Malicious Misnaming in Literature.
- In the Amber Brown books, sometimes some kids tease Amber by calling her color names other than "Amber" or "Brown".
- Bruce Coville's Book of... Nightmares II: In The Dollhouse, the elderly Fowler couple persist in referring to Lina as "Nina". It turns out to be because they plan to kidnap her into another dimension and raise her with a new identity as their niece, in place of their late daughter.
- In Sara Pennypacker's Clémentine chapter books, the main character, Clementine, is upset that she was given a fruit name but her little brother was just named something normal, so she keeps calling him vegetable names, such as "Spinach," "Rutabaga" or "Lima Bean." Eventually, it just becomes a Running Gag that even brother is entertained by and her parents stop trying to correct her. She's so dedicated to it that in one of the books she actually visits a Chinese market to learn more vegetable names and she even does it in her first-person narration such that her little brother's real name is never even actually mentioned.After breakfast, Zucchini and I made our parents a card. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! it said. WE SURE ARE GLAD YOU TWO MET! "If they hadn't," I explained to my brother, "we wouldn't be here. We'd be..." Asparagus's jaw fell open. "Extinct? Like dinosaurs?"
- Dirty Bertie:
- Bertie frequently calls his rival Nicholas "Nickerless".
- When Bertie is angry with Bella, Suzy's friend, for making him sleep in Suzy's room, he calls her "Smella".
- Discworld: In Guards! Guards!, the Palace Guard expresses his contempt for the Night Watch by calling Vimes "Captain Slimes, was it?"
- Elemental Masters book 3, Phoenix and Ashes: Eleanor definitely takes being called "Ellie" by Alison as this trope. Whether Alison meant it this way, or was just using the diminutive form to emphasize "Ellie's" role as servant, is left up to the reader.
- In Freaky Friday, Annabel calls her brother "Ape Face" to annoy him. It turns out that he likes it, and doesn't tell her because then she'd stop calling him it.
- Nick in The Gap Cycle takes malicious glee in referring to Angus Thermopyle as "Captain Thermo-Pile". (Angus' last name is actually pronounced "ter-mop-oh-lee", as in the place in Greece.)
- Ghost Girl (2021): Nellie mockingly refers to Zera as "Zero", then later comes up with "Ghost Girl" after Zee first encounters a ghost.
- When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar released his autobiography, Giant Steps, he included a letter that called Wilt Chamberlain, whom he had a bitter rivalry, "Wilt Chumperlane".
- Harrow the Ninth: When the God-Emperor interrogates a rebel commander with the meaningful if eye-crossing name "Awake Remembrance Of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back To Reality Oops There Goes Gravity", he makes his derision clear with any number of incorrect variants, including "Commander Wake Me Up Inside".
- Harry Potter:
- Both types are present: the Marauders call Severus Snape "Snivellus". There's also Draco Malfoy's "Weaselbee" for Ronald Weasley, as well as Luna Lovegood being called "Loony". Also, Ginny calling Fleur "Phlegm."
- On the other side of the trope, Dumbledore insists on addressing Voldemort by the given name he had long since thrown away, Tom. Harry does it himself in their confrontation in Deathly Hallows, earning Voldemort's anger that Harry would dare do so.
- In Heralds Of Rhimn, Gildhe calls Meparik “Mep-tiny” to get a rise out of him. Meparik observes it’s not even clever, just mean, and that’s why it bugs him so much.
- I Am Jazz: Jazz (a trans girl) says that some kids "call [her] by a boy name" to rile her up.
- The Machineries of Empire: Inverted with the sociopathic Virtual Ghost Nirai Kujen and the man who serves as his host. The man only calls himself "Inhyeng", meaning "doll" or "puppet", because he doesn't want his old life linked to his current deeds. Kujen doesn't show him that courtesy and continues to use his proper name.
- Matilda: Mr and Mrs Wormwood do this to Miss Honey when she turns up at their house to tell them of Matilda's brilliance, calling her Miss Hunky, Miss Hawkes, and Miss Harris.
