I Call It "Vera"

Shh, Sasha's trying to sleep.

Six men came to kill me one time, and the best of them carried this. It's a Callahan Full-bore Auto-lock. Customized trigger, double cartridge, thorough gauge. It is my very favorite gun... I call it "Vera".

—Jayne Cobb, Firefly

Some people have really strong emotions about their weapons. So much so, they give it a name.

Anyone who does this either has a sentimental attachment to said weapon, is a veteran from some war, is generally insane, or is some combination of the three. In any case, someone who gives a name to their gun or knife is usually someone to watch out for and generally not one to mess with.

Compare Named Weapons, Stock Weapon Names, and Cute as a Bouncing Betty. Contrast They Call Him "Sword", which occurs when somebody gets nicknamed for a weapon. Empathic Weapons and Evil Weapons are a different issue. Ships and planes nearly always have a name. I Call Him "Mister Happy" is a different named "weapon".

Examples of I Call It "Vera" include:

Anime and Manga

  • Just about any Humongous Mecha from the Super Robot Genre, technically. You can't very well yell out the name of your attack if it doesn't have a name, now can you?
  • Maya from the various incarnations of Burn Up does this with her entire arsenal. She's even been known to say some pretty suggestive things to them.
  • Character profiles for Weiss Kreuz reveal that Aya's katana is named Shion, after his former teacher. Weiss being the sort of series that it is, Aya is eventually obliged to kill his weapon's namesake.
  • Kino of Kino's Journey names her guns. "The Woodsman", "The Cannon", and "The Flute".
  • Gundam Wing: Chang Wufei is particularly notable, in that he gave his Mobile Suit an additional, personal name after his dead fiancée besides its official one.
  • Guts in Berserk has his sword, the Dragon Slayer. This wouldn't count except that there are no dragons in the Berserk universe (unless you count Grunbeld in Apostle form); the sword was merely designed so that it could slay one if there were. Recent chapters showed a dragon sitting on a castle tower, so the Dragon Slayer might eventually come to earn its name.
  • In Slayers Try, Filia has a mace named "Mace-sama". She's quite intimate with it, as she carries it under her dress attached to her garter.
  • In Bludgeoning Angel Dokurochan, the bat that can do anything, Excalibolg.
  • Revy from Black Lagoon refers to both of her custom Berettas as her Sword Cutlasses, which is fitting, seeing as she is a modern-day pirate.
  • Genkaku from Deadman Wonderland calls his double machine gun electric guitar "Flying V" very affectionately. It receives better treatment than pretty much all other humans he interacts with.
  • Another good anime example of this trope is found in Patlabor. In the Patlabor anime, Police Officer Noa Izumi affectionately names her giant police robot 'Alphonse' for some unspecified reason. Her fellow police officers are quite dismayed by her naming choice and her loving devotion to her mecha. It's what she's named all her childhood pets. Labor Alphonse is Alphonse III, with the first two being her cat and dog.
  • Continuing the named vehicular weapon example, Leona of Dominion Tank Police named her micro-tank Bonaparte. She also appears to be more attached to the tank than she is to her partner/would-be boyfriend.
  • In Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Kenichi's father has a shotgun he calls "Sebastian".
    • Not to mention Hunting Rifle Maximilian and the Double-Barreled Rotwoski.
  • In the manga Double Arts, the resident Blood Knight Sui had a hoola hoop made of solid iron that she uses in battle. She calls it Avis.
  • Gundam is all up in this trope. Every single Gundam has its own unique name, and a ton of the weapons get names in the profile pages.
    • In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Graham Akre (AKA Mister Bushido) named the beam Katanas Are Just Better wielded by his mobile suit Masurao "Howard" and "Daryl" in honor of his former wingmen.
    • Modern Vehicles do all have official names (Abrahms, Osprey, Blackhawk, etc.) and the mass-production MS are named similarly. Gundams just happen to be unique custom high-performance units with a unique name.
  • Soul Eater: Not really a weapon, but Death the Kid has named his hovering skateboard "Beelzebub". On the other hand, his real weapons, the guns Liz and Patti are a whole other story.
  • In Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, one character in the Zenith Tournament use a BFS which he named Dizaster. It does live up to its name, given that it is capable of taking down SPACESHIPS
  • The main character Train from Black Cat wields the Hades, a revolver made of Orihalcon, capable of blocking regular bullets and later functioning as a RAILGUN
  • Midvalley the Hornfreak on Trigun named his saxophone Sylvia. And even without the machine-gun capacity, she is the deadliest sax ever.
  • Several of the girls of K-On! names their instruments. Yui, being very original, names her guitar "Gitah" and Mio's bass "Elizabass", and Azusa names her Mustang guitar "Mu-tan." No word yet on Ritsu's drums or Mugi's keyboard.
  • In Strike Witches Season 2, Mio Sakamoto has "Reppumaru". It's a Katana she forged using magic, capable of slicing through Neuroi attacks to compensate for her lack of shields.
  • Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: To keep with the Theme Naming, their car is called See-through, Panty's panties are named as backlace/backless and Stocking's Stockings are named Stripes I and II.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid Vivio names her device "Sacred Heart", and gives it a nickname "Chris".
  • Full Metal Panic Fumoffu plays it for laughs. Sousuke becomes the coach to the high school's rugby team, whose members are all of the Gentle Giant type, and takes them to the woods and puts them through The Spartan Way. In a Shout-Out to Full Metal Jacket, each member is given a rugby ball and told that they must love the rugby ball as a girlfriend. They all start to carefully clean the balls calling then foreign female names, in an absolutely creepy scene.
  • In Bleach, Ichigo thinks this trope is in effect when Renji asks him his sword's name. Ichigo replies that he hasn't given his sword a name, and naming an inanimate object is silly. In Bleach, a Shinigami's sword is sentient and has a proper name.

Comic Books

  • Marv from Sin City has a 1911 by the name of Gladys, which he named after one of the nuns from his school days. According to Marv, the gun has almost lived up to its name.
  • Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire calls his pistol "Junior". So do Smith and Wesson, a pair of entirely sentient AI zap guns belonging to a Space Pirate who goes by the name "the Pistol Packin' Polaris Packrat". It's probably the gun's actual name, although it isn't an AI and therefore doesn't talk (or if it is, it doesn't have much to say. Well, other than ZOWNT). A distinctly imposing rifle with "Senior" inscribed on its side is also shown to be in his possession, although if there's ever been a situation where Junior wasn't sufficient, we haven't seen it yet.
  • The Dragunov sniper rifle of Natalya Zamyatin from Y: The Last Man is named Rodya, after her husband killed in the plague.
  • Nuke, the drug-fueled Super Soldier from Daredevil, had a BFG he called "Betsy", which had a kill counter.
  • In one of the Cable & Deadpool comics, Deadpool is in Rumekistan shooting people and his gun says "Deadpool's Gun" on it, with the little Deadpool emblem. So...well, he didn't really name it, but he did label it (also, in one of the issues Cable has a BFG named after Liefeld, as an in-joke on the way Liefeld used to draw ridiculously giant guns).
  • Captain America (comics)'s shield seems to be named Shield in Steve's head. He loves that shield. He also once referred to it as "she", but when a rescued scientist asked about its name, Cap retorted, "Do you have a name for your right arm?" Naturally, the shield was lost at the end of the issue and later destroyed. It got better.
  • Bob Hertzog in Knights of the Dinner Table names pretty much every single one of his (numerous) dice. At least, every die that has stood out in some manner. Knowing the behavior of rather hardcore gamers, this probably isn't too much of an exaggeration from real life.
  • In the Spacehack back-up strip that ran in Knights of the Dinner Table, the security officer had a BFG he called "Suzy".
  • In Ms. Tree, Dan Green nicknames his Hook Hand "Nellie".
  • In Suicide Squad, Briscoe nicknames the team's helicopter gunship 'Sheba'. After his dead daughter.
  • In Swamp Thing, when the plant-human hybrid the Floronic Man goes on a homicidal rampage in Louisiana, a Houma resident attempts to cut him down with his chainsaw, nicknamed "Evangeline."

