A form of unintentional Title Confusion that occurs when a story's naming conventions confuse the audience about what the characters' names are, or who certain titles refer to. Most frequently, people will assume that the title of the work is the name of the main character.
This confusion is especially likely when one actor's name is billed alone above a title that sounds like it might be the name of his character, when it actually refers to, say, his racehorse.
Can lead to things like Cowboy BeBop at His Computer when people don't do research on the subject. Depending on the circumstances, it may also become a Fandom-Enraging Misconception. Not to be confused with I Am Not Spock, though it would be funny. Refrain from Assuming sometimes is related to this.
This trope's title originated with the character Captain Marvel, whose comic was originally published under the same name by Fawcett Comics. Following a lawsuit by DC Comics, which alleged that Captain Marvel infringed upon the copyrights of Superman, Fawcett went out of the comics business and their trademarks lapsed. Nineteen years later, DC revived Captain Marvel. By this point, however, Marvel Comics had already created a new character and publication titled Captain Marvel. Due to issues with copyright and trademark law, the character could continue to be called Captain Marvel, but any magazines or merchandise would be titled Shazam! Years later, with the New 52 relaunch and Marvel using their Captain Marvel with greater frequency, DC's Captain Marvel was officially named "Shazam", ironically making them an aversion of their namesake trope.
Often the result of Secondary Character Title. A Sub-Trope of Common Knowledge and Viewer Name Confusion. Contrast Iconic Character, Forgotten Title and Protagonist Title Fallacy. See also Refrain from Assuming and Brand Name Takeover. Not to be confused with I Am Not Weasel, which is about species confusion rather than naming confusion. Or the popular music identification app.
Example subpages:
- Advertising
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Comic Strips
- Films
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Music
- Professional Sports
- Tabletop Games
- Theatre
- Toys
- Video Games
- Webcomics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
- Real Life
Other examples:
- Applies to the English dub of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. The original Chinese title, Xǐ Yángyáng Yǔ Huī Tàiláng, matches the original Chinese names of the two major characters, but the English dub does not, calling them Weslie and Wolffy instead. People who don't know this end up calling them by the title, and not their actual names. The English dub of Great War in the Bizarre World refers to Wolffy as Big Big Wolffy several times, but not as Big Big Wolf.
- The Bible: The Book of Malachi: It's often assumed Malachi is the proper name of the person who supposedly wrote it (a reasonable assumption, as many books in the Bible are named after the author). "Malachi" is really just Hebrew for "(My) messenger", the book as it was found is anonymous.
- Beowulf: Is Beowulf a murderous monster that terrorizes the land? No, the monster is called "Grendel". Beowulf is the hero who destroys Grendel. Inverted from most examples of this trope, since Beowulf and not Grendel is the main character.
- Arthurian Legend: Modern works tend to call King Arthur "Arthur Pendragon" as if "Pendragon" is his surname. But in the medieval texts "Pendragon" (a title meaning "chief dragon" or "chief warrior") is only used by his father Uther Pendragon, and sometimes an uncle named Pendragon who rules briefly before Uther, who then adopts the name - never Arthur himself. Plus the people who first wrote this stuff down didn't yet have surnames as we know it, and they lived centuries after Arthur was supposed to.
- Invoked for comedy in Mom Can't Cook!, where the hosts pretend to think that Louis Stevens, played by Shia LaBeouf, is named "Even Stevens" because that's the name of the show (or, more accurately, the finale movie they're recapping).
- Lucha Libre Internacional was a Mexico-based promotion whose title matches were sanctioned by the Universal Wrestling Association. Since all the belts were known as the UWA ___, most foreign observers would see the visiting champion defending one of them and conclude he wrestled for the UWA directly.
- Los Perros Del Mal is a Card-Carrying Villain Power Stable that has ran through several Mexican promotions, such as CMLL and AAA. Perros Del Mal Producciones is a promotion owned by said power stable.
- Some people refer to WWE, or pro wrestling in general, as "WrestleMania", WWE's biggest event.
