Barbossa: Why thank ye, Jack.
Jack Sparrow: You're welcome.
Barbossa: Not you. We named the monkey Jack.
Jack Sparrow: You're welcome.
Barbossa: Not you. We named the monkey Jack.
This is where a human character and an animal companion share a name for some reason. This can work one of two ways:
- "We Named the Monkey Jack": The animal was named after its human counterpart, either to honor a fallen comrade or (more likely) as a subtle Take That! against an enemy.
- "We Named the Dog Indiana": The human was named from the animal or takes a nickname (or false identity) from the name given to a beloved pet or other animal companion.
No relation to the monkey named Jack in What Did Jack Do?. Compare with Pet's Homage Name, when the pet is named after someone the owner doesn't know personally.
Animal named after human:
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Anime & Manga
- In 7 Seeds, Takahiro Aramaki is left as the Sole Survivor of his team, alone except for two puppies, which he naturally names after his two dead friends, Mitsuru and Fubuki. The dogs and their descendants are his only company for the next fifteen years, and he associates them strongly with their dead namesakes. After the rest of the teams have emerged from cryostasis, he tells Ayu that he regretted choosing the names almost immediately, because he knew he would probably outlive them again.
- In Case Closed the estranged wife of detective Kogoro Mouri has a cat called Goro. It takes even Shinichi/Conan a while to realize that there is just one syllable difference. And since they separated before the series began, but she acquired Goro way later, it's also clear who was named after whom.
- In Futari Ecchi, Rika's cat is named Yamada, after her boyfriend.
- GTO: The Early Years: Makoto buys two Right Hand Attack Dogs and names them after his friends Eikichi and Ryuji to fulfill his promise to Samehara to "introduce him to the Onibaku". This backfires when, at the end of the chapter, Eikichi overhears Makoto telling his friend that "Onizuka and Danma are my dogs!" and crushes his glass in anger.
- In Kuroko's Basketball they named the dog as Tetsuya 2-go because of obvious similarities with the lead character.
- Mr. Soichiro, Kyoko's dog in Maison Ikkoku, is named after her deceased husband. Unusually, he responded to the name "Soichiro" even when her husband was alive.
- In Nichijou, Kōjirō Sasahara names his pet goat after himself.
- In Nisekoi, Marika Tachibana's parrot is named Raku-sama, after the main protagonist, Raku Ichijou, whom Marika is in love with. She's teaching the parrot all sorts of kinky stuff to say, making her all the more a creepy stalker.
- Pokémon Journeys: The Series: Lillie and Gladion's Disappeared Dad, Mohn, had been living with a shiny Nihilego who rescued him when he was trapped in the Ultra Wormhole. For a long time he believed that the Nihilego was his daughter Lillie, and thus named it such. When he's finally reunited with his children and wife, he regains his memories, and they decide to welcome the Nihilego into the family (with Gladion catching it) and with the name Lillie as well.
- Nanami the cow from Revolutionary Girl Utena. Not only does Anthy name a cow Nanami, in the episode "Cowbell of Happiness", Nanami the human turns into a cow. It's that kind of series.
- She later names a chicken Nanami, as well. It's strongly implied that all Nanami's animal-related issues are a result of Anthy's passive-aggressive retribution for her cruel prank in episode 3. She is a witch, after all.
- In Silver Spoon, Vice-President was the stray puppy that Hachiken found and rescued; the equestrian club decided to name him after Hachiken and he has since become the unofficial guard dog of the horse stable.
- Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew names her fluffy mascot, Masha, after her boyfriend, Masaya.
- Kouya in The Twelve Kingdoms renames his youma (demon) "Rokuta" after the human name of his first (and for a long time, only) friend.
- Subverted in Wolf's Rain. After feeding a stray dog, a girl named Leara meets a boy who says the dog's called Toboe. She's confused when he later calls himself Toboe. He claims this is because he and the dog are so alike. It's probably not spoileriffic to reveal that the dog is actually a wolf and that the boy and wolf share the same name because they are one and the same. When Leara finds out the truth she freaks out, to his dismay.
- The Team Pet in Yona of the Dawn is a little squirrel named Ao. He originally belonged to Sinha, who named him after the previous Blue Dragon, who was his mentor and father figure. This leads to an amusing moment in the manga when Yona asks where Sinha learned swordsmanship. Sinha replies "Ao" and Yona, not knowing the backstory, imagines the squirrel holding a knife.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- In the dub of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, Mana's bird is named Anzu, referencing the Japanese name of Tea Gardner. The bird is unnamed in the Japanese version.
- Used for a dub-only Continuity Nod in the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Judai and co. meet a trained dueling monkey named Wheeler; in the original series dub, Joey Wheeler was frequently called (as an insult) "a dueling monkey."
- A non-pet variant: the duel school created by Seto Kaiba is divided into three dorms named after the ancient Egyptian cards: the opulent Obelisk Blue, Ra Yellow, and the lowest, the run-down Osiris Red. The reason behind the hierarchy? He had the Obelisk card. His rival Yugi had the Osiris card.
- In Yuri!!! on Ice, Yuri Katsuki has admired famous figure skater Victor Nikiforov ever since he was young. When he learned Victor owned a poodle, he got one himself and named the dog after Victor, though the dog is usually referred to as "Vicchan". Vicchan's death from old age greatly affects Yuri, enough that it causes him to flub his routine at the Sochi Grand Prix Finals.
Comedy
- The ventriloquist Jeff Dunham:
Jeff Dunham: I named the dog "Bill" because I got him when Clinton was in office, and as a puppy, he was humping everything.
- An old joke (replacing the actors' names as appropriate) concerns an aspiring screenwriter sending his work to a famous director for appraisal. Sometime later, he runs into the director walking his dogs and asks him about it. The director replies that he showed it to Stewart and RDJ, and they loved it, damn near devoured his script while showing great enthusiasm. The screenwriter is ecstatic until one of the director's dogs starts humping the other, at which point the director yells "Stewart! You get off RDJ right now!".
- Invoked in an old anti-Castro joke where two Cubans discuss the potential names for their dog. The first suggestion is Marti, but they consider it would insult the Independentist leader. Then they ponder about calling him Fidel, but soon decide that would be an insult for the pooch.
Comic Books
- Angel's dragon and Groo's pegasus in Angel: After the Fall are both named after Cordelia Chase.
- In Batman, one of Damian's pets is a cat named after Alfred, who gave it to him. The fact that he's been shown addressing it as "Pennyworth" just adds to the confusion.
- In Cerebus the Aardvark, Cerebus becomes a shepherd and names one of the sheep "Elrod". It is unclear whether he's doing it because the sheep annoys him as Elrod used to, or if (after all these years) he misses Elrod (as well as his other old acquaintances). Outliving everyone you knew can have that effect on you.
