Sandbox.Names To Run Away From Really Fast Single Words: Adjectives (The Adjective One) | Nouns (Animal | Body Part | Colors | Weapons) | Verbs | Titles (Noun X | The Person) Etymology:Ancient Dead Languages | Foreign Language Names Named After: Conquerors | Notorious Killers | Redneck Names | Religious Names (Biblical Names | Demons or Angels) | Shady Names Sounds and Letters: K Names | Mor | Names Ending In Th | R Names | Xtreme Kool Letterz | Unpronouncable Names Various: Mix and Match
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- Fullmetal Alchemist's Briggs Bears. With minds and bodies tempered by the driving cold of the border between Amestris and Drachma (approximate Fantasy Counterpart Cultures of Germany and Russia, respectively), they're a force to be reckoned with.
- One Piece: Bartholomew Kuma.
- 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.
- 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.
- Bear Hugger, the gigantic Canadian Lumberjack and Boxer in Punch-Out!!.
- Return to Krondor has Big Bad Bear, who is very tall, very muscular, and very deadly.
- Fallout:
- Paladin Kodiak from Fallout 3, and the Bear Brothers from the The Pitt DLC.
- In New Vegas, NCR troops are sometimes called "Bears", after their flag. It only happens on occasion, and most often as a metaphor than to describe them directly.
- Ursula of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade is a two-fer example. She's also known as the "Blue Crow", and for having a notoriously difficult chapter where she has a Meteor tome.
- 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.
- 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.
- Bob "Bull" Hurley from Over the Top.
- From Ivanhoe, the stubborn and thuggish Reginald Front-du-Boeuf ("bull-head").
- Miss Trunchbull in Matilda.
- Bull Shannon from Night Court.
- 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.
- Red Minotaur from Devil Kings.
- The Turkish Bald Bull from Punch-Out!!, who is one of the few characters with a One Hit Knock Out move.
- Adam Taurus from RWBY.
- 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.
- Bleach — Coyote Starrk: The Primera Espada.
- King Hardin, a cavalier of the kingdom of Aurelis, a.k.a. Coyote, from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, as well as their remakes Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem. And in the sequel, he's turned evil out of jealousy, and fights as a powerful foe against the protagonist Marth's army.
- Gargoyles: Xanatos' own look-alike robot.
- 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.
- Ashe Corven from The Crow series also qualifies, as it appears to be derived from 'corvus', the Latin word for 'crow'.
- 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.
- From Cat's Cradle, a circle of the religion Bokononism is known as a karass.
- Crow, the demon summoner from The Grimnoir Chronicles.
- In Warrior Cats, Crowfeather is an unfriendly, aggressive character, although he turns out to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Justin and Iris Crowe in Carnivàle.
- Jacob Crow of TimeSplitters Future Perfect fits the bill.
- Nightmare Creatures had Aleister Crowley as the Big Bad of the series.
- Earthworm Jim's archnemesis PsyCrow.
- Corvo Attano of Dishonored.
- Fallout 3 has a ghoul named Mr. Crowley, likely named after the aforementioned Aleister Crowley.
- The Jackdaw of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. What starts off as a brig, through numerous modifications, it's capable of going up against man-o-wars, and can even destroy legendary ships thought to be indestructible.
- Following on from this, the Morrigan of Assassin's Creed Rogue. A sloop-of-war under the command of the former Assassin Shay Cormac, this ship was incredibly advanced for it's time. It's weapons included upsized Puckle gunsnote , carronades, and burning oil.
- RWBY: Ruby and Yang's uncle/mentor Qrow Branwen. Bonus points since he was gifted the ability to turn into a crow.
- 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.
- From One Piece, Dragon the Revolutionary. As noted further down, also overlaps with "Monkey."
- 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.
- 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.
- The Dragon and its subtropes. Not every bad can be number one, but Number Two is usually a close second.
- Date Masamune, the One-Eyed Dragon of Oshu from Sengoku Basara. It's especially significant since he's referred to mostly by (and is infamous through) this name.
- The Dragon of Dojima, Kiryu Kazuma.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Uncle Iroh, nicknamed "The Dragon of the West".
- Long Feng, whose name means "Dragon Phoenix" in Chinese. Bonus points for sounding like "long fang".
- Drago, son of the Big Bad Shendu, of Jackie Chan Adventures.
- 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.
- The entire team from Eagle Riders (a.k.a. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman).
- General Orlov from Octopussy ("oryol" means "eagle" in Russian).
