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A form of Names to Run Away from Really Fast.

Names based on nouns that evoke terror. But only really scary nouns count: Doom, hunter, death, cage; etc.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

Common Nouns:

    Abomination 
Comic Books

Literature

  • Sauron, the eponymous The Lord of the Rings, is actually Quenyanote  for "the abomination".

  • The Culture's Abominator class of Rapid Offensive Units definitely count, what with their ability to casually obliterate anything from fleets to solar systems.

  • Animorphs has Visser Three, whom Andalites call "the Abomination" because he's the only case of an Andalite taken over by a Yeerk.

Webcomics

    Amity 
Comic Books
  • Gotham Academy: Amity Arkham has spent the last couple hundred years possessing her descendants as a vengeful pyromaniac ghost also known as Calamity.

Film

Western Animation

    Bane 
Comic Books
  • Bane from the Batman mythos, who is infamous for breaking Batman's back.

Film

  • Bane from The Matrix is not actually a bad guy until he gets possessed by Smith, at which point he becomes one.

Literature

  • Harry Potter: the centaur Bane, like most of the rest of his herd, does not generally like humans.
  • There's also Darth Bane from Star Wars. Not only was he a Sith, but he tricked the leader of the Sith into wiping out the rest of the order, including himself (that is to say, the leader of the Sith).
  • The Bane, a gigantic albino rat from The Underland Chronicles.
  • The Death Gate Cycle features one Prince Bane, an Enfant Terrible who enchants everyone in his vicinity to practically worship him.
  • Redwall: Mossflower has a mercenary fox named Bane.

Tabletop Games

  • Bane from the Forgotten Realms setting and 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the god of tyranny, hatred and fear.

Real Life

  • Most plants with the word 'bane' in their name are deadly poisonous.

    Blaze 
A common, if generic, name for fire-type characters.

Comic Books

Folklore and Mythology

  • Inverted: Merlin's mentor was a priest named Blaise, whose wise counsel kept him from becoming The Antichrist like his demonic father wanted.

Literature

Video Games

  • Heroes of the Storm has Blaze, the call sign of pyromaniac-turned-firebat Miles Lewis. While he is a member of Raynor's Raiders, he's only it in for the excuse to burn things, and he earned the nickname because of how much he enjoys it.

Real Life

    Blight 
Film
  • Honourable mention must go to the commander of the Bounty, who is exactly one crossed t short of this name, and would have (allegedly) more than lived up to it.

Literature

Video Games

  • Suikoden II's Luca Blight, one of the worst monsters of the entire series.
  • Torchblight the Maelstrom Dragon from LEGO Universe.
  • All of the major bosses besides Calamity and Dark Beast Ganon from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild follow the naming scheme of (element the boss controls)blight, such as Fireblight Ganon, Windblight Ganon, etc.

Western Animation

  • For far less intimidating versions, Captain Planet's hottie villain Dr. Babs Blight (whose good sister is a member of the fluffy and safe naming trope, having been named Bambi).
  • Batman Beyond has Derek Powers, the Corrupt Corporate Executive who killed Terry's dad and became a radioactive villain called Blight.
    "And behold, I shall be a Blight upon the land, and everything I touch, shall wither and die!"

    Brimstone 
As an archaic word for sulfur, brimstone is often used to describe biblical Hell, especially when combined with fire.

Comics

  • Brimstone in DC Comics is an artificial construct designed to turn the people of the world against their superheroes, though it describes itself as a 'Fallen Angel'.
  • Brimstone, a rather obscure Marvel Comics villain.

Western Animation

  • In Transformers, not every incarnation of Brimstone has been a Decepticon, but all of them have been villains of some kind.

Real Life

  • The Brimstone missile used by the British military.

    Chaos 
Literature
  • Discworld: Ronald Soak, eternal milkman and Fifth Horseman of the Apocarlypse (he left before they got famous). Originally named Kaos.

Live-Action Television

Mythology and Religion

  • Chaos from Classical Mythology. In this case, not even a "being" per se, just a mixture of all the matter that eventually settled into being the first proto-gods like Gaea (Earth), Ouranos (Heaven}, etc.

Video Games

  • The Chaos Kin, who stole the soul of a goddess and wreaked havoc in her body for 3 years, from Kid Icarus: Uprising.
  • In Anti-Idle: The Game, the endboss of the Secret Dungeon area in Battle Arena is a demonic entity called Chaos. When you appear to defeat it, it takes on a One-Winged Angel form, CHAOS.

