"Hulk Hogan, you may be a household name, but so's garbage, and it stinks when it gets old too!"
A Household Name is the term for a common work known in even the smallest of Small Reference Pools.
It may seem that a list of these would be the sort of thing that TV Tropes should have, but the truth is that it's not. What one person may perceive as the most common subject of conversation in the world may be seen as rampant Fan Myopia to anybody who hasn't heard of it (and yes, there's somebody who hasn't heard of it for everything). This list already exists for each individual that visits this site: it's your household. Ask for names, and type them into that Google form above this post. Use your browser's bookmark capability and mark down the ones you come back to the most.
Additionally, for some more narrow tropes we do already feature lists and indexes of this sort:
- The Oldest Ones in the Book, an index of the most universal and recurrent tropes.
- So Cool, It's Awesome, a catch-all page for just listing shows you like, which would be the inevitable fate of any such page to aspire to listing "the most well-known" anything.
Incidentally, the term "Household Names" comes from William Shakespeare,note The actual term he used is "Household words" making this trope Older Than Steam.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball is a good contender for most famous anime of all time. If you asked someone with zero familiarity with the medium to name you one anime, chances are it'd be this.
- Sailor Moon: As far as Magical Girl manga go, Sailor Moon is the undisputed winner. People who barely know anything about anime and manga will name it as one of the few they recognize. Prompting anyone to think about girls with magical powers and transformations will result in them naming this work.
Arts
- The Last Supper: TV Tropes may be able to find more story in Pinball than in Art, but even we know what The Last Supper is. Besides The Mona Lisa (also painted by Leonardo da Vinci) and the Sistine Chapel's ceiling fresco (by Leonardo's rival Michelangelo Buonarroti), it may just be the most famous painting of all time.
Comic Books
- DC Comics' Batman and Superman. Even if you've never picked up a comic book or watched a movie in your entire life, you still know these characters and what they look like.
- Marvel Comics' Spider-Man is one the the most well known superheroes of all time, with nearly everyone knowing who he is.
Fan Works
- My Immortal: One of the most infamous fanfics to ever be written, one of the most prominent ones that give the fanfiction community such a bad reputation, and the most well-known Potter Verse fan work. Whether you think it's a parody is irrelevant. You know about it and cringe just on hearing its name.
Films — Live-Action
- Star Wars. Everyone knows the famous opening theme, and at least the most superficial details about characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Yoda.
Literature
- Harry Potter is famed for reviving children's interest in reading in an era in which the internet and television dominated kids' entertainment. Many people have either grown up with the books or have kids who did so. As a result, it's the most well-known novel series outside literary classics.
Live-Action TV
- El Chavo del ocho: In LatAm, this is the most popular comedic show. Since its original airing, it has been an obligatory rerun on several channels, both national and international. It's known and cherished by at least three generations of Latin Americans and many of the show's dialogues are still quoted.
Music
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Either through Pop-Cultural Osmosis or actual acknowledgment of his impact on music, Beethoven is the first composer people will think of when asked about Classical Music.
- Elvis Presley was one of the most influential and iconic American singers of The 20th Century, selling over a billion records worldwide and popularizing Rock & Roll.
- The Beatles for rock groups, popularizing The British Invasion and revolutionizing many recording and musical techniques.
Mythology & Religion
- Classical Mythology: The single most commonly known mythology in the West is the Greco-Roman. Its lore has shaped most of that half of the world's (Europe's, particularly) historical cultures in one way or another, even being included in Christianity, the main religion of that region. The Renaissance, for example, meant yet another revival of it. The Greek names of classical deities can be recognized by most people and there are countless works that used it as inspiration, whilst the Roman names are easily recognisable as the names of all but two (Earth and Uranus, the latter of which is instead named after a Greek god) of the planets in the Solar System. It's even taught in school.
