silver and violet spessartine, has an image of a dwarf in giant leopard bone, an image of a mountain in giant leopard bone, an image of clouds in human bone and and image of clouds in rose gold).
• The Legend of Zelda series has a few, chief among them the Master Sword, also known as The Blade of Evil's Bane.
• Dragon Age: Origins has several, including two specifically forged for the player: Starfang and Vigilance. (Both are available only in DLC expansion packs.)
  • Many more are found in Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition. In Inquisition, the player receives the option to craft their own, and can name it whatever they like.
• Many weapons in Warriors of Might and Magic, including: Wild Winter, Bravery and Angel Arm.
• The Devil Arms are named in the Devil May Cry series, such as Lucifer in DMC4 and Nevan in DMC3, plus most of the playable characters' weapons (Rebellion with Ebony and Ivory for Dante, Yamato for Vergil, Red Queen and Blue Rose for Nero). The exceptions would be some of Dante's firearms in DMC2 but even that game gives us Lucia's Zambak and Klyamoor swords. In Devil May Cry 5, one of the new Devil Arms Dante wields is named the Devil Sword Dante. Unlike the other Devil Arms, this is a weapon born from Dante's own power.
• Touhou Project: Youmu has Roukanken and Hakurouken. Tenshi has the Hisou no Tsurugi, though that's as much a description as a name. Miko presumably^note She's based on a historical figure and visibly carrying it, but it's never mentioned has the Shichiseiken. Fanon gives Remilia and Flandre Gungnir and Laevateinn respectively, but canonically they just have spellcards named for them.
• In RuneScape players can earn the daggers Wolfbane (stops the men and women of Canifis from transforming into werewolves when equipped) and Keris (hits harder on a race of giant beetles known as kalphites), the axe Balmung (hits harder on the aquatic dagannoth species) and the swords Silverlight (good against demons), Darklight (Silverlight stained with the blood of a certain demon, lowers the defense of demons) and Excalibur (raises player's defense, or can be enchanted to heal players after performing certain tasks).
• Asura's Wrath gives us Augus's sword, Wailing Dark.
• The Neverwinter Nights series has literally hundreds of these. Small wonder, since it's based on D&D.
• Basically every weapon wielded by Kratos in the God of War-series counts as these: Blades of Chaos/Athena/Exile, Blade of Artemis, Spear of Destiny, Blade of Olympus... the list goes on and on.
• All the weapons carried by the hero(es) in the Onimusha-series are named weapons... well, maybe excluding the "Normal Sword".
• The Hitman franchise has the "Silverballers", a customised pair of M1911 pistols with the games' fleur-de-lis logo on the grip, which has been a staple since Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. The default silenced pistol in Hitman (2016) is called the "ICA 19", with many fans nicknaming it "The Blackballer", given its black generic look and colour and identical stats to the Silverballer.
• Shin Megami Tensei is big on this trope. Raidou games, the first two core games and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey include the possibility of creating legendary weapons, some of which are mentioned above. Persona 3 includes the Weapon Fusion system, in which particularly strong Personae are fused into Nihil weapons to create named weapons of awesome power (such as Michael's Sword, Metatronius, or Vajra).
• The Valis Sword and its counterpart, Leethus.
• In the Kirby series, Meta Knight's powerful sword is named Galaxia. Another sword of his, called Master, appears in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, where it serves double duty as the game's 11th-Hour Superpower.
• Every single artifact and relic in Might and Magic VI to VIII has a name. This includes a fair number of weapons. There are also a couple of items that technically aren't artifacts or relics, but have unique names, some of which are weapons.
• The Sims Medieval has a few, like Goblinsbane and Wyrmslayer, as well as the Doomsword.
• Let us not forget Half-Life 2 and Father Grigori's Annabelle
• The Borderlands series: Multiple weapons that can be acquired have names, namely the rare unique (often given as a quest reward), legendary (rare drop from any suitable source), and pearlescent rarities, in the games that have them. Examples include: "The Gasher", "The Hellfire" and "The Butcher". Most named weapons often contain pop culture references to other media of the time of the game's development.
