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A form of Names to Run Away from Really Fast: 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.

Note that animal names can go either way depending on the setting; they can imply evil, or can simply be used to imply that a character is fierce and dangerous, and as such, can be used for good characters or even heroes. Some animals are tipped more one way than others, of course; lions and wolves can imply nobility, but snakes and scorpions usually don't. See Animal Stereotypes for possible reasons for why certain animals have sufficient evil/scary cultural connotations to qualify for this trope.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Alligator/Crocodile 
As we all know, one should Never Smile at a Crocodile, and Naming Conventions reflect that wisdom.

Comic Books

  • One of Batman's enemies is called Killer Croc due to his crocodilian appearance. Depending on the Writer, this either comes from a skin disease that makes him look scaly, or a mutation that gives him actual reptilian genes.

Real Life

  • Krokodil is a notorious makeshift opioid brewed from codeine in countries like Russia where heroin is harder to come by. The active ingredient (desomorphine) is several times more potent than actual heroin, but crude production methods (similar to those used to cook methamphetamine from pseudoephedrine) leave a lot of toxic byproducts in the brew, not only diluting the potency but also producing infamously gruesome side effects like gangrene. Indeed, the nickname "Krokodil" may be a reference to the scaly skin that develops around injection sites. Users tend not to survive more than a few years.
  • Ray Kroc, who helped expand McDonald's into a global franchise, was nobody to be trifled with.
  • The Churchill Crocodile, a British heavy tank at first glance. The base Chuchill VII is very slow but tough to kill, just like its reptilian namesake, but Germans quickly found other reasons to fear the Crocodile. It had a respectable 17-pounder gun for its 'bite,' but its real hallmark was being one of Britain's few proper flamethrower tanks. Considering the Churchill was made to support infantry rather than fight in armored assaults, this meant it was usually facing very soft (and highly flammable) targets. As a result, Crocodiles were spectacularly effective at shrugging off fire while turning bunkers, trenches, and gun nests into flaming death traps, and many Germans troops who faced Crocodiles surrendered upon seeing one idly ranging its flamethrower in their general direction.

    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.

Anime and Manga

Literature

  • Beowulf: Beowulf's name is usually interpreted by linguists as "the bees' enemy", which in turn is tentatively a poetical expression for "bear".
  • The name of Beorn from The Hobbit means literally 'bear'. He can — guess what? — turn into a bear.

Live-Action TV

  • Chuck: 'Sugar Bear'.
  • This trope with a twist: in the Red Dwarf episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", one of the denizens of Kryten's western-themed dreamscape was named 'Bear-Strangler' McGee.

Video Games

Western Animation

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has Zuko's mother Ursa, whose name is Latin for a female bear and is quite appropriate for a quintessential figurative Mama Bear. She's a kind and loving mother, but hey, it takes a loving mother to aid an assassination in order to protect her son.
  • The central villain in The Little Mermaid is the sea witch Ursula. The name actually means "little female bear", and the character is more like an octopus than a bear (being an unscaled mermaid with tentacles instead of a tail), but she turns it into a Name to Run Away From anyway.

Real Life

  • Machine example: The Russian Tu-95 "Bear" nuclear bomber, designed to reach the United States from the Soviet Union and let loose nuclear armageddon. Later examples served in the anti-submarine and anti-ship roles and were a menace to US submarines and aircraft carriers.

    Bull 

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Theatre

  • Thady "The Bull" McCabe from John B. Keane's drama The Field. His short-tempered nature is so well-known in the community, it helps him get away with murder.

Video Games

Web Animation

  • Adam Taurus from RWBY.

Real Life

  • Another machine example - the Russian Tu-4 "Bull", a direct copy of the Boeing B-29 and the first Russian nuclear bomber with the range to reach the United States (albeit one-way). When the first one of these turned up, the Cold War started to look as though it was going to get dangerously hot.
  • Corporal Leslie 'Bull' Allen of the Royal Australian Army. During the New Guinea campaign in World War II he personally carried no fewer than twelve wounded men out of the line of fire. Possibly a name to crawl toward, in this case.
  • Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor, the racist Commissioner for Public Safety in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. He is known for having police officers disperse nonviolent protesters with fire hoses.

