You'd think Gold Roger would have been his bounty name, but no, his name is actually Gol D. Roger.
Other cool people have a "D" middle name like Monkey D. Luffy or Portgas D. Ace. Considering Ace was Roger's son, he could be called "Gol D. Ace". Gold Ace? Yes.
Cowboy Bebop has a number of examples, though various characters might be living under aliases:
Spike Spiegel. When asked if Spike was Jewish due to his last name, the creators responded that they just thought it sounded cool.
The Innovators' names may also apply, if the Engrish doesn't ruin them for you, as witness decently cool names like "Bring Stability" and "Healing Care" turned into "Bring Stabity" and "Hilling Care".
On the topic of Gundam, Athrun Zala, Lacus Clyne, Tieria Erde, Stella Loussier, Allelujah Haptism, Sumeragi Lee Noriega, Zeon Zum Daikum, Casval Rem Daikum, Dozle Zabi, Mafty Navilles Erin, Seabook Arno, Anavel Gato, South Burning, Suberoa Zinnerman, Angelo Sauper, Cardias Vist, Daguza Mackle, Garrod Ran, Iselina Eschenbach, Bright Noa, Yazan Gable, Apolly Bay, Helm Compass, the list goes on....
But all of these pale compared to Master Asia. Seriously, the Japanese version implies that's his actual name (when Domon calls him master, he uses an entirely different word).
These names often mix into Narm territory as well. I mean, where else can you make the names Quattro Bajeena, Jamitov Hyman and FullFrontal work out?
Well full frontal can refer to a full on assault, so it also doubles as a shout out to the missing-in-action Char Aznable's combat style so its still epic.
In contrast to the relatively normal shinigami names in Bleach, the Gratuitous Spanish names of the Arrancar gave us such gems as Grimmjow Jeagerjaquez, Coyote Starrk, Gantenbainne Mosqueda, Wonderweiss Margera and Ulquiorra Cifer.
Relatively normal names? Yasutora = "peaceful tiger", Uryuu = "rain dragon", Toushirou = "winter lion", Rangiku = "war chrysanthemum", Retsu = "fierce"... Plus there are a number of puns where the pronunciation evokes a special imagery even though the kanji are different. "Byakuya" = "midnight sun", Urahara = "reverse", Aizen = "gentle calmness", etc.
And this goes double for the zanpakutou whose names are either incredibly cool ("MOON SLAYER"), incredibly weird or, mostly, incredibly silly.
Inu Yasha gives us yet another Byakuya ("Midnight Sun", as mentioned above),Magatsuhi ("God of Destruction") Bankotsu ("Reckless Courage"), Naraku ("Hell"), and, the one who doubtlessly takes the cake, Sesshomaru ("Deathly Perfection" or "Circle of Death"). The latter three are as Bad Ass as you'd expect.
Inuyasha himself qualifies - the meaning is nowhere near as awesome as the others, but a name that means "Dog Demon" has some cool points going for it.
From Soul Eater we have Soul Eater Evans, and not to mention, Black☆Star (The star symbol is literally in his name). Death the Kid also deserves a mention here.
Fullmetal Alchemist is a testament to awesome naming. Names like Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, King Bradley, Jean Havoc, Kain Fuery, Vato Falman, Van Hohenheim and Basque Grand make children wish their parents had thought of them first. And that's only a fraction of them.
Van Hohenheim's name comes from real-life Philip von Hohenheim, also called Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, or Paracelsus for short.
Bonus points go to Kain Fuery, whose name is especially awesome despite the fact that he is a glasses-wearingtechie geek.
"Edward Elric" has a nice ring to it too.
Of course, Jean Havoc and Basque Grand sound terribly boring to French ears.
Fun Fact: All the military personnel in the series are named after military vehicles or weapons from World War I to The Vietnam War.
Trigun: "I am known as Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Schidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Anita Hore Pierre Aundre Charton Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III. Don't hesitate to call."
Not actually an example, though. Millions Knives, though? Oh come on.
Legato Bluesummers.
And even then, Vash the Stampede is a pretty boss name.
Right until you realize the French "vache" means "cow".
Baccano! can be a bit weird about this, as many characters have relatively normal names (Eve, Rachel, Isaac, Keith) while some can be weird enough to make you look twice (Ladd, Luck, Nice) — and then there's the timid, unassuming little guy who somehow wound up with the name Jacuzzi Splot. The jury's still out on whether this is the worst name in the world, or if it goes all the way out the other side and back into AWESOME.
Light Yagami in Death Note. Several character remark what an unusual name it is, though it's never explained why his parents chose it. The creator said he just thought it sounded interesting, and discouraged trying to find hidden meanings.
It does, coincidentally, mean that the trope Light Is Not Good apply to his character by name as well as by his alignment.
Ikari Gendo has a nice ring to it. So does Fuyutsuki Kozo (whose family name literally means "winter moon" and was, like many of the Eva characters, named after a battleship)
Kallen can go so far as to change it at will to "Kallen/KarenKozuki". Meanwhile, there is also the awesomeness that is Gilbert G.P. Guilford. And if you look at most Britannian names in general, take a look at Euphie's list of "approved" Knight choices◊, given to her by Cornelia. One guy is actually called Baron Schutenkin Gordiengo The Third]].
What, no love for Villetta Nu?
Hellsing: Alucard, Seras Victoria and - infamously - Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing (who is a woman, incidentally).
That's Sir Integra Fairbrooke Wingates Hellsing to you.
Zorin Blitz and Heinkel Wolfe have some rad names too.
Magnos the Robot gives us the main villain, Xerxes Tire-Iron Dada.
A lot of the names in D. Gray-Man qualify as this or Foreign Sounding Gibberish, particularly Generals Klaud Nine, Cross Marian, and Winters Socalo. The rest of the cast aren't slackers, though, giving us Reever Wenham, Noise Marie, Daisya Barry, Arystar Krory, Road and Sherrill Kamelot, Tyki Mikk, Jasdero and Devit, Skinn Bolic... Well, you get the idea.
Then there is C one of the jounin that travel with A. A found B with help from C.
There's also a J. Although he got killed off right quick.
It turns out that "A", "B", "C", etc. are just codenames of a sort. Apparently the Raikage is always A, and his right-hand man that he does his special move (the Double Lariat) with is always B. From there, it's easy to deduce that the more important a ninja you are in Kumogakure, the more likely you are to have a letter instead of a name.
Any given ninja in Naruto can be considered to have an Awesome McCoolName if translated right. Naruto Uzumaki = Spiral Whirlpool, Kakashi Hatake = Scarecrow Farmland, Anko Mitarashi = Bean Sauce Mitarashi, the list goes on. (Well, maybe "Bean Sauce" is only a good name if you're a wrestler or something...)
Don't forget Minato Namikaze. I forget if his first name means anything, but his family name is something like combines the words for "sea" and "wind". (His first name means "port", as in the place where ships go).
Kisame warrants mention, as the only thing his name can mean is "Demon Shark", which you really have to question anyone really having even if it is appropriate.
Rock Lee and Might Guy.
Zabuza means "Never cuts twice". He's an assassin by the way.
Magic Knight Rayearth has some pretty badass names if you sit to think about it! While Hikaru may sound like a rather generic name - Hikaru Shidou translates into Light of the Lion Shrine. Umi Ryuuzaki means Dragon of the Sea. Fuu Hououji means Wind of the Phoenix King Shrine. Just take a moment to imagine introducing yourself that way in society~
Mikado Ryugamine from Durarara!!, whose name roughly means "Emperor of the Dragon's Peak", and I'll be damned if that doesn't qualify for this trope. It sticks out enough to be lampshaded by a few characters.
There's also a later case in the novels, where Kasuka thinks it's cute to name his kitten Yuigadokusonmaru (which, removing the common name suffix of -maru, means "only I am holy.")
Hanma Baki, literally "the Wild Fang". Son of Hanma Yuujiro, nicknamed "The strongest creature of the Earth". Baki said at least once that not even AIDS nor cancer would be able to defeat his dad.
Rurouni Kenshin has the Hitokiri Battōsai (Himura Kenshin) and The Wolf of Mibu (Saitō Hajime).
"Hitokiri" was a title/name given to the assassins of the Ishin shishi, for Kenshin they added "Battōsai" since he was a master of the class of sword techniques known as "Battō-jutsu" which may roughly translate as "shredder/ripper" -he deserved it, but since "The shredder assassin" didn't make him sound much like justice, during his prime people added the title "he who makes blood rain", he later says he holds no attachment to that name.
His name, as a elite killer from Millennion, was Brandon Heat. Then he was killed. And later, resurrected. Call him by his nickname, Grave. Of course, his given name is now Beyond. Gungrave's Beyond the Grave, possibly the badassest name ever seen.
Rocketbilly Redcadillac, from the second game. These guys know their stuff.
Balladbird Lee.
Bear Walken. Makes sense, as this series and Trigun share the same creator.
The main character of Outlaw Star is named Gene Starwind. There are people who'd kill for a name that cool.
Knight Schumacher from Future GPX Cyber Formula. With a name for a very fast driver, It sounds like a pretty cool name.
Wolfgang Grimmer from Monster. It's not his real name, though.
Very common with Japanese names in anime and manga. Due to reasons explained in the Real Life section they can be difficult to translate, but unlike in Real Life, many anime/manga authors are going for a specific meaning when naming their characters.
Speed Racer. Lots of good names in the American dub. Ace Deucey, Cruncher Block, Mr. Fixer, Inspector Detector, Ivonna von Vondervon, Lightfingers Klepto, Professor Anarchy, Rock Force, Rudolph Elegantor, Skull Duggery, Snake Oiler, Splint Femur, Zoomer Slick.
Black*Rock Shooter. Her enemy also sport the equally cool name Dead Master.
It doesn't stop there. The other characters in artbooks include Black★Devil Girl, Black★Gold Saw, and Dragon Slayer. These are not nicknames.
Black Lagoon, due to practically every character being Only Known by Their Nickname, does this. The crowning example is probably Lotton the Wizard, who almost certainly picked the name to try to make himself sound cooler.
Fairy Tail is full of them. Natsu Dragneel/Dragion, Gray Fullbuster/Surge, Erza Scarlett/Knightwalker, Zeref, Gildartz, Ren Akatsuki, Makarov, Laxus, Gajeel Redfox, Hades, and Zancrow.
And with the newest chapter, we have Bluenote Stinger.
Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Maximillion J. Pegasus'' deserves mention for sure. (Despite the difficulty in hearing/saying it without snickering.)
His successor is no worse off, him being called Chronos de Medici.
In Persona 4 the Animation, the MC is named Yu Narukami. Narukami can be translated as a Thunder God, which is cool in itself but also significant because his primary Persona, Izanagi, is lightning oriented.
Axis Powers Hetalia's Sweden. His human name is Berwald Oxenstierna. Roughly translated, that's Berwald Oxstar. To be fair, he WAS once a Viking...
Buso Renkin has the ultimate life form, Victor Powered and (though it's only an alias,) Captain Bravo.
Just mouthing Teletha Tessa Testarossa from Full Metal Panic! makes you feel like awesome
Comics
Dizzy Cordova of One Hundred Bullets, with her true first name being Isabel. Also most of the rest of the Minutemen, with Meaningful Names or Punny Names like Jack Daw, Victor Ray, Cole Burns, and Lono, named after a Hawaian god.
Tintin means something along the lines of "nothing at all." It's apparently his last name.
In French: Professeur Tournesol (Sunflower) translated as Calculus in English. Capitaine Haddock (like the fish), Bianca Castafiore, which in Italian means White Chasteflower, in Secret de la Licorne (The Secret of the Unicorn) the Loiseau brothers (Meaning Thebird brothers (just "Bird brothers" in the translation). Lampshaded when they are identified by a man they shot pointing at birds). In Vol 714 pour Sydney (Flight 714) Laszlo Carreidas translates as Laszlo Four Aces (as in a poker game). Also in Flight 714, first appearing in Coke en Stock (The Red Sea Sharks), is the pilot Szut. "Zut" is a very mild French expletive. Lampshaded when Captain Haddock thinks the man is cursing when asked his name. There are quite a few more, making Hergé a master of this trope.
In Hopeless Savages, the main character is called Skank Zero Hopeless-Savage. Her siblings' names are Rat Bastard, Arsenal Fierce and Twitch Strummer, all Hopeless-Savages. The reason being that their parents are punk musicians.
Lex Luthor is a fairly badass name as well. 'Lex' is Latin for law, and 'luthor' is a Middle English word meaning evil. So his name literally means 'evil law'.
Lionel Luthor. Like Father, Like Son.
Marshal Law may not be his real name, but it is the baddest name alive.
Astra Furst, first child of Astro City. When she runs away and tries to fit in with normal children she picks the name Astrid, which shouldn't really make things better.
Mustn't forget Zatanna Zatara of the DC comics magic brigade.
Also in that vein, John Constantine from Hellblazer. Although the character himself may actually have been partly responsible for making his name take on such mythical proportions.
Hellboy's Christian name is Hellboy, although the name given to him before his birth is Ahnung Un Rama. Abe Sapien also qualifies.
Atomic Robo interviews an Action Scientist candidate named Rex Cannon. There's also "Baron Heinrich von Helsingard" and Vanadis Valkyrie.
As it happens, Doctor Atomic Robo Tesla isn't half-bad either.
In Polly and the Pirates, one of Polly's friends (who hails from Fake Netherlands) has the amazingly awesome name Anastasia "Stasia" Van Vervendander.
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
[Scott Pilgrim: Knives Chau. "Who names their kids Knives?!" Most of the Scott Pilgrim characters also qualify, including Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Gideon Gordon Graves, and Envy Adams, though that's not her real name.
Let's also not forget the writers of comics, considering that Marv Wolfman exists.