Western Animation

  • The Transformers: The third-season episode "Chaos" featured the eponymous monster which hails from the planet Dread. Chaos sheds "death crystals", which when weaponized can turn a space station into Swiss cheese.
  • Butters from South Park tries to pull this off with his "Professor Chaos" alter-ego, but fails miserably.
  • Aladdin: The Series had villainess Mirage summon Chaos, a catlike being who's a sort of dangerous Great Gazoo. Admittedly, he's not malicious so much as bored.

    Cinder 
Unless it's a reference to Cinderella — and even then, be on the lookout for Grimmification.

Literature

  • Cinderpelt from Warrior Cats is a subversion, as a clearly heroic character.

Video Games

Web Animation

  • Cinder Fall of RWBY. Who is a Cinderella reference, but is still evil, and is quite the Pyromaniac.

    Dark 
Perhaps crossing into colours, 'Dark' in just about any usage. Examples are far too numerous to individually list here.

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

  • Parodied with Mr. Furious in Mystery Men, who tries to give his secret identity as Phoenix Dark, among other variations. It doesn't work, and he finally concedes that his real name is Roy.
  • The Anti-Hero Darkman from the film of the same name.

Video Games

    Death (or "Deth") 
A favored name component of villains and Evil Overlords, although such a name is usually not given to a character at birth, but acquired later once they've reached a certain level of "badassitude". Naturally, the actual Grim Reaper doesn't count.

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

  • Arnold Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Toht is an Anglicized spelling for the German word for "dead" ("tot"). Much like Von Todt above, this guy's a Nazi.
  • Jack Deth, the badass protagonist of the Trancers franchise.
  • Dr. Totenkopf in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Totenkopf is German for "Death's Head" or a skeletal skull (see the Real Life entry for why this name is particularly infamous).
  • Star Wars: The Death Star, a moon-sized space station that is infamous for its power to destroy planets, and even more infamous for its use by the Empire against the planet of Alderaan. Lampshaded in the novel Star Wars: Aftermath, where someone mentions that it'll be hard to convince people the Imperials were ever the good guys when they had a weapon called "The Death Star".
  • Deathstalker, the protagonist of a film which is essentially Evil Versus Evil.

Literature

  • It is the middle name of detective Lord Peter Wimsey, although in his case it is pronounced "Deeth" (rhymes with "teeth"). The Wimsey books also include a psychotic neurologist named Sir Julian Freke.
  • The Discworld novels, despite featuring Death Himself as a prominent good guy, had a villain named Edward d'Eath (no relation) in Men at Arms.
  • In Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, Édouard de Gex takes the alias Edmund de Ath after he fakes his death. Given how many people he ends up killing or causing the death of, it's quite symbolic.
  • Patricia A. McKillip's The Riddle Master Trilogy features a man named Deth whose true allegiance is ambiguous, but eventually turns out to be a good guy, more-or-less.
  • Arawn-Death-Lord of Annuvin, from The Chronicles of Prydain. Apparently Death-Lord itself is a title, as he usurped it from a previous Death-Lord (who wants it back).
  • Death Eaters in Harry Potter. To a lesser extent Voldemort himself (though his name is basically misspelled French for Fly From Death or Lord "I'm terrified of dying" basically).
  • Tiphaine d'Ath from the Emberverse series, especially in the book where she's introduced.

Live-Action TV

  • Deathwalker from the Babylon 5 episode of the same name. Not actually her name; this was an epithet given to Warmaster Jha'dur of the Dilgar people. It's very much appropriate.
  • Parodied in That Mitchell and Webb Look with Professor Death, a man who attracts military attention due to his invention of the Giant Death Ray - which turns out to be the world's first laser bar code reader.

