Sandbox.Names To Run Away From Really Fast Single Words: Adjectives (The Adjective One) | Nouns (Animal | Body Part | Colors | Weapons) | Verbs | Titles (Noun X | The Person) Etymology:Ancient Dead Languages | Foreign Language Names Named After: Conquerors | Notorious Killers | Redneck Names | Religious Names (Biblical Names | Demons or Angels) | Shady Names Sounds and Letters: K Names | Mor | Names Ending In Th | R Names | Xtreme Kool Letterz | Unpronouncable Names Various: Mix and Match
A form of Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Names that can also function as verbs (usually of the pain-inducing variety). Often overlaps with R Names.
Examples:
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Common Verbs:
Burn
Film
- Arthur Burns from The Proposition.
- Frank Burns from M*A*S*H
- Criminal brothers Dwight and Toby Burner from the Walker, Texas Ranger episode "Faith".
- Inazuma Eleven has an Evil Redhead fire elemental named Burn.
- Montgomery Burns in The Simpsons
Destroy
Film
- Imperial Star Destroyers. In fact, they're this trope times two since they're usually called things like Avenger, Executor, Eviscerator, Corrupter...
- Destroyer droids, more colloquially known as droidekas.
- Destroyer droids, more colloquially known as droidekas.
- Destoroyah.
- Confessions (Saint Augustine): Vandals responsible for torturing freshmen at law school call themselves "eversores" (roughly "destroyers.") Augustine finds the nickname fitting due to the damage they do to their own souls by their violence.
- The legend who shaved, then retired Gorgeous George and teamed with Giant Baba, The Destroyer.
- Danger Bone Destroyer, Welterweight Champion of NWA Nigeria in 1993. It may have been the lightest weight division of the promotion, after Middle, Light Heavy, Junior Heavy, Heavy and Super Heavy but can you imagine him being the least intimidating? Also, Tony Destroyer, Heavyweight Champion of the same promotion in 2010.
- The Shivans from FreeSpace. Not only were they named after Shiva, the Hindu God of Destruction, but they were also dubbed as "The Destroyers" by the Ancients.
- The final boss of the storyline in Borderlands is named the Destroyer. Amusingly, the mission where you fight it is named "Destroy The Destroyer".
- The overarching threat in the Eye of the North expansion in Guild Wars is a race known as the Destroyers. Their boss is, fittingly, known as The Great Destroyer.
- The Destroyer, a massive mechanical worm from Terraria.
Real Life
- The Star Destroyers most likely draw their name from Destroyers, a type of warship which in modern navies is smaller than a Cruiser and bigger than a Frigate. Originally, the name referred to their role as Torpedo Boat Destroyers, with the ships being designed to screen battleships and cruisers from swarms of torpedo boats. As naval warfare evolved, so did the Destroyers, with their roles gradually shifting to focus on anti-submarinenote or Anti-Airnote . Modern destroyers, armed with dozens of guided missiles giving them a reach and punch equal to any other warship on the battlefield, are essentially modern day Battleships, being distinguished from modern cruisers only in tonnage rather than role.
Dominate
Comic Books
- A DC Comics alien race were also called the Dominators. Naturally, they tried to conquer the Earth.
- The Always Chaotic Evil psychic Space Jews in The Iron Dream were called Dominators.
- The Dominator, real name unknown, the ultimate villain of the initial The Black Company trilogy.
- Doctor Who had an actual race calling themselves "The Dominators". (They come with
dwarves in suitsCreepy Monotone killer robots, of course.)
Western Animation
- Lord Dominator from Wander over Yonder.
Real Life
- "The Dominator" was the nickname of Dominik Hasek, a great and absolutely weird ice hockey goalie.
Fuck
Literature
- The GCU Grey Area - AKA Meatfucker - from Iain M. Banks's The Culture. A sentient spaceship that kills aging despots by making them die repeatedly while they sleep. He also reads your mind, and contains a museum of torture. He doesn't get many visitors...
- It's only a nickname, but by God does Cal Richards from The Thick of It live up to it.
