"In the Second Age of the Third Age, a grim, shadowy figure walks into a bar. It is Grimm Shado."
In both Real Life and in fiction, a person's name can often tie in to their personality. And, let's face it, it's hard to sound dark and edgy with a cheery name like "Stacey Merryweather", or even an ordinary one like "Amy Jones". Goths and other shadowy characters in fiction tend to have dark-tinted Awesome McCool Names. Usually, they have these names from birth, although, a goth with an inappropriately cheerful name may change their name, or insist on people calling them by a nickname. Many goths also tend to have an exotic middle name or three.
Popular names include:
- Black as a surname or part of a nickname.
- Dark/Shade/Shadows - rarely a given name, may be a name the character has chosen themselves. Names that mean these (such as "Yami" or "Yoru"note ) or are evocative of them (such as "Darcy" or "Layla"note ) also count.
- Mort - as in "death". The full version, "Mortimer", is rarely used.
- Ebony - popular first name for female goths. Usually matches their hair colour.
- Raven - can be used as either a surname or first name. note
- Elegant, slightly old-fashioned names, such as Lucy (great for a Dracula reference, despite being derived from the Latin for "light") or Alice.
- Classical Mythology figures, especially those who suffer a tragic fate, such as Pandora or Narcissus.
- Biblical Bad Guy names, to an extent. Lilith and Lou/Louis approach this theme from varoius angles. Cain too is a prominent example.
- Any historical figure associated with macabre practices or media, such as Joan or Dante.
- Anything Slavic or Romanian. Especially Igor.
- Von preceding a surname.
See also Names to Run Away from Really Fast.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- My Hero Academia's Tokoyaminote Fumikage.note Fitting for a brooding Goth with darkness-based powers.
Comic Books
- Raven from Teen Titans and Starfire's sister Blackfire.
- Black Alice from DC comics.
- Requiem Vampire Knight just teems with these. Justified to some extent as some of the characters are the historical Vlad the Impaler, Nero, Attila, and Elizabeth Bathory, and the vampire knights are given new (themed) names when knighted. In any case, the series has names such as Otto von Todt, Requiem, Thurim and Cryptos, Black Sabbat... Claudia, while giving gothy vibes, just sounds plain in comparison.
- Victor Von Doom.
- The eponymous Brendon D'Arkness of Brendon.
- X-Men character Mystique has the rather gothy real name of Raven Darkholme.
- Satasha Raventhorne, one of Lady Death's closest allies. Ironically, Lady Death herself is a subversion: her real name is Hope, which is decidedly less gothic sounding and used just as frequently.
- The Black Order/Cull Obsidian, henchmen of the villainous Thanos: Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, Ebony Maw, and Supergiant. Appropriately, they all have dark-themed designs.
- The Marvel Universe characters Daimon Hellstrom, the Son Of Satan and his sister Satana the Devil's Daughter.
- DC's Klarion the Witch Boy, whose real name is Klarion Bleak.
- Nico Minoru went by the alias of "Sister Grimm" early on in Runaways. Her turn as an actual superhero in Runaways (Rainbow Rowell) has her adopt the identity of "the Gloom".
- DC Comics God of Evil Darkseid.
Fan Works
- My Immortal:
- Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way—probably the best example of this trope.
- Additionally, almost all of the main characters in Harry Potter get new "Goffik" names in My Immortal. Harry Potter becomes Vampire Potter, Hermione is B'loody Mary Smith, Ron is Diabolo, Navel (Neville) becomes Dracula, and Enoby's best friend is named Raven.
- Most names, however, are spelled so wrong so many times that they end up being subversions. For example, Ebony is sometimes known as Evony, Enoby, TaEbory, Egogy one memorable time, or Tara (the name of the writer herself). Once, she even wrote out the full name as Ebony Dark'ness Dementia TARA Way (her emphasis) during her falling out with her friend, averting the trope slightly.
- This is especially hilarious in the case of Ron Weasley, who in the fic is apparently supposed to be called Ron 'Diablo' Weasley - 'diablo' being Spanish for 'devil' - but due to the aforementioned spelling errors, he is constantly referred to as 'Diabolo'. For those interested, this is what a diabolo
is.
