Follow TV Tropes

Following

Louis Cypher

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/belle_zeebub_5.png
Corso: "L... C... F." Who's LCF?
Ceniza Bro: Think.

Just like how the trope Alucard deals with people named (or naming themselves) after Dracula, this is about people with a name similar to the devil. Maybe the literal Devil has taken a personal interest, or maybe it's just a high-level demon or an Agent of General Badness, whatever the local badness happens to be called. In any case, it's powerful, it's bad, and it's one of the Names to Run Away from Really Fast!

Common manifestation of this trope include plays on the following names:

  • Lucifer: A name meaning "light-bringer" and associated with a Fallen Angel who became the Devil. Be wary of guys named Louis Cypher and gals named Lucy Fare. The names "Lucy", "Lucien" and "Lucius" while all coming from Latin "lux" (light) have gained a bad reputation in general thanks to Lucifer.
  • Satan: Often comes as play on the name such as Natas, S. Ayton or Stan A. and more generally, be wary of two-syllables names that start with S and end with N.
  • Samael: The name of a Judaic figure often treated as a Satanic archetype. The Devil or Antichrist may sometimes introduces himself as "Samuel".
  • Morning Star: While the term is a title for Jesus Christnote , it's also associated with Lucifer due to shared etymology. The German surname "Morgenstern" is a literal translation and may be used as an alias of the Devil. Though play on the names, like "Morgan Starr" are possible.
  • Old Nick: An old-fashioned name for the Devil in Christian folklore. Beware of strange fellows named "Nicholas", "Nick" or "Nixon"
  • Lilith: Another Fallen Angel in Christian and Judaic mythology. Lilith or any she-demon may go by "Lily".
  • Davy Jones: The nautical equivalent. Davey Jones is said to harvest the souls of drowned sailors in English folklore. Be cautious around sailors named David or Dave or any ships run by a "Captain Jones".
  • Other names such as "Old Scratch", "Baal", "Belzebub" and "Beast" are also used in aliases.

Apparently the Devil's not very good at choosing aliases, despite having a huge variety to pick from. Or maybe it just shows his opinion of the hero's intelligence level. Or, it could just be ego.

Bonus points if his address or phone number is prefixed 666.

Sub-Trope to Devil in Disguise.

Common in Deal with the Devil stories. See also Sdrawkcab Name and Alucard. Related to Most Definitely Not a Villain. If God Is Evil, Louis Cypher may be a Steven Ulysses Perhero. This character may also be a Devil in Plain Sight.

This is often a reveal trope, so spoilers ahoy!


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • The demon "Sebastian Michaelis" of Black Butler is a quite clever example via Genius Bonus. Sebastian is the stock name for butlers in Japanese TV, but Sebastien Michaelis was an actual person, a French inquisitor and witch hunter who wrote about supposed instances of demonic possession. Thus, having a demon calling himself that is a similar effect to having Satan call himself John Milton. In-story, it's eventually revealed that Sebastian's name was given to him by Ciel, who named him after his dog, something Sebastian isn't thrilled about (he's a cat person). For bonus points, Sebastian also sometimes says that he is "One hell of a butler". In Japanese, it sounds a bit more straightforward, as what he says is ambiguous and can mean both that he is a demonically good butler or that he IS a demon and a butler.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • This is how Goku realizes that Shen is actually God in disguise. "Shen" as in Shenlong, which means "God". ("Shenlong" means "Divine Dragon".) The fact that it's so obvious an alias that Goku figures it out speaks volumes.
    • Piccolo identifies as "Manote Jr." when participating in the World Martial Arts Tournaments. Apparently, he believes calling himself "Piccolo" (as in, "King Piccolo") would be too much to panic the audience, but demon isn't nearly as threatening.
  • The title character of Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! makes absolutely no effort to hide the fact that she's Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos, even introducing herself as such when she joined Mahiro's high school class and making references to the Mythos in casual conversation. Apparently nobody other than Mahiro and his mother has ever heard of H. P. Lovecraft. On the other hand, Nyarko is far, far friendlier than Nyarlathotep is usually portrayed, so maybe people just don't believe her.
  • In Revolutionary Girl Utena, Akio Ohtori's name is derived from the Japanese term for the Morning Star - which, as he notes, is commonly used to refer to Lucifer. It's appropriate, considering his past as the angelic Dios and his current Manipulative Bastard role. He casually reveals the etymology behind his name to Utena halfway through the series. She still takes a while to catch on.