    Coyote 

Anime and Manga

  • Bleach — Coyote Starrk: The Primera Espada.

Video Games

Western Animation

    Crow 

Anime and Manga

  • Misaki Yata in K goes by the nickname Yatagarasu (a mythological crow) to sound more intimidating, instead to his real name ("Misaki" means "beautiful blossom").
  • The Karas, supernatural guardians of Japan's human and youkai population, who can turn into and cars and jets and stop time.
  • Karasu from Noein, a badass with ridiculous speed and strength, along with the power to warp time and space.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Crow, the Robin Hood-esque, heavily Markered friend of Yusei.

Comic Books

  • Ashe Corven from The Crow series also qualifies, as it appears to be derived from 'corvus', the Latin word for 'crow'.

Fanfic

  • Karasu (Japanese for crow) from Three of Heart, One of Blood doesn't seem like this at first: He offers to bring Yukimori back to life. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold, as he's a Legacy and can't raise the dead — but he can cast extremely realistic illusions.

Literature

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Web Animation

  • RWBY: Ruby and Yang's uncle/mentor Qrow Branwen. Bonus points since he was gifted the ability to turn into a crow.

Real Life

  • The racist Jim Crow laws of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, designed to enforce segregation in the South in the wake of Reconstruction.
  • Russell Crowe might not look as sinister as some of the other examples listed here, but God help you if you ever edit his poetry!
  • The notorious late 19th-to-early 20th century playboy occultist Aleister Crowley. Not actually a bad guy, but given his reputation at the time (which there's reason to believe he actively encouraged) he might as well have been a supervillain.

    Dragon 

Anime and Manga

  • From One Piece, Dragon the Revolutionary. As noted further down, also overlaps with "Monkey."

Literature

  • Dracula: Dracul, in Romanian, means "dragon" as well as "devil". Therefore, "Dracula" means "son of the dragon".
  • In The Divine Comedy, a wrathful demon fixated on maiming any in his reach is named "Draghignazzo," which the Dante Encyclopedia translates as "Big Nasty Dragon." That simple and bestial name tells you everything you need to know about this single-minded torturer.
  • Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter.
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen has 'Draconus'. If that doesn't sound impressive enough, given the importance of dragons in the setting, then his title 'Suzerain of Night' surely will.
  • Rand Al'Thor and Lews Therin Telamon from The Wheel of Time.

Live-Action TV

  • Kamen Rider Ryuki. Ryu is Japanese for Dragon.
  • Count Dregon, the Big Bad from Saban's Masked Rider.
  • You don't have to worry *too* much about Merlin Arthur Pendragon. His father, king Uther Pendragon, however...note 

Other

  • Dragin from yerCake.
  • Drago from Rocky IV.

TV Tropes

Video Games

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Draco, a lawmaker from ancient Greece, from whom we get the term "draconian" as in "draconian penalties", meaning extremely harsh penalties. His name is similar enough to the Greek word for dragon, and so little is known about the man himself, that it's up for debate whether this is a coincidence, or whether Draco is an assumed name chosen to invoke this trope.
  • Vlad Dracul and his son Vlad Dracula of Wallachia (the bynames meaning "dragon" and "the dragon's son" respectively), who were certainly apt to invoke this trope in their lifetime. The name, however, has a relatively harmless origin story, as it became the elder Vlad's nickname when he joined the the Order of the Dragon, a late-medieval chivalric order.
  • Billy Drago is the stage name of a character actor who generally plays Smug Snake variants. Coincidentally, it's his mother's real surname.
  • Sir Francis Drake works if you're Spanish.

    Eagle 

Anime and Manga

Film

  • General Orlov from Octopussy ("oryol" means "eagle" in Russian).

Live-Action TV

Music

  • The Eagles were one hell of an awesome band.

Video Games

  • 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. His catchphrase: Ca-caw!.
  • From Assassin's Creed III, Connor's ship, the Aquila, was built as a brig, but was incredibly fast for it's size, and was so infamous, it was dubbed "The Ghost of the North Sea" for it's ability to appear from the darkness of the sea, inflict tremendous damage, and retreat as if it was never there.
    • In Assassin's Creed, Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad's whole name: it translates from Arabic as, essentially, "eagle the son of none." He's also one of the most deadly and influential Assassins in the franchise.

