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Names To Run Away From Really Fast
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It was one of those comic book name coincidences, like how you know a college professor named Dr. Klaus von der Murder isn't going to be getting tenure.
'General Grievous' is a 'fiendish droid leader?' Odd, he sounded like a social worker.
"Don’t fear! Dark Apocalypse is here! …Hello?" (crowd runs away screaming)
- Does This Cape Make Me Look Fat? by Chelsea Cain and Marc Mohan
People make a big deal out of names, and writers are no exception. Even if they eschew Theme Naming and other Naming Conventions they'll still use names they think are cool and dignified, powerful and appropriate, or sinister and fearsome. Which is why there are inevitably certain Names To Run Away From Really Fast. For much the same reason it's unlikely Steve will turn out to be the outrageously stylish villain bent on absorbing the planet's life stream to ascend to godhood, and someone with a name like oh, say, Hannibal, isn't exactly going to be selling cookies for charity.
These come in various flavors, and most of them are used by Anti Heroes of the Bad Ass variety from the Dark Age Of Supernames and villains of the fearsomely competent and world destroying kind, for whom the mere mention of their name can bring down Dramatic Thunder.
Note that this is different from all those characters who got their names because they are a badass. It's one thing to be codenamed Wolverine because you're a scrappy fighter (no, not that kind of scrappy), or to be called Blade because you use one on vampires; it's another when a deadly fighter has the birth name "Blade" for no in-story reason.
See also Meaningful Titles, The Master, Name Of Cain, My Hero Zero, Jack Attack, Go Ask Alice, and The Magnificent. When applied to a country, it frequently falls under Peoples Republic Of Tyranny. Contrast Names To Trust Immediately, Fluffy The Terrible, where the name fails to describe the nastiness, and Deathbringer The Adorable, where the nastiness fails to live up to the name.
Before adding an example remember: they must be a villain or very dark antihero. Please do not put in plain heroes, no matter how Bad Ass they are.
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Adjectives: Some names also work as adjectives: Vicious, Grim, Sinister, Nefarious, Horrible.
Nifty:
- 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).
- 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
- However, Grim is a perfectly acceptable first name in Norwegian.
- Negative adjectives and adverbs in a different language also spell trouble, especially "mal": 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.
- 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."
- 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...
- Also, the Malwrath in Doom RPG. (A weaker version of the Cacodemon, but it does fit the trope.)
- As well as the Ilwrath in Star Control 2. (Hey, it's close!)
- 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.
- And the Dis Continuous dub name of Digimon Adventure 02's (equally Dis Continuous) Big Bad, BelialVamdemon (see below): "MaloMyotismon".
- There's also Dreadlord Mal'Ganis from the Warcraft universe.
- 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.
- Sinister: — You know, Sinestro. Has there ever been such an obvious villain name?
- Just the one: Mister Sinister. Once commented on by Iceman:
Sinister: "I deserve your respect!"
Iceman: "Actually, what you deserve is a better codename! Isn't "Mr. Sinister" a bit... obvious?"
- It was noted once (this troper forgets by which character) that the name "Mr. Sinister" probably seemed a lot cooler when he adopted it in the mid 19th century. It also fits perfectly with the long since discarded original concept for Sinister's origin story.
- And Simon Bar Sinister, from Underdog.
- As a bonus, with "Bar Sinister" the authors are indicating in a kid-friendly way that Simon is a total bastard.
- And Finnegan Sinister, although the word is actually being used in a different context here (clue - his partner's name is Ramone Dexter).
- Senor Sinestrio of El Tigre.
- Averted with Prof. Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher in Harry Potter, whose appearance and personality have never been described, but
Enoby Ebony likes her anyway.
- Literal example: Huitzilopochtli, the Left-Handed Hummingbird, Aztec war god.
- And Sinistar. HE HUNGERS! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!
- Nefarious: — Dr. Nefarious, the main villain from Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
- 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.
- Slim Shady? He's annoying, that's for sure.
- Grievous: — General Grievous from Star Wars who, despite his name, isn't.
- You need to watch the cartoon Clone Wars footage of him. Not the stuff from Episode 3. Not the stuff from the terrible CGI movies. Books in the Star Wars Expanded Universe which feature him, though he's mostly just thought of or remembered rather than there, also portray him as murderous and generally dangerous.
Grievous: Don't worry, Jedi. I'm actually a total wuss. Now if this were the Clone Wars cartoon you'd be proper fucked.
- 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.
- It's also subverted in the anime where he turns out to be a fairly nice (if greedy and obsessive) person.
- And Greedy from Ristar.
- Dastardly: — How could the adjectives have gone this far without anyone mentioning 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.
- Bad: — And let's not forget about the 2-hit-combo Strong Bad (even though he's not that much of a villain or bad ass).
- Horrible: — Just silly enough that it's (as far as is recorded here) never used seriously. Dr. Horrible's a terrible example. As is Horribus in Sluggy Freelance.
- I'm sure you mean a HORRIBLE example.
- Not so much Mr. Horrible, from the They Might Be Giants song "Somebody Keeps Moving My Chair". He's a pushover.
- Geist: — It's a common Bad Ass name, from MD Geist, to Bloodrayne's Gegengeistgruppe, to Geist in Asura Blade, to Maken X/Shao's Big Bad. People/things named Ghost tend to be far less threatening... unless of course you've built up your tech tree.
- Evil — Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy.
- Cruella de Vil. Double whammy, because you have both "Cruel" and "Evil" in her name, if you ignore the word breaks. (Also "devil".)