Fan Works

Film

  • Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann from Full Metal Jacket, in one memorable scene, forces his recruits to give girls' names to their rifles. The first indication we get of Pvt. Pyle's decaying mental state is when we see him cleaning his gun (Charlene) delicately and whispering to it like a lover.
  • In Aliens, Drake the smart gunner seems to have named his weapon "My Bitch". He kisses it at one point.
  • Predator's 'Old Painless'.
  • In John Carpenters Vampires: Los Muertos, starring Jon Bon Jovi(!) the scary black guy calls his gun "Miss P".
  • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: "Bruce? Matilda!"
  • Since non-weapon examples have made it onto this page, we might as well mention Rosebud. What do you mean rosebud isn't a weapon?
  • Hackers. Joey gives the name "Lucy" to his computer, which the character would consider a weapon.
  • Hellboy's weapon of choice is a huge gun, which shoots bullets containing Holy water, Garlic or silver. He calls it The Good Samaritan. In Hellboy II, Hellboy's new weapon is the 'Big Baby,' which is a large shotgun with six barrels. "Aww, you woke up the Baby!"
  • Trigger from Disney's Robin Hood carries a crossbow with a faulty safety called Betsy.
  • The Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact contains this exchange between Harry Calahan and a would-be armed robber:

Harry: Well, we're not just gonna let you walk out of here.
Crook: Who's 'we', sucka?
Harry: [brandishing his .44 Magnum revolver] Smith and Wesson... and me.

  • The sheriff of the town of Deliverance in BloodRayne II: Deliverance calls his double-barrel shotgun "Sadie".
  • In the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, two of the cannons on the HMS Surprise have names scribed on their side, "Jumping Billy" and "Sudden Death".
  • During filming of Spider-Man 2, Alfred Molina nicknamed Dr. Octopus' four tentacles (clockwise from top left) Larry, Harry, Moe, and Flo to help him keep the action straight.
  • Dear Wendy, a film by Lars von Trier is ALL about this trope. Every member of the Dandies weapon club names their gun/s and treats their gun/s as if it is their partner - if a Dandy uses another's gun instead of his/her own, it's as if they are a cheating partner. The film is structured with an ongoing narrator in the form of a letter to Wendy. About halfway through the movie we realize Wendy is the main character's pistol.
  • Iron Man 2 has Hammer's bunker-buster mini-missile he calls "the Ex-wife".
  • In Dragonslayer, the titular spear's name in Latin is Sicarious Dracorum.
  • In The Singing Nun, the protagonist named her Spanish guitar Adele.
  • From Paris with Love: Charlie Wax calls his Sig Sauer X-5 Mrs. Jones. He goes through a lot of trouble to smuggle it into France at the beginning of the film even though he could have requested any weapon he wanted once he met up with his local CIA contact.
  • Played for laughs in The Rundown, wherein Travis attempts to intimidate his foes by implying phenomenal martial arts skills by wriggling his feet, first one, then the other, while telling them that the one is called Thunder and the Other is Lightning. In reality, he's trying to intimidate them enough that they won't fight him because he doesn't know any martial arts at all.
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows has 'Little Hansel', an artillery cannon.

