Idiosyncratic Ship Naming

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    Naming each member of a ship is functional but not catchy, and even Portmanteau Couple Names aren't always colorful enough for the purposes of shipping communities. Therefore, a lot of ships are named in ways that aren't obvious except to those familiar with all the intricacies of the show's fandom.

    Usually, a word vaguely related to the two characters is combined with the suffix "-shipping" to create a name for the couple. The suffix "-cest" is commonly used for incestuous pairings.

    Not related to idiosyncratic starship naming in The Culture.

    Examples of Idiosyncratic Ship Naming include:

    Anime and Manga

    • In Pokémon fandom, if you even think about it, good luck on trying to find a pairing that doesn't have a "____Shipping" name attached to it, the blank space filled by a word or phrase that applies to both characters, or combines different aspects of them. For example, the first ship that started the show's naming phenomenon was "RocketShipping", which pairs Jessie and James of Team Rocket. Others include Pokeshipping (Ash/Misty), Advanceshipping (Ash/May), Pearlshipping (Ash/Dawn), Palletshipping (Gary/Ash), Orangeshipping (Tracy/Misty), Contestshipping (Drew/May), Ikarishipping (Paul/Dawn), Egoshipping (Misty/Gary), Wishfulshipping (Iris/Cilan), Imaginationshipping (Ash/Bianca), and many more. Most recently updated list here.
      • The Pokémon fandom actually claims to have invented this form of ship naming in western fandoms. Given their records showing this form of ship naming in use as early as 1997 or 1998, even if they weren't the first to use it, they're certainly one of the first.
        • Also, especially at the beginning of the fandom, some people called the Ash/Misty relationship "AAML" (acronym for "Ash and Misty Love"). Similar versions were used for some other ships, such as JAJL for James/Jessie, but none of them really caught on.
          • Actually, they really did catch on for a very long time. The only real reason they didn't continue to be in common usage is because the major shipping groups of the era, like OPS and PI, adopted the Idiosyncratic names, and successfully managed to associate the AAML style names with the so-called "Gakishippers" (gaki meaning something akin to "immature" in Japanese, a name that was applied to shippers who insisted on using dub-added hints). By the time the prominence of these groups had passed, the main characters had been rotated, letters were getting doubled up, and idiosyncratic names just became easier to use.
      • Fans of the Ash/May relationship have adopted the term AAMayL.
      • Pokémon Special also uses this type of naming. Franticshipping (Ruby/Sapphire), Oldrivalshipping (Green/Blue), and specialshipping (Red/Yellow) come to mind.
      • There are even ____ Shipping for OT3s, like Scarfshipping (Diamond/Pearl/Platina)
      • Before their names were released, the player characters of Black and White were paired up as "Chessshipping".
    • Same for Yu-Gi-Oh!: Mobiumshipping, Mischiefshipping, Puzzleshipping, Azureshipping, etc. Here is a gigantic list. It's not even complete; Thief King Bakura x Shizuka (yes, there are fics) doesn't have a name (yet).
      • Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series mentions Thiefshipping explicitly, and then starts beautifully indulging in it.
        • The above voiced a comic that mentioned Psychoshipping which is... less beautiful to indulge. It's aptly named.[1] Marik does try to steal rare cards. And Bakura was a thief in the past. All shipnames make sense, but sometimes, you have to dig even a bit deeper. A good example is Danceshipping (Mai/Anzu). Anzu likes dancing, Mai's name means "dance". Another example is Silentshipping (Shizuka/Kaiba). Shizuka seems to mean "quiet" or something similar, and Kaiba never says a single word to her, even when she directly addresses him. Contrast Screamshipping (Shizuka/Yami Marik).
    • Fullmetal Alchemist has "Elricest" for Edward/Alphonse.
      • Also, the Edward/Winry relationship, beside their usual portmanteau "EdWin", are also known as "503." This is a rather obscure reference to a Japanese brand of jeans of the same number that are produced by a company called Edwin. This name got so popular that it was even featured in the manga/anime at one point.
    • Naruto has Hyuugacest for Neji/Hinata pairings... may involve other Hyuuga members too, though.
      • Plus Uchihacest for Itachi/Sasuke and Sandcest for any combination of the Sand Siblings.
        • Likewise, Inuzukacest is the term of choice for those who ship Kiba and his sister Hana, or any other Inuzuka for that matter.