- 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.
- Iosa the Invincible. A name you do NOT earn by surviving anything less than planet-razing artillery. The titular heroine has to get REAL creative to best her in combat.
- 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.
- Given a heavy Lampshade Hanging in the opening fiction of Scion: Hero. Eric Donner, Scion of Thor, has been betrayed by Sylvester "Sly" Guiler, Scion of Loki. Hugin and Munin, messenger ravens of Odin, come down to inform Eric about his divine heritage - and point out how stupid he was to trust someone named Sly Guiler.
- Maleficent: aka the queen of Nightmare Fuel.
- 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 Complete Monster Big Bad is Vile.
- There was also a Vile in Megaman X and X3.
- Vile's Dragon Omega is also someone to run away from really fast. He also goes by the name 'god of destruction' and was a big player in a war that wiped out 60% of humanity.
- 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
The Adjective One Similar to the above, but these "names" are purely adjectives usually for Eldritch Abominations and really ancient evils, presumably so old their real name is forgotten... or they're from a time before proper nouns existed.
The Geriatric One
Animal: People and families can have animals, real and mythological, as part of their names, but in fiction it's usually a dangerous sign to meet someone with a predatory animal in their name. Wolf, dragon, lion, tiger, coyote, snake.
Carp
- Dragon: — Drake, Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter, Dragin from yerCakeDracula
- 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 Bigbad from Saban's Masked Rider.
- 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.
- Ari Haswari in NCIS, murderer of Kate Todd. Interestingly, "Ari" means sin in Hindi, making it doubly a NTRAFRF.
- Tiger — Furio Tigre from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations. White Tiger, from the Jackie Chan movie Rumble in the Bronx.
- There's also Kumatora from Mother 3, whose name means "bear tiger"; she subverts this as she's one of the good guys, but she is quite the little spitfire.
- Tiger Woods, of course, is only dangerous on a golf course.
- 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.
- Fujimura Taiga from Fate Stay Night, at least when you call her by her nickname, "Tiger"
- Scorpion — Scorpio (Homer's Bond villain-esque boss on The Simpsons), the Scorpio Killer from Dirty Harry, and Draco Malfoy's son in Harry Potter after the end), 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Or not - Lupine means 'wolf-like'...
- And Remus, brother of Romulus, was suckled by a wolf...
- The Star Wolves from Fugitive Alien.
- Coyote — (Unless there's a Wile E. in front)
- Coyote is more often the name of as trickster character these days. Never take anything a Coyote says at face value, you
might will get punk'd.
- Bull — From Ivanhoe, the stubborn and thuggish Reginald Front-du-Boeuf ("bull-head").
- 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.
- I! Am! BEOWULF!
- Most guys that this troper knows who go by some kind of "bear" sobriquet tend toward the "big, fuzzy gay guy with the flannel shirt and the genial chuckle" variety... not that you still don't want to steer clear of some of them. We gays be bitchy.
- 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.
- 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 .
- 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.
- 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.
- Falcon: Captain Falcon from F-Zero (and his Evil Twin Blood Falcon as seen below). Types of falcon, such as peregrine, also count.
- Aversion: Peregrin "Pippin" Took from The Lord Of The Rings.
- it's not so much of an aversion by the end of the third book.
- 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.
- Averted in One Piece, with Nefertari Cobra, the wise and good king of Arabasta. (Though played straight with the same arc's Big Bad, Crocodile)
- 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.
- Serpentor, one-time leader of Cobra in GI Joe - significant in that the previous leader, Cobra Commander, was not a given name.
- 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 Lovable Traitors.
- Averted in Harry Potter with the Weasley family: done intentionally by the author, who apparently feels that weasels get a bad rap. Please note that the Weasleys live near a town called Ottery St. Catchpole (Otter and Polecat) and a place called Stoatshead Hill.
- 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".
- Fox: — Gray Fox from the Metal Gear series, Fox from Gargoyles, 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.
- Renamon, a Digimon named after Reynard, however, is exempt, though that's because she really is a fox.
- 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.
- This troper lives in a town called Rinard, and with a population of less than 50, it's safe to say plenty of people have decided to run away really fast. (and I don't blame them)
- Wacky Nazi Reynhard Heydrich.
- Who is also a good example of why you should never get between a dedicated psycho and his hobby. He was so exceptionally nasty because High Command valued him too much to let him fly combat missions. He found...other pursuits that filled the void that was left.
- Dude, he wasn't a pilot.
- This article wouldn't be complete without mention of Gunnerkrigg Court's resident plush doll-possessing fox spirit Reynardine, AKA Renard.
- Can't let you do that, Star Fox!
- Spider: — Much like Fox, it's a trickster's named, so there are quite a few aversions.
- 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.
- Although it's just a nickname, Beast Rabban from Dune.
Body Part: Usually, the extremity they'll hit you with, or the one that's the most scarred. Blood, talon, skull, fang.
Eyelashes
- 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.
- 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.
- As a matter of fact, Captain Blood is something of a subversion. Sure, he is a pirate (anyone having a problem with that raise your hands? Can't see... thought so) and some of his men are positively blood thirsty but he himself acts more like a Reasonable Authority Figure (if rather dry-witted one).
- Aversion: the anime Blood The Last Vampire is actually about a vampire girl named Saaya.
- 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)
- Knuckles: — The Echidna from Sonic The Hedgehog
- 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.
- Parodied in Freakazoid. Arms Akimbo was a skinny man whose arms were permanently placed in hands-on-hips position, rendering him not much of a threat at all.