Literature

  • In Dan Abnett's The Armour of Contempt, driller Kexie's best friend is Saroo, his shock maul aka cattle prod. Used to encourage discipline in the cadets. A lot.
  • In Twenty Years After, Porthos's favorite rapier is called "Balizarde", after the hero's sword in The Song of Roland. Which is strange, since Roland wielded Durendal and the word Balizarde never appears in the poem.
    • Well, it's Porthos. He's not got the sharpest sword in the scabbard.
  • Despite leaning heavily towards the Real Robot of science fiction, this is fairly common in the BattleTech universe, especially the novels. This is probably inspired by the nicknaming of vehicles in the military during real world wars. In the novels focused on the Gray Death Legion, conspicuously Scottish Davis McCall has named his Rifleman 'Mech "Bannockburn"; Lori Kalmar-Carlyle's ancient but faithful Shadow Hawk goes by "Boss Lady". There's also the "Yen Lo Wan", a Centurion. Somewhat subverted in Endgame when Katrina Steiner snidely comments on her brother Victor Steiner-Davion having named his Dire Wolf/Daishi "Prometheus". (She then mocks a nearby guard who commented he named his gun Tabitha.) Weirdly, this seems slightly less common in the Clans, despite their using OmniMechs (a subtype of Humongous Mecha that are easily customized into unique variants) and have a culture that venerates warriors and honorable combat, but it can happen. Natasha Kerensky, the legendary Black Widow, calls her custom Daishi "Widowmaker".
  • Jean Tannen, The Lancer in The Lies of Locke Lamora, names his paired hatchets the Wicked Sisters. He makes a joke about the name when he has to fight a pair of female twins.
  • According to El Cantar del Mio Cid, Rodrigo Diaz had two swords: "La Tizona" and "La Colada".
  • Averted by Mercedes Lackey in her Heralds of Valdemar series. Fighters operate under the philosophy that one weapon is as good as another; the only sword which has a name is an Empathic Weapon which turns out to be a woman's spirit contained in a sword. Several main characters give their musical instruments names, however.
    • Defied in Exile's Honor, when Alberich is a weapons instructor in Karse. If a student ever named his weapon, the weapon was either melted down (if it belonged to the school) or returned to the student's home (if it belonged to the student), the student being prohibited from using it.
    • Somewhat subverted but mostly played straight in her Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, where having a named weapon (say, Galgraling the Wyrm Slayer) will invoke Tradition (the ambient magic in the land) and give you an advantage should you meet an actual Wyrm. Champions, however, do not name their swords—they can make any blade magical.
  • In Saberhagen's Book of Swords series, the swords have names, though this is more a case of Named Weapons, since the names are not personal nicknames but were given by their creator (the god Vulcan) before distributing them throughout the world.
  • A Justified Trope in Dragaera's Taltos series; Vlad calls his Great Weapon, Godslayer "Lady Teldra". The reason, in addition to the fact that he considers the actual name melodramatic, is that it contains the soul of its namesake.
    • There's also "Spellbreaker", a length of chain with the Anti-Magic property of breaking any spell it hits. Vlad named it not because of sentimental attachment or mental instability, but because he was told that it would be a good idea to give it a name.
  • The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson features a pair of vikings who name their favorite swords "Bluetongue" and "Redbeak".
  • A Song of Ice and Fire uses this quite a bit, from a child's fencing blade (Needle) through to the ancestral swords of the noble houses (Dawn, Ice, Red Rain, etc.).
  • In Peter Pan, Mr Smee has named his sword "Johnny Corkscrew", because of the way he uses it.
    • Also featured is the pirates' massive cannon "Long Tom", said to be large enough to launch a fully grown Indian out of. Also mentioned in passing in the movie Hook, and shown many times in the animated Peter Pan and The Pirates series, where it is portrayed as being decorated in the style of a white tiger.
  • In the Dave Barry/Ridley Pearson Peter Pan novel Peter and the Starcatchers, Captain Hook deployed a special sail rigging he named "The Ladies". This specific sail was modeled after a woman's bustier, and supposedly increased his ship's speed.
  • J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) has lots of Named Weapons, but usually fitting the 'Named Weapons' trope instead of this one.
    • Played straight with Sting, the elven knife/shortsword Bilbo found back in The Hobbit; after Bilbo was able to slaughter the spiders of the Mirkwood with it, he decided that a weapon that formidable should be named. (In the movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, this has become an official name - the weapon now carries a runic inscription saying: "Sting is my name, I am the spiders' bane.")
  • In the Rhapsody series of books, Elizabeth Haydon has Grunthor—a giant Bolg—name all of his weapons, because he says it makes them work better. With the exception of "Friendmaker," a huge polearm that gets its name because "When people see it, they'd much rather be my friend than my enemy," most of his weapons are named after various prostitutes he's known.
  • In the famous Civil War memoir Company H, the author mentions a fellow soldier who "had the brightest gun in the army, and always called Florence Fleming".
  • This has appeared in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, though it isn't very common("Grief", "Chance").
  • Mona and Delilah are the cars owned by Joanna in the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine.
  • Reason in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Used as a source of wordplay: "I know they'll listen to Reason".
  • This trope is out in force in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. Besides the titular swords themselves, just about every major character has a name for their favorite sword, spear, or miscellaneous implement of death.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons most notable magic items are named, including weapons.
    • Drizzt Do'Urden's two scimitars, Icingdeath and Twinkle. And Wulfgar's war hammer, Aegis-fang; Cattie-brie's bow, Taulmaril the Heartseeker; and her sword, Khazid'hea (translated from Drow, 'Cutter'; although as a sentient sword, being named is justified). Similarly, Artemis Entreri eventually acquires the sentient sword Charon's Claw. Though never named in the novels, game rule information gives names to the twin longswords of Zaknafein, Drizzt's father: one is called Reaper, the other Reaver. As they are borderline epic in their abilities, and he was epic level, they no doubt earned their name.
    • Averted with Enteri's dagger, which is only known by the rubies on it. That is enough.
  • Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker also has a sentient sword called "Nightblood".
  • In Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky both the main protagonist and his sister have foot-long Bowie-knives that they've named. The sister's is "Lady Macbeth". The protagonist's knife is called Colonel Bowie, showing an unfortunate lack of creativity on his part. Glory Road has Lady Vivamus, explicitly introduced as being just like the next example.
  • Another Heinlein example, though not about a weapon this time. In his Juvenile novel Have Space Suit—Will Travel, the main character names his titular suit Oscar and has conversations with it. In one particular case, it even gives him a pep talk as he lays dying on the surface of Pluto. Note that though it's never mentioned outright, there's no indication that he actually believes he's talking to his suit.
  • In Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd And The Grey Mouser series, Fafhrd wields a sword he calls Greywand, while his partner, the Grey Mouser, wields a sword and a dagger he calls Scalpel and Cat's Claw. However, Fafhrd calls any sword he happens to be carrying Greywand, and whatever sword and dagger The Mouser wields become Scalpel and Cat's Claw. They go through many, many, many of these over the course of the stories, and therefore this is perhaps a purer example of the trope than many of the other examples: Fafhrd's sword is called "Graywand" not because of any special properties it has, but simply because that's what he calls it.
  • In Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series, Lirael's sword Nehima keeps changing its own inscription every time she looks at it.
  • The Bazil Broketail series seems to take the military training route; humans don't name any of their weapons, but nearly every dragon soldier seems to have named their personal blade, whether or not it's enchanted.
  • Elric. Stormbringer.
  • The Heir series by Cinda Williams Chima has Warrior hero Jack uncover the legendary magical sword of his ancestor, which is named Shadowslayer. His girlfriend Ellen, also a Warrior, later acquires a similar one named Waymaker.
  • Beowulf used the sword Hrunting against Grendel's mother, given to him by Unferth.
  • Mack Bolan's preferred hand weapons are named "Big Thunder" (a stainless steel .44 AutoMag), and "Belle", his silenced Beretta Brigadier (a civilian Beretta 92S). The spin-off series Able Team has "Lyon's Crowd-Killing Device", a modified Atchisson Assault Shotgun wielded by 'Ironman' Carl Lyons.
  • The Avenger, pulp hero, late 30s - early 40s: Ike (throwing knife) and Mike (revolver).
  • Hoppy Uniatz uses his Betsy to bop people. And yes, he genuinely talks like that.
  • In The Song of the Lioness Quartet, Alanna names her sword Lightning.
    • Keladry, the next female knight, names the sword Alanna gave her "Griffin".
  • For a brief while near the (publishing-order) beginning of the Redwall series, the Sword of Martin the Warrior was dubbed "Ratdeath". Apparently Brian Jacques realized that really isn't a good name, and thus it underwent Retcon. In later books, it has no real name, but "Sword" tends to be capitalized when you talk about it.
  • In The River of Dancing Gods by Jack L. Chalker, the hero names his magic sword "Irving," after his estranged son.
  • In The Way of the Sword by Henry Lion Oldie has it in Arc Words - which turn out to be the motto of The Watchers who know more of what's going on. For a reason, as it's all about empathic weapons, and the prequel and sequel show that there was indeed much to watch for... but also show that compared to what led to this state of affairs and what followed it this was even more of an unbelievable Golden Age. Still:

Be damned that day when the weapons began to get names!

  • In the Discworld book Unseen Academicals, Mightily Oats makes an appearance during the Backstory, where we find he's nicknamed the axe he used to lop off the head of Count Magpyr in Carpe Jugulum "Forgiveness".
    • Night Watch referenced the above "Smith and Wesson" line when Vimes pulls a crossbow and says "Meet my friends, Mr. Burleigh and Mr. Stronginthearm." The threat falls flat, however, because Vimes is back in time before those weapon-makers went into business, so nobody has any idea what he's talking about.
    • Sergeant Detritus, a troll officer of the watch, commonly carries a weapon that Vimes refers to as The Piecemaker. It's a siege crossbow and fires many, many bolts at once. The name comes from what happens to anything Detritus discharges it at.
  • In Laurell Hamilton's Merry Gentry series all of the magical weapons are named: Winter's Kiss, Mortal Dread, a couple magical rings and Doyle's twin daggers (which are only known by their nicknames—snick and snack).
  • In The Riftwar Cycle, there's a throwaway line about the type of crossbow used by the Hadati hill people, which is called the Bessie Mauler. No one's quite sure why it's named after Bessie, but it's certainly a mauler. They're normally used to hunt wyverns, the smaller, less fire-breathing-y cousins of dragons. You'd expect some other named weapons in a fantasy series, but if any have names, they're never mentioned.
  • Percy Jackson's sword is named Riptide.
    • Luke's sword Actually Kronos' scythe is named Backbiter. Parodied with Clarisse's second spear, Maimer, which everyone jokingly calls "Lamer".
  • Eragon has this with Murtagh's sword, Zar'rok, Brom's sword, Undbitr, and Eragon's sword is Brisinger
  • In an early The Saint book, Simon Templar has a favorite throwing-knife named Anna.
  • Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon once had a French car "Madeleine" and a black motor bike "Dr. Kaltenbrunner"