        • It was recently revealed that Karin is an Uzumaki, though we don't know how closely she is related to Naruto. The possibility that she is his first cousin (or even his aunt, considering that the Uzumaki's long lifespans could also conceivably extend their reproductive years dramatically) has not been ruled out.
    • The Prince of Tennis fandom typically uses "____ Pair" for ship names.
      • For example: Golden Pair (the canon nickname), Silver Pair (Ohtori/Shishido), Dirty Pair (Mukahi/Oshitari), Data Pair (Inui/Renji), Ah-Un Pair (Momoshiro/Ryouma), etc.
    • Ouran High School Host Club has "Hitachiincest" for Hikaru/Kaoru.
    • The Japanese fandom of Axis Powers Hetalia call Germany/N. Italy "Gnocchi".
      • There's also 'the chick pair' for Prussia/Italy.
      • 'Itacest' is used to refer to the fairly rare incest pairing of N.Italy and S.Italy. Some circles also refer to America and Canada as 'Americest'.
      • And let's not forget "the communist pair"/"The Red Couple for Russia/China.
      • Don't forget the 'Germancest' pairing.
      • Or the Cold War pairing.
      • Or the Special Relationship.
      • Austria/Prussia/Hungary is often called The Frying Pangle.
      • There's also Dover in the Japanese fandom for England/France (which in the Western fandom is usually called FrUK). The name refers to the strait of Dover, the narrowest place to cross the Channel.
      • A bigger list here (although it does lack several names commonly seen at Pixiv).
      • Here's an extremely comprehensive list for pairing names used at Pixiv. There's a lot of idiosycratic ship naming going on over there, to put it lightly (that site tends to go down at least once monthly when bandwidth is exceeded; if you happened to check it in this state, try the LiveJournal archive instead). Fun fact: some of the pairing names are based on Japanese language puns; for example, Turkey/Japan is called the "Weekend Couple" because their Japanese country names put side-by-side together can be literally translated as "weekend".
      • "Kimchiburger" for America/Korea and "the bunny pair" for Russia/Prussia.
    • Digimon Savers has Tomato for the Masaru / Tohma pairing.
    • Many Katekyo Hitman Reborn characters have names which can be read as numbers, for instance, Gokudera and Yamamoto. These numbers often get used as ship names, leading to such things as 5927. Even if you do know the fandom it's sometimes a bit tricky to work out.
    • Junjou Romantica uses this a lot, with the eponymous "Romantica" pairing being Misaki/Usagi. Note that these ship names are canon.
    • Doumeki/Watanuki is usually rendered as "Donuts", presumably as a portmanteau of Doumeki, Watanuki, and "go nuts" (alternatively, it's because the rampant Ho Yay of the series makes them seem about as straight as donuts).
      • Also 104.
    • "Inucest" usually refers to Inuyasha/Sesshoumaru, but can also apply to any relationship in the series wherein both members are at least part dog Youkai.
    • School Rumble—a giant Love Dodecahedron—naturally has a number of factions, mostly named after key scenes the characters shared. Eri/Harima is the "Flag Faction", because their interactions so often resemble "flag" events from Dating Sims. Yakumo/Harima is the "Onigiri Faction", because of the onigiri Yakumo offered to Harima. Other factions include the Kids Meal Faction (Eri/Yakumo/Harima), Oudou/"Correct Path" Faction (Tenma/Harima), True Oudou (Tenma/Karasuma), Flute Faction (Mikoto/Hanai), and Basketball Faction (Mikoto/Asou)
    • Code Geass has the catchy name "Homolust" for Lelouch/Suzaku.
    • Gundam Wing combines Theme Naming with this trope, resulting in ship labels that look like they belong on an algebra test. Since most of the male cast uses Numerical Theme Naming, pairings will be written in the formula of YXZ, where Y and Z are the "number" or the first letter of the character's name—hence 1X2 for Heero/Duo and 1XR for Heero/Relena.
      • The order of the "name" is important too, sometimes determining how the characters act (1X2 is Heero/Duo acting as normal, 2X1 is mopey Duo and cheerful Heero) and sometimes denoting the more active party or the one who makes the first move (1XR means Heero instigates the relationship, RX1 means Relena does, 1XRX1 means they both go for each other).
    • Saiyuki takes a page from Gundam Wing on the number front, the four main characters having their pairings broken down into numbers determined by their names (san = 3; go = 5; hachi = 8; kyu = 9), making two of the more prevalent couples 9x3 (Sanzo x Goku) and 5x8 (Gojyo x Hakkai).
    • Puella Magi Madoka Magica has "Red x Blue" for Kyoko/Sayaka and "Tea Cake" for Mami/Charlotte.
    • Eyeshield 21: Agon and Unsui are called A-Un when shipped together. Interestingly, the actual meaning behind A-Un is a religious and architectural one, so that just adds another weird layer to the term.