• In Skullgirls, famous wrestler Beowulf's folding metal chair is so famous that it received the name "The Hurting", a play on his namesake's "Hrunting".
• Dark Souls and Dark Souls II have named weapons aplenty. These are usually weapons crafted from boss souls or dropped by them under special circumstances. To emphasize the effects of the passing of time between the games, a few of the named weapons and armor in the first game lose their names in the sequel. The Abyssal Greatsword of Artorias for example is known only as the Majestic Greatsword in the sequel, and is now just a fossilized blade gathering dust. Either that, or their names are the only part of their history that anyone still remembers. Havel's set for example still retains its name, but no one knows who or what "Havel" was anymore.
• In The Horde, the sword Chauncey uses is named Grimthwacker.
• Every weapon Video Game/Bayonetta can wield has a name, most of them given by the Fallen Angel weaponsmith Rodin. The most iconic come in sets of four magic pistols, wielded in each hand and heel.
  • In the original game Rodin crafts Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, known collectively as the Scarborough Fair (a Shout-Out to Simon & Garfunkel). Throughout the rest of the game, additional weapons can also be obtained, each with their own names based somewhat on the demons their powers are appropriated from.
  • Rodin returns in Bayonetta 2 crafting new guns named Prelude, Minuet, Toccata and Nocturne, known collectively as Love Is Blue (this time a Shout-Out to André Popp and Pierre Cour). Instead of just having names based on the demons they represent, additional weapons are actually named after said demons, as their souls are sucked into the weapons this time to fuel their infernal powers.
  • Bayonetta 3 features a new set of pistols named Yellow Sunshine, Orange Blossom, Green Grass and Blue Sky, known together as Color My World (a Shout-Out to Petula Clark). The set are Rodin’s work as usual, but most of the others are ambiguous as they are collected from alternate universes. Each is also connected to, and usually references, an infernal demon that Bayonetta can form a contract with (with Color My World representing her main partner, Madama Butterfly).
• Every major character from Jitsu Squad wields a named weapon. And sometimes they'll name-drop their weapons while executing their special movies e.g. "Sakura Flash!"
  • Hero, the, uh, the hero swings a katana called the "Sakura Blade".
  • Baby O'Hara uses twin kunais, which she named "Usagi" ("Rabbit" in Japanese, fittingly she's an andromorphic rabbit-person).
  • Jazz Amun the Warrior Monk carries a mace he calls "Ishtal".
  • Aros Helgason, the sole Viking of the squad, wields a BFS claymore named "Balder".
• In Kingdom of Loathing, choosing to play a New Game Plus as an Avatar of Boris (an ancient legendary hero) nets you the axe Trusy for the duration of the playthrough, and in fact it's the only weapon you're allowed to use that run. Fluff will explain that it was an ordinary axe he picked up early in his career a Barbarian Hero, and he kept it for the rest of his life, until it gained some degree of magicalness because everyone assumed it had to be special.
• Ultima:
  • In Ultima II, Enilno, the Quicksword.
  • In Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part II, The Black Sword.
  • In Ultima VII Part II, The Hammer of Dedication, and Erinon's Axe.
  • In Ultima Underworld II, The Mace of Undead Bane, the Axe of Life Stealing, the Axe of Fire Doom, and the Cudgel of Entry.
  • In Ultima VIII, the swords Flame Sting, Blade of Striking, and Protector, the Scimitar of Khumash-Gor, and the mace Slayer, the axe Deceiver, the hammer Bone Crusher, and the dagger Korghin's Fang.
  • In Ultima IX, the sword Gringolet.
• XCOM 2 allows naming weapons, but after a few playthroughs, most players will start simply naming them after the upgrades they've received. In the Expansion Pack War of the Chosen, the Chosen use named weapons against XCOM; the Assassin uses the Arashi shotgun and the definitely-not-a-Katana, and the Hunter uses the Darklance railgun and Darkclaw revolver. The Warlock barely ever touches his "Disruptor Rifle", preferring instead to ham it up while spamming psionic attacks.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Some of the crafted equipment, like the staffs, "Fairy Light" and "Ice Princess", and Rutger's personal sword, "Mothcutter".