- Saints Row: Benjamin King is a name commanding of respect. Benjamin Motherfuckin' King is a name commanding of mortal terror.
Hack
Comic Books
- Cassie Hack, the slasher hunter from the series Hack/Slash.
Film
- Hackman is The Dragon in Gamer, a huge, sadistic prisoner who is only on the bad guys' side so he can personally kill as many people as he can.
- Hacker from Centurions.
- One half of Megabyte's Quirky Mini Boss Squad on ReBoot, averts this trope since both of them are all but harmless.
- Hack Smashnikov, one of Flintheart Glomgold's henchmen in Ducktales 2017
Kill
By itself is actually kind of silly, so expect variations.
- Killer the Butcher from Zambot 3.
- One Piece: "Massacre Soldier" Killer.
- Killer Bee from Naruto- not a bad guy, but certainly not someone you want to mess with.
- Kira in Death Note.
- Colonel Killing of Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.
- Sgt. Frog: Movie villain Kiruru.
- Killa, the killer bee from Monster Musume.
- Season 8 episode 3 of Happy Heroes has Little M. suggest "The Killer King", "King of the Killer King", and "King of the Killer King's Wife" as sinister characters from the book A History of Magic for Huo Haha to transform into.
- Killgrave (a Daredevil villain unfortunately known as The Purple Man. Shoulda just stuck with his real name...).
- His live-action version in Jessica Jones (as he's prevalent in the original comic, Alias) is actually Kevin Thompson, who chose Kilgrave (with only one L) during his Evil Makeover.
Jessica Jones: Kevin. I know it's mundane, but "Kilgrave"? Talk about obvious. Was Murdercorpse already taken? - A Black Panther villain named Erik Killmonger.
- Arkillo of the Sinestro Corps
- Commander Killemall from Twillight Sparkle's awesome adventure.
- Mr. Kil, a James Bond villain from Die Another Day
- There's also a corrupt cop Killifer in Licence to Kill.
- Damon Killian, the Evil Executive/Smarmy Game Show Host of the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick The Running Man. Played by none other than Richard Dawson.
- With the same surname as above, Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3 (who's not a villain in the comics).
- Col. Kilgore from Apocalypse Now, a man who just can't get enough of the smell of napalm in the morning.
- Parodied in Carry On Doctor in which Doctor Killmore finds his name tends to unsettle patients.
- Outlaw Rud Killgore in an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger
- Bobby Sixkiller from Renegade
- Sir Killalot, the house robot from Robot Wars
- In Once Upon a Time, Captain Hook has a double whammy of names-to-run-away-from, as Hook is only his alias and his original first name is Killian.
- Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger has Abarekiller, who definitely was someone to not mess with given how he defeated the team a lot.
- Ultraman Ace had a Monster of the Week named Ace Killer, an Evil Knockoff resembling a demonic Ultraman designed for the specific purpose of, well, killing Ultraman Ace.
- Ron Killings of NWA-TNA. Known as R-Truth in the WWE. Another one who should have stuck with his real name.
- The pirates of WarMachine's Mercenary faction has Doc Killingsworth. The mere threat of treatment is enough to make the wounded get up and back into the fight.
- Ax-Crazy troll gang member Shoot-to-Kill from Shadowrun, most notable for winning her boyfriend back by leaving him a love letter, alongside the head of her love rival, in the fridge.
- Gray Norton, a champion mechwarrior in the BattleTech universe named the Rifleman he piloted as Champion of the Solaris VII tournaments Legend-Killer.
- Killbison is a member of the Decepticon Breastforce team. Transforms into a (you guessed it) mechanical bison.
- Killian. It's the name of a Clint Eastwood lookalike badass sheriff in the original. Also appears in Fallout.
- Dr. Killjoy from The Suffering.
- Ace Attorney villain Shelly de Killer. Who is a contract killer.
- Killer from Shadow Hearts: From The New World. Who is a serial killer.
- The Kill Master of Brütal Legend (voiced by Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead) named himself that so people would leave him alone. He's the team healer.
- Killer Man from the sixth game of the Mega Man Battle Network series. His name was changed to Erase Man in the US version.
