Names To Run Away From Really Fast - Television Tropes & Idioms

Vicious: — The villain from Cowboy Bebop, Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and his namesake pro wrestler
- Vishous from J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood novels, mercifully shortened to 'V'. Most of her male characters have bizarrely spelled 'badass' names, including Torhment, Phury, Zsadist, Rehvenge, and Wrath (well, that last one is spelled correctly). Some characters get off luckier with names like John Matthew, Darius, and Blaylock.
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, there was a villain called Vid Vicious (obviously named after Sid Vicious).
- The main antagonist of the fourth Pokemon movie is named Vicious.
Grim: — Thanks to The Grim Reaper which spills over into Grim from The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, Grimlock of Transformers, Grimmjow of Bleach, Grimjack of Grimjack
- Don't forget Mr. Grimm.
- Or Mr Benjamin Grimm, otherwise known as the Thing
- Grimlock and Grimlock. But not exactly Grimlock.
Mal (French for "bad") and English variants (malice, etc): Shakespeare's Malvolio, the Malfoy family from Harry Potter, Bishop Malveaux from Zork: Nemesis.
- Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, the Anti Hero from Firefly
  - A coincidence that River Tam actually mentions in the series.
  - It really is a coincidence. The name "Malcolm" is the Anglicized version of the Gaelic "Mael Colium", and has nothing to do with the latin word. Neither does it have anything to do with the latin word for "dove", despite what a certain keychain tries to assert...
  - Just a thought, but "River" sounds a lot like "Reaver", and in universe, that might count as "run away really fast" (in fact, "River" is the root word for "Reaver" in the first place).
  - That's quite an accent you have there...
  - Given how River turns into a unbeatable total hottie badass, any bad guy would be well advised to run away.
- Special mention to Malcolm Betruger, the villainous Mad Scientist responsible for the demon invasion in Doom3. Not just "mal" in the name but Bilingual Bonus as "Betrüger" is German for "deceiver" or "swindler," not to mention sounding a lot like "betrayer," which he does to you early on.
- Ivanhoe has a lot of these. The Templar Preceptor Albert de Malvoisin ("bad neighbor"), for one.
- Malus from Castlevania 64. In this case means hammer, though the pun on "Malice" works, too...
  - That's 'Malleus.' Malus is Latin for 'evil,' 'malice' being derived from it.
- Malus, the final colossus in Shadow of the Colossus. The other colossi have much more harmless-sounding Latin titles.
- El Tigre features a gigantic monster named El Mal Verde.
- The DCAU Superman series had Superman free a trapped Phantom Zone kryptonian named Mala. This spanish speaking troper knew immediately where the episode was going.
- Also Maleficent from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.
- And the dub name of Digimon Adventure 02's Big Bad, BelialVamdemon (see below): "MaloMyotismon".
- There's also Dreadlord Mal'Ganis from the Warcraft universe.
- The Ordo Malleus. Double points as malleus is latin for "hammer".
- Malin Keshar from Battle For Wesnoth. And the necromancers / liches from the Mal- line.
- Maladicta, coffee-addicted vampire and Sweet Polly Oliver from Monstrous Regiment.
- Malekith, the Witch-King of the Dark Elves from Warhammer Fantasy.
- And there's Malpercio from the Baten Kaitos series.
- Minor Marvel Comics Mad Scientist Doctor Malus, who grants super-powers to deserving C-list mooks.
- Malum, desert-wandering antihero from Bionicle.
- Darth Malak.
- In the English dub of Sailor Moon, Kunzite was renamed to Malachite. Still a semiprecious stone name, but...
- The villain of the MMO Wizard 101 is named Malistaire. I only know this because my kids play it, I swear.
- Matron Malice from the Dark Elf Trilogy. Obvious, anyone?
- What about Malice from the name of the same game?
Sinister: Simon Bar Sinister, from Underdog.
- Sinestro from Green Lantern.
- Senor Sinestrio of El Tigre.
- And Sinistar. HE HUNGERS! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!
- Mr. Sinister from X Men, of course.
- Slight variation: Sinistrals, from the Lufia games.
  - This might actually be an aversion. "Sinistral" means "left-handed," (as opposed to "dextral") which the sprites actually are (in some games, at least).
Nefarious: — Dr. Nefarious, the main villain from Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
- Similarly, from World Of Warcraft, Lord Victor Nefarius AKA Nefarian the Black Dragon.
- Count Nefaria, a long-running Marvel Comics villain.
- Nefaria is the right hand of the Big Bad in Saban's Masked Rider.
- Dr. Nefarious Tropy. Bonus points for having a sinister name even when it's shortened (N. Tropy = entropy). And he sounds like Peter Lorre.
- Count Nefarious from the PC game Toon Struck.
Shady: Shady Shrew from Slylock Fox. This trope is usually extrapolated to other bit criminals like Reeky Rat or Slick Smitty—it's surprising that name profiling hasn't been implemented yet.
- Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
Grievous: — General Grievous from Star Wars who, despite his name, isn't.
- He is in the Clone Wars.
Greedy: — Captain Planet foe, Hoggish Greedly. Also Greedo from Star Wars.
- And Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist, although this is justified by him being a literal incarnation of that sin.
- And Greedy from Ristar.
- Greedo from Star Wars - who did not shoot first.
Dastardly: — Dick Dastardly.
- And of course, Dick's contemporary, Snidely Whiplash. Admittedly, "Snidely" is more of an adverb, but "Whiplash" is a noun, so what can you do.
Horrible: — Just silly enough that it's (as far as is recorded here) never used seriously. Dr. Horrible is a... horrible example. As is Horribus in Sluggy Freelance.
- Horribus does manage to stage the conquest of an entire world. Of pacifists.
Evil — Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy.
- Avery Schreiber played a villain named "Mr. Evil" on ''The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine".
- Cruella de Vil. Double whammy, because you have both "Cruel" and "Evil" in her name, if you ignore the word breaks. (Also "devil".)
- Evil Otto. That is all.
- It may be an unwritten rule that the leaders of Cipher (listed far below) have some part of Evil in their name. First was Evice (also Es Cade, the corrupt mayor of Phenac City) and second was Greevil. For added evil points, Greevil's Japanese name translates into Deathgold (double whammy!). Crap...
- Evil-lyn from He-Man.
Craven — Kraven, from Underworld, Kraven the Hunter (Spider-Man villain). Wes Craven makes a lot of horror movies. And then there's Mendel Craven, who is just as wimpy as his surname implies.
Insidious — Darth Sidious. Double points for rhyming with "hideous". Sith have really obvious names.
- This one could be justified, as they are not technically names, but titles given after they've purposely started down the road of evil.
Slightly subverted in The Graveyard Book with the Jacks of All Trades. Names such as Mr. Dandy and Mr. Nimble are intended to be somewhat menacing. But still, not exactly Dr. Horrible in terms of naming.
Horrendous - The jock/big chunk of meat who ruled the warrior city from the video game Nox.
The original Japanese name of Mega Man Zero's Big Bad is Vile. It's a Meaningful Name, fitting for someone like him.
- There was also a Vile in Mega Man X, X3 and X8.
- Master Vile from the third season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Robby Rotten from Lazy Town.
- Real Life example: Johnny Rotten, band leader of the Sex Pistols
  - Given that 'Johnny' is British slang for 'condom', that verges on squick, too.
Sgt Gross in the Blakes Seven episode 'Moloch' is one of the lesser known villains of the show, but notably nasty. He's a cowardly deserter now (by freak chance) ruling a planet with a sadistic streak who's very, very strongly implied to enjoy raping and cannibalising his female prisoners in equal measure.
The main antagonist from Sigma Star Saga was a guy named Tyrannical Overlord.
Dark - such as Darth Vader and other Sith Lords from Star Wars.
- Then there's G. M. Dark from Something Wicked This Way Comes.
- Darken Rahl.
- Joe Darke, a serial killer from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Subtly, several names translate to disabilities, though that's not always bad. On the good side, "Cecile" ("Deaf"). On the bad side, "Claudia" ("Lame").
- Actually "Cecile" comes from "caecus", which means "blind" not "deaf" in Latin. In olden times it implied powers of prophesy as well, since the famous seers (Tiresias for example) were blind.
The Ludo in Ludo Bagman means "deceptive." Obviously this means nothing, because he is totally a trustworthy guy.
- Sorry, wrong. "Ludo" is from the Latin ludus "game" (it's the British name for the game which the rest of the world knows as Parcheesi); it's the "bagman" part which implies deceptiveness.
  - Actually, no. "Ludo" is a shortened form of "Ludovic"< L. "Ludovicus," which is a Latinization of the Germanic name "Chlod(o)wig" (from which "Ludwig," "Louis," "Lewis," "Aloysius," "Clovis," and other variants are obliquely derived), which means "famous warrior." However, ludo in Latin can mean both "I play" and "I deceive" (as in, "He totally played you, dude"), so there is a possibility of a punning double meaning.
Mendacious: Vendacious from A Fire Upon The Deep is one letter off, but still perhaps not the best name for the head of your intelligence agency (unless he's also part of the enemy's.)
Not a character, but the sinister pub in An American Werewolf In London is called The Slaughtered Lamb. Can any good come of that?
Dire Wily, the villain to the also significantly named Halcyon Blithe in the series of the same name.

The Great Old Ones
The Nameless One. Also, the Transcendent One.
The Banished One
The Unclean One
Wheel Of Time: TheDarkOne
The Dark Ones
The Forgotten One
The Evil One was the villain from Time Bandits. Just Evil for short.
The Lonely God; The Oncoming Storm - a hero, but death and destruction follow in his wake.
The Old Gods from Warcraft
- The Faceless Ones from the same franchise. Also, how could you forget The Forgotten Ones?
  - Quite easily, thank you!
The First Ones, from Babylon 5, though tthose who weren't Shadows or Vorlons weren't really that bad.
The Old Ones
- And the other Old Ones. Heroes, but nonetheless really ancient (indeed, immortal) ones.
  - And the other other Old Ones.
The Lone Power of Young Wizards, sometimes referred to as "The Lone One", although It has many names.
The Shadowed One, ancient and feared leader of the Dark Hunters.
Subversion: The Ancient One is (well, was) quite benevolent.
The King in Yellow
The Endless
The Fallen—helps that he's perpetually on fire.
The Ultimate Ones, though they are also known as 'Types' and 'Aristeles'
The Mysterious Somebody
The One Who Must Not Be Named.
- What, Voldemort?
  - I thought it was Candlejack, but I cou
Yellow Fever.
The Voice in the Darkness (also known as Lord of the In-Between Places, the Living Heart of the Void, and the One True God).
The Unholy. A character from the novels of Vampire The Requiem. She's pure Nightmare Fuel for other vampires.
Spellforce: The Dark One

