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Sallah: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Junior"? |
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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.
For the last name, "Smith" and "Jones" are the two most used, but any one-syllable name that sounds common and unremarkable also works.
Examples of Sesquipedalian Smith include:
Keeping up with the Joneses
Comic Books
- Desolation Jones - While this is not the character's name, the series title fits the bill.
Film
- Indiana Jones - As pointed out in the quote above, his real name is Henry Jones, Junior, but everyone remembers it as the name of the franchise.
- Cleopatra Jones (and Foxy Brown, though that's only two syllables)
- Christmas Jones from The World Is Not Enough.
- Motherfucker Jones from Horrible Bosses.
Literature
- Coraline Jones.
- Jupiter Jones of The Three Investigators.
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
Radio
- Inverurie Jones in the I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Spin-Off You'll Have Had Your Tea? 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.
Video Games
- Eulogy Jones from Fallout 3.
- Time Splitters 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 1800's and Mordecai Jones from the Robot Wars in the 2200's.
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". Giovani Jones. You know who directed it.
Real Life
- Orlando Jones.
- The civic center in Atlanta, GA is named for one Boisfeuillet Jones. No, really.
- Cleolinda Jones.
- Rashida Jones.
- The actress January Jones.
- Aphrodite Jones.
Namesmithing
Comic Books
- Sierra Smith, a Western private eye in The DCU.
Film
- Jefferson Smith, the eponymous Smith of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
- Cars featured a background forklift named Nebuchanezzar Schmidt.
Literature
- Northwest Smith from C. L. Moore's early science fiction, making this Older Than Television.
- Zacharias Smith from Harry Potter
- And Hepzibah Smith.
- Terry Pratchett has two Indy parodies: Howondaland Smith, Balrog Hunter in Discworld and Alabama Smith in Only You Can Save Mankind.
- 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
- Eddington Smith, the soft-spoken bookseller in the Cat Who... books.
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.
- Jeremiah Smith, minor character in The X-Files.
- Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Umbrella Stand JasperWednesday(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) WilliamsIf I Could Walk That WayJenkin (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.
Video Games
- Pollination Technician #9 Smith of Strangetown.
- Jocinda Smith of Backyard Sports.
Real Life
- Real Life: Jefferson Randolph Smith, better known as "Soapy"
- Cordwainer Smith
- Elliott Smith, singer/songwriter
- Nevada Smith, which supposedly inspired the name "Indiana Jones".
Other Surnames
Comic Books
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).
Literature
- Encyclopedia Brown - His 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.
- And Sirius Black and Severus Snape.
- 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.")
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 Mash.
- Horatio Caine
- Sebastian Smyth
Professional Wrestling
- TNA X-Division wrestler Consequences Creed
Toys
- Transformers: Optimus Prime
Video Games
- Earthworm Jim
- 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.
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Calisto Yew
- Prototype: Elizabeth Greene.
Web Comics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: 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
- 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.
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 B. Hayes
- Preceded by Ulysses S. 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.
- Angharad James, 17th century Welsh poet.
- Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, an actor who played Mombasa in Predators.
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