- 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's also Frederick Barbarossa, a Holy Roman Emperor and contemporary of Richard Lionheart. Lead a Crusade, but it failed and he stupidly drowned himself by accident because he forgot to take his armour off before going swimming. (Other sources say his horse stumbled, or just that he became overheated and died of a heart-attack.)
- The Hand: — a Ninja clan in the Marvel Universe. The Foot is a ninja clan from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Mr. Hand is a villain in Dark City, though all of the villains has "Mr. Noun" names.
- The TMNT origins are based off the origin of Daredevil, with the goo that mutated them being the same goo that cause Daredevil's blindness/radar, so The Foot are a parody.
- 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.
- Guts: — The Anti Hero of Berserk, though the name was taken from real life Bad Ass Götz von Berlichingen.
- Claw: — or any spelling variation thereof, such as Klaw, main enemy of Inspector Gadget.
Conquerors: Powerful tyrants, generals, and fighting men of history will generally lend some of their potent reputation to anyone who uses them as a namesake.
Conquestors
- Augustus: — But only if they never abbreviate it to "Gus", or, worse yet, "Gussie". Or, for that matter, "Auggie", but that's pretty uncommon.
- Real Life example: Augusto Pinochet.
- Pious Augustus, a.k.a. Philippe Augustine, a.k.a. Paul Augustine.
- Alexander: — But only if they never abbreviate it to "Alex"... or for that matter "Xander"... "Lex" only one character can get away with. Alex Delarge of A Clockwork Orange comes to mind.
- 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.
- Cesare Borgia, scary Renaissance dude. Not as bad as his enemies suggested, but still a bad dude.
- And Julius Caesar, of course.
- Darius: — the Chessmaster from Need For Speed Carbon.
- Subverted by Darius Just, the hero of IsaacAsimov's Murder at the ABA. He's feisty and just a touch short-tempered, but he's a good fellow.
- Though in a subversion, Darius from the Highlander series was a pacifist monk despite being the original Darius as well.
- 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. His namesake in Girl Genius, Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, has a double whammy of names (see Wulfenbach above) but is overall a Nice Guy, but don't get him angry...
- Probably just a coincidence, but Gil-galad sounds an awful lot like Gilgamesh...
- Hannibal: — Thanks to Popcultural Osmosis, a certain fictional character is more famous than the original Carthaginian chap.
- 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 Bashir, on the other hand, will heal you.
- Julien Picard was the original name for Jean-Luc during the casting call. Still no one to cross.
- And Julius Caesar, of course.
- 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
- Magnus: — Magneto from X-Men. A harmless first name in Swedish. (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.
- Maximilian: — a fancier version of Max or Maxwell. Various "max" names are common due to their badass X and the connotation of "maximum."
- The killer robot from The Black Hole is called Maximilian.
- Maximilian Roivas from Eternal Darkness a psychopath (or is he?) who guns down his supposedly possessed servants with flintlock pistols akimbo.
- In the Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", the Mirror Universe counterpart of Maxwell Forrest is Maximillian Forrest.
- Maxim from Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
- Enrico Maxwell from Hellsing as well as the main villain, Major Montana Max.
- Real world American soldier Staff Sgt. Max Fightmaster.
- Max Shreck from Batman Returns, a triple whammy because "Shreck" means Terror in Yiddish, and Max Schreck was a noted horror actor who starred in Nosferatu.
- Max Payne, a hard-boiled badass with such a silly-cool name that even his enemies admit that they envy it.
- 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...
- 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 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: — Nero Angelo from Devil May Cry, who turned out to be Vergil, and Nero [no relation] from Devil May Cry 4, as well as 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.
- Butch Magnus Milosevic from The Boondocks deserves a special mention for outstanding achievement in this field.
Famous Murderers and Assassins: If a character has either the first or last name of a noted criminal, real or fictional, it's a good sign they're headed towards a life of crime themselves. If their name is followed by "the" and a violent-sounding verb (like Jack The Ripper or Barry the Chopper), then they're almost certainly a Serial Killer. See also The Butcher, Name Of Cain.
Killer Mc Stabsallot
- Jack The Ripper: — The villain in Red Eye is named Jackson Rippner. He even notes the connotations. General Jack T. Ripper, in Doctor Strangelove is even more directly based on Jack the Ripper.
- Rupert "Ripper" Giles also applies, even if you wouldn't know it from looking at him.
- 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 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.)
- Technically the Brutus who betrayed Caesar was neither the original nor prone to violence. The name was a family name, passed down from one of the most important rebels against the Roman kings. And, at least if you believe Shakespeare, Brutus helped kill Caesar simply because he wanted to protect the freedom of Rome.
- Sometimes Brutus is subverted, as is the case of Brutus Howell, a guard on The Green Mile. He arguably qualifies as a Gentle Giant.
- A more off the wall example is Brutus the guard rat from the novel, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH." It's a double inversion, because he's a nice rat. Though the movie version, well, see above.
- This troper, when watching the film, waited for the fight between Brutus and Dragon that sadly never happened...
- 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")
- There is much historical debate about how much poisoning the original Lucrezia actually did. See above for her brother, Cesare.
- Slight subversion: Lucrecia from Final Fantasy VII caused a lot of the junk that went down in the games by association, but it was inadvertent, and she felt pretty damn guilty over it all.
- On the other hand, Vincent Valentine really should've played the trope straight...if getting shot, having your arm cut off and replaced with a claw, being cursed with the tendency to turn into monsters when agitated, being locked in a coffin for thirty years, and thinking it's all your fault isn't grounds for running away really fast, what is?