- You probably will not survive a dogfight with Kur Human-Killer.
- Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance gives us its protagonist, Killia. Doesn't sound like much at first, but he used to be called Tyrant Overlord Killidia, who rose to the top of Cryo Blood and ruled it with an iron fist until Goldion bitch-slapped him into submission.
- Kira Seijirou from Inazuma Eleven.
- The antagonist of Heavy Rain goes by the moniker of "Origami Killer".
- Stay Tooned! has Killtron: MAGIC DEATH ROBOT!
- Killum from Sluggy Freelance.
- KILLBOSS the demon from Kill Six Billion Demons. And yes, it's KILLBOSS in all caps.
- Parodied in Homestar Runner; as seen in the main page, Strong Mad (sometimes an example of this trope himself) plays the character of "KillingYouGuy" in the Dangeresque series.
- Duff Killigan of Kim Possible.
- "Hello, I am Doctor Henry Killinger, unt zis is my magic murder bag."
- In MAD , one of the sketches focuses on a lawyer who successfully convinced a jury that "Rob Killmurder" was an innocent man and he goes free but not before punching the lawyer in the face and running away, laughing crazily all the while.
- In My Life as a Teenage Robot Killgore really wants to live up to his name by being an effective villan. It screams Sorry Billy, But You Just Don't Have Legs, although he'd got them, he's small and his arms are extremely short.
- One-off character Larry Kidkill on The Simpsons doesn't actually kill Apu's kids, but he does gratuitously exploit them such that Apu and Homer have to kidnap them back.
- Dr. Killemoff from Toxic Crusaders.
- Amanda Killman from Bunsen Is a Beast.
- Perhaps not a direct example, but there's a lot of people who would rather avoid Eduard Khil if they could help it.
- Actually a subversion: "Khil" translates as "Hill."
- Anthony Perish.
- Subverted with Killer Kato; it's a nickname referring to how he (Masao Kato) played Go very aggressively, and as a top-level player (he once held four of Japan's big seven titles simultaneously, as well as being the oldest Honinbo champion in history), many "safe" groups of stones fell before him.
- Subverted with the killdeer, which is just a small bird that eats insects and seeds.
Murder
Anime & Manga
- The one who invited Kindaichi to the house of wax in The House of Wax hides behind the name of «Redrum».
- Susanoo's first suspect in the Lyrical Nanoha story Fate T Harlaown and the Case of the Murderous Murder is a man by the name of Dr. Heinrich von Murder, lead designer of MurderCorp, which makes KillBots. Subverted when it turns out that he's a kindly old man and his name "means something different in the local language". Double Subverted when it turns out that he actually is evil. Zig-zagged when it turns out that his name is actually Billy Ray McFriendly and the KillBots are actually called FriendDroids (again, it means something different in the local language).
- Voodoo priest Murder Legendre in White Zombie.
- The titular character from The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. It chose the name itslf, though in its defence, it's more a sardonic reference to what humans assume it will be than what it actually is (Murderbot doesn't tell many people its name).
- Tymaret, the Murder King from
Magic: The Gathering is a creature with two activated abilities that require you to sacrifice another creature, and he's black and red, the two colors most likely to be Chaotic Evil.
- In Checkerboard Nightmare, Chex tries to write a comicbook with a Card-Carrying Villain named Dr. Murder.
- In Kill Six Billion Demons this is taken to the next level by Auntie Maya, also known as Mathangi Ten Meti Murder the Gods and Topple Their Thrones.
- Rapper Corey Miller, better known by his stage name, C-Murder. He is currently serving a life term for guess what.
Pierce
Comic Books
- Donald Pierce, member of the Hellfire Club, the Reavers, and the Purifiers.
- In the Tales from the Crypt story "Clots My Line," a game show panel is asked to guess the profession of a contestant named "Pierce Draynor." Subverted, as the contestant is Actually Not a Vampire; rather, the host is having fun with the panel and the audience, who are.