    Literature

    • Many of the main ships of the Harry Potter series are named with the HMS title, most notably the HMS Harmony (Harry/Hermione), which doubles as a Portmanteau and Idiosyncratic Ship name. For those of you unfamiliar with the British navy, each British ship has the letters "HMS" (for "Her (His) Majesty's Ship") before the actual ship name.
      • Harry/Hermione, or H/Hr, also goes by Pumpkin Pie and occasionally "Buckbeak" (after the hippogriff they rode together, once). "Harmonians" is still the accepted term for the shippers, though.
      • Remus/Sirius is often called WolfStar as a play on "Sirius," the dog star, and Remus, the wolf. Puppyshipping is also a common name for the pairing before Sirius was sent to Azkaban.
      • Albus Severus/Scorpius is generally known as The ASS Ship, or ASS shipping. Scorpius/Rose is sometimes known as Scorrow.
      • See the more comprehensive list of pairing names here. There's still the disturbing question of what to call Ron/Snape...
      • Harry/Ginny is generally HMS Orange Crush (as Ginny is a redhead with a crush, or because one famous fic had her put a love potion into Harry's Fanta) or associated with Chocolate, after a scene where they shared chocolate in Order Of The Phoenix.
      • Ron/Hermione eschews the convention entirely when it goes by The Good Ship. As Ship Mates with Harry/Ginny, it's often called OBHWF(one big happy Weasley family).
      • The HMS convention is parodied by the name of the community The HMS STFU, which had the stated mission of mocking shipping Fan Dumb but in practice was an outlet for the Fan Haters of the infamously zealous Harmony shippers (Harmonians).
      • The Ginny/Tom Riddle ship, popular among some of the more twisted members of the fandom, is called the SS Gin-and-Tonic, or at least it used to be.
        • Neville/Luna—better known as "HMS The Government Stole My Toad."
      • Fans of the Lupin/Tonks ship took a name from (supposedly) somebody jokingly saying that Sirius and Lupin couldn't get together because Lupin had to marry Tonks and have little color changing puppies. Thus, "Pink Puppies" was born.
      • One weird ship name in the Harry Potter universe is "Scottish Fire", which means Oliver/Ginny.
      • In addition to all of the above variations, an old (and apparently out-dated) form would be to simply squish the two characters being focused on's initials together. Ex: HPDM (Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy), HPRW (Harry Potter, Ron Weasley), etc.
    • In addition to using Portmanteau Couple Names, Warrior Cats has a lot of these. Here's a list.
    • Animorphs has "Closet Fan" for Visser 1/Visser 3. Anyone know why?
      • Just a guess, but it could be because they are both closet fans of an alien species that their people would look down on them for liking? The only thing they have in common is this closet fannishness. Esplin (Visser Three/ New Visser One) likes Andalites and Edriss (original Visser One) likes humans.
    • In The Hunger Games, all the likely combinations of Katniss/Peeta are unfortunate to some degree or another. Some fans reverted back to Idiosyncratic naming by combining "The Girl Who Was On Fire" with the baker's son and getting "Toast".
      • Not a very widespread name, but "Arrows and Snares" has been used for Gale/Katniss.
      • A non-Squicky name for Katniss/Peeta was "Everlark", after their last names.
    • Based on a comment in the Game of Thrones tv series that compared his personality with that of a lobster, the A Song of Ice and Fire ship between Stannis and his Lady in Red Hot Witch (literally) Melisandre has been labeled "Red Lobster" or "Lobster Flambé"