Video Games

  • Death Heim: the location of the final battle with Tanzra and his minions in ActRaiser.
  • Dracula's right hand man "Death" in the Castlevania series; like the Discworld example he is the actual Grim Reaper but unlike that example he is definitely evil.
  • Deathclaws in the Fallout series, powerful lizardlike mutants that are quite capable of tearing unprepared wastelanders apart.
  • Subverted in Wonder Boy in Monster Land, where Death (The Grim Reaper) is the first and easiest boss.
  • Rico Muerte ("rich death"), a hitman and big-time hustler from Max Payne.
  • The Death Knight from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. He'll stand still as long as you don't provoke him, but if you get within his attack range, you're a goner.
  • Golden Axe gives us Death Adder, a warlord who steals the titular weapon, and kidnaps Yuria’s royal family to bring about an age of terror. In the Mega Drive port, we learn that he’s merely The Dragon to another warlord. The Man Behind the Man has the even more intimidating name of Death Bringer.
  • The PS2 port of DoDonPachi dai ou jou features a mode called Death Label. It's a Boss Rush with heavily ramped up versions of each boss and two copies of Hibachi, the True Final Boss.

Web Comics

  • Old Man Death from Girl Genius is an elderly fellow who rode with the Jägers in his youth and has never lost a fight.

Western Animation

  • An episode of the cartoon Mad Jack the Pirate featured a well-suited man called "Mr. D'eath". Jack remarks that his name sounds French until seeing the man upon which he realises the man is, in fact, Death.
  • Metalocalypse: Dethklok is all about this. Nathan Explosion, William Murderface, and Toki Wartooth all fit (and those are their birth names). Everyone that attends a Dethklok concert is required to sign a pain waiver.
  • The Deathgleaner from The Future Is Wild.

Real Life

  • The Totenkopf—German for dead man's head, or Death's head—is used as an insignia for many military units worldwide. Historically, it is probably most commonly associated with the German military. It's most notorious use, of corse, was the unit which takes its name from the symbol, the SS-Totenkopfverbände: The "Death's-Head Units" of the Schutzstaffel which was responsible for administrating Nazi death camps.
  • The Death Cap, Amanita phalloides, which contains the same deadly poison as the Destroying Angel, and is said to have caused more deaths than any other mushroom species.
  • Captain William Death was a famous real-life pirate (or, technically, a privateer.) To make things even better, his ship was named Terrible.
  • To the Russians he's terrorized during the Winter War, Cold Sniper Simho Hayha was known as "Belaya Smert" ("The White Death")...this also somewhat a case of Fluffy the Terrible, as "white death" also a term for sugar.

    Despair 
Comic Books

Fan Fiction

Video Games

    Doom 
Sinister and striking enough to have its own page.

Comic Books

Film

  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit: If you're a toon, the murderous Judge Doom is not someone you're going to want to hang around with. Or even if you're not a toon, at that.

Music

  • Rapper MF DOOM, whose persona is that of, well, a twisted genius bent on revenge against the industry that destroyed him. Possibly inspired by his real name Daniel Dumile, which is pronounced "Doom-i-lay".

Professional Wrestling

Video Games

  • Pokémon: Houndoom is a demonic-looking Dark/Fire canine.
  • Evaccaneer Doom, the True Final Boss from Ketsui which fires a veritable maelstrom of bullets like other CAVE TF Bs, although compared to them the bullet patterns are more technical than just "overwhelm the player through sheer bullet count".
  • The protagonist of the Doom series has become dreaded among the forces of Hell as the "Doom Slayer."

    Dread 

Literature

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

Real Life

    Fear 

Comic Books

Literature

  • Fear Street, with the nearby Fear Forest and Fear Lake. All of which are named after the Fear family. Plus the town is called Shadyside, which is at least gloomy by itself.

Real Life

    Extinction 
Fan Fic
  • Pokéumans: Pokextinction. And you can guess what their goal is.

    Fury 

Film

Literature

  • J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series has a character named Phury. In the series, he is the dark, evil Zsadist's twin brother.
  • In the Clans' mythology in Warrior Cats, Fury is a wild boar - the mate of Rage, who can kill a tiger with a single blow.

Mythology

  • In Classical Mythology, the Furies were (usually three) goddesses who relentlessly pursued sinners, sometimes even if their sin was justified.

    Genocide 
Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Live-Action TV

  • Kamen Rider Ryuki: Kamen Rider Ouja's fusion Advent Beast, Genocider. It's name comes from Genocide, as in wiping out a race or species. And it's every bit as dangerous as its name implies it to be, it has a BLACK HOLE IN ITS CHEST!

Video Games

    Gore 

Film

Video Games

  • From Undertale we have Asgore Dreemurr, king of the monsters. His surname is also an anagram of 'Murderer', by the way. Subverted in that he's not evil at all, but he's still incredibly powerful and can kick your ass if you let your guard down. And he really does not like the idea that he has to kill you.

