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Names To Run Away From / Mix and Match

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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

Anyone whose name combines several of the distinct types of Names to Run Away from Really Fast is generally someone you really, really, do not want to get mad at you. Or they're a Mary Sue, which is arguably worse.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • A subversion, Tsurugi Inugami's name has the deadliness of a Tsurugi and the Mythological Animalness of Inugami. The only problem is that he is not one bit as badass as his name implies.
  • PandoraHearts has the B-Rabbit. Doesn't seem like something that should be terrifying, right? Wrong. Unlike the Killer Rabbit usually Played for Laughs this rabbit is A: several stories tall when upright, and B: the most powerful force of destruction known to the cast, with its power explicitly tailored for the purpose of disintegrating everything that comes into contact with its attack into nonexistence, including the cast's reality and world. This creature is the power behind the collapse of Sablier, the disaster that sent the entire plot in motion. Fluffy the Terrible? Oh 'no.' Not when the meaning of the B is revealed. It's the Bloodstained Black Rabbit, and though the character themself is actually a tragic and ultimately heroic figure, the name has been horribly, thoroughly earned.
  • Adolf K Weismann: Wolf? Check. Fmous killer? Check. K sound? Check so hard it's the name of the show. The V sound of the German W gives it a kick as well. Perfect for the series' most powerful King, with the Sephiroth hair, watching the heroes from an ominous blimp, while dancing with what looks like a corpse. On top of all that? it's a complete subversion. That was all someone else. He's the sweetest, kindest person in the whole show. A ridiculously Moe Non-Action Guy who gives several characters an inexplicable desire to cook for him just by being so cute. But you never do find out what the K stands for.
  • Nrvnsqr Chaos in Tsukihime. Name looks unpronounceable, but it's actually 'Nero Chaos' so he doesn't get that one, technically. Hard K sound though. Plus, his most used name is generally 'Chaos,' a name he was given because he's just that evil as far as the Church is concerned. They really hate him. So that's both Infernal and Noun. Oh, and technically it's a title, as his real/original name is actually rather ordinary. As far as he's concerned, though, he doesn't really have a name anymore and merely responds to what people call him. It happens when you start tossing your identity away.
    • The Nasuverse also has the delightfully named Primate Murder, a gigantic dog-like monster that exists to destroy threats to Earth's existence. Said threats are primarily humanity. Its name indicates its absolute ability to murder primates.
  • Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-'s Kurogane - it means Black Steel, and covers the "weapon" category as well as the K sound.
  • Based on the behavior and naming convention among the Innovade from Gundam 00, some fans have come to believe that one named Killing Spree is somewhere out there.
    • Also, from the same show: Lockon Stratos. His name implies that he can snipe objects in the stratosphere while standing on the ground. It's not wrong either. On one occasion, he actually managed to snipe down a part of a space station TWICE.
  • In Gundam SEED Destiny, one of the Mobile Armors has a name that strangely enough DOESN'T make anyone consider running away: Destroy Gundam.
  • Z Gundam had both the Psyco Gundam and Psyco Gundam Mk.II (given that it sounds like Psycho Gundam, it should give most pilots second thoughts about going against it).
  • From a Zeon point-of-view, in Mobile Suit Gundam, there simply was "Gundam", aka "The White Devil".
  • Gundam W has both the Gundam Deathscythe and Gundam Deathscythe Hell (an upgraded version), and they're piloted by a guy who refers to himself as "The God of Death". And Heavy-Arms, though it's not so much an example, as it always runs out of ammo before the battle is over.
  • G Gundam had the "Devil Gundam". The dub changed this to "Dark Gundam", which sounds less scary. Originally, though it was called "Ultimate Gundam" so it could only get more intimidating.
  • In Gundam 08th MS Team, Sanders is nicknamed "The Grim Reaper", because his allies always get killed on their third mission, no matter what team he's assigned to. Shiro and co. manage to make it through, though.
  • The Big Bad in Supercar Gattiger is named Emperor Black Demon.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn has the NZ-666 Kshatriya.
  • The alias of Shinobu Sensui in YuYu Hakusho is Black Angel.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Polyphonica has the Crimson Annihilator.
  • The If Her Flag Breaks manga gives us Hakua Berserker Bladefield.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • Acnologia, the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse. It's every bit as terrifying as it sounds.