- Condorito's dog Washington got his name as a thinly-veiled Take That! against Washington Quezada, a clubhouse waiter who insulted the wife of the strip's creator.
- In the Farscape comics, Scorpius has acquired a small pet lizard-like creature whom he calls John.
- In Firefly: Brand New 'Verse, Kaylee and Simon have a dog named Jayne because he's "big, smelly and likes to eat a lot".
- In the Gargoyles comics, it's revealed that Mary and Finella name their horse after Magus. "Something about his face," Mary says.
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: Scrooge McDuck named his horse after his Fiery Redhead sister Hortense, since the horse was the only thing he had ever met that could match her bad temper. The human Hortense was not amused.
- In Scott Pilgrim, Ramona has a cat that shares the name Gideon with her most recent ex-boyfriend. It is a source of much speculation why the cat is named thus, especially due to all the Magical Realism of the story. Turns out, it was just her way of getting over breaking up with him.
- Dori Seda had given her friend Tony a cat, which he called Doro. When she got a dog from him, she called him Tona. (Her Real Life and her comics tended to overlap.)
- Not exactly a pet, but in the Marvel Universe, after the Two Gun Kid is permanently stranded in the 21st Century, he is given a sky-cycle that he names 'Nancy' after his girlfriend back in the Wild West.
- In multiple stories of the spanish comic Mortadelo y Filemon, multiple characters name animals after people they despise.
Fan Works
- An Impractical Guide to Godhood: Perseus names his new hellhound Zoe just to annoy Zoe Nightshade.
- In Delusions, Celestia named her pet phoenix after her sister. Luna was originally named "Philomena" but changed it upon transforming into an alicorn.
- In the Death Note AU Lab Specimen
Ryuk decides to keep a cockroach as a pet and names it "Light II" much to its namesake's annoyance.
- In Of Love and Bunnies, the married Jason and Trini name their dog "Tommy". His namesake is...disgruntled when he finds out.
- In Purple Days, Joff names the ornery ox he bought at the Summer Islands Stennis.
- In the Harry Potter fanfic Returning, Rose Weasley names her cat after her uncle Charlie. Unfortunately, cat!Charlie is a grumpy monster.
- In My Hero Academia fanfic see it all in bloom Todoroki and Izuku have a Chow-Chow named Barkugou and Hitoshi has a cat named Nyazawa are named after their friend Bakugou and their homeroom teacher Aizawa.
- In The Wayne Family Petting Zoo, Damian Wayne decided he would raise turkeys and named one female Martha. His father Bruce frankly hesitates to take it as a compliment, while Superman's mother happily told her friends how her grandson's friend named his pet after her.
- In Let the Galaxy Burn, Lord Farwynd dubbs a stubborn, dumb, and somewhat strong-looking boreal otter that's been following him Victarion.
- In Care To Find, Shen Yuan dubbs his Harmonic Demon puppy Bingpup because the red mark on its head reminds him of the crest on the Demon Emperor's forehead. Said royal feels very much offended since he hates the dog breed.
- In It's a Wonderful Christmas, Carole, Colin is revealed to have named one of his cats after his boss, Gordon Brittas. The Ghost of Chirstmas Present had been hoping to use this in a bid to change Brittas' decision to not close the centre early on Chirstmas Eve, dooming everyone else to depressing Christmases. However, the cat is not in the best state, and Brittas is offended that he named the "mangy thing" after him.
- The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.: Principal Skinner’s pet cat, Miss Edna, is named after his ex-girlfriend Edna Krabappel. Since Edna died with her voice actress in Season 25, this also overlaps with Dead Guy Junior.
Film — Live-Action
- Toward the end of Adam Chaplin, Adam names the demon with whom he has struck a deal "Dennis", after the mobster who killed Adam's wife and whom Adam plans to kill. Demon-Dennis is less than amused.
- In All Cheerleaders Die, Leena names her new kitten 'Princess Madeline' after her crush/ex. Maddy is less than impressed (and more than a little squicked out) by this turn of events. Even Leena admits its pathetic.
- Though not an animal, the man who discovers the killer asteroid in Armageddon (1998) names it after his bickering wife ("She's a vicious life-sucking bitch from which there is no escape").
- In Birds of Prey (2020), Harley names her pet hyena Bruce "after that hunky Wayne guy". Oh, if only she knew.
- Black Widow (2021)
- Alexei is not amused that Melina, who posed as his wife during a Deep Cover Agent mission, named one of her pigs after him.
Melina: What, you don't see the resemblence?
- The Stinger shows Yelena calling her dog Fanny after an alias Natasha took in the movie.
- Alexei is not amused that Melina, who posed as his wife during a Deep Cover Agent mission, named one of her pigs after him.
- In Born Free, Elsa the lioness is named after a former classmate of Joy's. In this case it's a compliment, as Joy chose the name because Elsa the lion reminded her of some of the qualities she admired in the human Elsa.
Joy: She reminds me of a girl I knew at school; she was the smallest of us all, she wasn't very good at games, but she was very bright, and brave, and good, and I liked her very much. Her name was Elsa.
- In the Casper movie, Dibbs taunts Carrigan's ghost by telling her that he'll use the treasure to buy — among other things — a little dog also named "Carrigan" ("a bitch, just like you!"). Carrigan responds by flinging him out the window.
- In Fierce Creatures, Rollo Lee is placed in charge of the Marwood Zoo and one of the zookeepers named a lemur Rollo as a show of respect. Which leads to a bit of hilarity when the human Rollo and the lemur Rollo are together with the "Pronoid" Vince McCain.
- In one of the unused scripts for Highlander: The Source, Duncan has a monkey named after his cousin Connor.
- In The Hunt (2020), the pig is named Orwell, because the hunters are drawing symbolism from Animal Farm.
- At the end of The Interview, David Skylark revealed that he named his Cavalier Spaniel puppy after the late Kim Jong-un.
- Marilyn Rexroth in Intolerable Cruelty names her dog Howard after one of her ex-husbands.
- The zoo tiger in Life of Pi winds up with the human name "Richard Parker" due to a clerical error, since the hunter Richard Parker accidentally wrote his own name in the space for the animal's, and his name was thus recorded as "Thirsty None Given".
- In Little Shop of Horrors, the protagonist names an evil alien plant after his sweetheart. It's meant to be in a nice way, as he first believes the plant is a previously undiscovered (terrestrial) breed.
- In Payback, Porter's ex-girlfriend named her dog after him. This becomes useful later when a man comes looking for Porter the man, and she takes him to Porter the dog and has the dog attack.