- "God Save the Esteem" is a Daria fanfic where half the cast are over-the-top parodies of The Quincy Punk, with names like "Killer Quinn," "Jake the Snake" and "Hellion" Morgendorffer. While not every punk has a nickname, some are so tied to theirs that at point Quinn is shocked to discover that ladyty Girl actually has a name (Jackie Wentworth).
- Parodied in The OMG most Original fanfic Idea EVER with Shadow's Long-Lost Relative "Death the Hedgehog".
- Victor von Doom's name gets lampshaded as this in The Girl Who Could Knock out the Hulk (part of the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton series). Kara jokes that with a name like that, he may as well change his name to "Evil McBadguy".
Films — Animated
- The darkness-themed villain of Rise of the Guardians is called Pitch Black.
Films — Live-Action
- October from Stay Alive (2006).
- Lucinda from Hell's Highway.
- Andromeda Strange from Slaughter Disc.
- Avengers: Infinity War adapts the Black Order from Infinity, but cuts Supergiant and renames Black Dwarf to "Cull Obsidian", the group's alternate name in the comic. Two other members of the Black Order are Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight.
- Crimson Peak, a homage to classic Gothic literature, has Lucille Sharpe, the sinister mistress of Allerdale Hall and a Serial Killer, as it turns out. Her first name is an Ironic Name, given she's almost constantly wearing dark clothes, and associated with darkness and death.
Literature
- Discworld:
- Lampshaded and parodied by Agnes Nitt, who develops an alter-ego named Perdita X. Dream to invoke this trope. (She was first introduced as part of a teenage coven lead by a Diamanda, that also included a Magenta and an Anamita.)
- From the same series, Death has an apprentice named Mort.
- Defied with Mort's daughter, whom he wanted to keep away from Death and therefore gave her the most un-gothy name he could come up with: Susan. She becomes a goth nevertheless (reluctantly; she's quite sarcastic about people who dress like vampires and are vegetarian really) and has several run-ins with his "adoptive grandfather", even taking over his job at one point.
- Inverted for humorous effect in Carpe Jugulum, which references "teenaged" reverse-Goth vampires who play at being normal people in the way goths play at being vampires/creatures of darkness. Thus, they call themselves mundane names in the way a human would take one of these names.
Countess: Lady Strigoiul said her daughter has taken to calling herself Wendy. I can't imagine why she'd want to, when Hieroglyphica is such a nice name for a girl.- Esmerelda Weatherwax herself used to call herself Endemonidia. It was only for a couple of hours, though. And she was still a youth; this shows even the wisest witches start small and petty.
- Harry Potter:
- The Blacks, an old and rich wizarding family with a penchant for villainy, liked naming their kids with names that evoked antiquity and mythology. For example, in one generation they got Sirius, Regulus, Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Andromeda.
- Narcissa married into the Malfoys, a similarly old and sinister wizarding family who also liked ominous "classical" names: her husband's name is Lucius, their son Draco, and their grandsom Scorpius.
- Half the characters from Anita Blake Vampire Hunter. Names include Requiem, Belle Morte, Jean Claude, Morte d'Amore, Marmee Noir, Valentina, Narcissus, Pride, Envy, Morvoren, Augustine, Wicked, Truth, Bacchus and Byron. Granted a lot of these characters are actual vampires and were-animals, but most of them weren't actually born with these names.
- Stephanie in Skulduggery Pleasant becomes Valkyrie Cain. 'Valkyrie' as in the psychopomps for dead warriors, and 'Cain' as in the name of the Biblical inventor of murder. Lampshaded by Skulduggery.
Skulduggery: Seems a little morbid, but then, who am I to talk? I'm dead.
- Christopher Moore:
- Abby Normal (Abnormal) from Bloodsucking Fiends. Subverted in that her "day slave" name is Allison.
- Parodied with her friend in A Dirty Job, a thrift shop assistant who considers her full name to be "Lily Darquewillow Elventhing".