Dragon: — Drake, Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter, Dragin from yerCakeDracula
- Although his mother's family, the Blacks, had a tradition of giving their children astrological names, so...
- Dracul, in Romanian, is interchangable for "dragon" or "devil". Therefore, "Dracula" = "Son of the Dragon." How peculiarly appropriate.
  - And Draco, a lawmaker from ancient Greece, from whom we get the term "draconian" as in "draconian penalties for overdue library books" meaning that the penalties are harsh.
- Count Dregon, the Big Bad from Saban's Masked Rider.
- Date Masamune, the One-Eyed Dragon of Oushuu from Sengoku Basara. It's especially significant since he's referred to most by, and is infamous through, this name.
Lion: — Leo, Leonidas, Lionel (Lex Luthor's uber-villainous dad in Smallville) Leos from Gundam Wing, on the other hand, are only dangerous if you yourself are not also in a Humongous Mecha. Unless there's a Bishonen at the controls, then you're screwed. "Ari", "Aslan" or any non-English variant that's not immediately obvious doesn't count.
- Lion El'Jonson, in addition to being an homage to a poet. Primarch of the Dark Angels of Warhammer 40000.
- Stephanie Leonidas.
- Lion-O of the Thunder Cats.
- Regulus from Harry Potter, named after the main star in the constellation Leo.
  - Despite being a Death Eater, he is strongly implied to have turned on Voldemort and destroyed one of his Horcruxes, making him arguably not much of a NTRAFRF, unless you happen to be Voldemort.
- Ari Haswari in NCIS, murderer of Kate Todd. Interestingly, "Ari" means sin in Hindi, making it doubly a NTRAFRF.
- Real life example: Leon Trotski. Fighting off your assassin who's just whacked an icepick into your skull?
Tiger — Furio Tigre from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations. White Tiger, from the Jackie Chan movie Rumble in the Bronx.
- And Benitora/Crimson Tiger from Samurai Deeper Kyo
- However, Tiger Tanaka from You Only Live Twice is a badass on the side of good.
- El Tigre takes this trope and runs with it.
- Aisaka Taiga (yes, it's pronounced pretty much the way it sounds) from Toradora.
  - For bonus points, in addition to the Spanish meaning of the title, "Tora" means "tiger".
Other wildcat species:
- J. C. Cooger from Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Scorpion — Scorpio (Homer's Bond villain-esque boss on The Simpsons), the Scorpio Killer from Dirty Harry, Scorpius (Farscape and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy), Scorpina (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) Robert Scorpio from General Hospital, and not to forget plain old Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Or Spider Man.
- Scorponok of Transformers: Beast Wars was an exception. Other Transformers with the name aren't, though. And given the main theme, often were likely to have a form that involves a stinger hanging over their body...
- I'll go one better. King Scorpion. Makes this (vaguely) Truth In Television and also Older Than Dirt.
- The Alacráns from HouseoftheScorpion count. Their last name, of course, means scorpion.
- Arguably Scorpius, Draco Malfoy's son in the epilogue of Harry Potter.
Wolf: — Wolfen, Wulf, Adolf, Lupin, Wulfenbach (such as Claudia Wolf from Silent Hill 3, Wolf from Need For Speed Carbon, Wolf O'Donnell in Star Fox, Sniper Wolf of Metal Gear Solid), and the Space Wolves of Warhammer 40000, Wulfgar (aside from the Drizzt novels, a good strong Norse name), Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Tri Gun, Wolfgang from "The Fifth Elephant", who gets an added bonus for being a werewolf.
- Averted with Harry Potter's Remus Lupin. Although he is a werewolf. (Fenrir Greyback, however, another werewolf from the series, is quite the villain [Fenrir being a giant wolf and a son of Loki in Norse mythology].)
- The Star Wolves from Fugitive Alien.
- Averted as well in Fushigi Yuugi: Tasuki's nickname, Genrou, means "phantasm wolf", hence the phantom wolves that shoot out of his talismans.
- Also keep your eye on anyone named Isengrim, Ysengrin or any variant thereof, because they're either a Big Badass Wolf or a Genius Bruiser. Sometimes both, if you're unlucky. He was Reynard's nemesis in the Reynard cycle, and a certain General Ysengrin also a villain in Gunnerkrigg Court under the employ of Coyote. Unsurprisingly, he has a wolf's head.
- Lobo. There's a reason he's known as The Last Czarnian.
Coyote — (Unless there's a Wile E. in front)
- Xanatos' own look-alike robot.
- Coyote Starrk: The Primera Espada, bitches.
Bull — From Ivanhoe, the stubborn and thuggish Reginald Front-du-Boeuf ("bull-head"). Also Bull Shannon from Night Court.
Bear — Most kinds of bear aren't well-known or catchy enough to get their own section, but watch out for anyone who goes by "Grizzly" or "Kodiak". However Russian bears (as a name, nickname, or title) definitely fit in this trope. [[Chuck]] - 'Sugar Bear'
- I! Am! BEOWULF!
Any type of ominous bird, especially raptors: —
Hawk: — Spenser's partner from the Spenser series of novels, and later Spenser for Hire. (But probably not Tony Hawk, the Professional Athlete Least Likely To Be Caught Using Steroids.) Don't forget He, Richard Hawk. There's also Hawke from Advance Wars.
- T. Hawk from Street Fighter.
- Griffith's Band of the Hawk. Well, the second one, anyway...
  - Subversions: Hawk from Seiken Densetsu 3 and Hawk from Terry Brooks' Genesis of Shannara.
  - Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist doesn't fit this at all, though she is a scarily good shot.
  - Not to mention Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce from M*A*S*H. The only person who'd consider him a NTRAFRF would be Frank Burns.
- Agent Gilbert Hawk of the Protectors Of The Plot Continuum; Agents may be the good guys, but they're still dangerous.
Raven:: — the ultimate badass from Snow Crash, Raven from Teen Titans, Vulcan Raven in Metal Gear Solid, Ravenus from the Linkage mini-comics packed in with the Micron Legend DVD's in Japan (and a pun on "ravenous", to boot), Mr. Raven from El Goonish Shive, Eric Draven from The Crow, and The Raven Guard of Warhammer 40000 .
- Mystique's real name is Raven Darkholme.
- Subverted, then played straight, then subverted again in Tales Of Vesperia.
- Don't forget Ebony Darkness Raven Way, or whatever her name is at the moment.
  - Her full name is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. Yes, the apostrophe's included.
- ''OH SNAP!''
- Ironically, American Ninja Jonathan Raven was played by an actor named Jeffrey Meek.
- Also, Raven from Zoids
- Raven is one of the worst of a legion of anti-heroes in Glen Cook's The Black Company series.
- Korax, the Big Bad from Hexen. Something of a pun on the part of ''Raven''Soft who wrote Hexen.
- That guy from ECW.
- Ravensbrook was a women's only concentration camp.
- Raven, the Perky Goth from Cecil B Demented.
- Korax, first officer on the IKS Gr'oth in The Trouble with Tribbles.
- Let's not forget Raven, the Fire Emblem mercenary who can solo entire maps on his own.
- Shame on you all for forgetting about Bad Ass Mc Ninja (and Wesley Snipes -lookalike) Raven from Tekken. He'll See You In Hell.
Eagle: — Eagle of Advance Wars. Psychonauts, where Eagle is one of the four animal-themed luchadores running around in the head of Edgar Teglee, with Tiger, Cobra, and Dragon making up the rest. He takes the opportunity to punch Raz in the head while he's briefly confused over Eagle's catchphrase. Ca-caw!. The entire team from Eagle Riders (a.k.a. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman)
- Unless the author is American, in which case Eagle is almost always a hero. In America! There's a reason it's called Eagleland.
Crow: — Jacob Crowe of Time Splitters: Future Perfect fits the bill. Ashe Corven from the Crow series would also qualify, though it's a Latinate version of the name. And not to forget Justin and Iris Crowe in Carnivale. And Cosmic Horror Victorian horror mishmash Nightmare Creatures had Aleister Crowley as the Big Bad of the series.
- Earthworm Jim's archnemesis PsyCrow.
- The Jim Crow laws of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- Karasu (Japanese for crow) from Three of Heart, One of Blood doesn't seem like this at first: He offers to Bring Yukimori back to life. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold, least of all because He's a Legacy and he can't raise the dead- he actually can control fear and cast extremely realistic illusions.
Raptor: — Lord Raptor in Darkstalkers. Rex Raptor of Yu-Gi-Oh! could be a subversion.
Shrike: — A bird that impales insects or lizards onto sharp branches to feed on them. The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons features a Nigh Invulnerable, time-traveling robot assassin known as The Shrike, who is definitely not someone you want to mess with, primarily because it will live up to its name. Also Captain Shrike of the aforementioned Raven Guard, who likes to pop up out of nowhere with his jet pack and impale people with his impossibly [[impossibly sharp weapon]]
Snake: — Solid (and Liquid and Solidus) Snake of Metal Gear Solid, Snake Jailbird of The Simpsons.
- This also applies to people with names that invoke species of deadly snake: Viper, Cobra, etc. Suach as "...I shall be known from now on: The Black... Vegetable!", or everybody from Kill Bill.
- Don't forget Orochimaru of Naruto fame. In Japanese, his name is usually written as 大蛇丸; the middle character 「蛇」 means "snake." Additionally, the "Orochi" (written as 大蛇) is itself an evil snake from Japanese mythology.
  - Similarly to the above example and subversion, William Makepeace Thackeray had a lovable traitor family named the Crawleys, and Anthony Trollope, who was heavily influenced by him gave the last name to a noble character. It's probably worth noting Good Omens which has Noble Demon Crowley originally named "Crawly" (he was the serpent in the Garden of Eden), and whose present name is an allusion to famous Satanist Alastair Crowley.
- Snake Plissken anyone?
- Serpent from Mega Man ZX, and his company, Slither Inc.
- Orochi, of the Warriors Orochi games.
- Subverted with Lilo & Stitch's Cobra Bubble.
Any sort of mustelid: — (weasels, skunks, badgers, and wolverines) but the larger the better. They may not be particularly dangerous on the surface, but they will be the sort of person who holds a grudge and will not let go of it (Badger from Firefly, Itachi from Naruto whose name literally means "Weasel")
- People named Weasel (or some variation thereof) tend to be LovableTraitors.
- Mr. Badger, who is not only a badass Jerk With A Heart Of Gold, but also a badger.
- "Brock" (as in Brock Samson) is Old English for "badger".
- Eddie Brock a.k.a. Venom.
- I can't believe you people forgot Marvel's Wolverine. He's only the greatest comic book character of all time!
- If you knew the real truth of that sentence...
Fox: — Steve Fox from Tekken. You might also want to avoid people who take the name Vixen, too ...
- Any variation of "Reynard," from the medieval stories including, but not limited to, Renard, Reinhardt, Reineke, heck, possibly even Renfield. If somebody in your group has a variation of that last name, avoid him. He's The Mole.
  - Especial mention should be made to the Rush Hour sequels, in which not one but two villains have names that translate to "Fox" in that character's native language: Hu Li, from 2, and Inspector Renard from 3.
  - Wacky Nazi Reynhard Heydrich.
  - Gunnerkrigg Court's resident plush doll-possessing fox spirit Reynardine, AKA Renard.
  - Le Renard Subtil is the name of the villain in the novel Last of the Mohicans DEFINITELY traitorous.
  - Janine "Fox" Renard from Gargoyles. Before she got married, anyway...
  - Even then, don't try to take away her baby!
- Any fox in Redwall has a proclivity for double dealing.
- Can't believe no one's mentioned Zorro.
Spider: — Much like Fox, it's a trickster's name, so there are quite a few aversions.
- Special mention to the various Black Widow villainesses.
- Spider from Anansi Boys, which is also a Meaningful Name, because he's the son of Anansi.
- Spider Jerusalem, rogue journalist.
Tsurugi Inugami in addition to Tsurugi, he is also Inugami - not just an animal, it is a Japanese mythology god.
In a rare plant-related example, Bone's Briar and Rose. Guess who's the baddie.
- Thorn's a really nice girl, though.
Pretty much anybody named "Jackal" is either an assassin or a terrorist.
Monkey: — a subversion of the trope by Dutch author Tais Teng. The God of Fate in Dreams plays dice with the Goddess of Fate in Daylight, with the stakes being which one of them gets to toy with the life of a puny mortal - but a creature unimpressively named the Monkey determines the victim of their game. And his fate. And is therefore, for all intents and purposes, the Supreme Being.
- One of the most mysterious gods of the realm, Manay'yend, carries the title "Brother of the Monkey". Nobody knows what this means, but it is implied that those who figure it out will wish they hadn't.
Flamingo: — Donquixote Doflamingo, a nihilistic pirate and puppet-master who slices people into pieces. He dresses in a pink, feathery coat and dabbles in slave trade, and abandons it because it's become passe (the slave trade, not the coat).
Pretty much every member of Foxhound.
El Lobo Fuerte from Mega 64 Version 2.

Blood: — (Too many bad vampire movies to count, as well as Lawrence Blood from Fatal Fury and the classic Captain Blood. Combine two dangerous names and you get Blood Falcon, Captain Falcon's Evil Twin from F-Zero X.)
- Notable mention is Caerula Sanguis, whose name literally means "blue blood," both a mark of her regal and elegant bearing and of her...shall we say...clinical status.
- The evil-sounding connotations of Blood as a name is what a young, babyface pro-wrestler to switch from his real name, Richard Blood, to the stage name Ricky Steamboat (arguably the only example of a wrestler having a more Badass real name than stage name)
  - In real life, the only person ever to get close to successfully stealing the crown jewels of England was called... Colonel Thomas Blood.
  - His name is... Raven Darklaton... Blood!
- And combining this with the Xtreme Kool Letterz example below, we have Chaotic Evil Ax Crazy Psycho For Hire dwarf Korgan Bloodaxe
- Averted in the second series of Welkin Weasels novels, where one of the main characters is named Bryony Bludd, which is lampshaded by (wouldn't you know it?) a vampiric stoat. It's still a Meaningful Name, though; she's a veterinary surgeon (which within the series actually means a doctor to her fellow Talking Animals).
- Jason Blood, to whom an actual demon from Hell is bound.
- Ragna The Bloodedge. In actually, one of the sanest people around. But he has a fearsome One Winged Angel form which fits the trope to a tee.
- The Primarch of the Blood Angels Space Marines chapter in Warhammer 40000 was imaginatively named Sanguinus.
  - On the other hand, he was a formidable fighter but not an evil man — or primarch.
  - I dont think you understand what Warhammer4000 is.
- Rafael Sabatini's famous pirate, Captain Blood, started his career as Doctor Blood. It works either way! Notably, he was not bloodthirsty at all, and was a complex and sensitive man, so his name had a touch of irony to it... Which was completely lost in the movie, turning him into an uncomplicated badass with an entirely appropriate name.
- Real life example: This lurker's father had a doctor when he was young called Dr. Blood. Doesn't that sound like a cheap-o horror flick right there?
- The crimelord who forms the main antagonist in Gene Wolfe's Nightside the Long Sun goes by the name of Blood. (In their city men all have single names that refer to animals or animal byproducts, like the protagonist Silk and his student Horn, but Blood is still an alarming name even in context.)
- Professional Wrestler Ricky Steamboat's real name is Richard Blood. The promoter thought his real name sounded too Heelish.
Fang: — (Fang from Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, Fang, the thug with a spider for a head, from the animated version of Teen Titans, Fang The Sniper of Sonic The Hedgehog. Since 'kiba' is the Japanese word for 'fang', Kiba the dog-themed ninja from Naruto and Kiba the wolf from Wolfs Rain also qualify)
- And helicopter-chucking Shootfighter Tekken titan Iron Kiba pretty much trumps all of the above, as a combination Complete Monster and Old Master. He's also larger and sturdier than most Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star BigBads to boot.
- Also, the Four Fangs from Fire Emblem 7.
- Stalker Fang. That is all.
- And Fang the mutate from Gargoyles.
Scar: (main villain of The Lion King, Scar from Full Metal Alchemist, General Skarr in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Scara B. King in The Nameless Mod)
- Subverted in John Ford's classic, The Searchers: Cicatrice, aka "Scar," does indeed commit a heinous act in killing a settler family and kidnapping the two daughters...but after that he spends his time either oblivious to (as in, living his life and leading his tribe) or running from the man who spends years hunting him down, Determinator Ethan Edwards.
- Only known name of a revenge-driven serial killer in FullmetalAlchemist who is out to get every single state alchemist and all those who get in his way via alchemical brain explosion. He's so effective at this that all high-ranking officers temporarily abandon their HQ in Central City where he was spotted and head out to the Eastern boondocks.
Beards: — Maybe this is just a pirate thing, but Blackbeard, Bluebeard and the Barbarossa Brothers (literally "red beard"). Luffy's brother in One Piece works for a Captain Whitebeard.
- there was also Yellowbeard, recurring Monty Python character, who finally managed to get his own movie. Sort of.
- Barbossa means "beard of bones".
- In Real Life, there was also a Holy Roman Emperor named Friedrich Barbarossa, who worked hard to live up to his reputation (until he died of a heart attack in Turkey by falling in an ice-cold river at the beginning of the Third Crusade...) Those Wacky Nazis named their invasion of Russia after him.
  - To be fair, he was hardly any worse than most other leaders at the time.
- Master Hand and Crazy Hand of Super Smash Bros.
Wing: — for the implications of Death From Above. (Blitzwing, Thunderwing, Darkwing and about a dozen other Transformers with "wing" in their name)
- Although the Decepticon Darkwing's name is less threatening, due to the unfortunate coincidence of being shared with a Disney duck character.
  - And Mooks should stay the hell out of Gundam Wing.
Guts: — The Anti Hero of Berserk.
- Guts Man from Mega Man.
Claw: — or any spelling variation thereof, such as Klaw, main enemy of Inspector Gadget.
- Claw chooses who will go and who will stay!
- Tigerclaw.
- Michelle Clore (sounds like "claw" in the right accent), the Big Bad of KateModern, a pun which was lampshaded on more than one occassion.
- The Hooded Claw, that guy who's always trying to kill Penelope Pitstop.
- Deathclaws—Sneaks the "Death" in there as well. They're appropriately named though—you really don't want to screw with these guys.
- Klaw, sonic-handed enemy of the Fantastic Four.
- The Claw, from Gun X Sword.
An honourable mention must go the Hyena People from Digger, whose females have the following, friendly, lovable names; Grim- Eyes, Blood-Eyes, Blood-Tail, Shadebones... most female hyenas seem to have them. Even the benevolent ones have names like Boneclaw Mother, and the smaller less aggressive males names like Owl-Caller.
Real Life examples, the Black Hand Gang and the craze in the early 20th century of referring to The Mafia in New York as the "Black Hands"
In Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, one of Jeffreys' hired assassins is named Dick Gripp. Thankfully, Stephenson never went into how he kills people...