- Trope Namer: Captain Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean series has a pet monkey named Jack. It is implied that this was a barb against his rival, Captain Jack Sparrow. Likely a reference to Long John Silver's parrot Cap'n Flint (see below under Literature).
- In Stepmom, Isabel buys her boyfriend Luke's children a Golden Retriever puppy to curry favor with them. Anna then suggests giving it her name, since it smells like her and she doesn't like it, either.
- In The Terror, Katrina's falcon is named Helene, which is the name of the young woman who may or may not be in the ghost/reincarnation of Ilsa von Leppe: a woman who Katrina says does not exist. It's that kind of movie.
- Aragorn's horse Brego in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is apparently named after an earlier king of Rohan. Aragorn acknowledges this in a scene from the extended edition, commenting that the horse has "a kingly name". Given how much Rohan values horses this is likely intended as an honor for both horse and King.
- Ultraman Cosmos vs. Ultraman Justice: The Final Battle: A little girl named her beloved puppy Cosmos, after the Ultraman of the same name.
Literature
- Animal Inn: A friendly version with two of Harvey (a female rabbit)'s babies, who are named for people that their owner Jake knows — Doc and Valentine (the last was Jake's brother Toby's idea), as seen in book 2.
- In Artemis Fowl The Time Paradox, in a combination of We Named the Monkey "Jack" and Dead Guy Junior, the heroes name a lemur Julius Junior, or JayJay for short.
- In The Baby-Sitters Club, after the Thomas kids' collie is put to sleep, Shannon Kilbourne gives David Michael a puppy. When Kristy prompts him with "What do you say?" David Michael replies "I say let's name her Shannon!"
- In the Charlie Parker Series, Parker names his dog Walter after NYPD friend Walter Cole, although his reasons are unclear and it seems likely that the author never actually intended this trope, but simply forgot when naming the dog that he already had a character named Walter. The trope still applies retroactively, however, and Walter Cole is never particularly pleased about having a dog named after him.
- In Chronicles of a Strange Kingdom, a protagonist stranded on Earth adopts a one-eyed cat and names her Kira after his warrior queen.note When he finally returns home, he's afraid to tell the cat's name. Then a cat-loving king of another country tersely names the cat Kira again. They do look alike, after all.
- Doctor Who Expanded Universe New Series Adventures:
- In the novel The Last Dodo, the Doctor names the titular bird Dorothea. He doesn't explain why, but Dorothea Chaplet was a former companion, usually called "Dodo".
- In the novel At Childhood's End, Dorothy McShane, formerly known as Ace, has a cat named Sorin, presumably after Captain Sorin from "The Curse of Fenric".
- There are two characters named "Mike" in A Dog's Way Home: a deceased cat and the ex-boyfriend of the cat's owner. Her son gets confused when she mentions that Mike (the cat) was hit by a car.
- In the light novels of The Familiar of Zero around 9th volume, Saito buys a horse and names it Louise, like his girlfriend. Needless to say that she didn't take it well. He was forced to change the name.
- In Heart In Hand, Alex names a stray cat "Gary" after the unpopular NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, because he has "dark hair, a funny face, and a really really tiny..."
- In the Alternate History novel How Few Remain, Samuel Clemens (a Mark Twain that never adopted the moniker and instead became a journalist in San Francisco) names his dog "Sutro" after the city mayor, Adolph Sutro. When Sutro's inactivity leads to the city being invaded by the British, Clemens comments that the shared name is actually more insulting for the dog.
- In Iron Dawn, a veteran of the Trojan War who'd fought under Achilles names his horse after the wife of the Trojan hero Hector. The implication is that the old soldier can really hold a grudge, as he named it that as a snub: he's riding his enemy's wife.
- The Machineries of Empire: The Shuos faction's Badass Bureaucrat Zehun names their cats after famous Shuos assassins. By the end of the series, they've named one after The Dreaded undead Four-Star Badass Jedao, which amuses their mutual acquaintance to no end.
- At the end of The Murder on the Links Hercule Poirot takes the 500 Francs he won in a bet with the annoying Inspector Giraud and buys a foxhoud statuette, which he names "Giraud".
- According to Malevil, this is a tradition in rural France. Since The French Revolution, ranchers have named their livestock with nobility titles as a generation-spanning Take That! against their distant ancestors' oppressors. Namely at Malevil, there is a Baronne, Comtesse, Marquise, and Princesse.
- Alex Morrisey of the Nightside series named his pet after his ex-wife Agatha. It says a lot about their breakup that said pet is a vulture.
- In Dawn Cook's Princess at Sea, Tess names her gelding "Jy" after her Friendly Rival Captain Jeck (who, incidentally, also cannot have children...)
- Misery: Annie's pig is named after her favorite character.
- In Rudyard Kipling's arctic story Quiquern Kotuko the young Inuit hunter has a sled dog named Kotuko. The story implies that this is common practice.
- In Red Country, Lamb owns a pair of oxen named Calder and Scale. Readers of The First Law will remember those to be the names of Bethod's sons; and given their past enmity, it's likely the names were chosen as a private insult.
- In The Rose Years, Almanzo Wilder names both a mule and a colt after his older brother, Royal. Roy the mule is probably meant to be a joke, as his wife named their other mule after Nellie Oleson, her childhood rival, but the colt was named "Royal" because he'll be the crown prince of the Wilders' livestock, just like Almanzo's brother was the crown prince of their family.
- Maikel Staynair in the Safehold series has a pet cat-lizard he named after his late wife. Only after that did he and his children realize that the cat-lizard was a male. Since the Staynairs' late matriarch had the kind of sense of humor that would've considered this hilarious, they never bothered to try changing the name.
- Sharpe: Richard Sharpe named his dog Nosey, the nickname of the Duke of Wellington, on the grounds that he'd spent fifteen years taking orders from the bastard, so he might as well give a few.
- In Slaughter's Way by J.T. Edson, Camp Cook Coonskin has a pet skunk named 'Mr. Earp', reflecting how most Texas cowhands felt about Kansas lawman Wyatt Earp.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, Daenarys Targaryen named her three dragons after her dead husband Drogo and her dead brothers Rhaegar and Viserys.
- Zimmerman from Ben Elton's ecothriller Stark names a camel that he captures and tames for the final attack on Stark after two fallen friends.
- As pets can seem a lot like people when you're nine, Peter Hatcher's naming of his dog at the end of Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing might count. He named his new puppy "Turtle", after the pet turtle his little brother had swallowed.
- In Treasure Island, Long John Silver has a parrot named Cap'n Flint, after his former captain.
- In Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer 40,000 novel Scourge the Heretic, an undercover woman has to quickly name an imaginary pony. She calls it "Mordechai" - and then wonders because she has been told that it's obvious she's in love with the real Mordechai and she had even started to wonder if it were true.note
- In the novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, the main character names his cat Noboru Wataya after his brother-in-law, whom he hates.