    Comedy 
  • In one of his routines, Mitch Hedberg briefly joked about a doctor who did nothing but suck the blood from his neck.
    Mitch: Don't go see Dr. Acula.

    Comic Books 
  • Principal Diablo in All-Ghouls School (although Diablo may not be an alias).
  • In an Archie Comics story from the sixties, Betty makes a deal with one Mr. Inferno for Archie's love. When she learns from Veronica he'd made the same deal with her a long time ago, the two of them turn on him with such looks of rage that he cancels both deals and beats a hasty retreat down through the sidewalk.
  • Lew Siffer in this Chick Tract, among others.
  • Inverted in Fall of Cthulhu with Lucifer, whose chosen name is simply a portmanteau of her first two given names (Luci Jenifer).
  • When The Antichrist from Ghost Rider has to keep low profile, he decided to hide as a teenage Corrupt Corporate Executive under the name Anton Sat'An. Multiple times he has to remind people his last name is not Satan. And when two Ghost Riders, one Demon Slayer, Daimon Hellstrom and an entire army of Angels gets on his back, he's suprised they have found him so easily.
  • In The Gift, bullies pick on a freshman named Lucius Sephar, who has been bound into the form of a ninth-grader as God's punishment. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for the bullies.
  • In his youth, Hellboy once encountered a Circus of Fear run by one A.T. Roth, AKA the Demon Lord Astaroth.
  • In his solo series, Marvel's Iceman encountered a woman named Marge Smith who turned out to be a Cosmic Entity named Mirage.
  • Lucifer in Lucifer makes a slightly better effort than most, going by the name Mr. Lux (Mr. Light, still a reference to Lucifer's Latin meaning of 'light bearer') even though he puts so little effort in otherwise that it seems the only reason no one identifies him is that they're too embarrassed or scared to ask. Or too distracted by his resemblance to David Bowie.
  • Boss Dark Side from The DCU series Seven Soldiers.
  • In Squee! the protagonist Todd Casil is invited to the home of the anti-christ, Pepito. Despite the fact that Pepito has a distinctly demonic look and powers his mother did not realize her husband Juan Diablo was in fact Satan in disguise (a disguise he happens to remove as soon as he comes home from work, in plain sight of her, presumably every night; he still had to outright tell her for her to realise who he was).
  • Spider-Island: Hercules' tie-in issues have him interact with a black man calling himself "A. Nancy", which isn't an insult so much as it is a reference to African myth's Trickster God, Kwaku Anansi, who also goes by Aunt Nancy. He gets pretty close to breaking Kayfabe by noting the similarity, but without revealing to Herc that he is the real deal.
  • Mr. L.C.F. Sat in the ValĂ©rian album, In Uncertain Times. He's sort of an antagonist in the story, but by no means a bad guy, and gets himself a happy ending.
  • Warren Vampirella had the story "Eleven Footsteps to Lucy Fuhr". Not 666, because that would have been too obvious.
  • Batman: The recently discovered final issue of the 1970s Joker title had "Lou Cypher" appear to the Joker and offer him a deal. Since the issue ends on a cliffhanger and the rest of the story was almost certainly never written, it could just be one of the Joker's psychotic delusions.

