Sesquipedalian Smith

Sallah: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Junior"?
Professor Henry Jones: That's his name. [points to himself] Henry Jones [points to Indy] Junior.
Indiana Jones: I like "Indiana".
Professor Henry Jones: We named the dog Indiana.

— Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

When a character needs a name that tells the audience right away how awesome they are, this trope is one way to do it. The character will have a first name that's interesting and long—at least three syllables long—contrasted by short and unremarkable last name.

Similarly to Mister Strangenoun, the first name is sometimes a cool-sounding noun that isn't normally used as a name. It could also be a made-up word, or an actual name, but only one that's rare enough to still sound unique. Can overlap with Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names, if it's something like, say, Perpugilliam Brown.

For the last name, "Smith" and "Jones" are the two most used, but any one-syllable name that sounds common and unremarkable also works.

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Keeping up with the Joneses:

Anime And Manga

• Montana Jones.

Comic Books

• Desolation Jones: While this is not the character's name, the series title fits the bill.
• Forsythe Pendelton "Jughead" Jones III from the Archie series.
• Available Jones and his incredibly beautiful cousin Stupefyin' Jones^note played in the musical film version by Julie Newmar from Li'l Abner.

Film

• Indiana Jones: Indy's real name is Henry Jones, Junior, but everyone remembers it as the name of the franchise.
• Cleopatra Jones.
• Christmas Jones from The World Is Not Enough.
• Motherfucker Jones from Horrible Bosses.
• The Villain has old-time prospector Parody Jones and his beautiful daughter Charming Jones (named after the first thing Parody said when he found out he had a daughter).
• Jupiter Jones in Jupiter Ascending (no relation to The Three Investigators).
• In Seven Ways from Sundown, Seven's full names is 'Seven Ways From Sundown' Jones.
• Turquoise Jones in Miss Juneteenth.

Literature

• Jupiter Jones in The Three Investigators (no relation to Jupiter Ascending).
• An inverted example in the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Ben Adaephon Delat, aka "Quick Ben."
• Coraline Jones in Coraline and subsequent movie.
• Skippyjon Jones in the eponymous picture book and its sequels.

Live Action TV

• Parodied in Look Around You series 2 with Computer Jones and Synthesizer Patel.
• Cyrano Jones, the merchant in "The Trouble with Tribbles"
• Forgetful Jones, of Sesame Street.
• Mercedes Jones
• Ezekiel Jones of The Librarians.

Radio

• Inverurie Jones in the I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Spin-Off Hamish and Dougal episode "Inverurie Jones And The Thimble Of Doom".
• Rochester Van Jones of The Jack Benny Program.

Theatre

• The Musical Lysistrata Jones. The play's about a modern high schooler pulling a Lysistrata Gambit.
• Bustopher Jones is one of the eponymous Cats.

Video Games

• Eulogy Jones from Fallout 3.
• TimeSplitters has an entire family of these spread across all three games and several centuries. The three that are introduced are Peekaboo Jones in 1965, his great-great-grandfather, Elijah Jones from the 1800s and Mordecai Jones from the Robot Wars in the 2200s.

Visual Novels

• Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher

Web Comics

• Babylon Jones from Exploitation Now.
• Parodies of Indiana Jones from Irregular Webcomic! include North Dakota, Minnesota and Montana Jones.
• Tigerlily Jones in Skin Horse. Her real name, Berenice, also qualifies.

Web Original

• "Springboard Jones, the Divin' Detective! Vomitorium Jones, the Pukin' P.I.!" - Ludic Log

Western Animation

• Osmosis Jones.
• The menacing Opera Singer in the Bugs Bunny short "Long-haired Hare". Giovanni Jones. You know who directed it.
• The "Grimdiana Bones" episode of Beetlejuice is an obvious parody of Indiana Jones; but in The Neitherworld, "Bones" is probably as common a name as "Jones".
• Darkwing Duck did a stint as "South Dakota Smith," aka an Indiana Jones expy.
• Coraline.

Real Life

• Orlando Jones.
• The civic center in Atlanta, GA is named for one Boisfeuillet Jones. No, really.
• Cleolinda Jones.
• Rashida Jones, the daughter of Quincy Jones.
• January Jones from Mad Men and X-Men: First Class.
• Aphrodite Jones.
• Seventeenth-century architect Inigo Jones.

Namesmithing:

Comic Books

• Sierra Smith, a Western private eye in The DCU.

Film — Animated

• Cars featured a background forklift named Nebuchanezzar Schmidt.

Film — Live-Action

• Nevada Smith, which supposedly inspired the name "Indiana Jones".
• Jefferson Smith, the eponymous Smith of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
• Whispering Smith, a cowboy detective played by Alan Ladd in a 1948 film. Also a 1961 TV series starring Audie Murphy.