    • E.N.D. It's the most powerful demon from the Book of Zeref, and just so happens to be Tartarus's Guild Master. While the true name is not that scary the very fact Zeref's most powerful demon is named Etherious Natsu Dragneel is horrifying.

    Card Games 
  • Ramses Overdark, Madaran imperial assassin from Magic: The Gathering. Actually, legends is full of these types of names. Dakkon Blackblade, Rasputin Dreamweaver, Boris Devilboon, Tuknir Deathlock, Nebuchadnezzar, and that's just the humans. The Elder Dragons have names like Palladia-Mors and Vaevictis Asmadi, though the most powerful one is named...Nicol. Which doesn't sound that baleful...until you realize that "Nicol" comes from "nickel", the German for "devil". Oh, and the Bolas likely comes from Glasya la Bolas.
    • Phage the Untouchable. Aside from how her name is derived from the Greek word for 'devour', anyone who gets called 'the Untouchable' because touching them makes you rot and die on the spot (or maybe you get lucky and the contact is brief enough that only parts of you get rotted away◊) would qualify. Doesn't help that she's a sadistic (worse) pit fighter (even worse) who works for the Patriarch of the evil Cabal (can it get any worse?).
      • To stress how "Untouchable" Phage is, there are many creatures with the deathtouchnote  ability that allows them to kill any creature they hit, Phage is no exception; however if Phage does damage to a player, they lose. Instantly. Each player, in-game, is considered to be a Planeswalker, aka. a Physical God who, at the start of the game, can take hits from dragons and eldritch abominations while still standing.
  • The three Eldrazi Titans: Kozilek, Butcher of Truth; Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre; and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. These guys are alien to the known color concepts, and their very presence reduces the land to a smoldering wasteland.

    Comic Books 
  • Fantastic Four
    • Extra-dimensional supervillain Annihilus, who invokes both Noun names and Ancient Dead Languages.
    • The trope is lampshaded with his Ultimate Fantastic Four counterpart, Nihil. Reed's (rather primitive) translation device renders his name as things like "I annihilate" and "I am nihilist" before they start using Nihil's own, more advanced translators. Everyone agrees that the original translations, faulty as they are, are a bad sign.
      Thing: "Dude. We met our first alien and his name is like E-Vill or something."
  • Deathstroke the Terminator, real name Slade Wilson.
  • Ogdru Jahad. Hellboy's names (Anung Un Rama, Son of the Fallen One), fit in several categories.
  • Daimon Hellstrom and his sister Satana from Marvel Universe. Why, yes, they are children of Satan, how did you guess?
  • The Joker's name follows a good amount of these rules. It combines: 1. A "The" name that contains 2. a Verb (joke), which is also 3. a Noun (as in a practical joker), which 4. Ends in R and 5. Has a harsh K sound in it. In addition, some of his nicknames or alternate titles exemplify other rules; one particularly obvious one is "The Thin White Duke of Death", which combines 1. a "The" name, which also has 2. the color white in it and also 3. has the title "Duke" in it and 4. has the noun/verb "death" in it. Those particularly sharp Tropers amongst us might know of several other titles that fit...
    • "Thin White Duke" was one of David Bowie's nicknames/personas. Does that count as "named after a famous villain?"
  • Spider-Man's foe Carnage. Let's see... his supervillain alias means "gore and bloodshed", and his real name is Cletus Kasady-double hard "k" sounds, the redneck sounding "Cletus", and a variant of "Cassidy" that incorporates a K.
  • Raven Darkholme, Mystique's real name. Animal in the first name, "Dark" in the last name. The aspirated K makes it even more badass.
  • Combining body part with weapon makes up The Mighty Thor enemy "Bloodaxe".
  • Of the Adjective and Title variant is Mister Terrible.
  • Gideon Gordon Graves of Scott Pilgrim. Biblical first name, scary-noun last name.
  • Willy Pete, which sounds redneck and is also a weapon, being military jargon for white phosphorus. His body burns hotter than the sun, and most other things that could be said about him belong on the nightmare fuel page.
  • Strontium Dog: Wulf Stenhammer (Wolf+Stone+Hammer) is a time-travelling Viking turned Bounty Hunter who battles Ray Gun-wielding aliens and mutants with a large hammer he calls Der Happy Stick. He's a good guy, but high on the list of People You Do Not Want To Fuck With.