The X-Men universe is full of them. Let's start with Noriko Ashida, Alison Blaire, Raven Darkholme, Cessily Kincaid, Remy LeBeau, Jubilation Lee, Cain Marko, John Proudstar, Quentin Quire, Julio Esteban Richter, and Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix.
Most of the civilian names in Watchmen measure up to their codenames in terms of awesomeness, but frickin' Sally Jupiter takes the cake.
Slade Deathstroke the Terminator. Deathstroke. His actual name is Slade Wilson. Deathstroke the Terminator is his nom de guerre.
Fan Works
According to many Mary Sue and Marty Stu sporkers, this is the easiest way to spot such types of characters in Fanfics.
One obvious example is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way from My Immortal. (Note the gratuitous apostrophe, and that "Dementia" is quite a lovely-sounding name so long as you ignore what the word means.)
... which is why the name was used for a gag at the end of Addams Family Values.
Who will always be lovingly referred to as Enoby by fans and haters alike.
And then, you've got Mary Sues with names like "Chihuatlan Razortalon." Sure, "Razortalon" fits the model...but "Chihuatlan" invokes small yappy lapdogs rather than the exoticism for which the author was no doubt shooting.
In The Mad Scientist Wars we have the Tinker family, who all have this. For instance Andrew Omega-Particle prince Risk Tinker, or his son Frederic Zeta Risk Raize Tinker. This goes back pretty far- for instance, Grandpa Florian Blitz Viktor.
A character in numerous fanfics on the Phineas and Ferb Fanon Wiki is named Goldfish Darkskull. I added it here because there was a comment on his article's talk page that said "I think Goldfish Darkskull is an Awesome McCoolname. See TV Tropes"
All the Fullmetal Alchemist characters, as noted above, have ridiculously cool names. In the Elemental Chess Trilogy fanfic series, Riza Hawkeye gets an extra one. After she marries Roy Mustang, the men of their unit feel awkward calling her Hawkeye, but they also can't call her Mustang, so they refer to her by the affectionate nickname "Ladyhawk."
Who is promptly nicknamed by the four “Ass,” “Asshole,” Santa's Ass,” and “Jeez-Ass” (after he gets resurrected).
The Dilgar War has captain Manly Power. At first the crew of the Space Race can't believe it, then they verify it and realize his crew has to call him Captain Power, and declare it the coolest name ever.
Tangled: Flynn Rider. His real name is Eugene Fitzherbert.
From Disney's The Aristocats, there's Abraham DeLacey Guiseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley Cat. You can call him Thomas.
Cars: Lightning McQueen as well as Finn McMissile and Leland Turbo in the sequel.
Torque Redline. Well, technically his name's Rod and 'Torque' is only a nickname, but come on, Torque Redline.
Something about Surf's Up's "Cody Maverick" exudes "extreme sports legend". It's youthful, has the word "maverick" in it, and sounds smooth off the tongue.
Films — Live Action
Idiocracy Heavyweight President of the World: President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho
La Résistance and the people of Zion from The Matrix tend toward this, mainly to separate themselves from their former identities in the Matrix; having presumably chosen the names themselves at least partially justifies the trope. Even some native-born residents of Zion sport handles for names, like Tank and Dozer.
In Mystery Men, when Mr. Furious is asked his real name, he gets out "Phoenix Dark Dirk" before finally admitting it's really just "Roy".
In the RiffTrax treatment of the Daredevil movie, when Elektra initially refuses to tell Matt Murdoch her name, Mike Nelson fills in for her: "The name's Frigid McTurndown." Then, when Matt and Elektra start sparring, Bill Corbett adds, "Okay, I lied. The name's Stompy Von Asskick." When the character does reveal her full name (Elektra Natchios), they add "Electric Nachos?" Just can't win.
In Star Wars, Luke's original surname was "Starkiller", but after a reworking of the character it was changed to Skywalker, which most people think is still pretty cool. The series also features many fantastic names that fans think sound cool:
MST3K's riff on Space Mutiny has an absolute firestorm of Awesome McCoolnames, such as Gristle McThornbody and Big McLargeHuge. So many that a few of the others on this page are direct Shout Outs. Of course, the funniest is the last one; Bob Johnson.
Ray Allen's character Jesus Shuttlesworth from He Got Game.
Inverted with the latest Terminator movie, in which an actress with the Badass name of Moon Bloodgood plays an A-10 Warthog pilot with the boring name of Blair Williams.
Captain Blood. The eponymous captain is a doctor-turned-pirate who also happens to be (somehow) an Irishman.
Parodied in Southland Tales when The Rock (whose character is named "Boxer", as it happens) is describing a film role he wrote for himself, ending with, "His name... is Jericho Cain."
Ahnuld's name in End of Days is, in fact, Jericho Cane.
James Woods' character in Diggstown is Gabriel Caine.
John Shaft, the eponymous private detective of Shaft.
In Superbad, Fogell gives himself the name "McLovin" on his fake ID. A cop says it "sounds like a sexy cheeseburger." They also believe it and become friends with him. Until The Reveal that they were just playing along to try to give him role models he never had.
The Rocky series is lousy with awesome names for his opponents. They include "Spider" Rico, Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago, Tommy "The Machine" Gunn, and Mason "The Line" Dixon.
Castor Troy in Face/Off. He and his brother Pollux are named for the Gemini of Greek mythology.
The Australian short film The House of Names revolves around two protagonists who spend all their time trying to think up something cool to change their names to.
In Boogie Nights the main character changes his name to Dirk Diggler. That's just okay, but the name of his character (in the Kung Fu ... er ... something-em-up he wrote) is named Brock Landers. (His partner Reed Rothchild's character is the even better Chest Rockwell.)
The B-scifi movie Trancers, and its many sequels, revolve around a time-travelling future cop by the name of Jack Deth. In a subversion, pretty much everyone he meets outside of his own time period mocks his name relentlessly.
The unlikely-named John Spartan and Simon Phoenix in Demolition Man.
The eponymous protagonist of the movie Major Payne. His full name is Benson Winifred Payne, which isn't too great at all, but once he's joined the Marine Corps and attained the rank of Major...
Black Dynamite. Played for Laughs, as this is apparently his real name. In one scene, a few neighborhood girls remark that both their mothers told them that "Black Dynamite" is the name of their father. Looking guilty, our hero asserts, "A lot of cats have that name..."
In Lone Wolf, all the Kai have names along the lines of "Adjective Animal", given upon their initiation. Many of them follow this trope. For instance, the main character started out as "Silent Wolf", but after the rest of the order was killed in the prologue to the first book, he took on the book-naming appellation Lone Wolf.
Hotblack Desiato, which is actually the name of rather posh, London estate agents.
Zaphod Beeblebrox, fitting his eccentric rock star/politician/dingbat personality.
"Slartibartfast," which was created to sound obscene but not be. Adams started with Phartiphukborlz and changed it just enough to get past the censors.
This trope is exemplified by the persona created by Discworld character Agnes Nitt, Perdita X Dream, where X stands for "person who has a cool and interesting middle name"; when Agnes tells other people she'd like to be called this, they usually end up calling her "that Agnes who wants to be called Perditax". In the novel Carpe Jugulum, it was further parodied when the vampire equivalent to Goths were changing their names to extremely drab or 'preppy' names. "Lady Strigoiul said her daughter has taken to calling herself Wendy."
Also Mightily Oats, a shortened form of "The Quite Reverend Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats".
The one-shot vampire from "Feet of Clay", Dragon King-of-Arms.
That's actually a title rather than a name. "Dragon" is the head of the Ankh-Morpork College of Arms, which is based on the real British College of Arms, an office of the Royal Household. The College is composed of 13 officers of arms (a.k.a. heralds), including at the time of writing Garter Principal King of Arms, Lancaster Herald and Bluemantle Pursuivant.
Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes.
The rats from The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents read labels on tincans and name themselves as whatever they think sounds good. Thus you have perfectly respectable individuals named Darktan, Feedsfour, Peaches and Hamnpork. And their arguably most Book Smart member is named Dangerous Beans, which is a bit hard to take serious.
One Igor had former masters with names such as Screaming Dr. Berserk and Crazed Baron Ha-Ha.
Modern Omnians have very...unusual names to the effect of Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om, Constable Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets and Smite-the-Unbeliever-with-Cunning-Arguments.
features Anathema Device. The Devices were a real family who were involved in witch trials in the 17th century (so were the Nutters), and Anathema is a word that has a variety of meanings in a religious context; put them together and you have a perfect set-up for scenes like Agnes' prediction that ends in the sentence "And thou shalt be there also, Anathema" — which the modern Anathema assumes (correctly, it is implied) to be addressed to her.
Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer. Newton Pulsifer said he would go on a rampage as well with a name like that
it deserves notion at this point there are also main characters like 'Aziraphale' and 'Crowley' and minor character 'Warlock'. I dare you to find people with those names. I know I'd like to have one of them.
Neil Gaiman's American Gods could make this list based simply on the gods' various real and assumed names, even without the protagonist's exceptionally cool name: Shadow Moon, aka Baldur Moon.
Citizens of the Culture in the novels of Iain Bankshave ridiculously long and odd-sounding names. Some parts are chosen for them, some by them, some depending on where they were born/what they were designed for (AIs). Examples include Rasd-Corudesa Diziet Embless Sma 'Da Marenhide and Foristi-Whirl Skaffen Amtiskaw Handrahen Dran Easpyou.
Culture Full Names are only partly names as we understand the term, and are as much addresses as anything else. (Banks suggested that his Culture Full Name might be Sun-Earther Iain El-Bonko Banks of South Queensferry.) The full names of sentient drones (like Skaffen-Amtiskaw) also provide their place of manufacture and capabilities: the main character in The Player Of Games realises just how deep he's gotten when told that a 'Xato' name-component designates a Special Circumstances agent equipped for espionage against other 'Involved' civilisations.
Then the Minds, the more capable AIs responsible for controlling ships etc have some...odd names. Killing Time. Limiting Factor. Just Another Victim Of The Ambient Morality. Ultimate Ship The Second. No More Mr. Nice Guy. The list goes on...
They must use the same book of names as the ships in Halo. Pillar of Autumn... In Amber Clad...
Although, the names in the books are more mundane (Vostok, Arabia, Heracles, Trafalgar), except with some odd ones out (UNSC Frigate Do Ya Feel Lucky? from Contact Harvest. I am not making this up). The Culture ships are named by their Minds, to match what they feel their personality is like. Warships tend towards more aggressive names like Gunboat Diplomat whereas civilian ships have less aggressive names (like Stranger Here Myself).
When told by a critic that the Minds lacked gravitas, Iain M. Banks responded by naming a few ships in response to this (Very Little Gravitas Indeed, Zero Gravitas, and so on). Stood Far Back When the Gravitas Was Handed Out...
Philip Reeve may have been reading The Culture novels when he started calling airships in his Mortal Engines series things like 'Damn You, Gravity!' , '13th Floor Elevator', 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Machiney' and 'The Sadness Of Things'. There is also an aeroplane called 'Combat Wombat'.
Commander Kelp in Artemis Fowl. His unit has "trouble" as their middle names, but Kelp literally has "trouble" as his first name. As in, the name on the books is "Trouble Kelp".
And of course, the title character himself, Artemis Fowl.
Two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe center around a narrator named Signora Psyche Zenobia. Only her enemies, she proclaims, ever refer to her as Suky Snobbs. Thus, this is Older Than Radio.
Dan Abnett loves this trope so very, very much, especially in his Warhammer 40k writings. The Inquisition books give us Gregor Eisenhorn, Gideon Ravenor, Bex Begundi, Godwyn Fischig, Olm Madorthine... etc. In the Gaunt's Ghosts books the obvious one is Ibram Gaunt himself, but the most recent book, Blood Pact, gives us Isiah Mercure. He's really lucky he's the head of an intergalactic intelligence agency that spends its time fighting both the Forces of Chaos and the Inqusition, or that name would probably make his life really difficult.
Harry Potter has an Aerith and Bob aesthetic, contrasting very normal character names like Harry Potter with fantastic wizard names like Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Tom Marvolo Riddle, Sirius Black, Gilderoy Lockhart, Xenophilius Lovegood, Fleur Delacour, etc.
There's also Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy — but only if it's his full name and Lorcan and Lysander Scamander ( sons of Luna Lovegood).
And there's always Harry's son, Albus Severus Potter.
Kingsley Shacklebolt. I'm beginning to think he got made Minister of Magic based on his name alone.
This makes sense as most of the normal names are from muggle or mixed families and the more odd names tend to be from older wizarding families .
Let's face it: Jo comes up with names that just roll of the tongue. Other great names include, most obviously, the names of the founders of Hogwarts (Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin), but also: Gellert Grindewald, Charity Burbage, Horace Slughorn, Alecto and Amycus Carrow, Septima Vector, Silvanus Kettleburn, Aurora Sinistra, Quirinus Quirrell, Bathsheda Babbling, Bathilda Bagshot.... even first names like Merope, Hermione, and Aberforth. I could go on, but there's just too many to count.
Vol de mort translates to "flight of death" and "stealing death". If that's not badassly accurate...
In the Skulduggery Pleasant series, characters take names instead of using their given names. Some of those names include Valkyrie Cain, Ghastly Bespoke, Billy-Ray Sanguine, and Murder Rose.
Skulduggery specifically advises Stephanie (who, later, takes up the name Valkyrie Cain) against choosing a "cool" name over a name that suits your personality (using a middle-aged woman known as "Jet" as an example against). Nevertheless, the names manage to sound cool AND suit the characters.
In Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series, all of the dedicates in Winding Circle took nature/animal names after sufficient time in the temple. Many of them are quite the Badass, despite their names generally being random.
There's also Numair Salmalin in the Tortall Universe, who made his up because he thought "Arram Draper" didn't sound badass enough for one of the world's most powerful wizards.
Maximum Ride. Other illustrious examples of this would be the flock: Iggy, Angel, the Gasman, Nudge, Total and Fang.
