Basic Trope: Rich characters have names related to a rich lifestyle.
- Straight: Richard Bucksworth is a wealthy man.
- Exaggerated: Richard Prosperoson Goldbags-Bucksworthington CVX is the richest man in the world.
- Downplayed: John Richardson is implied to be more well-off than the other members of the cast.
- Justified:
- The setting is a time period where surnames exist to be indicative of your background or person, or the character inherited his surname from a time period where the practice was normal; i.e. the Bucksworth family are so named for their wealth, maintained through the generations.
- Richard had his name changed to Bucksworth by deed poll out of pride for how wealthy he's become. Originally he was just plain old Richard Smith.
- The popular reading of "rich" originates from "As wealthy as the Rich family."
- Inverted:
- Richard Bucksworth is poor.
- Penny Broke is rich.
- Subverted: Richard Bucksworth is pretending to be rich.
- Double Subverted:
- …-er: he's a billionaire, not a trillionaire.
- He gets a significant windfall later on, making him rich for real.
- Parodied: Penny Broke inherits a lot of money, and promptly changes her last name to Lottacash.
- Zig Zagged:
- Richard's financial situation varies across the series.
- Richard might be rich, but his cousin Monty Goldbags is poor. Penny Broke herself is rather rich as well.
- Averted: No one's wealth is reflected in their names.
- Enforced: A writer wants a character's wealth to instantly come across as soon as they are introduced.
- Lampshaded: "His name is Richard Bucksworth? I'm not surprised he's so rich!"
- Invoked: Richard's parents were new money, and changed their last name to Bucksworth to reflect their new financial status. They also named him Richard because of this.
- Exploited: When looking for victims to rob, a thief chooses to steal from Richard's home because of how wealthy his name is.
- Defied: Richard inherits a lot of money then changes his last name, since he doesn't want to sound so obviously wealthy.
- Discussed: "Okay, your alias can be Richard Bucksworth, since you're supposed to be a wealthy guy. It's just like the rich characters on TV, all having names related to money."
- Conversed: "That character's name is Richard Bucksworth? We get it, he's supposed to be rich!"
Back to Wealth's in a Name.