Raze - Rahs al Ghul from Batman sounds like this; also, Ghoul.
- For extra running bowel-trembling terror-ness, Ras al Ghul means "the demon's head" in Arabic.
Augustus: — But only if they never abbreviate it to "Gus", or, worse yet, "Gussie". Or, for that matter, "Auggie", but that's pretty uncommon. Named after Gaius Octavius Augustus, nephew of Julius Caesar and first emperor of Rome.
- Pious Augustus, a.k.a. Philippe Augustine, a.k.a. Paul Augustine.
- Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden is a Swedified version, leading to...
- Gustave from Saga Frontier II.
- Augustus Giovanni from Vampire The Masquerade, perhaps the most powerful necromancer in the setting.
- A less serious one would be Augustus Gloop from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.
Alexander: — But only if they never abbreviate it to "Alex"... or for that matter "Xander"...or worst of all, "Sandy". "Lex" only one character can get away with. Alex Delarge of A Clockwork Orange comes to mind. Named after Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king who conquered Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Persia.
Caesar: — Ever heard of a somnambulist named Cesare? Both of the titles 'kaiser' and 'tsar'/czar' are derived from 'Caesar'. Of course, the kaisers and tsars were notable lines of conquerors in their own rights. Named after Julius Caesar, who conquered and unified Italy, ~~France~~ Gaul, and ~~Spain~~ the Iberian peninsula towards the end of the Roman Republic.
- Cesare Borgia, scary Renaissance dude. Not as bad as his enemies suggested, but still a bad dude.
Cyrus — "The Virus".
- The boss of Team Galactic in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum.
- Miley Cyrus. End of story.
Darius: — the Chessmaster from Need For Speed Carbon.
- Darius Just in Isaac Asimov's Murder at the ABA is generally a decent enough fellow, albeit with a sharp tongue and the martial arts skills to back it up.
Genghis: — The original gets the double whammy of also having Khan used as part of his nickname. He's that Badass). His real name Temujin is less intimidating, but it pops up occasionally.
- Even though Temujin roughly translates to "Strong-As-Iron" in Mongolian, and "Supreme Earth Man" in Chinese.
Gilgamesh: — As the original is a Sumerian king, in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
- Gilgamesh of Final Fantasy. His badassery might vary from game to game, but try telling that to Seifer.
Hannibal: — Thanks to Popcultural Osmosis, a certain fictional character is more famous than the original Carthaginian chap.
- The A Team has one too.
Julian. Julian the Apostate needs no introduction; Julian, the semi-legendary Count of Ceuta, joined the Muslims and let them cross over into Spain; and the probably fictional Saint Julian the Hospitaller murdered his parents while they were staying at his house — although he was tricked into it, and got his name for using his wealth to build shelters for the poor afterwards. A Julian is seldom as psychotic as some of the names on this list, but he should be taken very seriously.
- Another one: the genocidal Julian Robotnik from the Sat AM Sonic The Hedgehog continuity, who makes every other version of Robotnik/Eggman look like Julie Andrews.
- Julian from Roger Zelazny's Amber series. Quote: "I delight in the slaughter of beasts, and I think of my relatives constantly."
- Alias has Julian Sark, mysterious Brit-cum-Russian aristocrat, and Dragon to more than a few Big Bads.
- Not to mention the fact that it is the adjective form for describing some of the early Roman emperors (though they are more commonly referred to as Julio-Claudian).
Khan: — Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Shere Khan of The Jungle Book, Shao Kahn of Mortal Kombat. Technically a Mongol-Turkic title, but whatever. Coincidentally a common surname in South Asia. Lots of Pakistanis, as well as Indian Muslims, will have the surname "Khan".
- Jaghati Khan has the additional badassery from his first name, shared with one of Ghenghis' sons
- KHAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!
- Also not to forget Dalek Caan
- Shiwan Khan
Magnus: Latin for "(the) Great" or "Big". A harmless first name in Swedish.
- — Magneto from X-Men''. (The way Magneto spells his Erik with a k has the strange effect of making him look Swedish...)
- Ultra Magnus, from Transformers, is an exception.
- Another Warhammer 40000 example: Magnus the Red, Primarch of the Thousand Sons.
- Magnus Honey from Roald Dahl's Matilda is an exception, as he seems to have been a Nice Guy, perhaps in keeping with his surname.
- Butch Magnus Milosevic from The Boondocks.
- Real Life Example: Magnus Ver Magnusson, the Icelandic powerlifter.
Napoleon: — may be a subversion of this trope; this troper can only remember the original Napoleon as a badass (although they named a complex after him), and the most famous Napoleon besides him was, well...
- Animal Farm's Manipulative Bastard pig whose actions emulate Stalin's.
Vlad/Vladimir: — Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune, Vlad from El Goonish Shive, Vladimir Lem from Max Payne, Vladimir Bierko from 24, Vlad Masters/Plasmius in Danny Phantom, the eventual Khan (aha!) Vlad Ward of Battle Tech fame, Vlad Taltos of Steven Brust's Dragaera series, Kaiser Vlad of Battalion Wars.)
- Real-life examples: Vladimir Ilyich Oelyanov, better known as Lenin (Lenin, a BadAss?), Vlad the Impaler, Vladimir Putin (particularly if you used to be part of the USSR).
Xerxes: — Examples include Xerxes from System Shock 2. Three Hundred turns him into a Camp Gay version of Dhalsim. The original Xerxes did conquer half of Asia.)
- Also the name of Mozenrath's flying eel companion in Disney's Aladdin animated series, but he's more of a Nuisance Connected to Someone to Run Away Really Fast From than anything. Still, they made the effort.
Nero: — also means "black" in Italian, both literally and figuratively.
- Nero Angelo from Devil May Cry, who turned out to be Vergil, and Nero (~~no relation~~ ~~his son, according to Wordof God~~ ~~Link?~~ Here you go.) from Devil May Cry 4.
- Nrvnqsr (pronounced Nero) Chaos from Tsukihime.
- Don't mess with Nero Wolfe.
- In The Rescuers, the villain has a pair of pet crocodiles named Nero and Brutus (see below).
- The villain of the 2009 Star Trek feature film is called Captain Nero.

Doctor — Doctor Doom, Doctor Victor von Frankensten, Doctor Jekyll, Doctor Evil, you name it. If you get an M.D. or a Ph.D., you might as well grow a handlebar moustache and start practicing your evil laugh. Bonus points for insanity. See also Morally Ambiguous Doctorate.
- However, if "The Doctor" is the entirety of your name (that we know of) there may yet be hope...
  - If you're a Dalek, you should run in this case
- "Doctor Loboto" from Psychonauts likes to extract children's brains, the name an allusion to lobotomies (which would be the destruction of part of said brains, which is almost as creepy as what he does with them).
- The Doctor from Cave Story.
- "All I had to do was run for president?! I wasn't even really taking this all that seriously! I even used my real name! You voted for a guy named DOCTOR INSANO!!"
General — While the lower officer ranks may have their share of heroes who risk their lives on the front lines, your average General sits in his cushy headquarters plotting the destruction of all who stand in his way. General Zod and General Grievous are prime examples.
- Both in fiction and in real life, you should run away from anyone holding the rank of Generalissimo.
Baron — ever since Manfred von Richthofen became the terror of the skies against the Allies in World War I, every Baron automatically catches his tinge. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from Dune, Baron Otto Matic from Tom Slick, etc..
- Jack Kirby's Demon had a minor villain named Baron von Evilstein.
- Arguably, the entire Kingdom of Baron in Final Fantasy IV. However, this is mainly due to Golbez sending Cagnazzo, the Archfiend of Water, to kill King Baron and take his place.
- Baron Soontir Fel of the Star Wars Expanded Universe is a borderline case. He serves the Empire, and from his last name you'd expect him to fall from grace—indeed, it's not clear for a while where his loyalties lie. In the end, however, he seems to view the Rogues (both prior to joining them and after leaving them) as Worthy Opponents, and while he never goes back to the Alliance, neither does he rejoin the Empire—instead he sits out the war and all that follows up until the Yuuzhan Vong invasion because he's disgusted with what Ysanne Isard and others have turned the Empire into. Warlord Zsinj does try to use his name, as part of an elaborate subterfuge, to misdirect and distract Wedge, but this is less because of the 'terror' in hearing his name and more because Wedge views him as one of his greatest failures. (Oh, and he's trying to find his sister, Soontir's wife.)
Professor — When academics, or at least would be academics, go bad. Professor Chaos, bringer of destruction and doom, is the latter.
Commandant
Captain, Commander and other high ranks are good too, either for villains but more so for antiheroes (or just straight up good-guy heroes). Anything lower tends to lack oomph. After all, nobody's scared of a Private.

Sergeants, on the other hand...

Duke — You don't want to be around Duke Nukem when he starts to kick ass and chew bubble gum.
Count — Given the existence of Count Dracula, this troper is surprised this title hasn't made it up yet
Duke Roger of Conte, so terrifyingly powerful a sorcerer no one in Tortall would dare face him except a Determinator Action Girl protecting her prince—and he even orchestrates his return from the dead.

Jack The Ripper: — The villain in Red Eye is named Jackson Rippner. He even notes the connotations. General Jack D. Ripper, in Doctor Strangelove is even more directly based on Jack the Ripper.
There were enough people named Cain or variants that it even got its own article.
Brutus: — is certainly a name to watch out for. Anyone named this will almost always be covered in muscles and/or weapons, and extremely prone to violence. (Examples include the original Brutus, who killed the last King of Rome [granted, he deserved it...], His descendant Brutus, who betrayed Caesar, Brutus/Bluto from the Popeye cartoons, Brutus, the psychotic, hulking guard rat from The Secret of NIMH, Bruticus, a particularly, um, brutal Combining Mecha in Transformers, and Brutaka from Bionicle.)
- In The Rescuers, the villain has two pet alligators named Brutus and Nero. See above.
Lucrezia: — Examples: the original Lucrezia Borgia, usually (but wrongly) regarded as a notorious poisoner, her Zork parody counterpart Lucrezia Flathead, Lucrezia Mongfish from Girl Genius, Lucrezzia Belladona (belladonna is a type of poison), a mercenary poisoner (and husband killer!) from Warhammer, and Lucrezia Noin from Gundam Wing. It doesn't help that the name also means "Insanity")
- Lucrecia McEvil from an Earth Wind and Fire song. Also an example of Exactly What It Says On The Tin.
Judas: — Saduj in Ultima V betrays the party.
Victor or Frankenstein: — Any variation.
- Victor: Victor von Gerdenheim in Darkstalkers, Doctor Vicktor (Benvictor as well) in Ben 10, Victor Von Doom.
- Not to mention Viktor Vaughn, the sinister street criminal and star of MF DOOM's Concept Album Vaudeville Villain.
- Frankenstein: Franky in One Piece
- Casanova Frankenstein, who was used as the movie's villain just because of his awesome name.
- Franken Fran herself may never be referred to as explicitly as her name is given in the title, but...
- Real Life: Some hiker friends of mine were remarking that "Frankenstein Cliff" was a tough trail. Seriously, people, with a name like that, you didn't see it coming?
Retroactive aversion: Ralph Hinkley on The Greatest American Hero was renamed Ralph Hanley after a man with the name Hinkley attempted to assassinate President Reagan.
Gunman With Three Names: — any character referred to by three names is likely a killer or dangerous sort, based on the examples of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, and Mark David Chapman, famous assassins.
- Not to mention the Saturday Night Live episode in which Eddie Murphy's Buckwheat is assassinated (in circumstances reminiscent of the then-recent attempt on Ronald Reagan's life), conferring instant fame upon his triple-named assassin John David Stutts (also played by Murphy).
- When a real-life serial killer's identity is finally established, it's common for the news media to report the full name of the killer, including his middle name, even if the killer never used his middle name in his life. Westley Allan Dodd and John Wayne Gacy are examples. Thus, serial killers tend to be remembered as people with three names.
- Not so when the middle name is an awkward one.
Hitler: — may be an exception. He was such a monster that his first name, Adolf, is never, to my knowledge, used in a threatening manner, or, for that matter, at all. Hitler did, however, manage to kill off an entire first name in most of the world.
- Dolph from Suikoden V may qualify, though. Dolph Lungren, too, maybe.
- Dolf The Crow, the sort-of Big Bad from the Dutch TV-Show Alfred J. Kwak was a halfbreed of a crow and a species of bird I can't remember, spoke in a German accent, turned evil, started a political party with a banner obviously similar to the Nazi flag. He also attempts world domination a few times, and all this while wearing a Napoleon-like attire.
- Adolf is actually used in the novel Evil Genius. One of the villains is named Adolf Hauser. To make matters worse, he's actually nicknamed "The Fuhrer" and teaches at the Axis Institute, a school for future supervillains. May be a case of Refuge In Audacity. Oddly enough, he's not the Big Bad.
- Dolph, one of the bullies on The Simpsons.
- The video game Vandal Hearts pulls a double whammy with the Big Bad Dolf Crowley. In fact, Vandal Hearts is full of these—it also has an antagonistic character named Hel Spites and his son, Kain.
- Before the end of World War II, Adolf was one of the most popular names that German parents chose for a baby boy. After the end of World War II, nobody in Germany named their son Adolf any more.
- In the children's book Heidi, written long before World War II, Heidi's kind, lonely grandfather is named Adolf.
Mordred: — who killed King Arthur, does a double whammy, crossing into the Mor names category. Examples include Mordred Deschain in The Dark Tower.
The future humans in The Sarah Connor Chronicles really should have known better than to give the Terminator captain of a submarine the name Queeg, even if they thought it was funny.