Live-Action TV

  • The trope is named for Jayne's very favorite gun from Firefly. It has extreme sentimental value. The fact that he views his own proposal to swap it for Mal's "wife" in "Our Mrs. Reynolds" as theft is pretty telling. "Vera" itself is an Izhmash Saiga-12 conversion originally built for the movie Showtime.
    • The fact that in "Heart of Gold" he snuggles up with his gun instead of a real woman is pretty telling.
    • In a lot of Firefly fanfic, Jayne does this with all his weapons. In one interview, Adam Baldwin, Jayne's actor, stated that Jayne's knife is named "Binky" and his pistol "Boo", though neither name is used in the series proper, probably because the series got canceled before he got around to letting others know.
    • In Serenity, Jayne uses another gun with a name, a submachine gun by the name of "Lux". It was named after a poster on the Firefly message boards, LuxLucre, who died tragically of pneumonia shortly after the feature film Serenity was announced.
      • According to the novelization, that submachine gun was called "Phoebe".
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander gets threatened by Jack, who reveals his knife is called "Katie".

Xander: "You gave it a girl's name. How very serial killer of you."

    • A female example would be Kendra naming her stake "Mr. Pointy".
  • Alton Brown named his favorite pizza peel "Emma".
  • In Farscape, John Crichton names his most reliable pulse pistol "Winona". It gets to the point where if Winona misfires he automatically assumes it's because he didn't properly maintain her (which, as any gun enthusiast can probably tell you, isn't that unreasonable a belief). A Lampshade Hanging is hung about this at one point in the episode "John Quixote": "That's a nice sword... You should give it a name, like 'Cameron' or 'Uma'."
  • In the Doctor Who serial The Smugglers, Cherub has a knife named Tommy Tickler.
  • In Ashes to Ashes, Gene Hunt has a crowbar that he calls "The Search Warrant".
  • In Roman Mysteries, the door-slave (and former gladiator) Caudex has a gladius he calls "Flora"; named, we are told, after an ex-girlfriend with a sharp tongue.
  • In an episode of the sitcom Unhappily Ever After, the mother gets a glass table, which she makes everyone call Sheila.
  • When doing cannon-related myths, the MythBusters crew borrows a cannon that the owner has named "Old Moses", as it "speaks with a great voice and lays down the Law". This is a common thing to do with cannons - one preacher-turned-artilleryman during the Civil War named four guns "Matthew", "Mark", "Luke" and "John" for the same reason. The Mythbusters themselves engage this trope when they acquire a car (for doing car myths, naturally) and name it "Earl," named just because it seemed like an appropriate name for a large, black Cadillac.
  • Stephen Colbert has a handgun that he calls "Sweetness" that he frequently is seen talking to...and that he sometimes thinks is talking to him. He's had some... interesting... conversations with it. (Inside joke: Colbert is deaf in his right ear IRL; he always listens to "Sweetness" on that side.)
  • Played with in Sledge Hammer!!. The title character talks to his gun, sleeps with it, and is generally in love with it... but it's named Gun. In the German dub, however, he calls it Suzie.
  • Not quite a weapon, but it is involved in a duel. In the "pool shark" episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Philip Banks reveals that he has a custom-made pool cue, which he is so used to that he can only fail with a pool hall's cues and can only win with his own. He calls it Lucille.
  • Tara's Split Personality "Buck" in The United States of Tara has a gun called Persephone.
  • In Corner Gas, Davis named his billyclub "Billy". He encourages her Karen to name hers and she ends up calling it "Jennifer".
  • Jon Stewart apparently calls his fists Simon and Garfunkel.
  • On Mystery Science Theater 3000, in the "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" episode, Tom Servo had a gun that he names Lucille.
  • "Stella is my knife. You're about to get yanked." Although it was an imaginary knife conjured from a random quote...
  • Ninja Turtles the Next Mutation had the hunter Bonesteel, who had a wide array of weapons such as Betty the doublebarreled shotgun or Mary Lou the crossbow.
  • Pete, a reoccurring villain on The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, refers to his gun as Pete's Piece.
  • Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Not sure if it was in the novels, but Stacy Keach (playing Mike Hammer) refers to his Colt M1911A1 as 'Betsy'.
  • In an episode of Scrubs, a guard calls the tranquiliser rifle he is preparing to use to shoot JD out of tree 'Megan Fox' and kisses it.
  • Otoya from Kamen Rider Kiva gave the name Bloody Rose to his violin.
  • Oddly subverted on Supernatural: Dean's beloved 1967 Chevy Impala doesn't have an exact name, but he often calls her "Baby" and more occasionally, "Sweetheart".
    • It is considered a real cast-member by some fans, appearing in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE to date.
    • Additionally, it has been given a name by the fans: "The Metallicar"
  • In a Season 3 episode of The A-Team, "The Sheriffs of Rivertown," Murdock gets two pistols and states, "I call these babies 'Betsy' and 'Bertha'."
  • Psych. In the episode "Viagra Falls," Lassiter, the somewhat incompetent cop, hears that a retired cop has named his weapon and considers dubbing his own “Mr. Thunderstick.” Juliet quickly vetoes the idea.
    • The retired cop's gun was named Darla Saidman. His gun was Jewish?
  • In an episode of Burn Notice Sam is using his Chuck Finley persona to scare information out of a villian, and he threatens him with his knife "Mr. Slicey."
  • In 'Allo 'Allo! Lt. Gruber named his tank Hubert. He asked if he could be buried with it as well.
  • In Glee, Dave Karofsky nicknames his own fist 'The Fury' and then proceeds to threaten Kurt with it. Yes, Karofsky has issues. Well, actually, it's more like he has subscriptions.
  • In a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother, Ted offers make Sandy Rivers (who had been embarrassing Robin at work) listen to "Common Sense" and "Reasonable Discourse". When Robin asks Ted if those are his fists, he replies that they're his feet. Ted's a kicker.
  • In Primeval, Danny reveals he has a club named "Molly"
  • In the episode "The Fighting Irish" of Thirty Rock, Jack Donaghy, his dad, and his brother announce their fist-names before fighting.
  • Ignacio from Weeds has a stun gun named Mr. Zappy.
  • Henry from Sanctuary named a weapon Molly, short for Modified O-wave Linear Expeller.

Will: Uh, doesn't that acronym spell "mole"?
Henry: Molly's hotter.
Will: Dude, it's a weapon, not a woman.

  • Deadliest Catch's captain Phil named his engines Good Girl and Bad Girl because one of them was reliable and the other seemed to want him and his boat to be unable to cope with the Bering Sea's... bad moods.
  • The title character from Todd and the Book of Pure Evil forges a sword during the Season 1 finale in the school's industrial arts lab. Season 2 reveals that he names the sword "Sanddragon".
  • The Middle: Mike's father nicknamed his belt 'The Enforcer'.
  • Sam Hanna of NCIS: Los Angeles calls his father's '70s Dodge Challenger "Charlene". In the big Crossover with Hawaii Five-0, he dubs Danno's Camaro "Winifred".

