A Fed-Ex ad features a Witness Protection man who is given the name Eric Gustafson. Unfortunately he gets it taken away and becomes Paul Matheson
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.
Fall Out Toy Works has a character who changes her name to Gravity Welles.
Tintin means something along the lines of "nothing at all." It's apparently his last name.
"Tintin" sounds like a lot of French nicknames which take a syllable from a name and reduplicate it, such as Fifi (for Sophie, Yvonne, Josephine), Popaul (Paul) (Bébel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) once played the titular hero of the film Dr. Popaul), Didi and Gogo (Vladimir and Estragon). Tintin could be derived from Célestin, Constatin or Martin, good Catholic names for the hero of a series created for a Catholic newspaper. The first serial hero Hergé created was the boy-scout Totor.
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 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.
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 first name (it's derived from Natalie V).
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.
Slade Deathstroke the Terminator. Deathstroke. His actual name is Slade Wilson. Deathstroke the Terminator is his nom de guerre.
Power Man was born Carl Lucas, but promptly changed his name to Luke Cage. These days he goes by Luke Cage because frankly that's just as bad-ass as "Power Man." (Nicolas Coppola agreed that "Cage" was way better.)
Pick a male Wolfrider from Elf Quest; two out of three have names like Bearclaw, Strongbow, One Eye, Mantricker, Redlance, and so on.
King City: Max's full name is Maximum Absolute. Appropriately for such a manly name, he was a dual-chainsword-wieldingxombie slayer in his previous career.
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 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.
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.
Tangled: Flynn Rider. His real name is Eugene Fitzherbert.
Vitani from The Lion King 2 with a little help of Bilingual Bonus. Her name is a melding of Suahilian "Vit" - "war" and "Shetani" - "demon".
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.
"Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It's like some sort of superhero or something."
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 Riff Trax treatment of Daredevil, 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. Many other characters have made-up names that some people find cool. Mace Windu, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Darth Vader are a few of the most popular examples.
Starkiller was later given to the player's character in the Force Unleashed video game.
MST3K's riff on Space Mutiny has an absolute firestorm of these, such as Gristle McThornbody and Big McLargeHuge. So many that a few of the others on this page are direct Shout Outs. The funniest is the last one; Bob Johnson.
Ray Allen's character Jesus Shuttlesworth from He Got Game.
Laurence Fishburne's character, Furious Styles, in Boyz n the Hood.
Inverted with the latest Terminator movie, in which an actress with the Badass name of (Korinna) 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.
Rocket Ray Tracy, Black Cloud, and White wolf from Black Cloud.
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, 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 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..."
Lester: Lester... Lester the Molester Cockenschtuff.
Zack: Wow. That's a great porn name.
Lester: I get to pick a porn name?... Then I want to be called... Pete Jones.
The titular Nemo Nobody in Mr Nobody, who is the last mortal human after advances in medical technology have cured aging and decrepitude.
Kill Bill has several of them, like Elle Driver, Vernita Green, Sophie Fatale and Beatrix Kiddo isn't shabby either. Also Go-Go Yubari.
One of the main characters from Smoke Signals whose surname is Build-A-Fire. His grandmother is known as Grandma Builds-A-Fire.
In She Devil is a character, an overly developed, and quite healthy woman named Olivia Honey.
Most James Bond films have cool names, such as Jaws, Pussy Galore, and Goldfinger. Ironically, "James Bond" was chosen as a good spy name because it's so ordinary.
In Down Periscope, the electricians name was "Nitro". But he was looking for a cool nickname - "What do you think of this ... Mike"
Junito Rocket Racer Rebel Cortez or Juni for short, from Spy Kids.
What about his sister, Carmen Elizabeth Juanita Costa-Brava Cortez?
In Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim, character names such as Raleigh Antrobus, Yancy Antrobus, Newt Gotlieb, Tendo Choi, Herc Hansen, and Stacker Pentecost.
And that's before we get into the names of the robots themselves. Like, for example, Cherno Alpha, Crimson Typhoon, Gipsy Danger, Coyote Tango, Brawler Yukon...
From Gladiator, the protagonist's name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Sounds like a serious individual and he is.
Han Solo Berger in Thats My Boy. No one can figure out why he uses the name Todd Peterson for his profession.
One of the characters of Giant is named Jett Rink, which is made even cooler because he's played by James Dean (in his final role).
Will Smith's character in After Earth: Cypher Raige.
Gamebooks
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.
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 MacCumhail" by the Dropkick Murphys...which is also known by the name "The Legend of Finn MacCool".
The lead vocalist of Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals is called Gruff Rhys.
