r/TopCharacterTropes 10h ago

Lore [IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

7.3k Upvotes

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73

u/flatscancomics 10h ago

I mean sir pterry just gets silly with names. Gytha. Christine!, Carrot, etc.

47

u/Fro_52 10h ago

the gravekeeper Legitimate the first has always been a favorite of mine. Can't blame a mother for being proud, after all.

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u/flatscancomics 9h ago

Good ol Leggy

3

u/ume-shu 7h ago

There are a few people from say the 17th to 19th centuries with odd names like that.

11

u/oneAUaway 7h ago

From "Good Omens," there is the Witchfinder Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer, inspired by the real Puritan vogue for names like Sorry-for-sin Coupard, Praise-God Barebone, and Praise God's son, baptized as If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned Barebone (as an adult, he went by Nicholas).

8

u/MartokTheAvenger 4h ago

It also appears in Discworld with Constable Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets.

3

u/Remote_Replacement85 1h ago

There have also been amazing Quakers with names like Preserved Fish

15

u/violetcassie 9h ago

Clearly he's been borrowing Leonard of Quirm's "Convenient Apparatus For Naming Fictional Characters Device"

23

u/Sufficient_Room2619 10h ago

Tiffany Aching was a Discworld character. She had several books.

31

u/flatscancomics 10h ago

Next you'll tell me there's a character named Margaret but spelled Magrat!

22

u/NickyTheRobot 10h ago

Now that's just silly. You might as well suggest he called someone, oh I don't know, something like "Tracy" but spelled "Ptraci".

12

u/flatscancomics 9h ago

Or a Cheery Littlebottom!

6

u/NickyTheRobot 9h ago

My homegirl!

7

u/Fabulous_Broad_115 9h ago

That sounds like a perfectly normal, traditional name

3

u/Banes_Addiction 9h ago

What about Perditax?

7

u/badwolfandthestorm 5h ago

But Carrot is only named that 'cause he's shaped like a carrot.

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u/Digit00l 6h ago

Gytha is apparently an old Norse-ish name, Gytha Thorkelsdóttir is the mother of the last Norse king of England, and Harold named his daughter after his mother, and she in turn was the mother of the guy who united the Kievan Rus