Music

  • Devo Spice apparently named his Atari "Heather".
  • BB King's famous guitar, Lucille. According to King, early in his career, a fight broke out in the club he was playing at. This fight quickly got out of hand, and somehow a fire started. Naturally, everyone immediately ran out, but King had left his guitar behind in his haste. Realizing that he couldn't afford to replace it, he reentered the burning club and retrieved his instrument. When he learned that the fight had started over a woman named Lucille, King decided to name all of his guitars in the future "Lucille", "to remind myself never to be that stupid again." King also famously refuses to ship Lucille in a plane's cargo hold; he buys two seat tickets. One for him and one for Lucille.
    • This is likely why a number of examples on this page (such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air above) use Lucille for their named weapons as well.
  • Green Day leader Billie Joe Armstrong's "Blue" - his first guitar which he still plays today.
    • Also, A 1950's Gibson Les Paul Junior named "Floyd". He states that this is his favorite guitar.
  • Bo Diddley's guitar, the Twang Machine.
  • Willie Nelson's guitar, Trigger.
  • Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitars. The most famous is First wife also known as #1. Others include Lenny for example, after then his wife who gave it to him.
  • Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page played a black Les Paul custom known as "Black Beauty" (until it was stolen). Since then, his number one guitar has been a Les Paul sunburst known simply as "Number One".
    • Black Beauty is actually what the model was called, not his name for it. He named his other Les Paul "Number Two". This had more to do with him having an easier time to separete them, since they were setup differently. Similar thing with the numbers put on Pete Townshend's Les Pauls in the 70's.
  • Eric Clapton's guitar, Blackie. He also has a Brownie (which he used with Derek & The Dominoes).
  • Rory Gallagher's Stratocaster, supposedly one of the first bought in Ireland and his lifelong favourite instrument, was simply called "The Strat".
  • Mason Williams's guitar (which he named a song after, too), $13 Stella.
  • Vadim Pruzhanov, of DragonForce, plays a keytar named "Batman".
  • Brian May's guitar, Red Special. It is actually quite unique.
    • Well, he did make it himself!
  • Neil Young's primary guitar, Old Black. He has another guitar named Hank, since it used to belong to Hank Williams.
  • Billy Gibbons' Pearly Gates. Miss Pearly Gates.
    • Given a Shout-Out on Bones, where Angela is Billy Gibbons' daughter. Her full name is Angela Pearly Gates Montenegro.
  • Steve Vai has names for the various prototypes and one-off guitars Ibanez has made for him. Most notable is his go-to guitar for almost twenty years, Evo, and Evo's bastardized-Charvel predecessor from his time with Frank Zappa and David Lee Roth, The Green Meanie.
  • As can be seen above, a lot of axes.
  • The Sisters of Mercy always call their current drum machine "Doktor Avalanche". The Doktor has been swapped out a few times for newer models over the last three decades.
  • Many famous string instruments, especially any built by a member of the famous Stradivari family, have unique names. The Other Wiki lists some.
  • New York rapper Qadir has released a single, featured in Grand Theft Auto IV, called "Nickname", which is, you guessed it, about having a nickname for your guns.

"I got a nickname for all my guns: a Desert Eagle that I call Big Pun, a two-shot that I call Tupac... my TEC-9 I'm-a call T-Pain, my .38 snub I'm-a call Lil Wayne..."

  • Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead calls his Rickenbacker bass "Rickenbastard".
  • Eddie Van Halen's striped guitar, Frankenstrat. A Fan Nickname in the guitar community for guitars that are made of pieces of different guitars is to call them Frankensteins.
    • Made all the more awesome by the fact that Eddie, by his own admission, didn't really know what he was doing when he threw all the parts together. Turned out just fine.
  • Shirley Manson owns an orange Fender Stratocaster named 'Rita'
  • Raymond Scott named most of the instruments he built: "Karloff", "Bandito the Bongo Bandit," etc. Of course, he needed names like that so his employees would know which one he was talking about, since telling them to go switch on "the one with all the knobs on the top and the buttons--no, to the left--down--right" would get in the way at ol Manhattan Research Inc.
  • Though not name per se, Woody Guthrie was famed for having "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS" on the body of his guitar.
  • Murdoc Niccals' bass guitar, "El Diablo", which was in fact given to him by the Devil.
  • Tom Cochrane names all his guitars after hockey players.
  • The Decemberists' "Apology Song" is about losing a friend's beloved bicycle, which is named Madeline.
  • Angelspit call their modular synth 'The Middle Finger Of God'.
  • Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave calls his super-customized guitar "Arm The Homeless." It's written on the face of the instrument, in big red letters. He also has a customized Fender Stratocaster called "Soul Power."
  • Yngwie Malmsteen almost always plays cream-colored Fender Stratocasters modeled after his first guitar The Duck, named for the Donald Duck sticker he put on it as a teenager. He still plays The Duck from time to time.
  • Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath calls his prized Gibson SG-copy "The Old Boy", and his first Gibson SG "The Monkey", thanks to the monkey decal on it.
  • Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society and Ozzy Osbourne has a bunch of these. His white and black bullseye Gibson Les Paul Custom is The Grail. His red-on-natural bullseye Les Paul Standard is Red. His Confederate flag Les Paul Custom is The Rebel (his guitar tech has another name for it, The Tetanus Special, thanks to the large number of rusty bottlecaps nailed to it). His black and green camoflauge bullseye Les Paul Custom is Stormin' Norman. His orange and black spiral pattern Les Paul Custom is The Buzzsaw. And to top it off, Gibson gave him a few guitars from early on in his signature guitar run and he named them after Yankees based on their serial numbers. Number 15 is Thurman Munson, Number 4 is Lou Gehrig and Number 5 is Joe Di Maggio.
  • Supposedly, this was originally the idea for My Chemical Romance's Danger Days album. In stead of Killjoy names, the nicknames they selected were going to be the names of their rayguns.

Professional Wrestling

  • Mick Foley calls his favourite baseball-bat-wrapped-in-barbed-wire "Barbie".
  • Ron Bass carried a bullwhip that he called "Miss Betsy." He also had a pair of spurs with which he once attacked Brutus Beefcake, and which, on at least one occasion, he referred to as "Bret" and "Bart". (Probably after the brothers in Maverick)
  • Dutch Mantel also carried a whip, which he called "Shoo Baby".
  • T. L. Hopper, the wrestling plumber, carried a plunger named "Bessie".
  • Abyss named his nail-laden 2x4 "Janice."
  • Manager "Playboy" Gary Hart used to carry a loaded sock he called "Sweet Lucy."
  • The Junkyard Dog's chain, Ruby.
  • It was a one time joke, but CM Punk once called his fists "Regular and Unleaded."

Tabletop Games

  • In the Iron Kingdoms setting, Orsus "The Butcher of Khardov" Zoktavir calls his axe "Lola". As long as we're talking IK, there's also Ashlynn's Nemesis, Croe's Hiss, Gorten's Forge Father, Seige's Ground Pounder, Vlad's Skirmisher & Ruin, Magnus' Foecleaver, Bart's Red Tide & Ace, Fiona's Viper, and Brocker's Thrasher, and that only covers the some of the mercenaries and a few faction combatants. Naming your weapon is pretty common in the Iron Kingdoms.
    • Special note should be made for Liche Lord Asphyxious, who's spear Daemortus is named after the previous Liche Lord, who Asphyxious killed and turned into said spear.
  • Mr. Welch, of (Increasingly Large Number) Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG fame, is forbidden from this, even if suggested by the game, per rule number 1359.
  • In the Iron Heroes setting, the Weaponmaster class is required to name his weapon at 11th level. Doing so causes his reputation to precede him.
  • Dita tricked out sample Colt M4A1 from GURPS: Gun Fu.
  • Shadowrun includes several visual gags of tough mercenaries carrying guns with odd names written on them. In one example, an Orc who looks for all the world like Danny Trejo has two pistols bearing the names Meat and Potatoes.