- Bartlet's secret service code name on The West Wing is Eagle.
- The Eagles were one hell of an awesome band.
- 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.
- The F-15 "Eagle", for the 1970s the most dangerous fighter aircraft in the world, and no less dangerous today.
Literature
- Merlin from Arthuian Legend, whose name is also that of a small falcon.
- Faile Bashere from The Wheel of Time is definitely a terror to deal with if you mess with her husband.
- Captain Falcon from F-Zero.
- Falco Lombardi from Star Fox.
- The main protagonist of the Silent Scope series (except for EX).
- The F-16 Fighting Falcon, Cool Plane and very dangerous.
- 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).
- 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.
- Lord Vetinari of the Discworld series often reminds people of a sober flamingo. A predatory one.
- CJ's Secret Service codename on The West Wing is flamingo. She does not appreciate this.CJ: The flamingo is a ridiculous-looking bird!
- 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.
- 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.
- An UnSub from the Criminal Minds episodes "The Fox" and "Outfoxed" was known as... "The Fox"
- Evgeniy Fox, archvillain from The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.
- Grimm has Captain Renard. Ironically for this series, which is normally heavy on Theme Naming, he is not a literal fox creature. He's a warlock-creature who looks like a zombie when 'woged'
- Steve Fox from Tekken.
- Metal Gear: Pretty much every member of Foxhound.
- Star Fox.
- La Volpe from Assassin's Creed II.
- Vulpes Inculta of Fallout: New Vegas.
- Maria Renard from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and she can kick some ass. Also, Reinhardt Schneider from Castlevania 64.
- Gunnerkrigg Court's resident plush doll-possessing fox spirit Reynardine, a.k.a. Renard.
- Janine "Fox" Renard from Gargoyles.
- Wacky Nazi Reinhard Heydrich and Magnificent Bastard Erwin "The Desert Fox" Rommel.
- Justin Volpe, the Dirty Cop who Prison Raped Abner Louima.
- 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.
- Hawkeye, of The Avengers.
- Hawkman and Hawkgirl, sometimes seen in the Justice League
- Frank Hawkes from 1982's Alone in the Dark.
- Lincoln "Linc" Hawk from Over the Top.
- Spenser's partner from the Spenser series of novels.
- Natty "Hawkeye" Bumppo from The Leatherstocking Tales.
- The nickname of John Ross Freemark, the Chosen One of the Genesis Of Shannara series.
- Warrior Cats has a tendency to have antagonists with Hawk names - Hawkfrost, Hawkheart, and Silverhawk.
- Ged in A Wizard of Earthsea has the use-name Sparrowhawk.
- Stringfellow Hawke, pilot of the meanest chopper in the skies, Airwolf.
- Hawk on American Gladiators
- Hawk of the the Road Warriors/the Legion of Doom.
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.
- Hawke from Advance Wars.
- Metal Wolf Chaos: Richard Hawk.
- Hawk in Pilot Wings 64.
- Hawk in Soldier of Fortune.
- T. Hawk from Street Fighter.
- Agent Gilbert Hawk of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum; PPC agents may be the good guys, but they're still dangerous.
- 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.
- The Jackal, one of Spider-Man's foes.
- 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.
- Mr. Jacquel from Neil Gaiman's American Gods, better known as the Egyptian god Anubis.
- The Assassin from the Frederick Forsyth Novel The Day of the Jackal.
- An assassin called Jackal tails the characters in Illusion of Gaia.
- Falcon's loose cannon partner in Silent Scope 2.
- Big Bad of Far Cry 2.
- Infamous terrorist Carlos "The Jackal".
- Leos from Gundam Wing, on the other hand, are only dangerous if you yourself are not also in a Humongous Mecha.
- MirrorMask star Stephanie Leonidas, and her sister Georgina Leonidas.
- King Leonidas from 300.
- Leon the assassin from The Professional.
- Lyon "Lionheart" Gaultier, from the 1990 film of the same name.
- 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.
- Lionel, Lex Luthor's uber-villainous dad in Smallville.
- Ultraman Leo. He even hails from the constellation!
- Lion El'Jonson, in addition to being an homage to a poet. Primarch of the Dark Angels of Warhammer 40,000.
- Squall Leonhart in Final Fantasy VIII.
- Lyon from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
- Leon S. Kennedy of the Resident Evil series.
- Leon Magnus from Tales of Destiny who is practically unbeatable when you first meet him. Also prideful, and his last name is Magnus.
- Leon, the shotgun-wielding second boss of WinBack.
