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EgoCorp - TV Tropes

  • ️Sun Jul 21 2024

Oftentimes in fiction, businesses and companies are named after the person who founded or is currently in charge of them, thereby inextricably linking the two together.

This is a convenient way of either making the owner's presence feel larger in a story by way of Sigil Spam or subtly characterizing them as being a little full of themselves. Common variations for larger corporations include "[X] Industries", "[X] Enterprises", "[X] Incorporated", "[X] Corporation", etc., as it puts the focus more directly on the name of the person rather than the company. In works where Capitalism Is Bad, this will often be a trait of the MegaCorp and the Corrupt Corporate Executive who runs it.

That said, not all cases default to evil, as there are also cases where the company in question has Honest Corporate Executives usually acting as the Big Good of the story.

Very frequently Truth in Television, as people like naming things after themselves, especially businesses they own or create. Can often represent a Family Business if it was originally named after the founder and is now run by their descendants.

May be the setup for a Namesake Gag. Compare Egopolis, when it's a settlement the place named after the person who founded or currently runs it, and The Law Firm of Pun, Pun, and Wordplay, which is also usually named in this manner (as real-life law firms are very commonly named after the partners that own them).

Examples:

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Anime & Manga 

Comic Books 

  • Archie Comics: Veronica's father, typically known as just "Mr. Lodge", is the billionaire owner of Lodge Enterprises. The exact nature of his companies varies on an as-needed basis in storylines. For example, one day Ronnie entered her cat in a contest sponsored by a major brand of cat food. After she won (dishonestly, thanks to Reggie's cheating), her dad showed up and said that Lodge Enterprises had just taken over the cat-food company, so Ron was promptly disqualified as a relative of an employee.
  • Batman: Wayne Enterprises is the ancestral corporation owned by the Wayne family of Gotham City, the current owner of which is billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, otherwise known as Batman.
  • Daredevil: Matt Murdock's lawyer firm goes by the name "Murdock & Nelson", the other partner being his old friend "Foggy" Nelson.
  • Green Arrow: Oliver Queen's family company is Queen Industries, which he inherited from his father upon the latter's death.
  • Iron Fist: Danny Rand is the head of Rand Corporation, which was initially launched by his father as Rand-Meachum Inc.
  • Iron Man: The weapons development company Stark Enterprises was originally founded by military Arms Dealer mogul Howard Stark and is now run by his son Tony Stark, the titular Iron Man.
  • The Simpsons: In "To Heir is Homer", the founder and CEO of Duff Brewery is revealed to be Sam Duff when he bequeaths Homer 51% of shares in the brewery in his will after Homer does him a random act of kindness.
  • Spider-Man:
    • Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, owns various companies, including Osborn Industries, Osborn Electronics, Osborn Manufacturing, Osborn Chemical Corporation, etc.
    • Liz Allan runs her family firm, Allan Chemical. After taking over Oscorp due to Liz being married to Norman's son Harry, they change their name to Alchemax, which will go on to become a major MegaCorp in Spider-Man 2099.
    • Superior Spider-Man (2013): Otto Octavius, while possessing Peter Parker's body, starts up Parker Industries, capitalizing on his intelligence and Spidey's tech in order to actually have Peter live comfortably for once in his life. Peter himself continues to run the company in the Worldwide era, but by the end of the Dan Slott run, Parker Industries is no more, being shut down to prevent a hostile takeover by Ock during the Secret Empire tie-in (during which he revealed that the circles behind "P.I." in the company logo had always represented his own initials).
  • Superman: In most continuities, Lex Luthor's gargantuan corporate empire is called LexCorp, since Lex is a megalomaniac with constant plots of world domination. In Superman (2023), following a Heel–Face Turn, he renames it Supercorp and hands it over to Superman, much to the Man of Steel's embarrassment.

Fan Works 

  • The Raven & the Owlet: Arends Pharmaceuticals is owned by Sylvie and Petra Arends, the mothers of Boscha Arends. According to Amity, it's even bigger and wealthier than her family's Blight Industries, in large part since pharmaceuticals is a much larger field than weaponry and defense tech that the Blights deal in.