- 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...
- Franken Stein from Soul Eater: subverted as he is really a (barely) good guy, but was introduced as a bad guy and isn't someone you would like to be around for too long.
- 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.
- Huh? What?
- A big exception is Gavrillo Princip, the man who killed Archduke Francis Ferdinand and set off World War I.
- Averted in The Drew Carey Show, where the ominously named Oswald Lee Harvey is a hapless moron and an overall swell guy.
- Real-life example: "Wayne" (probably because of John Wayne) is a very common middle name among murderers.
- 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.
- The same happened in Italy with the name Benito. Before WWII it was a fairly ordinary name, now it's almost disappeared. (Though “Benito” is actually a Spanish name — the dictator was named for Juarez. The Italian version is “Benedetto.”)
- This troper remembers reading in a trivia book that there were 7 Adolf Hitlers living in New York before WWII and none after.
- 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.
- Adolf Marx, who was Jewish, went and changed his name to Arthur, but you probably know him best as Harpo Marx.
- Dolph, one of the bullies on The Simpsons.
- Adolph Hitler Campbell, on the other hand, is just saddled with Abusive Parents.
- 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.
Close Killer Mc Stabsallot
Demonic/Angelic: Pretty self explanatory, there's some names that just plain sound or are demonic. Since a few angels fell, some of the more malevolent sounding ones are included. (Note, not exactly accurate angel-ology goes on below, just FYI)
Azargalien
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.
- 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...)
- For that matter, anyone named "Scratch" or "Nick" or something else devilishly clever should be watched carefully. This can go cross-gender, too — the heroine of Martin Amis's London Fields is called Nicola Six, and is actively involved in wrecking the lives of all the other main characters.
- 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?!
- Or if you're Slovak, which would explain NHL player Miroslav Satan. And yes, that's really the database number he has on popular stat sites.
- 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.
- Ironically, there were two Christian bishops named "Lucifer" in the fourth century, though this was before the name became associated with the Devil (it is also the Latin name for the morning star).
- 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".
- Real Life: According to old Russian historical accounts, there was a priest (!) in medieval Novgorod named Chyort ("Devil"). Also, there was another priest named Upyr' Likhoy ("Evil Ghoul"). These guys were probably two Badass Preachers.
- 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. Fun game by the way, even if a majority of the characters are B-movie and low fantasy pastiches.
- The supervirus Daemon from ReBoot.
- Does Akuma from Street Fighter count? One would assume so.
- Hiruma from Eyeshield 21 has the kanji for "demon" in his name, 魔.
- Mike Morningstar of Ben 10 Alien Force. (Morningstar works as a reference to Lucifer, or the weapon). He changed his name to Darkstar in Season 2, though.
- 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.
- 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.
- Mephistopheles: — Warhammer40000 doesn't use the entire name, but do have a Blood Angels Librarian called Mephiston.
- Amon: — Neverwinter Nights 2 has a demon binder named Ammon Jerro.
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.)
- Current Chapter Master of the Dark Angels in Warhammer 40000 is one Azrael.
- And let's not forget Lord Asriel of His Dark Materials.
- Or the taken superhero title of Jean-Paul Valley, the brief Knight Templar replacement for Bruce Wayne.
- The real guy shows up in Good Omens, and in one of the Discworld books.
- Malachi: — (The second-in-command of the murderous Children Of The Corn; the protagonist in an FPS called Requiem: Wrath of the Fallen, and in Hex, this is the name of Azazeal and Cassie's son.}
- Exception in Angelas Ashes, as it is a real name.
- Similarly, a Centauri Prime Minister in Babylon 5 was originally unnamed, but was referred to as Malachi subsequently. In this case, they named the character after the actor, Malachi Throne.
- 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.
- One of the new Hive-Fleets introduced in the 5th Edition of Warhammer 40000 has been codenamed Hive-Fleet Moloch.
- Subverted in Girl Genius. While Moloch von Zinzer started out as mostly a Jerk Ass, he did earn some sympathy points and, since his reappearance, he's become a helpful minion to the protagonist and the gossip buddy of her insane castle, as well as gaining considerable love from the fandom.
- Zygmunt Molotch
- 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". Keep in mind that this is Exdeath's intended name.
- Exodus (born Bennet du Paris) is a Marvel Comics supervillain.
- Exodia, The Forbidden One will instantly win your Yu-Gi-Oh game when summoned.
- 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.
- Not a character, but a superheavy bomber in Warhammer 40000 is called the Magog.
- 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.
- Completely subverted by Samson, a harmless beaver scout, from Camp Lazlo.
- 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.
- In the modern era Lilith is often seen sympathetically as a feminist icon, denied a place in the Bible and reviled as a monster because she refused to be subservient to men (specifically, she wanted to be on top during sex. Yes, she actually got kicked out of paradise and demonized for that).
- 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.
- The second Angel in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- While her birth name was possibly just Lillian, Discworld has Granny Weatherwax's Knight Templar fairy godmother sister, Lily, calling herself Lilith de Tempscire
- 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.
- In addition to the titular hero, most of the cast of Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter have biblical names. Mary Magnum, Johnny Golgotha, El Santos, Danny Sabbath, Doctor Praetorious (which is also a Bride of Frankenstein reference)...
- The Dresden Files has an actual demon/angel in the form of Lasciel.