    Fan Fiction 

    Film — Animated 
  • In Atlantis: Milo's Return, the third (and arguably the best) villain is calledErik HELLstrom. Switching the letters around a bit, one can also read "Hell-storm" in his name, which… isn't exactly better… and is also quite close to his goal.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Kill Bill: 'The Bride' aka 'Black Mamba' aka Beatrix Kiddo. The Man (as it seems to be used in the examples) for the first. Color in an Animal name for the second. Hard K and an Xtreme Cool Letter in the third.
  • Colt Hawker in Visiting Hours, whose name combines Weapons and Animal naming.
  • Played for laughs in Small Soldiers, in which all the sentient Commando Elite soldiers have over the top macho and fear-inspiring names to the point of Testosterone Poisoning. There's Chip Hazard, Brick Bazooka, Butch Meathook , Kip Killigan, Link Static, and Nick Nitro. Half of them are also alliterative. There's nouns, verbs, adjectives, and weapons in there.
  • Hector Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean combines the name of a Greek hero with Latin for "Beard of Bones".

    Literature 
  • Lamentation Kane in Tadd Williams's "And Ministers of Grace". Kane is a holy assassin Tyke Bomb. His name is lampshaded by two different characters. His atheist enemy wonders if he's named for the lamentations of his enemies. His ally quotes from the Book of Lamentations.
  • Artemis Fowl. His first name is that of a Greek goddess, specifically the Hunter (which he lampshades), his second means chicken - but he's one of the most frightening teenagers you'll ever come across. The whole Fowl family have this status in-universe, and the Butlers probably do too.
  • Bridge of Birds gives us The Hand That No One Sees. Don't ask.
  • Jack Reacher, of the unnamed series by Lee Child. K-name, -er, Title/adjective/verb (He's always just Reacher, often for trivial things such as being like 6'5 and reaching for things for people.), Famous murderers/assassins. He's destroyed one town physically, and one he destroyed the economy of. He's dismantled at least one private military establishment, and another military contractor received his foot in a sunless place.
  • In Codex Alera, we have Gaius Tavarus Magnus. Translation: Lord Super-Wolverine the Great.
  • Discworld: Carcer is a Crime-Related Scary Noun in an Ancient Dead Language with a hard "k" sound that ends in an "-er". That's a lot of evil, right there.
  • The Draka: The titular Domination of the Draka. They're about as nice as you might expect.
  • Leo Alexander of Dark Heavens. As an added bonus, his first name plus being a Scary Black Man gives him the nickname "The Black Lion".
  • The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Roland of Gilead Rednecky, Weapon, Title, Ends in R, Weapon, Adjective/The Adjective One/The Man, nouns. Definitely worth running from. Fast. Before you cross him. After, it's just too late.
  • The Dresden Files:
    • Nicodemus Archleone. To quote:
      Harry: Seriously? Archleone? As in "seeking whom he may devour"? Could you get any more obvious? note 
    • The demonic being known only as "He Who Walks Behind"... and he is frikkin terrifying.
  • The War in Heaven. Full stop. Faction Paradox. The Celestis. The Enemy.
  • The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's minions are only allowed to refer to him as "He" or more colloquially, "The Eye".
    • Also by Tolkien, in The Silmarillion the Elves following King Fingolfin have to walk hundreds of miles over the packed icebergs at the edge of the Arctic ice cap - or as the Elves call them, the Helcaraxë, combining K and X sounds with a first syllable homophonous with "Hell," and translating to "Ice Fangs."
  • The Malazan Book of the Fallen has Anomander Rake, the Son of Darkness, Lord of Moon's Spawn, Mane of Chaos, Bearer of Dragnipur, Knight of High House Dark, Blacksword, Black-Winged Lord, Slayer of the Elder God Draconus and Lord of the Tiste Andii. Justified because he is all of those and he did all of that stuff.
  • The main character of The Murderbot Diaries, the titular Murderbot, chose the name itself after it killed fifty-seven people, possibly involuntarily. The humans it’s working with are not reassured by its choice of name once they find out.
  • Combining a Noun with a "The Person" title, we have Jessica Sorrow the Unbeliever, from Simon R Green's Nightside novels.
  • Old Kingdom series: Kerrigor; Orannis The Destroyer, Ninth Bright Shiner, etc.