Video Games

  • In Devil May Cry 3, Lady has a rocket launcher named Kalina Ann.
    • Dante's weapons tend to have proper names too, but it's because they're alive. Then there's Ebony and Ivory, his twin pistols; while they're black and gunmetal-gray, those are also female names. As well as Sparda's two guns, Luce and Ombra ("Light" and "Shadow" in Italian).
    • Ebony and Ivory are named after the Stevie Wonder/Paul McCartney song. All of Dante's weapons are named, including an electric guitar that's actually a succubus.
    • Going one step further: In the PlayStation 2 port of Viewtiful Joe, it's revealed that Blade Master Alastor is also Dante's sword.
    • The Sawed-Off Shotgun that appears in every game in the series earns the name "Coyote-A" in the fourth game.
  • The game The Fall: Last Days of Gaia actually allows you to name every weapon. This is useful to mark which gun is whose since the more a character uses a certain weapon (the EXACT weapon, not another of the same name) the more accurate s/he becomes when using it
  • Vincent Valentine's main sidearm is called "Cerberus" which is fitting as it has three barrels, each one with a sculpted dog head on the end of the barrel.
  • The Call of Duty series assigns callsigns to many of its vehicles, which you can see by looking in their general direction. Some are dynamically assigned from a pool of names while others are worked into the plot.
    • Call of Duty 2 has some dynamically named tanks called names such as "Hole In One", "Queen of Diamonds", etc.
    • Call of Duty 3 features a Jeep affectionately named Vera with a twin named Lynn.
    • Modern Warfare has a couple of levels revolving around escorting a tank named "War Pig" out of danger.
    • Modern Warfare 2 features some neighborhood clearing with a Stryker Armored Vehicle named "Honey Badger." In addition, many vehicles in the Afghanistan convoy are named - including "Curb Stomper", "Punta Gorda", and bridge-layer "Bigfoot."
    • Black Ops's cover shows that Mason's Colt M1911 is called "Sally". In the Zombies mode, upgrading it pairs it with a second pistol named "Mustang" that shoots grenades. In multiplayer, players can scratch a clantag onto the side of their guns, allowing you to actually name your gun "Vera" if you so choose.
  • Heavy Weapons Guy from Team Fortress 2 calls his eponymous heavy weapon "Sasha". See this trope in full galore in Meet the Heavy Additionally, Valve has introduced a second Heavy unlockable weapon: an alternate minigun by the name of "Natascha". Check out her guns (the others have special names for many of their weapons, too, but those are more on the level of model names, as opposed to individuals).
    • Heavy's also got a male gun named "Tomislav".
    • Mocked by The Scout who, if he manages to dominate a Heavy player, will sometimes taunt "I think I'll take Sasha out for a steak dinner tonight. What d'ya think of that?"
    • Now players can do this too, with the addition of Name Tags from the Mann Co. store. One-use item, and you can call any item in your inventory anything you want! Reports of actual Veras (and Clever Hats to match, courtesy of the Heavy having an almost-identical toque) have already started.
  • In the first Max Payne, two mooks discuss the tendency of their more intense co-workers to name their guns. One mook sheepishly admits he too named his gun. In a possible subversion, he didn't give it a girly name but instead named it 'Dick Justice'. The other mooks also point out how weird it is to name your weapon, one of them saying "Man, that's... kind'a weird."
  • A variation: Elzam Branstein in Super Robot Wars usually calls whatever Humongous Mecha he's currently riding "Trombe", after his favorite horse.
  • Father Grigori's Winchester rifle in Half-Life 2 is named "Annabelle". Most people don't catch it because he sounds like he's talking about a person, but it's in the game files.
  • According to supplemental material, I-No from Guilty Gear calls her guitar "Marlene". I-No being a Musical Assassin, this fits particularly well into the trope.
  • One tribe in Suikoden named their swords after the most important person in their life. Then there's Flik, who named his sword Odessa, after the Quickly-Demoted Woman he was attached to. He's from that tribe too.
  • One of Matthias' lines when he picks up an assault rifle in Mercenaries 2 has him giving a name to the rifle he just picked up then declare "Let's go kill a lot of people!".
  • All the customized weapons Bayonetta gets at The Gates of Hell are named. For instance, her most commonly used set of four pistols are called Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme individually and Scarborough Fair collectively.
  • The Heavy Knight from Pirates, Vikings and Knights II would like to introduce you to his sword, Beatrice.
  • A staple of the Fallout series are the named unique weapons. Ranging from the typical Names to Run Away From to matter-of-fact-descriptors or women's names.
    • Brick of Reilly's Rangers in Fallout 3 introduces her minigun as "Eugene", in a southern drawl no less.
    • Then there's "Ol' Painless", an homage to a couple of other guns of the same name. Not to mention the epitome of Boring but Practical.
    • There is also "Xuanlong Assault Rifle", a modified Chinese Assault Rifle.
    • in Fallout: New Vegas, there is "Maria", well it is a custom Browning Hi-Power with a "Our Lady of Guadalupe" engraving on it. There is also "Lucky" and "Annabelle", a magnum revolver and a rocket launcher respectively. They usually are visually distinct, as well - weapons such as Lucky and La Longue Carabine (a lever-action-rifle) have better finishes, while those like the YCS/186 Gauss Rifle and Pew Pew (a laser pistol) tend to have more cool bits and bobs on them than their common counterparts.
  • Many of the better weapons in the Fire Emblem series, such as Ike's sword Ragnell and his father's greataxe Urvan in Fire Emblems 9 and 10. The player can also name the custom made weapons in FE 9 and 10.
  • In Destroy All Humans!, when you read a soldier's mind, you may hear the following phrase "I have a rifle, her name is Sue!"
  • One of the marines in Halo 3 is voiced by Adam Baldwin; the actor who played Jayne in Firefly. In a Shout-Out to Firefly, he will occasionally yell "Say hello to Vera!" during combat.
    • As well as "Me and Vera have a little life-lesson for ya'!"
  • Many of the pistols in Resident Evil 4 are given actual names rather than their model number or manufacturer in their inventory listing (Matilda, Broken Butterfly, Killer 7, etc).
  • From Jade Empire: Sir Roderick Von Fauntlebottom the Magnificent Bastard's rifle is named Mirabelle.
  • Krew in Jak and Daxter.

Krew: I love weapons. I love how they look, how they feel... even how they smell...
Jak: I think you need serious help.