    Live Action TV

    • Castle has "Caskett" for the Castle x Beckett shippers, which is on of the most apt shipping names due to their solving MURDERS.
      • In the same fandom, fans of Ryan/Esposito occassionally refer to themselves as Roach shippers, after the portmanteau team name of Raley and Ochoa, their fictional counterparts in Castle's novels, .
    • Supernatural: Sam/Dean Winchester (which really isn't that bad when done well) is more popularly known as Wincest. When John is involved, it becomes Daddycest. If the Winchesters are underage at the time it becomes Wee-cest (not to be confused with genfic featuring young Winchesters—Wee-chesters).
      • Although Wincest is largely the most popular, other ships exist but typically have portmanteau variety names. The only other exception being the foursome of Sam/Dean/Castiel/Gabriel which is called Team Free Love.
    • Heroes has "Petrellicest" for Peter/Nathan.
      • Don't forget S&M for Sylar/Mohinder.
    • Stargate Atlantis has "Sparky" for John/Elizabeth.
      • Also "Spanky" for Ronon/Teyla, especially when it's in conjunction with Sparky.
    • iCarly: Fatcakes YEAH!! for Principal Franklin/Sam based off a combination between his computer password and her love for fatcakes.
    • Firefly has "Tamcest," which ships Simon and River with each other, and which among the fandom is also known as CSI or "Crazy Space Incest."
      • A lot of other Firefly 'shipper names are largely of the portmanteau variety. "Rayne" (for River/Jayne), "Jaylee" (for Jayne/Kaylee), and "Maliver" (for Mal/River) are just a few examples.
    • For the discerning Buffy and Angel fan, there's this (admittedly less popular) Aureliuscest.[2]
      • Some also use Summerscest for Buffy/Dawn. At least it finally has a name.
    • In the CSI Verse, Grissom/Sara is known as GSR (Grissom-Sara Romance) or 'geek love' (it helps that GSR is used frequently in-universe as an acronym for gunshot residue); and Lindsay/Danny as M&M (Monroe & Messer). or DL(Danny and Lindsay)
      • Not forgetting Yo!Bling (Catherine/Warrick) and CatNip (Catherine/Nick).
      • And SMACked (Mac/Stella), and DnA (Danny/Aiden)
      • And HipHuggers (Eric/Calleigh), and CaRWash (Calleigh/Ryan).
      • And GCR is an alternate Grillows title (Grissom Catherine Romance.) Grissom/Lady Heather can be either GLH or Cool Whip.
        • The full list of ship names can be found at the main CSI forum, Talk CSI, in the Shipper Central area.
    • Barney/Robin fans in How I Met Your Mother fandom call this pairing BrOTP—refering to the two being "bros", being their One True Pairing and "BR" being their initials.
      • Additionally, some Barney/Robin fans prefer the name "Swarkles," referring to Robin's history as Robin Sparkles, Canadian pop-star, and Swarley, a nickname for Barney after a name mess-up at Starbucks
      • There's also LAME for Marshall/Lily -- "LA" standing for Lily Aldrin and "ME" standing for Marshall Eriksen.
    • The motto of Gibbs/Jen shippers everywhere is "Because Paris never ended..." It should be noted that there is a reason for this one—it's the last place where they were together as lovers. Paris is actually used at least once by them to refer to their past.9
    • Fans of Mulder/Scully on The X-Files tended to just call themselves "Shippers". A lot of other pairing names then evolved out of "Shipper" including "Dipper" (Doggett/Scully), "Skipper" (Krycek/Scully), "Dripper" (Doggett/Reyes), "Skamper" (Krycek/Marita), etc. Since they are somewhat derived from the characters names, but still not immediately obvious to people unfamiliar with fandom, this probably qualifies as the half-way point between Idiosyncratic Ship Naming and Portmanteau Couple Name.
    • Gilmore Girls had a few including:
      • JavaJunkie—Luke and Lorelai—no explanation necessary
      • Narco—Rory and Dean—taken from Lorelai calling Dean Narcolepsy Boy
      • Literati—Rory and Jess—from the two's mutual love for books
      • Trory—Rory and Tristan—this is actually more of a Portmanteau Couple Name
      • Balcony Buddies—Lorelai and Christopher—name refers to balcony of Lorelai's childhood bedroom where Rory was conceived
      • Sophies—Rory and Logan—name taken from a Master and Commander reference made between the two