• Warframe: Every single weapon has a unique name, sometimes with a brief line about its history hidden in the codex. The warframe signature weapons tend to get more attention than the others.
  • The Design-It-Yourself Equipment availble to players (in the form of ranged Kitguns and melee Zaws) can be given unique names by players as part of the gilding process once it has leveled enough to be proven.
  • Kuva Liches and Sisters of Parvos carry unique, powerful variants of common weapons, often with additional effects. These weapons are named after the Liches/Sisters themselves, leading to examples like "Akk Brugg Kuva Karak."
• Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War has the daemonhammer "God-Splitter" wielded by Inquisitor Mordecai Toth before being given to then 3rd Company Captain Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens. "God-Splitter" gets it's name for the fragment of Suin Daellae, The Wailing Doom, inside it. Having a fragment of the Wailing Doom, the weapon of the Eldar Avatar of Khaine, means that God-Splitter is much stronger agiasnt the forces of Chaos than a standard daemonhammer.
• Ninja Gaiden:
  • First and foremost is the Dragon Sword, wielded by the main protagonist Ryu Hayabusa. Carved from the tooth of an ancient dragon, it has been passed down through generations to the Dragon Lineage’s current heir and can only be used by one who is descended of the Dragon Lineage bloodline. When equipped with the Eye of the Dragon it becomes the more powerful True Dragon Sword. Other examples of this trope in Ryu's arsenal are the Lunar Staff and the Fiend's Bane Bow.
  • Then there is Kitetsu, the demonic sword used by Doku, The Dragon of the first Team Ninja game. It is a cursed sword that feeds on the souls of those slain by its blade. When equipped, the player most kill all enemies as the Kitetsu leeches off the life meter. To stop the vampiric effect completely, the player must equip the Armlet of Tranquility.
  • When playable, Ayane uses a pair of short swords called the Fuma Kodachi ("Wind Dancer Short Swords" in English).
  • In Ninja Gaiden 2, the Greater Fiend Volf wields a Sinister Scythe called the Eclipse Scythe. Ryu takes it after killing him.
  • In her playable appearance in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, the Fiend hunter Rachel uses the Inferno Hammer an upgraded form of her War Hammer from the previous game.
  • Also in Sigma 2, the Dragon Shrine Maiden Momiji uses the Heavenly Dragon Naginata and the Heavensong Bow.
  • In Ninja Gaiden 3, we have Jinran-Maru (Japanese for "Rapid Storm"). It is the Ancestral Weapon of the Mugen Tenshin clan, the ninja clan that Ryu's friend Hayate belongs to and is currently the leader of. Hayate loans it to Ryu during the story. When wielded with the Blade of the Archfiend, the Ultimate Technique is shown sending out multiple slashing wind blades in the end.
  • In Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge Kasumi's main weapon is a sword called Shrouded Moon which she holds in a Reverse Grip.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • Sento is the name of the ancient and powerful katana wielded by the blind swordsman Kenshi Takahashi. Making its debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Sento has been wielded by Kenshi's ancestors, the great warrior monarchs of Europe and Asia. Kenshi acquired the sword when Shang Tsung tricked him into helping the sorcerer steal the souls of his ancestors. Having been left blinded by the spirits, Kenshi took up Sento and vowed to free his ancestors' souls from Shang Tsung.
  • Also from Deadly Alliance is the Kirehashi. Wielded by Reptile, it is an ancient blade and lost relic to the Saurians.
  • Mortal Kombat: Deception has Datusha, the Bane of the Moroi. Wielded by the Ascended Demon Ashrah, the weapon is a powerful vampire slaying tool that manipulates its owners into killing vampires purely to satiate the sword's bloodlust, while having the user think they are fighting for a higher purpose.
  • In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the wind god Fujin uses a BFS called the Devastator. In Mortal Kombat 11, he wields a shorter sword called Kusanagi.