Real Life

  • The F-15 "Eagle", for the 1970s the most dangerous fighter aircraft in the world, and no less dangerous today.

    Falcon 

Literature

Video Games

Real Life

  • The F-16 Fighting Falcon, Cool Plane and very dangerous.

    Flamingo 
While obviously not a "scary" animal, the flamingo has nevertheless been used as a name for villains and dangerous characters surprisingly often.

Anime and Manga

  • One Piece: Donquixote Doflamingo, a nihilistic pirate and puppet-master who slices people into pieces. He dresses in a pink, feathery coat and dabbles in slave trade, and abandons it because it's become passe (the slave trade, not the coat).

Comic Books

  • There's a vampire called Flamingo in Scarlet # 1. Reviewing the comic, Linkara finds it ridiculous.
  • Grand Morrisons Batman gives us the villain Flamingo, Eater of Faces. Which is pretty scary without the "Flamingo" part, actually.

Literature

  • Lord Vetinari of the Discworld series often reminds people of a sober flamingo. A predatory one.

Live-Action TV

  • CJ's Secret Service codename on The West Wing is flamingo. She does not appreciate this.
    CJ: The flamingo is a ridiculous-looking bird!

    Fox (Vixen, Reynard, Kitsune, etc.) 
Variations of "Reynard" — the original trickster-fox from the medieval stories — include, but are not limited to, Renard, Reinhardt, Reineke; possibly even Renfield from Dracula. If somebody in your group has a variation of that last name, avoid him. He's The Mole.

Film

  • In the Rush Hour sequels, 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.
  • After The Fox, starring Peter Sellers as the criminal Master of Disguise "The Fox". Of course, this is a subversion, played for laughs.
  • Renard, the Big Bad of The World Is Not Enough.

Literature

  • Le Renard Subtil is the name of the villain in the novel Last of the Mohicans. DEFINITELY traitorous.
  • Zorro. Means, in case you didn't know, 'fox'.
  • August Rommel Taggart, the villain in Mary Higgins Clark's A Stranger Is Watching, calls himself "Foxy" because of his middle name (see the "Real Life" subfolder).
  • Silas Fennec, the villain from The Scar by China Miéville.
  • Foxheart (though not quite a villain, more like an annoying antagonist) from Warrior Cats, whose name in-universe is an insult meaning cruel or heartless.

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Web Comics

  • Gunnerkrigg Court's resident plush doll-possessing fox spirit Reynardine, a.k.a. Renard.

Western Animation

Real Life

    Hawk 

Anime and Manga

  • Berserk: Griffith's Band of the Hawk. They were known as the "Grim Reaper of the Battlefield" back in the day, and their second incarnation is even worse.
  • Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist is a scarily good shot.
  • Hajime no Ippo has Takamura Mamoru and Brian Hawk, both violent boxers that used to fight on the streets.
  • One Piece: Dracule "Hawkeyes" Mihawk.

Comic Books

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Professional Wrestling

Sports

  • There are a number of boxers who have used "The Hawk" as their Red Baron title, but there are two that particularly stand out:
    • Julian Jackson, who is a near unanimous choice among hardcore boxing fans as the hardest pound for pound puncher in boxing history. Jackson was infamous for routinely turning other fighters into an unconscious, convulsing, heap with a single blow. Even other power punchers were awed by him, for example Mike Tyson once described him as "a middleweight who could knock out heavyweights". A brief video tribute to Jackson.
    • Aaron Pryor, who ruled the 135 and 140 divisions with an iron fist in the early '80s. Pryor was known not just for his power, (he won 39 fights in his pro career, 35 of them by knockout) but also for his endless stamina and being seemingly impossible to hurt.

Video Games

Web Original

    Jackal 
Pretty much anybody named "Jackal" is either an assassin or a terrorist.

Anime and Manga

  • Kurodo Akabane, aka Doctor Jackal from Get Backers is a Transporter who doesn't care how much a job pays, only how interesting it will be. And "interesting" to Doctor Jackal usually involves fighting someone powerful and killing them.

Comic Books

Film

  • The otherwise anonymous assassin, from 1973's The Day of the Jackal (an adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth novel), and 1997's remake of the movie, The Jackal.