    Grave 
Comic Books
  • Zebediah Killgrave from above becomes a twofer, so you know he's bad news (of course, Luke Cage beat the tar out of him last we saw of him).
  • And from the DC side of things, we have Lex Luthor's assistant, Mercy Graves (who has no mercy).

Literature

MMORPGs

  • Svala Sorrowgrave from World of Warcraft. Even though she's a relatively easy boss in a dungeon.

Video Games

  • Beyond the Grave from Gungrave, who is an unstoppable zombie killing machine. The instruction booklet of the original game also says Grave is often called "Death" by his enemies.
  • League of Legends has, for a while now, Malcolm Graves. He's a shotgun-toting conman who was betrayed by a fellow conman who he'd made an arrangement with. One of his skills in the game is to fire a cone of three large bullets... but his gun only has two, straight, barrels... This troper has heard the crazy awesome, if impossible, explanation that he spits the third bullet from his mouth without anyone noticing Doesn't explain why the skill is cone-shaped, but eh. Not the gunman you want to meet in a dark alleyway, that's for sure.
  • Hellen Gravely from Luigi's Mansion 3, the owner of the Last Resort hotel who freed King Boo from imprisonment and invited the Mario Bros, Peach, and some Toads to the hotel as part of an elaborate trap.

    Hunter 
In fact, the naming of someone as Hunter is apparently so iconic that some "tests" to determine the Mary Sue-ness of characters specifically have a point (or more!) for someone named Hunter. Jäger (German "hunter") likely counts.

Literature

Professional Wrestling

Western Animation

Real Life

  • 'Jaeger' is also a certain ominous bird - a kleptoparasite that beats up other birds and steals their food.

    Jade 
When a woman has this name, the chances of four things increase incrementally. One, she's Asian. Two, she's gorgeous. Three, she is an excellent fighter. Four, any combination of those three. When a man has that name, on the other hand, we really don't know what to think.

Comic Books

Fan Fiction

  • The Great Alicorn Hunt gives us Jade Blossom, one of Rarity's Radiant Guards. She even fulfills all three criteria: Asian (comes from Neighpon (Equestria's equivalent of Japan)), beautiful (possesses delicate, angled features), excellent fighter (as per the entire Guard, since they are former plainclothes security.)
Literature

Video Games

  • Jade from Mortal Kombat. Though she's black in the games, she was Asian in The Movie. However, she fulfills the latter two criteria perfectly in both the games and the movie. In Mortal Kombat's 2011 reboot for example, she even dresses in a very revealing leotard, thigh-length heeled boots, while possessing that curved figure, and her victory animation even has her using her staff as a strip-dance pole. Whoa.

Web Comics

  • Jade Harley from Homestuck wasn't this originally, but then during ACT 6 she became Brainwashed and Crazy and turned into Grimbark Jade and now it's time to run away.

Western Animation

  • Jackie Chan Adventures. Jackie’s niece, Jade. She is too young to be "gorgeous" and that also means her usefulness in a fight is debatable, though she is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse able to take down anyone her own size, and occasionally larger foes. Her adult form from the future, however, is quite gorgeous.
  • Jezebel Jade from the original Jonny Quest. Beautiful, tough and smart, wouldn't charge her friends for favors...too much.

    Killer 

Comic Books

Literature

    Nightmare 
Anime and Manga
  • In Date A Live, Kurumi is given this codename by the virtue of being the most brutal Spirit of all, being the Spirit with the amount of casualties at over ten thousand people, most of which are killed gruesomely by her own hand. It should be noted that she is the only Spirit to kill humans by her own will, in contrast to others who had inflicted casualties either by accident or self-defense. The large amount of lifespan consumption of her own Angel for its incredibly powerful abilities certainly doesn't help the case.

Comic Books

Video Games

  • The Nightmare, from Metroid. An extremely creepy-looking cyborg monster that can manipulate gravity and shoot lasers all over the place, and if you blow its faceplate off (which looks bad enough on its own), its actual face is just... eurgh. The "Psycho" Strings that play in its theme song in Other M do not help matters.

Western Animation

    Oblivion 

Film

  • Brian O'Blivion and his daughter Bianca O'Blivion in Videodrome. While their alligment is very hard to make out due to the unreality of the movie and Brian is a resonant phantom living in the television world, they are engaging in a counter war against the brain-destroying, people-corrupting Videodrome syndicate by reprogramming the "video word made flesh" (an outside innocent, sleazy TV executive Max Renn) for their own sinister purposes.