  • Nethack features a variety of named magical weapons mostly from other sources, such as Excalibur, Stormblade, and Snickersnee. It also allows you to give a name to any item, and in some cases naming a normal weapon after a magical one causes it to become magic.
  • Tactics Ogre the Knight of Lodis features four Snap Dragon scrolls which seal the soul of the character that uses them in a sword which bears the name of the user. In addition to being powerful in their own right, the swords also carry over a portion of the unit's stats to buff the person wielding it, copy the unit's element (each element has a different design for the sword as well), and certain classes grant special effects (a snapped Sword Master would give an Instant Kill effect, a Fairy would increase luck, Angel Knights increase morale for units within a certain range of the wielder, ect.).
  • From Assassin's Creed II, as soon as Bartolomeo gets back to his home after being freed from prison by Ezio, he goes around the thrashed place looking for Bianca, who turns out to be a claymore.
    • Referenced in Brotherhood, where he starts searching for another woman and Ezio asks if he looked behind the table. Then it turns out Bartolomeo actually is married, much to Ezio's shock.
  • In Brutal Legend Eddie Riggs uses a guitar he calls Clementine which can summon lightning, fire, melt faces, inspire legions of headbangers and bring down giant flaming zeppelins on top of people. Of course he couples it with an axe called the "Separator" (he didn't name that one, though).

Mittens: Allow me to introduce you to my enforcers, Fear, (holds up fist) and Pain. (holds up other fist)

  • Zaeed Massani from Mass Effect 2 carries a worn-out old rifle around with him affectionately named "Jessie", although he was forced to retire it about five years beforehand. Zaeed's essentially a walking Firefly Shout-Out.
    • There is also Tali's non-sentient combat drone, Chikktika vas Paus, whom she shouts encouragement and advice to in combat, and praises after the fighting's done.
  • In Neo Quest 2, you find a yellow skeith named Bledynn, who happens to call his BFS Vera.
  • In Disgaea 2, you can rename your weapons and items in their Item Worlds.
  • In Dragon Age Origins, Sten names his sword Asala (according to him it means 'soul'), which he sees as a part of himself, and actually murdered an entire family because he lost it.
    • Note that they had not stolen it and he did believe that they had, he simply went insane from grief. When he recovered he turned himself in and was refusing food in a drawn-out suicide attempt when you meet him.
    • Another example in Dragon Age would be in the download Witch Hunt, in which Finn has a staff named Vera.
    • Dragon Age II gives us Varric, the dwarf rogue. He has a super-duper custom crossbow named Bianca, but he won't tell you where or how she got the name.
    • The Legacy DLC reveals that Bianca is a unique repeating crossbow designed by a friend of his in the Carta. Apparently, Bianca is the only one that he has managed to get working.
  • World of Warcraft has a few examples of named weapons floating about, most are unattainable by PCs.
    • Frostmourne, the blade of the Lich King.
    • The Ashbringer, sword wielded by holy paladins of legend.
    • Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
      • Did somebody say Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker?
    • Thori'dal, The Star's Fury
    • Quel'Serrar, The High Blade and it's sister Quel'Delar
    • Gorehowl, axe of Grom Hellscream
    • Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
  • In StarCraft II's campaign mission "Belly of the Beast", Rory Swann carries around a portable flamethrower turret called Flaming Betty. It's subtitled "Swann's BFF", which is a Double Entendre for "Best Friend Forever".
  • Touhou has an example (of course): Youmu Konpaku's swords, Roukanken and Hakurouken.
    • And of course Sakuya's knives Jack the Ripper.
  • Fable 3 gives the hero a set of evolving weapons, and lets you name them.
  • In the Guild Wars Factions campaign there is a boss named Jayne Forestlight who drops a hammer called Vera.
  • The protagonist of Action Doom 2 Urban Brawl refers to his pistol as "Sarah, the only woman left in my life".
  • He was called "Waggleton P. Tallylicker". And we never got to tell him. *sniff*.
  • Last Alert:

Black: Hey, Guy! Let my baby Betty throw you a kiss!
Guy Kazama: You're some weirdo, naming your helicopter!

  • Dwarves in Dwarf Fortress may get very attached to their tools and weapons of the trade. If such thing happens, they are likely to give them names.
  • Medal of Honor has the rail(road) gun named Greta.

Web Comics

Dr. Judith Mossman: Is that you, Gordon? Come inside, it's getting late.
Gordon Frohman: There is no Gordon, Judith. There is only...The Claw. (His name for his beloved Gravity Gun.)

Schlock: I was gonna name that gun.

Web Original

  • Non-weapon example: In Survival of the Fittest, Cody Jenson names the motorcycle he finds "Loretta", and apparently falls in love with it as the game goes on.
  • Iron Liz calls her swords Twinkle and Icingdeath.
  • Kat from Kat and Mouse: Guns for hire named her pair of Colt-Springfield M2001 .45-caliber high-capacity pistols Bonnie and Clyde.
  • An NPC in Neoquest II, a game within the game of Neopets, has a sword named Vera. His cowboy-like speech patterns (which he shares with no other character in the game) and the fact that there are several self-proclaimed Browncoats on the Neopets staff suggest that this is a direct Shout-Out.
  • Marzipan's acoustic guitar, Carol.
  • Also, Bubs' "Lawyers" (read: fists), Jacobi and Meyers.
  • Chaz Villette in Shadow Unit has a sourdough starter named Elmer. Not anymore, he doesn't.
    • And Daphne, referring to Invisible to Gaydar Agent Brady, says, "When he was in the Army, he gave his rifle a boy's name."
  • A video by YouTuber Blunty3000 features a ninja who has named his sword "Suzette".
  • From Red vs. Blue, we have the Blue Team's Tank named "Sheila".

Tucker: Dude! I knew you could pick up chicks in a tank!

    • Although that's not the name of the tank, it's the name of the AI that runs the tutorial program.
  • In I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC, Deadpool's guitar is called Lucille (a Shout-Out to B. B. King's guitar). In its latest appearance, Rorschach shoots it.
  • El Disgusto of The Binder of Shame wields a wooden yardstick he dubbed "the Stick of Pain".
  • In the Michael chapter of J.C. Hutchins 7th Son prequel series 7th Son 7 Days has a customized shotgun he calls {{'RoboCop' Clarence, that has the phrase "Bitches, leave." etched on it}}.
  • In nevermore's MSTing of Dumbledores Army and The Year of Darkness, everyone finds out that Neville has named his Mimbulus Mimbletonia Robert. Luna is the only one who doesn't find it weird.
  • In Chell's Mind, Chell names her Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device ASHPoD. (Well, Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is a long name.)
    • She also names objects she dislikes.
  • Burt from We're Alive calls his Desert Eagle "Shirley" after his dead wife.
  • Chakona Space gives us Neal Foster's shotgun, Betsy.
  • From (The Customer is) Not Always Right: Bertha the shotgun.
  • Nappa from Dragon Ball Z Abridged named the Saibamen Snoogums, Foofoo, Cabbagehead, Other Cabbagehead, and Vegeta Junior.
  • RWBY: Ruby Rose with Crescent Rose (and to a lesser degree weapons in general, although she doesn't name other people's weapons).