Highly divisive singer Lana Del Rey has this in spades. Just say it: "Lana Del Rey." Doesn't that feel good?
Her birth name, though, is rather average: Elizabeth Grant. One can kinda see why she changed it, especially with her Embarrassing Middle Name of Woolridge.
John Rich of Country Music duo Big & Rich has two sons: Cash and Colt. That's right, Cash Rich.
Country music band Diamond Rio, named after models of truck.
Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. "Joannes Chrysostomus" is for the saint's day he was born on. "Wolfgang" was his grandfather's name. "Theophilus" means "beloved of God." Mozart is a family name which originates from the root words "motz" and "hart," which mean "stupid" and "tough."
Dierks Bentley is a pretty cool name too. That's his birth name, even.
The Hives as a whole. Nicholaus Arson, Dr. Matt Destruction, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, Vigilante Carlstroem, and Chris Dangerous. Oh Hell yeah.
Queen's bassist John Deacon, as well (which is his real name).
Max Cavalera. His brother and bandmate Igor Graziano Cavalera too.
Being musical Superheroes, every member of The Aquabats! has one. Standouts include current guitarist Eaglebones Falconhawk and his predecessor, Chainsaw, the Prince of Karate.
Alisa Xayalith, lead singer of New Zealandsynthpop revival band The Naked & Famous. Though it sounds suitably synth-poppish, the name is actually of Laotian origin.
Nick Phoenix of Two Steps From Hell. An epic name for an epic music company.
Chad Gaylord Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As stated by the man himself: "I am lord of the gays, so don't fuck with me."
Fionn Mac Cumhaill, a hero of Celtic 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.
Jacob, one of the Hebrew patriarchs, was renamedby God Himself as "Yisrael" (anglicized to Israel) meaning wrestles with God, after Jacob fought with an angel and won. The angel only defeated Jacob by wounding Jacobin the inner thigh. note He "pinched" the sciatic nerve, which in Hebrew is called the gid hanasheh, and which observant Jews do not eat to this day, in memory of Jacob's injury. Since the nerve must be extracted by hand, it's usually cheaper to just sell the hindquarters of a slaughtered kosher animal to a non-kosher (often halal) butcher, so Hebrew National advertises how it has no "butts" in its hot dogs, and it's nigh-impossible to find kosher filet mignon outside of Israel. The rule applies to hoofed mammals only; poultry are exempt.
Public radio's Car Talk took a shining to a listener named Arup Gupta who wrote a letter to them back in the 1990's. His name has become a benchmark for other cool names encountered on the show.
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.
Shards of the Exalted Dream, in the Heaven's Reach setting, mentions the Lunar emperor Heaven's Son, the reshaper of the cosmos named Immaculate Golden Engineer, and the Stal war hero Ungenerous-Hand-of-Reprisal 1-9-7-3.
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 Battle Tech 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."
Obviously, like a half of all names in anyWarhammer game counts.
The NERO (actually a live action RPG) rulebook offers an example of a bad character history featuring "Nightblade Deathbringer Doomforge."
Iron Kingdoms: numerous characters have awesome names, such as Lord Commander Stryker, Kommander Sorscha, Major Marcus "Siege" Brisbane, Vladimir the dark champion...and more.
Miniature wargame rules publishers Too Fat Lardies pepper their rules with a subversion of this trope. Not only do they happily give names scatological acronym titles (Troops, Weapons and Tactics, Stout Hearts, Iron Troops etc) they tend to give the men in the examples joke names - the most reused being Hugh Jarce.
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, a Rob Liefeld character who never made it to print, or a Mega Man X Maverick.
Played with in the soundtrack for Great America's Demon roller coasters, in one dialogue-segment of which a U.S. Army captain called "Bucky McMacho" tries to eliminate the ride-possessing demon by bombing it.
SolBadguy. You'd have to be pretty badass to get away with calling yourself that.
From Shadows Of The Damned, Garcia Fucking Hotspur. Yes, "Fucking" is his middle name.
From Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten Desco. not cool enough for you? how about what its an acronym for: DEATH AND EXTERMINATION SUBMERSIBLE COMBAT ORGANISM. add that to the fact that Desco is a Moe Badass Eldritch Abomination Large Ham. I don't know how to do links.
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.
This also applies to most known residents of the Radical Lands. This includes Ron Wizard, Sir Cowabunga of Clubs; Dame Dudeical of Diamonds; the former king Sir Hellacious of Hearts; and King Radical, formerly Sir Sicknasty of Spades.
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.
Between Rak Wraithraiser, Phonsekal Laure and Jaian Repellista Zahard, Tower Of God has some pretty awesomely named characters.