- Fallout 3 has the Brotherhood of Steel Elder, Owyn Lyons, and his daughter, Sentinel Sarah Lyons.
- Lion-O of Thunder Cats and Thunder Cats 2011.
- Leon Trotsky fought off an assassin who had just whacked an icepick into his skull.
- David Ben-Gurion means "Son of a Lion".
- King Leonidas of Sparta, as noted above.
- King Richard the Lionhearted.
- 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.
- Goku from the Film adaptation of the popular anime, Dragonball Evolution.
- Jet Li's Monkey King from The Forbidden Kingdom.
- 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.
- Itachi from Naruto, whose name literally means "Weasel".
- One of Astro Boy's adversaries is called Skunk Kusai.
- 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.
- Newsies has a character named Weasel.
- The conniving and malicious Duke of Weselton, from Frozen, is constantly called the "Duke of Weasel Town".
- 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.
- Badger from Firefly.
- Similar to Brock Samson (see below), Brock Lesnar, who inspires dread every time he shows up in WWE.
- "Brock", as in The Venture Brothers' Brock Samson, is old English for "badger".
- 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.
- 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".
- Bleach: The name of Grimmjow's release counts: Pantera.
- J. C. Cooger from Something Wicked This Way Comes.
- Metal Gear: Revolver Ocelot.
- Jean-Luc Cougar from WinBack.
- Great Puma from Pro Wrestling.
- The Puma boss tank in Iron Tank.
- 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.
- Rex Raptor of Yu-Gi-Oh! could be a subversion.
- The Raptors, an outlaw biker gang serving as the villains of the Walker, Texas Ranger episode "Unsafe Speed"; its leader, Grangus, is played by Steve "Sting" Borden.
- Lord Raptor in Darkstalkers.
- Raptor in X-Kaliber 2097.
- 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.
- 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.
- Teen Titans: Raven, both comic and cartoon versions.
- X-Men: Mystique's real name is Raven Darkholme.
- My Immortal: Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. Yes, the apostrophe's included. Sometimes.
- Raven, the Perky Goth from Cecil B. Demented.
- Eric Draven from The Crow.
- Queen Ravenna from Snow White & the Huntsman.
- The ultimate badass from Snow Crash.
- Raven is one of the worst of a legion of anti-heroes in Glen Cook's The Black Company series.
- Raven from the H.I.V.E. Series books is an incredibly well-trained ex-Soviet assassin who serves as personal assistant to the school's headmaster.
- Harry Potter — Ravenclaw, one of the four Houses of Hogwarts. (Bizarrely, their animal mascot is an eagle, NOT a raven.)
- Gleams of Aeterna: The raven is the crest of Alva's.
- A couple characters in Warrior Cats have names beginning in "Raven-"; however, they seem to be some of the rare Non-Action Guys in the series. One of the most well known characters from the first arc, Ravenpaw, actually one of the sweetest toms you could ever meet!
- 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.
- The Raven Guard of Warhammer 40,000 .
- Ravenloft is an entire game setting to run away from really fast.
- Vulcan Raven and Raging Raven in Metal Gear Solid.
- Subverted, then played straight, then subverted again in Tales of Vesperia.
- Korax (Greek for 'raven'), the Big Bad from Hexen. Something of a pun on the part of ''Raven''Soft who wrote Hexen.
- Raven, from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, a mercenary who can solo entire maps on his own.
- Badass McNinja (and Wesley Snipes'-lookalike) Raven from Tekken. He'll See You in Hell.
- A lesser known example is the badass bodyguard of the big bad from 2097.
- Jump Raven.
- Half-Life 2: "That's the old passage to Ravenholm... we don't go there anymore."
- The Fraternal Order of the Raven from BioShock Infinite.
- Ravenwest Motorsport, a rival team from Race Driver GRID and playable in its spin-off, GRID Autosport.
- Splinter Cell: Conviction and Blacklist have Voron, a Russian spec-ops group whose name tranlates to 'raven'.
- Mr. Raven from El Goonish Shive.
- Raven from Teen Titans.
- Sasori from Naruto.
- Scorpion and Scorpia from Spider-Man.
- The Scorpio Killer from Dirty Harry.
- The Scorpion King from the movie of the same name and The Mummy Returns.
- Eliyahu Scorpio from the Israeli film Ushpizin.
- The Scorpion from The Devil's Carnival.
- Scorpia the international criminal organisation from the Alex Rider books.
- Scorpius, Draco Malfoy's son in the epilogue of Harry Potter.