Literature

• Older Than Television: Northwest Smith from C. L. Moore's early science fiction.
• Harry Potter:
  • Zacharias Smith.
  • Hepzibah Smith.
  • A variation with Professor Dumbledore, established almost from the start of the series as Albus Dumbledore, but his full name is eventually stated to much longer with three middle names, the last of which is the decidedly short, modern-sounding, and mundane "Brian." (For the record, his full name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.)
• Terry Pratchett has two Indy parodies: Howondaland Smith, Balrog Hunter in Discworld and Alabama Smith in Only You Can Save Mankind. Discworld also has Eskarina Smith from Equal Rites.
• Predating Indy is Innocent Smith, of Manalive.
• Sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein was very fond of this trope, most often with the surname "Smith". His characters included Valentine Michael Smith, Woodrow Wilson Smith, and Johann Sebastian Bach Smith.
• Waxahachie Smith
• The Cat Who... Series: Eddington Smith, the soft-spoken bookstore owner.
• Septimus Smith from Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia Woolf lampshades this trope:
  London has swallowed up many millions of young men called Smith; thought nothing of fantastic Christian names like Septimus with which their parents have thought to distinguish them.
• Elmer Brown Mason's Pulp Magazine swamp-guide Wandering Smith.
• Culverton Smith, scientist from the Sherlock Holmes story "The Dying Detective." Sherlock, Mycroft, and Sherrinford Holmes are also examples.

Live Action TV

• In a K-9 and Company annual, one story reveals that Sarah Jane Smith has a great-uncle who's an archaeologist called Africana Smith.
  • And (in Doctor Who) we hear about her aunt Lavinia Smith.
• Jeremiah Smith, minor character in The X-Files.
• In Lucifer, demon ninja bartender Mazikeen (aka Maze) gets a police licence for her new job as a bounty hunter in the name Mazikeen Smith.
• Dr. Zachary Smith, sneaky stowaway main character in Lost in Space.
• Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Umbrella Stand Jasper Wednesday (pops mouth twice) Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable (sound effect of horse whinnying) Arthur Norman Michael (blows squeaker) Featherstone Smith (blows whistle) Northgot Edwards Harris (fires pistol, which goes 'whoop') Mason (chuff-chuff-chuff) Frampton Jones Fruitbat Gilbert (sings) 'We'll keep a welcome in the' (three shots, stops singing) Williams If I Could Walk That Way Jenkin (squeaker) Tiger-draws Pratt Thompson (sings) 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' Darcy Carter (horn) Pussycat 'Don't Sleep In The Subway' Barton Mannering (hoot, 'whoop') Smith.
• The Westerner has Lovable Rogue, Con Man and all round pain in Dave Blassinghame's ass, Burgundy Smith.

Professional Wrestling

• Aurelian Smith, Jr.

Video Games

• The Sims 2: Pollination Technician #9 Smith of Strangetown.
• Jocinda Smith of Backyard Sports.
• In the early 90s, Apogee Software published several shareware adventure games starring an Indiana Jones parody called Alabama Smith (most notably Paganitzu). Recently, there's been a bit of a revival of the protagonist in a series of new adventure games for the iPad.
• Temple Run and its sequel has Indiana Jones's Captain Ersatz Montana Smith.
• Anastasia Smith is a significant character in Detectives United: Phantoms of the Past.

Real Life

• Real Life: Jefferson Randolph Smith, better known as "Soapy"
• Also Oregon politician Jefferson Smith, founder of the Bus Project (a progressive organization which encourages young people to get involved in politics)
• Cordwainer Smith (a pseudonym), science fiction writer
• Elliott Smith, singer/songwriter
• Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D

Other Surnames:

Comedy

• Bob The Drag Queen's stand-up special, Suspiciously Large Woman, has a bit about Black first names in comparison to their last names.
  "Black people, we have fucked-up first names. Daquashia, Trelayna, Shaneequa, DeQuandre...It's always a really plain-ass last name. It's like Daquashia SMITH. Shelandria BROWN."

Comic Books

• Jubilation Lee
• Batman's Hamilton Hill
• Amadeus Cho
• Manchester Black, Superman's nemesis in the landmark Action Comics #775
• Jefferson Pierce, AKA Black Lightning, one of the first major African-American superheroes.
• In Monica's Gang, Pitheco's full name is Pithecanthropus erectus da Silva.

Film

• Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
• Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke) in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (and a similarly named character in Ian Fleming's lesser-known children's book on which it was based).
• Lydia Deetz, and also her stepmother Delia Deetz, from Beetlejuice.