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.
Ronin Galaxy: the main character's name is Cecil Onimaru, which (given the multiple meanings of Japanese names) can mean, "Oni's son." or "Oni-like son." For being a ronin, such a name seems extravagant. Also Leona Gallant - she couldn't possibly be a gallant knight, could she?
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 it sounds somewhat like 'serial killer' so it wouldn't be mistaken for something inoffensive!
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. And Agatha's mother, Lucrezia Mongfish. See how the first name turns even mundane last into something Lovecraftian?
In the same comic we have Heterodyne ancestors with names like "Faustus" and "Occam," the house of Sturmvoraus, and even chief minion Moloch (he claims his parents owned a Bible but didn't have time to actually read it).
Lackadaisy is full of these names like Rocky Rickaby, Calvin "Freckle" McMurray, Mitzy May, Dorian "Zib" Zibowski, Ivy Pepper, Nicodeme Savoy, Serafine Savoy, Moredecai Heller, and many more.
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! 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.
Dave's biological fatherDirk Strider.
The Trolls mostly have cool names, such as Karkat Vantas, Vriska Serket, and Sollux Captornote Who, conveniently, has several similarities to the afore mentioned Mr. Strider. For bonus points, they're all meaningful.
Two of his minions also have names that beautifully paint the medium: 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
Sburb titles can turn out this way. Although occasionally you get a Fail O Sucky Name, other times you get people referred to as the Knight of Time, the Witch of Space, the Prince of Hope, the Knight of Blood, the Mage of Doom, etc., etc.
Dirk initially thinks his title, the Prince of Heart, sounds lame, but then Calliope tells him that in the context of the game it means "Destroyer of Souls".
And now, with the Master Classes we have the Muse of Space and the Lord of Time.
Dead Winter has an assassin that goes by the name Black Monday Blues. He has a colleague named Sixgun Johnny Rhythm.
Averted in Hiimdaisy's Let's Destroy the Shagohod, based on Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, Ocelot thinks Snake's real name is this (imagining that it's "Manly McBeefington"), when it's really simply "John". This visibly startles Ocelot.
Gunnerkrigg Court has Antimony Carver, Surma Carver (nee Stibnite), Zeta, Gamma, and Winsbury...
In Regular Guy, Reg decides he needs to get to know a girl better because of her name: Katie DeLorean.
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 Villemous Quetzacoatl Creep Knight
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.
Justified in Slightly Damned with the Jakkai. A generation is born on the same day, and they are given only first names until a suitable last name is devised that matches their appearance or personality. These include Snaketail, Thunderheart and, the current champion, Bloodeyes.
Isaac Baranoff used one of these in a Take That towards a cartoonist who ripped off Baranoff's comic strip, Horndog: "Awesome MC Big Dick". (Intentionally drawn as a bad stick figure comic to mock the rival cartoonist, this was invoked because Baranoff felt that the artist who plagiarized his work was using Mary Sue characters in the real-life Expy.)
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.
2. My proper military title is "Specialist Schwarz" not "Princess Anastasia".
37. Our medic is called "Sgt Larwasa", not "Dr. Feelgood".
38. Our supply Sgt is "Sgt Watkins" not "Sugar Daddy".
There was once a topic on The World Of Darkness Forums where someone was asking for suggestions on what they should legally change their last name too. The general consensus? "Your new name is Hellsing."
Shades McCoolguy is a superfluous example of this from Chicken Maker.
Multiverses Wiki gives us Bloodburn, Deadflame, Death's Shadow...
One of JacksFilms's characters is stereotypical Frat boy named Chad "Broseph" Huntington.
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, Hercules Rockefeller, and Rembrandt Q. Einstein; the judge allowed Max Power because it was the only one he had spelled correctly.
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!"
Homer's one-time boss Hank Scorpio.
In American Dad, "Irregarding Steve" has a Fake Action Prologue where Klaus turns out to be a world-saving action hero, and he tells Francine his real name is "Professor Max Hammer."
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 Mc Cool (A cartoon from the 60s named after the main character)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Master Splinter. Moreso in 2K3 where they occasionally use the surname Hamato.
There's also Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady.
Wild West Cowboys Of Moo Mesa had a ton of great names like Moo Montana, Cowlarado Kid, Dakota Dude, Buffalo Bull, Lilli Bovine, Cowlamity Kate and many more.
The villains had some great names also, like the Masked Bull, Bat Blastagun, Skull Duggery, Shock Holiday, Boothill Buzzard, Saddlesore Scorpion, and plenty of others.