- In one of the The Witcher novels, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire and Technical Pacifist Regis names the party's donkey "Drakul". Jaskier, who is narrating the story, says that Regis refused to explain the name, saying its "an untranslatable play on words". One possible explanation is "dracul" is Romanian for dragon or devil, which would count as a Genius Bonus since it's also the origin of the word Dracula.
- In Woad to Wuin, Apropos discovers that he has named his horse Entipy, after a woman he knows.
Live-Action TV
- On Arrested Development, Buster, in an attempt to grow away from his near-Oedipal relationship with his mother, adopts a turtle, whom he named "Mother".
- On Boy Meets World, Shawn has a pig he calls Little Cory.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Scully regularly makes references to someone who lives with him named Kelly, but his descriptions are so confused, contradictory, and vague that nobody in the precinct can figure out if Kelly is his wife or his pet dog. In season seven, it's finally revealed that this trope is the source of the confusion; there are two Kellys, one being his ex-wife and the other a dog he adopted and named after said ex-wife when she left him.
- Community: Troy names his pet monkey Annie's Boobs after Annie, or at least part of her.
- In El Chavo del ocho the kids adopt a puppy and promptly name it "Ramoncito" after Don Ramón the resident slacker. The kids don't mean ill, but of course the human namesake isn't very flattered. Mostly because when the kids justify their reasons by pointing how cute the physical features of Don Ramón look in the puppy, the "homaged" only sees the Stealth Insult.
- Bobby on Cougar Town gets a dog who he names Travis, which is also the name of his son. He later explains he names everything he loves Travis. To avoid confusion, he refers to the dog as D.T. which stands for "Dog Travis".
- Doctor Who:
- In "Rise of the Cybermen", the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey travel to a parallel universe, where Rose's father is alive and still married to Jackie. They don't have a daughter but instead have a Yorkshire Terrier named Rose. Rose is deeply upset, while the Doctor has a hard time hiding his amusement.
- In "The Girl Who Waited", Amy, trapped in the Two Streams facility for thirty-six years, gets a Companion Cube robot that she has literally disarmed and painted a smiley-face on for company, and names it Rory. It's initially taken as a sign of how emotionally distant to Rory she now is, she doesn't address him by name. Later however when Old Amy talks to Young Amy, Young Amy points out/reminds her why she named it Rory, instead of "the Doctor" or after her favorite cat. It's because Rory is the love of her life.
- There's an episode of Father Ted where Dougal gets a rabbit, and initially wants to name it Ted, then suggests "Father Jack Hackett" as an appropriate name. So it is played with, but they end up calling it Sampras, which is a sort-of example, since Pete Sampras is obviously a human, but equally obviously not a character on Father Ted. Dougal gives his logic in this as "the obvious rabbits-tennis connection."
- In Fawlty Towers, Manuel's pet rat ("No rat, ees Siberian Hamster!!") is called Basil.
- In a Season 2 episode of Full House, Danny sets up a triple date with a woman he meets, Denise, and her two friends for Jesse and Joey, only for all to find out Denise and Jesse are exes and Denise named her puppy after Jesse.
- In Gordon Ramsay's UK series The F Word, he has a habit of naming the various animals he raises in his backyard after other celebrity chefs. Given that the animals are intended to be slaughtered and eaten at the end of the series this is pretty clearly intended as a piss-take. And Janet Street-Porter once got Gordon back by naming the horse she was going to have slaughtered for its meat after him.
- On The George Lopez Show, Benny's ex-husband names his dog after her. It's a female dog. This caused some confusion when Benny meets his current wife, who asks her dog if she wants to use the potty. Benny herself jokes that she will name her toilet after her ex-husband as revenge.
- In the first episode of Gloria, a much-belated spinoff of All in the Family where Gloria — now divorced — starts working for a vet, her son Joey gets a dog he names after his grandfather Archie — a black, gay dog.
- The Good Place: In the series finale, Michael names his dog "Jason" after his friend who's long since passed on from the universe.
- Gotham: In Season 5, Penguin gets a bulldog he names "Edward" after his frenemy Ed Nygma/The Riddler. Ed himself is less than pleased by this.
Oswald: (tearing up) I'm going to miss you, Edward.Ed: (stiffly) I'll miss you too, Oswald.Oswald: I'm not talking to you! I'm talking to the - (gestures to dog)
- Hannah Montana: One episode revealed that Miley once had a pig named Luann. The later episode, "Torn Between Two Hannahs" features her obnoxious cousin, Luann, whom she had named it after.
- In the first season of Heroes, Chandra names his pet lizard after his son, Mohinder.
- One of Wilson's exes in House owned a dog with him that constantly peed on their rug; she blamed House for wrecking their relationship and subsequently named the dog Hector because "Hector Does Go Rug" was an anagram of "Doctor Greg House". House thought that connection was tenuous at best too.
- I Love Lucy: Little Ricky names his dog Fred.
- Inspector Rex: Morini named his goldfish Filippo after his boss Filippo Gori. He tries to hide it, but he is discovered calling his fish Filippo.
- In Just Shoot Me!, one of Jack's ex-wives names her dog after him because it humps anything that moves.
- In Kaboul Kitchen, General Amanullah named his two dogs "George" and "Bush". Ironically, he is supported by the American government.
- The Kids in the Hall: When Gavin's mother dies, someone gives him a pet hamster to console him. "I named the hamster Mom, and it died. Ironic, eh?"
- In the Law & Order: SVU episode "Authority", criminal Merritt Rook names a sheep "Elliot" after Elliot Stabler, implying that Elliot is a sheep who blindly follows rules. He later rescinds that statement though, saying that Elliot "is a human being, not a sheep."
- On Lost, Daniel has a lab rat named Eloise. We later learn that this is his mother's name as well.
- In the The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Bow-Wow Affair", Illya is working alone on the case, but he names a borrowed fox Napoleon.
- Million Yen Women: Discussed. In the opening scene, the women are trying to find a name for a cat they just took in. One of the options that gets shot down is naming it "Shin", which is the name of the protagonist who owns the house in which they all live.
- In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "A Murdog Mystery", Ruth Newsome, sister to former recurring character Roger Newsome, who was killed off earlier in the season, has acquired a Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Roger.
- The Nanny: In "Take Back Your Mink", Gracie names her hamsters after her father and Fran. It leads to this:
Grace: Miss Fine's having a baby.C.C.: Who's the father?Niles: Why, Mr. Sheffield, of course.C.C.: (Spit Take)
- NCIS:
- S2 Ep15, "Caught On Tape": Kate names the dog of the killer, Tony, even though it's a girl. This leads to a humorous scene where Tony is listening in on Kate and Abby talking about whether Tony likes them, how cute Tony is, and how maybe they could share Tony.