- In the Gemma Doyle trilogy the Big Bad for the first two books is nicknamed Circe after the Greek goddess of witchcraft.
- Bella Morte from Jason X: Planet of the Beast. It's just a nickname though, her real last name is Morrison.
- Autumn Langevin from A Nightmare on Elm Street TheDreamDealers.
- Most of the goths of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. Names that fall into this category include Krisstoff, October, and Snow. Averted, however, by Sprat.
- A goth character in the unpublished Final Destination novel Wipeout was apparently going to be named Ravyn Blackthorne.
- Though he is hardly goth, Mortimer Lindquist from The Dresden Files is an ectomancer, psychic consultant, and self proclaimed coward. As part of his ectomantic abilities, he can speak to spirits and ghosts, control them, let them possess his body, and gain their knowledge and powers. To tie up the package nicely, he lives in a large creepy house.
- Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden itself is also has something of this trope. Granted, the two middle names (and "Harry"note ) were chosen by his father in honor of famous stage magicians, but still - who does that instead of naming the kid after his grandfather or uncle, and who thinks "Blackstone"note would make a nice middle name for their infant son? And then there's "Dresden", which was chosen by the author specifically for the association with a city that was famously fire-bombed during World War II, which caused the death of tens of thousands of civilians in just a couple of days.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, there's the past pretender to the throne Daemon Blackfyre, who oddly enough, had a reputation as The Ace, as well as Daemon's rival, who was known as Bloodraven (real name Bryden Rivers). Also, this trope is probably why the character known as Darkstar tends to be considered emo rather than cool.
- One of the many names Kirsty goes by other than Kirsty in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy is Klytemnestra. She admits she was feeling "a bit gothy" at the time. Kasandra, her chosen name during the events of Johnny And The Bomb probably counts too.
- Z-Moll, Trick and Glo from Friday the 13th: Carnival of Maniacs.
- Dragaera books:
- While it isn't immediately obvious since it's in another language, Morrolan has a name meaning "Black Star". For bonus points, he made it a theme; his home is called Castle Black and his Empathic Weapon is named Blackwand.
- Speaking of Great Weapons, this is parodied in Dzur with the sword Nightslayer. Her actual name translates to a bunch of confusing Magi Babble, so her owner just renamed her to something he thought sounded cool.
- And inverted with yet another Great Weapon, the incredibly dark-and-badass-sounding Godslayer. Her wielder just calls her Lady Teldra.
- Series protagonist Vlad Taltos also qualifies quite well. Besides the vampire association of the first name, Taltos is Hungarian for witch, which he is.
- The black-wearing zontanecrologist from the Mediochre Q Seth Series is named Joseph Carrion.
- The Big Bad of Born to Raise the Sons of Earth call himself 'Stormhold Elect, Dreadlord Servant of the Thousand Voices'. That's pretty dark.
- One of the spinoff series of the kids' Geronimo Stilton books is Crepella Von Cacklefur, about a gothic lady mouse.
- Raven Madison in Vampire Kisses.
- The cruel stepfather Murdstone from David Copperfield.
- Two characters in The Crow: Quoth the Crow go by Count Mishka and Marquis de la Cinque, while the Big Bad of the later novel Wicked Prayer goes by Kyra Damon.
- A few of the vampire characters in Night World have these types of names, though it often overlaps with nature-related names (plants, animals, gemstones etc.), which are traditional for lamia vampires (those born as vampires). This includes Thistle Galena, Raven Mandril and Morgead Blackthorn, all of whom belong to the same gang of teen vampires.
- In the naming of The Antichrist scene in Good Omens, sister Mary suggests a variety of evil-sounding names to mr. Young, who finally settles on "Adam". The other baby, though, gets named "Warlock".
Live-Action TV
- Morticia from The Addams Family.
- All the characters in the Lost Tapes episode "Hellhound".
- Invoked in one episode of The Mighty Boosh where Vince starts dressing like a goth and calling himself "Obsidian Blackbird McNight" in order to impress some goth girls. Unfortunately, Howard ruins it for him.
Howard: "Vince? I mean, Obsidian Raven McBovril"
- His real name isn't all that un-gothic to start with. Vince is short for Vincent, and Noir is French for black.