- As you can see, this works for any angelic name regardless of prior mystical characterization. This actually makes sense in the Old Testament, before they were called angels, messengers, back when they were called Sons of God. The reason the first thing Gabriel says to the three Shepherds is "Be not afraid" is because anytime an angel had showed up before then, cities burned. Names like Angel or Angelo, or women called Angela (such as in Spawn) 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.
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.
- Acheron Hades: — , and the entire Hades family in the Thursday Next novels, named after the Greek underworld and the rivers in it.
- But subverted somewhat in black sheep Styx - despite having arguably the most recognisably infernal name of all the siblings, he's merely a childish prankster and petty criminal (which is presumably as close to harmless as a Hades gets).
- Faust: — , and all derivations of it. 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.
- Note that Faust is German for fist.
- 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.
- One of Dante's swords from Devil May Cry.
- Blade Master Alastor from Viewtiful Joe.
- Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter.
- Alastors in Vampire The Masquerade are a group of enforcers (Archons) for the Camarilla charged with hunting down and destroying the Anathema, those vampires who ended up on the Camarilla's Red List and who the Camarilla want dead very, very, VERY badly.
- Alister in Supernatural.
- One of the bosses of Painkiller
- 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.
- Lamia doesn't usually seduce children; she kills (and sometimes eats) them.
- 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. This is however subverted that after interacting with the group, she pulls a Heel Face Turn after realizing that she has her own conscience, which refuses the ideals of her original group. This, however, is played straight in SRW Advance, when playing Axel's scenario, whereas she never did develop her conscience and stays as a cold blooded android.
- Lamias are also a common enemy in Final Fantasy games, often depicted as nagas with Charm and/or Poison abilities.
- Baal: — In Stargate SG 1 and Diablo, among other works.
- ''Allelujah' - Allelujah Haptism from Gundam00, and then there's Hallelujah...
- Jormungandr - The World Serpent of Norse myth. One of the new Hive-Fleets in Warhammer 40000 has been codenamed Hive-Fleet Jormungandr.
Weapons: Usually melee weapons, too. Sword, knife, gun, hammer, scythe.
Pointy Stick
- 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.
- Gunn: — Peter Gunn
- Charles Gunn, the muscle on Angel.
- Former Swedish justice minister Gun Hellsvik (she's probably nice, but with a name like that, who can tell). Adding insult to injury, "svik" is essentially short for "betray" in Swedish...
- There was a parody comic who did portray her as a Judge Dredd lookalike, tho'... ("Judge Hellgun")
- 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.
- Exception: Major Charles Emerson Winchester from MASH is tremendously skilled and rather smug, but, as his area of expertise is surgery, hardly dangerous.
- 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..
- 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.
- Ingram Plisken from Super Robot Wars. Bonus points for sharing the surname of a dude called Snake.
- On the other hand, you might enjoy the company of miss Excellen Browning. Unless she is Brainwashed And Crazy by those meddling Einsts.
- 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 just about sneaks into this- I'm fairly sure he's named after the good old AK-47.
- Almost: He's actually named after the writer's bowling team, which started as the HK-41s (4 members with names that started with "H", one with "A"), but was changed to the HK-47s because the association with the AK-47 made them seem more threatening.
- Hatchet: —
- 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: — Sonya Blade from Mortal Kombat; a mutant from the execrable VR Troopers. The half-vampire doesn't count; his birth name is Eric.
- 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. Actually, that's a double whammy, isn't it?
- Mace: — Mace Windu is Samuel L Jackson as a Jedi; Lornette "Mace" Mason is the gun-toting, powerfully built female friend of Lenny Nero in Strange Days, played by Angela Bassett.
- Swords: — Star Saber and Wing Saber of Transformers and Saber from The Inheritance Cycle.
- Princess Kitana from Mortal Kombat, whose name comes from the Japanese katana sword.
- 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.
- Saberleomon.
- Of course, the Real Life Saber-tooth Tiger would be a Mega Neko to run away from really fast, if it were still around.
- Hammer: — The title character from Sledge Hammer.
- 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!"
- A few of the villains in Metal Gear Solid, specifically Vulcan Raven (named after his minigun) and recurring villain/ ally/ villain again/ something entirely different Revolver Ocelot.
- Subversion: in the Evolution game series, pretty much every character is named after a weapon (Chain Gun, Gre Nade, Pepper Box, etc.)
- 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.
- Spear: Hitler's architect's name was Speer, German for spear.
Verbs: Names that can also function as verbs (usually of the pain inducing variety) also fall in. Often overlaps with R Names.
Gardener
- Burn: — Burns (Montgomery Burns in The Simpsons, Arthur Burns from The Proposition, although his brother Mikey is less intimidating, what with being mentally handicapped, and all. Frank Burns is another exception. Anyone worried about George Burns needs help.)
- This troper thought Steve Burns was a nifty addition to the Tekken roster. But he's actually the guy with the blue puppy you'd most likely trust your kid with.
- Crash: — Although the bandicoot is probably one of the least intimidating people out there. WWE's Crash Holly wasn't too threatening either)
- 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, the real name Killian. You will never find a mild-mannered person with this name. It's the name of a Clint Eastwood lookalike Bad Ass sheriff in the original, also the last name of the game show producer in both book and novel of The Running Man (different first names, though), and in Fallout. And actor Cillian Murphy is, despite his best efforts, still best known for being unbelievably creepy in Batman Begins.
- Taking the 'Kill' pun to the next level are the implausibly macho 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.
- Real life example: Greg Killmaster.
- Another real life example, this troper's parents had a best friend named Killmeyer. Guess what their last name is...