- He probably brought this on himself by claiming in S2 Ep10, "Chained", to be looking for his dog, a mangy Shih-Tzu named Kate.
- S5 Ep13, "Dog Tags" has Abby running tests on a military police dog, who she names Jethro.
- Later on we learn that DiNozzo owns two fish, which he named Kate and Ziva.
- Tina Lord of One Life to Live named her dog David Vickers after the human character David Vickers. Then David Vickers had puppies.
- Pie in the Sky: When Crabbe retires and opens a restaurant, he buys a flock of chickens to provide fresh eggs, and names the rooster after his Pointy-Haired Boss after deciding it has the same "strange mixture of complete stupidity and naked ambition".
- Schitt's Creek: Alexis Rose is missing her boyfriend Ted while he is studying wildlife in The Galapogos Islands so she gets a pet turtle she names Ted.
- In an episode of Seinfeld, Kramer gets a rooster which he names Little Jerry.
- In the Smallville episode "Krypto," Lois Lane spends much of the episode referring to the dog as "Clarky" because, as she says, "he's annoying and I can't seem to get within ten feet of him without getting sick" which was, of course, actually a dig at Clark. She later suggests that Clark change his name to avoid confusion.
- In the 27th episode of Spider-Man (Japan), Takuya Yamashiro's little brother Takuji adopts a dog and names him after his older brother.
- Star Trek: Voyager: One of the signs that Reg Barclay's attempt to maintain contact with USS Voyager is turning into one of his obsessions is that he has a cat named Neelix.
- Star Trek: Picard: The now-retired Jean-Luc Picard has a dog named "Number One", his nickname for his former first officer William T. Riker.
- Tales from the Crypt:
- In "Collection Completed", Jonas is totally nonplussed when he discovers that his wife Anita has named one of her stray dogs 'Jonas'. The canine Jonas becomes the first animal the human Jonas kills and stuffs.
- In "Dead Right", Madame Vorna's dog is named 'Trotsky'.
- Myka on Warehouse 13 names her ferret after her partner Pete because "they're both cute and annoying"
- At one point, Neal from White Collar introduces Peter as 'Mr. Satchmo', in tribute to his yellow lab. Peter then destroys Neal's perfected cover in retaliation, something Neal understood.
Puppet Shows
- On The Muppets (2015), Miss Piggy brings back a baby penguin from her vacation to Argentina. She names it Gloria Estefan because it was the only Spanish name she could think of at the time.
Tabletop Games
- An issue of Dragon Magazine had an article on religious attitudes for non-cleric characters, and suggested that chaotic characters may show their devotion through naming weapons, pets, or children after their god. Depending on the character, it may be difficult to discern between a chaotic character using giving the name as a tribute, and an impious character giving it as an insult.
Theatre
- Little Shop of Horrors: Seymour names the strange and interesting plant he purchased "Audrey II," after his coworker and crush. Audrey I is quite flattered.
Video Games
- At the beginning of Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack calls up the Vault Hunters to talk about a horse made of diamonds that he bought, saying that he's considering naming it "Piss-For-Brains" after them. He later settles on the name "Butt Stallion".
- The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark: When his sidekick and best friend Dooley goes missing for months, McQueen acquires a cat who he names "P.D.", which he eventually admits is short for "Placeholder Dooley".
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy XIII-2: The cat at NORA House in New Bodhum is named Snow, after the team's Boisterous Bruiser leader. Fragments reveal Gadot originally meant it as a joke, 'but the name stuck and that was that. For the record, the cat is female and the NORA leader is male.
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, in the post-game, has a cat named Sherlotta, after one of the main characters. Well, kind of.
- Ghost Trick: Sissel was named after Yomiel's dead fiancee, which provides a neat explanation for his Gender-Blender Name.
- In a Hakuouki drama CD, Okita takes in a stray cat and, because he's a troll, names it "Toshizo" after the Shinsengumi's vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo. Comedy ensues when Kondou overhears Okita, Nagakura, and Saito discussing the feline Toshizo's penchant for stealing food, sneaking into people's beds, and siring children around the neighborhood; the misunderstanding that results is not helped by the fact that Saito can't bring himself to use Hijikata's given name even to address a cat, and instead calls the cat "Vice-Commander" as well.
- In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a family on Outset Island names their pet pig after Link.
- A variant occurred earlier in Ocarina of Time (which may overlap with Dead Guy Junior depending on how you look at it). Darunia ends up naming his son after "The Legendary Dodongo Buster", so he's known as "Hello, [Insert Name Here] of the Gorons."
- Also occurs in Twilight Princess, where the cat owned by Beth's family shares Link's name. This makes no sense until you remember the hilarious schoolgirl crush that Beth has for Link.
- In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Elaine has named her dog Guybrush, for a series of unflattering reasons.
- Mostly because this is a Shout-Out to Indiana Jones.
- In NEO: The World Ends with You, Ayano's character profile in the Social Network page reveals that she named her pet iguana after her friend Shoka, unbeknownst to anyone else.
- In No More Heroes, Travis Touchdown's cat Jeane is named after his ex-girlfriend. It's never explicitly stated why, though it can be assumed that it was a way to cope with the breakup.
- In Overwatch, the generically engineered gorilla Winston was named after his creator, Dr. Harold Winston, and after his death the gorilla becomes a scientist like his namesake.
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the name of a parrot is a clue to the real identity of a witness, as somebody important to the case lost a girlfriend. Manfred Von Karma retorts that his granddaughter has a dog named Phoenix and that it doesn't mean she named it after him.
- One feature of all Pokémon games is the nicknaming of one's mons. So, it is entirely possible to name that Rattata you caught "Joey".
- Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 has Jungo Torii name a cat he finds "Jungo" because it's easy to remember. It gets confusing very quickly.
- In Star Ocean: The Second Story, Claude makes an offhand mention about having a pet dog named Roddick. It's likely that Claude's father Ronyx named him after the hero of Star Ocean who Ronyx became good friends with. And, apparently, because both Roddicks had the same fluffy tail.
- In Tales of the Abyss, Emperor Peony named his rappigs with the name of people from his childhood (bar Luke). Hilariously, Saphir, which is Dist's real name, is the name of the stupid one.
- Also, the one named for Jade's sister Nephry (whom Peony has a crush on) has the nicest collar. Jade is not amused.
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: After retiring from treasure-hunting, Nathan Drake and his wife Elena got a dog and named it Vicky, after Nate's Parental Substitute, Victor Sullivan. Vicky is female.