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 of 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.
It's David vs. Goliath, with a reversal of hero and villain.
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. Slugslinger, Caliburst, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Ironhide, Devastator, Bonecrusher, Wreck-Gar, Ultra Magnus, Thundercracker, Demolishor, Sunstorm, Dirge, Ruination, Sinnertwin, Gutcruncher, Scourge, Rampage, Mixmaster, Soundwave, Starscream, Razorclaw, Omega Supreme, Sentinel Prime, Elita One, Moonracer, Silverbolt, Superion, Fortress Maximus, Big Daddy, Grimlock, Ravage, Slayride.
Optimus Prime's name before he became carrier of the Matrix of Leadership (and thus a Prime)? Orion Pax. Megatron also named himself after "Megatronus", who is the TF equivalent of Judas Iscariot and Cain rolled into one (and thus became known as The Fallen). Also see the other members of The Thirteen.
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 GI 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 an attack dog, Alpine was a mountaineer, 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.
Darkwing Duck was full of these, along with the title character.
Especially with the villains like Megavolt, The Liquidator, Steelbeak, Splatter Phoenix, and many more.
No love here for Futurama's resident military genius Zap Brannigan?
Lord Monochromicorn and Princess Bonnibelle Bubblegum from Adventure Time.
Also Goliad, the name of Princess Bubblegum's immortal creation. It kinda sounds like the title of an epic. Go on, say it: GOLIAD!
Don't forget: Lady Rainicorn, Marceline Abadeer (aka Marceline, the Vampire Queen) and her gender-swapped alter ego Marshall Lee, Hunson Abadeer, Simon Petrokov, Susan Strong, Earl of Lemongrab, Ancient Sleeping Magi of Life-Giving, Neptr (an acronym for Never Ending Pie Throwing Robot), BMO (pronounced BEE-mo), Tree Trunks (a pygmy elephant), and even the main character Finn the Human. In fact there are more awesome names than not in Adventure Time.
And while we're talking about it, the multitude of Princesses are also pretty rad: the aforementioned Princess Bonnibelle Bubblegum, Lumpy Space Princess (aka L.S.P.), Irregular Topography Expanse Princess, Truth Field Projection Princess, Princess Chewypaste, Princess Monster Wife, and Princess Princess Princess.
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.
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!
There's also "The Great And Powerful Trixie Lulamoon", from the episode "Boast Busters". Yes, her full name is Trixie Lulamoon, which is a great name for a stage performer.
In the episode "Putting Your Hoof Down", Fluttershy seeks assertiveness training from a character named Iron Will.
Then there's Shining Armor who is Twilight Sparkle's older brother. Too bad his sister's got a good name for a mosquito.
There's also a pegasus named Thunderlane, with younger brother Rumble.
Vinyl Scratch, though it's a Fan Nickname, has the stage name DJ PON-3 (Deejay Pwn-three) which has been used in official promotional material.
Prince Blueblood, though he's, well, a horse's rear end.
The ace flyer Lightning Dust.
In this skit on Robot Chicken, Calvin joins GI Joe, and says that since he's a Cold Sniper, he'd like his codename to be: "Dead-Eye", "Killshot", "Dr. Killshot", "Sureshot", or "Triggerman". Unfortunately, he slips, so they call him "Fumbles". They pay for it. Dearly.
Was the plot of an episode of Regular Show. Rigby, after seeing one of his favorite bands on television hears the superstar rocker The Edge (which is his literal name) tell about the origins of his name. Rigby then decides to choose two random sounding words, coming up with Trash Boat. Needless to say, once Mortecai finds out, Hilarity Ensues.
However, in an ironic (and very Regular Show-ish) manner, it turns out that Rigby's new name makes him extremely famous. However, this has a worse downside, as The Edge, now a superpowered wizard rocker, returns from the future to kill him because the name Trash Boat made Rigby more famous than The Edge, himself.
It helps that after the situation is cleared, The Edge suffers a Karmic Death at the hands of another superpowered wizard rocker, who in turn is killed by another. Who is killed by another. Who is killed by more. Can anyone say chain reaction?
Centurions gives us Max Ray, Jake Rockwell, Ace McCloud, Crystal Kane, Rex Charger, and John Thunder.
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 decided 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.
HP Lovecraft (who had a badass name himself) had a knack for creating badass names for his horrors, with examples such as: Azathoth (a memo he wrote to himself regarding it simply said 'AZATHOTH - hideous name') aka The Nuclear Chaos and Nyarlathotep aka The Crawling Chaos aka The Haunter of the Dark. There's a reason the metal community likes Lovecraft so much.
