A strange form of Theme Naming is to give characters names which either contain numbers, or which are numbers. Whatever this says about the characters' parents and/or author, it does make it easier to keep track of who's who.
Note that this only applies to proper names. For one who is given a number instead of a name, see You Are Number 6. For a more specific sort of numerical theme naming, see One, Two, Three, Four, Go!, Seven Is Nana and Goroawase Number. On albums, may overlap with Self-Referential Track Placement. A Sub-Trope of Scientific and Technological Theme Naming, as its mathematical branch.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Baggataway, the members of the lacrosse team all have a number in their name. Ichizaki Mutsuka (Ichi = 1), Kisaragi Nina (Ni = 2), the Santou sisters, Kanna and Yayoi (San = 3, Tou = 10), Amaai Shiho and Shihatsu Touko (Shi = 4), Gotou Satsuki (Go = 5) Mizushino Rokuna (Roku = 6), Nanase Fumi (Nana = 7), Yaegaki "Hachi" Kazuha (Ya and Hachi = 8), and Nagasako "Kuumin" Kumi (Kyuu/Kuu = 9). Finally, although the main protagonist, Utsugi "Sora" Shizuku, doesn't have one, the character for "Shizuku" can be confused at a glance with the one for 0 (雫 versus 零).
- There's even another round of Theme Naming - all the team members have the name of a month in the traditional Japanese calendar incorporated somehow into their names, which also (mostly) corresponds with their theme number. note
- The Gotoh sisters in Bocchi the Rock! have numbers in their name; the elder Hitori ("one person") and younger Futari ("two people"). This does not only limit to their birth order, but also hinted at their personalities: Hitori has severe social anxiety and, as a result, doesn't have a single friend for the first 15 years of her life, while Futari is a rather sociable Cheerful Child.
- In Bokurano, the Yamura siblings have this. The eldest child is Daichi, the second is Futaba, the third is Santa, and the fourth is Yoshi.
- A Certain Scientific Railgun: The Misaka clones are almost exclusively referred to by model number. However, when Mikoto introduces 10032 to Kongou as her little sister, and 10032 introduces herself by her number, Kongou assumes this is literally her name. "That's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?" Number names are common in Japanese culture, as seen elsewhere on this page (in real life, "Ichiro" is a very common boy's name, and it literally means "first son"), though having a number that high would be bizarre. Kongou suggests the nickname "Icchan" ("one"), which 10032 jumps on surprisingly quickly.
Mikoto: Hang on, you like it?
- In Change 123, the female protagonist's three Split Personalities gave themselves normal Japanese female names Hibiki, Fujiko and Mikiri, but all these names begin with numbers: "hi" = 1, "fu" = 2 and "mi" = 3. These three are also collectively called "HiFuMi", which also means "1, 2, 3". Plus, there is a fourth personality, the Superpowered Evil Side calling herself "Zero", which is a case of You Are Number 6 trope.
- Within the crew of Cowboy Bebop, four of characters' names each hold a different number of letters from two to five (Spike, Faye, Jet, Ed). And while Ein's name has three letters, it means 'one' in German.
- Date A Live: Each Spirit has the kanji for a number in either her first or last name. So do Shido, Reine and Mio.
- In Death Parade, arbiters who are consigned to the task of soul judgement are given names taken from the Latin number for the floor they will be working on. Decim (and previously Quin) works on floor 15 (Quindecim), Ginti works on floor 20 (Viginti), and Nona runs the tower from floor 90 (Nonaginta).
- The Fox & Little Tanuki: Both Senzou's (the fox) and Manpachi's (the tanuki) names use older kanji for specific numbers. The "sen" in Senzou's means "thousand", while the "man" in Manpachi's means "ten thousand" which Koyuki suggested be incorporated into his name since Manpachi is "coming after" Senzou as his underling. Additionally, the "pachi" in Manpachi's name means "eight" which is a number often associated with tanuki. Senzou's "follower" Momoji even gets in on it; "momo" means "hundred" in his case.
- Gohan no Otomo features a pair of siblings named Ichita (one) and Niko (two).
- Hyouka: Four of the prestigious families in Kamiyama are Juumonji (10), Sarusuberi (100), Chitanda (1000), and Manninbashi (10000), and Satoshi unofficially grouped them as "Exponential Four Clans".
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- The Nijimura brothers introduced in Diamond is Unbreakable follow a Japanese "myriad" numerical naming scheme: the "oku" (億) in Okuyasu Nijimura's name means 100,000,000 (10^8), while his older brother Keicho has "cho" (兆) in his name, which stands for 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12). Both brothers have "BILLION" and "TRILLION" written on their jackets, respectively.
- Additionally, while their father wasn't named in the manga and anime, the live action movie adaptation gave him the name "Mansaku", with the "man" (万) meaning 10,000 (10^4).