    Comic Strips 
  • Peanuts: An older and subtler example than many, Charlie Brown's football-wielding nemesis was Lucy van Pelt — Lucy-Fur, implying she was a literal devil with a blue dress on. Which says odd things about Linus being her brother.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animated 
  • The Big Bad of the obscure Australian film Abra Cadabra introduces himself to the audience as B.L.Z' Bubb and immediately acts offended and suspiciously denies, after hearing the narration talking about nasty people, that he and his lackey the Klaw are nasty at all, preferring the terms vile and vicious leaving no doubt that the meaning of their names are of no concern to them.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • "Lucy Fir" from 666: The Child.
  • Angel Heart: Louis Cyphre is Satan, as played by Robert De Niro. Lampshaded by Harry: "'Louis Cyphre'. Lucifer. Even your name is a dime store joke." Louis explains, "Mephistopheles is such a mouthful in Manhattan."
  • In the Mind Screw musical film The Apple, the Devil takes the form of a corrupt record executive named Mr. Boogalow. And God is a Hippie commune leader named Mr. Topps.

    Literature 
  • Some gods in American Gods use names like this to blend in:
    • Low-Key Lyesmith turns out to be the Norse god, Loki.
    • Odin uses the name "Mr Wednesday".note 
    • Anansi is called Mr. Nancy.
    • Anubis calls himself Mr. Jacquel, being an anthropomorphic jackal in Egyptian mythology.
    • Thoth is called Mr. Ibis.note 
  • In one of Isaac Asimov's more humorous theological stories, the entity responsible for the afterlife following the end of the world turns out to be a fellow named R. E. Mann (Ahriman, the Zoroastrian term for the God of Evil). After God reveals his ongoing plan (he never meant to end the world but has been talked into giving conditions in which it could end in the form of prophecy), R. E. Mann goes to work writing a proposal for a unified world calendar, so that he can produce a day that the whole world will agree is the proper date.
  • Piers Anthony's Being a Green Mother has Natasha, "Ah, Satan" spelled backwards. It's also a legitimately common name that originated in Russia as a derivative of Natalya, so it doesn't seem like quite a dead giveaway
 Just plain weird, anyway, as it's a female name, and the character is male.
  • Forced to disguise himself in Bill the Galactic Hero, the seven-inch-tall Chinger named Bgr builds a Mobile-Suit Human and calls himself Beager.
  • In Call of Cthulhu stories and games, it is not uncommon for Nyarlathotep's presence to be part of the Reveal, sometimes quickly followed by Total Party Kill.
    • "Neil O'Tip? The guy doesn't look Irish."note  Lifetime achievement award to Neon Genesis Evangelion\Lovecraft Fusion Fic "Children of an Elder God", by John Biles and RPM.
    • Neil Arthur Hoteph, the well-dressed black gentleman from Egypt, is also a very popular one.
    • Also the anagrams. "The Royal Pant"? Are you seriously expecting any CoC-savvy gamer to not find that suspect?
  • Mr. Scratch, in Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster". He doesn't make much of an effort to conceal his true identity, however.
  • Old Scratch, in Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker".
  • Most gods in Eight Days of Luke uses names similar to their own when blending in with humans;
    • Loki is Luke.
    • Tiu is Mr Chew.
    • Odin is Mr Wedding.
    • Freyjr and Freya are Mr and Mrs Fry.
  • Maou Sadao from The Devil is a Part-Timer! may have the worst alias ever. The given name he chooses (Sadao) is perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately the characters he chooses for his family name are çœŸć„„ (secret inside) and he pronounces them "Maou" which means devil. Alciel, his aide, even complains that this was a terrible decision. The official English translation of his name is Jacob Satan.
  • Louis Cypher in William Hjortsberg's Falling Angel. Louis ends up laughing at his own lame pun (to the protagonist's irritation) about solving the "Cypher".
  • In False Memory, a Dean Koontz novel, the evil psychologist is named Mark Ahriman. Not only is his last name identical to the name of the chief figure of evil in Zoroastrianism, but when he travels, he uses aliases that have two things in common: very ordinary first names, and last names that are the name of the Devil. One example is "Jim Shaitan," Shaitan being one of the names for the Devil in Islam.