- And the girls' names? Anthrax and Ebola. Nothing more goffick than virulent diseases
- A flashback episode of Raising Hope revealed that when Jimmy was going through "a phase" he insisted on being called "Drakkar Noir" (like the fragrance). Largely because of the over-the-top KISS-type makeup that goes along with it, this has since mutated into a Running Gag.
- Saturday Night Live had a segment called "Goth Talk" with Azrael Abyss and Circe Nightshade. They were visited often by Baron Nocturna. Much to their chagrin, most people still called them Todd, Stephanie, and Gordy.
- One of Charlie's girlfriends on Two and a Half Men was some kind of goth Satanist witch named Isabella.
- On Dead of Summer, the leader of the Satanist biker gang trying to raise the demon Malphas is named Damon Crowley. Turns out, however, that he's actually an Unwitting Pawn of the real villain, who has the perfectly normal name of Amy Hughes.
- Chilling Adventures of Sabrina quite naturally lives and breathes this trope, but it's probably impossible to get more so than Faustus Blackwood. At least, not until he named his kid Judas.
- Many of the castmembers of Dragula, which is understandable given that Drag Queens are already prone to picking a Punny Name. Among the examples are:
- Victoria Elizabeth Black and her drag-daughter, Dollya Black.
- Both Hollow Eve and Evah have Destruction as their last name.
- Vander Von Odd.
- Violencia! straddles the line between a dark name but incredibly campy presentation.
- Kendra Onixxx evokes gothy names such as Ebony.
- In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "The Witches of East York", the main witch goes by Minerva West, which is borderline, and her apprentices are Persephone Jade and Elspeth Nighthawk, which aren't. Notably, Minerva's lack of interest in what anyone else might call her apprentices delays the reveal that Elspeth is the daughter of the murder victim.
Music
- Alt Rock band Blue October.
- Doom Metal band October Tide. A side-project of Katatonia members.
- Count Vlad Cadmus of Johnny B Morbid.
Tabletop Games
- Roughly 95% of all Non-Player Characters in Ravenloft.
- The whole plane of Innistrad of Magic the Gathering live by this trope. It makes sense when you consider that the extension is condensing all tropes of a gothic horror story.
Theme Parks
- In Poseidon's Fury at Universal's Islands of Adventure, the attraction's villain is named "Lord Darkenon".
Video Games
- Pokémon:
- Common with Ghost-type experts: Agatha in Pokémon Red and Blue, Morty in Pokémon Gold and Silver, Shauntal of Pokémon Black and White, Allisternote of Pokémon Sword and Shield.
- Pokémon Red and Blue's aloof Psychic-type leader Sabrina also fits. She's named after the lead of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
- And Pokémon Black and White's Gothitelle and Dark-type, mildly vampiric Elite Four member Grimsley.
- Parodied in Sam & Max: Freelance Police: Night of the Raving Dead, where, while singing in a Goth nightcub, you can have Sam and Max use the stage names Count Cryptwind Deathgrasp and Baron Bat-Anguish von Nightmare.
- The Goth family from The Sims: Mortimer, Bella, and their daughter Cassandra. The family's ancestors in further games hint that this is a tradition, what with Gunther, Cornelia, Frieda, Victor and Gretle.
- One of Sonic the Hedgehog's many Evil Twins is named Shadow the Hedgehog. His fur is just as dark as his name is. (Well, minus the red streaks, but still...)
- The drivers of the hearse Shadow in Twisted Metal: Mortimer and Raven. Somewhat justified in the latter case in that she was a goth before she obtained the car.
- Yorick Mori the Gravedigger in League of Legends.
- Judas in Tales of Destiny 2, though notable in that he didn't choose the name himself and it wasn't his birth name- Kyle gives it to him.
- Odin Dark in Fire Emblem Fates, though it's specifically noted to be an alias. He's actually Owain from Fire Emblem: Awakening, a man who has a flair for the dramatic and loves giving things "dark" names, and picked what he thought to be the most Awesome Mc Cool Name of all gothic dark names. His daughter is named Ophelia Dusk.