- Downplayed for Pierce Adamson in Ma Fille, who is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at worst
- Aaron Pierce in 24, although he is a good guy with a heart of gold, he is still a complete and utter badass.
- Alien-hunting unit head Daniel Pierce of Roswell.
- Pierce in Community is a complete Jerkass.
- Though not a guy you'd want to run away from, unless you're Frank Burns or the Colonel Kilgore of the episode, but there's Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, from Series/MASH.
- Nolan Pierce (played by Michael Ironside) from Walker, Texas Ranger.
- Actually a relatively common name in real life. See Pierce Brosnan and Franklin Pierce.
Rampage
Fanfiction
- Rampage from Beast Wars. He even notes it "A little obvious, but it gets to the point."
Ravage
Toys
- Ravage in Transformers, though he was rarely a threat to other Transformers, was not someone humans wanted to deal with.
Raze
Comic Books
- Ra's al Ghul from Batman sounds like this. For extra running bowel-trembling terror-ness, Ra's al Ghul means "the demon's head" in Arabic.
- The Ra'zac from the Inheritance Cycle.
Websites
- From Killerbunnies, we have Razelle Anne Serchendistroy. Interestingly, her name is an actual but uncommon name and, ironically, (along with being a variant of the name "Rachel), despite it's spelling, her name means " ewe, lamb daughter", not what you'd expect.
Rip
See also Names To Run Away From: Notorious Killers for characters named after the most famous example of this one, Jack the Ripper.
- Rip Talons from Shining and Sweet.
- Ripred from The Underland Chronicles.
- Giles used to go by "Ripper".
- Babylon 5 had a one-shot character named Sebastian, who was revealed to be a cryogenically preserved (and quite repentant} Jack The Ripper.
- Rivfader, King of Trolls in many of Finntroll's songs. His name means "Rip-father" in Swedish.
- Ripper Roo from Crash Bandicoot.
Slash
Anime & Manga
- The surname Kurosaki comes from putting kuro (dark) on kirisaki (slasher). Essentially, Dark Slasher.
- The mutant snapping turtle bad guy from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame.
Literature
- Slash is one of the villains of the Warrior Cats Dawn of the Clans arc.
- Worm has Jack Slash, the Big Bad of the Slaughterhouse Nine arcs.
- One of Magus' minions in Chrono Trigger
- Also the name of the caveman from the Eternal Champions games.
- Mega Man 7 gives us Slash Man, who if you don't know what you're doing, can be a pain in the arse.
- Also, Grizzly Slash from X5.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Kirumi Tojo's first name means "slashing beauty", and she ends up being Chapter 2's culprit.
- The other half of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in ReBoot.
- Slash Smashnikov, one of Flintheart Glomgold's henchmen in Ducktales 2017
Slaughter
Comic Books
- Judge Dredd: "Mandroid" had as its protagonist a vigilante cybernetic super soldier by the name of Nate Slaughterhouse.
Film
- The Hong Kong martial arts film Yellow Faced Tiger features Chuck Norris as a ganglord named Chuck Slaughter. Hence the movie's alternate title in the U.S., Slaughter in San Francisco.
- A Law & Order episode features Jonas Slaughter, played by Malcolm McDowell.
- Detective Slaughter on Castle is a Cowboy Cop whose nickname is "the Widowmaker". He earned it based on his partners' life expectancy. Not that gangsters fare much better with him around...
- Aurora Slaughter, one of four escaped convicts and a subplot villain in the Walker, Texas Ranger episode "Desperate Measures", considering she was sentenced to life for a series of murders along with armed robberies.
- Professional Wrestler and G.I. Joe character Sergeant Slaughter.
- Magic: The Gathering gives us Mogis, God of Slaughter, who is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: the resident God of Evil in Theros. His temple is even called the Temple of Malice.
- In Larry Gelbart's Mastergate: A Play on Words, the devious mastermind behind the whole scandal is the late CIA director, Wiley Slaughter.
- Karin Slaughter. She writes thrillers.
- A.J. Slaughter, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
- Tod Slaughter, known for his roles in film adaptations of Victorian horror melodramas and is particularly known for his portrayal of the original Sweeney Todd from the penny-dreadful "The String of Pearls".