It's worth mentioning that Total is a dog.
At least sort of justified by the fact that they picked their own names.
Even better examples in the names they give to the talent agent in the fifth book: The White Knight, The Sharkalator, Cinnamon Allspice La Fever, and Isabella von Frankenstein Rothschild.
Wolf Larsen and Death Larsen, from The Sea Wolf by Jack London. Not quite as awesome as the other names mentioned here, but this book was written in 1904.
In the Dragonlance setting, the gnomish race are blessed, one and all, with surnames that consist of, quite literally, everything that has happened to them in their life, and in the lives of their parents, and pretty much the rest of their family going back generations, as well. A Running Gag in the book series was unwitting people asking a gnome his name and having to interrupt the avalanche that follows.
Dragonlance pushes this trope to painful extremes. Examples include "Sturm Brightblade", "Steel Brightblade", "Alhanna Starbeeze", "Dhamon Grimwulf", "Flint Fireforge", "Huma Dragonbane", "Goldmoon", "Riverwind", "Eben Shatterstone" (minor character, but just look at that name!), Cyan Bloodbane", and, well, we could sit here and cite character names all day, there's literally no end.
Isaac Asimov, in the Foundation Series, gave the a similar cultural trait to the inhabitants of Gaia (a planet-spanning telepath collective) with names such as "Blissenobiarella" and "Suranoviremblastiran" (and names said to be hundreds of syllables long, but never mentioned in full). The names are universally abbreviated in normal conversation, however.
Christopher Brookmyre's Violent GlaswegianFair Cop is named Angelique de Xavia. This is lampshaded by pretty much every other character (her colleagues call her 'Angel X' and 'Special Agent X'; when a criminal captures her at gunpoint and confiscates her ID his immediate comment is: "Cool name.").
H. Beam Piper did the same thing in his science fiction stories, giving us characters with names like Themistocles Mzangwe and Hideyoshi O'Leary.
Likewise Juan Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter.
Snow Crash: the main character's name is Hiro Protagonist, his roommate is named Vitaly Chernobyl, and his partner is Yours Truly (abbreviated to YT). These are all actually nicknames or stagenames, but the closest we come to their real names is that Hiro's full first name is "Hiroaki." On the other hand, the Aleut Dmitri "Raven" Ravinoff sports a suitably ominous and legitimate name. * Hiro is half Korean and Hiro is not an unusual name, and he calls himself protagonist as a simple play on words.
Catch-22 is a treasure trove of gloriously silly and bizarre names, many of them meaningful. The hero Yossarian's exotic Armenian name indicates his detachment from the rest of the soldiers. Major Major Major is instantly promoted to the rank of Major due to his name, and can never change his rank because a mail attendant thinks it's funny. Milo Minderbinder can think of nothing but profit and capitalism. Major —— de Coverley looks so impressive that no one has the nerve to ask him his first name. Lieutenant Scheisskopf ("shithead" in German) lives up to his name, but enjoys a steady string of promotions.
Lord Peter Wimsey (an appropriately cool name on its own) sometimes while undercover calls himself by his two middle names — Death Bredon ("Some people with that particular name pronounce it to rhyme with 'teeth' but I prefer it to rhyme with 'breath' — more dramatic, what?"). And his nephew is named St. George.
Actually, "St. George" is the nephew's courtesy title (as the only son of Lord Peter's older brother, The Duke of Denver). However, both the Duke and his son were named "Gerald", and the younger Gerald was nicknamed "Gerrykins" which morphed into "Pickled Gherkins"!
Children's book series Grey Griffins has Maximilian Grayson Sumner III, a rich billionaire's kid, Harley Davidson Eisenstein, the Bad Ass, Natalia Anastasia Felicia Romanov, the smart Snooping Little Kid, and on the uncool note, Ernest Blumfeld Tweeney, The Load.
Talon Karrde, Mara Jade, Shada Du'kal. Though the first is only ever called by his last name, and the other two are almost exclusively called by their first names.
In Deathstalker's Legacy, a criminal has the unlikely moniker of Toby Goddamnit. He never says how he got his name before he dies.
How can you forget the main character? Owen Deathstalker. And that's not even going into Simon Green's other books, like The Nightside with gems like Razor Eddie, and Shotgun Suzie (aka "oh crap it's her why not just put gun to your head, it'll probably hurt less.") and that's just for starters. There's tons more. Simon seems completely unable to give his characters normal name, John Taylor being the most normal, and it's still pretty cool.
The main character of America the Beautiful (written by Moon Unit Zappa, who's got a pretty awesome name herself) is called America Throne. Granted, her father A) changed his surname from Tronov when he immigrated from Russia and B) was a crazy hippie artist. (Mer won the name lottery in her family. Her brother's name is Spoonie.)
In The Long Hot Future, the breeding program Eugenix assigns three given names, an alphanumeric code, four surnames, and an etcetera. The main character's full name is Keef Joy Brazen X-5 Lattimore Balzac Marsalis Wu Etc.
Aphrodite in The House Of Night series. Justified because when fledgling vampyres enter the school, they are allowed to change their names and are legally emancipated from their parents. Being incredibly self-centred and vain, she chose the name of the goddess of love.
Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy features several. Alongside abnormal-but-not-too-strange names like Eliard, Mathom, Astrin, and Rood, you have a few incredibly awesome names (i.e. Ghisteslwchlohm). And then, of course, there's Deth.
Oddly enough, the literary James Bond was originally intended to avert this trope entirely, the name itself being picked up from an ornithology book. Of course, nowadays the name is known worldwide for both the character and the brand.
From The Icemark Chronicles we have Thirrin Freer Strong-in-the-Arm Lindenshield, Wildcat of the North, Taker of the Hand of Bellorum. In fact, any non-Polypontian in that trilogy counts.
The Dresden Files: The "actors" in Blood Rites have to pick stage names, and Bobby considers names like "Rocko Stone" or "Rack McGranite". Finally, at Harry's suggestion, he goes with "Gowan Commando."
Author Jim Butcher's bichon frise's name, Frost, is reputedly short for "Frostbite Doomreaver McBain."
Um, hello, Mr. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Justified given the theme of the novels, but in a series loaded with Meaningful Names, Butcher also manages to make his main character's given name sound freakin' awesome.
Anastasia Luccio? Ebenezar McCoy? Margaret LeFay Dresden? Lara, Inari, and Thomas Raith? There's a lot of cool names in the Dresden Files and that's not even getting into the nonhumans. Like Lasciel, Anduriel, or the Leanansidhe.
The majority of the human characters in the Codex Alera have awesome names as well, most of them in Gratuitous Latin. The best one? Gaius Tavarus Magnus, a.k.a. Gaius Octavian, a.k.a. Tavar, a.k.a. Rufus Scipio. Yes, Tavi gets four of them to make up for being an Odd Name Out. Though credit must also be given to Antillus Crassus, Antillar Maximus, Aria Placida, Gaius Sextus, Fidelias ex Cursori, Aquitainus Attis and Invidia, Araris Valerian, and, much as we hate to admit it, Kalarus Brencis.
Author Brandon Sanderson once expressed regret in one of his online annotations that he was unable to give character "Kelsier" a cool last name like Mistshadows.
The First Law: Logen Rip-Your-Fucking-Face-Off Ninefingers.
The name Starbuck may signal Herman Melville's penchant for symbolism in Moby-Dick, but it also signaled "awesome" to both TV sci-fi (Battlestar Galactica) and Seattle coffeehouse proprietors.
It certainly signaled "awesome" to Bill Starbuck, who changed his name from Smith because that didn't suit a man like him (who also considers "Lizzie" too prosaic a name for a woman — "why, it don't stand for anything!").
Thomas Pynchon: Pirate Prentice, Oedipa Maas, Patience Eggslap, Tyrone Slothrop, Mike Fallopian, Ronald Cherrycoke, and Clayton "Bloody" Chiclitz.
Honor Harrington, though the first name "Honor" is actually part of a fairly common tradition of using virtues as female first names, such as "Chastity" and "Grace."
Everworld has an elf character who is actually named Mac Cool, and it's a Meaningful Name, with the character ultimately turning out to be Too Cool to Live. He's also the "Bob" of Aerith and Bob, since the other members of his elven culture have more traditional Celtic names like Etain, Goewynne, and Camulos.
Actually, Mac Cool is a pretty Celtic name, since Finn Mac Cool is the Anglicised version of Irish legendary hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill. In fact, it's the kind of Celtic name you might come up with if you didn't know very many Celtic names.
Francesca Lia Block is all over this trope, possibly due to her own name. She justifies this in part by creating a lot of mother characters who would totally name their kids things like Duck, Witch Baby, (a very pale blonde) Cherokee...and so by extension it gets oddly believable that there would be a kid out there named My Secret Agent Lover Man. It also helps that the stories are supposed to be like fairy tales.
Let's not forget D.B.C. ( stands for "Dirty But Clean") Pierre's Man Booker Prize winning Vernon God Little.
In Dean Koontz's From the Corner of his Eye, the villain (named Enoch Cain, naturally) learns from a newspaper article that one of his victims was named Kickmule. He's surprised to learn Kickmule is a legitimate name, and since it's so badass decides to use it in the future if he ever needs another alias ("no one would ever mess with Wolfgang Kickmule").
Alexander Bonaparte Cust in Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders was specifically given a grandiose name by his mother.
From the manuscript of a friend: the Anti-Hero: Rhenxonemor Farrenghan, a.k.a. "Rhen". The Heroes: Seth Darkthorn and Max Rose. Two of the villains: Luna Darkthorn and Dark Pane. The Bad Ass villain: Nicholas Xerxes Strife-Darkstar. The mega-villain: Sindrenomy and the Soul Carvers.
Does this manuscript happen to have a character named Lawrence Reaper?
Warrior Cats is in general kind of a crapshoot with names. Characters like Tigerclaw, Lionblaze, Fireheart, etc. exist alongside the more boringly named cats (Graystripe, Bluefur, etc.) and cats with names that, from a human perspective, can seem outright stupid (Loudbelly, Mudpuddle, etc.)
Isaac Asimov named the hero of his book David Starr, Space Ranger after his son David, but soon decided that David was too boring a name for a space adventurer. In the subsequent books in the series, everyone starts calling David by his nickname, Lucky Starr.
In Saving Zoë, the main character is named Echo, after the Greek myth.
Most traditional pulp fiction and hardboiled characters fall into this trope. Names like Sam Spade or Nero Wolfe.
The Andalite names from the Animorphs are awesome, like Elfangor-Sirinal-Shamtul, Aximilli-Esgaroth-Esthill and Alloran-Semitur-Corrass.
Lyra Belacqua in His Dark Materials, though she later trades it in for Silvertongue. But the names of characters' dæmons tend to be melodious and exotic - like Pantalaimon, Stelamaria, Zohariel, and Kirjava.
The Reverend Doctor Syn in Russell Thorndike's series of books.
Victorian authors did this often, but a master at it was Anthony Trollope. who conjured up a Duke of Omnium Gatherem, doctors Sir Omicron Pi and Dr. Fillgrave, a country rector with many children: Mr. Quiverfull, the totally bland and effaced Lord Fawn, among many others.
The titular character of Alyzon Whitestarr. The author claimed to have met a family while on a walk, and liked the daughter's name so much that she decided to use it for her book. There is a real person out there with that name. (Maybe.)
Practically every Vampire and Vampanese in The Saga of Darren Shan (Cirque du Freak Series US) has an amazing name. Who can't like names like Larten Crepsley, Vancha March, Arra Sails, Gannen Harst... the list goes on and on. Even the grotesque-looking little person, Harkat Mulds, has an amazing name, especially considering as it is an anagram of his name from before he became a little person, Kurda Smahlt.
In the graphic novel Foiled, the protagonist's name is Aliera Carstairs.
German philosopher Oswald Spengler coined many terms in Decline Of The West, the coolest among which is "Magians" for the Jews (and Muslims, and Greek-Orthodox Christians... generally, everyone from the Middle East following a religion which originated there around 0-1000 AD).
Live Action TV
Magnum, P.I., TV show private detective and name of firearms and cartridge. Humorously, the Galician dub was unfamiliar with the acronym for Private Investigator, and mixed it up with the actual surname "Pi," calling him "Magnum π."
Maxwell Smart of Get Smart — done as a parody and pun.
Remington Steele — an aversion as she picked the name because it sounded cool.
In the Whedonverse, many characters go by interesting or unusual names, such as Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles (though cool in the USA, is normal in the UK), Oz, Fred (a girl), Gunn, Pike, Jayne (a man), River, Inara, Book, Wash, Jubal Early, Merrick, Kennedy, Spike, Angel, Drusilla, and so forth. This is somewhat justified in that most of these are diminutive versions of rather normal first and last names.
Specifically, Xander is a diminutive of Alexander, Oz of Osbourne (it's also his last name), and Fred of Winnifred. Giles, Gunn, Book, and Pike are all their last names (first names being Rupert, Charles, Derrial, and Sheppard). Spike and Angel are both nicknames/noms de guerre, their real names being William and Liam respectively—being vampires, they've lived so long that they don't really use their old names anymore. Wash is short for Washburne, his surname, and Jubal Early is apparently named after an American Civil War General (who happens to be an ancestor of Nathan Fillion). Buffy is usually a nickname for Elizabeth, although it's pretty clear that Joyce cut out the middleman and actually named her Buffy - it's on her gravestone.
Also in Dollhouse, "Arcane". Also known as Clyde. Not to mention the actives with their cool "callsigns" — Echo, November, Alpha, Tango, Sierra, Whiskey and... er... Mike. We don't see much of Mike. These nicknames all come from the ICAO/NATO/ITU phonetic alphabet (used mainly by pilots and Western militaries). Each word corresponds with the letter it starts with. So think of all the cool names that were had by Dolls that were not seen or had not been created yet: Delta, Indigo, Lima, Papa, Yankee and Zebra. Not so McCool names: Charlie, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel (yeesh), Juliet, Oscar, Quebec, Romeo, Uniform (ouch) and X-ray (debatable depending on your level of nerdiness).