- Kei Nijimura, introduced in Jojolion, similarly follows suit: "kei" (京) stands for 10,000,000,000,000,000 (10^16).
- All the major characters in Kamichu! include a kanji for the numbers 1-4 in their surnames, plus Yashima's name using the kanji for 8.
- In Kiss Him, Not Me, Serinuma's suitors all have a number in their last names: Nanashima is 7, Igarashi is 5, Mutsumi is 6, Shinomiya is 4 and Nishina is 2. This plays into the ship names she comes up with for them, like 7/5.
- In K-On! High School, Nao's younger quadruplet brothers give their names; while the first and last of the four are not named according to a theme, the middle two are named as seen under Real Life.
- In Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, there's the Takanashi sisters Rikka (six flowers) and Touka (ten flowers).
- Tsuyuri Kumin's name is basically a nanori (name-specific reading of kanji) from what is otherwise "Gogatsu Nanoka", which literally means "Seventh Day of the Fifth Month", or, May 7th.
- The Numbers of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS fall somewhere between this and You Are Number 6, having both numbers (1-12), and names that are their numbers in Italian. The two are used interchangeably.
- Five of the same Numbers have Japanese names that still follow this theme in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT: Ichika (Uno), Nino (Due), Mitsuki (Tre), Shiina (Quattro), and Nanao (Sette).
- In Rumiko Takahashi's manga/anime Maison Ikkoku, set in a boarding house, the various tenants all have names that reflect the numbers of their rooms (Mrs. Ichinose and her son in room 1, or "ichi"; Godai in room 5, "go", and so on). Even characters that don't live in Ikkoku-kan have numbered surnames, e.g. Mitaka ("mi", 3), Nanao ("nana", 7), etc.
- In Mamotte! Lollipop, all of the magical examinees follow this pattern. The first two examinees Nina (ni means 2 in Japanese) meets are Zero and Ichi (1 in Japanese), then San (3) and Forte (4), and so on. Their magical registration numbers also correspond with their names.
- The Warumo Dan from Mirumo de Pon!: Ichiro (1), Jiro (2), Saburo (3), Shiro (4), and Goro (5).
- The three Marui sisters in Mitsudomoe. All their names are spelled with the [number]-[kanji for "leaf"] combination. Mitsuba (three), Futaba (two) and Hitoha (one).
- In the anime Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, many characters (including the Five-Man Band) have names based on numbers which are used by fans as abbreviations (e.g., '2' for Duo Maxwell). This naming scheme also serves as a shorthand for pairings in the fandom.
- Just going with the primary cast: Heero = 1 (from "hitotsu" -Japanese for "one" or "first"- Yuy from "yuitsu"-Japanese for "alone" or "only"), Duo = 2 (meaning a pair), Trowa = 3 (from 'trois' French for "three"), Quatre = 4 (French for "four"), Wu Fei = 5 ("wu" Chinese for "five"), Zechs = 6 (German for "six"), Noin = 9 (German for "nine"), Une = 1 (French for "one"), Treize = 13 (French for "thirteen"), Miliardo = 1,000,000,000 (Italian for "million"). Several minor characters carry the theme, and it even extends into sidestories like G-Unit/Last Outpost, where protagonist Adin's name also represents the number 1, just in a different language (Russian) than Heero or Une.
- Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun has the Sakura siblings Chiyo (thousand) and Towa (ten).
- My Hero Academia has a subtle version that uses homophones instead of blatantly spelling it out: Each user of One For All has their "order number" somewhere in their names: All Might's mentor Nana Shimura was the seventh, All Might himself (Toshinori Yagi) was the eighth, and Izuku Midoriya is the ninth.
- Their newest addition also holds true to this trend: the first user, Yoichi Shigaraki, the fourth user, Hikage Shinomori, and fifth user, Daigoro Banjo.
- In My-HiME, Yuuichi's name contains the kanji for "one". The other kendo club members' given names, as seen on nametags in episode 2, are Tamaji, Kouzou, Shirou and Gosaku — containing the kanji for "two", "three", "four" and "five" respectively.
- My Roommate is a Cat: A woman named Nana (7) has two cats named Roku (6) and Hachi (8).
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Averruncus series: Primum, Secundum, Tertium, Quartum, Quintum and Sextum. Nii and Septendecim similarly fit.
- In One Piece:
- Five tiny mermaid quins are named Ichika, Nika, Sanka, Yonka and... Yonka Two.
Usopp: Shouldn't it be Goka?!
- The names of the Vinsmoke children, who are four quadruplet boys and their older sister: Reiju (0), Ichiji, Niji, Sanji and Yonji.