Infernal:

Two words: Vampyroteuthis infernalis, literally "Vampire Squid from Hell".
Ahriman: — Big Bad of Zoroastrianism, and the name of a powerful Chaos sorcerer from Warhammer 40k. Also a recurring monster in the Final Fantasy series. Also there's Dr. Mark Ahriman in False Memory by Dean Koontz.
Azazel: — Bad guy in The Sandman, lots of mouths. Was meant to literally be the demon, though. Also the body-hopping demon squaring off against Denzel Washington in the movie Fallen, the Big Bad of Supernatural, and the latest boss of the Tekken games. It's spelled with three a's in the television series Hex, but the intention is still there.
- Not to mention Nightcrawler's self-proclaimed father - though that fact depends on which universe you're in, and who is writing it.
- There's a little-known (and rather bad) c-64 game called Death Bringer. Its main villain is named Azazael.
Damien: — Of The Prophecy and The Omen fame, also features in El Goonish Shive. A recent development, as historically Damien is the name of at least one saint.
Lucifer: — Anti Hero of his own Vertigo comic book of the same name, Lucemon of Digimon Frontier.
- And of course Louis/Luis Cypher (Angel Heart, The Matrix...)
- If you go for a variant on "beelzebub" or "satan", you'll generally look like you're trying too hard, though. Unless you're in Japan: Mr. Satan (from Dragonball Z). He's not evil, though, and while he'd be a Bad Ass in any other Verse, in DBZ he's a Muggle with delusions of grandeur. Digimon also gives us Demon, Beelzebumon, and SkullSatamon. They were dubbed as Daemon, Beelzemon, and... SkullSatamon?!
  - The snake in Redwall is named Asmodeus, a Biblical demon and the king of the lot in Jewish mythology. Brian Jacques says he did this on purpose.
- Similarily, "Lucien" is also a name to be found on dangerous people, as Oblivion, Fable, and Runescape demonstrate.
- Also, Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter
Devil: — Diavolo (Italian for "devil") from Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure
- Cruella De Vil, for an adjective/demonic combo. Note also that this name was kept in some countries where "devil" isn't actually a word, such as Spain; there it was from "Vil-", the Latin root for "evil".
- "De Vil" also followes a very common Dutch naming pattern of "De [verb]". "Villen" means "to skin" in Dutch.
- Let's not forget Diablo, the lord of all demons from the game bearing his name. This one may be too obvious to count in, however.
Demon: — Not to state the obvious or anything, but Demona from Gargoyles.
- And Demonica from the PS 2 medieval take on Powerstone, Barbarian. Though her story is different, you can definitely see the resemblance in body stance, personality, and the reasons for despising humans.
- The supervirus Daemon from ReBoot.
- Akuma from Street Fighter.
- Hiruma from Eyeshield 21 has the kanji for "demon" in his name, 魔.
Belial: BelialVamdemon, Big Bad of Digimon Adventure 02. Digimon loves this, apparently. Was dubbed as MaloMyotismon, which still evokes the adjective variety, but fell flat. Then again, so did BelialVamdemon.
- Belial means "worthless" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament, wicked or lawless men were commonly referred to as "sons of Belial."
- Berial is the name of a boss in Devil May Cry 4.
- Belial's used to such an extreme in Devil Survivor that not only do they have a boss named "Belial", but if a demon so much as has "Bel" in it's name, you know it's going to be a tough fight. It even reaches the point where they renamed Baldr to Beldr so that he could fit the rule.
Abyssion: — From Tales Of Symphonia, the last in a venerable line of demon hunters. He asks the party to schlep around the world collecting "Devil's Arms", for what turn out to be less-than-savory purposes. Still, with a name like that, you'd think the party would have guessed something was up.
Hell — Doctor Hell from Mazinger Z. The dubbed version (Tranzor Z) was worried people might be offended by that, so they called him "Doctor Demon" instead. Yeah, that's a LOT better.
- Enma Ai, a.k.a. "Hell Girl," isn't exactly a bad person... but that's probably not running through your mind as she ferries you straight to hell.
Mephistopheles: — Warhammer40000 doesn't use the entire name, but do have a Blood Angels Librarian called Mephiston.
- One of the Undead's Dreadlord hero units in Warcraft 3 bears the name Mephistroth.
Amon: — Neverwinter Nights 2 has a demon binder named Ammon Jerro.
- Also, the demon possessing Akira Fudoh.
- Amon is the name for the Sinistral of Chaos in the first two Lufia games.
Samael: — Errant Story gives us Ian Samael, recently possessed/mind raped by an ancient elven goddess. On a good day, he's simply a Well Intentioned Extremist. On a bad one, he's a Person Of Mass Destruction, with very little regard for minor concerns like collateral damage.
- The name of the self-replicating demon in the first Hellboy movie.
- The new Big Bad in Volume 5 of Heroes.
Umineko No Naku Koro Ni has the Quirky Miniboss Squad, the Seven Sisters of Purgatory: Lucifer, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Belphegor, and Mammon. Their main job in the series is carrying out human sacrifices to resurrect their mistress. (And Fanservice.)
Heavily subverted in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy, as, when Han and Lando first meet Garm Bel Iblis, they disagree on whether he can be trusted, with Han sure he's on the up-and-up, while Lando is more suspicious. Readers familiar with this trope might tend to side with Lando, since Garm was the name, in Norse myth, of the Hound that guarded the gate to the underworld, while Bel, an alternate spelling of ba'al, in Christian demonology, was/is the name of a demon, while, Iblis is, in Arabic, an alternate name for Satan. It turns out, however, that Han is right and Garm Bel Iblis is a straightforward white-hat.

Angels:

Sgt. Nicholas Angel, badge number 777.
Azrael: — (Gargamel's pet cat in The Smurfs; an antihero from the Batverse, demon in Dogma, anime villain Muruta Azrael of Gundam SEED; anglicized form of the name for the Angel of Death in Islam and some Hebrew lore.) Azurile from Dragon Warrior Monsters
- Current Chapter Master of the Dark Angels in Warhammer 40000 is one Azrael.
  - Asriel of His Dark Materials.
- The real guy shows up in Good Omens, and in one of the Discworld books.
Exodus: — Possibly due to Xtreme Kool Letterz; and the vaguest recollection that it was something in the Bible; which is Significant. Baffling when you ponder that it means "to leave".
- Exodus (born Bennet du Paris) is a Marvel Comics supervillain.
- Exodia, The Forbidden One will instantly win your Yu-Gi-Oh game when summoned.
- One way the Big Bad of Final Fantasy V was translated before it was officially settled to "Exdeath"; others have included "Exodia."
- The titular Big Bad of Ultima III: Exodus.
Gabriel: — This one's a double whammy with the whole Angel of Death / left hand of God thing. Sylar's real name in Heroes and Simon and River's dad from Firefly, the possible real name of the main character in Van Helsing.
- Also the name of the mysterious "other" ghost whisperer on Ghost Whisperer.
The Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion are all named after biblical angels except for the first two, which are named Adam and Lilith.
- You actually can add "Adam" to the list under certain circumstances. Example: Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei, of Heroes who true to his name is the forerunner of all of the other superpowered people.
- Then there's the Adam from Good Omens.
For anyone who wishes to keep track, here is a convenient score card for the Angel team.
Raphael: the serial killer in the Criminal Minds two-parter "The Big Game"/"Revelations" has an alternate personality who believes himself to be the actual, biblical one.
- The turtle, on the other hand, is a good guy, just hot tempered.

Biblical

Magog: — The titular Anti Hero of Kingdom Come. Although this may be a subversion, as the character was recently reintroduced in the pages of JSA as a Legacy Character and seems to be reforming from his Well Intentioned Extremist self.
- The Magog are a race of [1] aliens in [[Andromeda]].
Samson: — Brock Samson from the Venture Brothers. The man is a walking TERROR. He once proposed weaponizing a jawbone, which (combined with his oft-mocked mullet) are subtle little Shout Outs to the original.
- Samson Gray, Sylar's father on Heroes.
Lilith: — (Lilith in Darkstalkers, Dracula's daughter Lilith in Marvel Comics). In Jewish folklore, Lilith was supposed to be Adam's first wife, created from clay like Adam instead of from Adam's rib, making her his equal. She is often depicted as a baby killer, seductress, and mother of demons.
- Which makes her possessing little girls in Supernatural slightly off-putting and more than a little jarring.
- According to Mr. Beaver, Lilith was also an evil genie, and an ancestor of Jadis.
- Frasier Crane's ex-wife Lillith was mainly a snarky ice queen.
- Used in Warhammer 40000, where Lileath is the Eldar goddess of fertility and birth.
- Also in Warhammer 40,000 , Lelith Hesperax, a powerful Dark Eldar Wych-Leader
- The second Angel in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
One of the two villains from The Proposition is named Eden Fletcher. His first name kind of gets him on here. Since he's an evil decadent type, and, better yet, a Smug Snake his name makes perfect symbolic sense.
The Dresden Files has an actual demon/angel in the form of Lasciel.
Names like Angel or Angelo, or women called Angela (such as in Spawn or Heroes) usually work too.
Zillah: — from Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls is named after the Biblical Zillah, the wife of Lamech (descendant of Cain). Interestingly, Brite's Zillah is male.
- However, as Toei so capably showed us, Zillah without the H is a horrible failure.
In Jewish tradition, the name Absalom is considered banned or at least bad luck to give to a child, given that the character lead a revolt against his father. The Canterbury Tales have a Butt Monkey character with this name, but that's probably more in reference to him being "pretty" (as was the Biblical character) than because of ill-omens associated with the name.
- There used to be a Dr Who spin-off comic called "Absalom Daak, Dalek Killer".
Moloch: — A Biblical god/demon who according to his enemies went in for child sacrifice by fire. Also the techno demon on Buffy.
- Also a (former) crime boss in Watchmen, though he's well past his prime in most of the scenes featuring him.
- Also a boss in the Mortal Kombat series.
- Zygmunt Molotch
Nimrod: — An ancient conqueror mentioned only once in Genesis. Shares the same name as a robot from the future.
- Similarly, there's a serial killer named Nimrod ("a mighty hunter before the Lord" and all) in The Doll's House from Sandman. Which also has the Corinthian, named for the Biblical symbolism of "through a glass, darkly" (as a dark mirror of humanity) as well as for the the mode of behavior, with his particular twist on it.
LOST has a lot of Biblical names. Ironically, the show's resident Magnificent Bastard (though Your Mileage May Vary on his level of evil) is named Benjamin.

Pagan/Assorted:

Abraxas: — A name of God from Gnostic theology. The spectacularly awful Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe probably just liked the Xtreme Kool Letterz, though.
- Abraxas is an evil cosmic being in Marvel Comics, the anthithesis of Eternity.
- There's also an Abraxas Malfoy in Harry Potter.
Acheron Hades: — , and the entire Hades family in the Thursday Next novels, named after the Greek underworld and the rivers in it.
Faust: — , and all derivations of it; note that it means "fist" in German. Ellen Faustino from The Supernaturalist, Faust from the various versions, Faust from Guilty Gear, who you really want to run away from before he sticks his giant scalpel up your ass.
Tantalus: — a figure from ancient Greek legend better known for his Ironic Hell punishment than for what he did to earn it.
Dante: — Of "Divine Comedy" and "Inferno" fame (Half-demon Badass from Devil May Cry, Big Bad of the anime Full Metal Alchemist. Also the name of the chapter master of the Blood Angels in Warhammer 40000. Go Nagai's Demon Lord Dante, as well. Though stay far FAR away from the dub, it is undoubtedly a convention for the worst voice actors ever. It's even worse than "legendary" titles like M.D. Geist and Ogenki Clinic. It's possible that Edmond Dantes of The Count Of Monte Cristo was named with this intent, given that he sentences his enemies to an Ironic Hell (albeit while still on earth).
Alastor: — A demon of vengeance in Greek myth, and a possessing entity akin to Nemesis in Christian demonology. Spelled "Aleister," may be an allusion to purported black magician Aleister Crowley.
- Blade Master Alastor from Viewtiful Joe.
- Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter.
- Alister in Supernatural.
- One of the bosses of Painkiller
- In Vampire The Masquerade, alastors are the Camarilla enforcers charged with hunting down and destroying the Anathema, those vampires who the Camarilla have marked for Final Death.
- The Big Bad of the children's book The Castle in the Attic, a sorcerer whose specialty was magic amulets.
Lamia: — are an ancient Greek demon whose description boils down to 'succubus of children.' This troper met the principal of a Christian school in Houston named Lamia Raad. This is not someone I would entrust my kids to.
- Also see Demon Lord Dante by Go Nagai. Lamia wants to alternatively either screw or eat everyone in the city to have/make food for her zillions of spider babies. (She's a drider instead of the typical half-snake version fantasy works usually toss up)
  - Also Lamia Loveless from Super Robot Wars. An android and efficient spy who will sneak into your team, get really friendly with your teammates, while leaking information to her higher ups so at one point, she will be able to bring your group down in one swift move, and she has no concern in anything except her mission, her life included. Played straight in SRW Advance, when playing Axel's scenario, whereas she never did develop her conscience and stays as a cold blooded android.
- The Lahmian vampires from Warhammer Fantasy.
- Madam Lamia, Count Grendel of Gracht's assistant in The Androids of Tara.
- Lamia the witch from Stardust
Baal: — In Stargate SG 1 and Diablo, among other works.
Allelujah - Allelujah Haptism from Gundam00...well, not so much him as his sociopathic split personality Hallelujah.
Jormungandr - The World Serpent of Norse myth.
Janus - The Roman God of Gates, Doors, etc... Often depicted as having two faces. The doors of his temple were ritually opened when Rome went on war. An example would be Janus from Goldeneye, who was later revealed to be Alec Trevelyan, AKA 006.
- Janus from Chrono Trigger who not only prophesizes that Chrono will die in his fight with Lavos, but is also the past self of apparent Big Bad Magus.
Odin. Norse Mythology. Also this troper's given name, but that's neither here nor there.
- Usually refered to as 'the Allfather', 'Old One-eye' or 'the Ferryman', as He's rather scary and naming Him directly might bring you unwanted attention.