- In The Mortal Instruments, Magnus calls Simon a variety of names starting with S, and very rarely calls him by his name.
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians:
- Mr. D (a.k.a. Dionysus) intentionally refuses to call Percy by name, usually calling him Peter Johnson, or some other similar name.
- In The Last Olympian, Percy has a dream conversation with Mr. D while the latter recovers from being knocked into the Rockies by a storm titan. At the end of the conversation, Mr. D uses Percy's name correctly, although he immediately denies it when called out on it.
- It seems that it's not just Percy whose name he butchers. In The Titan's Curse he calls Annabeth "Anniebell" or "Annabelle".
- Annabeth also calls Percy "Seaweed Brain" for most of the first book, and continues to as an friendly/affectionate nickname for the remainder of the series. Percy tries to come up with an equivalent, but the best he thinks of is "Wise Girl", which by his own admission is pretty bad.
- Mr. D (a.k.a. Dionysus) intentionally refuses to call Percy by name, usually calling him Peter Johnson, or some other similar name.
- In PartnerShip, Blaize Armontillado-Perez y Medoc reports to his assignment on Angalia. The man he's replacing refers to him, all in one scene, as "Sherry", "Madeira-y-Perez", "Port Wine-y-Medoc", "Claret-Medoc", "Sake-Armontillado", and "Burgundy-Champagne".
- In Ellen Conford's The Revenge of the Incredible Dr. Rancid and His Youthful Assistant, Jeffrey school bully Dewey Belasco frequently referred to title character Jeffrey Childs as "Childish".
- In Savvy, Mississippi (or "Mibs" for short) gets called Missy-Pissy by her two bullies Ashley Bing and Emma Flint.
- In The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sir Percy continually annoys Chauvelin by deliberately getting his name wrong, calling him "Chaubertin" or "Chambertin".
- In The Silver Chair, the Black Knight does this carelessly to show his complete lack of interest, when Jill mentions their quest to find Prince Rilian.Black Knight: It is a strange fantasy that brought you searching for... how do you call him? Bilian? Trilian?"
- In Springy, Pygmalion, and the Sheep Stories, when Bayou and Dobby get their bottoms shorn, Kramer the mean ram calls them "Baybottom" and "Baldobby".
- Survivor Dogs: Calling a dog by their Pup name (given to them by their mother but changed when their adult teeth grow in) can either be affectionate or derogatory. In the first book, Lucky shows off the latter by calling his sister Bella "Squeak" in an argument.
- Tales of Dunk and Egg: In "The Sworn Sword," Brown Bennis takes to calling Ser Eustace "Ser Useless" behind his back. Dunk chastises him for it, saying that as long as he resides under Ser Eustace's roof, he should treat the man with respect.
- In Kim Newman's Alternate History novella Teddy Bears' Picnic, film director Michael Powell makes a deliberate decision to refer to the government censor Putnam as "Putt-man", and instructs all of his staff to do the same.
- In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Aunt Sissy has an affinity for the name "John" and addresses all her husbands and lovers to the point that her family doesn't always learn their real names. Her third husband asserts himself toward the end, insisting that Sissy and her family call him by his name, "Steve". Sissy's affectation was changed to "Bill" in the film version, for obvious reasons. Sissy is sexually liberated for her time, but she is not a prostitute.
- Happens a few times in Warrior Cats:
- Firepaw calls Darkstripe "Dirtstripe", for all his obstructive behavior.
- When Fireheart is punished by having Longtail supervise him at all times, Longtail doesn't miss the opportunity to mock Fireheart and calls him by his apprentice name, "Firepaw."
- The Witch of Knightcharm: Janet Yawkly, a rookie witch at an evil Wizarding School, gets this hard. First, an older student named Lauren gets everyone to call her by her last name (which she hates) instead of her first name, using patently specious reasoning like 'another student named Janet died and we're retiring the name Janet in her honor, so you can't use it.' Then one of Yawkly's classmates goes one better and begins calling her 'Yawk.'