- The Beasts Pirates have the Numbers, a group of ten failed clones of ancient giants. The members are Inbi (1), Fuga (2), Zanki (3), Jaki (4), Goki (5), Rokki (6), Nangi (7), Hatcha (8), Kunyun (9), and Juki (10). They fit into the Beasts Pirates' overall card game motif by representing the ten number cards in each suit of a standard deck.
- Five tiny mermaid quins are named Ichika, Nika, Sanka, Yonka and... Yonka Two.
- Is used a lot in Nanbaka:
- Jyugo means 'fifteen'.
- Niko is strictly spelled in the series in katakana and means 'twenty-five' but you can also render his name with the kanji for 'second child', which means something else.
- Rock's name is western like Uno's, but you can render it a certain way (as ro-ku) where it means 69.
- Kiji's family name has 'three' in it.
- The first kanji of Kenshirou's family name is 'four'.
- Unusually, Momoko has two kanji in her name that are the exact same but have a different pronunciation, the one that means 'hundred' (百)
- Musashi is a combination of mu-sa-shi, aka 634.
- A minor character in Ōkami-san is modeled after Snow White, with the seven dwarfs represented by her seven younger siblings, all with this naming convention.
- In Pokémon: The Series, Takeshi's (Brock) younger siblings all follow numerical theme naming from Jirou (the second eldest) down to Touko (the tenth child), this is effectively tossed out in the dub where there's no real theme to their naming at all.
- In Reborn! (2004) almost every character has a number that corresponds to their name. For example Gokudera is 59 (Go=5, Ku=9). Some other examples include Tsuna (27), Yamamoto (80), and Hibari (18).
- Saiyuki has numbers for all four main characters (frequently used for Shipping abbreviations), two of whom actually have numerical kanji in their names:
- Genjyo Sanzo = 3
- Sha Gojyo = 5
- Son Goku = 9
- Cho Hakkai = 8
- Many names in Sgt. Frog are shown as 3-numbered codes because the syllables sound like numbers. It's Japanese l33t-speak from around 1999, when the manga first came out. This makes for especially odd English titles.
- The cast in Slow Start have names that have magnitudes of ten in their surname: Ichinose (1), Tokura (10), Momochi (100), Sengoku (1,000), and Hannen (10,000).
- Sol Bianca has planets named Uno and Tres.
- In Vampire Knight, the two twins are named Zero and Ichiru (old Japanese word for one).
- The cast of Vividred Operation combine this with Colourful Theme Naming. Akane and Momo Isshiki, Aoi Futaba, Wakaba Saegusa, Himawari Shinomiya, and Rei Kuroki (the only one with the number in her fisrt name).
- Manjoume's "Thunder" nickname in Yugioh GX came from him demanding everyone at North Academy refer to him by "Manjoume san da", the latter two being honorifics. Now given that "man" is also 10,000 in Japanese, this led to the following chant: "Ichi (1)! Jyu (10)! Hyaku (100)! Sen (1000)! Manjyoume Sanda (10000)!"
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, a set of brothers go by the names III, IV, and V. The English dub kept the meanings by modifying the names to Trey, Quattro, and Quinton.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Kamaitachi brothers of the Yosenju had this theme. In order: Kamaitachi (one), Kamanitachi (two) and Kamamitachi (three).
- In The Quintessential Quintuplets, the titular quintuplets are named after numbers, each in their order of birth: Ichika (1), Nino (2), Miku (3), Yotsuba (4), and Itsuki (5). Their late mother was called Reina (0).
- All the Yozakura siblings from Mission: Yozakura Family has a number in their names:
- Kyoichiro as in "One".
- Futaba as in "Two".
- Shinzo as in "Three".
- Shion as in "Four".
- Kengo as in "Five".
- Mutsumi as in "Six".
- Nanao as in "Seven".
Asian Animation
- Boonie Bears: The bears' original Chinese names are in their birth order, with Briar being "Big Bear" (i.e. "Eldest/Firstborn Bear") and Bramble being "Second Bear".
Card Games
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Instead of naming the Infernoid archetype directly after demons in the TCG, they gave them names based on the numbers in differing languages.
- Pirmais - 1
- Antra - 2
- Harmadik - 3
- Patrulea - 4
- Piaty - 5
- Sjette - 6
- Seitsemas - 7
- Attondel - 8
- Devyaty - 9
- Onuncu - 10
Films — Animation
- Ferdinand features three hedgehog siblings named Una, Dos and Cuatro (One, Two and Four), who also have a disappeared sibling named Trés (Three).
Films — Live-Action
- A Filipino film, Ang Tanging Ina, has a mother of 12 name her children as thus: Juan, Tudis, Dimitri, Porcia, Pipnote , Sixto, Severina, Cate, Shammy ('siyam' being Filipino for nine), Ten-ten, and two unnamed baby twins.
- The Matrix includes characters Cypher (zero), the One, Switch (two), Trinity (three), and Dozer (twelve).