  • The Star Kingdom: Stephanie Harrington, known to treecats as "Death Fang's Bane". It gets worse when you know what a "death fang" is (humans call them "hexapumas"). Sadly, she never learned it, as the treecats had no way to communicate it to her.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Ciaphas Cain: The Emperor's Finest hangs a lampshade on this when a space hulk that brought a genestealer brood to the planet Viridia is identified as the Spawn of Damnation.
    Cain: [narration] Who chose it, and why they can't call these things something a little more cheerful, is beyond me.
    Amberly Vail: [footnote] Traditionally space hulks are given their names by the Inquisition conclave responsible for the sector in which they first appear, and, as Cain points out, they do tend towards the melodramatic.
  • Played straight in the Warhammer 40,000 audio drama Red-Marked when discussing the actions of a bloodthirsty commander in a treacherous legion of warriors.
    Drenius: A praetor by the name of Harrakon Skurn was in charge… With names like that, how could we not have known what they were?
  • Welkin Weasels features the Grand Inquisitor Torca Marda. It's got the hard K sound in the middle, it's not quite an R-ending but it sounds close to one, and it's a Shout-Out to Tomas de Torquemarda, the infamous Real Life head of the Spanish Inquisition.
  • The Witcher: Isengrim Faoiltearna. Isengrim is the name of several wolf characters in Medieval beast epics, and also contains the words "Eisen" ("Iron" in German) and the English "grim". "Faoiltearna" is slightly mangled Irish for "Wolf Lord", adding an extra layer of wolfishness. For extra "run away", Faoiltearna also bears the Red Baron name "Iron Wolf". Faoiltearna lives up to his name well, by being a rabid human-hating elf-supremacist, who incidentally has spent the past few decades commanding a Nilfgaardian black-ops unit known as the Vrihedd Brigade, who have a reputation for atrocities and ruthlessness.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Live Action/CGI combined series Ace Lightning contains many characters with the names of Lord Fear, Anvil, Dirty Rat and Felicity Fury... Ironically the least auspiciously named character is Kilobyte, who also happens to be the most dangerous of the bad guys.
  • Two in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Kakistos invokes K-name, Ancient Dead Languages, and Adjectives (his name is Greek for "worst of the worst"). Spike is a double-inversion, though. We meet him with the relatively-easygoing name "Spike". Later, we find that he was once known as "William the Bloody". Still later, we find that he was called "William the Bloody" before he was a vampire (because his poetry was "so bloody awful"), and it's strongly implied that he's named "spike" after a preferred way of killing people.
  • Sylar a.k.a. Gabriel Gray a.k.a. Patient Zero of Heroes again. Sylar is an R-name, a German word meaning "rope maker" ("Seiler"), and getting the name off a watch is an allusion to the Zodiac killer. Gabriel (the angel of death), and last name is a color name.
  • Lucien LaCroix, of Forever Knight. It means "Light {of} the Cross, and is the self-given name of a "very dark anti-hero", nearly 2000 year old vampire with a literal disgust of holy things, save for the irony of it all. He was originally Lucius, a play on "Lucifer", and calls himself "Nightcrawler" on his radio talk show, which seems to exist only for the purpose of lecturing and tormenting the main character remotely.
  • Italian Tony, the Tooting Terror in Are You Being Served?. The two burglars in "The Hold Up" are absolutely terrified at the spectre of meeting the son of notorious gangsters Ma and Pa Gumby. Hilarity Ensues when onscreen appears Mr Humphries in disguise!
  • The titular character from Blackadder. Someone whose name combines Dark Is Evil and Snakes Are Sinister should raise a lot of alarm. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for him), he's Laughably Evil.

    Music 

    Myths & Religion 
  • Fàn Wújiù ("if you sin, no salvation for you"), the real name of the Black half of the Hēibái Wúcháng (Black-White Impermanence), a pair of Chinese Shinigami. This one is also the more aggressive and ruthless half of the duo and more focused on punishment, whereas the White half, whose name is the decidedly more pleasant Xiè Bì'ān ("if you're repentant, you'll be alright"), is more focused on redemption.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • International Wrestling Association Puerto Rico had two wrestlers going by the names "Cold" and "Death Warrant". In 2008 they joined together as the Tag Team Doom Patrol.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Mecha war RPG/Minis-game/novel series BattleTech features Grayson "Death" Carlyle, who builds one of the most feared mercenary units in the 'verse out of nothing (And sensibly names the unit after himself: The Gray Death Legion). He gets his first 'mech for the unit by intimidating its pilot into surrender with nothing more than a single-shot shoulder-fired missile launcher that ordinarily wouldn't be enough to scratch the thing's paint. (And later marries her. The pilot, not the 'Mech.) This 'verse also features similarly badass mercs Morgan Kell, Jaime Wolf, et cetera.