• Idle Mine Remix: Some of your pickaxes get weird names in addition to their descriptive labels, like "Uzhobk" or "Abajozo".
• Prayer of the Faithless: Some Soulfire weapons, such as Thanatos, a Soulfire axe that feeds off the malice from within its wielder.
• In Bug Fables, the Wasp King has a name for his axe - "Slayer".
• In Hollow Knight, Zote the Mighty gave his shellwood nail the name "Life Ender", under belief that names have power, and that giving your weapon a powerful name makes it stronger. In practice, however, it's completely incapable of ending anyone's life.
• Minecraft Dungeons: Nearly every unique weapon is this, though there are some exceptions like the Highland Axe and Broadsword. There is also the Backstabber, which is the only non-unique weapon to be named.
• In the first two Myth: The Fallen Lords games, King Alric wields the enchanted sword Balmung. It's ability to create chain lightning with every swing combined with Alric's wizardly toughness makes him more than a match for all but the most elite members of Balor's army.
• Cyberpunk 2077: V can collect a whole set of unique named weapons that they can then use or display in the armory in their apartment. They can be found as loot on high-level enemies, lying around in different places on the map, or given as quest rewards. Many of them are signature weapons of V's friends and allies. Special mentions go to the four weapons V can get as rewards for their friends'/love interests' personal quests (Judy gives them a unique shotgun called "Mox", Panam gives them a sniper rifle called "Overwatch", Kerry gives them an engraved revolver called "Archangel" and River gives them a revolver called "Crash").
• Halo 5: Guardians includes a handful of these. Some appear in the campaign, such as Kelly's unique shotgun "Oathsworn", Linda's sniper rifle "Nornfang", and the Arbiter's unique enegry sword "Prophet's Bane". There are more in the Multiplayer, unlocked randomly through REQ packs. Named weapons usually provide some stat boost or otherwise change gameplay from the basic version, for example using "Nornfang" keeps the motion tracker on the user's HUD when looking through the scope, whereas it disappears with a normal sniper rifle.
• MechWarrior Online features the numerous Champion 'Mechs, variants of the stock designs with greater earning potential and oftentimes very unusual loadouts. Champions have unique names and are often patterned after existing examples in the lore, such as Yen-Lo-Wang. Because of the way the game works, Champions are not unique; it is possible (and indeed, very common in the game's early days) for a match to feature two or three Yen-Lo-Wangs, for instance.
• Starfield has a number of unique weapons that carry appropriate names and unique models, such as the revolver given to Freestar Rangers. Some can be looted from unique enemies as well. There's also unique ships, which can be based on a standard design but have a unique look or feature to differentiate them from the countless "Crimson Fleet Wraiths", for example.

Visual Novels

• Celeste McCoy's sword in Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is named Crimson Lotus. Fitting, because the sword is dark red and her favorite drink is lotus juice.

Web Animation

• RWBY: Almost every single character has a unique Morph Weapon/Swiss-Army Weapon with a unique name. For example, Teams RWBY and JNPR have the following: Crescent Rose (Ruby's sniper-scythe); Myrtenaster (Weiss' rapier); Gambol Shroud (Blake's chain sword-pistol); Ember Celica (Yang's shotgun gauntlets); Crocea Mors (Jaune's sword/shield); Magnhild (Nora's war hammer/grenade launcher); Miló and Akoúo̱ (Pyrrha's javelin/short sword/hunting rifle and shield); and StormFlower (Ren's twin gattling gun-blades). In short, the names of every weapon feeds into each character's personality and fighting style.

Webcomics

• Aurora (2019): The god Vash named his sword "Kendal", literally meaning "right hand", because it was forged from a piece of metal that he used to replace his incarnation's actual right hand during an important battle.
• Biter Comics: In one strip, a samurai preparing to fight explains to his foe how doomed he is, as he faces the mighty Giumetsu, the Soul Taker.
• Darken: Komiyan picks up an intelligent weapon called Blackshard. Whether Shard is strictly a weapon is debatable, since it (he?) has since taken over the body of a drow.