Films — Live-Action 

  • Alien: The infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation is a hybrid megacorporation formed from both the Weyland and Yutani corporations founded by Sir Peter Weyland and Cullen Yutani, respectively. Weyland being a character in Alien vs. Predator, which takes place in the Present Day, is meant to be a Call-Forward to the formation of the corp in the far future.
  • In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Dr. Evil has a business arrangement with Mr. Roboto, a Japanese businessman and owner of Roboto Industries.
  • Back to the Future Part II: In the Bad Future Marty arrives in after Biff steals the Sports Almanac, it's shown that Biff used his newly won millions to start an oil company called "BiffCo." to gain even more wealth and power, which is how he takes over Hill Valley and turns it into a shithole.
  • Both Blade Runner and its sequel feature as an overwhelming presence the Tyrell and Wallace Corporations; named respectively after Eldon Tyrell and Niander Wallace Jr. Both corporations further demonstrate the god complex and narcissism through the creation and sale of replicant slaves.
  • The Dark Knight: Bruce Wayne initiates a partnership between his father's corporation Wayne Enterprises and a Chinese corporation, Lau Security Investments Holdings, as part of a plan to gain access to their records and expose their CEO, Mr. Lau, as a crime boss who supports the criminal underground within Gotham City.
  • Hardcore Henry: Akan Inc. is named after its founder, the albino mutant Akan who uses his company's vast resources (and his own private army) to make Henry's life a living hell.
  • In I, Frankenstein, Charles Wessex is the head of the Wessex Institute, a medical research company studying life-extending therapies. However, "Charles Wessex" doesn't exist, but is really an alter-ego for Naberius, a Demon Prince who's using the company as a front for his plan to summon an army of demons to earth.
  • Iron Man Films:
    • Iron Man introduces us to Tony Stark, who inherited Stark Industries from his father; the company begins its life in the MCU as a weapons manufacturer, but after Tony realizes just how much damage his weapons can do, after being on the receiving end of said weapon, he switches gears to being a more generalized tech company. Future films show Stark Industries providing advanced robotics, equipment for other heroes (such as Spider-Man) and hologram technology, among other things.
    • Iron Man 2 introduces the poor man's Stark Industries, Hammertech, owned by Justin Hammer.
  • James Bond: Many villains name their companies after themselves, including Auric Enterprises, Stromberg Shipping Line, Drax Industries, King Industries and Greene Planet.
  • Jumanji: Alan Parrish's father Samuel Parrish was the founder and CEO of the Parrish Shoe Company.
  • Jurassic World: InGen winds up being acquired by the multinational Masrani Global corporation, founded by Sanjay Masrani and currently operated by his son Simon Masrani, who is the funder and patron behind the new Jurassic World park.
  • Kinky Boots: The central shoe company is named Price and Son, after Charlie Price's great-grandfather. Charlie finds himself the reluctant owner, after trying to get out of the shoe business, when his father dies, and struggles to keep the in-debt company afloat so as not to lose the link with his father.
  • In Smosh: The Movie, the leading duo attempt to meet with the CEO of YouTube, who they derisively call "Mr. YouTube" only to find out that the platform is in fact named after its founder, Steve YouTube.
  • Spider-Man Trilogy: Norman Osborn is the founder of a biochemical and technical R&D corporation called Oscorp, which becomes his first subject of revenge as the Green Goblin after the board forcibly removes him from control. After his death, it is inherited by his son Harry.
  • Tommy Boy: Callahan Auto has been run by a member of the Callahan family from its founding, with Thomas Callahan III, aka Tommy, the next in line. His father "Big Tom" Callahan dying unexpectedly puts this in jeopardy since the bank doesn't think the company will survive under Tommy's leadership (since he only just graduated with a D+ after seven years of college).
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Marvin Acme is the president of the Acme Corporation which sells various apparati that run on cartoon logic, and Roger Rabbit getting framed for his death is what kicks off the main plot.

Literature 

  • Artemis Fowl: Koboi Labs is a tech company founded by Opal Koboi.
  • The Demolished Man: The D'Courtney Cartel is named after its owner, Craye D'Courtney. Ben Reich, the Villain Protagonist, plans to murder D'Courtney, merge his business with Reich's own, and rename the result to Reich Incorporated.
  • The Expanse features Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile, a Solar System-spanning MegaCorp run by one half of its namesake, Jules Pierre Mao, a man too rich to care about human rights.
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Following their departure from Hogwarts in the previous book, the Weasley Twins set up a magical joke shop in Diagon Alley, "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes".
  • The Honor Harrington series has the Hauptman Cartel, currently owned and run by Klaus Hauptman and his daughter Stacy, the descendants of the founder. Hauptman Lines and Hauptman Shipyards are subsidiaries. It also has Dempsey's, a chain of casual restaurants owned by the Dempsey Cartel, owned and run by Erika Dempsey, likewise the descendant of the cartel's founder.
  • Red Dwarf: According to Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, during his "Better Than Life" fantasy, Rimmer fantasizes himself setting up a company called "Rimmer Corporation Worldwide plc", which goes on to invent a time machine and the "solidgram".