Western Animation

  • Thirty/Thirty (the robot/cyborg horse from Bravestarr) had a BFG called Sarah Jane. He himself is named for a bullet.
  • In Disney's Robin Hood, one of the guards—tellingly named Trigger—has a powerful crossbow called Betsy.
  • The Simpsons parodied Full Metal Jacket in the episode "Dead Putting Society" wherein Homer forces Bart to call his golf putter "Charlene". "Pull, Dutchess! PULL!!!"
    • In an early episode, Mrs. Krabappel refers to her grading pen as "Ol' Red."
    • In "Mona Leaves-a", Homer wields a cinder block on a chain he calls "The Defender".
  • In Open Season, Shaw calls his shotgun "Lorraine". It even has its name engraved on it.
  • Big-game hunter Mr. Marlin, a one-shot character from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), called his custom laser rifle "Betsy", and basically treats it as if it were a person. After the rifle is damaged to the point where it threatens to blow up, he remarks that "she's just that type of girl".
  • The unfortunately named Lugnutz of Transformers Cybertron, according to his official bio, calls his rifle "Dutch".
  • In Gargoyles, recurring character Vinnie Grigori's pie-cannon is named Mr. Carter, Mr. C for short.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender example: Sokka's Boomerang. Space Sword might also count. Hey, nobody said Sokka was good at naming things...
    • I think "Sparky-Sparky-BOOM Man" Agrees with that statement.
  • Although Matrix in ReBoot didn't give his weapon a proper name, based on dialogue, it's clear that at least he and AndrAIa consider 'Gun' to be the name of his gun.
    • To be fair, he DOES get a response from his gun, since it can operate (and likely also fire) itself with voice commands.
  • Michaelangelo call his nunchucks "Chuck" and "Chuck 2: the Sequel".
  • On Stoked!, Broseph's favourite long board is named Angelina.
  • Regular Show: "You know, I always wanted to date a girl named 'The Power.'"
  • In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, when Rarity is corrupted by greed and thinks that a huge boulder is actually a diamond, she carries it around and names it Tom.
    • In "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well", we learn Applejack has nicknamed her hind legs "Bucky McGillicutty" and "Kicks McGee".
  • One of the strigoi (vampire-like creatures that suck blood from dragons instead of humans) in American Dragon: Jake Long named his fangs "Lefty" and "Bitey".
  • The EVO-hating Hunter Cain in Generator Rex carries a gun emblazoned with the name "Sweet Caroline" in his first appearance.
  • Parodied in Futurama, when Amy and Nibbler go after the dean that denied Amy her doctorate:

Nibbler: *holds up gun* "If they have a problem, they can take it up with Smith & Wesson!" *holds up bigger gun* "Or if that fails, Consolidated Head-Melter!"

Real Life

  • The word "gun" itself comes from the feminine name "Gunilde."
  • Norse warriors of the Viking era had a tendency to name their weapons, in imitation of their Migration Era ancestral heroes. Examples crop up by the hundreds in the sagas, which are all part real history, part heroic legendry (the proportion varies from pure history to mostly fiction). Just one confirmably historical example would be Grasida ("Greyside"), which began as a sword, was broken and then reforged into a spear that went on to serve Gisli, son of Sur, for the rest of his life. Part of this is due to the tendency in Norse poetry to name everything: the kettle the cook uses in Valhalla, the different chains the gods try binding the Fenris-wolf with, each of the rocks they attach those chains to, the thread used to sew Loki's lips together, and on and on.
  • Medieval romances, in an exaggaration of real life, were full of named swords like Roland's Durandal and its sisters, Joyeuse (belonging to Charlemagne) and Courtain (AKA Cortana, wielded by Ogier the Dane). In fact, it seems people have kept up the practice, quite unbroken, right up until modern times (see the bit about Marines naming their guns); for example, one source from the 18th Century features a sword named Skiver the Pullet. Hence the name of the AIs Durandal and Cortana.
  • One of the first Apple PCs was called the 'Apple Lisa' presumably named after Steve's daughter Lisa Jobs. The acronym 'Local Integrated Software Architecture' was invented after it had been named Lisa.
  • Richard Hammond of Top Gear was mocked by his co-hosts when he referred to the car he was driving as "Oliver" (Oliver wound up becoming Hammond's Companion Cube).
  • According to legend, Davy Crockett named three different guns Betsy, which is most likely brought this trope to public consciousness.
  • Munitions:
    • The "Big Bertha" howitzers used by Germany during World War I.
    • The "Katyusha" rocket launchers used by Russia during World War Two. (Also called "Stalin's Organ" by the Germans.)
    • The largest gun ever created is the Nazi's 80-cm. cannon. They called it Dora.
    • The M65 Atomic Cannon was given the nickname "Atomic Annie".
  • The British muskets of the Revolutionary War were called Brown Bess, although Bess is a corruption of buss (gun) as in blunderbuss.
  • Another variant: It's not uncommon for players of Collectible Card Games to name their decks, particularly if it is a particular archetype. On the other hand, oblique or nonsense names allow you to refer to something and not give away too much about it to opponents who haven't seen it play yet.
  • Naming electronics, computers in particular, seems to be a general geek thing. Of course, most modern OSes specifically support computer naming for good networking/management purposes, but many geeks take it further by using a personal naming scheme that's standard across all their stuff.
    • Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo had a pattern of naming the succession of servers for the web comic after girls from Kanon, and his laptops after Haibane Renmei. This is taken to an extreme end in a few of the Omake, depicting the comic server as a female persocom just sitting in the colocation center, who gets kidnapped.
    • Jeff Darlington provides a really good example.
    • The creator of the webcomic Comedity named his computer Alice. In the strip, Alice is a Robot Girl.
    • Registering an Amazon Kindle allows you to name it.
  • There's a 15th century cannon at Edinburgh Castle called Mons Meg. (Mons being where it was built, and Meg being short for Margaret.) The barrel is almost big enough to crawl into.
  • Warplanes were and are often painted with pet names and naked women, almost enough to cross into true Companion Cube territory. Although still somewhat prevalent, it began to die out during the Korean War when an Air Force general's wife became indignant.
  • In NASCAR, race teams and drivers would give names to their multiple cars. Jeff Gordon, for example, gave his racecars names starting with the letter B, including Boomer, Backdraft, Boo, Beavis and Butthead.
  • A number of musicians have been known to give affectionate names to their instruments. Notable examples include guitarists Eric Clapton (Blackie), B.B. King (Lucille), and Dr. Brian May (Red Special)
  • In Formula One, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel gives his cars girls' names. During the 2008 season while with Scuderia Torro-Rosso, he named his STR-Ferrari car "Julie." The following season when he joined Red Bull Racing, he named his first RBR-Renault car "Kate". When Kate was wrecked following the Australian Grand Prix, the team him a new one. He found this car to be faster and more aggressive, so he named it "Kate's Dirty Sister". In the 2010 season, his first car was named "Luscious Liz". When it turned out the chassis was unrepairable, and got replaced, he renamed it "Randy Mandy". This year (2011) he named his car "Kinky Kylie".
  • William Fredrick "Buffalo Bill" Cody named his favorite rifle "Lucrezia Borgia".
  • Famed golfer Bobby Jones named his putter Calamity Jane.
  • Similar to the NASCAR and F1 examples, there are numerous Volkswagen buses with names.
  • Most IT people name the machines they manage.
  • Ships, submarines, sailboats, and their remote-controlled counterparts all tend to have names. Sometimes they are named in honor of someone special to the captain, other times it's just to make it easier to refer to the craft. It's so common that it's considered bad luck to change the name of a ship.
  • In World War I the French troops typically nicknamed machine guns "Rosalie." There was even a song about it.
  • The H-4 Hercules was given the sarcastic name of "Spruce Goose" by critics. The press picked it up and ran with it so well, most people know it only as such. Calling it that around Howard Hughes, its designer, was a good way to get fired.
  • The Superfortress Enola Gay was named after the pilot's mother.
  • The company Victorinox was named after a combination of the founder's mother and a brand of steel. So in other words it means "Victoria's Steel" or as Victoria is the feminine of Victor, Victor's Steel.
  1. ↑ for those who don't know, a Spark is a Transformer's soul
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.