By Blood Alone (the second book in the lengthy series about the (No longer) French (No Longer) Foreign Legion IN SPACE!) has a section that takes place during travel on a ship called The Warm Wind That Blows Happiness Through The Universe, or as her crew affectionately know her, The Iron Bitch.
GONE is a subversion; some characters have names Sam or Mary, but then you have some characters called Orc, Pack Leader, Sanjit ("It means invincible! I can't be vinced! Go ahead, try and vince me!"), Caine Soren, Toto, Astrid, Hunter and THE GAIAPHAGE.
40k is full of these. Valhalla, Macragge, Witchblades, Lightning Claws, Thunder Hammers, the Eye of Terror...
The names of Space Marine chapters: Ultramarines, Imperial Fists, Dark Angels...Even the Chaos Space Marines: Black Legion, Iron Warriors, Red Corsairs..
Then there's the Imperial Guard: Mordian Iron Guard, Morbidian Skull Takers, Cadian Shock Troops, Armageddon Steel Legion, Mordant Acid Dogs, Krieg Death Korps...
Battle Tech, hundreds of battle mechs have awesome names. Such as the, Battlemaster, Marauder, Timber Wolf, Summoner, Awesome...
Several Clan names count, such as Jade Falcon, Goliath Scorpion, Ghost Bear...
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.
The titular Metal Gears such as REX, RAY and the Shagohod.
Touhou: The Four Devas of the Mountain (Shuten Douji). Scarlet Devil Mansion (lorded by vampire sisters). The Mound of the Nameless.
Any Covenant fleet in Halo. The one that destroyed Reach was called The Fleet of Particular Justice, while others had as fancy names as The Fleet of Righteous Vigilance or The Fleet of Furious Redemption.
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.
Ironically, the British soldiers' less than complimentary nickname "Ronson (lighter)'' for the Sherman tank makes the same comparison.
The Royal Navy is especially fond of this trope with aircraft carriers. HMS Ark Royal. HMS Eagle. HMS Courageous. HMS Glorious. HMS Furious. HMS Illustrious. HMS Victorious. HMS Formidable. HMS Indomitable. HMS Implacable. HMS Indefatigable...
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.
Soviet/Russian spacecraft are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
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.
The Pirate Party. They have two seats at the European Parliament and 45 in German state parliaments.
The exact translation of Hezbollah's name is "The Party of God".
Britain actually derives its name from one of these. The Romans named the islands after the Priteni, meaning "The Tattooed Ones".
Rather fortunate, actually. Because there are two kinds of Celts. P-Celts, who called themselves the aforementioned Priteni, and Q-Celts who called themselves Cruteni. The difference is that P-Celts used "p" sounds where Q-Celts used "k" sounds. Hence the Scottish "mac" and Welsh "map" for "son of" in surnames. Anyway, Prethanik got Hellenized into Pretanikos by the Greeks, then Italicized into "Britannia" by the Romans. Imagine living in modern Crutain. Would you want to be a Crut?
HMS Glowworm, a British destroyer during WWII.
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?
How about the Super Redhawk?
Before Pliosaurus funkei was formally described in 2012 it was referred to in the paleontological community as Predator X.
This trope is probably one of the reasons why Tyrannosaurus rex is so popular.
It gets better: in Latin, it means Tyrant Lizard King.
Legend has it that the British Naval Officer whose ship landed at that very location named it as such specifically because he was in admiration of how well-built and athletic the "manly" native Indigenous Australians were, so this was very much intentional.
Town of Kotka, Finland. Who wouldn't like to live a town whose name means plainly and simply "Eagle" ?
The biggest steam locomotive in the world is called the Big Boy. Other trains with cool names include Evening Star, Lord President, Cock of the North, Challenger, Daylight, Super Chief, Zephyr, the "Raven Pacific" class, the "Klondike" class, and Defiant.
While the naming theme of Tropical Storms and Hurricanes averts this with rather mundane names, the new system of naming winter storms plays this straight. So far, there have been winter storms dubbed names as Draco, Freyr, and one of the possible names for the next one could be Gandalf. Needless to say, one has to wonder why Hurricanes aren't given such intimidating and poignant naming.
A couple of dozen people in the UK changed their name, specifically so they can say "Danger is my middle name"...
Gary Powers an American pilot who got shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.
The german entertainer "King Size Dick". (Note: Dick is the german word for fat.)
The AC-47 Spooky gunship has a pretty cool name to begin with, but got the rather odd nickname of "Puff" through the rather cool sequence of: Dragonship to Dragon to Puff, the Magic Dragon to Puff.