The NATO alphabet uses "India" for I (though Indigo is exceptionally cooler and we should lobby for it) and, for Z, "Zulu" (which even seems more Awesome Mc Cool Name than Zebra, really).
Castle gives us Richard Edgar "Rick" Castle and his daughter Alexis Castle, as well as the new captain Victoria Gates (better known as "Iron Gates").
The Mentalist also gives us a few; Teresa Lisbon, Kimball Cho, and former CBI supervising agent Madeleine Hightower.
Battlestar Galactica has an entire crew's worth of Awesome McCoolnames, starting with William and Lee Adama, Kara Thrace, Karl Agathon, Galen Tyrol, Anastasia Dualla, Billy Keikeya, Diana Seelix (the last being made-up on the spot by Aaron Douglas for a previously nameless character), Gaius Baltar and Admiral Helena Cain. And that's not even counting the pilot callsigns.
It can, and has, been argued that the reimagined series actually took a step backwards with regards to this trope. In the original series, the "call-signs" were the characters' names, and the revised versions are held to be one example of the Reimagining The Artifact of the original Colonial culture that pervaded the new series. After all, what's more impressive: "Lee Adama" or "Apollo"?
Alluded to in True Blood. While Sookie Stackhouse has an unusual name herself, she is surprised to learn that the first vampire she ever meets has the thoroughly mundane name of "Bill."
Subverted to the point of parody in Stargate Atlantis with the Always Chaotic Evil Wraith (alien goth insect vampires) never giving their true names, therefore prompting the human characters to name them generic Earth names in retaliation. Hence Steve, Bob, Michael, Kenny, and, lest we forget, Todd. Most of which are, at some point or other, the series Big Bad.
Keith: How come I don't get a nickname? J.D.: Not everyone's last name lends itself to a nickname, Keith. Keith: My last name is Dudemeister! J.D.: And what am I supposed to do with that, okay? I'm not a magician!
Stephen Colbert used this to protect the identity of an ex-Colbert Report security guard who had been deployed in Afghanistan.
Hilariously subverted when one of the names is "Bob Johnson."
They also mocked an example of this concept mercilessly in the episode The Final Sacrifice. What was the character's name? Zap Rowsdower, for a middle-aged pudgy Canadian man with a mullet.
Also during Hercules Against the Moon Men, Joel and the bots try to come up with macho names a 'la Alan Steel. Crow chooses "Drake Tungsten", whereas Servo settles for "Rick Drywall."
The episode 12 To the Moon featured an early version of the Ryder treatment, with an international lunar mission being headed by your standard symbol of '50s American superiority, a muscular blonde idiot. Being completely unremarkable in every other way, Mike and the 'bots saddle him with names like "Dirk Beefbroth," and "Plank Ironchest."
After Phoebe marries Mike on Friends, she goes to legally change her last name to his... and instead changes her name to Princess Consuela Bananahammock. She doesn't see what the problem is until Mike threatens to change his name to Crap Bag ("It's easy to remember, just think of a bag of crap.").
Mike of The Young Ones refers to himself as "The Cool Person".
which is revealed to be his actual name, Mike Thecoolperson.
Jeff Slade, the stupidly macho-named detective from the shortlived nice-idea-but-appallingly-executed Crime Traveller. As if the character name wasn't bad enough he was also cursed with being played by an ex-soap actor with a charisma bypass - thus making the character even harder to take seriously.
When Jeremy Clarkson was given the task of designing Top Gear's home-built electric car, he named it the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust. However, he also named the prototype: "Geoff."
His co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May had separately decided as a matter of principle that an electric car should have a rugged name instead of something vaguely smart like "Intelligentsia."
In another episode, Hammond refuses to believe the actual name of Lamborghini's new chief test driver, Max Venturi, who replaced their old chief test driver, Valentino Balboni. Clarkson jokingly responds:
Jeremy Clarkson: You don't need a driving license to be a Lamborghini test driver. Just turn up for the interview, go "Look, I'm awfully sorry, I'm drunk and I'm mad, but I'm called Velociraptor Clint-Thrust!"
In Red Dwarf episode "Back to Reality", the crew all hallucinate that they have returned to Earth, and are given new identities. Kryten's name turns out to be "Jake Bullet" and he's a member of the police force. Lampshaded:
Kryten: Jake Bullet, Cybernautic Detective. I like that! That sounds like the kind of hard-living flatfoot who gets the job done by cutting corners and bucking authority. And if those pen-pushers up at City Hall don't like it, well, they can park their overpaid, fat asses on this mid-digit and swivel — swivel till they squeal like pigs on a honeymoon.
Rimmer: On the other hand, "Mr. Bullet," perhaps the Cybernautics division is in charge of traffic control, and you just happen to have a rather silly macho name.
Kryten, looking sheepish: Oh yes, that's a very good point, sir. I didn't think of that.
Of course, this being Red Dwarf, Kryten does turn out to be a traffic control cop.
Gus: My name is Gus, but you can call me... John Slade.
Tendou Souji. Why is it badass? His name more or less means "He who walks the path of heaven, ruling all".
Equally badass is his Unknown Rival Kamishiro Tsurugi, which means "He who overthrows the gods with the slash of a sword".
A WKRP episode had Jennifer dating a (seemingly) perfect guy named Steel. He says "I think a man's name says a lot about him...What did you say your name was?" to Les...
In the Disney series Sonny With A Chance, the snooty star of teen drama "Mackenzie Falls" is Chad Dylan Cooper. He is played by Sterling Knight, which sounds a bit snootier and lot more Badass.
The Clash of the Titans round of Good News Week sees contestants use their names as buzzers. Often they choose cooler names instead. Examples include "Demon Dawg", "Adam Barrington Spencer" and "We'd like some more honey prawns at this table, please!"
One My Name Is Earl episode has Randy and Darnell discussing the Witness Protection Program after revealing that Darnell was IN the program, and Randy expresses a desire to be named 'Crash Fistfight'.
Napoleon Solo of The Man From UNCLE, who, curiously, almost never uses a pseudonym. You'd think that after a while, THRUSH agents would stop being fooled by Napoleon Solo, Investment Banker. The ludicrousness of the name is lampshaded from time to time: for example, when he has Easy Amnesia and someone tells him who he is, he refuses to believe it.
Napoleon: Nobody's been called Napoleon since the Battle of Waterloo.
Babylon 5 : the Shadows think their name is so cool because it is one thousand syllables long and cannot be pronounced by you puny mortals. Then, the Shadows get surprised and angry that we puny mortals keep on calling them "Shadows."
Ted Mosby, having met a guy who calls himself The Captain, decides to name himself Galactic President Superstar McAwesomeville.
An earlier episode has Marshall and Lily discuss changing their last name to Awesome upon marriage. They also said plans to name their hypothetical children Totally and Freakin'.
After conceiving their baby in Barney's bathroom during Irene, Marshall wants to name their son Hurricane Eriksen. Ted and Barney also rename Barney's niece while "bro-parenting" to Hurricane Mosby-Stinson
And played with in the Human Nature/Family of Blood arc. John Smith dreams of a man called the Doctor- Nurse Redfern says it's a personification of his desire to be a dashing hero. The twist being that the Doctor is his true self.
The Eleventh Doctor once aliased as Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue.
Actually, most Time Lords have cool names. Most notable example: Romanadvoratrelundar, or 'Romana' for short. She'd prefer Fred. The Meddling Monk and The Master also count for this trope.
Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All, the name that a baby gave himself. His parents call him "Alfie".
Played for laughs in iCarly, with the bodyguard in "iSam's Mom". He's a war veteran who only speaks in a growling monotone. He's more than willing to be incredibly violent towards the slightest threat, and he's got a significantly large hole in his leg that's not a bullet wound. His name? Gunsmoke.
From Drake & Josh, we get the amazing psuedonyms Jefferson Steelflex and Alvin Yakitori.
Airwolf seems to enjoy this trope with Stringfellow and Saint John (pronounced Sinjin) Hawke. Also, Dominic Santini.
Supernatural: Sam and Dean Winchester. "Like the rifle."
Taking the cool factor one step further, one alternate universe episode had the brothers as total strangers Dean Smith and Sam Wesson. That's right, Smith&Wesson
I defy you to tell me James Tiberius Kirk is not an awesome name of awesome even without his rank of Captain.
The stage names of steampunk band The Extraordinary Contraptions: Aelus von Stadberg, Dimitri von Stadberg, Sephora Bostwick, and Corbin Welch. (Their real names are Alex Stadler, David Tyberg, Sharon Burdick, and Kevin Guthrie, respectively).
Singer/songwriter Eagle-Eye Cherry. That is in fact his birth name: He got it because when he was a baby, he looked at his father for the first time with only one eye open. The name can cause a sort of inversion of I Am Not Shazam, since "Eagle-Eye Cherry" just sounds more like a band name than it does a solo artist.
Heavy metal guitarist Guy Mann-Dude. Apparently it's not a stage name.
Voltaire (the singer, not the philosopher) takes his stage name from his given middle name. His full name is actually Aurelio Voltaire Hernández.
The saxophonist who played the iconic solo in Gerry Rafferty’s "Baker Street" is named Raphael Ravenscroft.
The song "The Legend of Finn Mac Cumhail" by the Dropkick Murphys...which is also known by the name "The Legend of Finn Mac Cool".
The lead vocalist of Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals is called Gruff Rhys.
Myths & Religion
Fionn Mac Cumhaill, a hero of Irish mythology, whose name is pronounced "Finn McCool."
Cu Chulainn is an Irish hero whose name means "the Hound of Culann."
This name was given to him when he ripped apart the blacksmith's (Culann) guard dog with his bare hands as a young boy. As a punishment he offered to take its place until a successor could be reared.
In Scion, another RPG by our friends at White Wolf, you play as the child of a God — Hera, Loki, etc. For whatever reason, example characters have this odd tendency towards weird, unlikely names referencing their divine parent, even from a slant — such as Horace Farrow, son of... Horus.
Exalted gives us such varied names as Harmonious Jade, Seven Devils Clever, Excessively Righteous Blossom, Chejop Kejak, Tammiz Ushun, Ma-Ha-Suchi, Lilith, The Lover Clad In The Raiment Of Tears, The Bodhisattva Anointed By Dark Water, the Bull of the North... It's justified, though, in that the main characters and most of their opponents are legendary figures who are practically expected to have a mythic reputation.
D&D3 and later gives a list of sample names with each race, and sometimes...
Players who create Warforged characters are encouraged to use names like Relic, Sigil, Wall, Shield, and Bastion. They did not have a name when first created. Now freed, Warforged tend to look for words that they feel "represent" them to use as name. The King of Breland's former bodyguard was called Bulwark for example.
Dragonborn of Bahamut (The 3.5e version, who are members of other races that undergo a voluntary transformation) are encouraged to take a new Draconic name. Draconic is one of the few D&D Races with an actually lexicon, so you can actually name yourself "Platinum Strongscale who killed the big mean red dragon" without sounding like a tool.
4th edition, characters from the Wangsty half-demonic Tiefling race are instructed by the rulebook to take names like "Suffering" or "Melancholy" and so forth. To be fair, they also get "Art", "Hope" and... "Gladness"?!?
Jim Darkmagic of the New Hampshire Darkmagics, created by Gabe for his first ever D&D session (he astounded the seasoned players by rolling 20s).
"Why don't you just name yourself Chet AwesomeLaser?"
Scott Kurtz, the guy playing a Dwarf character, was encouraged by Tycho to alliterate with his name, claiming that Dwarves lose abilities if they don't alliterate.
The whole crew have awesome names, Tycho is Ominifis Earwahr Dran, Gabe is the aforementioned Jim Darkmagic, Scott Kutz is Binwin Bronzebottom, and Wil Wheaton is Aeofel Elhromane. Also, at one point due to the general confusion of the table Tycho thinks Scott has renamed himself "Vanguard Crackhammer."
One of the original 800 Clan warriors in BattleTech is Kami Sword, and perhaps the most famous mercenary in the series is Grayson Death Carlyle, who proceeded to name his unit "The Gray Death Legion."
One famous Inner Sphere mercenary's name is Grayson Death Carlyle, and his mercenary squad is named the Gray Death Legion.
Obviously, like a half of all names in anyWarhammer game counts.
The protagonist of The Pillowman is named Katurian Katurian Katurian. His parents were odd people.
Leaf Coneybear in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, who comes from a hippie family. His siblings are named Marigold, Brooke, Pinecone, Raisin, Landscape, and Paul.
An unintentional example in Fiddler on the Roof. Lazar (yes, pronounced "laser") Wolf might be a perfectly innocuous Jewish name in context, but to modern audiences it might suggest an American Gladiators reject or a Rob Liefeld character who never made it to print.
Amateratsu's title of Okami depending on how you spell it in Japanese can either mean "Great God" or "White Wolf". This pun is actually carried into gameplay when people who believe in you can see your celestial markings, and people who don't believe in you just see a white wolf.
The Legend of Zelda actually subverts this trope: no matter how Bad Ass he is, you have to admit that "Link" isn't exactly an awe-inspiring name. Ganondorf, on the other hand...
Impossible Creatures gives us Rex Chance. Science tells us that this is the manliest name possible.
Tekken's Marshall Law (a play on "Martial Law"). Admittedly, this isn't an obvious one.
Don't forget his buddy Paul Phoenix, which sounds like something out of a 70s airport novel. Ditto for Bryan Fury. Craig Marduk also qualifies — it's not a wise idea to pick a fight with a guy named after a god, of all things.