    • An obvious example in the BattleTech universe: The Clans in general. If your planet was being invaded out of the blue by people calling themselves "Jade Falcons" or "Ghost Bears", you'd either be shitting bricks, running away, or a mixture of the two.
  • And then there is Warhammer 40,000, Kharn the Betrayer, Lucius the Eternal, Typhus the Traveler, Abaddon the Despoiler and Ahriman of the Thousand Sons.
    • Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka sounds as scary as he is, with added K's, Kool letterz, and improved difficulty pronunciation. Also helps that the "Mag Uruk Thraka" part means "I am Slaughter".
      • After "for the emprah" and "sphess mhereens" you can be pretty sure Dawn of War is a good reference on how not to pronounce anything.
    • Angron renaming his legion the World Eaters (used to be the War Hounds) was in hindsight a sign of bad things to come.
  • Warhammer Fantasy has severall examples:
    • One of the standouts is Grimgor Ironhide (adjective+body part+noun), a Black Orc other orcs think is a murderous, blood-crazed psychopath, who was delighted when he discovered Skaven in the tunnels under his fortress because that meant he didn't have to go anywhere to find a worthwhile fight.
  • First and Forsaken Lion. Adjective+ Adjective+ Animal=a serious candidate for the Big Bad of the setting.
    • Actually, all of the Deathlords count. The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible, The Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Waters, The Princess Magnificent With Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers... yeah, they have really long names.

    Video Games 
  • Killing Floor has several of these, but truly "Fleshpound" takes the cake and beats your skull in with it. That's body part and violent verb right there. This would also apply to the gorefast.
  • One boss from MadWorld appears to be named Herr Frederick Von Twirlenkiller. He appears to have weapons that could be charitably described as hybrids between a flail and a boeing jet engine strapped to each arm.
  • Subverted by Capcom's Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX (from the Mecha game Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness). Despite taking from Demonic Names, Noun Names, and Four Is Death (Nine is a less-used alternative), she's less an intimidating foe, and more a one-girl Quirky Miniboss Squad.
  • In a contrast to the other Star Wars examples, the names of the two prominent Jedi-turned-Sith in the first Knights of the Old Republic are rather multilayered and subtle. Consider Malak - that's an adjective (mal), a body part(the jawbone, which in his case is missing), an angel's name (Malachi), and it ends in K! And Revan - that's an animal (raven), and three nouns (revenge, revenant, and revanchist, the last of which is "a vengeful person". Revenant, by the way means One who has returned from death or a long absence.) Well played, Bioware! The only other new, named Sith with a "Darth" attached is Bandon, who doesn't play nearly so big a role.
  • The nuttier villains in Geneforge are prone to renaming themselves as the adjective one, adjective, or verb, but may combine them, as with Unending Purging. Also Monarch, who doesn't strictly belong under any of these categories but chose his name because he wants to Take Over the World.
  • Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - Krusher. It's bascially a junior Kracken with a scarier name. It's got crush( a violent nown), a hard k sound, ends with r, and is somes times called The Krusher. I wonder if crush being spelled with a "K" helps. Yes it is feared and has a hundred tenticals.
  • Dwarf Fortress' Luke Nounverber random name generator has (and very often uses) the capability to create surnames and titles such as Deathsucker, Chaosknight, The Wastes of Oxen, Otterthorny, and The God-forsaken Eater of Twilight, to name a few.
  • One of the villains in BloodRayne is named Dr. Bathory Mengele. First, she gets the title of "Doctor"; second, her first name is the surname of the Hungarian serial killer Countess Erszebet Bathory (also known as "the Blood Countess"), reputed to have bathed in blood in a bid to remain young and beautiful); third, she shares a surname with Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi "Angel of Death" known for human experimentation on Auschwitz prisoners. Needless to say, she's not very nice.
  • Ragna The Bloodedge: [Pagan Mythology] the [Blood][Weapon]. To put it bluntly, he isn't really a nice guy, but with that said, he isn't bad either... However, in his Arcade mode ending Nu-13 hijacks his body to become The Black Beast, which was just as bad as it sounds.