- Ran has the three sons of Lord Hidetora, named (in somewhat typical Japanese fashion) Tarō, Jirō (second son), and Saburō (third son).
- The never spoken names of the Monstars of Space Jam all relate to zero (fitting because before their change they were small subservient creatures, and after the change they wear jerseys with the number 0): Pound, Bang, Nawt, Blanko and Bupkus - the first four even more when they were Zilch, Null, Nada, and Void.
- Stardust: As in the book, the heirs to the throne of Stormhold are all named to reflect the order of thier birth (Primus, Secundus, Tertius and so on). The princes all wear clothing with motifs of the Roman numeral that matches their name, which is how Tristan identifies Septimus when they meet during the climax.
Literature
- In Animorphs Yeerk names seem to contain a "name" followed by a three-digit number; since Yeerks are born with hundreds of siblings, fans speculate this is their birth order. If the Yeerks are twins, the last digit is doubled (for example, Esplin 9466 primary of the Sulp Niar pool, twin of Esplin 9466 secondary of the Sulp Niar Pool). Higher-up Yeerks usually go by rank, which is also numbered, at least for Vissers and Sub-Vissers (e.g., Visser Three, Visser One).
- In John C. Wright's Chronicles of Chaos, the children were originally named Primus, Secunda, etc. When they are told to chose names, Quentin decides that he's fine as he is.
- The male descendants of the House of Gaius in Codex Alera are all named in this fashion: Gaius Primus, Gaius Secundus, Gaius Tertius et cetera. Curiously, the fifth is named Gaius Pentius rather than Gaius Quintus.
- In Julie Kagawa's The Iron King, the Iron King's knight include Quintus and Tertius. (Given there are five, we can guess the other names.)
- In The Locked Tomb series, House surnames are almost exclusively themed on puns based on the numbered House they belong to, though they range from the obvious (Palamedes Sextus is from the Sixth House) to the obscure (Protesilaus Ebdoma, which is a latin term for a week, is from the Seventh House).
- In the book Merlin's Mistake one of the protagonists is named Tertius. His two brothers are named Primus and Secundus. It is mentioned their father wasn't very creative.
- In Aaron Dembski Bowden's Night Lords series, Talos, like most other Night Lords, takes captives for the purpose of enslaving them. Unlike most of their slaves, Talos takes slaves that are particularly useful as his personal slaves rather than to serve on their ship. His slaves are renamed, presumably after High Gothic numerals, starting with Primus, then Secundus, and so on. The current slaves he holds in the story are Septimus and Octavianote , and later another slave, Maruc is taken. While he would have been number 9, only Talos' best friend and squadmate Cyrion refers to him as "Nonus", and on only the one occasion where a member of First Claw calls him by name "onscreen" after his capture.
- In the Remnants series, the Blue Meanies / the Children are all named by the system (Number) (Positive adjective) (Geographic feature), e.g., "Four Sacred Streams," "One Divine Mountain."
- In Septimus Heap the titular character is the seventh son of a seventh son.
- Septimus and Octavia of The Covenant of Blood, are somewhere between this and You Are Number 6 mixed with Meaningful Rename. Their master renames all his slaves with ordinal High Gothic names. When he charged into a stronghold of his enemies to save Octavia from her abductors, she accepted the change from Eurydice. Maruc, Septimus' assistant, is trying valiantly to avoid becoming Nonus in the eyes of his masters.
- In Neil Gaiman's Stardust, the King of Stormhold followed the ancient Roman method in the naming of his sons: Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus, and Septimus. There's a daughter named Una, too. Had there been more daughters, they'd surely follow a similiar trend.
- Tolkien's Legendarium: the first three Elves to awake were called Imin, Tata and Enel, that is One, Two, and Three. Much later, we have Nelyafinwë, that is, Third Finwë (after his grandfather Finwë and his father Curufinwë...quite possibly in an attempt by said father to spite his own brother, yet another Finwë.)
- It is assumed Celebrimbor's father name is Nelyacurufinwe ("Third Skillful Finwe") ... after his grandfather Curufinwe Fëanaro (Feanor) and father Curufinwe Atarinkë (Curufin). So his whole name in Quenya would be Tyelperinquar Nelyacurufinwe Curufinwion.
- In The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, the wild geese that the protagonist travels with are named Yksi, Kaksi, Kolme, Neljä, Viisi and Kuusi - which are simply the numbers between one and six in Finnish.
Live-Action TV
- Kamen Rider had this for a stretch: Decade (10), Double (2), OOO (3), and Fourze (40). The number related names dropped off after that; some fans argue that the theme continues in some of the Riders' visual aspects, but it's impossible to tell if it's intentional or merely Fan Wank.