- Similar to the Ricky Steamboat example above, this troper has often wondered why the wrestler currently known as R-Truth in WWE ever bothered with names like K-Krush, K-Kwik, R-Truth, etc. when his given name is Ron Killings. Though this one actually did use his real name during his time in TNA, so there is that, at least.
- Another real life example: Rune Overkil. There has also at one point been a police sergeant Overkil in Norway.
- In SB Email's movie within a show Dangeresque, Strong Mad adopts the role of bad-guy henchman Killingyouguy.
- Then there's Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney villain Shelly de Killer. Who is a contract killer. Well, you can't fault the descriptiveness.
- "Hello, I am Doctor Henry Killinger, unt zis is my magic murder bag."
- Apocalypse Now has COL Kilgore, for a double dose of violent verbs.
- Pierce: — Aaron Pierce in 24, although he is a good guy with a heart of gold, he is still a complete and utter Badass. Truth In Televison as well with Pierce Brosnan, aka James Bond.
- Exception: Hawkeye Pierce from MASH, as he's more likely to remove whatever pierced you and sew the hole shut, though his sense of humor could be described as piercing.
- Real Life exception: Franklin Pierce, 14th U.S. president. Best known for his tragic personal life (and resultant alcoholism) and general ineffectiveness in the office.
- 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.
- Saw: — The Saw franchise.
- Slash: — one of Magus' minions in Chrono Trigger, the other half of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in Re Boot.
- Dominate: — Doctor Who had an actual race calling themselves The Dominators. However ridiculous, it fits the trope. (They come with
dwarves in suits Creepy Monotone killer robots, of course.
- Darth Maul.
- Real life example: Hermann Göring.
- Another real life example: Rip Torn. Double Whammy.
- 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."
Nouns: But only really scary ones, like: Doom, hunter, death, cage.
Herpes
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Blight: — Luca Blight. 'Nuff said. For far less intimidating versions, Captain Planet's hottie Dr. Babs Blight (Whose good sister is a member of the fluffy and safe naming trope, having been named Bambi).
- 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.
- 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).
- Plague: Darth Plagueis
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Cinder, of the Chandrian.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Colors: Villains often favor certain colors of clothing and weapons, so it's not surprising that such colors should be in their names as well.
Fear the Fuchsia
- Black: — Especially popular. (Blackguard, Blackheart, Blackthorne, Blackout, etc...)
- 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.)
- 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.
- While it's a Code Name, not his real one, Zolf Kimbley in FullmetalAlchemist is introduced early on as "The Crimson Alchemist". Like the majority of the State Alchemists, the reason why he got this name becomes pretty damn obvious once you see his method of combat.
- There's the Red Skull too.
- And The Red Comet.
- Also the Crimson Lightning, but he often gets confused with the other guy.
- Red from Gold/Silver/Crystal has the highest leveled team in the game, and gives off a distinct Creepy Child vibe.
- 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!
- 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.)
- And Mrs. White (In the Billiard Room, with the Rope)
- 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.
- Jonas Blane is a heroic but badass version, as he will often use the cover name Mr. White (ironically).
- 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. (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).
- Don't forget Marvel's Jean Grey,a stupendously powerful psychic.
- 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.
- 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.
Foreign Language Names
Japanese is quite open when coming up with names you normally wouldn't give your child.
José
- 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. Also 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 of 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
- Given that the majority of names and themes in Dune are middle-eastern in origin, Yueh is probably a corruption of Yaweh, hebrew for God (which is arguably even more badass, especially in the original Hebrew, where it's one of the biggest curse words in existence)
- Samir Duran, who is far more foreign than his Sikh-sounding name, appearance, and accent would imply.
- 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.
- It also calls up the power of the original kamikaze (divine wind) that destroyed an entire fleet in a matter of hours.
- Anything in German.
- Jafar seems to be the perfect name for an Arabic Evil Chancellor, as demonstrated in Aladdin and Prince Of Persia.
- 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".
Ancient Dead Languages:, If someone has a name that's Latin, or Mesopotamian, or Babylonian; this probably means they were around back then. A rule of thumb is usually the older something magical is, the more powerful. Expect Ominous Latin Chanting.
Mortuus Lingua
- 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 "The First One" or "Good Morning" depending on who you ask.)
- Amusingly, both Sabah and Nur are normally female names in Arabic.
- Carcer is Latin for prison (the root of our incarcerate) and incidentally is also the name of the villainous murderer-cum-policeman in Terry Pratchett's Night Watch.
- Carceri is the name of the prison plane in Dungeons And Dragons.
- Ben10 has a prison planet, Incarceron.
- Carcer City from Manhunt may also be named as such.
- 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.
- Arcturus Mengsk. More intimidating for political reasons than physical.
- The real name of the historical Lady Macbeth was "Gruoch Ingen Boite". Would you trust a name like that? As it happens, though, she wasn't actually evil.
- 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 , 'nuff said. The Anarchist.
- This troper is from Ukraine and feels offended without mention of Our Chieftain in this article. You do not want to mess with him.
- But, come on, you can't say he wasn't badass. And by the way, he was used as a villain in some Soviet fiction.
- And this troper is from Russia, and would like to say that in Russian (I think in Ukrainian it's similar) the name "Nestor" isn't associated with ancient Greeks. It's mainly associated with Nestor the Chronicler [1], the first known Russian historian.
Anything that ends in the letter R: Since villains have to do things in order to be villains.