- Former Cleveland Browns wide receiver Webster Slaughter.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter, particularly if you were a pitcher in the 1940s.
- Alvin Slaughter. Gospel musician.
Smash
Tabletop Games
- Cyberpunk gave us Adam Smasher. While a Punny Name based on atom smashers (nowadays called partcle accelerators), Smasher is a dreaded Psycho for Hire who enjoys smashing people to death for his sheer sadism.
Stab
Anime & Manga
- In a strange case, we got Mobile Suit Gundam 00's Bring Stabity. The thing is, his name is a corruption of the phrase "bring stability". It doesn't help that his Mobile Suit, the GNZ-005 Garazzo, is outfitted with the GN Beam Claws, which are finger-mounted beam sabers.
- The Stabbington brothers from Tangled are probably a parody, although they are rather scary.
- "Stabby Joe" from Friends. Phoebe warned Ross not to walk down a certain alley to avoid meeting this character.
- Parodied on The Simpsons where Marge is watching a film about a convict named Johnny Stabbo and his mother, Ma Stabbo.
- In Family Guy, Lois' cellmate "Stabby".
- The minor character Lord Slashstab (an expy of Venger from Dungeons & Dragons (1983)) appearing in Drawn Together.
- Gabby Mc Stabberson, one of Flintheart Glomgold's henchmen and an alleged (well, she was then cheapest he could find!) assassin in Ducktales 2017.
Other Verbs:
Anime & Manga
- Annex Zaboom from Ninja Senshi Tobikage. As if his appearance wasn't a big enough hint...
- Ascendance of a Bookworm has an illness called The Devouring which causes its sufferers to generate more Mana than they can release. This causes an extremely dangerous overabundance which literally eats its own hosts' souls from within (hence the name). Myne has this illness, and the original Myne died of it just as Urano's soul unwittingly took the body before it became a corpse.
Comic Books
- Doctor Shocc, Former-Nazi Mad Scientist from Marshal Law.
- Superhero Blastoman and his sidekick, Explodo.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles's villain The Shredder.
- Spider-Man: Venom and Carnage, even if the former tries - tries to prove people wrong.
- Superman: The storyline The Killers of Krypton has Splyce, Harry Hokum's genetically-engineered ruthless enforcer.
Film
- Star Wars:
- Darth Maul. The current Expanded Universe has also given him a brother with the, if anything, even less subtle name of "Savage Opress".
- Most Imperial capital ships have "[unpleasant-sounding verb]er" as their name structure: Executor, Dominator, Agoniser, Conqueror, and the manual for The Force Awakens adds the Finalizer.
- Charlie Rotter from the Super Psycho Sweet 16 series.
- Dredger, the gigantic brawler from Sherlock Holmes (2009) (in addition to its other meanings, "dredge" means "to drag").
- The pseudonym "Agent Lynch" in 2010's The A-Team.
- Snatcher from The Boxtrolls. Although the Embarrassing Middle Name of "Penelope" dampens the effect somewhat.
- On a similar note, the rulers of Vulgaria in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang employ an unspeakably creepy henchman (creepy to parents as well as to kids!) known only as the Child Catcher. Hell, the rulers themselves — Baron and Baroness Bomburst — qualify, and their domain is an example of I Don't Like the Sound of That Place.
- The main antagonists in Bumblebee are called Shatter and Dropkick.
Literature
- The Bully in Dinoverse is named J.D. Harms. There's a little more going on than it seems, but it takes a lot to bring it to the surface.
- The name applied to the title character of The Skinner pretty much says it all.
- The Skinners from The General Series are tribesmen who spend most of their time hunting dinosaurs and the rest wrecking up civilization.
- Worm: even before learning anything about them, readers knew that things called "the Endbringers" had to be seriously bad news. The reveal that they are civilization destroying monsters wasn't too surprising.
Live-Action TV
- The Addams Family: Uncle Fester. "It means, to rot!"