- The Alacráns from House of the Scorpion count. Their last name, of course, means scorpion.
- Vladimir Scorpius from James Bond novel bearing the villain's surname.
- Akrep from 20 Minutes, a vicious and physically imposing inmate. Her nickname means "scorpion" in Turkish.
- Scorpius (Farscape)
- A 'different Scorpius, from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.
- Scorpina (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers).
- Robert Scorpio from General Hospital.
- Kamen Rider: Sasword (from the word Sasori, meaning scorpion).
- Plain old Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.
- Scorpio from Devil Kings.
- Scorpion the Butcher in Silent Scope.
- The Scorpion tank from Halo. 66 tons of HE-spewing dee-vine intervention...if you're in the Covenant, no matter your size, you'd better run.
- The Scorpion tank from Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, which is the NOD counterpart for the GDI Predator tank.
- Vriska Serket from Homestuck, named for the Egyptian goddess of the scorpion. Her paradox counterpart Aranea also qualifies for both scorpion and spider versions of this trope.
- Hank Scorpio, Homer's 'Bond villain'-esque boss on The Simpsons.
- 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.
- Older Than Dirt: King Scorpion from Predynastic Egypt makes this (vaguely) Truth in Television.
- 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).
- Warhammer 40,000: Captain Shrike of the aforementioned Raven Guard, who likes to pop up out of nowhere with his jet pack and impale people with his impossibly sharp weapon.
- Shrike the vehicle expert in Red Faction II.
- Famed Oakland Raiders (among others) quarterback and noted hellraiser Ken "The Snake" Stabler.
- 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.
- 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.
- Everybody from Kill Bill.
- Escape from New York — Snake Plissken anyone?
- In the 1987 cult "melt" film Street Trash, the brand name of the dollar-a-bottle wine is "Tenafly Viper." One guess as to what it does to you when you guzzle it.
- 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.
- 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.
- Solid, Liquid, and Solidus Snake of the Metal Gear series. All of them are cloned from the legendary Big Boss, and all of them kick serious amounts of ass.
- The Cobra Unit from the third game, although none of them are actually named after snakes.
- Serpent from Mega Man ZX, and his company, Slither Inc.
- Orochi, of the Warriors Orochi games.
- Onaga, the name of the Big Bad of Mortal Kombat: Deception, is Japanese for "king cobra". Also, Kobra from the same game.
- The assassin known as "The Azul Viper" in Rift. (Also keep in mind that with a real name like "Kira Thanos," she scarcely needs a Nom de Guerre.)
- Cobra the Iron Man from Silent Scope.
- Death Adder from Golden Axe.
- Serpentine from Freedom Planet.
- The "Pit Viper" organization (and their eponymous leader) from Zombies, Run!. Partially subverted, as the aforementioned leader is actually one of the good guys working undercover.
- Subverted with Lilo & Stitch's Cobra Bubbles.
- Snake of The Gangreen Gang on The Powerpuff Girls.
- Snake Jailbird of The Simpsons.
- The Serpent's Pass from Avatar: The Last Airbender is an example of a place name like this. It's named after the giant freaking sea serpent that lives there.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Dr. Aranya from Mesa of Lost Women, a play on the word araña, which is Spanish for Spider.
- Spider from Anansi Boys, which is also a Meaningful Name, because he's the son of Anansi.
- The Spiderwick family from The Spiderwick Chronicles.
- Spider, the de facto leader of all the villains in Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain. Justified in that she actually is a giant spider.
- Spiderleg in Warrior Cats is one of the biggest snarkers in the series.
- Doctor Who has a species of spider aliens called the Racnoss (a play on the word "arachnid").
- In the early years of BattleTech, Natasha Kerensky AKA the Black Widow was infamous as the best mechwarrior of her generation.
- The Black Spider Ninja Clan in the reboot of Ninja Gaiden.
- Lieutenant T.T. "Spider" Brown in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
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.
- Tarantulas and Blackarachnia from Beast Wars. Both are fierce fighters and master manipulators.
- 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".
- Marvel Comics had the Sons of the Tiger, whose magic amulets went to a single man who became the White Tiger.
- DC Comics has the Bronze Tiger.
- White Tiger, from the Jackie Chan movie Rumble in the Bronx.
- Tiger Tanaka from You Only Live Twice is a badass on the side of good.
- 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.
- Kamen Rider Tiger.
- Walker, Texas Ranger: The titular Tiger from Season 3's "Tiger's Eye", an enforcer of the Yakuza.