- Uncle Albert's Mysterious Island:
- While stranded on an island, Uncle Albert tames a monkey which he names "Gus", because the monkey reminds Albert of an old friend of his.
- The original French name of Kipling the parrot is "Hugo". It's said in a cutscene that it's named after Victor Hugo.
- World of Warcraft: According to Pandaren legend, Shen-zin Su, the Wandering Isle, was named after a shopkeeper who humored Liu Lang (the turtle's original owner and traveling companion) when he announced his seemingly ridiculous plan to explore the ocean on the back of a (at the time) normal turtle.
- In BUSTAFELLOWS: after taking in a stray cat, the heroine asks the others for help choosing a name. Helvetica suggests on naming it after her since he'll care more about it that way. After deciding to try calling out different names to see which one the cat responds too, if you're on Helveticas' route then the cat responds to the unamused heroines name.
Webcomics
- In PepsiaPhobia, Phobia accuses her slave/boyfriend Klepto of naming their dog Mania after his ex-girlfriend of the same name. Subverted because, as Klepto points out, Phobia, who had no idea the other Mania existed, named the dog.
- In the Walkyverse, Joyce has, unintentionally, named two dogs after boys she had crushes on, both times after being mindwiped of the boys' existence. In Roomies!, Joyce has an unrequited crush on Danny. Still mindwiped and unable to remember her prior life, she and new BF Walky get a dog. Named? Daniel. Additionally, her childhood dog was named Walkies. She'd met Walky onboard the alien craft that gave them superpowers, but they were both mindwiped of the encounter.
Web Original
- Three YouTubers, Melisa (GirlOnDuty), Kevin (zXNoRegretzzXz), and Jamie (Utorak007) did a Minecraft series called Let's Play Survival Island. Their friend Crowley (irishCROWLEYz) couldn't join them, so Mel tamed a wolf and named it after him.
- ''Not Always Right has one here. Good antidote to telemarketers.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: In the Distant Finale, a now-adult Anne is shown to have a pet tree frog that she names Sprig after her old friend from Amphibia.
- In El Cid: The Legend, Rodrigo names his horse after his girlfriend Jimena, which annoys her greatly when she finds out.
- A possible example in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths: The Jester (Joker's analogue) has a monkey named Harley - and we know his allies were killed off almost to a person. It's unknown if the monkey is named after Harley Quinn the person or if she is Harley Quinn's actual alternate-universe counterpart.
- King of the Hill:
- In "Pretty, Pretty Dresses", Bill adopts an iguana and calls it Lenore, after his estranged wife, showing that he hasn't gotten over breaking up with her.
- In the ending of "Raise The Steaks", Hank gets a letter from Appleseed, who tells him that the calf he saved from their now-closed co-op has been named after him.
- In the episode "K'nuckles Is A Filthy Rat" of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Flapjack adopts a rat and calls it "K'nuckles II".
- On Over the Garden Wall, Greg carries around a frog that he gives several names, including Wirt Jr. (after his brother) and George Washington. In the final episode, he decides that the "perfect frog name" is Jason Funderburker, the name of Wirt's romantic rival, who actually seems honored. Interestingly, Word of God says that the names are spelled differently (the human is Jason Funderberker, with three "e"s instead of a second "u").
- The Simpsons:
- In "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", Charles Montgomery ("Monty") Burns steals 25 greyhound puppies from the Simpson family and names his favorite "Little Monty."
- A pair of New Age Retro Hippies have a dog named Ginsburg, after the famed proto-hippie poet.
- Steven Universe:
- Steven temporarily adopts a goat and names it Steven Jr.
- When Garnet realizes Steven isn't dependent on her guidance anymore, she adopts a kitten because she missed having someone to take care of. She names the (female) cat after him, but when Steven says that would be confusing, she decides on "Cat Steven".
- On Total Drama Island, Harold adopts a snail and names it Leshawna Jr., after his love interest. It's supposed to be a compliment, though Leshawna probably wouldn't take it that way herself.
- Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown adopts a parrot for a short time which he names Little Jack. It turns out the parrot is the Yin Yin Bird in disguise, Hannibal's bird companion.
Real Life
- Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné):
- The Swedish botanist is claimed to have named Geranium robertianum (a flower mostly known for its repulsive odor) after a childhood bully.
- A legend claims that the common toad, Bufo bufo, was named for Linnaeus' rival as a biologist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, count of Buffon. (It wasn't: bufo is simply Latin for "toad.")
- Linnaeus's inclusion, in his taxonomic system, of a rule against naming species after yourself has done a lot to perpetuate this trope, as you can, at least, honor somebody else that way.
- Katy Perry named her cat Kitty Purry.
- John Barrowman, who played Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood, has a Jack Russell called Captain Jack.
- Frequently happens when a new species is discovered, such as when Gary Larson had a newly-found breed of parasitic louse named after him. It was meant as a compliment (as he stated in one of his books, he knew no one was going to name a new species of swan after him).
- Sir David Attenborough has a species of echidna named after him, as well as a plesiosaur genus.
- Charles Darwin has a moth and a prehistoric lemur named after him.
- Sir Terry Pratchett has an extinct sea turtle named for him. A very large one, naturally.
- Martin and Chris Kratt have a praying mantis named for them: an honor they celebrated with a Wild Kratts episode, complete with a cameo by the entomologist that chose the name.
- The Other Wiki has a list of animals named after celebrities.
- In some Shi'ite Muslim majority countries, they will frequently kick and refer to dogs as "Umar" as a reference to the 2nd Sunni Caliph. Sunnis and Shi'ites are rival Muslim sects.
- One Argentinian journalist, Jorge Lanata, once had a little pig in his show. He named it "Varone" (but said he was also considering naming him "Orlando"), after "Orlando Barone". Because he knew that "once he grows up, he will become a big pig". [1]
- During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant had a horse named "Jeff Davis."
- During World War Two, Bernard Law Montgomery had a pet dog named Rommel.
- Averted by a French law that always comes up in discussions of ridiculous past legislation, which forbids anyone from naming their pig Napoleon.
- As mentioned in Hamilton, Martha Washington had a feral tomcat she named after Alexander Hamilton. The play implies it's because he's reliable with the LADIES but historians disagree.
- Her husband, meanwhile, had a greyhound named Cornwallis after Charles Cornwallis, whom he'd defeated at the Siege of Yorktown.
- Her husband, meanwhile, had a greyhound named Cornwallis after Charles Cornwallis
- Giuseppe Garibaldi named one of his horses "Papa Mastai" as a Take That! against the then-Pope Pius IX (whose pre-papal name was Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti).
- It's commonly believed that Garfield the cat was named after President James Garfield. This is mistaken; he's actually named after Jim Davis's grandfather... who was named after President Garfield.