• Girl Genius: Andronicus Valois, the Storm King, once wielded a sword called Archimedes' Lever and a mace called the Platonic Solid. Both had special properties thanks to Sparky tampering. The Jägermonsters, in a Shout-Out to The Hobbit, referred to them as Slasher and Smasher, respectively.
• Homestuck: Most alchemized weapons are named.
  • At the start of his adventures, John creates a hybrid hammer-and-clothes-iron called the Wrinklefucker, a giant, extendable hammer called the Telescoping Sassacrusher, and an umbrella made of razor blades called the Barber's Best Friend. He later obtains Fear No Anvil, a garnet-headed hammer capable of freezing its targets in time, and the harlequin-themed Warhammer of Zillyhoo and Pop-a-Matic Vrillyhoo Hammer.
  • Rose's initial foray in alchemization results in a pair of Dark Magic Wands called the Thorns of Oglogoth. She later replaces them with the safer, but still powerful, Quills of Echidna.
  • Dave's primary weapon is a sword called Caledscratch, created from the blade Caledfwlch.
  • On entering the Medium, Jade creates a few named guns, namely the Girl's Best Friend and Green Sun Streetsweeper.
  • After entering the Medium, Karkat makes himself a sickle called Homes Smell You Later.
  • At some point offscreen, Kanaya obtains a chainsaw called the Demonbane Ragripper.
  • Eridan's favorite weapon is a handheld Wave-Motion Gun called Ahab's Crosshairs.
  • Feferi uses a double-ended trident called Ψdon's Entente, which she later replaces with the more powerful Brainfork.
• morphE: Amical has an enchanted flintlock pistol named Fivesies. It's quite magical.
• Penny Arcade: "Will you face me? This tube goes by many names, some you are worthy to hear. The Waking-Dragon, coiled, as spring dawns. Hawk's-Harvest, seizing prey in the tall summer grass. Autumn-Razor, the patient hunter. The Famine-Of-Winter, that kills the babe at it's mother's empty breast. So, will you face me? I, who hold the very reigns of the world?"
• Sluggy Freelance: Torg's talking sword thinks the idea of naming weapons is stupid, though it confesses that over the years it has picked up a few, like "Weeping God," "Unholy Evil Death Bringer," and "Chaz." Torg decides to call it Chaz.
• Unsounded:
  • Lemuel named his pair of swords, and is almost frantic in his care of them.
  • Sette named Toby's cinqueda after stealing it.

Web Original

• In Jeffrey C. Wells's The Proving Ground series, Kelli Thunderhold, Paladin of Righteousness, has a mithral sword whose creator named it, in Elven, Arinya’Tavar. This translates to Common as "Morning Wood", elves being into forests and stuff. She is really disquieted when she gets told what else "morning wood" means.
  Kelli: You know what? I don't even care! I don’t care what my sword is called! It’s a great sword, in addition to being an actual greatsword! As far as mid-level two-handed martial weapons go, you’re really not going to do better than holy crap my sword is named after some elf-dude’s junk.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time
  • "His Hero" introduces veteran hero Billy, whose sword is (presumably) called "Nothung", after Siegfried's sword in Der Ring des Nibelungen (the same sword that's referred to as Gram and Balmung in the Myth & Legend section). However, since this is a show for kids who would be highly unlikely to get the reference, it was probably just an excuse to have Billy shout "No tongue!" every time he calls his sword.
  • In "Little Brother", Shelby's brother Kent gets a new sword forged to fight the Rat King, and he names it "Punch Party".

Real Life

• Norse warriors of the Viking era had a tendency to name their weapons, in imitation of their Migration Era ancestral heroes. Examples crop up by the hundreds in the sagas, which are all part-real history, part-heroic legendry (the proportion varies from pure history to mostly fiction). Just one confirmably historical example would be Grasida ("Greyside"), which began as a sword, was broken, and then was reforged into a spear that went on to serve Gisli, son of Sur, for the rest of his life. Part of this is due to the tendency in Norse poetry to name everything: the kettle the cook uses in Valhalla, the different chains the gods try binding the Fenris-wolf with, each of the rocks they attach those chains to, the thread used to sew Loki's lips together, and on and on. There was a practical reason for the Norsemen's tendency to give names to objects (particularly weapons and shields): They believed in spells that could enhance the effectiveness of inanimate objects, but they all involved speaking the item's name. Therefore, a "nameless" item could not be enhanced through magic spells.