- Kamen Rider Zi-O plays this straight with Zi-O and his upgraded forms. Zi-O Decade Armor (10), Zi-O II (2), Zi-O Trinity (3), and Grand Zi-O(4).
- Kamen Rider Revice has the Igarashi siblings. Their names, sorted by birth, are as follows: Ikki (first), Daiji (second), and Sakura (third).
- It is also the same order which the siblings become Kamen Riders: Ikki/Revi being the first (alongside Vice to form Revice), Daiji/Live second (discounting Kagero taking over his body to become Evil), and Sakura/Jeanne third.
- Utopia Falls: All of the characters names are followed with a number: Aliyah 5, Bodhi 2, Tempo 3, Brooklyn 2 etc.
- Super Sentai does this often:
- Uchu Sentai Kyuranger has Raptor 283 (which reads as "Raptor Hayami") referring to the fact she's a speedy eagle.
- Avataro Sentai Donbrothers has the Noto generals, each of which are named after their numerical hierarchy, all with the "Sono" prefix: Sonoi (1), Sononi (2), Sonoza (3), Sonoshi (4), Sonogo (5), Sonoroku (6), Sonona (7), and Sonoya (8).
Music
- All the members of Slipknot assume numbers as their stage names.
Theatre
- The Adding Machine has Zero and his nearly identical friends, One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six. Their equally uniform wives uniformly take their husbands' names.
Video Games
- Art of Fugue has characters named Een, Twee, Drie and Vier.
- In Azure Striker Gunvolt, the names of Gunvolt's guns all have some relation to how many enemies they can tag. They're also all serpent-themed in some form or another, with one exception.
- Orochi, Naga, Mizuchi, and Vasuki all refer to mythological serpents with varying numbers of heads. They can tag eight, five, one, and four enemies respectively.
- Cerberus was named after the three-headed hellhound from Greek mythology. It can tag three enemies. While the Cerberus is a canine, it's sometime depicted with a serpent's tail and a mane of snakes, which admittedly stretches the serpent theme a bit. In the Japanese version the gun was actually named after Ghidorah, Toho's three-headed giant dragon best known for being one of Godzilla's recurring foes.
- Technos is a reference to the defunct game company best known for Double Dragon.note It can tag two enemies.
- Lastly, a Dullahan was a headless knight, and it is the only weapon that cannot tag enemies. It is also the only one that doesn't fit the serpent themed naming.
- A sidequest in Borderlands 2 features a quartet of assassins named Oney, Wot, Reeth, and Rouf.
- Chrono Cross has a mixture of Latin and Spanish numbers for the Vita boss: Vita Unus, Vita Dos, and Vita Tres. Yes, we are aware that Vita Unus is not proper grammar.
- Most major characters in Drakengard 3 are named after numbers. The intoner sisters run from One to Five, with our heroine Zero being their older sister and Patient Zero of the evil flower on her eye. Two to Five have Disciples whose name are non-English numbers: Two's Cent (hundred), Three's Octa (eight), Four's Decadus (ten) and Five's Ditto (close enough to Duo: two).
- In EarthBound, the towns are named Onett, Twoson, Threed, and Fourside. Likely unintentional, but adding those four numbers together gives you 10, which is funny considering that the game was on the Super Nintendo.
- Final Fantasy Type-0: The members of Class Zero have names related to cards in a deck, resulting in numerical naming - Ace, Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque, Sice, Seven, Eight, Nine, Tiz (Hungarian for ten), Jack, Queen, King, and Joker.
- Final Fantasy XIV: In the post-patch content of the Endwalker expansion, after entering the Thirteenth, the Scions meet a voidsent that acted as Zenos Viator Galvus's spirit partner for reaping. Given that she is free now, and has no name after centuries of not needing one, the Scions elect to name her "Zero" to both represent her emptiness from the Void and the start of a new beginning.
- Penny Arcade Adventures: The Academic Symposium has a quartet of scientists named Dr. Uno, Dr. Twee, Dr. Drei and Dr. Quatromain note . A later sidequest involves getting all the Symposium's attendees to sign a petition, and because of the various grudges, rivalries and prejudices they have for one another, they need to be approached in a certain order. Guess what it is. The catch is that the numbers are somewhat of a Red Herring; while those specific scientists must be spoken to in the order their names suggest, there are two other scientists whose names don't fit the convention and one of them must sign between Uno and Twee to get the proper order.
- Pokémon:
- The legendary birds of Kanto, first introduced in Pokémon Red and Blue, are named (in National Pokédex order) Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.note Averted in the Japanese version, where they are named Freezer, Thunder, and Fire respectively.
- Generation I also introduced Doduo and its evolution Dodrio, named after the amount of heads they have; plus Dugtrio, which is composed of three Digletts.