      • PDLD—Rory and Finn—this is mostly a Crack Pairing named from the acronym Punch Drunk Love Duo
    • The minuscule Ethan Kanin/Allison Taylor shipper fandom coined "Ethanberry," due to actress Cherry Jones' first name.
    • There is infamously, sweetly or both, "LoVe" for Logan/Veronica off Veronica Mars. The pun doesn't work with other pairings, but they mostly follow the same pattern anyway (eg. DuVe, MaDi, DoVe...)
    • Arthur/Morgana shippers from the Merlin fandom get brownie points for their ship name is both a Portmanteau Couple Name and Idiosyncratic Ship Naming at the same time. The name, ArMor, comes from joining the two characters' names (Arthur and Morgana), but it's also a throwback to a particular scene in episode 2 of series 1, which deals with actual armor, and is arguably the biggest Arthur/Morgana scene in the show so far.
    • Kamen Rider Double has a semi-official one. For fans of shipping Shoutaro and Phillip you might as well call the pairing Doublecest. However, on TVN for Phillip/Wakana after learning that the two are related call the pairing Wincest. Several even lamented the fact that its Wincest but said they didn't really care.
    • The pairing of Charlie Pace and Claire Littleton on Lost was known as PB&J. The nickname is grounded in both Idiosyncratic Ship Naming and is a type of Portmanteau Couple Name. Idiosyncratically it's referential to the first season episode "Confidence Men" when Charlie convinces Claire to share some "imaginary peanut butter" with him to satisfy her pregnancy-driven peanut butter craving. As a portmanteau, however, the initials "PB&J" stand for "Pregnant Babe" and "Junkie," respectively, referring of course to Claire's pregnancy and Charlie's heroin addiction.
    • The television show Roswell had shipper names up the ying-yang, a mix of idiosyncratic and portmanteau alike, but the two most prominent ones were the Dreamers and the Candies.
      • "Dreamers" was the shipper name for the lead characters, Max and Liz. This is largely an instance of Idiosyncratic Ship Naming, inspired by the fans' shared dream of Max and Liz becoming a couple and living happily ever after in the name of true love. It was also in part a reference to a moment during the first season episode "Blind Date" when Max referred to Liz as his "dream girl."
      • "Candies," on the other hand, was a portmanteau of the initials of the show's secondary couple, Michael and Maria. Unlike the idiosyncratic origin of "Dreamers," the "Candy Couple" were so-called because their combined initials are "M&M," like the candy.
      • Don't forget "Stargazers." That was the shipper name for Alex/Isabel, due to an episode where, you guessed it, Alex and Isabel went stargazing.
      • Run amok on soap operas. Examples include: "S&C" for Sonny/Carly, "S&B" for Sonny/Brenda, "Skate" for Sonny/Kate, "L&L" for Luke/Laura, "L&L2" for Lucky/Liz, "Phick" for Phyllis/Nicholas, "Dalily" for Daniel/Lily, "Jovan" for John/Van, etc.
    • Some fans who preferred the Janeway/Chakotay pairing on Star Trek: Voyager referred to it as "Jetski", a pun based on the French "J et C".
      • The Kirk/Spock pairing is also known as "Space Husbands" in some circles (due to occasionally acting like a married couple).
      • As play off the above and their respective series name, the Garak/Bashir ship is called 'Deep Space Husbands'.
    • House has a Portmanteau Couple Name with a twist in the form of "14" for the Eric Foreman/Remy "Thirteen" Hadley ship.
    • Where almost Glee couple is referred to - both in-universe and as out - by a rather twee Portmanteau Couple Name such as 'Finchel' 'Samcedes' or 'Klaine', Tina Cohen-Chang and Mike Chang (called Tike by fans) are in-universe known as Chitty-Chitty-Chang-Chang.
    • Lost Girl has "Doccubus" for the Bo/Lauren pairing, so called because Lauren is a doctor and Bo is a succubus.
    • Almost as soon as Sanctuary fans got their hands on this promo, the small-but-devoted Helen/Will contingent coined "British Charm" as their Idiosyncratic Ship Name.
    • Korean reality show We Got Married features couples known as the Sweet Potato Couple (Yonghwa and Seohyun, also YongSeo), the Adam Couple (Jo Kwon and Ga In), the Dimple Couple (Kang Sora and Leeteuk, also TeukSo), and more.