Knives: — (Evil brother from Trigun, psycho ex-girlfriend Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim. The Daggers from Sea Quest DSV.)
- Tough-looking character actor (and real-life ex-con) Danny Trejo oftens plays characters named after edged weapons. He's been Navajas ("knives" in Spanish), Razor Eddie, Razor Charlie, and Machete no less than four times.
- Knives Millions
Gunn: — Peter Gunn
- [[Wayside School Bebe Gunn]] and her little brother, Ray Gunn
- Charles Gunn, the muscle on Angel.
Any notable firearm manufacturer: — (Colt, Winchester, Ingram, Glock, Mauser, et al.). You're not likely to meet a Alexander U.S. Repeating-Arms, but if you do you should probably run very fast.
- The Winchester brothers on Supernatural. In the episode "The Benders," a county police officer asks, "Like the rifle?" and Dean answers, "Like the rifle."
  - In the season 4 episode "It's a Terrible Life," the bewitched brothers believe their names are Dean Smith and Sam Wesson.
- Mary Magnum again, also Moses Magnum from X-Men. Thomas Magnum of Magnum, P.I..
- Tony Beretta, the cop from the '70's TV show, Beretta.
- Subversion: In the anime Scrapped Princess, the Casull family is on the run from the church of Mauser and pretty much any last name for any character is a weapon manufacturer. There's enough characters to go from obvious ones like Winya Chester, Barrett and Steyr to more obscure ones such as Galil, Giat, Socom, Scorpse and Peters-Stahl.
  - Don't forget Mauser's nemesis, Browning. Also, Mauser's servants are called the Peacekeepers, and Browning's are the Dragoons.
- Ingram Plisken from Super Robot Wars. Bonus points for sharing the surname of a dude called Snake.
  - There are a lot of Banpresto Original characters named like that. There's Kyosuke Nanbu, Excellen and Lemon Browning, Lefina Enfield, Sean Webley, Ingram Prisken, Calico and Spectra among others...
HK-47 from Knights Of The Old Republic.
Bullet: — Bullitt, from the movie of the same name, Bulletta (B. B. Hood) from Darkstalkers. Subverted in an episode of Red Dwarf where Kryten tries to sound tough with the name Jake Bullet ... only to discover that his Badass-sounding 'Cybernetics Division' is traffic control. Also, one of Calvin's imaginary alter egos is a private eye named Tracer Bullet.)
Icepick: — There's a Decepticon by the name. Icepick is alos a bad guy from one of the "Double Dragon" games and one of the "Skate Or Die" games.)
Blade: — a mutant from the execrable VR Troopers.
- Variation: Ragna the Bloodedge again.
- Tekkaman Blade. Most of the other Tekkamen have weapon names too (Dagger, Axe, Sword...), and if that isn't enough indication you should run, there's Tekkaman Evil. Then Tekkaman Blade II has Tekkaman Dead.
Needles: — The murderous psychopath clown from the Twisted Metal series is called 'Sweet Tooth' after his ice cream truck by most people, but his ''real' name? Needles Kane.
- Mace was also the name of the Jerk Ass hero of The Ewok Adventure.
- Mike Morningstar again, as a morning star is also the name for a mace with spikes.
Swords: — Star Saber and Wing Saber of Transformers and Saber from The Inheritance Cycle.
- Motoko Kusanagi. Admittedly a pseudonym, but still...
  - Given that it would be like a westerner calling herself "Mary Excalibur", yeah...
- Durandal.
- Jerkass antihero of Climax's Dreamcast Timestalkers game, simply named Sword. Actually, everyone playable has a simple object name like the puppet being named Marion, except the elf Nigel, who was a hero from a previous game (though Sword is the only one people want to get away from for being such a smug Ahole). Lady scares the three mobster bad guys a lot, but that's because they're really just bluffing blustery types who are used to others doing their work.
- The Ten Espada from Bleach.
Hammer: — The title character from Sledge Hammer.
- "The Hammer is my penis."
- The very hard-boiled Mike Hammer.
- The Maulotaur (episode 2 boss) from Heretic, named after the huge maul (sledgehammer) which is his weapon.
Duke Nukem, of course. Or does that count as a verb?
Simon Green's Nightside gave us "Shotgun Suzie," aka "Suzie Shooter," aka "Oh Christ, It's Her, Run!"
Jack Vance has Heroic Sociopath /Villain Protagonist Cugel the Clever, a homophone for cudgel. Also a jab at the character, since a cudgel is the exact opposite of his attempt to be clever and subtle.
Tsurugi Inugami, is named after a sword. He's also named after a Japanese Mythology god as a bonus. The thing is, he is not one bit of a Badass. In fact, he is a downright pushover to Misao Nanjo.
Hook — Captain James Hook, "Mrs. Hook's little baby boy."
Willy Pete gets his name from the millitary lingo for white phosphorus. Anything else there is to say about him can be found on the Complete Monster and High Octane Nightmare Fuel pages.

Burn: — Burns (Montgomery Burns in The Simpsons, Arthur Burns from The Proposition.
- Frank Burns from MASH
The Fucker: It's only a nickname, but by God does Cal Richards from The Thick Of It live up to it.
Hack: — One half of Megabyte's Quirky Mini Boss Squad on Re Boot, averts this trope since both of them are all but harmless. Also Cassie Hack, the slasher hunter from the series Hack/Slash.
Kill: — By itself is actually kind of silly (see the controversy over Mr. Kill, a James Bond villain from Die Another Day) so expect variations such as Killgrave (a Daredevil villain unfortunately known as The Purple Man. Shoulda just stuck with his real name...), and Duff Killigan of Kim Possible.
- Also, Killian. It's the name of a Clint Eastwood lookalike Bad Ass sheriff in the original. Also appears in Fallout.
- Col. Kilgore from Apocalypse Now, a man who just can't get enough of the smell of napalm in the morning, outlaw Rud Killgore in an episode of Walker Texas Ranger and a Black Panther villain named Erik Killmonger.
- Dr. Killjoy from The Suffering.
- Ron Killings of TNA.
- Killer the Butcher
- Then there's Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney villain Shelly de Killer. Who is a contract killer.
- Killer from Shadow Hearts: From the New World. Who is a serial killer.
- "Hello, I am Doctor Henry Killinger, unt zis is my magic murder bag."
- The Kill Master of Brutal Legend (voiced by Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead) named himself that so people would leave him alone. He's the team healer.
- The pirates of WarMachine's Mercenary faction has Doc Killingsworth. The mere threat of treatment is enough to make the wounded get up and back into the fight.
- Killer Bee from Naruto—not a bad guy, but certainly not someone you want to mess with.
  - What's more, the recent Naruto 10th anniversary special listed his brother, the current Raikage under the name 'Killa A'. Really, 'Killa A' and 'Killa B'. What a family! Run, just run.
Pierce: — Aaron Pierce in 24, although he is a good guy with a heart of gold, he is still a complete and utter Badass.
- Alien-hunting unit head Daniel Pierce of Roswell.
Punch: — see Punch And Judy
Ravage: — Ravage in Transformers, though he was rarely a threat to other Transformers, was not someone humans wanted to deal with.
- Semi-example: Bonecrusher
- Devastator. He devastates things.
  - Or any use of the name, really. The Harkonnen Devastator from the Dune games is the biggest, baddest tank around.
Slash: — one of Magus' minions in Chrono Trigger, the other half of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in Re Boot.
- Also the name of the caveman from the Eternal Champions games.
Dominate: — Doctor Who had an actual race calling themselves The Dominators. (They come with ~~dwarves in suits~~ Creepy Monotone killer robots, of course.
- A DC Comics alien race were also called the Dominators. Naturally, they tried to conquer the Earth.
- The Always Chaotic Evil psychic Space Jews in The Iron Dream were called Dominators.
Darth Maul.
Killum from Sluggy Freelance.
Uncle Fester. "It means, to rot!"
Xiaolin Showdown's Chase Young. Meaningful in that he traded his soul for eternal youth.
Shock: — Doctor Shocc, Former-Nazi Mad Scientist from Marshal Law.
Another one for the real-life bin: Karin Slaughter. She writes thrillers.
- Another real-life Slaughter: A.J. Slaughter, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
- Tod Slaughter, known for his roles in film adaptations of Victorian horror melodramas and is particularly known for his portrayal of the original Sweeney Todd from the penny-dreadful "A String of Pearls."
- Professional Wrestler and GIJoe character Sergeant Slaughter.
Stab:. "Stabby Joe" from Friends. Phoebe warned Ross not to walk down a certain alley to avoid meeting this character.
- Parodied on The Simpsons where Marge is watching a film about a convict named Johnny Stabbo and his mother, Ma Stabbo.
Genocide. And she makes a point of saying that it's not just her name, it's what she does.
- A variant: In Trinity Blood, Ridiculously Human Robot Father Tres feels the need to deliver exposition on what he's doing. When somebody has something called "Genocide Mode" in his repertoire, it's probably a good idea to be somewhere else when he invokes it.
Annihilate: You should probably run very fast from a weapon the military designates an "Annihilation Platform". Especially when the individual unit's name has a 'mor' in it, being "Moritz-G."
Loathe: Louis the Pious had three sons, Pepin II, Charles the Bald and Lothair. Guess which one tried to take over the Holy Roman Empire...
Though not truly a verb, Rapine Storm of Cthulhu Tech still qualifies as something to run away from. Pity that doing so will probably mean you run into something worse, given the setting.
Superhero Blastoman and his sidekick, Explodo.
Bang Shishigami. "BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!!"
The Fairly Oddparents: Crusher McPersoncrusher and Princess Mandie.
You can't forget Jorgen Von Strangle.