Video Games

Webcomics

    Omega 
Anime and Manga

Literature

Toys

  • Omega Supreme, Autobot superweapon.

Video Games

  • Omega of Mega Man Zero 3, a killer reploid so terrifyingly strong it became known as the "God of Destruction", and singlehandedly wiped out 60% of humanity and 90% of all reploids. Worst of all, he's actually what Dr. Wily originally envisioned Zero as: an almighty engine of destruction.
  • A number of Final Fantasy games feature incredibly powerful Superbosses named Omega, Omega Weapon, or something similar.

    Pain 
Anime and Manga
  • Naruto villain Pain, who destroyed Konoha Village.

Film

Literature

  • Payne in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series is Vishous' fraternal twin sister. She's a warrior and shares her brother's resentment for their mother.

Tabletop Games

  • From Planescape, we have the Lady of Pain, enigmatic ruler of the city. Citizens avoid mentioning her name for fear of attracting her attention and for good reason; she's powerful enough bar gods from entering the city at all, and when one tried to usurp her influence in the city, outright killed him.

Video Games

  • Doom: Pain Elemental — like the manual says: "What a name. And what a guy."
  • Subverted with Winston Payne from the Ace Attorney series, whose name is a play on "winced in pain". But he is actually the least intimidating adversary of the series. sure it was a rookie killer once, but this is when the subversion acts, because he actually was defeated and humiliated by Mia Fey in the third game.
  • Painwheel from Skullgirls, earning the title of 'most ominous Punny Name ever'. Especially when you see the giant four-bladed wheel attached to the small of her back that she drags with her everywhere.
  • The 4X game VGA Planets has two Fascistnote  ships named as Painmaker and Cold Pain.

Webcomics

  • Master Paine from Girl Genius. He is a good guy, but looks pretty scary.

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet that fueled the American War of Independence.
  • Odd real-life example: One of John Wilkes Booth's henchmen, Lewis Powell — a slow-witted, borderline Ax-Crazy brute who had been assigned with killing the Secretary of State — traveled under the alias "Lewis Paine".

    Plague 
Film

Video Games

  • Plague Knight from Shovel Knight, a mad Plague Doctor-like knight with a knack for weird brews and potions, who has a very dark and ominous theme over his character and lair.

    Ravager 

Comic Books

  • The codename of Teen Titans member and Dark Action Girl Rose Wilson. Previously, she worked for Deathstroke, one of the DCU's top assassins (and also her father).

Film

Video Games

    Ruin 
Literature

Toys

    Savage 
Comic Books
  • One major villain in The DCU is named Vandal Savage. His daughter, named Scandal, is an angel compared to him, and she's still a ruthless Ax-Crazy mercenary.

Real Life

  • Adam Savage from MythBusters, on the other hand, is someone to run with. Chances are, he's either running away from something about to blow up, or towards something he just blew up (in which case you get to see cool wreckage).

    Scourge 

Comic Books

  • A minor Dark Judge in the Judge Dredd comics was named Judge Scourge.

Literature

Video Games

  • Warcraft has the Scourge, a Hive Mind undead army created by the demonic Burning Legion to weaken Azeroth so it would be simple to destroy. While they eventually Turned Against Their Masters, they did it to conquer the world for themselves.

    Storm 
Comic Books
  • Storm, the weather-controlling mutant in X-Men. Luckily she's one of the good guys.

Literature

  • The Mediochre Q Seth Series has an Arch-Enemy named Maelstrom, which as a word refers to a particularly violent storm, a whirlpool or a scene of chaotic upheaval. Come to think of it, Mediochre's badass Trigger-Happy Lancer is named Joseph Carrion — as in "dead meat". The short story Born to Raise the Sons of Earth features a necromancer named Stormhold Elect, too.
  • In Warrior Cats, "-storm" is a common prefix/suffix in names, but usually the cats with those names are heroic.

Live-Action TV

  • Doctor Who parodies the trope in the episode Closing Time when Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All is the name a three month old baby wants people to call him by. His actual name is Alfie.
    • Assuming you're a Dalek or other villain, there's the Doctor himself, under the alias/title "The Oncoming Storm".