Pear
- Real-life: Hitler and Himmler, Those Wacky Nazis
- Darth Vader
- Whose name was ironically based on a positive character from Soviet science fiction called Dar Veter(which approximately means "Gift Wind").
- Hannibal Lecter, again
- Jackson Rippner, again
- General Ripper, again
- Maybe these two would fit better under "Killers", due to the similarity with "Jack the 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, again
- Carcer, again
- Lex Luthor
- David Sumner of Straw Dogs turns out to be the single most dangerous man in the universe
- Sylar again
- 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.
- On the heroic Autobots' side, there's Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, Cliffjumper, Huffer, Windcharger, Roadbuster, Beachcomber, Blaster, Perceptor, Defensor, Springer, Wing Saber and many others.
- 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.
K-name: Names with a hard K sound in them, for some reason (perhaps it's a fluke of the English language), sound tougher than names without them.
Cookie
- 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.
- This troper believes the protagonist from the video game Outcast should be mentioned here. His name? Lt. Cmdr. Cutter Slade...
- Half used/half averted in the Star Wars franchise. Of the main movie characters, only Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Chewbacca fit (and Anakin before the name change). The Sith use a less subtle Badass naming scheme (see below), and the Jedi don't seem to really care. Granted, the Jedi get wiped out by the Sith, who are then wiped out by the K-names.
- 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.
- Are we forgetting Kaela Mensha Khaine, the Eldar god of war?
- Note however that this is not generally applicable to Japanese names, in which the suffice "ko" is frequently used in girl's names, and tends to sound cute.
- 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.
- Korgoth of Barbaria.
- Tachyon from the OpAphid Alternate Reality Game and REDEARTH88 may not have an actual "k" in her name, but the sound is there, and it's definitely a name you do not want to trivialise.
- 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. Need I say more?
- King K Rool from Donkey Kong Country 1-3 (and Land 1-3, and 64, etc). Speaking of which, pretty much every single Kremling, boss character and anything linked with the Kremlings comes under this. Just in the boss list alone you've got KAOS, Kerozene, King Kut Out, Kleever, Kroctopus, Krow and Kludgel. And don't even start on the area names with this theme...
- 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.
- 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.
Xtreme Kool Letterz:, an extension of the above, most people with names that haven't been legally changed to have loads of "Kool Leturz" are best kept an eye on.
Por grammur
- 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.
- Fun fact: Axel is an actual given name of Scandinavian origin.
- Which does not, in any way, explain Axel Foley, of Beverly Hills Cop fame. This troper believes that it might somehow refer to the character being an 'axle' around which all the action revolves, but that seems a trifle highfalootin' for these particular films...
- This troper once heard, that Nomura stated, that Axel is actually named after the "Ale" brand of beer. (Making his name an anagramm, like any other name in the Oragnization) Why? "Because it's Reno's favorite beer!"
- 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. While laughing and making you love him anyway.
- 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.
- Exo - Exodia, The Forbidden One (Set of five cards from Yu-Gi-Oh. If all five cards (Sealed Exodia/Right Arm/Left Arm/Right Leg/Left Leg) are in a player's hand, the player wins automatically).
- Another point for Exodus (Exdeath by extension, too!).
- 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)
- Kong, anyone?
- 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.
- 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, anybody?
- Double bonus because it's also one variant spelling of Thanatos, the ancient Greek death god.
- 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. Did I mention he uses two guns in battle?
- Galbatorix from the Inheritance Cycle counts... sorta.
Anything with Mor Mort is Latin for death, so it is often used to indicate death or evil.
Mortgage
- Mordred, Morgause and Morgan le Fay from King Arthur.
- In J.R.R. Tolkien's invented Elvish languages, "mor" means dark or black, hence:
- Morgoth - the "Dark Enemy," Supreme Big Bad in the Tolkien-verse.
- Mordor - Black Land of evil in The Lord Of The Rings.
- The Morannon, the Black Gates into Mordor.
- Minas Morgul, the Tower of Dark Sorcery.
- Or, you know, Moria.
- To prevent a one-sided impression, it is not only used for evil things: e.g. the girl's name "Morwen"
- 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.
- Voldemort - Harry Potter, of course, meaning "Flight from death" or "Theft from death" in French.
- The incantation to summon a Dark Mark is doubly evil-sounding - morsmordre. It's a French-ish translation of "Death Eaters."
- 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...
- 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
- Exception: Mork from Ork, though Robin Williams can be kinda scary.
- Not an exception: Mork from Warhammer 40,000.
- Exception: Morn, a genuinely nice (if weird-looking) alien from Deep Space Nine. His name is an anagram of "Norm"; he was named after the character from Cheers.
- 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.
- Exception: Mortimer Mouse, Mickey's brother, from the Outland comic strip. Mortimer was also Walt Disney's first choice for Mickey's name, but his wife talked him out of it.
- Played straight with the other Mortimer Mouse, one of Mickey's rivals for Minnie's affection.
- Mordekai, "Lovable Rogue" from Irregular Webcomic.
- Morrigan Aensland, from Darkstalkers.
- She may be named after the Irish goddess, however. Still, she's a succubus in a fighting game, so she qualifies for inclusion.
- Morticia Addams. Her entire family is a pun on being 'evil'.
- Murlocs
- Although they're arguably more annoying than scary.
- The first enemy the Toa Metru of Bionicle went up against was the Morbuzakh, a Matoran-kidnapping plant.
- And in a later arc, the weapon of choice, first used by the villainous Piraka, was Zamor Spheres.
- 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.