- World of Warcraft has Commander Althea Ebonlocke, the black-haired daughter of the mayor and commander of the Night's Watch.
- Moshi Monsters has a ghost shopkeeper named Dedward.
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion features an Imperial character named Corvus Umbranox, which roughly translates to "Raven Shadownight". A very appropriate name for the true identity of the legendary thief and mastermind of the Thieve's Guild, the Grey Fox.
- Hollow Knight has the Grimm Troupe, a band of travellers looking to suck the nightmares out of dead kingdoms for sustenance. Their leader is named Troupe Master Grimm. However, after his bossfight, he gains a second, even more powerful form... Nightmare King Grimm.
- Devil May Cry: Subverted with Dante, who is anything but edgy and moody (except in Devil May Cry 2 and DmC: Devil May Cry).
- King of the Castle: The Counts of the East embody the stereotypes of classic Uberwaldian nobility, so NPC-generated Counts all have names that are either of Slavic or Eastern-European origin (especially ones heavy on Xtreme Kool Letterz such as Vazil, Varenika or Zhenya) or stuffy, melancholy-sounding ones like Alyster, Desdomena or Lorelei.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney
- Dumas Gloomsbury, victim of Turnabout Time Traver from Spirit of Justice. He was nicknamed "Mr. Doom n' Gloom" by his co-workers.
- Barok Van Zieks from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. He's not a villain, but sure is scary.
- Dream Daddy's Damien Bloodmarch, a mysterious, Gothic possible love interest who is obsessed with the fashions of the Victorian era. Vampires are alluded to quite a few times with reference to him. His son, Lucien, is also a goth.
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: Celestia Ludenberg, who loves the aesthetics of the Gothic ages. She dresses like an Elegant Gothic Lolita, dreams of living in a European castle with several handsome vampire manservants, and is even executed like a witch at the stake.
Webcomics
- Beyond The End: Mortis, who certainly gives the dark and intimidating silhouette.
- Mr. Raven and his mother, Pandora Chaos Raven from El Goonish Shive.
- The Order of the Stick:
- As seen in one strip, when Haley was a gloomy goth teenager, she went by the name Dark Mistress Shadowgale.
- In one strip, Celia the sylph disguises herself as an evil necromancer and uses the name Darkblood Gloomgloom.
- As seen in one strip
- Raven the goth from Questionable Content. Later it has been stated that Raven is her given middle name, and she only uses it so she won't have to go by Blodwyn.
- Penny Arcade:
- Parodied with Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood, a deliberately awful yet commercially successful fictional creation of Gabe's.
- In the same vein of cliché fantasy parodies, there's Grimm Shado, the protagonist of Song of the Sorcelator, written by Tycho's archnemesis L. H. Franzibald.
Web Original
- Survival of the Fittest's Meredith Hemmings, or as she prefers to be called, Pandora Black. According to her it's her "soul name."
- When The Nostalgia Chick tried to cast a spell on Dark Nella (herself an example of this trope) she sought the advice of a random Goth chick named Grayvyn, who described herself as "halfway between Edgar Allan Poe... and the grave."
- Parodied in Acquisitions Incorporated, when Mike (aka Gabe of Penny Arcade) names his mage character Jim Darkmagic. The other players briefly have a field day with this, asking "Why don't you call yourself Chet Awesomelaser?" and suggesting alternate names "Jim Fellmagic," "Fell Darkjim," "Jim Felldark," "Fell Darkevil," and "Ominous Darkfell Magic-Bad".
- Mahu: In "Frozen Flame" one of the heroes under Prince Arius' command is a necromancer called Galadea Sin of Greed.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: When Lisa Simpson tried being a goth for a while, her new name of choice was Ravencrow Neversmiles.
- In 6teen Jude's girlfriend Star goes through a goth phase and changes her name to Nebula. Later, in an effort to keep their relationship going, Jude also turns goth for the day and says his name is now Judas.