- To the surprise of exactly no one, the late Steve Irwin has an arboreal snail named after him, one Crikey steveirwini.
- Katherine Parr, the last of King Henry VIII’s six wives, had a dog called Gardiner, after the anti-Protestant Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner. It was clearly meant as an insult, and she dressed the dog in ecclesiastical clothing, much to the delight of her household and the displeasure of the human Gardiner.
- In his autobiography Going Solo, Roald Dahl mentions living on an oil company ship where they had two pet lizards named Hitler and Mussolini. Dahl and his associates were British, making them enemies of the fascists.
- According to LeVar Burton, when he was starting out in show business, he was gifted a cat from Regis Philbin, who was a Kindhearted Cat Lover, which LeVar ended up naming after him.
Human named after animal:
Anime & Manga
- In Battle Angel Alita, main character Alita is named after a cat that Dr. Ido owned, which had died a short time before he found her. She's not happy to hear this. Of course, in the Japanese version, the cat's name is Gally instead. Either way, part of the reason she's not happy about it is that the cat was male.
- In the Black Butler manga, Sebastian was named after Ciel's dog, who was killed along with Ciel's parents. Though he didn't show it, Sebastian was quite displeased at this, as he doesn't like dogs.
- In The Daichis - Earth Defence Family, mother Seiko recounts that as a child, she had to return a puppy that she had found to its original owner. Her son Dai suddenly realizes that in Japanese, "dog" is just "Dai" with one added line, and becomes indignant at the implication that he was named that way. (The English dub handles this by saying that the dog's name was "Dino-Chief," with Dai's name being pronounced like the first syllable.)
- The main protagonist of D.Gray-Man Allen Walker took this name after his adoptive father started confusing him with his dead dog "Allen"... On the lighter side said dog was probably named after another human Allen whom the dog owner knew.
- Amadeus, Sieglinde's Battle Butler dragon in Dragonaut: The Resonance is named after her late dog from when she was a kid.
- In The Familiar of Zero a tragic version is a girl named Charlotte who received a doll named "Tabitha" shortly before her mother was poisoned. Her now-insane mother believes the doll to be her daughter, so Charlotte took to calling herself Tabitha.
- In Michiko & Hatchin, the title characters' search for Hiroshi takes them to Elis Michaela, a woman he dated after he faked his death. He told Elis that he had no name, so she called him "Rock" after a dog she once had. His response was a playful "Woof, woof."
- Yoite from Nabari no Ou has the same name as a cat Yukimi used to have. Strangely, this is later inverted when Yukimi gets another cat after Yoite dies and, unconsciously influenced by the traces of his memories of Yoite(the person, not the first cat), names it Yoite. And in the end it's subverted when everyone regains their memories of Yoite and Yukimi renames the cat "Yoi".
- In Nana, one of the two Nanas was nicknamed "Hachi" to differentiate between them. This came from Hachikō because she was known for being incredibly loyal. And also means "Eight" in Japanese. "Nana", respectively, meaning "Seven".
- Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online: The name of Miyu's VRMMO character is "Fukaziroh", after her deceased dog.
- The main character of You're My Pet first decides to keep Takeshi as a 'pet' because he reminds her of her old dog — so, in reference to said dog, she calls him "Momo". Even on their wedding day...
Comic Strips
- In Sally Forth (Howard), Sally's sister Jackie names her daughter after the family cat. Her husband isn't happy when he finds out.
Fanfiction
- In Knights of Remnant: The Ring of Darkness, a RWBY and The Lord of the Rings Fusion Fic, it's revealed that Jaune, who is this story's version of Aragorn took the fake name Strider from his dog, with the lines in the scene revealing this being a shout-out to Indiana Jones
- In The Second String a time-traveling Harry discovers that Ron was named after the Weasley family dog.
Film — Animation
- Subverted in the Hungarian animated film Treasure of Swamp Castle: the main female protagonist, Szaffi gets her name after her baby sneeze, but incidentally it's the same as her surrogate mother's cat's name.
Film — Live-Action
- Indiana Jones:
- Henry Jones Jr. so disliked being named for his father that he used the nickname Indiana for most of his adult life. As revealed in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this was the name of the family dog.
Sallah: Please, what does it mean, this "Junior" business?
Henry Sr.: That's his name. Henry Jones Jr.
Indy: I like Indiana.
Henry Sr.: We named the dog Indiana.
Sallah: The dog?! Heh heh. You are named after the dog?!? [belly laugh]] Hahahahahaha!]]
Indy: (wearily) I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog... - The decision to ditch his father's (who that last line implies he doesn't have many "fond memories" of) name in favor of the name of his beloved childhood pet tells the audience just what kind of childhood he had. It's a major turning point in their relationship when Henry Sr. finally calls his son Indiana rather than treating him like Generation Xerox.
- Indiana was actually the name of George Lucas' dog (who was also the inspiration for Chewbacca). And following the line, the other two protagonists of The Temple of Doom were named after dogs, Willie (Steven Spielberg's) and Short Round (screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz).
- Played with in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Mutt Williams, who is named not after a dog but after a synonym for "dog".
- In the Graphic Novel, Marcus says his family had a cat named Marcus before he was born, and Elsa, if she survived the Grail Temple sequence, says she thinks her father had a secretary named Elsa.
- Henry Jones Jr. so disliked being named for his father that he used the nickname Indiana for most of his adult life. As revealed in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this was the name of the family dog.
- In Rocky Mountain, Capt. Lafe Barstow asks Jimmy Wheat why the initial on his sign-up papers was 'B'. Jimmy explains that his actual first name is 'Buck'. He then explains that his uncle had a pair of wagon mules and promised to give his father whichever one he named the child after, and his father chose the one named Buck. Barstow remarks that he probably wishes his father had chosen the other one, but Jimmy says no, because the other one was named Sally.
Literature
- The 19th-century novel At the Back of the North Wind has a cabman's son named Diamond, named for his father's favorite horse, who is important character himself in the book, and is referred to by the narrator as Old Diamond.
- In Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity's Good Deed Lucy mentions that her uncle has a stuffed giraffe named Geraldine and she used to tease her cousin Gerald by claiming he was named after it.
- In Empire from the Ashes the Emperor and Empress's second son is named Horus Gaheris [MacIntyre] with his middle name coming from one of the Imperial families dogs. Although in this case the dogs in question are genetically engineered to have human-level intelligence and Gaheris was severely injured saving the Empress from an assassination attempt shortly before the son was born making this more a case of naming a child after a close friend rather than a pet.
- InCryptid: Frances, a Circus Brat, claims she was named after the snake-handler's favorite python. She could have just been trolling Jonathan though.