Video Games

  • In Warcraft and related media, Malfurion Stormrage actually hits four at once (Mal, Fury, Storm, and Rage). He's actually a good guy, although his brother Illidan not so much.

Web Comics

  • The Storm King from Girl Genius is remembered as a heroic and wonderful ruler, and an unequaled fighter but most of those currently vying for his title and throne are backstabbing murderous and brutal. Old Andronicus Valois himself became a horrifying undead abomination in the end and when he shows back up he fits quite well as an incredibly dangerous opponent.
  • In Yokoka's Quest, Hurricane is a dragon capable of Weather Manipulation.

    Tear 
Video Games
  • In Tales of the Abyss, Tear is also the name of one of the party members. It's actually short for Mystearica in this case, and she is set up as a rather morally ambiguous figure right at the start. This is subverted once you finally find out why she wanted to kill her brother in the first place.

    Tyranny or Tyrant 
Film
  • Count Dooku, the Dark Lord of the Sith leading the Confederacy in uprising against the Galactic Republic on Darth Sidious' orders, is known as Darth Tyrannus among the Sith.

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

Western Animation

  • Queen Tyr'hanny from Duck Dodgers, the queen of Dodgers' Martian rivals.

Real Life

  • Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest dinosaur predators, and certainly the most famous among the general public. The name appropriately means "terrible lizard king".

Other:

    Anime and Manga 
  • Subverted in Darker than Black: "Havoc" is definitely a run away name, but she's actually The Atoner. It fit before her depower, though.
  • Eureka Seven:
    • As if Anemone's mecha didn't already cue you in with its black paint job, lots and lots of eyes, and frantic, slasher movie-esque theme song that it's something you should stay far, far away from, there's the fact that it's named the END.
    • Anemone herself could also count, as anemones are linked to bloodshed in Greek and Christian mythology.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Greed isn't quite as evil as the rest. Still badass, though.
  • Johann Liebert, the eponymous Monster. To say he lives up to this name is a major understatement.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, a lot of the wolves consistently try to capture and eat goats. One of the wolf ancestors, the Thousand-Goat Slayer, flat out has this trait and the number of goats he's captured in his name.

    Comicbooks 

    Fan Fiction 

    Film 
  • The monstrous bad guy played by Jean-Claude Van Damme in The Expendables 2 is named Vilain. So basically "Villain" if it were pronounced with a French accent.
  • Epic (2013): Mandrake, a plant which can send the user into a coma in high doses. Also, in mythology, could kill people with its scream.
  • Star Trek Into Darkness:
    • Vengeance is an appropriate name for a battleship.
    • Spock Prime is visibly disturbed upon hearing that the Enterprise is fighting Khan.

    Literature 
  • Invoked in Artemis Fowl by LEP Officer Trouble Kelp, who chose his first name during his coming-of-age ceremony.
  • The Enemy in the Doctor Who quasi-spinoff Faction Paradox, so-called because giving it a real name would only make you underestimate the sheer scope of its power. Also arguably something there's no point running from unless you have a handy universe stored away.
    • Oh, and the Homeworld. Compassion too, come to think of it, and Antipathy, and... just about all the timeships, really. Then there's the Grandfather. Faction Paradox likes to do this a lot, is what we're saying.
  • The Harry Potter series has Dolores Umbridge as a double whammy. "Dolores" means "pain" in Spanish, and "Umbridge" is a play on the English word "umbrage," meaning "offense."
  • Skulduggery Pleasant: Let's see: Mevolent, Darquesse, China Sorrows, Jaron Gallow, Murder Rose, Argeddion...need we continue?
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen gives us Malice, Envy, and Spite. Again, though, they give no indication of being particularly villainous; they are simply people you don't want to cross.
  • Discworld:
    • The Carter family subverts this, whose daughters are named after virtues and sons are named after vices, so you have daughters with the names of Charity, Chastity, Prudence, and Hope, etc., while the sons are named Bestiality, Jealousy, Covetousness, Deviousness, Anger, and Catastrophe. And, of course, thanks to the Rule of Funny, these immediately become Non-Indicative Names, so Chastity becomes a seamstress (hem, hem), while Bestiality is noted for actually being very kind to animals.
    • In-universe, 71-hour Ahmed is considered this. While it sounds innocuous at first, one must fully appreciate his culture's Sacred Hospitality tradition, where it's valid for 72 hours no matter what. Even a hardened mass murderer who just poisoned an entire village would follow it to the letter, so Ahmed's violation of this sacred rule to get the jump on the bastard makes him The Dreaded in his culture.
  • The Stormlight Archive has Odium, a Piece of God who personifies the cosmic principle of Hatred. He managed to kill several other deities before being somehow trapped, and even with his power restricted, serves as the Big Bad of the series with The Legions of Hell at his command. He also lampshades the name:
    "They call me Odium. A good enough name. It does have a certain bite to it."
  • The Slaughterhouse Nine from Worm, a group of nine serial killer capes who cause death and destruction across North America for seemingly no other reason than shits and giggles. In reality it's to jumpstart the apocalypse.
  • Chet and Bernie: Gulagov from the first book. He is a Russian mob boss whose name contains "Gulag." When his men kidnap Chet the dog, Gulagov keeps Chet locked up, planning to retrain him and sell him to a dogfighting ring, which, to a dog, could be considered comparable to the Gulag.