- This troper almost did a double-take at the unsubtle use of this naming convention in the first book of WoT. Two of the heroes happily fell into an obvious ruse set up by a character who introduced himself as Mordeth. Seriously, two instances of the word "death" in his name, and they don't even stop to consider the situation?
- Moradin, the god of the dwarves from the Dungeons And Dragons game, on the other hand, is about as far from evil as you can imagine (being Lawful Good), but being as he uses a warhammer as his primary symbol and is the chief god of dwarven fighters, clerics and paladins alike, this is more of a Bad Ass god than anything else.
- 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.
Names dealing with crime or criminality you can't really be sure what you're dealing with.
Hoodlum
- Would you trust a sheriff whose last name was Outlaw?
- Would you buy a car from a dealer named Ransom?
- Real life example - Dr. Burns-Cox, a consultant urologist. (Should this be listed under Groin Attack?)
- Would you take anything a guy called Wormtongue says at face value?
- To be fair, he's called Wormtongue BECAUSE of his advice. His real name is Grima.
- This editor was delivered by a man named Dr. Slotter, which sounds far scarier when said aloud.
- You really, really, really don't want to trust the Pyro with anything flammable.
- 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.
- The player characters from the classic arcade game NARC are named Max Force and Hit Man. Yeah...
- Wait, what happened to Robbin' Hood?
- Real life example - This troper's uncle is a certain Dr. Blinder, who is also an eye surgeon.
- 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.
- Despite the series' fondness for meaningful names, this is averted outright by Officer Spectre, who is completely unremarkable.
- Ashley Riot. He is, on occasion, referred to as Agent Riot. And his full title is Riskbreaker Ashley Riot.
Anything you can't pronounce on the first try For example, Cthulhu, Ithaqua, Shub-Niggurath, Y'golonac, Nyarlathotep,Yog-Sothoth, Etc.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
- Nicolae Ceausescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party.
- See also The Unpronounceable
- 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.
- In Pokebattles, usually if an evolved form or enemy has a really long name it's powerful. Like, Evil Sadistic IT Teacher of Dention(Detcher), FLAMING TREE OF DOOM, MEGA HUGE KILLER APE THAT WILL KICK YOUR BUTT UP AND DOWN THE STREET 500 TIMES, Evil Rabid Jigglypuff of Doom(Doompuff), SUPER DESTRUCTIVE UNDEFEATABLE GYARADOS of HYDROMATIC UBER-DESTRUCTION, and ect. Also anything with the word "doom" is most likely a doompuff spinoff.
- Many of the arrancar from Bleach. Aaroniero Arruruerie, Nnoitra Jiruga, Grimmjow Jeagerjacques, Ulquiorra Schiffer, Szayel Aporro Grantz...the list goes on and on.
- All of the central-canon Sith lords in Star Wars, starting with their prefix Darth (a portmanteau of 'Dark' and 'Death'). Darths Sidious (Insidious), Tyrannus (Tyrant, also Latin, see above), Maul (both the action and a large two-handed war hammer), Plagueis - was Lucas even trying? Vader is subtle by comparison.
- To the extent that this troper as a small child thought Vader's name was 'Dark Fader' until he actually saw the films. It may not be, but the similarity between 'Vader' and Teutonic words for father ('Vater' in German, though with the V pronounced like an F and in Dutch it really is 'Vader' ) means it actually comes out as '''Dark Father'''. It Was His Sled indeed.
- The Expanded Universe doesn't help much, with characters like Darth Bane, Darth Wyrlokk (warlock), Darth Talon...
- Up through about halfway through Episode One, this troper was convinced "Darth" was some odd alien prefix meaning "in". (i.e. "invader", "insidious".) This led to jokes about "Darth Telligent", "Darth Dubitable", and, of course, "Darth Candescent".
- That last one's probably already been done in Fanfiction, sadly.
- This troper remembers a parody flash animation exploring this possibility with examples like Darth Toxicated.
- Avoozl.
- That one's probably a Shout Out, to a story in the magazine Weird Tales called "The Weird of Avoozl Wuthoqquan".
- "Kuhn", at least in the real life experiences of this troper, is pronounced in a way that can only be explained in two syllables despite being a 1-syllable name. He's more surprised when people say it right. Also, it starts with a "K" and is German.
- The same problems arise with the name 'Koch.' Or worse, 'Fuchs.'
- Chattur'gha, Xel'lotath, and Ulyaoth of Eternal Darkness.
Close Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
All of the Above Needless to say, anyone whose name combines several of the above traits is generally someone you really, really, do not want to get mad at you. And if they don't, they're probably a Mary Sue, which is arguably worse.
Bruce Mortuus the sixth Red Snake of Doom
- 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.
- 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, complete with an incredibly high power level which takes Ace, Lord fear and Mark to bring down, and Tentacle Related Squick.
- 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 the.... bookish?
- 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?
- 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.
- Further evidence of such can be found in a particular Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress featuring a fortress named Boatmurdered.
- Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way
- Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood
Close Bruce Mortuus the sixth Red Snake of Doom
The Man: Some people are so infamous that they need no introduction. Sometimes this is hiding their true identity, but if it isn't, run.
King Lord Royal
- 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.
- Who could forget Miss Parker?
- Scrubs has the Janitor. Not really evil, but he can sure mess you up.
- In "I Wanna Be The Guy" Your mission is to kill "The Guy", and the only thing standing between him is the hours of the most frustrating Platform Hell ever devised. Good Luck.
- The Watcher in KateModern, and the Shadow even more so. You really don't want to mess with the Shadow.
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