Doom: — Doom: Doctor Doom, of course. And Thulsa Doom from Conan The Barbarian.
- Houndoom is a demonic-looking Dark/Fire canine.
- Obscure bad-ass synonym version: Ruination, the gestalt form of the Decepticon Commandos from Transformers.
- Rapper MF DOOM, whose persona is that of, well, a twisted genius hell bent on revenge against the industry that destroyed him. His real name, Daniel Dumile, also counts in this sense; It's pronounced "Doom-i-lay".
- Bonus points. Doomageddon combines doom and armageddon.
- If you're a toon, Judge Doom is not someone you're going to want to hang around with. Or even if you're not, at that. He's not a nice guy, by any stretch of the imagination.
  - Eheheh, 'hang around with'...
- It's the end of the line for Caractacus Doom...
Hunter: — Hunter Hearst Helmsley, aka Triple H, from WWE. Ironically, the name is a leftover from a previous gimmick as a snobby aristocrat, and was not originally given to the sledgehammer-wielding, water-spitting, all-ass-kicking-all-the-time Badass we know today. Hunter was also the name of the extremely intimidating Action Girl from Neverwhere. Also, Hunter Blackthorne is The Chessmaster from Noble Causes. Hunter Gathers from The Venture Brothers. In fact, the naming of someone as Hunter is apparently so iconic that some "tests" to determine the Mary Sue-ness of characters specifically have a point (or more!) for someone named Hunter.
- Real life example: Hunter S Thompson.
- Jäger, the German word for hunter, likely counts. See the Jägermonsters and Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, the latter of whom is a triple whammy depending on how you spell his name. Not to mention that 'jaeger' is also an Ominous Bird - a kleptoparasite that literally beats up other birds and steals their food.
  - In which case, there's the real-life Mick Jagger — a bad-ass rocker if ever there was one. (The Rolling Stones, in their early days, made a point of not being nice guys like The Beatles.)
Death: — (or "Deth") is a favored name component of villains and Evil Overlords, although such a name is usually not given to a character at birth, but acquired later once they've reached a certain level of "badassitude". It is the middle name of detective Lord Peter Wimsey, although in his case it is pronounced "Deeth" (rhymes with "teeth"). The Wimsey books also include a psychotic neurologist named Sir Julian Freke. The Discworld novels, despite featuring Death Himself as a prominent good guy, had a villain named Edward d'Eath (no relation) in Men At Arms.
- Exception - De'Ath (not pronounced like you'd expect) was apparently a real English aristocratic name. Inspired Terry Pratchett for Edward d'Eath. There's also a De'Ath in Gormenghast. In Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, Édouard de Gex takes the alias Edmund de Ath after he fakes his death. Given how many people he ends up killing or causing the death of, it's quite symbolic.
- DC villain Deathstroke has my vote for The Most Bad Ass Name of All Time. And ''that's 'not even his full name'. His full name is 'Deathstroke The Fucking Terminator'. (NOTE: the word 'fucking' is not in Deathstroke's name.)
- An episode of the cartoon Mad Jack the Pirate featured a well-suited man called "Mr. D'eath". Jack remarks that his name sounds French until seeing the man upon which he realises the man is, in fact, Death.
- Patricia A Mc Killip's Riddle of the Stars trilogy features a man named Deth whose true allegiance is ambiguous, but eventually turns out to be a good guy.
- Dethklok is all about this. Nathan Explosion, William Murderface, and Toki Wartooth all fit (and those are their birth names). Hell, everyone that attends a Dethklok concert is required to sign a pain waiver; if that doesn't suggest mass casualties, I don't know what does.
- Latinized version from Warhammer 40000: Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard.
  - Don't forget the Death Korps of Krieg, from the same universe.
- Arawn-Death-Lord of Annuvin, from the Prydain chronicles. Apparently Death-Lord itself is a title, as he usurped it from a previous Death-Lord (who wants it back).
- Dr_Death from Neopets is a subversion. Eliv Thade, not so much.
- Judge Sidney De'ath became known as Judge Death before he became an undead monstrosity.
- Dracula's right hand man "Death" in the Castlevania series; like the Diskworld example he is the actual Grim Reaper but unlike that example he is definitely evil.
- Arnold Toht from ''Raiders Of The Lost Arc. Toht is an Anglicized spelling for the German word for "death."
- Dr. Totenkopf in Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. His name is "Death Head" in German.
  - Actually, Totenkopf means skull.
- Cancer Deathmask from Saint Seiya. The fact that his Zodiac Sign (Cancer) is also the name of pretty much the most dreaded disease in the world short of AIDS doesn't make him any more approachable, either.
- No love for the Death Star?
- Not a person, but anything that goes by the name of Death Note is clearly not something to be trifled with.
- Satirical example: DeathSpank
- ExDeath. He might be a tree (specifically, a tree with countless evil spirits sealed within, but a tree nontheless), but cross him, and you'll find yourself on a one-way trip to THE VOID.
- Battle Fantasia has, as its Final Boss, a monstrous suit of Animated Armor known as Deathbringer.
Shadow: — More popular for the Anti Hero; the ninja assassin from Final Fantasy VI, the hedgehog from the Sonic The Hedgehog games, nickname of the protagonist from American Gods, although his real name is even more significant: Baldur Moon. That's right.
- Also another key aspect of Mary Sue tests, incidentally.
- The Shadow
- The Shadows
Pain: — Max Payne, Anti Hero and One Man Army. Considering the Xtremely Kool X in his first name, this guy's a double whammy... If you mess with him, you will experience pain to the max. And then there's Paine from Final Fantasy X 2, Major Payne, featuring Damon Wayans as a Bad Ass Drill Sergeant Nasty, and recent Naruto villain Pain, who destroyed Konoha Village.
- Also Howard Payne, villain of Speed.
- Real Life example: Thomas Paine, who wrote the pamphlet that started the American War of Independence.
- Whip out your Spanish dictionary and you get Dolores Umbridge.
- The Lady of Pain, ruler of Sigil, from Planescape.
Blight: — Luca Blight. 'Nuff said. For far less intimidating versions, Captain Planet's hottie villain Dr. Babs Blight (Whose good sister is a member of the fluffy and safe naming trope, having been named Bambi).
- Honourable mention must go to the commander of the Bounty, who is exactly one crossed t short of this name, and would have (allegedly) more than lived up to it.
Blaze: — A common, if generic, name for fire-type characters such as Blaze of Mortal Kombat. Johnny Blaze of Ghost Rider also applies.
- Merlin's mentor was named Blaise.
- Blaze Fielding from Streets Of Rage, though, is a heroine. In SOR 2 she gained the ability to shoot fireballs from her palm as a special move.
Jet: — Like Shadow, more popular for the Anti Hero; Jet Black of Cowboy Bebop, the leader of a group of freedom fighters in Avatar The Last Airbender, and the hawk in Sonic The Hedgehog. And, as a Real Life example, Jet Li.
- Improper use may lead to Narm. I.E. Jet Brody from Fracture.
Real-life example: Nick Cave, as well as a few of his bandmates: Conway Savage, Roland Wolf, Hugo Race, Tracy Pew. Their music is quite often very scary.
- No Blixa Bargeld? I'd stay the hell away from a man named after a brand of ball point pen, Stage Name or otherwise. And for that matter, Lung Leg. She's pretty much a badass in her own right.
Dr Biro of Stargate Atlantis, while not actually Bad Ass as such, is generally agreed upon as someone to avoid...
- Adam Savage is someone to run with. Chances are, he's either running away from something about to blow up, or towards something he just blew up (in which case you get to see cool wreckage).
Cage: — Luke Cage, Power man. He was so cool that Nicholas Coppola changed his own last name to match his.
Ravager: — Deathstroke's daughter (not her real name).
- And That One Bonus Boss from Jade Empire.
- And the name of the best halberd in the game (possibly the best weapon, period) in Baldur's Gate II Throne Of Bhaal, as well as a fairly nasty demon you fight at one point.
- The Dark Eldar Ravager in Warhammer 40000. Though, since the Dark Eldar have the fastest units in the game, running is useless.
- The name of planet-life-force-eating Dark Lord Darth Nihilus' flagship in Knights Of The Old Republic.
- Also, Knights Of The Old Republichas a mentor-turned-evil with the first name Saul, as in the Old-Testament King; see "Conquerors", above. (Incidentally, Saul met his doom at a place called Endor.)
- The tyrannosaurs in Peter Jackson's King Kong are classified as Vastatosaurus rex, meaning "Ravager-lizard king."
Plague: Darth Plagueis, Plague/Prague in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Changed to Petrine in English).
Vader ("Father" in Dutch, and also sounds like "invader". Do I even need to expand this one?
- Besides our good friend Darth, there's also the pro wrestler Vader (known as Big Van Vader in Japan), who is similarly no one to be trifled with.
Subverted. Two words- Jonathan Teatime.
- It's pronounced Te-ah-tim-eh, if you want to live.
  - This is a parody of the name De'Ath and its correct pronunciation (see above).
- Vetinari's nickname was Dog-Botherer. It's not always how it's actually pronounced, especially when there's prep school teenagers involved. (Albeit, Asssassin's Guild school teenagers, but it's all the same.)
- Also Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip. Hardly scary words. Very scary men!
Hell: — The main villain of Mazinger Z was Doctor Hell. Somehow neither that, the Evil Laugh or the creepy purple skin were enough for people to figure out he was evil until it was too late.
- Hell Tanner from Damnation Alley.
- Sam Hell (Rowdy Roddy Piper) in the B-classic Hell Comes To Frogtown.
- Hellboy
- Semi-example: Dr. Abraham van Helsing. The anime Hellsing added an extra L, just to be clear.
- Let's not forget the source of the word: Hel, Norse goddess of the dead and Niflheim, where those who died of sickness and old age go.
Judge: — Judge Holden in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, the Judges from Judge Dredd (double points for the Dark Judges, which also fit elsewhere in this section, with the Judge names of Death, Fire, Fear, and Mortis), and the aforementioned Judge Doom.
- Don't forget Judge Frollo what is unquestionably one of Disney's nastiest villains
- The Judges from Final Fantasy XII without a doubt.
Grave: — Zebediah Killgrave from above becomes a twofer, so you know he's bad news (of course, Luke Cage beat the tar out of him last we saw of him.) And from the DC side of things, we have Lex Luthor's assistant, Mercy Graves. Who has no mercy. And then there's Beyond the Grave from Gungrave, who is an unstoppable zombie killing machine. The instruction booklet of the original game even says Grave is often called "Death" by his enemies.
- Saria Sorrowgrave from World Of Warcraft. Even though she's a relatively easy boss in a dungeon.
- There was a truant officer named "Shallowgrave" on The Fairly Oddparents.
Bane: — Bane from the Batman mythos, who is infamous for breaking Batman's back, as well as Bane from the Forgotten Realms setting and 4th edition of Dungeons And Dragons, the god of war, conquest and fear.
- There's also Darth Bane from Star Wars. Not only was he a Sith, but he tricked the leader of the Sith into wiping out the rest of the order, including himself (that is to say, the leader of the Sith). He also came up with the Rule of Two, under which Sidious eventually gained control of the galaxy and destroyed the Jedi order, the two long term goals of the Sith. It's worth noting that by the time Sidious died, he had in fact long since broken it: Emperor's Hands, Prophets of the Dark Side, Imperial Sovereign Protectors, Dark Side Elite, though these were not officially Sith, just Dark Side users trained by the Emperor.
- Bane from the Matrix is not actually a bad guy until he gets posessed by Smith, at which point he becomes one.
- Film star Sean Bean, who simply rocks into Mordor.
Wound: — General Woundwort from Watership Down; it's a plant (virtually all rabbits in the book are named after plants), but doesn't it sound scary? Also, "General" as a title.
Fate or Destiny: — Expect someone as hard to beat as the concept they're named after.)
- Fate Testarossa of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The Dragon of the first season who became stronger after her Heel Face Turn.
- Fate Averruncus of Mahou Sensei Negima. Arch Enemy of Negi who has completely dominated almost every fight he's in.
  - Of course, that isn't his real name.
- FATE from Chrono Cross. The super computer of Chronopolis and the machine behind the villain, Lynx.
- Doctor Fate.
- Destiny Hope Cyrus.
Faith: — Faith from Buffy that did a vicious Face Heel Turn.
Dark: — Perhaps crossing into colours, 'Dark' in just about any usage. Examples are ~~probably~~ far too numerous to individually list here.
- Parodied with Mr. Furious in Mystery Men, who tries to give his secret identity as Phoenix Dark, among other variations. It doesn't work, and he finally concedes that his real name is Roy.
- To the extent that, upon seeing the first episode of 80s cartoon Skeleton Warriors and hearing a character say "How can you think Baron Dark is our enemy?", he burst out laughing.
- Subversion: Dark, while a thief and a bit smug, works with the best of motivations. Then again, Evil Counterpart Krad plays it straight as can be.
- Dark Man, and the good guy Darkman.
- The Darkness
Cinder, of the Chandrian.
- Cinder, of Killer Instinct fame.
Fury: — Bryan Fury from Tekken. Also Nick Fury of Marvel comics.
Tear: — Surprising subversion: "Lucca Ashtear" is a heroine, though it might relate to her advancement of technology at the cost of safety precautions. Of course, that ends up saving everyone. Kind of.
The Master has his own page, of wHiCh He woUlD apProvE.
Gore: Emperor Gore from Getter Robo.
- Teron Gorefiend from World Of Warcraft.
- Combat android Fulgore from Killer Instinct.
The Free Man
Vale.
Psyko: From the Marvel Comics Sleepwalker series. He's a Serial Killer and Mind Rapist who likes to drive everyone around him insane literally just by looking at them, try to manipulate them into committing murder, and is more or less a Complete Monster.
EVERY homunculus. Come on, they're called after the seven deadly sins. How bad can you get?
Odio and variations of it.
- Including El Odio.
Atrocity: — Atrocitus, perhaps the only Green Lantern villain who can give Sinestro a run for his money in the evil name department. It's appropriate, since he's literally a space demon.
Holocaust and Necrosis from Three of Heart, One of Blood. Necrosis causes any living object he touches to decompose, cell by cell. Doryn from the same series is an in-universe example: his name is Zuzenai for 'essence of terror'.
Dread: As in John "Dread" Wulgaru of Otherland — Ax Crazy, Serial Killer, Psycho For Hire, Complete Monster at your service.
Chaos: The One Winged Angel of Garland from Final Fantasy I who also reappears as the ultimate Big Bad in Dissidia. There's also Argosax the Choas in Devil May Cry 2, and Chaos from Sonic Adventure (especially in his/its One Winged Angel form).
Despair: The Despair Embodied of Devil May Cry 2, the One Winged Angel and Bishonen Line (with a touch of Viewer Gender Confusion and Ambiguous Gender) of the above Argosax the Chaos and perhaps the only real challenge in the game. Also, there's D'Sparil, the Big Bad of Heretic, as well as The Despair from The Sandman (two of 'em, to be exact), who initiated the chain reaction that led Superman to Earth.
Agony: Lord Agony from Lock's Quest. Their most powerful archineer was named Agonius and they didn't expect him to create a robot army?
Subverted in Darker Than Black; "Havoc" is definitely a "run away" name, but she's actually The Atoner. It fit before her depower, though.
The villain (played by Bela Lugosi) of the 1932 horror movie White Zombie is called "Murder Legendre." So much for subtlety.
Killer: Kira in Death Note.
The last boss in Smash Bros Brawl would be mentioned, but his name is a rather... taboo.

Black: — Especially popular. (Blackguard, Blackheart, Blackthorne, Blackout, etc...)
- And Dr. Raven Sable.
  - And Nero the Sable from Dirge of Cerberus.
- Einhander has the sixth boss, Schwarzgeist. Which is German for "Black Ghost"
- Sirius Black, although this turns out to be somewhat misleading. It definitely applies to most of the rest of his family, though. His family attempts to deliberately invoke this trope with astrological names multiple times. Sirius, Andromeda, Regulus, Draco, probably several of the others do this also, but I don't know astronomy well enough to tell you for sure.
  - Bellatrix is also named after a star.
- Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario. Not quite in English, but his name in Japan is 'Count Noir', which is French for Black.
- Black Dow. Among an entire nation of Named Men, he's still infamous.
Red: — So is any variation of red. (Crimson and Scarlet sound especially Bad Ass. Vermillion, less so, but you can work with it. Even just plain old "Red," a.k.a. Carmine Zuigiber as Good Omens proves.) See also Red Baron.
- A very bad example is Scarlet Foxfire, which has a color, animal and fire, from the webcomics of David Gonterman. Gonterman probably does actually intend her to be a badass, but seeing as how she's some sort of superpowered vixen fursuit (worn by a guy), well, her status is dubious, at best.
- How are we forgetting Dirge of Cerberus's Rosso the Crimson, translating to "Red the red"? Yes, she is extremely bloodthirsty. She also has a Russian accent.
- And of course the rather dangerous Scarlet sisters from the various Touhou Project games.
  - Also, while not a person's name, the Scarlet Crusade from World of Warcraft. Originally devoted to slay undead, but turned into an army of insane religious zealots bent on killing anyone who's not one of them. Also, their leader is a demon/vampire in disguise.
- There's the Red Skull too.
- And The Red Comet.
  - Also the Crimson Lightning, but he often gets confused with the other guy.
- Red, and Axel the Red, two Mavericks from the Mega Man X series.
- And a dragon named Scarlet in the Sword Of Truth series, though really it doesn't matter what the name is, you better run from a dragon if she ain't called Puff.
- Rezo the Red Priest of Slayers has a piece of the Dark Lord of his world sealed in his eyes, making him steadily more evil through his life. Lampshaded by Lina when she comments that his name sounds like a villain's after they meet and he tries to play her into giving up a powerful artifact.
- Red Sonja, from Conan The Barbarian, is definitely someone you tread carefully around, unless you're Ahnuld.
- Scarlett O'Hara, of GonewiththeWind wasn't exactly the southern sweetie she liked to pretend she was. She EARNED that damn not being given!
- Porco Rosso is just a Bad Ass.
- How have we not had The Crimson King yet?
  - Ditto for how the hell have we not had the TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath yet?
- Depending on who you ask, Red from Pokemon is no one to take lightly. That is, if you are Team Rocket or the Hero of Pokemon Gold and Silver...
- Red Rackham, the titular pirate of Red Rackham's Treasure.
- Red John.
- Subverted in Final Fantasy VII: Scarlet of Shinra is utterly laughable as a villainess, present only to fill the role of The Vamp. All she manages to do is be annoying enough that you can't help but relish the literal bitch-slap fight atop the Sister Ray.
Yellow: — the Victorians and Edwardians loved to associate this with madness and decay as the symbol of the plague is a yellow flag with a single black spot flown above an infected vessel or building
- The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers more or less launched the idea of the Brown Note to the modern world with "the yellow sign"
- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- HP Lovecraft also had a King in Yellow and the Yellow Sign
White: — Occasionally used as a subversion. (Example: Mr. White from the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, and the villain Mr. White from Kids Next Door. Light Yagami of Death Note is a variation. So is Albedo from the Xenosaga series. And Good Omens again provides Chalky/Whitey/Mr. White etc.) Bonus points if the guy in questio is an Evil Albino.
- Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova) is a double whammy. Of course, when you mix the two and consider her actions, she might be...
- Don't forget Carrie White.
- The manga of Cowboy Bebop featured a reporter following the crew as they chased the White Siblings, Ash and Blanche, who preyed on the elderly.
- And again in Dirge of Cerberus we have Weiss the Immaculate.
Gray/Grey: — Often used for characters whose morals or motivations tend to come in, well, shades of gray, or just generally to connotate people with powers or badasses. (Gabriel Gray of Heroes, Dorian Gray, Valerie Gray from Danny Phantom (although her morals and motivations are good, and she thinks she's doing the right thing), various versions of Greymon from Digimon (And BlackWarGreymon has two of the colors on this list, so you know he's a force to be reckoned with), Gandalf the Grey from Lord Of The Rings (before his ascension to Gandalf the White and utter badassery). Jean Grey.
- Mr. Grey from Dreamcatcher. You don't want to run into him.
  - Oh, and he talks in an Evil Brit accent that he picked up from one of his victims.
- D Gray Man
Possibly subverted by Sonja Blue in the Midnight Blue series of stories. Though blue is often associated with sadness, Sonja is depicted as the preeminent badass of the story universe.
- Played straight in Dirge of Cerberus, though, with Azul the Cerulean.
Pink: — Not generally a colour considered associated with dangerous or villainous characters. Until you remember that Lina Inverse's official title is 'Lina the Pink.' And if you call her that to her face you will need to run away really fast.
Blonde — Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs
Colour C O L O U R damnit!
- No! No goddammit, and it will never be! That is wrong wrong wrong, now and forever! No U! Never!