Live-Action TV 

  • Arrow:
    • Oliver Queen's family company goes by Queen Consolidated here, though his father's old factory retains the Queen Industries title from the comics. It was later bought by Ray Palmer, who renamed the company to Palmer Technologies. In alternate universes, it got renamed to Queen-Merlyn Enterprises (indicating a merger with Malcolm Merlyn) and Smoak Technologies (for Felicity Smoak).
    • Merlyn Global Group is run by Malcolm Merlyn.
  • Better Call Saul: Alberquerque law firm "Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill" (known also as HHM) is named after its founders George M. Hamlin and Chuck McGill, with the second "Hamlin" coming from George's son Howard after he was made a partner in adulthood.note  Once all of them are dead, it is renamed to Brookner Partners.
  • The Boys (2019): Vought International is named for Frederick Vought, a former Nazi geneticist who developed a mutagenic serum that could confer superpowers, which later became known as "Compound V". Vought is long dead by the time the series begins, but his Nazi ideology posthumously infects Homelander, because his wife, known in the modern day as the supe Stormfront, became unaging thanks to a near-perfected form of Compound V, and was able to corrupt already-narcissistic Homelander with her Super Supremacist views.
  • The Brittas Empire: The episode "Sex, Lies and Red Tape" introduces the Farrell Corporation, a shoe retail chain run by the family of Michael T. Farrell III.
  • The Cry of Mann: Mann Corp is named for founder, Tank Mann. It made his family rich, and it starts to suffer after he disappears because his new wife, Courtney, is not handling it correctly. Ironically, it was Courtney's genius that led the company to create battle machines and turn the tide of the warr (sic), but she gets no credit for that, hence the resentment.
  • Doctor Who: The Villain of the Week in "Voyage of the Damned" is Max Capricorn, a space-travel magnate whose business ventures include "Max Capricorn Cruiseliners" and "Max Capricorn Container Ships".
  • The Good Wife: As is common in real life, the various law firms of the series are known by the surnames of the managing partners. The main law firm protagonist Alicia Florrick works for goes through a number of Meaningful Renames over the course of the series: it's initially known as Stern, Lockhart & Gardner, then just Lockhart & Gardner after founder Jonas Stern leaves to Start My Own in "Threesome", then Lockhart, Gardner & Bond when they merge with Derrick Bond's firm in season 2, then back to Lockhart & Gardner after Bond is removed due to internal politics. When Alicia and Cary Agos co-found their own firm in season 5, they call it Florrick, Agos & Associates, then upgrade to Florrick, Agos & Lockhart when they're joined by Diane, while David Lee takes over their old firm and joins forces with Louis Canning to create Canning & Lee.
  • Power Rangers:
  • A Prince Among Men: After retiring from football, Gary Prince starts up a company called "The Gary Prince Organisation" in a reflection of his massive ego. He also renames any companies that he purchases under the aforementioned company after himself, as shown in "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" when he renames the Cheviot Woollen Company into the "Gary Prince Knitwear Company".
  • Supergirl (2015):
    • Kara, Winn, and Jimmy initially all work at CatCo Worldwide Media, founded by Cat Grant.
    • Downplayed with L-Corp, which was changed from its original Luthor Corp by Lena Luthor after her brother Lex was incarcerated to distance it and herself from the tainted family name.
  • Torchwood: "Combat" introduces us to Lynchfrost Enterprises, a real estate agent company whose CEO, the Villain of the Week who has been alleviating his stress by kidnapping Weevils to start up an underground combat ring, is called Mark Lynch. The official Torchwood website goes even further by revealing that a man called Ben Frost was also involved in its running. The same episode also has Tosh make up a cover story for Owen Harper in the form of him running a company dedicated to jellied eels called "Harper's Sales".

Tabletop Games 

  • Eberron: Inverted by the Dragonmarked Houses — with the exceptions of House Tharask* and House Tarkanan*, an individual who manifests a dragonmark and is accepted into a house is expected to adopt the house's name in place of their own surname. For example, Alara d'Ghallanda is a tavernkeeper bearing House Ghallanda's Mark of Hospitality, and Bali d'Orien is a courier bearing House Orien's Mark of Passage.
  • Shadowrun:
    • Cross Applied Technologies was founded by Dr. Lucien Cross, unfortunately his son Jean-Marie has proven less capable than his father and the former AAA MegaCorp is now a shadow of its former self.
    • Knight Errant is named after Damien Knight, the CEO of their parent company, Ares Macrotechnology.
    • Mitsuhama Computer Technologies was established by Taiga "Tiger" Mitsuhama, with the assistance of the Yakuza.
    • Shiawase Corporation is owned by members of the Shiawase family, who are so influential that one of them married the Emperor of Japan.
    • Telestrian Industries has 95% of its shares owned by the Telestrian family (with the other 5% belonging to the Tir Tairngire government). James Telestrian III is its current CEO and President, and every officer position in every department is held by a member of the Telestrian family.

