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: Usually, this is the extremity they'll hit you with, or the one that's the most scarred. Blood, talon, skull, fang.
Examples:
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Blood
- Battle Angel Alita: Caerula Sanguis, whose name means "blue blood", both a mark of her regal and elegant bearing and of her...shall we say...clinical status.
- Doki Doki! PreCure has the Blood Rings which were made from Leva and Gula's esscences after Bel had killed them. Ira and Mammo are wearing them because he tricked them into doing so.
- Jason Blood, to whom an actual demon from Hell is bound. He's extremely knowledgeable as a mystic and demonologist, and he's also immortal.
- Bloodsport, the name of three Superman villains.
- Sebastian "Brother" Blood, immortal human sacrificing cult leader.
- Rafael Sabatini's famous pirate, Captain Blood, started his career as Doctor Blood. It works either way! He was not bloodthirsty at all (though he was generally sanguine), and was a complex and sensitive man, so his name had a touch of irony to it... Which was completely lost in the movie, turning him into an uncomplicated badass with an appropriate name.
- The Bloody Baron from the Harry Potter series, as well as a vampire named Sanguini.
- The crimelord who forms the main antagonist in Gene Wolfe's Nightside the Long Sun goes by the name of Blood. (In their city men all have single names that refer to animals or animal byproducts, like the protagonist Silk and his student Horn, but Blood is still an alarming name even in context.)
- 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).
- There's a whole evil Clan called BloodClan in Warrior Cats.
- The Icelandic Sagas describe a brutal killing technique called the "blood eagle", which involved carving the victim's back open and tearing the lungs out like wings. It's uncertain whether this historically happened to anyone, though.
- Doctor Who: In "The Shakespeare Code", one of the three witches is named Mother Bloodtide.
- Kamen Rider Build gives us Blood Stalk, the Big Bad of the series who has a habit of stabbing all the other villains in the back, making himself The Man Behind the Man several times over.
- Arrow: Alderman Sebastian Blood, Corrupt Politician and in the league with the Big Bad. Felicity even lampshades that his name isn't exactly encouraging...and Laurel is still the only one to see through his Villain with Good Publicity act.
- The evil-sounding connotations of Blood as a name is what led 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)
- The Primarch of the Blood Angels Space Marines chapter was imaginatively named Sanguinus. He was a formidable fighter but not an evil man — or primarch.
- The Eldar god of murder/violence/destruction/war Kaela Mensha Khaine the Bloody Handed God, his Avatars also count.
- Combine two dangerous names and you get Blood Falcon, Captain Falcon's Evil Twin from F-Zero X.
- From The Curse of Monkey Island, there is
Wallythe evil pirate Bloodnose! - And combining this with the Xtreme Kool Letterz example below, we have Chaotic Evil Ax-Crazy Psycho for Hire dwarf Korgan Bloodaxe
- BlazBlue: 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.
- Blood Raven from Diablo II, the first boss you encounter. If you waltz into the Burial Grounds at LV 5, fresh form the Den of Evil, she will mop the floor with you.
- Bloodmonster from the Nightmare, from the obscure Dada game 78641, a Targ Adventure, is a Double Subversion. He turns out to be a senile old man... but he's also the closest thing the game has to a Final Boss.
- Blood Drops from The Game of the Ages is a legendary warrior.
- Tarro Blood from Star Wars: The Old Republic. A scheming, lying, cheating, bastard that stands as a mockery of the Mandolorians, he's the main antagonist in the first part of the Bounty Hunter's storyline.
- Sebastian Bludd, better known as G.I. Joe villain Major Blood.
- The Bloods, a notorious Los Angeles street gang and sworn enemy of the Crips.
- The only person to get close to successfully stealing the crown jewels of England was named Colonel Thomas Blood. His son Colonel Holcroft Blood was a noted military engineer, as well as the commander of the allied artillery at the Battle of Blenheim.
- Ricky Steamboat and Richie Steamboat are both named Richard Blood in Real Life. They are both faces, but as pro wrestlers, they're still guys you wouldn't want to mess with.
- Elizabeth Báthory, an infamous Serial Killer of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Hungary, was nicknamed the "Blood Countess".
Bone, Skeleton, Skull
Comic Books
- Captain America's Arch-Enemy is a Nazi mastermind who goes by "the Red Skull".
- The Nightmare Before Christmas stars a Horrifying Hero named Jack Skellington.
- Kong: Skull Island lampshades this with the Skullcrawlers, who are named so by Hank Marlow. The only reason he calls then that is to make them sound scary.