Yue: — is a word meaning a 'tragic accident' or 'lethal occurence'. Though, this name is given to children who died either before birth or shortly thereafter. Still some parents don't quite get it.
- Princess Yue of Avatar The Last Airbender is named so, though her name also means moon in Mandarin, but since she's weak at birth, it might be a double edged sword It was.
  - Princess Yue actually was stillborn; her parents placed her in the moonlight and she was revived, but her hair turned white and ever after that she had a connection with the moon which was why her sacrificing her life to revive the moon was probably inevitable. So this name is actually pretty fair.
- Angel Sanctuary's Katou's seldom mentioned first name is Yue, given by his father, because he was not his child, but the result of his mother's betrayal. It didn't finish him off after birth, but in the course of the series he gets killed - or most often kills himself - four times total.
- Also, Yueh from Dune who turns out to be The Mole
- At this tropers university there are large numbers of exchange students from Shanghai every semester. Apparently Yue seems to be a very popular name for young women there.
- Mahou Sensei Negima's Yue is a nice person, if The Stoic.
- Yue from Cardcaptor Sakura counts as well, since as the Judge he had the power to strip away the memories and emotions of everyone Sakura knew and loved. Sakura certainly seemed intimidated by him, though that may also have been due to his appearance and emotionless facade.
Kamikaze Kate from Misfile, evoking images of the Kamikaze suicide pilots from World War Two and also has the hard "K" sound for bonus scariness.
Jafar seems to be the perfect name for an Arabic Evil Chancellor, as demonstrated in Aladdin and Prince Of Persia.
The Big Bad of the Seven Swords wuxia movie is named 风火连城, which translates to "Wind and Fire All Over the City", or "city-razing firestorm"...so yeah.
Russian (and Slavic, in general) names seem to be frequently used in Western fiction for bad guys, probably due to the Uberwald and Red Scare tropes. For some examples, see the "Vlad" entry under "Conquerors".
In Scottish, "Thrawn" means a combination of obstinacy, assertiveness, and more than a hint of willful perversity.
Ra's al Ghul is Arabic for "The Demon's Head."
Lobo. Even on earth, it conjures the idea of a rabid wolf, but on his planet, it translated into "He who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it."
- Why did his planet even need a word for that? How common can that actually be that they need a single word to describe it?
"Mathias Cronqvist", anyone? You know, Dracula? Mind you, that's a real name, but "Cronqvist" certainly sounds intimidating.
- Mind you, it translates roughly as "crown-twig." Then again, if you get creative with it, you could interpret it as "a branch in the crown of a tree," which would imply that he's just better than you.
Geist is a common Bad Ass name, from MD Geist, to Bloodrayne's Gegengeistgruppe, to Geist in Asura Blade, to Maken X/Shao's Big Bad. It translates as "ghost" or "spirit," but people/things named Ghost tend to be far less threatening... unless of course you've built up your tech tree.
- The remake of The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari gives this as Francis' surname.
- And John Raimi, alias Geist from the Gamecube title of the same name.
- The Geist Balrog in Maple Story is a more vicious version of the Crimson Balrog, and is an additional party quest boss.
- Heh, this gonna be fun... One of Polish literature classics, Lalka feature a certain Professor Geist, late XI Xth Century scientist (this trope should be closest. Or this.) working on lighter-than-air metals.
- Einhander has the sixth boss, a shuttle your character is supposed to destroy. That transforms into the boss. Its name? Schwarzgeist (Black Ghost).
- Signum from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's can summen the Panzergeist (Armored Ghost).
- Geist The Sin Eaters, of course.
Hugo Panzer, from Chuck vs. First Class.

Any vampire series; it's the ones with these names you really better watch out for. "Angelus" from Buffy The Vampire Slayer for example, though that doesn't really count since it wasn't his birth name.
Highlander
Apocalypse from the X-Men is also refered to as "En Sabah Nur". That's 30th century BC Egyptian/Arabic for "Kick Your Ass."
- Or "Good morning" depending on who is translating.
Carcer is Latin for prison (the root of our incarcerate) and is also the name of the villainous murderer-cum-policeman in Terry Pratchett's Night Watch.
Semi-exception: Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus are ancient by human standards, but a few million years is pretty standard for a giant alien robot, and they're nice folks.
- But extremely Bad Ass nonetheless.
Arcturus Mengsk. More intimidating for political reasons than physical.
In Soul Calibur Zasalamel's (an immortal) attacks are named after Babylonian gods, sets up the events of the 3rd game for his own benefit, and while heroic in the 4th, is still a jerk.
Nestor. Nestor Makhno, the Anarchist.
Any villain/weapon/organisation etc. called Cerberus; that has the added kick of an animal name (the three-headed dog which is said to guard the gateway to Hell to prevent anyone escaping). Strangely enough, nothing villainous ever seems to be named for the Greek original of this name, "Kerberos".
The Big Bad of Kitty Norville, being a vampire from the time of ancient Rome, has a Latin name by which he is known: Dux Bellorum, 'leader/general of wars'. 'Nuff said.

Real-life: Hitler and Himmler, Those Wacky Nazis
Darth Vader
- Most of The Empire's Cool Ships have scary-ass names like Avenger, Executor, Exsanguinator, Eviscerator... Lampshaded in one of the X-Wing novels.
Hannibal Lecter
Jackson Rippner
General Ripper
All but one of the villains in Resident Evil 4 have names ending in an 'R', as does series Big Bad Albert Wesker, and The Ghost villain Ozwell E. Spenser.
Colonel Cutter, the Dragon of Antz, despite Heel Face Turn.
Hunter
Carcer
Lex Luthor
David Sumner of Straw Dogs turns out to be the single most dangerous man in the universe
Sylar
Captain Planet foes, Mama Slaughter and Looten Plunder fit this trope.
Various characters from the numerous Transformers series play this alternatively straight or subvert it:
- On the evil Decepticons' side, there's Thundercracker, Bonecrusher, Scavenger, Scrapper, Mixmaster, Devastator, Wildrider, Motormaster, Menasor, Reflector, Tankor and Demolishor, just to name a few.
Baddies in lots of 80s/90s action movies seemed to be called either Hans, Kruger/Gruber, if not both, i.e. Hans Gruber. The harsh sound of the name seems to fit both this and the next category.
Seifer.
Mordor is a placename you will want to run away from really fast.
Do the Pokémon Gengar and Haunter count? They're not necessarily evil, but they are scary and their Pokédex entries describe them as being generally unpleasant company.
Final Fantasy X: Seymour Guado
In Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, one of Jeffreys' hired assassins is named Bob Carver.
Warhammer 400000: Flesh Tearers (a Blood Angels offshoot) are technically good guys, but since their symbol is a drop of blood on a circular saw...it's kinda hard to consider them in the same league as the Salamanders or Space Wolves. Also the Soul Drinkers, who are usually good guys, but have a few issues with Chaos.
Kil'jaeden the Deceiver and Archimonde the Defiler.

Jack Thompson
Jack Chick
Karl Ruprecht Kroenen
Admitted by the creators of the Highlander franchise, and so common they even have a name - 'Kimmies': The Kurgan, General Katana (doubles up with a weapon name, for even greater badassery. Too bad the movie is commonly referred to as the worst movie ever made), Kane, Slan Quince, Kronos, Xavier St Cloud, etc.
The video game Outcast, the protagonist's name is Lt. Cmdr. Cutter Slade.
Another Warhammer 40000 example: "Kharn" sounds scary enough, until you find that his title is "'the Betrayer''". You really, really want to run away from this one.
- Also, Khorne, Chaos God of War, whose followers are known by their battle cry "Blood for the Blood God!" The 40k universe is not a happy place.
- Also Corax, Scryak, and Marneus Calgar.
- And Kaelis Ra, the god of death.
- Kaela Mensha Khaine, the Eldar god of war.
Kang, Koloth, Kor, Korax and Kras of the Klingons, from Star Trek The Original Series.
- Note also the non-Klingon Kodos the Executioner, a double whammy (although he gets some sympathy in the end of his episode).
Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons.
Korax, the really eeeeevil end-of-game boss from Hexen.
Korgoth of Barbaria.
Hordak of She-ra fame.
Kang the Conqueror, a major Avengers villain. Note that 'Kang' is an alias; his birth name is the disappointingly normal Nathaniel Richards.
Robert E. Howard was fond of K-names, as evidenced by Conan, King Kull, and Solomon Kane.
Red Army general Ivan Konev. The fact that he was one of Stalin's favourite officers should tell you enough.
- Also Georgy Zhukov (intelligent but willing to take brutal losses for his objectives), Konstantin Rokossovsky ("In Russia a Pole, in Poland a Russian"), and Aleksandr Kolchak (named himself Supreme Ruler of White Russia - as opposed to Red - during the Civil War). The prevalence of the hard K in some Russian names may sometimes be used as an intentional Anglo attempt to bring up spectres of Dirty Communists.
Kratos, God Of War.
- Kratos Aurion from Tales Of Symphonia too.
King K Rool from Donkey Kong Country 1-3 (and Land 1-3, and 64, etc). Speaking of which, pretty much every single Kremling and boss character comes under this: KAOS, Kerozene, King Kut Out, Kleever, Kroctopus, Krow and Kludgel.
REVOK! DARRYL REVOK!
Koschei the Deathless, from Russian folklore, ought to get a mention somewhere. "Deathless" because he's removed his soul from his body to attain immortality. It's hidden in the eye of a needle, inside a duck egg, inside a duck, inside a fox, inside an iron treasure chest wrapped in the roots of a tree on an island which simply isn't there most of the time. Possibly the original lich.
- Project Koschei... of course...
Kamikaze Kate from Misfile.
Sarah Kerrigan.
Kuki Sanban appears to be a sweet, lovable girl, and for the most part she is. Deface or injure a Rainbow Monkey in her presence at your own peril.
Armok, God of Blood and almighty deity from the full title of Dwarf Fortress.
Dalek Caan and Dalek Sec of the Cult of Skaro. Thay and Jast, by contrast, were largely ignorable.
Er... "King Kong", anyone? The original and best? Especially if he has his foot raised above your head??
Also, we cannot forget Kenpachi Zaraki of Bleach fame.
Kraid from the Metroid series.
Mantorok from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

Axel (And pretty much everyone in the X obsessed Organization XIII in Kingdom Hearts II.) There's an archvillain named Axel in Little Orphan Annie, of all places. Besides, it almost sounds like axe. This also applies to Axel Almer in Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2, but not so in Original Generation Gaiden, seeing that his non O Gs OG 2 personality is quite of a Jerk Ass, and a dangerous one at that. Also sort of applies to Axl of Megaman X7, but that's to the audience only anyway.
- Axel Lowe of Guilty Gear
Drax (Hugo Drax from the James Bond novel and movie Moonraker, Drax the Destroyer from Marvel Comics)
Drizzt Do'Urden; generally a nice guy, but you wouldn't like him when he's angry.
- Jarlaxle, also of Forgotten Realms. He probably won't kill you. He'll just make your life a living hell.
- Zaknafein, Drizzt's father, a four-hundred-year-old weapons master who's defeated demons in single combat and can take someone's tongue out with a whip while blindfolded. And depending on the person, enjoys doing it.
Niv-Mizzet (of Magic The Gathering's Ravnica block; a dragon who was also a Mad Scientist, so you know he's dangerous, and in combination with a single card he can start an infinite damage loop)
T'raltixx (From Farscape, with a Punctuation Shaker to boot)
Xellos (Merry demon from The Slayers)
Xena (the Warrior Princess)
Xeno (Xenomorphs, better known as the aliens in the movie Alien) This one might be averted by simply being proper nomenclature. "Xeno" means stranger, and it has a very strange morphology.
- And don't forget Elron's favorite, Xenu.
Vilgax (the Big Bad of Ben10)
Nebulans from the original Transformers series often have names like this. See, for example, Grax, Zarak, and Krunk.
Red X; not just the only antihero in the series but also the only character to never be defeated! (from the animated Teen Titans, with a color to boot!)
Zero, which is a name with a page unto itself
Xander Drax, of The Phantom film. Who? "X-A-N-D-E-R D-R-A-X, Xander Drax, begins and ends with the letter X."
Noun X: Some people may end up going by a "John Doe"-like pseudonym where they have a one-word description followed by an X. It's generally not a good idea to press them for real names.
- Marvel Comics, who publish X-Men, has Professor X, Weapon X, Agent X, and Mutant X.
  - X-23 is an Opposite Sex Clone of Wolverine (aka "Weapon X") who has been trained as an assassin since basically birth.
- Agent X of the Protectors Of The Plot Continuum, who is even more Ax Crazy than many Agents in FicPsych.
- Gaia Online has Labtech X.
- Malcolm X, why not. Real life [2] extraordinaire.
Thrax, the villain of Osmosis Jones. Presumably intended to invoke "anthrax".
Xykon, self named for the Xtreme Kool Letterz quotient. Gets (more) homicidal whenever someone spells his name with a Z by mistake - Zs are for pussies.
Xanatos.
The title character of xXx, though at least half of that is from being played by Vin Diesel.
Xanxus of Reborn is the incredibly badass leader of the Varia, an elite assassination team primarily employed by the most powerful mafia family in the world. He has some amazing full-body scars◊, and he spends most of his time throwing blunt objects at his subordinates and breaking their faces with tables.
Galbatorix from the Inheritance Cycle is a name you give you child if you want him to grow up to be an evil emperor. It's possible that Galbatorix chose the name, but why is beyond most people; it doesn't roll off the tongue and sounds generically evil. You'd think someone who wanted to take over the world would ease people into it by picking something which sounded nicer. And if Galbatorix is indeed his given name, then he is fully justified in wanting to kick some ass—which raises the question of why he was let into the Dragon Riders.