    Music 
  • Sir Nose D'Voidofunk, Star Child's unfunky nemesis in the George Clinton Parliament universe.

    Video Games 
  • Bloodpool: A bright-red poisoned lake which needs to be *exorcized* in order to be clean in ActRaiser.
  • Ashley Riot. He is, on occasion, referred to as Agent Riot. And his full title is Riskbreaker Ashley Riot.
  • The last boss in Super Smash Bros. Brawl would be mentioned, but his name is a rather... taboo.
  • Most monsters in the original Quake: Scrag, Shambler, Fiend, Vore, Spawn, etc...
  • Ace Attorney: Subverted with Quercus Alba from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, who served the Cohdopian army for a long time and is considered a Cohdopian hero. His Japanese name is Carnage Onred, but it's actually a play on "red carnation", befitting his country Allebahst's plant theme (his English name similarly means "white oak"). But double subverted when turns out he is actually the secret leader of the Allebahstian smuggling ring, and the Big Bad behind the game's events.
    • Trials and Tribulations gives us Bruto Cadaverini, a fitting name for the head of the most dangerous gang in Los Angeles.
  • Double subverted in Investi-Gator: The Case of the Big Crime. There is a character named Mr. Crime, but he's actually the victim of most of the crimes that happen in the game. However, it is heavily implied near the end that he is secretly running a smuggling ring.
  • Abyss, the Big Bad of Marvel vs. Capcom 2; also the name of the Big Bad in Soul Calibur III.

    Web Comics 
  • Subverted here.
    Turboman killed a lot of babies before Doctor Apocalypse was able to stop him.
  • Chainsaw from Air Ride Adventures is really scary. However, it's only a nickname.

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • There's the real-life Mick Jagger — a bad-ass rocker if ever there was one. (The Rolling Stones (Band), in their early days, made a point of not being nice guys like The Beatles.)
  • Nick Cave, as well as a few of his bandmates: Conway Savage, Roland Wolf, Hugo Race, Tracy Pew. Their music is quite often very scary.
  • Any of several warships bearing the name HMS Terror, but especially this one.
  • There was an Australian association footballer (soccer player) in the early 20th century whose surname was Conquest, but that's not the end of it. His first name? Norman. Norman Conquest...he was named after a bloody period of history.
  • There is is a Zimbabwean footballer (soccer player) called Danger Fourpence.
  • There is a Serbian officer during the Bosnian War named Pero Colic (pronounced "cholich"). Surely the name isn't that impressive compared to other examples here but consider that he's not exactly spotless when it comes to human rights records which is not all uncommon to that era.
  • The warships known as destroyers were originally known as "Torpedo-boat destroyers"note , later contracted simply to "Destroyer", that not only is shorter but also sounds more menacingnote . In some languages, however, the long version is still used.
  • Giacomo Colonna was best known by his nickname "Sciarra", that in Old Romanesco (the language spoken in Rome during the Middle Ages) and some other Italian dialects means "violent rumble". He's best known for his role in the feud between his family and the Caetani, from which the reigning Pope hailed from, namely holding Pope Boniface VIII hostage in his own family home, slapping him silly just to show off, and trying to murder him (Boniface VIII was saved by a group of French knights. The same that had helped Sciarra capturing him and had orders from their king to drag him to France).
  • Michael Malice writes books on totalitarian states and fringe political movements, but he's not bad for your health.

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