- The short story "Satan's Incubator" by Randolph Craig has a main character named Dr. Skull: This initially seems like an aversion, as he's initially portrayed as a kindly, well-respected and elderly doctor... Then it turns out Dr. Skull is wearing makeup and a wig to disguise his appearance, and is but one of two alter-egos of the actually young and agile main character - The other is a heroic but deadly vigilante known as The Skull Killer.
- In Warrior Cats, the second-in-command of the evil BloodClan is named Bone.
- Raul "Skull" Hidalgo, the leader of a gang of carjackers and the villain of the Walker, Texas Ranger episode "Without a Sound".
- Skullmageddon, the Big Bad of Double Dragon Neon
- Dethskulks in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Their Japanese name literally means "death skull," and they One-Hit Kill Kirby if he touches them.
- Team Skull from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers which is just full of jerkassery. Their spiritual successors, Team Skull from Pokémon Sun and Moon, are also like that.
- Digimon has Skull Greymon who quote "doesn't have even a scrap of intelligence to balance its combat instinct, its existence is a threat to other Digimon."
Claw, Finger, Fist, Hand
In general, "The Fist" or "The Claw" is not here to welcome you with a friendly handshake.
- Claw from Kimba the White Lion.
- Ulysses Klaw, sonic-handed enemy of the Black Panther and the Fantastic Four.
- A more heroic example from Marvel Comics appears in the form of the Iron Fist.
- Legion of Super-Heroes has a villain named Starfinger.
- The Hand is an ancient cult of ninja assassins/sorcerers who routinely plague the likes of Daredevil, and Wolverine, and often have designs on world domination.
- Goldfinger (...He's a man, a man with a Midas touch, a spider's touch...)
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Mr. Hand, the tyrannical teacher.
- Dark City: Mr. Hand is the primary antagonist of the film, though not the leader of the Strangers.
- Talon, the killer-for-hire in the Babylon Rising series.
- In Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, one of Jeffreys' hired assassins is named Dick Gripp. Thankfully, Stephenson never went into how he kills people...
- Logen Ninefingers of The First Law, a barbarian with a Superpowered Evil Side (and his good side isn't someone you want to mess with either).
- Selena, Morzan's and also Brom's lover from the Inheritance Cycle, is nicknamed "The Black Hand".
- According to Terry Pratchett, "If your gang consists of two people—if it is, in fact, a gangette—one will be the brains of the outfit and one will supply the muscle and speak like dis. They must both, of course, wear black suits. If there are three of them, this still applies, but the new one will be called Fingers".
- In Warrior Cats, several characters' names end in "-claw", but special mention goes to Tigerclaw, the Big Bad. His mentor, a fierce fighter who was on the villainous side himself, was named Thistleclaw. However, some cats with the name 'claw' are actually good cats, like Thornclaw.
- In Wings of Fire, Mightyclaws' name is supposed to be this, but he's just an emaciated, mostly kind, secretly bitter dragonet. Six-claws, on the other hand, was formerly a competent, if reluctant general of Burn until his desertion.
- Doctor Who: In "The Shakespeare Code", one of the villains of the week is named Mother Doomfinger. She killed people with, you guessed it, a tap of her finger.
- Villain of the week "The Craw" in Get Smart.
- The Hekatoncheires ("the hundred-handed ones") from Classical Mythology, who, well...each had a hundred hands (and fifty heads).
- Subverted with Chiron, the wise centaur who taught many of Greece's greatest heroes. His name means "hand," but it had more the meaning of a hand that guides and assists— a "helping hand."
- Deathclaws—Sneaks the "Death" in there as well. They're appropriately named though—you really don't want to screw with these guys.
- The Black Hand from the Command & Conquer series. Which may or may not be the same Black Hand that started WWI, and are the most elite forces of the Brotherhood of Nod.
- The dreaded Dead Hand from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a zombie-like abomination which, despite its name, lacks actual hands (it only has severed stumps in place of hands). However, it's surrounded by several arms (complete with hands) sticking up from the ground, and they can grab Link to assist the Dead Hand in battle.
- The absolutely terrifying Mr. Fingers, a creature created from a Deal with the Devil to rid a child of his nightmares by giving it physical form. It has fingers instead of teeth and dissolves flesh by contact.
- Michelle Clore (sounds like "claw" in the right accent), the Big Bad of KateModern, a pun which was lampshaded on more than one occasion.
- Klaw, main enemy of Inspector Gadget.
- The Perils of Penelope Pitstop: The Hooded Claw, that guy who's always trying to kill Penelope Pitstop.
- The Claw, the Big Bad of Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos.