- And in Pokémon Black and White, we have Deino, Zweilous, and Hydreigon, which are one headed, two headed, and three-headed dragons respectively.note Unlike the legendary birds, this naming scheme is also present in the Japanese version: the dragons are named Monozu, Dihead, and Sazandora.note
- Pokémon X and Y introduces Honedge (a possessed sword) and Doublade (two possessed swords). Their Japanese names are Hitotsuki (hitotsu: one) and Nidangill (ni: two).
- Qwilfish's Japanese name, Harysen, is derived from 針千本 harisenbon (Japanese for "porcupinefish"), with the 千 sen part of its name literally meaning "thousand". Pokémon Legends: Arceus introduces its evolution, Overqwil, whose Japanese name of Haryman continues the theme, replacing the sen with 万 man, meaning "ten thousand" or "myriad".
- Gehn, the villain of Riven, and one of the novelisations, numbers everything he has control of, most notably his Ages, and the people in them. Because Riven is his Fifth age, much of his property within it has that number on it somewhere.
- Seth, from Street Fighter IV, has the codename I-5; the number '5' is equivalent to the roman numeral 'V', thus, Seth's "number" is related to the game he first appears in.
- In Touhou Project, side character Hieda no Akyuu is a one-person version of this, being a person who dies and Reincarnates every ten to twenty years but retains her Photographic Memory of every life. Akyuu is the ninth reincarnation; for bonus points, her original incarnation was the Real Life historian Hieda no Are
, whose name can be seen as representing zeronote .
- Terraformer ships in X3: Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude are given a four-letter designation that proves to be a number in base 16. Some examples: #deca (57,034 in base 10), #fade (64,222), #cafe (51,966).
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the soldiers of Colony 0 are all given numbers instead of names. After helping them break away from Moebius control and move the location of their base to friendlier territories, Sena, wanting to further humanise them, elects to give them all names based on their number (to help ease them into the transition of their new designations), just as she had originally done for Segiri.note This results in number 3 getting named 'Trini, number 6 being christened 'Ix', number 9 becoming 'Fline', and so on.
Visual Novels
- Chrono Clock has three of its heroines — Miu, Michiru, and Misaki — who are specifically said to be a trio of friends, with names all starting with "mi", a Japanese word for 3.
- Higurashi: When They Cry has Miyo Takano and Professor Hifumi Takano. Hifumi can be written as 一二三 (123), Miyo can be 三四 (34), which continues the sequence. Would be a stretch, except that it's pointed out in the anime when the two characters first meet.
- Idolish 7 All of the IDOLiSH7 and TRIGGER members incorporate 1-7 and 8-10 in their names, respectively.
- The characters in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors use code names based on the numbers on the bracelets they have been forced to wear as part of the Nonary Game; see the Code Name article for the list. In addition, a few of their real names are numerically-themed, which allows Clover to use her real name during the game.
- Time Hollow has characters with the last names Onegin, Twombly, Threet, Fourier, Fivet, Sixon, Seven, Eights, Niner, Tenneson, Eleven and Twelves.
Web Comics
- From the Homestuck Midnight Crew intermission, we have the Felt, a gang of billiards-themed thugs, who are named as follows (copy-pasted from the article proper):
From the bottom up, we have Itchy (from ichi, Japanese for one), Doze (from dos, Spanish for two), Trace (from tres, Spanish for three), Clover (Four-Leaf Clover), Fin (slang term for a five-dollar bill), Die (six-sided die), Crowbar (from the crooked shape of a 7), Snowman (from the shape of an 8), Stitch (...in time saves nine), Sawbuck (slang term for a ten-dollar bill), Matchsticks (two straight lines, as in 11), Eggs (a dozen eggs), Biscuits (a baker's dozen), Quarters (quatorze, French for fourteen), and Cans (quinze, French for fifteen).
- № 1 and № 4 from Hell(p). They have real names too, but prefer to go by the nicknames.
- Tetras, from The Motley Two. Obsessed with the number four, has a fitting name (the prefix tetra-).
- Twenty-Fifth Bam from Tower of God. His name means that he was born on the 25th Night.
Western Animation
- Codename: Kids Next Door does this to some extent. The names of the main characters are a reference to their numbers. Nigel Uno / Numbuh 1 (uno = 1, Spanish), Hoagie Gilligan Jr. / Numbuh 2 (Jr. after a name = 2nd in the family to use such name; also, Gilligan was second in command of the Minnow on Gilligan's Island), Kuki Sanban / Numbuh 3 ("sanban" = third, Japanese), Wallabee Beetles / Numbuh 4 (The Beatles = Fab Four, and for his horrible luck due to the number four being unlucky), Abigail Lincoln / Numbuh 5 (Abraham Lincoln = US $5 bill), and the first names of Numbuhs 1, 3 and 4 are a reference to their country of origin (England, Japan, and Australia respectively), the first name of Numbuh 2 is another name for a club sandwich (perhaps a reference to his size), but the first name of Numbuh 5 is just a name, unrelated to her French national origin. (Although it does resemble Abe, as in Abraham Lincoln.)