Literature

• Encyclopedia Brown's real name is Leroy, but no one calls him that.
  • Maybe because Leroy Brown is a bad, bad name?
• Children's Book: Dinosaur Bob
• Lavender Brown from Harry Potter.
  • And Sirius Black and Severus Snape.
    • Arabella Figg, Nymphadora Tonks (and Andromeda Tonks, nee Black), Broderick Bode, Caractacus Burke, Bartemius Crouch, Elphias Doge, Marvolo Gaunt, Augustus Pye, Pomona Sprout, Emeric Switch, Emmeline Vance, Romilda Vane, and pretty much all the other Blacks. Thank you, Wikipedia.
• In L. Sprague de Camp's Solomon's Stone, the hero finds himself in a world populated by the figures people daydream of being. Everyone has a Sesquipedalian Smith name, indicating first the daydream and then the mundane reality.
• Huckleberry Finn
• Atticus Finch
• Ichabod Crane
• CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE - aaaah, screw it.
• Charles Dickens liked these too: Uriah Heep, Barnaby Rudge, and of course Ebenezer Scrooge.
• Digory Kirke and Eustace Clarence Scrubb from The Chronicles of Narnia.
• Dorian Gray.
• In Terry Pratchett's Night Watch, the gravedigger's name is Legitimate First. ("Can't blame his mother for being proud.")
• Nobody Owens from The Graveyard Book.
• Solomon Kane
• Slightly ruined by Pop-Cultural Osmosis, but Sherlock Holmes and his brother Mycroft both fall into this. Their first names only have two syllables, but they're terribly unusual names.
• British romance author Betty Neels frequently did this to her heroines, and the more egregious cases (such as Brittania Smith and Eustacia Crump) were usually Lampshaded.
• Coriolanus Snow, anyone?
• Andromeda "Andi" Slate from the Viridian Saga.
• From Knaves Templar (a historical mystery): Peregrinus Monk and Theophilus Phipps.
• From Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders: Alexander Bonaparte Cust.
• Merona Grant and the Lost Tomb of Golgotha: Merona Grant. Somewhat Lampshaded when she pokes fun at her own name to shatter the delusions of an admirer.
  Woolworth: Merona? I simply love that name. It's so strong, adventurous and independent sounding.
  Merona: It means sheep.
• Mediochre Q. Seth.

Live Action TV

• Inspector Morse, who was finally revealed to have the exotic first name "Endeavour".
• Emerson Cod.
• Veronica Mars
• Kimberly Hart
• Remington Steele
• Gabriel Gray from Heroes.
• Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce, better known as Hawkeye, from M*A*S*H.
• Horatio Caine
• Sebastian Smyth
• Perpugilliam Brown, aka Peri, from Doctor Who.
• The 100: Octavia Blake.
• Templeton Peck of The A-Team, which is why he's better known as "the Face".
• Key & Peele shamelessly parodied the NFL examples mentioned under Real Life in the well-known East West Bowl sketches - the first one alone has D'isaiah T. Billings Clyde, D'Squarius Green Jr, Swirvithan L'Goodling Splatt and T'Variusness King.
• The Price Is Right: The January 22, 1993 episode had two contestants with unusual names that ended up giving Rod Roddy fits when he had to read their names to "Come on down" in Ebunoloron Sims and Sathyanarayanan Sathy. Bob Barker, meanwhile, would stick to using their respective last names.

Professional Wrestling

• Jacqueline Moore, and some of her other names to a lesser extent (Georgia Brown, Sergeant Rock)
• Former TNA X-Division wrestler Consequences Creed, now known in WWE as Xavier Woods.
• CHIKARA. Inverted with founder Mike Quackenbush, and with Max Smashmaster and Flex Rumblecrunch who were 2/3 of The Devastation Corporation.^note This trope does not apply to their partner, Blaster McMassive.
• Inverted with Rico Constantino, though averted with his full name of Amarico Sebastiano Constantino.

Toys

• Transformers: Optimus Prime.

Video Games

• The Zork games feature a character named Antharia Jack. He's a movie star known for playing Indiana Jones-style roles, but his character's name is his own.
• Calisto Yew
• Elizabeth Greene.
• Elephant Games likes to do this occasionally:
  • The Grim Tales series has a psychic detective named Anna Gray as its player character. Although she averts the trope herself, many of the names on her family tree qualify for it. This includes her mother, Anastasia Gray; her great-grandfather, Alister Gray; and her husband, Dorian Gray. Dorian gets bonus points for originally having been Dorian Black, meaning he fit the trope twice. (He took his wife's name when they married.)
  • In both the Mystery Trackers and Detectives United series, Agent Dorian Brown comes from an entire family of these. His parents were named Rafael and Angelina; his brother and sister are Mortimer and Arabella.
  • In the Strange Investigations series, player character Dana's Dead Little Sister was Ursula Strange.
• In Dragon Age II, the younger sister of the player character is named Bethany Hawke. The player character may also qualify, depending on what first name the player decides to give them, but is invariably identified throughout the game as "Hawke."
  • In the DLC The Exiled Prince, the title character is an additional companion named Sebastian Vael.