- Masters of the Universe villain Clawful.
- Transformers:
- There are several Transformers named Razorclaw, and none are to be trifled with lightly!
- There's also a couple named Chainclaw, and you probably shouldn't screw with them either.
- The crime syndicate known as the Dark Hand, from Jackie Chan Adventures.
- The Black Hand Gang and the craze in the early 20th century of referring to The Mafia in New York as the "Black Hands."
- The predatory dinosaurs Deinonychus (terrible claw) and Deinocheirus (terrible hand).
- The Fists of Harmony and Justice, nicknamed "Boxers" in English, were a secret society in late Imperial China who first rebelled against the Qing dynasty, then teamed up with the Qing dynasty to fight off meddling foreigners. It didn't end well for China.
Corpse, Carcas, Cadaver
- Doctor Who: In "The Mind Robber", the Doctor and Co. are menaced by an incarnated fictional character called the Karkus. Technically a superhero in the universe of the story he was summoned from, but in The Mind Robber he's a villain (at least at first), but even without his anti-molecular ray disintegrator, he's definitely one tough customer.
- Queen Cadavra from Bug, a fat, evil, obnoxious black widow spider queen who's the Big Bad of the game.
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: Violetta/Viola Cadaverini.
- Need for Speed III has an opponent named Karkass, but he's one of the weakest.
- " Abra-Cadaver", an undead magician and the titular villain of The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode of the same name.
Eye
- In Warrior Cats there are two characters named One Eye/One-Eye; one is a grumpy elder and the oldest cat in ThunderClan, while the other is one of the villains of Dawn of the Clans.
- Argus Panoptes, whose name means "all-eyes," which points to his constantly watchful nature as well as Eyes Do Not Belong There.
- Charby the Vampirate has "Devil Eyes" Quixoto, a vampire that likes to use his telepathy to mentally torture his victims before feeding from them and leaving them to be finished off by wild animals. His preferred food is human children.
- Red Eye, a parody of Goldfinger and one-time villain in the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Photo Finish"Dexter: Do you expect me to talk?
Red Eye: No, Agent Dexter, I expect you to smile.
Fang
- Subverted in Harry Potter, where Fang is a huge dog...who's a terrible coward.
- "-fang" is an occasional suffix in Warrior Cats. Two particular characters of note are Adderfang, a powerful warrior, and Yellowfang, a grumpy elderly medicine cat who, rather unusually, was a warrior before becoming a medicine cat.
- Kamen Rider Double: Fang Joker. It's first appearance on the screen has Shotaro trying to stop Phillip from killing Akiko!
- Averted with Cardinal Fang, possibly the least intimidating Inquisitor in history, in Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Other
- Fang, a badly drawn dog who often appears in Chick Tracts. He barks and snarls at everyone, including demons.
- Final Fantasy XIII's Oerba Yun Fang: Wields a dual headed collapsible spear that can be separated and dual wielded. She's naturally the best attacker of the game Plus she had turned into Ragnarok centuries ago and made that huge hole in Cocoon's shell you always see.
- Helicopter-chucking Shootfighter Tekken titan Iron Kiba. He's also larger and sturdier than most Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star Big Bads to boot.
- Marquise Spinneret Mindfang from Homestuck is Vriska's ancestor and leader of the Gam8ligants, a band of Alternian pirates. She's adept with her mind control powers, using it on her captives and enemies to equal terrifying effect, in particular mind-controlling a mob into turning on and executing a Legislacerator who was about to execute her.
- Fang, the thug with a spider for a head, from Teen Titans (2003)
- Avatar Roku's epic dragon from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Genitals
When not played for laughs (à la Biggus Dickus or Long Duk Dong), this tends to indicate either The Vamp or a legendarily virile badass.
- Several Bond girls, like Pussy Galore and Octopussy, have names that indicate their vampish nature.
- One of ContraPoints's characters is a Straw Feminist named Abigail Cockbane. To clarify, the video series supports feminism in general, but Abigail is specifically a caricature of certain self-proclaimed radical feminists who disparage trans women as false appropriators of womanhood. Hence Abigail's memorable lines like "Dost thou bleed?" and "That's not a pussy, it's a fuckhole! You'll never know what it's like to squeeze life out of your sacred passage!" Understandably, AS A TRANS WOMAN, the series's creator Natalie Wynn isn't too fond of those sorts.
- In the episode "The Headband" of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sokka briefly wears a fake beard and adopts the alias "Wang Fire" (yes, Wang Fire, on a Nickelodeon cartoon) while posing as Aang's father. note Although not particularly intimidating in the show, Wang Fire has become a Memetic Badass among fans, identified as the god of manliness and beards and as a separate entity from Sokka.