    Meta

    Music

    • Although generally pairing names are just portmanteaus (e.g. KaiMei for Kaito/Meiko, LukaGaku for Luka/Gakupo, etc), Slash pairings in Vocaloid are more likely to get odd. Some refer to Kaito/Len as 'Banana Split', due to their respective character items of ice cream and bananas (although it does make one wonder if the former is a Shotacon, Len being 14 with Kaito at an estimated 21, and is somewhat parodied in the aptly named Shotarella). In addition Kaito/Gakupo is referred to as "naisu", a clever merging of "nasu" (eggplant) and "aisu" (ice cream), and Kaito/Gakupo/Len as OT3 often has "bananaisu". The only het pairing with a common idiosyncratic name would be Rin/Len in "Kagaminecest", occassionally referred to as Mirrorcest.

    Professional Wrestling

    Theater

    • Some Wicked fans refer to Galinda/Elphaba (also known as Gelphie) as "Pink Goes Good With Green".

    Video Games

    • The Golden Sun fandom is known for fierce protectiveness of one's own favorite ships, all of which are named according to characteristics of the shipped characters (or fanfiction in-jokes) rather than their names. Notable examples include Valeshipping (Isaac/Jenna), Mudshipping (Isaac/Mia), Spikeydomeshipping (Garet/Sheba), Laundryshipping (Garet/Dora), Flameshipping (Garet/Jenna), Hotplasmashipping or Burnshipping (Ivan/Jenna), Windshipping (Ivan/Sheba), Lighthouseshipping (Felix/Sheba), Oopsiesshipping (Felix/Jenna), Duskshipping (Felix/Karst), Aquashipping (Piers/Mia), Blazeshipping (Alex/Jenna), and Spiritshipping (Matthew/Sveta). See here for a full list.
      • Hardly full, although it gives a good guide as to how to name a new pairing.
    • Even though the Tales of Symphonia fandom tends to much more often use Portmanteau Couple Names, (very) rarely there are times when "____Shipping" has been used. There is "Airshipping", now known as "Sylvashipping", or more commonly, Colloyd. Other non-Portmanteau Couple Names for pairings are "Sagecest" (Genis x Raine), and "Chosenshipping" (Zelos x Colette). Of note, while it would fall under Portmanteau Couple Name, Kratos x Raine is sometimes referred to as "The [=UKraine."
    • Team Fortress 2, when it doesn't portmanteau, uses some strange names: "Helmet Party" (Soldier/Engineer) and "Wincest" (RED Spy/BLU Scout).
      • "Wincest" is a Memetic Mutation presumably originating on 4chan, unsurprisingly adopted by the TF2 community. Usually delivered in the form of "Incest? More like WINCEST, amiright?"
        • Additionally, it's only "Wincest" if RED Spy is BLU Scout's father. You can have a non-incest RED Spy/BLU Scout pairing, because RED Spy fathering BLU Scout has neither been confirmed or denied by Valve.
      • There's also "Classcest", which is one class paired with another of the same class. Ex. RED Spy x BLU Spy, or BLU Sniper x BLU Female!Sniper.
    • Pokemon has an absurd number of these-pretty much every couple, canon or not, has one.
    • The Ace Attorney Series has a few like this—Gavincest, Feycest, Marshallcest.
    • The Touhou fandom came up with a number of appropriate titles or description for different pairings. An interesting subversion is made on this case; rather than just using the title itself, the fans actually tag it behind the respective Portmanteau Couple Names to form a phrase. For example, "MariAli is my justice" for Marisa/Alice, "YukaRei is my way" for Yukari/Reimu, "MokoKene is the reign of god" for Mokou/Keine, and so on. These are popular among Japanese Touhou fans and are recognized as creative ways to say a certain pairing is their OTP.
      • And here's this video.
      • Mokou/Keine is also coined as "Mocha Cake" by some fans because "Mokou Keine" sounds a lot like it.
      • "Malice" is common for Marisa/Alice.
    • Star FOX has Falox, Wolox and Jimpep.
      • Falox (Japanese ファルフォ Falfo) is Fox × Falco.
      • Wolox (Japanese ウルフォ Wolfo) is Fox × Wolf.
      • Jimpep (Japanese ジムペプ) is James × Peppy.
    • Final Fantasy XIII: Fang and Vanille, who have possibly the most blatant Ho Yay in the franchise's history, are referred to as Fanille. If it's a threesome with Lightning, on the other hand, it becomes "Neapolitan". The brunette Fang—chocolate, Rose-Haired Girl Lightning = strawberry, and Vanille... well, duh.
    • Kingdom Hearts fandom tends to smush the names of the characters together: Sora/Kairi = SoKai, Sora/Riku = SoRiku, etc. They even have one for the Sora/Riku/Kairi OT3: SoRiKai.
      • The Organization XIII shippers also tend to use ship names like this. AkuRoku (Axel/Roxas) is the most famous. Others use their assigned numbers in the Organization.