Visual Novel

• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Gundham Tanaka is something of a Japanese example: 'Tanaka' is one of Japan's most common surnames, while 'Gundham/Gandamu' is written with the kanji for "eye", "serpent" and "dream/illusion" (and yes, pronounced like the mecha anime), making it the rough equivalent of something like "Basilisk Brown".

Web Comics

• Antimony Carver, though that's two syllables.

Web Original

• Warrick Kaine, Laurel Brant, and Brother Right, to name a few from The Descendants.

Western Animation

• Arthur: In "D.W. Unties the Knot," D.W. gives herself the assumed name of "Deeangeleenora Woo" (or "Dee Woo" for short).
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: Juniper Lee.
• Looney Tunes: Yosemite Sam.
• Transformers: Animated: Prometheus Black.
• Rentwhistle Swack of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: Eustace and Muriel Bagge.
• Wakfu: Remington Smisse.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Pinkamena Diane Pie.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: Spoiled Brat antagonist Montana Max.
• Rick and Morty's Gromflomites seem to have this as a species-wide naming convention. The two Gromflomites whose names we've heard in full thus far are the assassin Krombopulos Michael and the interrogator Cornvelious Daniel. Side materials of dubious canonicity also feature a Gromflomite named Canklanker Thom.

Real Life

• Orangejello Brown and Lemonjello Brown. Well, except not.
• Capability Brown (not his real name)... and his Discworld counterpart: Bloody Stupid Johnson (his less famous contemporaries being Sagacity Smith and Intuition de vere Slade-Gore.
• Former US President Rutherford Hayes
  • Preceded by Ulysses S. Grant, though his full name was Hiram Ulysses Seward Grant.
• Some naming guides actually suggest giving longer names to children born in families with a small surname.
• Harrison Ford. Seems like the Indy connections have come full circle.
• Keanu Reeves
• Immanuel Kant, philosopher.
• Elijah Wood, actor.
• Cameron Crowe, film director.
• Julianne Moore, actress.
• Montgomery Clift, actor.
• Susannah York, actress.
• Mackenzie Crook, actor.
• Oliver Platt, actor.
• Timothy Spall, actor.
• Naomi Watts, model and actress.
• Alejandro Sanz, singer.
• Vivien Leigh, actress.
• Josephine Tey, author of mystery novels.
• Ezekiel Hart, politician and entrepreneur.
• Gregory Peck, actor.
• Penélope Cruz, actress.
• Thelonious Monk, musician.
• Lucian Freud, painter.
• Virginia Woolf, writer.
• Fairuza Balk, actress.
• Elisha Gray, inventor.
• Rosamund Pike, actress.
• Marian Keyes, romance novelist.
• Deborah Kerr, actress.
• Adelaide Kane, actress.
• Kaniehtiio Horn, voice actress
• Angharad James, 17th century Welsh poet.
• Awadagin Pratt, concert pianist.
• Felicia Day, actress and writer.
• Horatio Sanz of Saturday Night Live fame.
• Mahershalalhashbaz (or "simply" Mahershala) Ali, an actor who appeared in House of Cards and Luke Cage (2016) and who won Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight (2016).
• Sufjan Stevens, musician. Has a brother named Marzuki Stevens and a sister named Djohariah.
• Nick Clegg has three sons, named Antonio, Alberto, and Miguel. Apparently, his Spanish wife, Miriam, insisted on this trope if all three were to have the surname "Clegg."
• Vannevar Bush, 20th century American engineer.
• Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE CStJ managed to do this twice.
• Supermodel Elle MacPherson has played this straight and inverted. She was born Eleanor Gow. Her parents divorced when she was young and her mother married a man named MacPherson. Eleanor took the last name and shortened her first name for balance.
• Common in the NFL, with strange names combined with average or short surnames, such as D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Ndamukong Suh and Laveranues Coles.
• BBC Radio 4 newsreader Zeb Soanes' full first name is Zebedee.
• Giancarlo Stanton, baseball player. His full name is "Giancarlo Cruz Michael Stanton", but for the early years of his professional career he was simply known as "Mike Stanton". After the 2012 season, he insisted on a First-Name Basis.
• Humiliation Hynde, a 17th century Puritan. Apparently he had two sons, both of whom were also named Humiliation Hynde.
• Inverted, with John Mellencamp.
• Inverted by Don Cornelius, the host of Soul Train.
• Inverted in Nigeria and other African nations where English is widely-spoken. It's not unusual for someone to have an English first or middle name, while the rest of their name is in the native language, such as football player Peter Odemwingie or singer Sade aka Helen Folasade Adu.