- Furio Tigre from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations.
- Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai from Sengoku Basara and his ward Sanada Yukimura, known as the Young Tiger.
- Great Tiger, the Indian boxer with access to magical powers of illusion and duplication, from Punch-Out!!.
- General Leang from Command and Conquer Generals, better known as 'The Tigress'.
- Black Tiger.
- Taiga Saejima, the biggest and brawniest of the protagonists in Yakuza 4 and 5.
- The Tiger from Spinnerette. Call him Tiger, not Black Tiger.
- El Tigre takes this trope and runs with it.
- 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.
- 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".
- Lobo. There's a reason he's known as The Last Czarnian. Hilariously, in Czarnian, it translates to "He Who Devours Your Entrails and Thoroughly Enjoys Them."
- The Fenris twins from X-Men — see the note about Fenrir in literature.
- The Star Wolves from Fugitive Alien.
- Harry Potter's
- Averted with Remus Lupin, even though he is a werewolf because he's a Nice Guy and the only DADA teacher to truly interested in teaching it to protect students.
- Fenrir Greyback on the other hand is quite the villain (Fenrir is the giant demonic wolf from Norse Mythology).
- Also keep your eye on anyone named Isengrim, Ysengrin or any variant thereof, because they're either a a vicious wolf, a Genius Bruiser or both, if you're unlucky. He was Reynard the Fox's nemesis in the Reynard cycle, and a certain General Ysengrin is also a villain in Gunnerkrigg Court under the employ of Coyote. Unsurprisingly, he has a wolf's head.
- The Dark Tower and The Stand: Randall Flagg.
- Arkadiy Volkov, Russian chief vampire from the Midnight World series. Lampshaded in the chapter La scorta: Count Saint-German's assistant juxtaposes him and the Japanese chief vampire as "White Wolf and Little Black Riding Hood".
- Wolfgang from The Fifth Elephant, who gets an added bonus for being a werewolf.
- Vseslav Volkov, a recurring villain, vampire, werewolf, Spetznaz officer and communist from Andrey Valentinov's series Eye of the Power.
- In The Great Gatsby, one of Gatsby's shady business associates is a greedy Jewish mobster named Meyer Wolfsheim.
- The "Bad Wolf" from Doctor Who.
- The Space Wolves of Warhammer 40,000.
- Claudia Wolf from Silent Hill 3.
- Wolf from Need for Speed Carbon.
- Wolf O'Donnell in Star Fox.
- Sniper Wolf of Metal Gear Solid.
- Lang means wolf in Chinese. Shi-Long Lang, from the Ace Attorney series, is meant to have a wolf vibe, but is ultimately a good character.
- Jack Lupino from Max Payne.
- Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat.
- Wolfenstein.
- Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia. His surname means little wolf and he uses wolf themed moves.
- Raisa Volkova from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.
- Volke from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. An assassin even Izuka is afraid of.
- Ulfric Stormcloak, the Jarl of Eastmarch, leader of the Stormcloak Rebellion and, depending on your allegiance, either the Big Bad or Big Good of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's Civil War questline. Ironically, despite Ulfric's name being loosely translatable as "wolf ruler", the Stormcloaks in general have a strong Bear motif instead.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Parodied with Sea Bass from Dumb and Dumber.
- Leo Rook from Lighthouse.
- Harlan Rook from The Dead Pool.
- Our Friend Power 5: The evil leader of The Shark Gang is named...Shark.
- 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".
- Harry Potter has the awesome-sounding Order of the Phoenix.
- Honor Harrington in David Weber's Honorverse series is called "The Salamander" for always being where the fire was hottest, a case of being at the right place at the right time (this is inverted the other way for her opponents).
- Mr. Squids and Mr. Crabs, Big Bad and The Dragon from the Soviet children's book ''Dunno on the Moon''.
- Wings of Fire has a lot of these. First there's Nautilus the Well-Intentioned Extremist leader of the Talons of Peace, and his son, the ineffectual Evil Counterpart Squid. Then there's also also Commander Shark and his daughter Moray, Kestrel, and Osprey.
- 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
- 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.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Played for laughs with The Big Bad Hippo.
- The Unagi, a gigantic eel whose name literally means "eel" in Japanese.
- "The Phoenix King," the title Fire Lord Ozai adopts during the finale.
- The Slaughtering Rat People from Invader Zim.
- The Big Bad of Miraculous Ladybug goes by the name Hawk Moth in the English dub. This does not apply in the French dub, where he's named Papillon, meaning "Butterfly".