    Webcomics

    • Templar, Arizona fans who ship E.J. and Biggs are committing an act of Elliot-cest
    • Standard practice in the Megatokyo fandom is to refer to a ship by the first initials of the characters, separated an "x" (e.g. Piro/Miho > PxM=, Piro/Kimiko > PxK, Largo/Erika > LxM, etc).
    • Homestuck's incredibly convoluted approach to romance requires fans to use ♥ (<3) to represent a ship where the two love each other (e.g. "Rose♥Kanaya"), a ♠ (<3<) for when they want to bonk each other out of hate (e.g. "John♠Karkat"), a ♦ (<>) for a kind of friendship where they keep each other in line (e.g. "Nepeta♦Equius") and a ♣ (c3<) for an unstable relationship being mediated by the person written in the middle (e.g. "Past Karkat♣Jade♣Current Karkat"). Since the trolls are all represented by astrological symbols, people sometimes use those as a kind of classy shorthand for troll ships - so ♑♥♉ would mean Gamzee♥Tavros, and 69♥II would mean Karkat (♋)♥Sollux (♊).
      • Various odd ship names have also been adopted by the fandom in some places:
        • "Peanut Butter and Jelly" for Gamzee/Tavros, based on their blood colors
        • "Communism" for John/Karkat (based on their Weapons of Choice - a hammer and a sickle, respectively)
        • "Stridercest" for Bro/Dave
        • "Dersecest" for Dave/Rose and "Prospitcest" for John/Jade (based on their shared dream planets)
        • "Grimdorks" for Rose/John (John is a dork, and Rose once went grimdark)
        • "Rosemary" for Rose/Kanaya (a portmanteau using part of Kanaya's surname)
        • "Spaceshipping" for Kanaya/Jade and "Timeshipping" for Aradia/Dave (based on their shared Sburb aspects)
        • "Spacetime" for Jade/Dave
        • "Hammertime" for John/Dave
        • "Meowrails" for Nepeta♦Equius (members of a ♦ relationship are known as moirails)
        • "Cotton Candy" for Jane/Roxy (based on their chat colors: light blue and pink, respectively). The name got a Fandom Nod in an Easter Egg.
        • "Cotton Condy" for Roxy/Meenah (after speculation, now confirmed, that she is the pre-Scratch Condesce)

    Web Original

    • With all its many characters and their relationships, RWBY has shippers out the wazoo pairing everyone with everyone else and coming up with a cute name for every possible pairing, including for Qrow and his hip flask, ranging from clever turns of phrase to Historical In-Jokes to classic Portmanteau Couple Names. There exist multiple versions of a simply massive shipping spreadsheet listing most or all of them. A few samples:
      • White Rose (Ruby/Weiss)
      • Lancaster (Ruby/Jaune)
      • Bumblebee (Blake/Yang)
      • Monochrome (Weiss/Blake)
      • Ladybug (Ruby/Blake)
      • Freezer Burn (Weiss/Yang)
      • Arkos (Jaune/Pyrrha)
      • Love and War (Pyrrha/Nora)
      • Jarem (Jaune/female harem)
      • Zweiss (Zwei/Weiss)
      • Rosewick (Ruby/Roman Torchwick)
    Amusingly, the RWBY production team enshrined some of these In-Universe as Team RWBY's codenames for specific tactics or combined attacks involving the girls in question.