- Played With in The Lost Years of Merlin—the title character was named Emrys, but his Identity Amnesia and his suspicions about his mother meant that he was not very attached to that name. In the first book, he has a pet merlin named Trouble that pulls a Heroic Sacrifice for him, so he takes "Merlin" on as a new name instead.
- In Magehunter, the titular protagonist purchases a dog and names it "Kurt", after his Uncle.
- Towser, an old jester in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn got his name from one of his king's dogs when he pledged to be as loyal as a hound.
- There's a YA book called My Louisiana Sky where the main character's mentally handicapped mother named her Tiger, after a cat she had when she was a little girl and loved so much she accidentally squeezed it to death.
- Dian Curtis Regan's My Zombie Valentine has twelve-year-old Joseph "Joey" Milford Ocean as its main character. Joey's younger sister takes great pleasure in reminding him that "Milford" was their grandparent's dog, who died the night Joey was born, a fact which greatly annoys him.
- The Saga of Hrolf Kraki has Queen Olof of Saxony bearing a baby daughter after being raped by King Helgi of Denmark. She names the girl Yrsa after one of her dogs and has her raised as a serf.
- One of the many alter-egos Arya Stark comes up with over the course of A Song of Ice and Fire is "Nymeria", the name of the pet direwolf she was once forced to release into the wild, who herself was named after a legendary warrior queen.
- Unintentional example: In The Wheel of Time, main character Perrin meets a girl who has run away from her privileged lifestyle to become an adventurer but is having trouble deciding on a name. At first, she introduces herself as "Mandarb," an Old Tongue word meaning "blade," and Perrin laughingly points out that one of the horses in his group has the same name. She then decides that Faile, meaning Falcon, would also be a cool name. Which becomes a Meaningful Name due to an earlier prophecy, and any appearance in subsequent prophecies.
Live-Action TV
- In Season 4 of Community, Troy reveals that his family had a dog named Troy, and a parrot named Troy. The parrot is older than him. He doesn't realize what this means until after he says it.
- In Frasier, Niles and Frasier discover their late mother's journal with numerous references (apparently) to them and their problems. After spending the episode angsting over the implications, they discover that they've been reading her lab journal from before their birth. "Niles" and "Frasier" were her experimental rats. At first, they're relieved, but then it dawns on them...
Frasier: (weary) Our mother named us after rodents...
- Lionel Fusco of Person of Interest was named after a lion his father once fed at the local zoo.
- Monk has Adrian Monk's older brother, Ambrose, whose father named him after a tortoise.
- In the first season of Sons of Anarchy it is revealed that Cherry's real name is Rita. She had escaped from an abusive husband taking all their belongings include Cherry the dog, before burning down their condo. When the dog died she started using the dog's name because she liked it better.
- In White Collar, Mozzie takes his nickname from his mispronunciation of his teddy bear's name, Mozart.
Music
- The Australian rapper born Amethyst Amelia Kelly took half of her stage name from the name of her dog. She took the other half from the street she grew up on. That's how she came to be known as Iggy Azalea.
- Simon John Ritchie from the punk rock band Sex Pistols was named "Sid Vicious" after John Lydon's pet hamster after it bit him. Which caused him to proclaim "Sid is really vicious!" in response.
Myths & Religion
- In Irish legend, young Sétanta was attacked by a guard dog belonging to Chulainn and killed it. In recompense, he promises to raise a new guard dog, and to take the dog's place himself until the new dog was ready, earning him the name by which he is known in legend: Cú Chulainn, or, in English "Chulainn's Hound".
Puppet Shows
- At the end of Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince, it's revealed that Prince Robin and Princess Melora named their son after Kermit. Kermit meanwhile is very honored to know that a prince is named after him.
Stand-Up Comedy
- According to Jeff Foxworthy: if you've ever named a child after a "good dog", you might be a redneck.
Theatre
- In the play Christmas On Mars by Harry Kondoleon, Audrey discovers her mother named her after a cat she once had.
Video Games
- Ghost Trick again: Yomiel, for the events on the day the game takes place, took the cat's name "Sissel" as an alias for dealing with the blue-skinned foreigners.
- The Legend of Zelda: In Skyward Sword, the earliest game chronologically set before the first appearance of the Gerudo tribe, there is an insect located in the Lanayru Desert called the "Gerudo Dragonfly." Coupled with the Gerudo emblem resembling a dragonfly's head, it's implied the tribe is named after the insect.
- Early in Medieval Cop 3: The Princess and the Grump Dregg has to snap Polly out of depression. If you pick "Insult him" Dregg remarks that Polly's parents hated him so much that they named him after the family parrot.
Webcomics
- In Batman and Sons, Catwoman named her son, Terry, after her first cat.
Batman: She named my son after a cat, Alfred.
- In Impure Blood, Mac starts to speculate about this as soon as she learns his real name is Roan because she knew of a horse that was called a roan.
- Irregular Webcomic! parodies this with Montana Jones, who was also named after a dog, but it turns out his real name is North Dakota Jones, Jr.
- In Stand Still, Stay Silent, the family tree published at the end of Chapter 12 revealed prologue characters Michael and Signe to have named their son "Magnus", which in the prologue proper is the name of Michael's cat.
Web Original
- Misty took her online name from her cat, named Misty, not the Pokémon character.
- In Noob: La Quête Légendaire, Rafale does this to himself by complete accident. He technically simply used his real last name for his avatar, but the franchise canon happens to include another minor in-game character named Rafale: Omega Zell's flying mount.
Western Animation
Real Life
- There is an asteroid named after Mr. Spock... the namer's cat.
- Clive Staples Lewis didn't like his name (understandably). At the age of four, he began insisting that everyone call him Jacksie, after the family's recently-deceased dog; 'Jacksie' mutated over the years into 'Jack', the nickname his relatives finally stuck with.
- Marion Michael Morrison had a dog named Duke as a boy and went everywhere with it. As a result, one of his neighbors started calling him "Little Duke"; when he grew up and became famous as John Wayne, the nickname of "Duke" stuck with him.
- Yet another real-life example: Bindi Sue Irwin. Her first name comes from a crocodile (given her father, that should surprise no one), and her middle name comes from the family dog's name (this is a slight subversion, as the dog's name apparently is Sui).
- Delta Burke's name came from the family cat. The name was decided upon shortly after her birth when a relative exclaimed, "She looks like Delta the cat!"
- In Australia, a toddler named Makybe was reunited with her family. Yes, she was named after the racehorse.
- Zenyatta Alexandra has become a rather popular name for human "fillies". It is often explicitly stated that they are named after the famous racehorses Zenyatta Rachel Alexandra.
- Andrew Barton Paterson, Australian poet and journalist, took his more well-known name from Banjo, the family racehorse.