Literature

Video Games

Real Life

  • Infamous terrorist Carlos "The Jackal".

    Lion (Leo, Leonidas, etc.) 

Anime and Manga

Film

Literature

  • Lionheart and Lionblaze in Warrior Cats. Neither of them are evil, but you would not want to run into either, and Lionblaze in particular, in a fight.

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

  • Lion El'Jonson, in addition to being an homage to a poet. Primarch of the Dark Angels of Warhammer 40,000.

Video Games

Western Animation

Real Life

    Monkey 

Anime and Manga

  • Goku from Dragon Ball. In the first series, he has a tail, the cloud that transports him around, and his magic staff, not to mention adapted forms of many of the companions.
  • Saruhiko Fushimi of K (Saru means "monkey")
  • The Monkey D. family of One Piece, which includes main character Monkey D. Luffy, his father revolutionary leader Monkey D. Dragon, and his fearsome Marine grandfather Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp.
  • Goku from the Saiyuki series, a Bishounen-looking fellow restrained by the crown from the original stories, who fights with a staff.

Film

Literature

  • One of the lead characters in the oft-retold Journey to the West, Sun Wukong (or Son Goku).
  • The Baboon Warrior is a post-human 'tagonist (pro-? an-? it's never quite clear) from Shiva 3000. He kills malfunctioning Hindu gods.

    Mustelids (weasels, skunks, badgers, and wolverines) 
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.

Anime and Manga

  • Itachi from Naruto, whose name literally means "Weasel".
  • One of Astro Boy's adversaries is called Skunk Kusai.

Comic Books

  • Years ago there was a comic series starring one Norbert Sikes, who put on a costume and fought crime in the streets as... The Badger. Yeah, he was nuts. It was a great book, though.
  • Marvel's Wolverine.

Film

  • Newsies has a character named Weasel.
  • The conniving and malicious Duke of Weselton, from Frozen, is constantly called the "Duke of Weasel Town".

Literature

  • The Wind in the Willows: Mr. Badger, who is a badass Jerk with a Heart of Gold. And a badger.
  • The naming of the Weasleys of Harry Potter subverts this.
  • The final one of Tavi's many names in Codex Alera is Gaius Tavarus Magnus. Lord Wolverine the Great. You may now shit yourself.
  • Warrior Cats has a couple characters with names beginning with "Weasel-" and "Stoat-", who tend to be minor characters. There was also a kit who was apprenticed and forced into battle at too young of an age named Badgerpaw; as he died, he chose his own warrior name, Badgerfang.

Live-Action TV

Professional Wrestling

  • Similar to Brock Samson (see below), Brock Lesnar, who inspires dread every time he shows up in WWE.

Western Animation

Video Games

  • As in the above example, Brock from Pokémon is a Rock-type Gym Leader, so his name doubly appropriate, being both a "rock" pun and a reference to an animal that digs. He also has a reputation for being a tough obstacle for beginning Trainers.

Real Life

  • Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works advanced development projects, notoriously known for making dangerously fast aircraft.
  • The Tu-16 "Badger", yet another Russian nuclear bomber, one that was eventually turned into a powerful anti-ship platform like the Tu-95 "Bear".

    Other wildcat species 

Anime and Manga

  • Bleach: The name of Grimmjow's release counts: Pantera.

Literature

Video Games

Real Life

  • The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which took its memorable signature animal from an area high school football team.
  • Puma is also the name for a German clothing maker whose rivalry with Adidas have begun post WWII.

    Raptor 

Anime and Manga

  • Rex Raptor of Yu-Gi-Oh! could be a subversion.

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Real Life

  • The F-22 Raptor, the only 5th generation fighter in the world, and the only true "stealth" fighter pending the arrival of the F-35. Simulated battles have given it a kill ratio of more than a hundred to one, so if you're an enemy fighter pilot and your wingmen start blowing up without warning, running away is your only option.

    Raven 

Anime and Manga

  • Ravenus from the Linkage mini-comics packed in with the Micron Legend DVD's in Japan. Also a pun on "ravenous", to boot.
  • Raven is also one of many Chains found in the world of PandoraHearts.
  • Also, Raven from Zoids.

Comic Books

Fanfic

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • Ironically, American Ninja Jonathan Raven was played by an actor named Jeffrey Meek.
  • Korax, first officer on the IKS Gr'oth in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles".