If at all possible, Craig Marduk looks even more intimidating than his name sounds.◊ His appearance is based on Nathan Jones who, during his time in prison, earned the nickname "The Colossus of Boggo Road." During a prison riot, he managed to rip his cell door off of the hinges.
Pretty much every character in Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright has an incredibly badass name! Phoenix Wright himself may have had debatably the most awesome name of all in the Ace Attorney series, and that's saying something with people named Maya Fey and Miles Edgeworth and Franziska von Karma in the same zip code, until Apollo Justice came along, and with him people with names such as Shadi Enigmar, and Kristoph and Klavier Gavin.
Also the famed rivals Juan Corrida (Corrida meaning bullfighting) and Matt En-Guarde.
Don't forget Max Galactica (although his real name is Billy-Bob Johns), Magnifi and his daughter, Thalassa Gramarye and Tyrell Badd.
WIIILL POOOWERS, HE'S THE MAN WHOSE NAME YOU'D LOVE TO TOOOOOOOOOOOOUCH
The flagship character of the Purple Moon games is named "Rockett Movado". This has an in-game explanation in that her parents were hippies (her siblings are named Jasper and Juno Artemis). The only other "odd" name belongs to Token Minority Arrow (and that's a nickname).
The various codenames in Metal Gear Solid, to the point that some normal names are excluded.
Captain Falcon, along with most other characters from F-Zero.
Until you realize his full name is actually Douglas Jay Falcon.
Max Payne. Lampshaded by a mook, who admits to envying Max's name.
Mona Sax.
The fictional Dick Justice.
William J. Blazkowicz (the protagonist of Wolfenstein 3D) and his grandson Billy Blaze (better known as Commander Keen). Granted, William's name takes a turn for the Suckyname territory when it's shortened into BJ Blazkowicz. Just don't tell him that to his face.
Suikoden IV actually GAVE us Schtoltenheim Reinbach III as a recruitable character! Imagine the surprise on peoples faces when they saw that the guy actually EXISTED.
Classic adventure game Wasteland lets you name your starting party whatever you want, but the default names are Hell Razor, Angela Deth, Thrasher, and Snake Vargas.
In Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, episode 4, there is a character, who is Homestar Runner as "Dangeresque, Too?", as a robot copy of the character, by the name of Uzi Bazooka. Even Strong Bad/Dangeresque thinks it's a cool name. (But then again, he did write the script..)
Final Fantasy VII seems to be a weird subversion of this trope... Until you see their surnames. "Tifa Lockhart", "Vincent Valentine", "Aerith Gainsborough", "Red XIII"... Cloud Strife also manages to overcome his otherwise improbable name by being incredibly Bad Ass. Oh, and they're fighting Sephiroth. The only really normal one is "Barret Wallace".
Barret in Japanese is Baretto, which is how you pronounce "bullet" in Japanese. So I think he would qualify for Awesome McCoolname. Sephiroth or Sephirot are the 10 attributes/emanations through which God can manifest in Jewish Kabbalah. However, there's also brothers Nero and Weiss in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (Black and White respectively).
Final Fantasy XIII has the main character named Lightning. That's...that's just great.
"Lightning" is just her code name. Her real name is Eclair Farron, or just Claire in the English localization. Guess what that means in French? No, not the pastry. It means "lightning". The reason behind her going by "Lightning" is a plot point.
Final Fantasy VIII qualifies, too: Squall Leonhart? Rinoa Heartilly? Seifer Almasy, Laguna Loire, Kiros Seagill, Ward Zabac, Ultimecia?
Final Fantasy XII gives us some gems in the form of Vayne Solidor, Basch fon Ronsenburg, and King Raithwall. The Imperial Judges get some sweet names too, like Gabranth and Zargabaath, but those are assumed names.
Vaan's name was Van in the Japanese version too.
And let's not forget Final Fantasy IX, which gives us Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, and Amarant.
Don't forget Ruby and Blank from Tantalus. Oh, and Lord Puck of Burmecia. Amarant in Japanese is Salamander Coral, too, which means his nickname in that version is "The Flaming Salamander".
Final Fantasy V has Butz Klauser, changed to Bartz in the English release for obvious reasons.
Final Fantasy VI. Even if most characters don't have really astounding names, we still have Clyde Arrowny A.K.A. Shadow, Cyan Garamonde or Kefka Palazzo.
So many characters in World of Warcraft (and presumably other MMORPGs) have those, it's not even awesome anymore. The whole game is loaded with Doomhowls and Deatheyes and Nightwhispers etc.
Note that most, if not all of those are clan-names or at least family names. It makes sense for an orc or ogre clan to pick an intimidating name.
For what it's worth, more family-friendly games may enforce this: both FusionFall and Free Realms use a name generator as the default; in Free Realms at least you can make up your own name but it has to be approved.
Guilty Gear: Sol Badguy, Slayer, Millia Rage, Axl Low, Potemkin, Kliff Undersn, and Justice.
Upcoming Team Ico game The Last Guardian is known in Japan as "Hitokui Ōwashi Trico," which can be translated as "Trico, the Man-Eating Sea-Eagle."
Luke Skywalker may have avoided the last name "Starkiller," but Galen Marek of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed did not escape being called "Starkiller" pretty much the entire game.
And even before him, there was Bendak Starkiller. Neo Crusader, Bounty Hunter and Deathmatch Champion.
And, of course, who can forget Carmageddon, and the lovely protagonists Max Damage and Die Anna, though the latter is half this and half a Punny Name.
Chun Li. When somebody is named after the most famous female martial artist ever, plus the most famous male martial artist as well, you know she isn't messing around.
Trauma Team features an orthopedist named Hank Freebird, who also happens to be a Made of Iron part-time superhero.
Starcraft sports some rather interesting contrast in its Terran names, but the standout for coolness is General Horace Warfield.
In Mass Effect, whatever goofy first name that may be given to him (or her, for that matter), there is something just so intrinsically panty wetting about the moniker Commander Shepard.
In Kingdom Hearts we have Organization XIII, made up of thirteen Nobodies, and each and every one has an awesome name: We have Xemnas, Xibgar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Saïx, Axel, Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, Larxene, Roxas, and finally, for 358/2 Days, Xion. Most of the names are justified because when a person with a strong will is turned into a humanoid Nobody, Xemnas recruits them and gives them a new name by scrambling the letters and adding an 'x' into it. Even then, quite a few had less-than-average names, with Vexen's (Even) being the most common.
Keep in mind that Mega Man is also known as Rockman. Also keep in mind that his little sister is known as Roll. Rock and Roll anyone?
Wild ARMs took this trope home and married it: Jack Van Burace, Ashley Winchester, Gallows Carradine, the list goes on.
Tales Of The Abyss: though they rarely use them Guy, Tear, and Van birth names are Gailardia Galan Gardios, Mysterica Aura Fende and Vandelesca Musto Fende.
There's also the Dragon-type Pokémon with axe-blades for its teeth, "Haxorus", which may also incorporate Leet Lingo in the name as well.
Additionally, the Water-type specialist Gym Leader of Pastoria City from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Crasher Wake (with an equally awesome Japanese name, Maximum Mask).
No More Heroes 1 and 2 give us Travis Touchdown, Henry Cooldown, Dr. Letz Shake, Harvey Moisewich Volodarski, Thunder Ryu, Bishop Shidux, Count Townshend, Margaret Moonlight, and Alice Twilight. And this isn't even counting code names such as Shinobu, Million Gunman, Destroyman, Dark Star, Dr. Peace, Speed Buster...the list goes on.
The Shadows of Persona 3 have a lot of cool names. Death Castle, Conviction Sword, Slaughter Drive, Void Giant...and the list goes on and on.
Tales Of Hearts gives us Zex Meteoryte. Think about it for a second.
Hawke, from Dragon Age 2. If you're going to set the player character's last name, better make it an awesome one.
The Demon Rush has such names as Cherry Venus, Alberto Mundosold, Kent Buckle, and of course, Brooks Cracktackle.
Touhou is chock-full of these, especially in Japanese. The Western-sounding coolnames includes Lyrica and Layla Prismriver, Wriggle Nightbug, Mystia Lorelei, and Star Sapphire. The Japanese ones are:
Eirin Yagokoro: When you're an immortal genius, your name reflects it: "Intelligence of eternally clear brightness over infinitely extended area".
Shikieiki Yamaxanadu: four-seasons-reflection-princess, paradise's-judge-of-the-dead (although the second part apparently is a title).
Shou Toramaru: star tiger-circle. Also, "-maru" postfix makes one's name sounds more Badass and manly (she is a Bifauxnen).
Characters with archaic-sounding names: Fujiwara no Mokou, Mononobe no Futo, Toyosatomimi no Miko.
In Might and Magic VI, you can have your party have names like "Roderic", "Diana", "Tracy" and "Zoltan". Also crosses with Aerith and Bob.
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and its sequel are full of these names, especially with the human characters. Gabriel Angelos, Isador Akios, Mordecai Toth...
Princess Sveta Czamaral, of the Fang Tribe of Morgal, from Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Bonus points for being one of the only two Golden Sun characters with a canonly-known surname... the other being her brother.
Disgaea has loads of characters with cool names, like Valvatorez and Axel, which may be expected since most Disgaea characters are demons. Still, when you're a human with a name like Almaz von Almandine Adamant that's pretty awesome.
Web Comics
In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, the eponymous Dr. McNinja. A doctor of medicine who comes from a family of Irish ninjas. Nothing else need be said.
Dragon Tails has the character named Enigma. It certainly doesn't help that he's a total Badass.
Boy Meets Boy and the sequel webcomic, Friendly Hostility. Harlequin, Tybalt, Anubis, Cyanide, and many more. (There's Skids, but that's a nickname.) Also notable is Collin, who inexplicably has a Hindi last name despite his family being hardcore Caucasian conservative Christians. Word Of God has it that at one point, Collin's parents traveled to India on missionary work, so they probably took a local name. This is probably because the Boy Meets Boy characters were based loosely on characters from an old and now-deleted webcomic by the same author, which was about vampires (or rather gay vampire angels), who are kind of expected to have names like that. Frankly, you can't blame Mikhail's tattoo artist for making a mistake.
The Broken Mirror has Ariad Engel Moira. The last one claims her real name is Ariad Smith, and that she changed it because it was too boring — but she's still named Ariad.
Suicide for Hire: the main characters are named Arcturus Winrock and Hunter Ravenwood. Hunter's occasionally-appearing love interest is named Chryseis, and Arcturus' co-workers in the food stand storyline were named Zharra, Morph, Magdalena, Tajaira, and Shileen. The briefly-appearing "Harv" and "Sarah" in a previous storyline seemed quite out-of-place.
The main cast of Sluggy Freelance? They go by the names Torg, Riff, Zoe, Gwynn, Bun-Bun, and Kiki. Hanging around with these people, you can kinda understand why Sam felt he had to change his name to "Sam da Man."
Crushestro.
Most of Hereti-corp has awesome names like Daedalus Hereti, Dr. Killum, Dan-Met, Kusari and Oasis. Irving Schlock? Not so much.
Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes. While goblins have names such as "Big Ears" and "Complains Of Names", one of them, "Fumbles", wants to become an adventurer (a PC, indeed) and changes his name to Senor Vorpal Kickasso.
The goblins are named by their village elder, who chooses their names based on a vision of their fate that she sees when they are born. For instance, the goblin who grows up to become the chief of the clan is named "Chief". However, one unfortunate goblin was given the name "Dies Horribly".
The dark matter entities, the Paan'uri, have a name which translates to either "that which lives where nothing should" or "that gravitic distortion is giving me the willies."
Well Tagon's ship the Serial Peacemaker... it's like it doesn't HAVE to get a name implying violence so directly, so it's placing itself above the poseur ship names the O'benn and others tend to take. But of course it sounds somewhat like 'serial killer' so it wouldn't be mistaken for something inoffensive!
In Everyday Heroes, Mr. Mighty's name is actually Marion John Mighty.
Jane Mighty's mom was born Hannah Anne Combat; she had a sister, Ariel Combat. Their father was Mortimer Lawrence (or "Mort L.") Combat.
Girl Genius is loaded with awesome names, starting with Agatha's primary love interest: Gilgamesh Wulfenbach.
Or Agatha's aunt, Demonica Mongfish. See how the first name turns even mundane last into something Lovecraftian?
Narbonic: one of Helen Narbon's recurring enemies is Dr. Lupin Madblood. No, that's his real name, and he even has a PhD. On the other hand, he still lived with his mother during a lot of the story.
Penny Arcade: "'I am Grimm Shado,' said Grimm Shado. 'And I'm here to take it to the limit.'
And, to a lesser extent, Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood.
How about Jim Darkmagic?
EVERYONE from The Song Of The Sorcelator apparently has a name like this, though we only get to know Grimm Shado's.
Parodied in Hark! A Vagrant. The Brontë sisters, concerned they won't be taken seriously as women authors, choose the pseudonyms "Johnny Guns," "Bruce Punisher" and "Daddy Smash."
Cutter Edgewise in Starslip. Memnon Vanderbeam may also count.
8-Bit Theater has names like Fighter McWarrior, Black Mage Evilwizardington, Prince Elf of Clan Khee'bler (a.k.a. Thief), Red Mage Statscowski, Prince Drizz'l of the Dark Elves, Vilbert von Vampire, Muffin the dragon, Chancellor Usurper of Clan Sahn'ta (real name King Astos of the Dark Elves), Dr. Swordopolis, Doctor Malpractice, Generic Half-Elven Dual-Class Ranger, Berserker Axinhed... It's a freaking gold mine of this trope! Not to mention that Fighter, Black Mage, Thief, Red Mage, White Mage, Black Belt, etc. are actually their REAL NAMES and not just their classes...
In Homestuck, the four main characters' names were all suggestions provided by readers, so awesome names like "Jade Harley", "Rose Lalonde" and "Dave Strider" were inevitable.
The jury is still out on whether "John Egbert" sounds cool or not though.
