Your usual Mad Scientists tend to be quite creative when it comes to plans of world domination through whatever crazed contraption they may come up with in their heads, but that sadly does not seem to apply for their own names. When not naming themselves "Frankenwhatever", "Somethingstein" or "Genericius", they often just go for a simple name that references their superior intellect, usually after their superhuman brains or some other part of the cerebral system.
Brain-derivative words like "Brainstorm" or "Brainchild" are particularly common as well. For added meaningfulness, those characters may have gigantic, exposed brains or are possibly a brain themselves, stuck in a jar of undisclosed liquid. They may also be fond of Mind Control or other experiments that mess around with other people's brains. Might even possess Psychic Powers too.
Likely to be a case of Names to Run Away from Really Fast, since, again, it's difficult to find an example that's not mad to some extent, although benevolent or harmless examples do exist, in which case, the "brain" name might be just a nickname to indicate that they are smart.
Captain Colorbeard is a similar naming convention relating to pirates.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Comic Books
- Superman: Brainiac, the ultraintelligent alien robot/artificial intelligence supervillain of Superman fame whose schemes primarily revolve around controlling technology.
- Transformers: Brainstorm, the Autobots' biomechanical engineer and general idea man whose morality tends to vary depending on the continuity.
- X-Men: Lobe, a minor, obscure villain, has an enlarged and hairless cranium.
Films — Animated
- The titular character of Megamind is a large-brained, genius, Mad Scientist inventor.
Films — Live-Action
- Sky High (2005) has Mr. Medulla, the Mad Science teacher with a swelled head who also happens to be a telepath.
Literature
- Whateley Universe:
- Brainstorm is a supervillain of unknown powers.
- Brainteaser was the codename for a psychic.
- Professor Branestawm, the Gadgeteer Genius Absent-Minded Professor protagonist of a series of children's books by Norman Hunter.
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory: In one episode Sheldon, a theoretical physicist, notices that his assistant is flirting with his roommate Leonard. He asks his female friends for advice and when retelling the story he gives everyone fake names. The name he gives himself is Einstein Von Brainstorm.
- There's a Korean medical drama series titled "Dr. Brain". The titular character is a doctor and super-genius with expert Photographic Memory and the ability to mind-synch himself with deceased victims.
Video Games
- Professor Brains from Barry Steakfries games. Aside from being a smart evil genius, his name is a Multiple Reference Pun, as he created an army of brain-eating zombies in his debut game, Age of Zombies, to destroy humankind.
- Big Brain Academy has Dr. Lobe, who's more of a teacher than a scientist and not evil at all, but still fits.
- Dr. Nero Neurosis from Brain Dead 13, the typical Brain in a Jar who wants to Take Over the World.
- Dr. Neo Cortex, the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. Appropriately, his head is enormous and he specializes in experimenting with an assortment of animals in order to give them intelligence and use them as soldiers, including the protagonist Crash, considered one of his "failures".
- Dr. Brain has a whole Edutainment Game series named after himself.
- Mother Brain of Metroid fame is a giant, bulging, brain-like artificial intelligence that commands over the Space Pirates either through a Hive Mind, Mind Control or something similar.
- Professor Brainstorm of Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes is one of the heroes in the zombies' side. He's the second zombie in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise who follows the mad scientist aesthetic (the first being Dr. Zomboss, a recurring boss and the zombies' leader), and his two classes (Brainy and Crazy) are partially associated with intelligence and technology.
- Psychonauts: Dr. Loboto is a villainous doctor who exploits Psychic Children to create death tanks. Despite his name and current occupation, however, he's not an MD or a PhD in anything neurology-related; his 'doctor' title is for dentistry.
- Dr. Cranium from Quest for Glory IV. A humorous expy of Dr. Frankenstein, he denies accusations of madness. He also predicts that he will have a descendant named Dr. Brain who will feature in a video game (see prior entry).
- Skullgirls: Brain Drain is one of the scientists working for the Anti-Skullgirl Labs. He's responsible for the creation of two playable characters, Painwheel and Robo Fortune.
Western Animation
- Ben 10: Grey Matter, one of Ben's most intelligent aliens. He's a small, big-headed grey alien whose diminutive size can be as much of a blessing as it is an inconvenience.
- Carmen Sandiego: One of Carmen Sandiego's minions in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? is Professor Sara Bellum (Cerebellum), the woman that provides the technology that V.I.L.E. uses to commit their thefts. The 2019 reimagining of Carmen Sandiego renames her to Saira Bellum, losing some of the pun.
- Freakazoid! has the Lobe, the (somewhat pathetic) Mad Scientist archenemy of the eponymous Freakazoid who literally has a brain for a head.
- Futurama: One of Professor Farnsworth's heroes is Braino, a legendary supergenius from the past (relative to the year of 3000) who possessed a brain so large that it dwarfed the rest of his head.
- Evil Genius Maximillion Cortex from James Bond Jr.. He also has two mooks named Left Brain and Right Brain, despite them being Dumb Muscle.
- The Brain of Pinky and the Brain. A laboratory mouse hellbent on taking over the world with a different scheme every (tomorrow) night. This contrasts with his Bumbling Sidekick Pinky, who's named after the body part farthest from the brain, the pinky toe. Brain's naming scheme was kept across translations: His French name is Cortex.
- In the animated version of Spirou & Fantasio, one villain's Dragon, inventor of a brainwashing machine, was named Lazlo Botomy.
- The Tick has the Brainchild, who is literally a child Evil Genius with an oversized brain kept in a glass dome.
- Total Drama: After Izzy becomes superintelligent from a plane accident-related concussion in World Tour, she adopts the name of "Brainzilla".
- WordGirl has Dr. Two-Brains, named so because he had his brain fused with that of a lab mouse during a Freak Lab Accident.