Mordred, Morgause and Morgan le Fay from King Arthur.
Mordaunt, Milady de Winter's evil son in The Three Musketeers sequel Twenty Years After.
In J.R.R. Tolkien's invented Elvish languages, "mor" means dark or black, hence it often appears in "evil" names: Morgoth ("Dark Enemy", Supreme Big Bad), Mordor ("Black/Dark Land" of Dark Lord Sauron), Morannon (the "Black Gates" into Mordor), Minas Morgul ("Tower of Dark Sorcery"), Moria ("dark pit"). But mor also appears perfectly innocent at other times, e.g. in the girl's name Morwen ("dark/black maid", referencing hair color).
Morlocks - From the novel The Time Machine, which was the namesake of X-Men's Morlocks and the basis for the novel Morlock Night (which makes them even more intelligent and dangerous).
Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes.
- And Dean Moriarty from On The Road who gets his name from the above. While not evil, he is a morally loose character who seems to come apart at the seams at the end.
- Oh, and Moriarty's right-hand man, Colonel Sebastian Moran
Voldemort - Harry Potter, of course, meaning "Flight from death" or "Theft from death" in French. And if you say his name in Deathly Hallows, you really do have to Apparate. Really fast.
- Bonus points to him for making it up himself with an anagram of his real name.
Tom Marvolo Riddle = I Am Lord Voldemort
Mort, of Discworld is an exception, as despite being Death's Apprentice, he's a skinny little nervous guy...until he gets into his role...
- Mort the Ghost from Gunnerkrigg Court is also less than intimidating.
  - Unless you count the time that Annie gave him advice...
Jack Mort, psychopath in The Dark Tower.
The God of Death in Warhammer is named Morr.
Mr. Morden, agent of the Shadows in Babylon Five
Mordac, the Preventer of Information Services in Dilbert
Mork from Warhammer 40,000.
Morkai the Red, a minor character but powerful wizard in the early Drizzt novels, who is vicious and dogged in paying back those who killed him.
Played straight with a Mortimer Mouse, one of Mickey's rivals for Minnie's affection.
Mordekai, "Lovable Rogue" from Irregular Webcomic.
Morrigan Aensland, from Darkstalkers.
Morticia Addams. Her entire family is a pun on being 'evil'.
Murlocs
The first enemy the Toa Metru of Bionicle went up against was the Morbuzakh, a Matoran-kidnapping plant.
Doctor Moreau.
Moridin from the Wheel Of Time. Dangerously insane, third most powerful evil person in the world (after the Dark One and his avatar), name literally means "death" in the Fictionary of the books, and just to top it all off, his previous name: Ishamael, a.k.a. Ba'alzamon. Oh, like it wasn't obvious.
- Mordeth from the same series.
The evil wizard Mordack from King's Quest V.
General Donald "Devil Rebirth" Morden from the Metal Slug Games.
Mordion from Hexwood, who has the face of a skull and is tasked with killing political enemies.
Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard in Warhammer 40000.
Morda from Taran Wanderer is another evil wizard.
Queen Bavmorda from Willow. God Save Us From The Queen!
Mord the brutal gaoler from A Song Of Ice And Fire.
Commonly used by dark elves in The Riftwar Saga, e.g. Morandis.
Morlun from Spider-Man. This guy, among other things, ate Spider-Man's EYE. Then killed him. Sure, Peter got better, but still.
Morgra from David Clement-Davies' novel "The Sight".
[[{Pokemon} Gym Leader Morty]] subverts this. His name alludes to the fact that he uses ghost types - but he's a really nice and easygoing guy.
Morte, from the video game (and parallel animated adaptation) Sands of Destruction. Among her other nicknames are "Lady Death" and the "Scarlet Plague".

Would you trust a sheriff whose last name was Outlaw?
Would you buy a car from a dealer named Ransom?
- On that note, would you buy anything from a guy named Swindle?
Would you take anything a guy called Wormtongue says at face value?
- Well, it was a nickname.
This troper once received an anonymous letter to replace a door and change the locks for "heating and insulation purposes." The solicitor's last name? Lawless.
From Adventures In Odyssey, the evil Dr. Regis Blackgaard. Arguably subverted in that he has a twin brother, Edwin, who shares the name but is only guilty of being a Large Ham.
Ashley Riot. He is, on occasion, referred to as Agent Riot. And his full title is Riskbreaker Ashley Riot.
Would you buy a house fom Crook & Blight?

Buffy The Vampire Slayer 's season six Big Bad is named Warren Mears, which kind of foreshadows his future mental instability. (Of course, ironically, the actor's a Jew from New York, although his chick's from Alabama, but she's definitely not a redneck. And she's the one he shot. So Yeah.)
Carnage's real name is Cletus Kasady.
The Authority: Seth Angus Bubba Joe Billy Cletus Clement Callum Cowie.
Zed
Budd
This editor heard somewhere that Napier is a fairly common name in the Deep South. Napier...Napier...Where have I heard that name before...
Shane Vendrell is not a nice person. Further, he uses the alias "Cletus van Damme".

Nicolae Ceausescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party.
From the Star Wars Expanded Universe: Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo, known to the galaxy as Thrawn.
The Forgotten Realms books have a habit of giving their dragons hideously long names.
Many of the arrancar from Bleach. Aaroniero Arruruerie, Nnoitra Jiruga, Grimmjow Jeagerjacques, Ulquiorra Schiffer, Szayel Aporro Grantz...the list goes on and on.
Avoozl.
Ifnkovhgroghprm. ( Rumplestiltskin backwards.)
Chattur'gha, Xel'lotath, and Ulyaoth of Eternal Darkness.
Samir Nagheenanajar.

In Discworld, the Lady. Not evil, per se, but you do not want to annoy her. Especially not by saying her name. Rincewind is immune, but only because he doesn't believe he has gotten anything but a long series of lucky breaks.
In Louis Sachar's Holes, The Warden. This Troper doesn't remember whether her name is ever revealed, but she is nasty.
Miss Parker.
In "I Wanna Be The Guy" Your mission is to kill "The Guy", and the only thing standing between you and him is the hours of the most frustrating Platform Hell ever devised. Good Luck.
- It should also be noted that the protagonist is known as "The Kid."
The Watcher in KateModern, and the Shadow even more so. You really don't want to mess with the Shadow.
The Guy, Disturbed's mascot.
Was it The Cancer Man or The Smoking Man? Or The Cigarette Smoking Man? Seemed to creep "X-Files" fans out no end, and make them worry what would happen to Mulder. The Man needs no name, and no freakin' nicorette.
Team Fortress 2: The Pyro. A faceless, mumbling abomination in an asbestos fire-suit and gas mask, whose sole purpose in life is to hunt people down and immolate them. Of course, if that doesn't work, he can always resort to his trusty Fire Axe.
- All the classes in Team Fortress 2 are so named, although due to his mediocre mastery of the English language, The Heavy refers to himself as "Heavy Weapons Guy," which also works.
Lu Bu in virtually any Dynasty Warriors game. Historically one of the most powerful generals in the time of the three kingdoms, pretty much everyone speaks of Lu Bu in hushed whispers, and when he shows up, he goes on a total rampage tearing through everything in his path. While there are some missions where you must actually kill Lu Bu, in most missions attempting to do this is suicide, as he's many, many times stronger than anyone else in the game, including your primary target for the mission (usually Dong Zhuo). If he's not kicking your ass, he's chasing you down, and it doesn't help that he always rides the fastest horse in the game. Yuan Shao's line, "do not pursue Lu Bu", is probably the most useful advice you will ever recieve in Dynasty Warriors.
- Ironically he was uncontrollable as the story had dictated. Although Lu Bu was powerful, what ultimately did him in was the fact that he was impulsive and would attack or betray everything that was not nailed down. Had he been more stalwart and noble, he would have been accepted by Liu Bei with open arms.
Him from The Powerpuff Girls.

Nicodemus Archleone To quote:
Harry: Seriously? Archleone? As in "seeking whom he may devour"? Could you get any more obvious?
One boss from Mad World appears to be named Herr Frederick Von Twirlenkiller. He appears to have weapons that could be charitably described as hybrids between a flail and a boeing jet engine strapped to each arm.
Mecha war RPG/Minis-game/novel series Battletech features Grayson "Death" Carlyle, who builds one of the most feared mercenary units in the 'verse out of pretty much nothing (And sensibly names the unit after himself: The Gray Death Legion). He gets his first 'mech for the unit by intimidating its pilot into surrender with nothing more than a single-shot shoulder-fired missile launcher that ordinarily wouldn't be enough to scratch the thing's paint. (And later marries her. The pilot, not the 'Mech.) This 'verse also features similarly Badass mercs Morgan Kell, Jaime Wolf, et cetera.
One Fantastic Four villain is Annihilus, who invokes both Noun names and Ancient Dead Languages.
- The trope is lampshaded with his Ultimate Universe counterpart, Nihil. Reed's translation device first renders his name as things like "I annihilate" and "I am nihilist", which everyone agrees is a bad sign.
  Thing: "Dude. We met our first alien and his name is like E-Vill or something."
Subverted by Capcom's Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX (from the Mecha game Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness). Despite taking from Demonic Names, Noun Names, and Four Is Death (Nine is a less-used alternative), she's less an intimidating foe, and more a one-girl Quirky Miniboss Squad.
The Live Action/CGI combined series Ace Lightning contains many characters with the names of Lord Fear, Anvil, Dirty Rat and Felicity Fury... Ironically the least auspiciously named character is Kilobyte, who also happens to be the most dangerous of the bad guys.
Carcer is a Crime-Related Scary Noun in an Ancient Dead Language with a hard "k" sound that ends in an "-er". That's a lot of evil, right there.
In a contrast to the other Star Wars examples, the names of the two prominent Jedi-turned-Sith in the first Knights Of The Old Republic are rather multilayered and subtle. Consider Malak - that's an adjective (mal), a body part(the jawbone, which in his case is missing), an angel's name (Malachi), and it ends in K! And Revan - that's an animal (raven), and three nouns (revenge, revenant, and revanchist, the last of which is basically "a vengeful person". Revenant, by the way means One who has returned from death or a long absence.) Well played, Bioware! The only other new, named Sith with a "Darth" attached is Bandon, who doesn't play nearly so big a role.
And then there is Warhammer40000, Kharn the Betrayer, Lucius the Eternal, Typhus the Traveler, Abaddon the Despoiler and Ahriman of the Thousand Sons.
- Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka sounds as scary as he is, with added K's, Kool letterz, and improved difficulty pronunciation.
  - Perhaps we should be thankful his name is so hard to pronounce. He's mentioned in the Dawn Of War series, and, if I remember correctly, his name was pronounced painfully similar to "gay skull", which really shatters any menace in the name.
  - After "for the emprah" and "sphess mhereens" you can be pretty sure Dawn Of War is a good reference on how not to pronounce anything.
In Starslip Crisis, a character questions whether a certain CEO is really all that bad. I mean, how much can you tell from a name like Archcount Obdrath von Lucifuge?
- "His name's, like, Lord Murdertron or something."
Welkin Weasels features the Grand Inquisitor Torca Marda. It's got the hard K sound in the middle, it's not quite an R-ending but it sounds close to one, and it's a Shout Out to Tomas de Torquemarda, the infamous Real Life head of the Spanish Inquisition.
The nuttier villains in Geneforge are prone to renaming themselves as the adjective one, adjective, or verb, but may combine them, as with Unending Purging. Also note Monarch, who doesn't strictly belong under any of these categories but chose his name because he wants to Take Over The World.
Skeletor, of course. Even without his official title [[ ("Evil Lord of Destruction")]] that's pretty good. Although pretty much everything on that show has a terrifying name.
Krusher. It's bascially a junior Kracken with a scarier name. It's got crush( a violent nown), a hard k sound, ends with r, and is somes times called The Krusher. I wonder if crush being spelled with a "K" helps. Yes it is feared and has a hundred tenticals.
A subversion, Tsurugi Inugami's name has the deadliness of a Tsurugi and the Mythological Animalness of Inugami. The only problem is that he is not one bit as Badass as his name implies.
Kakistos of Buffy The Vampire Slayer invokes K-name, Ancient Dead Languages, and Adjectives (his name is Greek for "worst of the worst").
Sylar a.k.a. Gabriel Gray a.k.a. Patient Zero—of Heroes again. Sylar is an R-name, a German word meaning “rope maker,” and getting the name off a watch is an allusion to the Zodiac killer. Gabriel (the angel of death), and last name is a color name.
Bridge Of Birds gives us The Hand That No One Sees. Don't ask.
Dwarf Fortress's Luke Nounverber random name generator has (and very often uses) the capability to create surnames and titles such as Deathsucker, Chaosknight, The Wastes of Oxen, Otterthorny, and The God-forsaken Eater of Twilight, to name a few.
- And, of course, the infamous fortress Boatmurdered.
Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way
Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood
Ramses Overdark, Madaran imperial assassin from Magic The Gathering. Actually, legends is full of these types of names. Dakkon Blackblade, Rasputin Dreamweaver, Boris Devilboon, Tuknir Deathlock, Nebuchadnezzar, and that's just the humans. The Elder Dragons have names like Palladia-Mors and Vaevictis Asmadi, though the most powerful one is named... Nicol.
Nrvnsqr Chaos in Tsukihime. Name looks unpronounceable, but it's actually 'Nero Chaos' so he doesn't get that one, technically. Hard K sound though. Plus, his most used name is generally 'Chaos,' a name he was given because he's just that evil as far as the Church is concerned. They really hate him. So that's both Infernal and Noun. Oh, and technically it's a title, as his real/original name is actually rather ordinary. As far as he's concerned, though, he doesn't really have a name anymore and merely responds to what people call him. It happens when you start tossing your identity away.
One of the villains in Blood Rayne is named Dr. Bathory Mengele. First, she gets the title of "Doctor"; second, her first name is the surname of the Hungarian serial killer Countess Erszebet Bathory (also known as "the Blood Countess"); third, she shares a surname with Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi "Angel of Death" known for human experimentation on Auschwitz prisoners. Needless to say, she's not very nice.
Ragna The Bloodedge: [Pagan Mythology] the [Blood][Weapon]. Actually a fairly nice guy, but then in his Arcade mode ending v-13 hijacks his body to become The Black Beast, which is as bad as it sounds.
Okay, let's do some math, folks. Demonic + Kool Letturz + Ends with R + Complete Monster + Hate Plague + Pokemon = CIPHER Yes, they are utterly evil, why do you ask?
Staff Seargent Max Fightmaster
Deathstroke the Terminator, real name Slade Wilson.
Dr. Diabolik of the Whateley Universe. You've got the K-word, the evil adjective, the evil title... For extra credit, his daughter is named Jadis (like the White Witch in Narnia) and his son is named Malachai, Mal for short. Their codenames are She-Beast and Techno-Devil. You do the math.
Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. Animal plus conqueror. He really does try to be polite, though. It's not his fault that people don't listen to him until he makes the shit hit the fan.
The main villain from the webcomicImprobable Hero Squad, the evil Doctor Professor Otto Hugo Mortimer Vladimir P. Q. Von Happyhat.
'The Bride' aka 'Black Mamba' aka Beatrix Kiddo. The Man (as it seems to be used in the examples) for the first. Color in an Animal name for the second. Hard K and an Xtreme Cool Letter in the third.
Ogdru Jahad. Hellboy's names (Anung Un Raman, Son of the Fallen One, fit in several categories.
Sauron's minions are only allowed to refer to him as "He" or more colloquially, "The Eye".

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