Other

  • The Baltimore Ravens of the NFL, named for Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven. Definitely run, rather than try to get into an altercation with one of them in a nightclub.

Professional Wrestling

Tabletop Games

Video Games

Web Comics

Western Animation

    Scorpion 

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Web Comics

Western Animation

Real Life

    Shrike 
A bird that impales insects or lizards onto sharp branches to feed on them. In short, the animal gets shish-kabobed.

Literature

  • The Edge Chronicles features "shrykes", vicious and merciless birdwomen.
  • 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.
  • Shrike the Stalker in the UK release of Mortal Engines (Grike in the US).

Tabletop Games

Video Games

    Snake (Viper, Cobra, etc) 

American Football

  • Famed Oakland Raiders (among others) quarterback and noted hellraiser Ken "The Snake" Stabler.

Anime and Manga

  • Kimba the White Lion: Viper Snakely, the resident Evil Poacher.
  • 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, and that's alongside the fact that "Orochimaru" was the name of the villain of the folk tale that also served as the inspiration for the names of fellow Sannin Jiraiya and Tsunade.
  • One Piece: Boa Hancock, the "Snake Princess". Also Nefertari Cobra, King of Alabasta.

Comic Books

  • DC Comics villain Kobra.
  • Marvel Comics has enough snake-themed villains that they formed their own team, the Serpent Squad (later expanded into the Serpent Society).
  • G.I. Joe: Cobra.

Film

Literature

  • 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 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. (The demon's first name however, subverting this, is Anthony.)
  • Harry Potter:
    • Slytherin House (whose emblem is a snake, and whose name sounds like 'slithery') and its founder Salazar Slytherin. In-universe, "Slytherin alumnus" is almost a synonym of "dark wizard".
    • Severus Snape comes pretty close.
    • Voldemort's snake Nagini, whose name derives from Sanskrit and Hindi words for "snake."
    • Herpo the Foul, one of the first recorded Parselmouths (wizards who can talk to snakes).
    • Harry's son may be a subversion; his initials spell ASP but he seems like a good kid.
  • Nag and Nagaina, the two cobras from Rikki Tikki Tavi. As mentioned with Nagini from Harry Potter, their names derive from the Hindi and Sanskrit words for "snake." Their names probably were influences for Nagini's name.
  • The Red Viper in A Song of Ice and Fire is a warrior prince who uses Poisoned Weapons, which is why he goes by that title. (Although he's in no way one of the more evil ASOIAF characters. He's one of the many, many badass ones though.)
  • In The Lord of the Rings there's Wormtongue. In this case, worm actually means snake. Or possibly dragon, which in the universe of Middle-earth are Always Chaotic Evil.
  • Warrior Cats:
    • One of Barley's evil brothers renames himself Snake.
    • Snake is a rogue in Dawn of the Clans who turns against Clear Sky.
    • Adderfang is a tough warrior (though not evil).
    • A few other characters have names beginning with "Snake-", but they're very minor.
  • Viper and Rattlesnake from Wings of Fire.

Live-Action TV

  • The title character of Blackadder.
  • Kamen Rider Ohja. His name translates to Snake King.
  • American Gladiators had Viper, and he was particularly known for being a bad guy/having a bad temper.

Video Games

Western Animation

Real Life

  • The AH-1 Huey Cobra, a US Army two-seat attack helicopter. Heavily armed and armored, the Cobra has proven to be a scourge to anyone on the business end of one of them. It's successor/derivative, the AH-1Z Viper, counts too.
  • the P-39 Airacobra and it's late-war derivative P-63 Kingcobra, which are both piston-engined craft made by the same company behind the AH-1 family. It possesses a propeller-shaft-mounted 37mm cannon powerful enough to shred any plane unfortunate enough to be hit by it, and it has machine-guns in addition to that. Both of them, flown by Soviet pilots (who received them via Lend-Lease), caused no small headaches for the Luftwaffe.
  • the Dodge Viper, a forefront of the American performance scene. The first generation was notoriously hard to control due to it's massive power and total lack of electronic aids. Later versions featuring safety-regulation-complying electronic aids tamed it a little, but it is still intimidating as all hell to drive.