Professional Wrestling
- Hulk Hogan is the single most known figure of pro wrestling everywhere.note The only real contender is André the Giant, and maybe Randy Savage ("Stone Cold" Steve Austin had too short a run on top to join that upper echelon.) After Hogan left the WWF in 1993 former owner/booker Vince McMahon nearly drove himself insane trying to create the next Hogan, starting with Lex Luger at the very next PPV before moving on to (in order) Diesel, Rocky Miavia, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, John Cena, and finally Roman Reigns, with a few more minor attempts throughout the years that were killed off early on. His name is so synonymous with pro wrestling that he's the page image for both the Face and Heel trope pages. The page quote is Jim Cornette using it a as taunt in a Worked Shoot promo during the Monday Night Wars.
- WWE is this for wrestling promotions, even if some people still call it the "WWF", either due to Fanon Discontinuity or just not paying enough attention to wrestling to care. It's not uncommon for "WWE" (or "WWF") to be used as a shorthand for pro wrestling in general, similar to how people will refer to all forms of Mixed Martial Arts as "UFC" even though UFC is only one of several dozen MMA promotions, albeit by far and away the biggest one. (In a strange twist WWE and UFC are now one company.) Expect any pro wrestler that makes the news to be referred to as a WWE wrestler, even if they've never worked there. There's two countries that are exceptions to this and the previous entry: Japan and Mexico, which both have their own largely self-contained forms of wrestling.
Puppet Shows
- The Muppet Show: As far as puppet shows go, the Muppets are easily recognizable and have been parodied everywhere. The Muppet Show made possible that the characters could be enjoyed by adults too, which definitely helped with their popularity.
- Sesame Street: Running for more than 50 years, many people associate puppets with the characters from Sesame Street.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: People's immediate response when asked about Tabletop RPGs is Dungeons & Dragons. People outside of the fandom tend to think it's the only Tabletop RPG in existence. Its gaming system has been transplanted to various other RPGs and it's the go-to Shout-Out when other media feel like referencing this kind of game.
Theatre
- Romeo and Juliet: Going by how much the play has been referenced in media whenever it's time to mention theatre, you don't need to know that Shakespeare wrote (or even who he is) to be able to recognize the basic plot through sheer Pop Culture Osmosis.
- The Nutcracker: This is the ballet that everybody knows about and has probably even seen some production or other around the holidays.
- Coming in for a close second as the more "serious" example is Swan Lake, making Tchaikovsky the best-known ballet composer pretty much by default.
Video Games
- Grand Theft Auto: Thanks in no small part to the countless controversies aimed at the series, but also the consistently high quality of the games themselves, GTA has certainly cemented itself in the cultural lexicon. In particular, Grand Theft Auto V became the fastest entertainment product in history to earn $1 billion and has continued selling strong in the decade since its release. Moreover, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI was such a huge event it broke several sites due to the sheer number of people discussing it.
- Pokémon is one of the most well-known works of fiction (let alone video games) globally. It helps that it is the highest-grossing franchise in the world, and due to its sheer amount of merchandise, you're almost certain to see at least some product or another bearing the Pokémon brand at supermarkets, toy stores, and gift shops.
- Super Mario Bros.: Even people who don't know what a video game is have likely heard of Mario at least once before. There's even a legitimate debate to be had over whether Mario or Mickey Mouse is more iconic.
- Sonic the Hedgehog is a close second, as Sega's was Nintendo's biggest rival in The '90s.
Western Animation
- Mickey Mouse (and the other Classic Disney Shorts), Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Tom and Jerry, and Popeye are easily the most well-known cartoon series from The Golden Age of Animation.
- For modern kids' TV animation, SpongeBob SquarePants seems to be the most popular these days.
- For adult animation, it's The Simpsons, with Family Guy or South Park being close seconds.
- Scooby-Doo is an iconic cartoon, with its characters and signature mystery formula having remained popular for over 50 years, with consistent new entries and countless homages in other works.