• Boleslaw III of Poland carried a sword named Grus.
• The ceremonial sword of Polish kings, Szczerbiec. The name refers to a jagged chip in the blade, attributed to it being symbolically used to mark King Bolesław's conquest of Kiev. Reality is mundane: The sword is dated to 300 years after the conquest, it wasn't chipped against the gates, but as a result of rust, and the blade itself is actually combat-worthy. History has no record of accidental limb removal or bodily injury, though.
• Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law, carried the two-pointed sword Zulfiqar. It occasionally shows up on modern banners, and has actually become a personal name among Muslims in South Asia (e.g. former Prime Minister and then President of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto).
• Ssangyonggeom (Twin Dragon Sword), two swords belonging to General Yi Sun-shin who saved the country from 1592 Japanese Invasion. Ssangyonggeom are now lost, but Jewon-Geom (which is a staggering two-meters long), Yi Sun-sin's ritual sword, still exists.
• Among the insignia of the Holy Roman Empire (now in Vienna) is the Holy Lance, better known to many English-speakers as The Spear of Destiny. It was carried into the victorious battle of the Lechfeld against the Hungarians by Otto the Great.
• The Crusaders named their trebuchets during the Siege of Acre (in the Third Crusade) "God's Own Sling" and "Evil Neighbor;" the defending Arabs countered with "Evil Kinsman." The first two of these show up in Age of Empires II. When you're playing as Saladin. Meaning those things are pointed at you.
• Another famous named trebuchet was Edward I Longshanks' "Warwolf" used during the siege of Stirling Castle. A replica of it can be seen today at Caerlaverock Castle.
• "The Gadget" was the first nuclear device ever detonated, in the Trinity test. It got its name because it was not a deployable weapon, but stationary on a tower, and because revealing words like bomb were not used for fear of espionage.
• The "Fat Man" and "Little Boy," the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, respectively.
• In the old days before industrialized steel production, quite a number of cannons and other artillery pieces were given individual names inscribed on the barrel when they were cast (rather as could happen to bells, which were often cast at the same foundry). Examples ranging at least until The Napoleonic Wars can be seen e.g. in the court of honor at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. Other examples include the early big cannon "Faule Grete" (Lazy Meg) used by Elector Frederick I, the first Hohenzollern ruler of Brandenburg, to knock down the walls of the castles of his Quitzow foes in the second decade of the 15th century, "Faule Mette" (likewise) of Brunswick, "Dulle Griet" (Mad Meg; apparently Margarets were popular namesakes for bombards) of Ghent, and "Pumhart von Steyr" of Austria. Another Margaret, the giant mediaeval bombard Mons Meg, can be seen today on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle. A bombard from Flanders, known as "the Lion", is famous for exploding and causing the death of King James II of Scotland in 1460 during the siege of Roxburgh Castle.
• Daniel Boone (possibly apocryphally) named his custom rifle "tick licker" because he claimed to be able to shoot a tick off an animal without hurting it.
• Little David was a test mortar for American aerial bombs in World War II. Modified as a field piece for Operation Downfall, the Japanese surrender meant that it never saw use in the field.
• Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are four training cannons used by the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute in the Civil War; they are still on display today.
• Hereward the Wake had a sword named Brainbiter.
• Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated.
  • The name is derived from Tsar Pushka, a massive (19.5 feet long, 35 inch bore) bronze cannon built at the Kremlin Armoury in 1586. Tsar Pushka was never used in combat, though it seems to have been test fired at some point in its history, and was probably built as a demonstration of Russia's prowess at bronze-casting.
• In many armies, such as that of the United States, along with those countries' military academies and military schools, recruits and cadets are issued rifles that they are required to name.