- Total Drama:
- Gwen is an Aversion, but in the TDI special she mentions three of her friends named Reaper, Pixie Corpse and Marilyn. (The latter may be an Odd Name Out a la The Munsters or a reference to Marilyn Manson.) From their pictures they all seem more into the Goth culture than Gwen is.
- Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race has goth couple Crimson and Ennui, who are a straight example.
- South Park:
- Stan starts going by "Raven" after temporarily becoming a Goth. Subverted, however, by the other Goth kids, who turn out to be named Henrietta, Michael, Pete and Firkle. Why Stan took a fake name is never mentioned.
- The Vampire Kids follow this trope; their leader, for example, is Mike "Vampir" Makowski. Of course, those vampire conformists are not Goths!
- After the Goths and Vampires team up and summon Edgar Allan Poe, he insists that they call him "Nightpain." Even they groan at how stupid that sounds.
- Debbie from American Dad! has a Goth friend named Pandora.
- A Daria tie-in book features a comic strip called Gothic Nights by Andrea, starring her as "Queen Hecuba."
- Raven Queen from Ever After High was raised as the next Evil Queen for the newest Snow White. However, Dark Is Not Evil as despite her name and looks Raven has no interest in evildoing.
- Growing Up Creepie has Creepie Creecher, Raven, Misery Whispers, and Morpheus.
- Dexter's Laboratory has Mandark, which was later retconned into a nickname for Susan.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- The villains include Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, the Pony of Shadows, and Tempest Shadow.
- After her Heel–Face Turn, Tempest Shadow reveals that she just called herself that to sound tough; her real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist.
- Luna has one of the darkest colour palettes of any pony and is associated with the night.
- Inky Rose and Moonlight Raven.
- The villains include Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, the Pony of Shadows, and Tempest Shadow.
- Scooby-Doo has the Hex Girls, an "eco-goth" rock band first introduced in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost. They all wear gothic clothes and even fake fangs for their performances...and when they're just hanging out. At least one of them is also a Wiccan capable of performing real magic, although it is emphasized she's a good witch. Their names are Thorn (guitarist and lead singer), Dusk (drummer) and Luna (keyboardist). It's implied they're stage names, as Thorn's real name is revealed to be the less gothic-sounding Sally McKnight.
- Castlevania (2017): Carmilla and her coven are named rather darkly, fitting for a council of vampire rulers.
- Carrying over from the games, Carmilla is the Lesbian Vampire; the book originated many hallmarks of vampire fiction.
- Morana is named for a Slavic goddess of wintry death and harvest.
- Lenore is named for Edgar Allan Poe's Lenore, giving her a very gothic and elegant air.
- Striga is a Latin phrase for witch or evil spirit.
- Winx Club:
- Darcy — one of the Trix sisters and a recurrent villain. She's also the Witch of Darkness and Illusions and, fittingly, has dark purple as the main hue of her color palette.
- Lord Darkar — the Big Bad of season two and the resident Evil God (the opposite of the God of Creation and Magic that powers the protagonist's magic). He can absorb magic like nobody's business and is, essentially, a skeleton wearing a dark red, pointy armor that transforms into a phoenix.
- Valtor — the main villain of season three. He stamps goat-themed marks to transform people into Brainwashed and Crazy monsters, wears a goth Victorian outfit, and has a German-derived name that means 'ruler of the army'.
- Some of the Wizards of the Black Circle — fairy hunters and the treacherous villains of season four. Ogron (Sindarin's word for 'wicked or evil person'), Duman (derived from the word demon), and Gregory (old-fashioned name) who only appeared in the comics.
- Acheron — the alleged Big Bad of season six that only appeared (in flesh, not as a picture in a book or a projection) in one episode. He's named after one of the five rivers at the entrance of the Greek Underworld.
- Selina — summoner of terrific mythological creatures (and Acheron) and witch of snakes. Her name derives from Selene, the Greek Moon Titaness who also was associated with witchcraft. More than any other witch (barring perhaps Headmistress Griffin), Selina has the most goth looks.
- W.I.T.C.H.: Prince Phobos. Phobos was the Ancient Greek god of fear. As for Phobos himself (who is only ever seen dressed in black), the name is quite fitting.