The Trolls mostly have cool names, such as Karkat Vantas, Vriska Serket, and Sollux Captor*
Who, conveniently, has several similarities to the afore mentioned Mr. Strider
Two of his minions also have names that beautifully paint the fourth wall: Doc Scratch and Snowman. All the other members of The Felt, and the gang itself, have names that are written in green.
Vriska'a FLARP name is Marquise Spinneret Mindfang. We later find out that she named herself after her Famous Ancestor.
There's also Eridan's FLARP name, Orphaner Dualscar. It turns out that he named his character after his ancestor.
All of the ancestors have ridiculously cool names: Neophyte Redglare (Who Terezi's FLARP character is named after and is her ancestor), Expatriate Darkleer, the Grand Highblood...
John names his "adopted" salamander Casey. Rose names her/him Viceroy Bubbles Von Salamancer.
Rose has a talent for this: she names her mutant kitten Vodka Mutini
Let's not forget Jack Noir, who also goes by Sovereign Slayer.
In Voodoo Walrus most character names seem to be more like alias or online handles, so this is rather prominent in names like Rip Flintlock, Shmeerm, Miriam Cyradwee, and of course Villemous Quetzacoatl CreepKnight
Zokusho Comics: Serge (pronounced like surge) Inverse. Nitrous Blight. Rotting Johnny. Drake Lephisto. Fizzbang the Goblin. That Guy. More than likely there's more to come.
Spoofed with Linkara, in his World of Warcraft comic review, where after getting fed up with the naming style in Azeroth, he refers himself as Awesome McBadassPowerfist
During the Olympics episode of Bowsers Kingdom, Hal decides to give the team he and Jeff are on the name "Super Awesome Dynamite Platinum Bros". Jeff thought it was a Fail O'Suckyname and crossed it off, leading them to be called Team No Name. Turns out the name was already used by the 12-time champions.
Homestar Runner has a number of really cool names, like Strong Bad, The Cheat, Coach Z, and the title character himself.
The full names belonging to some of the characters in Noka.
The AV Club reviews of Glee enthusiastically remind us when he appears that the name of the actor who plays Sam is CHORD OVERSTREET!
Western Animation
Spoofed in The Simpsons when Homer changes his name to Max Power ("I got it from a hair dryer").
Homer also suggested Handsome B. Wonderful and Rembrandt Q. Einstein as possibilities; the judge allowed Max Power because it was the only one he had spelled correctly.
Don't forget his other suggestion, Hercules Rockefeller.
In one episode, while on the lam, Homer tells a hotel clerk that his name is Rock Strongo. The clerk immediately calls Homer out for using such an obvious fake name and asks for his real one.
Homer: ... Lance Uppercut. Clerk: Sign here, Mr. Uppercut.
In that same episode, Lisa calls herself "Lady Penelope Ariel Ponyweather".
And Homer has also used the alias "Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar."
Homer has also suggested new names for Marge including Chesty LaRue, Busty Sinclair, and Hootie McBoob.
Bart says he's going change his name to Joe Kickass.
Homer suggests Homer Junior. "The kids could call you HoJu!"
Let's not forget Homer's one-time boss Hank Scorpio.
Early Cuyler: I dub thee, "Hershel Walker Cuyler Them Dogs Is Hell Don't They"! (later on) "Come along now, Hershel Walker Cuyler Them Dogs Is Hell Don't They!"
Cool McCool (A cartoon from the 60s named after the main character)
The Replacements: Dick Daring, Ace Palmero, Travis Bodie, and in what might be the straightest possible example of this trope, Sierra McCool.
After being mutated into animal hybrid things by a mad scientist, a few characters in Gargoyles decide to ditch perfectly ordinary names like Derek in favour if identifying as Claw, Fang and Talon. They don't need to hide their previous identities; they do it just because.
Originally, the Gargoyles didn't take names of their own, although their leader was known as Goliath by the humans they protected. When they found themselves in 20th century New York they took on names fitting to their new surroundings; Hudson (the old veteran), Brooklyn (the tough guy), Lexington (the smart skinny guy), Bronx (the dog), and Broadway (the mellow one).
And also David Xanatos... because he planned it that way.
Metalocalypse: Nathan Explosion! Skwisgaar Skwigelf! Toki Wartooth! William Murderface Murderface Murderface! And Pickles.
The Rocket family (father Ray, daughter Reggie, son Otto) from Rocket Power. It's heavily implied (or at least NOT implied otherwise) that "Rocket" is their actual last name. The viewer is never given a reason to think that it's not, and that's good enough for me.
Some Transformers just luck out with the names. Seriously, Slugslinger and Caliburst, people.
And that's not getting into Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Ironhide, Devastator, Bonecrusher, Wreck-Gar, Ultra Magnus...Transformers is made of this. In fact, the first live-action film had a character by the name of "Brawl" erroneously referred to as "Devastator". Michael Bay said this was deliberate and that he always thought "Devastator" was a more threatening name.
There's also Thundercracker, Demolishor, Sunstorm, Dirge, Ruination, Sinnertwin, Gutcruncher, Scourge, Rampage, Mixmaster, Soundwave, and of course Starscream. (A human character in one of the comics even commented on how cool the name was.) How come the bad guys get all the good names?
In fact, Dirge apparently got his name because one of the creators just plain thought that it sounded cool.
Omega Supreme, Sentinel Prime, Elita One, Moonracer, Silverbolt, Superion, Fortress Maximus, Big Daddy, Grimlock...oh, why don't we just say, "every Transformer whose name isn't a common word like 'Gears' or 'Eject'" while we're young.
And at least one whose name is a common word. Ravage.
Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show definitively qualify.
The Headmaster of School For Vampires has a name that could only be given to a truly badass vampire: Count Alarich von Horrificus.
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Billy's name for an alien dog-thing: "Admiral Wolverine Lightningbolt, because those are the three coolest words in the universe!"
There's also DelGado. Hoss DelGado.
While the girls of Sky Dancers got off pretty easy, the guys ended up with the names "Slam" and "Breeze".
In G.I. Joe, every single member of the G.I. Joe organization had a nickname. Most had nicknames relating to their specialties: Doc was a doctor, Lifeline was a medic, Torpedo was a submarine pilot, Mutt had a bomb-sniffing dog, Alpine and Snow Job specialized in fighting in the snow, etc. Some of the names were meaningful for other reasons, as in the case of redhead Scarlett. Some of the names, though, were just cool, like Duke and Lady Jaye.
No love here for Futurama's resident military genius Zap Brannigan?
Lord Monochromicorn and Princess Bonnibelle Bubblegum from Adventure Time.
In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic we have Rainbow Dash, who has one of the coolest names a fictional horse can have. This is even more epic and meaningful when you see her pull off the legendary Sonic Rainboom.
Don't forget her pet tortoise, Tank, who's impervious to harm and never gives up.
This seems to be a running theme with the Wonderbolts; the four named ones are Spitfire, Soarin', Fleetfoot and Rapid Fire.
And then in the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant, Dash gets to play a figure in pony history with an even cooler name and title: the ancient leader of the pegasi, named Commander Hurricane!
In the upcoming episode,Putting Your Hoof Down, Fluttershy seeks assertiveness training from a character named Iron Will.
Real Life
Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Korean War airman, congressman from Colorado, Olympian judo competitor.
The late chief of the Scottish Clan Gregor was called Sir Gregor Macgregor of Macgregor (Macgregor of Macgregor being his surname)
Zakk Wylde, being an Ascended Fanboy, named one of his kids Hendrix Halen Michael Rhoads Wylde, after Jimi, Eddie, Ozzy (John Michael Osbourne), and Randy, respectfully.
Ho Chi Minh was actually named Nguyen Sinh Cung, but like any respectful Communist leader, adopted a more smasing name later in life. It roughly translates into English as "Bringer of Light".
Mark Allen Slaughter. Lead singer of a self-named band.
American crime writer Karin Slaughter.
Possibly the most accomplished example of this trope, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His baptismal name was actually Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. But he preferred the Latin translation Amadeus (love of God) to the Greek (Theophilus). Theophilus/Amadeus is also sometimes translated as Amade (French) or Gottlieb (German). (And knowing is half the battle!)
Charles Martel. Since Charles or Carl means "Man" and Martel means "hammer", he is literally known to history as Man the Hammer. Or Manhammer, for short.
Hannibal Barca sounds cool enough on its own, but when you translate his name, Hannibal means "Blessed by Baal" while Barca means "Lightning." The fact that he attempted to march Elephants into Rome and led a campaign lasting over a decade in hostile territory, thereby ensuring his reputation as Rome's boogeyman... Yeah, he lived up to his name.
And his dad's name was Hamilcar. Hamilcar Barca. It rolls off the tongue like a tsunami of awesome.
A candidate for California representative: Zane Starkewolf. Yes, really.
Trek Thunder Kelly ran for governor of California in the 2003 recall election.
According to Cracked.com, there's actually a man in the U.S. Army called Staff Sergeant Max Fightmaster. And he has a Myspace.
Within the Cracked staff itself there's Soren Bowie.
Dr. Duncan Steel, whose job was to blow up marauding asteroids from approximately January 1982 to 1999. Did this man, like, escape from a superhero comic or something?
This Cracked article has a contributor named Jennifer Bonesteel, which the writer comments on.
Another cool name in the world of television news, Colorado Springs reporter Tak Landrock. Tak is probably short for Takeshi. He's got an older brother Katsuhisa and younger brother Teruhisa, AKA Teddy).
German police minister from a few years back; Alexander von Stahl (von Stahl="of steel"). Alexander also means "protector of men" or something like that.
Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (or Iosif Vissarionovich Jugashvili, the Russianized version) chose to be called Stalin ("Man of Steel"), as it is a direct translation of Jughashvili to Russian. He followed a tradition of renaming himself that included Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov, who went by Lenin.
Pierre Mauroy's French government in 1981 had, at the same time, Delors (« some gold ») as Finance minister, Defferre (« of iron ») as Police minister, Faure (« strong ») as Justice minister, Lang (« language ») as Culture minister, and Cresson (« cress ») as Agriculture minister. Also in 2005-2007, Clément (« merciful ») was Justice minister.
One of the guys at Games Workshop is named Space McQuirk. One of the writers for GW subsidiary Black Library is Lucien Soulban
One National Guardsman legally changed his name to Optimus Prime.
There seems to be an unwritten rule demanding that TV meteorologists bear pornst- ...distinctive names. "Dallas Raines," "Storm Field," "Johnny Mountain," "Aloha Taylor," "Topper Shutt," "Sam Champion," "Ray Ban," "Monte Montello," "Flip Spiceland" and Amy Freeze are all actual examples. The Germans have Ben Wettervogel, which translates to "Weatherbird." Many of these are stagenames, but not all: Sara Blizzard really is called that, yes.
What about Bear Grylls, the English TV survival show presenter who used to be in the SAS? His show is basically him being thrown into the wilderness in some part of the world and being forced to live there until he finds his way back to civilization. Unfortunately, Bear is just a nickname, and his real name is Edward.
Futurama writer David X Cohen was originally called David S. Cohen, but the Writers Guild of America doesn't permit two members with the same name, so he changed it. The 'X' doesn't stand for anything; it just "sounds sci-fi". He also said he hoped it would make him the David Cohen people would remember.
As part of his journey as a Celtic poet (in his book The Sky Is Falling On Our Heads), Rob Penn assumed a more Celtic (specifically, Manx) name: Ned Clague (pronounced Clegg), and something of a new persona along with it.
A writer for (among other things) Batman The Brave And The Bold has the name Joseph Kuhr. He even wrote "Game Over for Owlman", the episode where the Joker actually appears. He stated in an interview that more than a couple people have mistaken it for a pseudonym, and that it is pronounced "Koor" nor "Ker".
There's a basketball player named Chief Kickingstallionsims. You should see the back of his jersey.
Chief is actually his middle name. His full name is Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims Jr. Presumably, he uses his middle name because it not only sounds cooler, it's also much easier to pronounce.
Speaking of basketball, let's not forget God Shammgod.
World B. Free. Changed from the slightly less awesome Lloyd B. Free.
NBA player Bison Dele.
Sunshine Megatron, whose name was the result of an online contest he held to decide what his new name would be.
There's a comic-book artist named Wade Von Grawbadger.
Jens Fleischhauer, German notary. His name translates literally into John Meat Cutter. But Fleischhauer just sounds way more impressive.
There is a Singaporean identity card widely circulated on the internet belonging to a man named Batman bin Suparman (pictured above). In Muslim terms, the name means "Batman, son of Superman". Suparman is actually a common Indonesian name.
Once again, Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel, as a real life English politician legally changed his name to the one from the Monty Python sketch.
Facebook's name-filtering system tends to lock out the accounts of people with these kinds of names, as to its logic they sound made up. Native Americans are especially unhappy.
WWE wrestler Michelle McCool's name really was, in fact, Michelle McCool, until she got married to The Undertaker. Now her name is Michelle McCool-Callaway.
Averted by Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat. who didn't use his decidedly awesome real name, Richard Blood, since it doesn't lend itself to a babyface.
This has led to his children carrying "Warrior" as their surname. His two children are named Indiana Marin "Indy" Warrior and Mattigan Twain Warrior.
Adewale Ogunleye, Chicago Bears defensive end. The Ogun part of his surname means "God of Iron".
Another McCool was the pilot on the space shuttle Columbia's last mission. According to friends and family he did indeed live up to his name.
You can't possibly mention the space program without mentioning Buzz Aldrin (yes, that is his legal name!)
But he only had it legally changed after he was already famous for going to the moon and such. He was born Edwin Eugene Aldrin.
Voice actor Daran Norris, known for playing Cosmo from The Fairly OddParents (among many other roles), occasionally uses the stage name "Jack Hammer".