    Spider 
Much like Fox, it's a trickster's name.

Anime and Manga

  • Onigumo from Inuyasha, whose name is composed of "oni" (a troll or ogre) and "kumo" (spider). And if Kikyo had just run away from him really fast, the whole series could have been averted.
  • Pani Poni Dash!: Tsurugi Inugami in addition to Tsurugi, he is also Inugami — not just an animal, it is a Japanese god.

Comic Books

  • Special mention to the various Black Widow villainesses.
  • Transmetropolitan: Spider Jerusalem, rogue journalist.
  • In a rare plant-related example, Bone's Briar and Rose. Guess who's the baddie.
  • Spider-Man, as well as Tarantula and Black Tarantula.

Film

  • Dr. Aranya from Mesa of Lost Women, a play on the word araña, which is Spanish for Spider.

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • Doctor Who has a species of spider aliens called the Racnoss (a play on the word "arachnid").

Tabletop Games

  • In the early years of BattleTech, Natasha Kerensky AKA the Black Widow was infamous as the best mechwarrior of her generation.

Video Games

Webcomics

  • Justified in the "Lycosa" storyline of Nature of Nature's Art; the core cast are all spiders, and use scientific nomenclature instead of personal names. It's a subtle plot point that the protagonist uses an outdated genus name.
  • Aranea Serket from Homestuck has a spider given name and scorpion surname, doubling up on menacing arachnid names. In Alternian history, she was also known as Marquise Spinneret Mindfang.

Western Animation

  • Tarantulas and Blackarachnia from Beast Wars. Both are fierce fighters and master manipulators.

    Tiger 

Anime and Manga

  • Benitora/Crimson Tiger from Samurai Deeper Kyo.
  • Aisaka Taiga (yes, it's pronounced pretty much the way it sounds) from Toradora!. For bonus points, in addition to the Spanish meaning of the title, "Tora" means "tiger".

Comic Books

Film

Literature

  • Tigerclaw/Tigerstar from Warriors is the main Big Bad of the series. His grandson, Tigerheart/star, seems to stray away from this path.
  • In the Discworld novel Monstrous Regiment, Sergeant Jackrum tells William de Worde about a guerrilla leader named Tiger, who doesn't exist.

Live-Action TV

  • Kamen Rider Tiger.
  • Walker, Texas Ranger: The titular Tiger from Season 3's "Tiger's Eye", an enforcer of the Yakuza.

Video Games

Webcomics

Western Animation

  • El Tigre takes this trope and runs with it.

Real Life

  • Lady of War Caterina Sforza, nicknamed Il Tigre, the Tiger.
  • Machine Examples: The German Tiger and King Tiger tanks.
  • IJA General Tomoyomi Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya and conqueror of British Malaya and Singapore.

    Wolf (Wolfen, Wulf, Adolf, Lupin, Volk, etc.) 
Though after World War II, naming a villain "Adolf" has become a Dead Horse Trope.

Anime and Manga

  • Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun.
  • Black Lagoon: Roberta, aka The Maid and most especially The Bloodhound Of Florencia, tends to destroy everything her path, and is incapable of dying, where even a city of the most powerful mafia lords in the city consider her a very serious threat that almost undermines everything by her mere presence and need to get revenge. She definitely qualifies as a name to run away from really fast. Except you can never run far enough. You can never run fast enough. She's the Bloodhound Of Florencia. Once she is on your trail, you will not escape.
  • Gavrill "the Wolf", from Franken Fran. A nickname she earned thanks to her extreme brutality and shape-shifting powers. To top it off, she's flipping insane, yet also very sly and intelligent
  • Baron von Wolf, Big Bad from First Squad.
  • Adolf K. Weismann is a subversion - he's actually the sweetest, cutest darling. In those few episodes that set him up to look like the bad guy, he was actually body-snatched by the psychopathic murderer.
  • Lupin III has Lupin himself, whose name derives from theword for Wolf. This was lampshaded in the west during a time in the early-to-mid '90s where the Maurice LeBlancnote  estate was threatening copyright infringement suits against TMS and US distributors over the character, with some English-language dubs renaming him "The Wolf".