  • Do some math, folks. Demonic + Kool Letturz + Ends with R + Hate Plague + Pokémon = CIPHER Yes, they are utterly evil, why do you ask?
  • Not sure what category this comes under, but the name of I.M.Meen from the video game of the same name. Come on, anyone who didn't see he was a villain?
  • Korax. It means "raven", it has a hard K, it ends with an X — what more needs to be said?
  • In DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu BLACK Label, the penultimate True Final Boss, had its real name revealed: "Supreme Weapon of Extreme Hellish Annihilation - Golden Disaster."
    • Then the actual True Final Boss, who is much harder, has the title: "Supreme Killing Weapon: Hibachi". (Then again, just "Hibachi" on its own is more than enough to make even seasoned shmuppers Run Away Really Fast.)
    • And Sai Dai Ou Jou introduces what appears to be Hibachi's dark counterpart, Inbachi. While "Hibachi" translates to "Solar/Fire Bee", "Inbachi" is "Shadow/Dark Bee"... and she's just as tough as her counterpart.
  • Krauser. It starts with a K, it ends with an R, and it sounds so very German.
  • Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Title of "Doctor", starts with an R, ends with a K, sounds Russian, and references one of his favorite pastimes. In later games, however, he embraces his alternate name, "Dr. Eggman", which, while also fitting, isn't quite as fear-inducing.
  • Odio, which is Spanish for hate/hatred:
  • In Psychonauts, Oleander. A poisonous plant. I don't trust this guy.
  • Gulcasa, Emperor of Carnage. That he goes around riding a dragon and twirling a Sinister Scythe is bad enough, but he's an Emperor in a Japanese RPG (which is almost always bad), and Carnage, well, speaks for itself. Add to this that he's also referred to as Blazing Emperor, that his personal skill is named Genocide, and that he is a direct descendant of the evil dragon Brongaa... yeah. People actually run away as soon as they hear his name in-universe.

    Ironically enough, Gulcasa is actually so sweet and good-natured it's downright pitiful. He doesn't get Sympathetic P.O.V. until very late into Yggdra Union, though, so unless you've played Yggdra Unison and Blaze Union, you wouldn't be able to tell. You still don't want to make him angry, though.
  • Bad-to-the-Bone Pirates from Infinite Space, said to be the most ruthless pirate gang in the universe. "Merciless Night Queen" Celina and "the Bloody Prince" Teodoro are odd cases; they're not villains (Celina even helps you several times throughout the game, and Teodoro can be recruited under Defeat Means Friendship), but they certainly won't hold back when anyone gets in their way.
  • Another Luke Nounverber example comes with Nounverber-style titles for all Dungeoneering bosses in RuneScape. There are bosses with names like Plane-freezer Lakhrahnaz, Shadow-forger Ihlakhizan, Night-gazer Khighorahk, Flesh-spoiler Haasghenahk, To'Kash the Bloodchiller, Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter, Bal'Lak the Pummeller, and the behemoths don't really lack in the threatening name department either. After all, facing a giant hulking beast called the Hope devourer can cause a bit of a fright. Jagex took these titles up to eleven and gave us World-gorger Shukarhazh. Due to the Stalkers being The Unpronounceable, and attempts at pronouncing these often resulting in lots of guttural sounds certainly doesn't detract from the value.
  • The name of the Final Boss of The Combatribes is named Martha Splatterhead.
  • The Final Boss of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is named Master Core: ABIS
  • Sword dragging epitome of fear and despair from Silent Hill 2 called Pyramid Head. When you hear that name, run. No really. Run.
  • Tyrannosatan from Deathsmiles.
  • The Big Bad of Kingdom Hearts is named Xehanort, which is an anagram of "no heart" with an X thrown in. Subtle.
  • Spiral Knights has the gremlins of the Crimson Order, most notably: Herex, The Whispering Venom. So he's a member of a crimson group, ends his actual name with an x, and has an appropriately intimidating title. Fun.
  • The most spine-chilling moment of Final Fantasy XII was always when the words DREADNOUGHT LEVIATHAN appeared on a black screen...
  • Collectively, the Gigas in Skies of Arcadia each take a cue from one of the other categories in addition to their color-based names. They're all pretty intimidating-sounding: Recumen, Grendel, Bluheim, Plergoth AKA Rahknam, Yeligar, and Zelos.