Swedish nobility loves this trope. One of Sweden's oldest noble families is Natt och Dag ("Night and Day"). Others include Gyllensköld (literally "Goldenshield"), Silverhielm ("Silverhelmet"), Gyllenpistol ("Goldenpistol") and Stålhandske ("steel glove").
Also, a lot of Swedish commoners whose ancestors were professional soldiers have inherited snappy surnames like e.g. Blixt ("lightning bolt"), Svärd ("sword"), Pistol, Warg ("wolf") and Frimodig ("cocksure"). In the old days, farmers did not have proper surnames, so company commanders were obliged to give their new recruits distinctive ones to tell the soldiers apart.
The Danish-Norwegian 18th-century Vice-admiral and national hero Peter Wessel Tordenskiold. That means "Thundershield".
A minor league outfielder during the Deadball Era went by the name of Ten Million. More recently, the nineties produced pitcher Perfecto Gaud and outfielder Wonderful Terrific Monds.
What about Urban Shocker even though its an Anglicized version of his actual name, Urbain Shokor?
Cleveland H. Iron Heart! God M. Chief! John J. Gun Hammer! Ronald Two Teeth! Agostino Tornado!
Along the same lines as the former is noted Australian scientist David M. Scienceman. Made even better because, in scholarly papers, sources are often cited using the author's last name, which leads to things like (Scienceman 1987) scattered throughout journal articles in certain fields of study.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a pretty awesome name for an astrophysicist. He sounds like a guy who can punch you so hard you'd land on the moon!
Considering that he was a collegiate boxer and wrestler, and still fights occasionally today, he's probably closer than most astrophysicists to actually being able to do so.
The Finnish metal band Turisas is fronted by a man named Mathias Nygård.
In Flames guitarist and founder Jesper Strömblad, whose name translates from Swedish to English as Jasper Streamleaf. This is his real name, not a stage pseudonym.
This is phenomenon is fairly common in Swedish surnames overall. Examples include Stenbeck ("Stonestream"), Törngren ("Thornbranch"), Bergman ("Mountainman"), Forsberg ("Rivermountain") and so forth.
It's the same thing in Finland, partially as a result of many nationalist-minded Finns translating their Swedish surnames into Finnish more or less literally in the early 1900s.
General Sir John Hackett. Led a parachute regiment at Arnhem. Also wrote a rather good book.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller. First woman ever to be the Chief of the entire Cherokee Nation. With a name like that, are you going to tell her no?
Air Chief Marshal Sir Graham Eric Stirrup, or as he's more popularly known, Sir Jock Stirrup. He used to be a fast jet pilot too.
Maakies creator Tony Millionaire? That's his real name.
Philip von Hohenheim didn't think his name was badass enough, so he changed it to Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Later he used the moniker "Paracelsus" ("equal of Celsus" - Celsus was perhaps the ancient authority on medicine) instead, and it is the name he is most known by (as an important physician, chemist, botanist and occultist).
Conservative radio host Michael Savage's real name is Michael Weiner. Pretty funny given his occasional habit of using "sausage" as an insult.
Representing the National Football League, we have Mack Strong, Rock Cartwright, Takeo Spikes, Quentin Jammer, and Peerless Price.
Don't forget former quarterback Joe Montana. Won 4 Super Bowls with the 49ers and 1 National Championship at Notre Dame. In a contest to give him a nickname, one contestant felt "Joe Montana" already sounded like a nickname, and therefore came up with "David W. Gibson."
Wolfgang 'Teddy' de Beer, in Germany known as Teddy de Beer (pronounced "Teddy der Bär" in German, "Teddy the Bear")
And it's not like "de Beer" as name isn't awesome enough to get mentioned here.
Geof Manthorn of Ace Of Cakes, which is completely at odds with such a laid-back dude.
There's someone in the credits for NCIS named Frank Military.
Bernard Francis Law (famous for resigning in the wake of church sex abuse scandals) had a fairly unassuming name for a priest... until he became a Cardinal, making him Cardinal Law.
Although he is completely outclassed when it comes to irony by the former (and now deceased) Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Lachica Sin. He was also a Cardinal... that's right, Cardinal Sin. A running joke of his was meeting visitors to his residence by saying, "Welcome to the house of Sin."
Among Black Metal bands, it's popular for members of bands in the genre to give themselves all sorts of ridiculously cool (and dark) names (Nocturno Culto, Necrobutcher, Count Grishnack and so on and so forth).
D.E. Trueblood is not a comicbook superhero but a theologian. A freakin' theologian!
Sadly, he's now Lieutenant General Lord, Chief of Warfighting Integration. It's a higher rank, but somehow not nearly as awesome sounding.
Actor and voice actor Lorenzo Music, best known for his portrayal of Garfield among other things. Truth be told, it's not wholly his birth name...but the Music part is!
There is one old Bollywood actor who goes by his stage name, Johnny Walker. You know, the whiskey?
The name is shared by a veteran (or should that be well-aged?) UK radio DJ.
There is an Australian cyclist whose real name is Johnnie Walker. But wait, it gets better. He is in the same team with another cyclist named Michele Merlo. I am not making this up.
Vanness Wu!
Malaysian Indian radio disk jockey Phat Fabes. His real name is Fabian Jesse James.
Pierre Andre (Mohd Pierre Andre Bin Nazarul Andre), a Malaysian actor.
Malay-English siblings Ashraf Sinclair and Aishah Sinclair. And Ashraf's Indonesian wife Bunga Cinta Lestari (literally "Sustainable Love Flower" in Indonesian).
The producers of the Avatar: The Last AirbenderLive-Action Adaptation recently cast a ten-year old boy to play an Earthbending boy. His name? Isaac Jin Solstein.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, creator of the Great Western Railway and leading light of the Industrial Revolution. I haven't tested this, but I believe that bellowing his name aloud will stop a speeding train.
The lovely soprano (snerk) Florence Foster Jenkins, and her loyal accompanist, Cosme McMoon.
General Stonewall Jackson, although his real name is Thomas Jonathan Jackson. He got his Bad Ass nickname after his brilliant defense at the First Battle of Bull Run. Since then, everybody calls him Stonewall. Even history textbooks.
Vlad Dracula — "Son of the Dragon" in Romanian. "Dracul" nowadays means "devil", making it even better. His nickname was "Țepeș", which means "The Impaler" (it sounds cooler if you don't know why that's his nickname).
Dracula was also a nickname (in medieval Romanian spelled "Drãculea" - "Little Dragon" or "Little Devil"). His true name was Vlad III Basarab, which is not uncool either. His brothers and rivals were also nicknamed Vlad IV "the Monk" and Radu III "the Handsome".
Lampshaded in Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. His battle theme is called "Son of Satan".
Ladies and gentlemen, legendary ballroom dancer Pierre Allaire!
Australian politician Nick Xenophon (born Xenophou), who by interesting coincidence is speaking out against Scientology (warning, the ex-Scientologist's testimonials are quite depressing).
Another slightly interesting coincidence is that one of the Scientology spokespeople in Australia is named Cyrus. Xenophon and Cyrus have worked together before...
Barack Obama. With a name like that, he sounds like he should be fighting De La Hoya this weekend! Barack happens to sound just like the word for lightning in Hebrew. His name is Lightning Obama.
Unfortunately for Hebrew enthusiasts, his name isn't actually derived from the Hebrew for "lightning", but rather the Arabic for "blessed" (he's named after his father; while Barack Obama Sr. was an atheist, Sr.'s parents — the Prez's grandparents — were definitely Muslims: his grandpa was the village imam, in fact). However, Arabic and Hebrew are closely related languages, and the Arabic word for lightning is "baraq" (the "q" is a different sound); the confusion arises on account of the merging of qoph and kaph in Ashkenazi Hebrew, which became the standard Israeli pronunciation. There is an equivalent name to "Barack" in Hebrew, however: Baruch, one of Jeremiah's main assistants and an important figure in Jewish history in his own right.
Mars Bonfire, author of the seminal rock song Born To Be Wild.
Michael Ironside. Anything with "iron" in it for that matter.
It must be admitted unfortunately, but one of the most evil men in all of history has one of these: Adolf Hitler. His first name stands for "noble wolf". His last name is not particularly notable (before it became synonymous with pure evil, that is), but the trope becomes apparent when one considers that he might have been named "Adolf Schicklgruber" if his father, then called Alois Schicklgruber, had not petitioned to be recognized as the son of his adopted (and possibly true) father, Johann Hiedler/Hitler, just thirteen years before Adolf's birth. From William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:
There may not be much or anything in a name, but I have heard Germans speculate whether Hitler could have become the master of Germany had he been known to the world as Schicklgruber. It has a slightly comic sound as it rolls off the tongue of a South German. Can one imagine the frenzied German masses acclaiming a Schicklgruber with their thunderous "Heils"? "Heil Schicklgruber!"? Not only was "Heil Hitler!" used as a Wagnerian, pagan-like chant by the multitude in the mystic pageantry of the massive Nazi rallies, but it became the obligatory form of greeting between Germans during the Third Reich, even on the telephone, where it replaced the conversational "Hello." "Heil Schicklgruber!"? It is a little difficult to imagine.
There is a distinct possibility that the name Hitler/Hiedler/Hidler (naming rules were a bit lax in previous centuries) was derived from the Slavonic (Czech) ''Hidlar'' or ''Hidlarcek''. Some of his family members attested that that there were Moravians in the family line.
Mr. T. He invented the handle so that everyone would have to address him respectfully, and went on to have it legally changed.
Penn Jillette, one half of infamous magician duo Penn & Teller, named his daughter Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette and his son Zolten Penn Jillette.
Skins' Lily Loveless. Also the probably pseudonymic Sophia Black-D'Elia from the American version.
Armie Hammer, most ofthe Winklevoss twins. His real name is Armand (Arm and) Hammer. His grandfather was a senator with the same name
Professional hockey player Miroslav Satan. Sadly, he has never played for the New Jersey Devils. Also, It is pronounced "shu-TAN", but still looks awesome on the back of a jersey.
Engineer Buckminster Fuller, the namesake of the carbon molecule buckminsterfullerene, so named because it resembles his designs for geodesic domes.
The 2010 Winter Olympics also saw the rise of ice hockey player Tore Vikingstad of Norway. The name alone made him a Memetic Badass in online hockey communities, nevermind he was one of the few bright spots on an otherwise hopeless Norwegian team.
Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey. What else would you expect from the only son of Church of Satan founder, Anton LaVey?
Zoltan Bathory of the band Five Finger Death Punch. Bathory is the name of a infamous Hungarian murderess, and Zoltan sounds like a villain from the future, but it's actually a pretty common Hungarian name.
The Hives as a whole. Nicholaus Arson, Dr. Matt Destruction, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, Vigilante Carlstroem, and Chris Dangerous. Oh Hell yeah.
When visiting a cathedral in England, I saw a very awesome name on a tombstone. No details besides his name and years, so he can only be judged by his name: Manley Powers.
There is a Broadway actor whose name is Manley Pope
Not even their more "conventional" (by figure skating standards) long program costumes were without controversy, because they used the belts to hold on to each other during the performance.
, but their names are pretty awesome: Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.
Dr. Sorabain Wolfheart de Lioncourt (but it seems he does AI research, not Grendel-slaying). He apparently gets enough questions about it that he has a picture of his passport online.
Talking of the gentleman who played Dracula, that's Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee to you.
Even disregarding the Dracula thing, Christopher Lee is a Real Life Badass.
Canadian musician Dallas Green. Aside from being in Alexisonfire, he does solo albums under the "band" name City and Colour, allegedly because he figured people would see his actual name on a CD cover as a band name anyway.
Also the name of a World Series-winning manager.
Dallas Green the musician is in fact named after Dallas Green the baseball manager. If the latter hadn't won the World Series, the former would have been Graham-Todd Green...
Sir Nicolas Grimshaw. Not only is he knighted, but has one of the most badass/beloved anime characters named after him. He also is a freaking◊ amazingmodernist◊architect◊. That's the tip of the iceberg. Grimshaw is his last name, so there could be any number of family members with awesome names.
Adam Savage of MythBusters. On the other hand, his middle name is Whitney.
Orson Welles's real first name is "George", which led to this amusing exchange in his book-length interview with Peter Bogdanovich:
Peter Bogdanovich: Why'd you choose to be called by your middle name, Orson, instead of your first name, George? Orson Welles: There wasn't any choice involved. I've been Orson all my life. I first learned my name was George when I was nine years old. It came as a terrible shock. Children started screaming "Georgie, Porgie, puddin' and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry." This enraged me. I kicked out at my little playmates and got black eyes for it. How wrong I was. What a name to be born with and not use — George Orson Welles. Peter Bogdanivich: All of it? You trust people with three names. Orson Welles: With a name like George Orson Welles, I wouldn't need to be trusted — I'd be Emperor of the World!
Quentin Tarantino. A name tailor-made for someone slightly dangerous, clearly wicked, utterly cool, and flat-out awesome in every sense of the word.
Storm Thorgerson, famous for designing album covers for Pink Floyd, among others.
There is a Member of the Scottish Parliament called Jackson Carlaw.
Richard Smith, a care worker from Carlisle, clearly thought his name was unremarkable and changed it to a more metal one "It's just a strange name I like the sound of," said the newly dubbed Stormhammer Deathclaw Firebrand.
With a name like Moore-Bacon, this contestant has a powerful bid for the throne of cool names.
Lord Chief Justice and President of the Courts of England and Wales is Lord Igor Judge – Judge Judge. He is formally addressed as Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge, Baron Judge.
Calvin Coolidge. What did you expect from a guy who has 'cool' in his last name?
Genghis Khan, as noted by Badass of the Week, was born with the name "Temujin" - which literally meant "iron man." Of course, the man himself made the name "Khan" one of the scariest and coolest names ever.
One of the creators of Red vs. Blue, Geoff Fink had his name changed to Geoff Lazer Ramsey.