Video Games 

  • ANNO: Mutationem: The MegaCorp that is highly regarded throughout the Post-Cyberpunk metropolis is The Tithonus Group, named by its founder of the same name. It is noted in a few Story Breadcrumbs and the Lore Codex that the founder himself has never shown his face, leading to some doubt on whether he actually exists. The domestic Eindersohn Industries takes its name after its founder once it began production on making devices for civilians.
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine: Joey Drew Studios is an animation studio created by the eponymous Joey Drew, a man with big dreams about bringing moving pictures to life which would eventually consume him and turn him into a ruthless and dictatorial tyrant in the workplace.
  • BioShock:
  • Borderlands: Several MegaCorps share their name with either their founder or their current CEO, including Dahl (founded by Stanton Dahl), Jakobs (current CEO: Wainwright Jakobs, son of the previous CEO Montgomery Jakobs), Torgue (founded by Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington), and Vladof (current CEO: Ivan Vladof).
  • Cyberpunk 2077: The Arasaka Corporation, named after its 158-year-old founder, is the largest MegaCorp in the setting, and is considered synonymous with royalty and the overwhelming military force of the Arasaka family.
  • Final Fantasy VII: The Shinra Electric Power Company is named after —and run by— the Shinra family, and is essentially a military junta or royal family in all but name.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: One of the Warrior of Light's (and Eorzea's as a whole) staunchest allies is the Garlond Ironworks, a company founded by (in)famous Garlean defector Cid nan Garlond.
  • Five Nights at Freddy's: Afton Robotics, LLC is a robotics company founded by William Afton. It is the driving force behind Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental and Circus Baby's Pizza World in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, and is the Evil Counterpart to the already hilariously safety-incompetent Fazbear Entertainment, since its animatronics were outright designed for kidnapping and murder of children.
  • Horizon: Faro Automated Solutions was an old-world robotics and weapons development company created by the world's first trillionaire and the series' Greater-Scope Villain, Teodor "Ted" Faro, who has massive Delusions of Grandeur.
  • Octopath Traveler II: Roque Brilliante is the founder of The Roque Company, a pioneer of new technologies, which he runs from his headquarters on Roque Island. At the end of Partitio's section of the story, he has a Heel Realization and accepts Partitio's offer of a shared business venture, renaming the company Partitio & Roque in his new business partner's honor.
  • In The Outer Worlds, many smaller companies have names that attempt to invoke a brand-friendly and down-to-earth image through including their founders' names ("Auntie Cleo's", "Rizzo's", etc.), but they're really owned by larger faceless parent corporations that are usually themselves owned by the Halcyon Holdings Corporation.
  • Persona:
    • Persona 3: Originally a part of the Nanjo Group, the Kirijo Group is a global trading company that was first established by Kouetsu Kirijo, who wanted to research the Shadows in ways to benefit humanity. This ultimately did not come to pass, with his position being taken up by his son, Takeharu Kirijo, and later Takeharu's daughter Mitsuru Kirijo. The company is so widely known that it has several different ventures, with Mitsuru continuing the fight against Shadows. By the time she's graduated high school, she's ascended to become its leader and maintains the role in the sequel spin-off, Persona 4 Arena.
    • Persona 5: Okumura Foods is owned by Kunikazu Okumura, who is arranging for his daughter Haru to marry a despicable human being who he wants to inherit the company. Mr. Okumura becomes the fifth target of the Phantom Thieves, due to his greed hurting his employees and Haru, but they turn out to have been manipulated, as Okumura was a troublesome part of The Conspiracy, and they wanted him assassinated while framing the Phantom Thieves.
  • The Shadow Warrior series has Zilla Enterprises/Zilla Zaibatsu, whose owner is the Japanese mogul Orochi Zilla, who's also the Big Bad of the 1997 game and The Heavy of the rebooted Flying Wild Hog timeline. In the latter case, Zilla retains his power until the events of Shadow Warrior 3, where the Evildoing Dragon released at the end of Shadow Warrior 2 decimated the world, including Zilla City and the corporation itself, prompting Zilla to make an alliance with Lo Wang in order to stop it.
  • Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Nwabudike Morgan is the CEO and founder of Morgan Industries, which is technically a nation, but is run more like a conglomerate MegaCorp.
  • In SimCity 3000, the CEO of Landgraab Industries —Malcolm Landgraab— will occasionally approach the Mayor in order to gain permission to expand his business empire throughout the city.
  • In SiN, SinTEK —the main MegaCorp of the series— is owned by the Big Bad Elexis Sinclaire.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik has a few commercial ventures whenever he isn't trying to take over the world as the Eggman Empire. For example, in Sonic Riders, the Extreme Gear boards are manufactured by Robotnik Corp. for the first World Grand Prix. He also occasionally refers to "Eggman Enterprises" during his PA announcements in Sonic Colors.
  • Team Fortress 2: The gravel production turned Acme Products company Mann Co. was originally founded by aspiring businessman Zepheniah Mann, and the plot of the game revolves around his three sons Redmond, Blutarch, and Grey Mann all competing to take it over as part of an inheritance dispute. Downplayed with Redmond and Blutarch's personal MegaCorps which secretly control all world property, Reliable Excavation Demolition (to which team RED belongs) and Builder's League United (to which team BLU belongs), which by way of a Backronym incorporate parts of their first names.
  • The central plot of the Tekken franchise revolves around the Mishima Zaibatsu, a conglomerate founded by the Mishima family and run (at the start of the series) by its patriarch Heihachi, and the struggle for control over it between the various Mishima family members.
  • Unreal has the Liandri Mining Corporation (later simply Liandri Corporation) heralded by Jerl Liandri, the corporation behind the series' tournaments. Like most entities in the Unrealverse, it runs across most of the grey shades, staying away from manipulating the Tournaments unless the ratings and shareholders require it.
  • In Warframe, one of the companies under the umbrella of the interplanetary Corpus conglomerate is AnyoCorp, owned by a plutocrat Nef Anyo. Although naming your corporation after yourself is nowhere near as egotistic as building massive statues of yourself funded by scamming your wage slaves out of pittances you're deigning to pay them.
  • Wizard with a Gun: Isa Gladwell is a member of the Gladwell family that runs the Gladwell Airships corporation on the Mainland and is a bit of a Greater-Scope Villain in relation to the main game's plot. The most they actually interact with it is by putting a bounty on Isa's head thanks to her defection.
  • Zenless Zone Zero: The Belobog Heavy Industries is a construction company that was founded by Khors Belobog and is now run by his daughter, Koleda.

