Generic Name

This is not just a name that is very common and unremarkable; this is a name that calls attention to how generic it is. In other words, the name is a word that means "generic", and is therefore a very uncommon name.

See also Awesome McCoolname and Fail O'Suckyname.

Examples of Generic Name include:

Anime and Manga

• The five component vehicles in Supercar Gattiger are given the uncreative names Center Machine, Left Machine, Right Machine, End Machine, and Up Machine.

Comic Books

• In the Sinister Dexter story "Malone", Finny has erased his memory and changed his face and moved to a planet called Generica.

Film

• The Matrix: This is the reasoning behind Agent Smith's name. The other two in the first movie are Agents Brown and Jones.
  • Cypher means a coded message, but it also means zero. It becomes a Meaningful Name.

Literature

• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, which literally means "no one".
  • Which is of course a reference to Odysseus who once claimed his name was "Nobody".
• The main character of Snow Crash is named Hiroki "Hiro" Protagonist.
• Le Chiffre, the villain in Casino Royale. His name is French for "the number". He picked it because, as inmate of the Dachau displaced persons camp, he was given a stateless passport and was "only a number on a passport."
  • As the book says, in Germany he would be called Herr Ziffer.
• H. G. Wells's Things to Come centers around a city called "Everytown".

Live-Action TV

• Jerri Blank and her family from Strangers with Candy. Her name arose from the creators' need for a placeholder, which they grew attached to and decided it was "just ugly enough."

Newspaper Comics

• Jenn Erica from the comic strip Ink Pen.

Tabletop Games

• In the Pendragon tabletop RPG, the sample characters are all members of the "de Falt" family.

Video Games

• In the PC adventure/RPG Quest for Glory I, should you decide not to name your hero, his name will be "Unknown Hero". This gets awkward if you bring the hero into later games, and Non-Player Characters address you by that name.
• The continent on which Dragon Age takes place is called "Thedas" – which is an abbreviation of THE Dragon Age Setting that was used as a placeholder by the developers and then was kept as the name.

Web Comics

• The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob is set (mostly)in Bob's generic hometown Generictown.

Western Animation

• Bobby's World: Bobby's family are the "Generics". However, whenever someone pronounces it like the English word, a family member corrects them: it's pronounced "Jenn-er-ick".
• Mayor Blank, from The Tick (animation).
• In one Family Guy episode, Brian moves to L.A. to try and make it in Hollywood. One of his co-workers at his crummy minimum wage job successfully sells a script with a protagonist named John Everyman.