- Kamen Rider Build gives us Blood Stalk, the Big Bad of the series who has a habit of stabbing all the other villains in the back, making himself The Man Behind the Man several times over.
Professional Wrestling
- The notorious 187, Homicide.
Tabletop Games
- Though not truly a verb, Rapine Storm of CthulhuTech still qualifies as something to run away from. Pity that doing so will probably mean you run into something worse, given the setting.
- While a bit iffy as to whether or not it's a verb or a noun, the character of Spite in Sentinels of the Multiverse, a psychopathic serial killer who is later killed and resurrected by a demon god, has a very evocative name that you definitely want to run away from very fast.
Theatre
Video Games
- The aptly-named squad of superbosses from Armored Core: Last Raven: the Pulverizers.
- You should probably run very fast from a weapon the military designates an "Annihilation Platform". Especially when the individual unit's name has a 'mor' in it, being "Moritz-G."
- Bang Shishigami. "BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!!"
- The Man They Couldn't Hang Mr. Lynch in Red Dead Revolver.
- Demon's Souls gives us a sword-slinging boss known as the Penetrator. Let that sink in for a moment.
- If you hear about someone named Nightmare, run as fast as you can. Same goes with that other Nightmare.
- Choke from Ghouls vs. Humans.
- Baal Abaddon from Impire is summonned by a demonologist who decides that Death Slayer is a better example of a name to run away from. In case you hadn't already realised he's got issues.
- From Skyrim, Molag Bal, the King of Rape.
- "God-Splitter" - the name of a powerful Daemonhammer in the Dawn of War series.
- A rare protagonist example, Doom (2016) has the Doom Slayer, a rather more extreme version of the typical Doomguy/Doom Marine. Applies in-universe as well as his name refers to the Legions of Doom, and every demon in the game is afraid of him because of how effective he is.
- Shadowrun Hong Kong had the Triad enforcer "Strangler" Bao. Very much not a man to be trifled with. Or anywhere near, if you can avoid it.
- Terraria Calamity features the Devourer of Gods, a massive worm that serves as Yharim’s personal execution mechanism. Calamity also has the Perforator, a collection of three worms living inside the dead Brain of Cthulhu.
Webcomics
- Goblins spin-off Tempts Fate has a minor villain called Suffer.
- Sluggy Freelance: You'd think someone whose first name is "Kitten" wouldn't sound intimidating or bad, but her last name is "Stranglir", which is a mildly disguised Punny Name version of this trope. The character in question is a hyper-muscular bodyguard to a rich criminal.
Web Original
- Random Assault: Slabflapper.
- SCP Foundation features SCP-2317-K, also known as the Devourer of Worlds.
Western Animation
- Xiaolin Showdown's Chase Young. Meaningful in that he traded his soul for eternal youth.
- The Fairly Oddparents: Jorgen von Strangle, Crusher McPersoncrusher, and Princess Mandie (pronounced Man-Die, if you didn't get it).
- Rocko's Modern Life: Really, would you trust a doctor named Dr. Bendova?
- Ugly Americans: almost all the demons have an intimidating name, but Twayne Boneraper takes the cake. Subverted because he is scary just in the first couple or so of episodes, then he is flanderized into a whiny, clueless, neurotic momma's boy.
Real Life
- Louis the Pious had three sons, Pepin II, Charles the Bald, and Lothair. Guess which one tried to take over the Holy Roman Empire...
- Apparently, a man in Britain named Rob Banks was accused of bank robbery. The court subsequently granted him the right to be tried under a pseudonym on the grounds that his name might, in fact, influence the jury.
- One of the infamous nicknames given to Vlad Dracula: "Vlad III The Impaler."
- Those Wacky Nazis had an infamous Mad Doctor named Josef Mengele, whose surname sounds an awful lot like "mangle". Considering what he did to prisoners in Auschwitz (unspeakably sadistic experiments For the Evulz), that's not too much of a stretch.
- In spite of the Sweet Sheep stereotype, it's really best not to provoke a sheep, especially an adult male with its, er, testosterone source intact. The technical term for such a beast is in fact where we get the verb "ram" from.