Guts
Anime and Manga
- The Anti-Hero of Berserk, who both spills plenty of them in his berserker rages, and has plenty of them in fighting men and demons alike.
- Foggy "Guts" Nelson, at first a subversion since it was just his bowling nickname, but a lame attempt at an undercover identity and some Acquired Situational Narcissism led to mysterious crimelord "Guts" standing up to the Kingpin.
- Ultraseven has the Guts, a race of bird-like aliens infamous for having defeated Ultraseven and then crucifying him in preparation for his execution.
Scar
Anime and Manga
- Only known name of a revenge-driven serial killer in Fullmetal Alchemist 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 when he was spotted there and head out to the Eastern boondocks.
Film — Animated
- The Lion King II: Simba's Pride: Kovu whose name means "Scar" in Swahili, and is Named After Somebody Famous, the villain of the first movie.
Film — Live-Action
- 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.
Literature
- In Stephanie Burgis's iterature/Kat Incorrigible: A Tangle of Magicks, the heartless seducers is Viscount Scarwood.
- "-scar" is an occasional suffix in Warrior Cats, such as in the names Marshscar, Redscar, and Ratscar.
- Doctor Who has Skaro (home planet of the genocidal Daleks), as well as one-time villain Scarlioni.
- Belgian firearms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale makes the SCARnote family of gas-operated self-loading rifles.
Wing
For the implications of Death from Above.
- The protagonist's badass best friend from the H.I.V.E. Series.
- In Warrior Cats, "-wing" is an occasional suffix, although it's almost always used for a gentle character (Whitewing, Kestrelwing, Softwing, etc). There's also "Wing Shadow Over Water" (usually called "Wing", for short), a Tribe cat who - like all Tribe cats - got her name from the first thing her mother saw at her birth, and knowing the mountains, it was probably a hunting eagle or falcon.
- Blitzwing, Thunderwing, Darkwing, Wing Dagger, Wing Saber, 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.
Other
Anime & Manga
- The Primevals in GaoGaiGar are all named after body parts, and each wields a power vaguely related to the part in question (Arm can punch people with gravity waves, Eye has precognition, etc.) Might not sound so scary until you realize that they can turn regular people into Zonders with The Virus, turn famous landmarks and the moons of Jupiter into weapons and fuse into the planet-sized Z-Master
- Naruto has the Nine Bijuu, aka Tailed Beasts, with immense amounts of power that increase exponentially with each tail. Their names are, in order of tails: Ichibi (a sand tanooki), Niibi (a fire-cat), Sanbi (a genjutsu turtle), Yonbi (a lava-breathing gorilla), Gobi (a dolphin-horse), Rokubi (a slug), Nanabi (an armored rhinoceros beetle), Hachibi (an ox with an octopus behind), and Kyuubi (a Kitsune)
- in the Discworld of A.A. Pessimal, the patriarch of a tough family is one Barbarossa Smith-Rhodes. Granted, he was born Andreas Smith-Rhodes. But only his wife calls him that these days, usually when she's annoyed with him. Barbarossa is a huge bear of a man and got his nickname when his beard began growing. And didn't stop growing. It may be more grey than red, now he's a grandfather. But he is still capable of beating Mustrum Ridcully one time in two at arm-wrestling. And can match him drink-for drink when quaffing. His name, to the Zulus across the river, is something like Roaring Silverback Gorilla. They should know. He's fought them on enough occassions. In his sixties at this point on the timeline, he is still capable of pitching into a fight, especially if one of his daughters is threatened.note Anyone doing the threatening is advised to run away very fast while they still can.
- The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker gave us steel-toothed Implacable Man Jaws.
- The Maze Runner: The Right Arm from The Death Cure. It's a rebel organization devoted to fighting WICKED.
- An honourable mention must go the Hyena People from Digger, whose females have the following, friendly, lovable names; Grim- Eyes, Blood-Eyes, Blood-Tail, Shadebones... most female hyenas seem to have them. Even the benevolent ones have names like Boneclaw Mother, and the smaller less aggressive males names like Owl-Caller.
- Pirate Captain "Blackheart" Robert Black from Charby the Vampirate who treated Charby like a slave from infancy forcing him to fight with dogs for scraps of food and regularly beating him. Black was also a skilled swordsman and notorious for his cruelty.
- Steeljaw, a cunning and charismatic Decepticon who serves as the Big Bad of Transformers: Robots in Disguise.