Ragnar Tørnquist, notable game designer (The Longest Journey). An awesome name for a D&D character.
Famous American soldier and explorer Zebulon Montgomery Pike Jr.
Peter Gutmann. What's more, he even accidentally created the most overzealous wiping scheme (35 passes) known to man!*
What happened is that he created each pass to destroy data on a specific storage technology (except for the eight random passes) and the whole thing got combined, despite most of the passes being meaningless with modern tech
Ransom Love (Co-Founder of Caldera), Havoc Pennington (Programmer)
David Justice, Major League Baseball outfielder and DH.
Jesse James Hollywood, who was at one time on the FBI's most wanted list and later had a Hollywood film made about his crime.
Benedict Cumberbatch. Part of it's how well it comes together. Either half on its own would sound a little ridiculous, but together, it's just awesome.
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch. Just try to say that out loud.
In the same vein, there's Leonardo DiCaprio, who got his first name from the fact that he kicked his mother in-utero for the first time while she was looking at a da Vinci painting. Bonus points to him for not changing it to Lenny Williams, as an agent once suggested he should do.
Hutch Dano, whose real name is Hutching Royal Dano.
A Texas politician who is also a singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, and former columnist by the name of "Kinky Friedman".
Another NFL example. Rookie defensive lineman for the Detroit Lions - Ndamukong Suh. If that first name sounds like it would be a tribal language for something epic, that's because it is. 310 pounds of an angry guy named "House of Spears." That does this to people on occasion. Good luck.
If you get interested in Etymology, you can find awesome ones with first names:
Louis is "Glorious fighter" (as, for that matter, is Boris, if you take it as short for Borislav). Walter is "Warrior Commander". Michael/Mikael is "Who is like God?" Charles is "The Strong". Nicholas is "Victory of the people". David is "Beloved".
From the NHL, we have Jarome Iginla (which translates as either 'big tree' or 'lightning' in Yoruba) and Miroslav Satan (who really should play for the New Jersey Devils with that name!)
Mexican archaeologist Marta Turok and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
Ex-British MP for the Liberal Democrats, Lembit Opik.
Finnish singer Suvi Teräsniska, whose name could be translated to Summer Steelneck.
Tyson Fury, a rising Irish-British... heavyweight boxer. What else could he be with a name like that? When he first went to a boxing gym the coach couldn't believe he was really (as a white kid) called Tyson, and was even more amazed when he asked his surname – it certainly makes thinking up a nickname rather redundant. He is actually named after Mike Tyson.
Due to the characteristics of the language, this is a pretty common occurrence in Japanese given names, since parents usually take special care in choosing kanji with the best meanings for their children's name. It gets more awesome in feudal nobility where names were even more of a Serious Business. They generally don't translate well to English, though, because rather than going for a specific meaning, the point is to combine cool/elegant/graceful kanji into a name that looks and sounds powerful (or in case of women, elegant) and positive.
An example: Uesugi Kenshin was born as Torachiyo (general pattern for a childhood name, plus the character for "tiger"). At coming of age he became known as Kagetora (bright+tiger), which he later changed to Masatora (rule+tiger), and after that, Terutora (radiance+tiger). Somewhat uncharacteristically for the age, he kept holding on to a specific character, at least until he became a devout Buddhist and changed his name to Kenshin (modest+faith).
Spangler Arlington Brugh, born in Nebraska in 1911. He is an unfortunate subversion of this trope, however, because when he signed with MGM in 1932, he changed his name to...Robert Taylor.
Actress Clémence Poésy (meaning Mercy Poetry, though Poésy is her mother's maiden name and not her birth name)
Many Brazilian footballers tend to acquire Awesome McCoolnames for professional nicknames, starting from Pelé, all the way down to Kaká in the current squad. And let's not forget the most awesome of all: Roberto Dinamite.
Not much compared to some of these, but "Garth Nix" is a pretty awesome name.
Puritans of the New World used names like this frequently, including some that have become respectable, not-weird names, like Chastity, Hope, Constance, and some that have become bywords for how weird the Puritans could be: a family whose surname was ALREADY "Barebones" named their sons "Praisegod" and something like "If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Wouldst-Have-Been-Damned." Supposedly, the latter son ended up going by "Damned Barebones," which must have been odd for a Puritan
If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee... Barebone had the good fortune of having that as his middle name, preferring to use Nicholas in daily discourse. He also tended to spell his name "Barbon," and is known as a pioneer of free-market economics (Locke and Smith depended on his work). His father, Praise-God, was a significant Puritan figure in the English Civil War, and named the Barebone's Parliament.
Though to be fair, apparently they also had a habit of reading the Bible and picking out a "likely sounding" name. Some took it to an extreme and randomly pointed to a word - with results like "The Constance" or "And Goodmather". Seriously.
Better yet (and more appropriate for a Puritan), he apparently changed his given name to "Praise-God." (A history teacher of mine claimed it was "Praise-God-and-Fly-Fornication," but this is unconfirmed and was probably the teacher joking.)
The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs is named Lawrence Cannon.
There's a picture floating around of a 4chan thread where the poster would name his newborn son whatever a post ending in the number 77 said. He delivered. The winner? Courage Wolf Harper.
Doc Holliday, fastest gun in the west.
There is an author named Manly Banister. Unfortunately, his books are not about banisters.
Kurt Tank, test pilot and the man who designed the Fw 190.
The real name of the man behind Venetian Snares is Aaron Funk. You don't even really need to do the I Am the Band thing with a name like that, but he did anyway.
Dr. Rocky Strong, who makes a living studying Sharks.
A recent bus bombing made headlines back here in the Philippines. What does that have to do with this trope? The bus driver was named Maximo Peligro (aka "Maximum Danger"). And he survived the bus bombing, too.
James Robertson Justice. (Sadly not related to Victoria.)
CrispinHellionGlover. His middle name really is Hellion; considering most of the roles he's played, this shouldn't be all that surprising.
This troper knew a guy who was in the Navy as an Interior Communications Specialist Third Class which gets shortened down to IC 3 the dudes last name...BALLS....IC3 BALLS
Monsters actor Scoot McNairy. Adorable name, bonus points for actually having the 'Mc'.
Dr. Stephen Granade, Rocket Scientist and co-host of What The Cast.
Max Planck, Nobel Prize winner.
Actress Alia Shawkat.
Whether you're an occultist of any flavour or not, you have to agree that Aleister Crowley had a damn cool name.
St. Olaf's College choir conductor Anton Armstrong.
One member of the German Parliament is called Cajus Julius Caesar. His eldest son and his grandson go by the same name.
A doctor in a small German town nobody cares about is named Dr. Totmacher. That literally means "Dr.Deadmaker". Guess where his office was. In the street "Am Friedhof" which means "At the cemetery".
The founder and president of Hazardous Software, the studio that's developing Achron, is called Dr. Chris Hazard.
Onika Miraj (one letter short of being "Demon-child Illusion"), better known as Nicki Minaj.
Apparently in some parts of India it's traditional to name children after famous people, whether they know why they're famous or not. This can lead to weird situations like Hitler trying to beat Frankenstein in a local election. The article also mentions a guy named Britainwar.
Raphael Berdugo (1747 – 1821), respected Moroccan rabbi, has a surname that literally translates to "Executioner" in Filipino. A religious scholar whose name is roughly equivalent to "Archangel-of-Healing Executioner". With a father named Mordecai Berdugo.
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, whose professional name only barely outdoes her real one for awesomeness.
Belgian soccer player Eden Hazard. Only surpassed by his younger brother, Thorgan.
Vernor Vinge, a sci-fi author. Vinge really does mean 'awesome' or 'cool' in Estonian. I wonder if he knows that.
American actor Texas Battle.
This troper has a local master fitness trainer named Tyler Best.
WABC 7 Eyewitness News weather team had names like Storm Field, Sam Champion, and Amy Freeze.
KABC 7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles has meteorologist Dallas Raines. Apparently the Dallas news stations keep trying to recruit him.
Cosmetics company Max Factor is named after its founder, groundbreaking film makeup artist Max Factor.
A well-noted Tennessean show business family contains patriarch Billy Ray Cyrus, matriarch Leticia Cyrus, sons Christopher Cody, Trace, and Braison, and daughters Brandi, Noah, and middle child Destiny Hope Cyrus. And that's not counting their late grandfather, Senator Ronnie Ray Cyrus from Kentucky.
Dick Armey. Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Esteemed classical organist E. Power Biggs.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, victor of the Battle of Lake Erie.
H.P. Lovecraft is a pretty badass-sounding name, even if the H.P. stands for the fairly unremarkable "Howard Phillips".
This troper once came across a woman with the name Blanca Luna, which translates to "White Moon."
Robert Frost.
Kevin Clash, who is best known for puppeteering and voicing the rather harmless Elmo.
Vin Diesel. For added credibility, his name is an anagram for "I end lives."
Aussie Rules footballer Steele Sidebottom. Sounds like he should be in porn with a name like that.
Elton Sledge.
The one and only Stirling Silliphant. Sounds like "sterling silly pant"... or, in any case, an adjective and a noun.
John Sappington Marmaduke, Civil War Major general.
The city of Modesto has a Jackie Chan, MD, whose name is engraved on a plaque outside his office.
Kiki Wolfkill, executive producer of 343 Industries, the company developing Halo 4.
Since names in Native American languages tend to be literally translated into English, we end up with names like Conquering Bear, Wilma Mankiller, Madonna Thunderhawk, One-Who-Walks-With-The-Stars, and They-Fear-Even-His-Horses.
Actor Omar Doom. Interesting note: his dad was a doctor, meaning that he was the son of Doctor Doom. (Actually, he was born with the last name "Makhdomi," but that's close enough.)
As demonstrated in the article picture, Indonesian people sometimes come up with impossibly cool names. There is at least one recorded case of Muhammad Yesus in Indonesia.
Somewhere in my chain of command is an officer with the name of Thrasher, making him Major Thrasher.
Just about anyone whose last name is also a common noun who obtains a doctorate in anything gets an automatic superhero name. For example, this troper has met a pharmacist named Doctor Justice.
Lieutenant Wilhelm Blitz, commander of Germany's first ever platoon of tanks during WWI.
Examples of groups, places, and things with exceptionally cool names:
Anime & Manga
In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lilith is housed in Terminal Dogma, the lowest level of NERV HQ. The chamber in question is behind a giant bulkhead christened "Heaven's Door"; this area is also referred to as Level-EEE.
The control center is called Central Dogma which is also a scientific term (biology, to be exact).
There's also another control center called the Pribnow Box, a well-known term in genetics.
Rebuild of Evangelion appears to have switched out the two names. Also, the second film has "The Key of Nebuchadnezzar", a miniature human skeleton encased in amber.
Films — Live Action
Star Wars: "Death Star", "Star Destroyer", "Lightsaber", ...
Considering that the translation to spanish wouldn't be that cool, editors decide to use a latinized version and called them "Mortífagos" (Latin for "Mortis", Death and "Fagi", to eat), which ends up being awesome.
In the final book of the Doom novels, due to an inability to compromise between two equally unwieldly epic names, a ship is christened "Great Descent into Maelstrom of Solar Flare of Righteous Vengeance Against Enemies of the People's State."
In Discworld there's a chess-like game called Hneflbaflsniflwhifltafl, commonly nicknamed Thud!. It's a parody of a real game, Hneftafl.
40k is full of these. Valhalla, Macragge, Witchblades, Lightning Claws, Thunder Hammers, the Eye of Terror...
Video Games
Dwarf Fortress random names can bestow this (or Ominous Mundanity) on characters (through acquired titles,) locations and artifacts.
Aside its characters mentioned above, No More Heroes brings us Santa Destroy, the city where the events of the game take place. It also includes locations with names like Burger Suplex and Body Slam Beach.
One-upping it: "Flame Sprayer". It doesn't shoot out flames per se. It shoots out molten metal.
A "boom" mike and "shotgun" mike.
The "Street Sweeper" shotgun.
The Ninjemys, a horned turtle. Yes, it was named after that.
The M67 "Zippo" flame throwing tank.
There is a gene known as "Sonic hedgehog homolog". I swear it's true. The enzyme that potentially inhibits it has been dubbed "Robotnikinin." There's also a retinal protein named "Pikachurin". There's a huge debate over naming proteins/genes since defects in these genes can have serious consequences. It puts doctors in the awkward situation of telling heartbroken people "I'm sorry but the reason for your miscarriage was that you unborn child had a defect in gene encoding for the Sonic Hedgehog Hormone."
A general trend in the dinosaur paleontology world seems to be to give dromeosaurs (raptors) names that are as badass as possible. Examples include Pyroraptor and Atrociraptor. One aversion is Bambiraptor, which funnily enough is closely related to Atrociraptor.
Though the name Lightning Ridge sounds like the name of a dungeon from a role playing video game, it is actually a mining town in New South Wales, Australia. Not that it makes it any less awesome.
They may have combined the expense of a battleship with the inadequate (when compared with real battleships) armour of a cruiser, but has there ever been a cooler name for a class of ship than Battlecruiser?
The Dreadnought would like to have a word with you.
Oregon has a Nine Devils Road. Seriously, how on Earth does a place get an awesome name like Nine Devils Road?
Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party — better known as the Bull Moose Party.
The Pirate Party. They have two seats at the European Parliament.
Britain actually derives its name from one of these. The Romans named the islands after the Priteni, meaning "The Tattooed Ones".
The HMS Glowworm, a British destroyer during WWII.
Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the UN, especially prominent to any fans of Bleach.
Seventh Standard Road runs through Kern County, California, USA. The name is actually just a surveying term, but it sounds rather like something out of Revelations.
Has there ever been a gun with a cooler name than the Desert Eagle?
There is an as-yet unnamed pliosaur discovered in 2006 which is currently being referred to in the paleontological community as Predator X.
This trope is probably one of the reasons why Tyrannosaurus rex is so popular.