• Most IT people name the machines they manage.
  • Most people who manage their own domains name all the computers on the domain for easy reference. This edit was made on a computer named Gurthang.
• Ships, submarines, sailboats, and their remote-controlled counterparts all tend to have names. Sometimes they are named in honor of someone special to the captain, other times it's just to make it easier to refer to the craft. It's so common that it's considered bad luck to change the name of a ship, though most cultures have a proper ceremony for such an occasion.
  • For example, in 1944 the escort carrier USS Midway (CVE-63), which had been in operation for a year already, was renamed USS St. Lo in order to free up the name, taken from the most significant naval battle of the war, for the new supercarrier USS Midway (CV-41). Afterward, the ship was considered to be cursed for having been stripped of her name. Two weeks later St. Lo was sunk by a kamikaze.
• The British muskets of the Revolutionary War were called Brown Bess, although Bess is a corruption of buss (gun) as in blunderbuss.
• Munitions:
  • The WWI-era German howitzer Big Bertha — though this is a type designation, not a name for a specific weapon as many think. There's also Schwerer Gustav/Heavy Gustaf. The youngest, Long Gustaf, could have ranged London from the French coast, but was damaged in a bombing raid and never completed.
  • The largest gun ever created is the Nazis' 80-cm. cannon. They called it Dora. It and Heavy Gustav were the only two of their (unnamed) type.
  • The "Katyusha" rocket launchers used by Soviet Union during World War II. (Also called "Stalin's Organ" by the Germans.)
  • The M65 Atomic Cannon was given the nickname "Atomic Annie".
  • The short-lived and rather dangerous M28 and M29 Davy Crockett nuclear-tipped recoiless rifle.
• In World War I the French troops nicknamed the standard-issue bayonet "Rosalie."
• Warplanes were and are often painted with pet names and naked women, almost enough to cross into true Companion Cube territory. Although still somewhat prevalent, it began to die out during the Korean War when an Air Force general's wife became indignant.
• The vast majority of United States Army equipment in World War II had alphanumeric codes followed by a generic description, such as the "Medium Tank M3". Over the course of the war, most gear acquired names from soldiers and commanders, such as the Medium Tank M3 being named the "(General) Lee" by US soldiers and "(General) Grant" by UK soldiers. Sometimes the names were slightly less than flattering, like the aforementioned M3 Lee being nicknamed a "grave for seven men" by tankers in the Soviet Union. The trend was averted in later years with official names (like the modern M1 Abrams)
  • Oddly enough, it was actually the British who started the tradition of naming American tanks after American commanders, since the British actually used the names as official designations, as opposed to just being nicknames. (So what the Americans designated the Medium Tank, M4, the British designated the Sherman I). The fact that the Americans fielded (and provided to the British) both a "Light Tank, M3" (dubbed Stuart by the British) along with the aforementioned "Medium Tank, M3" led to the realization that using names was less confusing than the sometimes extremely similar alphanumeric codes, and the British names were widely adopted. Since then, the vast majority of American military vehicles have been given official nicknames.
• By tradition warships are allowed more grandiose names than merchantmen being often named after items of religious or ideological significance (Constitution), or simply warlike qualities (victory, conqueror, devastation, and so on). In the Athenian navy at Salamis there was a trireme that translated roughly to "liberty" and another two named "rape" and "pillage".
• The M2 Browning .50 cal machine gun is quite commonly (But probably not officially) called the Ma Deuce.
• The Right Arm of the Free World is a widely and commonly accepted nickname for the Fusil Automatique Léger or FN FAL. Designed and built in Belgium by Fabrique National, it was widely exported to and adopted by many Western nations.
• Related to all the Vera examples, it's not uncommon for Infantryman to name their rifles. This is done for two purposes. 1: So that that the soldier in question will be more inclined to take good care of the weapon (you name it you care for it). 2: So that when the quartermaster is rummaging through weapons to hand out to the unit, he only needs to know the name of the rifle to grab ^note  Which is easier for the soldier to remember, as opposed to the serial number ^note  which the soldier in question may not remember.

---