Comic Books

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

Video Games

Web Original

  • The Lay of Paul Twister has a subversion. Paul becomes very nervous when he is approached by a wizard named Gerald Wolf, who is doing research into the nature of entropy. It turns out that Gerald Wolf is the man's actual name, that he is primarily a healer, and that the endpoint of his entropy research was building a Magitek refrigerator.

Real Life

  • The example that Godwin's Law demanded: Adolf Hitler seemed to have had an affinity of some sort for wolves. His first name derives from Athalwolf, Old High German for "noble wolf", and for this reason "Wolf" became his childhood nickname. He later used it as a pseudonym for himself in the 1920s, ostensibly for security reasons. Three of his military headquarters were named Wolfsschanze ("wolf's lair"), Wolfsschlucht ("wolf's chasm"), and Werwolf ("werewolf").
  • The Eighth Fighter Wing is collectively known as "The Wolfpack", named after their most famous wing commander, Robin Olds, who used the callsign "Wolf 01" when he lead the 8th in battle during The Vietnam War. Famous for using F-4C Phantoms to imitate the much slower and more vulnerable F-105 Thunderchiefs.
  • Vladimir Wolfovich Zhirinovsky is a right-wing Russian politician known for extreme electoral promises and utter lack of principles.
  • Dolph Lundgren specializes in playing big, meaty Action Heroes.
  • For most of the Cold War, the second-in-command of the East German Stasi's foreign intelligence division was Markus Wolf, who is widely regarded in the intelligence community as one of the greatest spymasters of all time.
  • Varg Vikernes of Burzum fame, whose first name is Norwegian for "wolf," is a white supremacist and convicted murderer and arsonist.

    Other 

Anime and Manga

  • Sylia Stingray of Bubblegum Crisis.
  • Alligator Nichol from Jackals is not to be trifled with.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist has Action Hero Roy Mustang.
  • From Naruto is Hoshigaki Kisame (Kisame means demon shark) and his sword Samehada (sharkskin). It's also very literally a Meaningful Name, since Kisame looks like a shark, uses shark-based attacks and can fuse with Samehada in a shark hybrid.
  • Weevil Underwood from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Not particularly strong, but a sneaky, conniving pest who'll stoop to pretty much anything.
  • The Blackbird in WanganMidnight. It's a Porsche 964 tuned to keep up with the Devil Z, an 800hp-FR classic Nissan S 30 Z that has killed every past owner driving it.

Comic Books

  • Batman chose the name and appearance of his alter ego after the bats that scared him as a boy.
  • Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man.
  • Hydra (named after the mythical monster that grew back two heads for every head it lost) serves as the the rival organization to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Film

Gamebooks

  • Freeway Fighter: The leader of the biker gang you need to fight near the end is a burly, muscular, masked brute simply called "The Animal".

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • Wolfram & Hart (wolf, ram, and hart — a hart is a stag) from Angel.
  • The 38th season of Survivor brought us a man who called himself Wardog.

Pro Wrestling

Video Games

  • Mega Man 4 brings us Snake Man, Toad Man, and Mega Man Battle Network's Beast Man.EXE (as well as having .EXE versions of the other two). And Mega Man 10 has Sheep Man.
  • King Hippo from Punch-Out!!.
  • Wild Dog, the recurring villain of the Time Crisis series.
  • The DoDonpachi ("mad boss bee") series, and its recurring True Final Boss, Hibachi("fire bee").
  • Golbez from Final Fantasy IV has what must be one of the most awesome name origins in fiction. Aside from sounding fitting, bad ass and like a name you'd want to run away from, it is actually named after a type of fly. A fly that in legends were said to be born from the rotting corpse of a dragon. On top of that he shares his name with Golubaeser, a demon in the book Devils by J. Charles Wall, where several names from the game were taken. Does that mean they just stole the name from somewhere else? No they were entirely aware of the original source as the DS remake not only references it but also manages to relate it to an in game legend with multiple interpretations.
  • War Pig, an Abrams tank in Modern Warfare, which you escort in the mission of the same name.
  • The GDI Predator Tank from Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars. If you are a NOD militia member see one coming at you equipped with a rail gun for a cannon, run as fast as you can.
  • Vera "Granny Rags" Moray (as in moray eel) from Dishonored.
  • Metal Gear Solid has Psycho Mantis.

Western Animation


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