  • In The Elder Scrolls, this is the case for Alduin, the draconic Beast of the Apocalypse. His name means "Destroyer Devour Master" in draconic and he a list of Red Barons including "World-Eater", Devourer of Souls, and Harbinger of the Apocalypse.
  • Black Dragons in World of Warcraft are typically given intimidating names, incorporating sinister adjectives and nouns. Examples are Nefarion, Onyxia, and Sinestra. This even extends to morally ambiguous or outright good dragons like Wrathion and Ebyssion. Their former leader, Deathwing the Destroyer, is actually an subversion; his real name is Neltharion.
    • This also extends to one former Blue Dragon; Sindragosa, combining "sin", "cinder", and of course "dragon".
  • In Subnautica, any creature labeled as a Leviathan is something you do NOT want to fuck with. These huge creatures are usually extremely hostile, and will actively hunt you down if you enter their territory.
    • Ghost Leviathans are gigantic (juveniles are 65 meters, while adults clock in at 110), eel-like creatures that will screech loudly and attack until you leave their territory. Three adult Ghost Leviathans serve as Border Patrol, attacking you if you leave the map. The worst part, if you scan them, your PDA will tell you they're not carnivores, and only eat microscopic organisms like plankton. They're not attacking you 'cause they're hungry, they're attacking you 'cause they CAN.
    • Reaper Leviathans are slightly smaller Leviathans (still about 55 meters long), that are easily the most dangerous creature you can encounter in the early game. They are ridiculously fast, meaning outrunning them is nearly impossible, and they will actively hunt you down and try to eat you if you enter their territory. One hit deals a whopping 80 damage, and if your health is below 80 when they attack, they'll grab you and eat you alive. They also go after vehicles, which they can grab and drag around, and are capable of destroying a fully healed Seamoth in just two hits. The only way to "beat" them is to bail out of their territory as fast as you possibly can if you spot one, as they likely won't pursue you beyond there. Oh, and Reaper-infested biomes like the Crash Zone or the Dunes usually have 6 to 8 of them, so running away from one can land you right in the claws of another.
    • The Sea Dragon Leviathan is the biggest hostile creature in the game at 112 meters long, narrowly beating the adult Ghost Leviathan. It spits fireballs and giant flaming rocks, making it one of the very few predators that have ranged attacks. It will try to take a bite out of your PRAWN-suit if you get too close, easily ripping 20% of your PRAWN's health away (which doesn't sound like a lot until you remember that the PRAWN is the closest you can get to a walking tank). Get caught near it without your PRAWN-suit, and the Sea Dragon will swallow you whole. Oh, and it eats Reapers.
    • The Lost River-biome contains several skeletons of ancient Leviathan-class predators that were likely close to the size of the Aurora. One (incomplete) skeleton is 95 meters long, with your PDA commenting that that's likely only about a third of its actual size, and the Gargantuan Fossil is estimated to have been between 1100 and 1500 meters long, with its skull alone being easily triple the size of the Cyclops!
    • There are non-hostile Leviathans too, luckily. The Reefback Leviathan is completely peaceful, the Sea Treader Leviathan will only attack if provoked, and the Sea Emperor Leviathan is a highly intelligent creature that can communicate telepathically, actually asks for your help, and whose babies provide you with the cure for the Kharaa-bacteria.

    Webcomics 
  • In Starslip, a character questions whether a certain CEO is really all that bad. I mean, how much can you tell from a name like Archcount Obdrath von Lucifuge? "His name's, like, Lord Murdertron or something."
  • Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood
  • Archagent Jack Noir of Homestuck is an exceptionally varied example. Hard K, title, notorious killer, and foreign. But it doesn't stop there, as later on he becomes the SOVEREIGN SLAYER. Holy shit.
    • And now he has another nickname: Bec Noir, from Becquerel, a Reality Warper dog who is named after the SI unit of radiation... whose powers Jack now wields.
      • Doc Scratch, aka the First Guardian of the Troll's session. Name X + Verb. And is also themed like a rapper's name since he's based off Lil' Cal, who is a creepy sentient doll.
      • We are already running away from Vriska Serket before we even learn her rather formidable name. She incorporates the R and K sounds in both first and last names, with a villainous V for extra flair. Her first name derives from the Sanskrit name for Scorpio, the scorpion sign. Her last name comes from the Egyptian scorpion goddess.