- Seven Little Monsters. The seven monsters all have numbers for names, and as a result if they hear any mention of a number above seven, then they will all immediately break into song about numbers higher than seven.
- In Generator Rex, the six best assassins in the world use One, Dos, Trey, IV, Five and Six as their names.
Others
- Several characters in SMAPRO, a mascot group of 12 male idols by retail chain Amifa, have numbers in their names representing the month in which they were born. Normally, it is the number of their month.
- Ninomiya Mashiro (二之宮 真白) represents February.
- Minami Kazuomi (三波 和臣) represents March.
- Igarashi Nagi (五十嵐 凪) represents May, although the first two numbers in his name actually mean fifty and not five.
- Akakuma Nanaya (赤熊 七奈也) represents July.
- Badur has the Chinese pronunciation of the number 8 in his name, and he represents August.
- Kuga Edward Chiaki (九家・エドワード・千秋) represents September.
- Togami Shigure (十守 時雨) represents October.
- Juuniya Kotaro (十二夜 小太郎) represents December.
Real Life
- Indonesian children sometimes get names based on numbers: Eka (one, pronounced ay-ka), Dwi (two, pronounced dwee), Tri (three, pronounced tree), Catur (four, pronounced chah-tour), and Panca (five, roughly pronounced pahn-cha). While Catur and Panca is quite rare nowadays, the first three is still quite common. Oddly, while Eka is considered an androgynous name, Dwi is considered more feminine than masculine (perhaps due to closeness to another female Indonesian name, Dewi), while Tri is considered more masculine than feminine.
- Japan has a similar scheme available for male given names; Ichirō ("One" + "Son"), "Jirō" ("Two") Saburō ("Three"), and so forth.note A Dead Horse Trope was to have Asian stereotype characters use a "Blind Idiot" Translation and refer to "Number-one Son".
- That was pretty common in Ancient Rome for families with many children too. Quintus was a name for the 5th son, Sixtus the 6th, Septimus the 7th, etc. Oh, and while we're at it, the Indonesian example given uses numbers taken from Sanskrit, a language of more historical/cultural significance (the Indonesian equivalents would be Satu, Dua, Tiga, etc.).
- Similarly, Jung Chang mentions in Wild Swans that her great-grandmother had the name Second Daughter.
- This was popular in ancient Rome, with the first, second, third, fourth and fifth sons very frequently being named Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus and Quintus. Similar schemes have also been popular in Sweden, such as naming a third son "Trisse" or an eighth daughter "Ottilia". Naturally obsolete nowadays when few families have more than two children. In Finnish, "Ensio" (first) and "Toini" (second) are still in use.
- Oglala children got this as well:
- Boys: Caske, Hepan, Hepi, Catan, Hake, Hakata, Cekpa
- Girls: Witokape, Hapan, Hepistanna, Wanska, Wihake, Hakata, Cekpa
- Aztecs were named after the day they were born.
- Major Benjamin Stickney, a major player in the "Toledo War" between Ohio and the Michigan territory, named his sons One and Two. Two Stickney caused the only casualty in the War when he stabbed Monroe deputy Joseph Wood.
- Most cities in the United States are at least partially planned and thus exhibit numerical theme naming in their streets running in a particular direction, usually measuring the distance in blocks (typically about 1/10 of a mile) from some major street that marks "one" or "zero." The most common street name in America is "2nd Street," as what would otherwise be "1st Street" is usually given some other name (most commonly "Main Street," "High Street," "State Street," "Broad Street," "Market Street," or—when it runs along a river or other waterfront—"Front Street").
- The largest city with this kind of arrangement is of course New York, with its famous numbered streets under the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 running up the island of Manhattan and up into the Bronx—but it's incomplete. The system was established well after the city, and so it has to contend with the rather less-orderly network that prevailed before the plan came into effect. The end result is that 1st Street is a short and rather insignificant thoroughfare in the Bowery (the important street in the area is Houstoun), and the first numbered street in Manhattan to run all the way across the island is 14th (13th comes close, but is interrupted at the intersection with 8th Avenue). Incidentally, the same Commissioners' Plan that gave Manhattan and the Bronx their famous numbered streets is also responsible for New York's great avenues running perpendicular to the numbered streets; these were originally all numbered (except for the "Alphabet City" avenues kludged in because Manhattan bulges eastward a bit before tapering off at the south end), but two (Lexington and Madison Avenues) have been added in between and one (Park Avenue) has gained a name. (Brooklyn and Queens have areas with numbered streets, but they're not nearly as famous as Manhattan's.)
