Basic Trope: An alien is named after a human name.
- Straight: An alien from the planet Kepler is named Bob.
- Exaggerated: All the aliens from the planet Kepler are named after human names, like Alice, Bob, Claire and Danny.
- Downplayed: The alien's name is Abner.
- Justified:
- The aliens copy Earth's lifestyle to be like Earth.
- Bob's real name is unpronounceable, so he took on a nickname on Earth.
- An alien culture wouldn't know or care what names are common on Earth, but if they speak the same way we do, then they might have similar language constraints. Simple names with few syllables might just be a convergent evolutionary advantage, and if one of their names just happens to be close enough to one of ours, it just makes inter-species communication easier.
- The alien was Raised by Humans.
- The planet Kepler is a lot like Earth, including having Human Aliens (or at least Humanoid Aliens / Rubber-Forehead Aliens), so their culture is similar enough for its inhabitants to have ordinary human names.
- Inverted: A human on the planet Earth is named Taiscox.
- Subverted:
- The alien's name is Bob... Bobloxi.
- Bob turns out to actually be a normal human after all.
- Double Subverted: Through the Translation Convention, "Bobloxi" is revealed to be an alien pronunciation of Charles.
- Parodied: The alien's name is Bob Cool Human Name.
- Zig-Zagged:
- The alien goes by many names. Some of them are regular human names, while some are more appropriate for an alien.
- The planet Kepler has an Aerith and Bob sort of naming scheme.
- Averted: The alien's name is Laixpo.
- Enforced: The creator wanted to make the alien a bit human.
- Lampshaded: "Why is that alien's name a human name?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Bob uses his humanlike name to more easily convince people that he is a human.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: "Don't call that alien human names, unless you want it to have one."
- Conversed: "I wonder why so many aliens in fiction tend to have ordinary human names."
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