    Western Animation

    • For the Brother-Sister Incest ships, Avatar: The Last Airbender has "Zucest" or "Fireshipping" for Zuko/Azula and "Kacest" or "Watercest" for Katara/Sokka shipping.
      • On tv.com, The fandom couldn't decide between Sokki and Sukka for Sokka/Suki because they both sounded too much like either character's name, so a compromise was made. They call it George.
    • Ben 10: Ben/Gwen is referred to as "Bwen", "Bencest" or "Cousinshipping". Kevin/Gwen has also been named "Forceshipping" (after Ben 10 Alien Force, the sequel series where it inexplicably became Canon).
    • Despite not being all that popular, even the A.T.O.M. fandom has a term for at least the Hawk/Shark pairing—Seabird. Yet the only hinted pairing, Axel/Lioness, remains blank.
    • Invader Zim fandom seems to prefer four-letter acronyms of the form XAYR -- (Character X) And (Character Y) Romance. For example, ZAGR stands for "ZIM and Gaz romance," ZADR for "Zim and Dib romance," etc. Generally the more important character's initial is put first.
      • Although this generally works, it becomes an issue when more obscure pairings are brought into the picture, since a lot of the Invader Zim characters tend to have the same first letters in their names. Does "DAGR" stand for Dib/Gretchen, Dib/Gaz or Dib/GIR?
      • Invader Zim also uses a similar system for friendships by replacing the "R" with an "F." This is almost exclusively done with Zim and Dib friendship, aka ZADF, but rarely you'll see it used for another term.
    • Danny Phantom is rifled with this. Danny/Sam is Ameythst Ocean (referring to their eye colors), Danny/Valerie is Gray Ghost, Danny/Paulina is Shallow Sapphire, Johnny/Kitty is Black Cat, Jack/Maddie is Moronic Genius, Danny/Vlad is Pompous Pep or Endangered Species, Tucker/Sam is Veggie Burger and so forth. This includes pairings with characters that barely interact with or share little to no romantic interests such as: Jazz/Clockwork is Timely Intelligence, Danny/Star is Phantom Satellite and so on and on. There's even one for the Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom pairing (Pitch Pearl). And this is just the icing on the cake. Here's a more detailed list.
      • If it helps, the ones that are most commonly used are Pompous Pep, Pitch Pearl, and on occasion Swagger Bishie (Dannyx Dash). Most of the other ones are rarely seen in the fandom (and if they are, they're called by the character's names - Dannyx Sam is more common than Amethyst Ocean).
    • In Codename: Kids Next Door, we have these for shippers of the following couplings:
      • Cherry Luvers: Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 5.
      • Courting Commanders: Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 362.
      • Closet Keepers: Numbuh 2 and Numbuh 86.
      • Panda Warriors: Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4.
      • Soda Junkies: Numbuh 23 and Numbuh 35.
      • Desk Jockeys: Numbuh 60 and Numbuh 362.
    • For The Powerpuff Girls, shippers of the Powerpuffs and the Rowdyruffs name them by their colour sceme (with the occasional Powerpunk Girl thrown in).
      • Reds for Blossom and Brick (and/or Berserk)
      • Blues for Bubbles and Boomer (and/or Brat)
      • Greens for Buttercup and Butch (and/or Brute)
    • Code Lyoko's naming theme is much simpler, using the first initials of the characters involved: UxY (Ulrich and Yumi), JxA (Jeremie and Aelita) and the like.
    • Two schools of thought in Young Justice fandom: either squish two words related to their superhero personas, or use a single word that somehow relates to the ship. So M'gann and Conner is Super Martian, after their superhero codenames, "Superboy" and "Miss Martian."
      • There is an episode where Kent Nelson tells Wally he needs to find a "spitfire" girlfriend to keep him in line, and starts to suggest Artemis before being cut off. When they're not Wall/Art, the Wally and Artemis ship is known as "Spitfire."
      • In "Humanity," after Robin spends most of the episode politely hitting on Zatanna, he starts to say "I'm trying to be all nonchalant here," and she responds with "be as chalant as you like." Hence, they are often called Chalant. Alternatively, some use BirdMagic.
      • Robin and Kid Flash were mostly known as BirdFlash up until a scene in the tie-in comic where Wally complains about having to change costumes even though he's not "fresh." While Miss Martian's response was arguably funnier ("Oh, Wally, you're always fresh,"), fangirls latched on Robin's "Whatever you say, freshness," and rechristened their ship.
    • The Adventure Time ship Bubbline (Princess Bubblegum/Marceline) also goes by "Sugarless Gum", thanks to lyrics in one of Marceline's song about her not being sugary and the fact that Princess Bubblegum is made of gum.
    • Speaking of Marcelinex PB, I've seen Marcibel too.
    • Twilight/Rainbow Dash shippers in the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fandom like to call it Reading Rainbow.
    1. ↑ Psychoshipping is Florence (Yami Bakura) x Melvin (Yami Marik), in case you were wondering.
    2. ↑ Describes relationships between members of the Order of Aurelius -- such as Darla and her sire The Master -- who are all of the same vampiric bloodline and tend to fall into familial archetype roles. Also includes relationships between any of the Order and Connor.
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