  • Girl Genius:
    • Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. Animal plus conqueror. He really does try to be polite, though. It's not his fault that people don't listen to him until he makes the shit hit the fan. But when he says "Leave now, or you will die!", you might want to run.
    • His father, Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (title, K-name, animal), is not a man to be screwed with lightly either. Especially not considering he gone from minor noble to benevolent dictator of the better part of Europe, and has clawed himself to the top of a pile of trigger-happy power-crazed Mad Scientists in the process.
    • Meet Lucifer Mongfish and his three beautiful daughters. Lucrezia, Demonica, and Serpentina. Funnily enough, despite having a relatively normal name, Lucrezia is the most batshit of the three.
    • Martellus Blitzengard (weapon, lightning, Latin and German) came out of left field to become one of the most threatening antagonists in the series.
  • The main villain from the webcomic Improbable Hero Squad, the evil Doctor Professor Otto Hugo Mortimer Vladimir P. Q. Von Happyhat.
  • Sluggy Freelance had the demon K'Z'K the Vowelless, a.k.a. The Soul Collector — Xtreme Kool Letturz (including two K's!), unpronounceable, and two different titles (although the first one is kind of lame). It really, really annoys him when people pronounce his name "Kizke," and more so when Torg dubs him "Captain Consonant."
  • Dr. Lupin Madblood of Narbonic
  • Kill Six Billion Demons:
  • Schlock Mercenary: Eina-Afa ("Synthetic Wind") is the ten-million year old Oafan AI in charge of a space station the size of a planet. She changed her name to T'kkkuts-Afa at some point, which means "Broken Wind." That is not a fart joke. The word "t'kkkuts" is an Oafan curse, denoting something broken or destructive. Afa means "wind," and has religious connotations, such as "unmoved mover" and "God." So while a literal translation of her name is Broken Wind, a more useful one is "Angry God." Eventually, they resurrect an ancient oafan, who dislikes the name; in addition to the fart joke, "wind" doesn't have the right spiritual connotation, and "broken" isn't violent enough. He suggests an alternative: "Breath Weapon."

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • Baldur Benedikt von Schirach, a prominent Nazi, head of the Hitler-Jugend and Gauleiter of Vienna. His first name ends with an R and sounds like something out of Norse Mythology (or a Fantasy series), his middle name contains the hard K and his last name has both the "von" particle and the "ch/kh" sound that does not exist in most varieties of English.
    • In Norse mythology Baldur was the god of hope, very gentle, and loved by everyone. Was there ever a more painful case of irony?
  • Tyrannosaurus rex. Translates to 'Tyrant Lizard King'.
  • "Prince of Darkness" and related terms (The Dark Prince, The Lord of Darkness, etc.) are a combination of title and color/word. Par example:
  • USS Midway... doesn't really sound like it at first does it? People familiar with naval history though will recognize it as the name of the most important carrier battle in history. The second ship to bare the name's crew also claimed she bore it because she was more powerful than all the ships who fought in the battle combined despite being completed only a few years later. Now that is scary.
  • The phenomenon of a "Black Hole Eruption". Two things to run from, worse together.
  • The Swedish name of the Eurasian Bullfinch is "Domherre", literally meaning Judgement Lord. It's not quite as ominous as it sounds, though. "Domherre" is an older term for a senior judge, and the name comes from the similarity between the bullfinch's plumage and the old legal robes (most notably the bright red breast).
  • Quite a lot of poisonous plants have names like this:
    • Oleander, a common ornamental plant, is also known as "Be Still Tree", reflecting its very toxic nature.
    • Othalanga is also known as Suicide tree. It is commonly used for suicide and murder in Kerala, India.
    • Deadly Nightshade is, true to its name, highly toxic.
      • Its scientific name, Atropa belladonna also reflects its deadly nature. Atropa comes from Atropos - the Fate who severed the thread of life when it was time for someone to die.
  • From an English perspective, General (Jacabus Herculaas) "Koos" de la Rey, "the Lion of the West(-Transvaal)", the most talented and dangerous Boer general to face.
  • The Polistes Carnifex wasp is also known as the Executioner Wasp. Yeah. And according to Coyote Peterson, it's sting is even worse than the bullet ant.

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