Hometown Nickname

Exactly What It Says on the Tin: When a character is referred to pretty much exclusively by where he comes from. Or at least, where everyone assumes he's from.

This is Truth in Television, if you look in historical documents, you will find that many people were distinguished by where they came from (other common identifiers included trade or profession and distinguishing features). When surnames became common, towns of origin were often assigned as family names. If the person isn't actually from the place he is named for, it can become an Ironic Nickname. This is also one popular means for pen names.

Sub-Trope of Only Known by Their Nickname, and related to Captain Geographic.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Kasuga Ayumu in Azumanga Daioh is only known as Osaka.
  • Trope was enforced in-universe by one of her new friends, whose idea the nickname originally was. Also lampshaded/discussed as said friend declared on the spot that shows have characters from Osaka only known as Osaka (and that such is funny).
• Elie in Rave Master, who asumes the tattoo on her arm is her name after getting Laser-Guided Amnesia. It's actually both her home town and the coordinates of said town.

Comics

• Some writers of Superman comics have picked up Lois calling Clark "Smallville" from Superman: The Animated Series and Smallville.

Film

• Blazing Saddles features Gene Wilder playing Jim, AKA The Waco Kid.
• In Buckaroo Banzai, Jeff Goldblum's character is known only as "New Jersey".
• Coyote Ugly - When Violet first takes a job at the bar she's know as Jersey, her home state.
• El Dorado: Mississippi, born on the river, and mostly called that because of his Overly Long Name.
  • Another example: The Swede, who supplies Mississippi with his first gun, a Sawed-Off Shotgun.
• Subverted in Forrest Gump.

"There was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland - he was from Detroit; and Tex... well, I don't remember where Tex come from." (Played straight there, Tex was from Texas.)

• Played with in GUNHED with the character "Brooklyn" who's Japanese...and wears a Dodgers baseball shirt. He doesn't get it because by that time the team was in L.A.
• Hudson Hawk. The title character's real first name is Eddie, he grew up in a town called Hoboken on the Hudson River in New Jersey.
• Indiana Jones is at first assumed to be this, until The Last Crusade, where we learn he took his name from his dog.
• Medicine Man, Dr. Rae Crane is known as Bronx.
• Poolhall Junkies - The Greek.
• Almost every character in Zombieland. At first it's just something that Tallahassee insists on to avoid emotional ties with other survivors, but through the course of the movie, almost every character ends up only being referred to by where they are from (or, in the Flash Back, by their apartment numbers), with the only exceptions being The Cameo and, at the end of the movie, Wichita.
• Alabam, Grady Sutton's character from Hal Roach's "Boy Friends" short subject series from the 1930's.
• Inverted in Doc Hollywood, in that that's where Ben Stone was going, not where he was from.

Literature

• A fairly well-known example is Jesus of Nazareth, sometimes also known as The Nazarene.
• Doc Pseudopolis is a high ranking member of Ankh-Morkpork's guild of gamblers on Terry Pratchett Discworld. He makes a living of people whose fathers never warned them not to gamble with a man named Doc or anyone named after a city.
  • The Discworld Companion lists the guild leader as Scrote Jones.
• Santiago of Twilight is from Santiago. Given her age, not only does no one call her by her given name, almost no one knows it.
• Max, best friend to Codex Alera hero Tavi, frequently refers to Tavi as "Calderon." In a similar vein, Kitai refers to him as "Aleran" even when she refers to other Alerans by name.

Live Action Television

• The Adventures of Brisco County Jr: Brisco goes undercover using the name "Kansas Wily Stafford" ("Kansas" for short). Then the real Kansas Wily Stafford shows up...
  • Brisco, however, is an inversion. People keep assuming Brisco County is where he's from, a point which he has to clarify not to be the case.
• CSI New York: Danny calls Lindsay "Montana". Only a partial example as he seems to be the only one on the show to call her that.
• Lois calls Clark this in Smallville
  • Which, of course, came from the cartoon (See Western Animation, below)
• Survivor has an example in three different seasons with "Boston" Rob. Justified due to his first season running into the One Steve Limit.
• The old TV show, The Virginian.
• There was a travelogue show on UK Channel 4 in the mid 90s in which the presenter's sidekick was known as Luton, because she was from... that's right.

Real Life

• Tex Avery, born Frederick Bean Avery in Taylor, TX.
• Tex Ritter, country music singer and Western actor, best known today as the father of John Ritter.
• Tennessee Williams, sort of. He wasn't from Tennessee, but his father was.
• Leonardo da Vinci.

Video Games

• Nevada Smith, an Indy parody, in Apogee Software's Pharaoh's Tomb.

Western Animation

• Yosemite Sam, possibly.
  • And his Tiny Toons Expy Montana Max.
• Lois calling Clark "Smallville" in Superman: The Animated Series, which was later picked up in Smallville (see Live Action Television, above)
• Super Ted - The Big Bad Texas Pete.
• On King of the Hill, Cotton Hill has war buddies named Brooklyn and Fat Brooklyn.