By some weird reason, wizards and
Mad Scientist types often have names ending on "ius" (possibly just "us", but "ius" is just better). It makes their names sound more smartass and in the same time
Badass.
Truth in Television with Vesalius and all of the other Medieval/Renaissance scientists who used Romanized names (Keys would become Caius, to cite a real-life example), the likely inspiration for the trope. It's frequently
Canis Latinicus, though.
See also
The Great Whodini.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Spider-Man: Dr. Otto Octavius.
- Dr. Cornelius from X-Men. (He's the other guy responsible for Logan becoming Wolverine.) *
Most versions of the story depict a bald Asian guy and a red-haired or brown-haired, bearded guy working on the soon-to-be Wolvie. The bearded guy is Dr. Cornelius. The bald guy's the one who invented the adamantium bonding process, and Lady Deathstrike's father. He shows up more often and is more recognizable, in the comics and animated versions.
- Dr. Michael Morbius, a Professor Guinea Pig, became a Living Vampire.
Film
Literature
- Doctor Faustus.
- Also Dr. Cornelius from The Chronicles of Narnia, a magician though not an evil one.
- Dr Igneous Cutwell, from Mort is another non-evil wizard, and is unusual in that it's his first name that fits the trope.
- The Vesper Holly series has Dr. Desmond Helvetius
- Harry Potter, of course. A lot of wizards have names ending in "us" : Albus, Lucius, Regulus, Remus, Rubeus, Severus, Scorpius, Sirius... It seems to be more frequent in the Pure-Blood families, though.
- Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Occult Detective Dr. Hesselius.
Live-Action TV
- Dr. Cornelius from Doctor Who - a name which actually sounded somewhat jarring because of this very trope, given that he's an ordinary medical doctor.
- Dr. Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica (both the classic and reimagined versions).
Music
- Professor Psychoticus, Mike Barson's alias when Madness were pretending to be The Dangermen.
Video Games
Web Comics
- The Order of the Stick: Vaarsuvius, Aarindarius. And then subverted by Inkyrius, an apprentice baker.
- And of course Elan goes on to rename himself as Elanalicious.
- Professor Odious
from Everyday Heroes.
- Subverted in Last Res0rt when Gabriel Damascus ends up being a Doctor... except his name is actually Gabriel the Maskless.
- Other doctors in the comic include Qin Xu and Daisy Archanis.
Web Original
- The Descendants has Doctor Paralus, which is his actual name but the heroes are constantly mocking it as Powerless or Perilous. A Bad Future is shown where he does in fact become Doctor Perilous.
Western Animation
Real Life