Webcomics 

  • MoringMark - TOH Comics: With Blight Industries now defunct due to the family moving away from weapons manufacturing, Alador and Amity make a new company called Blightech (which the logo emphasising the "light" part of the name to show that Luz is also included as part of the family).

Websites 

  • SCP Foundation: Marshall, Carter & Dark Ltd. is an anomalous gentleman's club and auction house that is named after its three founders; Depending on the Author, the first names and genders of all the owners can vary, but it is very much a family-owned business, so every generation of Marshall, Carter & Dark are related to the previous owners and proprietors.

Western Animation 

Real Life 

  • British businessman Lord Alan Michael Sugar often includes his initials AMS in the names of businesses he sets up. His most well-known venture is the electronics company Amstrad, and he has also founded an airline called Amsair, a property company called Amsprop, and an advertising agency called Amscreen.
  • The world's first automobile company, Benz & Cie, was founded by and named after Carl Benz. A number of automobile companies since then have followed that precedent and named themselves after their founders: Daimlernote , Ford, Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Toyotanote , Suzuki... the list goes on. It's even more prevalent when it comes to luxury brands: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Bugatti, Porsche, Bentley, Aston Martinnote , Koenigsegg, Rimac, Saleen...
  • Many Formula One teams over the years were named after their founders, including championship-winning teams like Tyrrell and Brabhamnote . Go all the way back to 1998, in fact, and every single team on the grid was named after its founder(s) in some way. As of 2024, of the ten teams on the grid, six are named after their founders: Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Aston Martin, Sauber, and Haas.
  • The Walt Disney Company is named after its founder, Walt Disney.
  • McDonald's started as a restaurant owned by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald.
  • American Girls Collection was originally founded as part of Pleasant Company which was named after its founder, Pleasant Rowland. Original sketches for the brand show that the name "Pleasantries" was considered as well.
  • The athletic apparel and footwear company Adidas is a portmanteau of its founder, Adolf "Adi" Dassler.