- Another large city where the numbered naming is in full display is Philadelphia. The numbered streets are numbered west from Front Street (which takes the place of a "1st Street"), which is (or was, at any rate)note on the waterfront of the Delaware, running parallel to its course in Center City (that's downtown). The major exception to this rule is Broad Street, which would be 14th Street but it was designated by William Penn as marking the main north-south artery through the city. Because the river bends fairly sharply eastward a little bit north of Center City, Front Street (which just keeps going in a straight line almost all the way to the city limit at Cheltenham Avenue) gets pretty far from the waterfront in North Philly; in some areas, they have lettered streets going eastward from Front Street. (Streets perpendicular to the numbered ones in Philadelphia are largely named after trees and plants in Center City, with names after what appear to be people but also other random things outside Center City, e.g., one substantial area in the northern part of the city where it's all Pennsylvania counties.)
- The most peculiar instance is probably Washington, D.C., which has two of many numbered streets. The numbered streets go north-south, with "0th Street" being Capitol Street (which runs north-south from the United States Capitol) and the numbers increasing as you go further east or west. The east-west streets are lettered, with, um, Capitol Street as the baseline (a different street, this one running east-west; it and the A Streets do not exist west of the Capitol, being replaced by the National Mall), with the exception of the B Streets (which are replaced with Constitution Ave. for the one north of the Capitol and Independence Ave. for the one south of it). This is why you always write addresses in DC with the quadrant letters: 11th and K NW and 11th and K SE (for example) refer to two different intersections involving four different streets and the areas around them are entirely different from each other in character (11th and K NW is in the heart of downtown, features nice hotels, and is where lobbyists hang out, or at least used to; 11th and K SE, although still in Capitol Hill, is a quiet residentialish area and features a Papa John's). (These lettered and numbered streets do not include the District's famous avenues, like Pennsylvania Avenue—those are named after states and run at an angle relative to the grid of lettered/numbered streets.)
- Chicago, with its large-scale street grid, still uses numbers for almost all east-west streets on the South Side. (Near the center axis, a "great person" naming scheme takes priority; Roosevelt Road,note Cermak Road,note and Pershing Roadnote are 20th-century rebrands of 12th, 22nd and 39th Streets.) Many of the north-south avenues on the West Side were originally assigned numbers as well; they have all been renamed by the city, but the avenue numbers persist in street addresses and in a few western suburbs.
- A very unusual instance among large cities is possibly Detroit, where most of the east-west arterial (Public Land Survey System section line) roads, both within the city and in the western and especially northern suburbs, are numbered, but with "Mile Road" suffixes, increasing as you go further north from downtown Detroit. The east-west roads closer to downtown, however, take on different naming schemes; Michigan Avenue within the city (or Ford Road in the western suburbs) takes the place of "0 Mile Road", Warren Avenue instead of "1 Mile Road", and so forth (though a 3 Mile Drive, possibly unrelated to this scheme, exists on the far east side), up to and including Fenkell Avenuenote and McNichols Roadnote (which are 20th-century in-city rebrands of 5 and 6 Mile Roads), resulting in 7 and 8 Mile Roads (yes, that one) being the only ones to retain their number within Detroit itself; and in the northern suburbs, mile roads north of 14 Mile also change from numbers in Macomb County to different names in Oakland County. Making this scheme even more perplexing, there's also some numbered "½ Mile Roads" between the main "Mile Roads", and even Detroit itself, as well as several of its suburbs, have traditionally numbered streets as well (Detroit's scheme runs perpindicular to [though does not intersect, aside from 2nd and 3rd Avenues, which intersect McNichols Road/6 Mile Road, 14th Street, which intersects Fenkell Avenue/5 Mile Road, and 12th Streetnote , which intersects both Fenkell and McNichols] the "Mile Roads" and does start at 1st Street [a short downtown street]).
- In Estonian, the weekdays are named from esmaspäev ("first day", Monday) to nelipäev ("fourth day", Thursday). Friday is reede, Saturday is lauapäev (washing day) and Sunday is pühapaev (holy day). Similarly in Portuguese, where days from Monday to Friday are numbered (segunda-feira to sexta-feira) whilst Saturday is Sábado (Sabbath) and Sunday is Domingo (Lord's Day). Or in Polish, with "wtorek" ("second day", Tuesday), "czwartek" ("fourth day", Thursday) and "piątek" ("fifth day", Friday) [the rest is, sadly, a lot less consistent].
- Porsche vehicles are generally named with a three letter number starting with a "9".
- In Sai Ying Pun, a suburb of Hong Kong, there are four streets known as First Street, Second Street, Third Street, and High Street. The latter was initially named Fourth Street, but Four Is Death in traditional Chinese culture, so it was renamed. Averted with most of the other streets in the city, though.