  • In the Katharine Kerr novel Freezeframes, the character Nick Harrison is revealed to be the devil. While not as common nowadays as Old Nick, Old Harry is another term for the devil, as used in The BBC radio comedy Old Harry's Game.
  • Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett:
    • Three of the four motorcyclists of the apocalypse travel incognito before they are revealed as the horsemen, each with a name based on their colour. War, for instance, was a wartime journalist named Carmine "Red" Zuigiber, who (naturally) had a knack for finding conflict wherever she went. Famine, going by the name "Raven Sable," was a diet food mogul. And Pollution didn't stay in one place or have a solid alter ego, but was generally known as Chalky, Whitey, Blanco, etc.
    • The demon who tempted Adam and Eve in the form of a snake was initially named Crawly, which mutated into "Crowley" by the time the story takes place.
  • Lian Tanner's The Keepers novels have the most dangerous room in the Museum of Dunt, known as Old Scratch.
  • Stephen King:
  • Professor Woland, "expert of the occult", from Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Woland is a nickname of the devil in German folk legend and one of the many Shout Outs to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, where Mephistopheles lets on that he sometimes uses this alias.
  • Mistborn: The Original Trilogy: The voice of Reen in Vin's head? That was actually the god Ruin.
  • The Mortal Instruments has the Big Bad, Valentine Morgenstern and his son Sebastian/Jonathan Morgenstern. The former explicitly acknowledges his surname's connection with the Devil. The Morgenstern family heirlooms are the twin swords Phaesphoros ("lightbearer") and Heosphoros ("dawnbearer"), both titles that allude to Lucifer (Phaesphoros is literally the Greek translation of Lucifer).
  • Derek Leech from Kim Newman's stories.
  • The butler in the Nightside novel Hell to Pay says his name is Hobbes — at least, that's how John Taylor hears it at the time. He later realizes that "Hob" is an archaic name for the devil; the butler actually said "my name is Hob's".
  • In a bizarre, but fantastic portrayal, Not Wanted On The Voyage indicates Satan as a seven-foot-tall transgender woman named Lucy. She's also on the side of good; Noah is evil. It's that kind of book.
  • The Big Bad from The Ozone Hotel is called Lucy-Fur Quim.
  • Gil-Martin, Robert Wringhim's Evil Mentor, in The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. This example is even more ambiguous than most, since that novel also presents possible evidence that he could simply be one of Robert's Split Personalities. The name "Gil-Martin", however, comes from folklore—it is said to be one of the Devil's names (along with "Martin's servant" or "St Martin's footman"), although it's unclear who this St Martin is supposed to be.
  • In the German pulp series Professor Zamorra, using anagrams of or other plays on his real name when disguising himself as a human is explicitly a long-standing personal quirk of the demon lord Asmodis — who's generally powerful enough to not mind being found out and so probably just does it for his own amusement.
  • In Alexander Kuprin's story "The Star of Solomon" the devil uses the name "Methodius Isayevich Toffel" i.e. Meph-Is-Topheles.
  • John Collier's short story "Thus I Refute Beelzy". A condescending, obnoxious father finds that his son's imaginary playmate has another, more diabolical name.
  • There is a German story by James Kruss entitled "Timm Thaler", in which the antagonist's name (at least in the Russian translation) is Tretch. The protagonist sees his name in the mirror in the latter half of the book, it turning out to be an anagram of "Chert", which is Russian for "Demon"
    • In the original German (including TV and film adaptions), he's called Lefuet, which is a good Sdrawkcab Name if you know German.
    • There was a TV adaptation (which didn't have much in common with the book, by the way) where the antagonist was called Baron Lived in the English translation.
  • "Triumff", by Dan Abnett, is about a conspiracy to overthrow the English throne led by Sinister Minister Aleister Jaspers. A minor character hanging around the edges of the book is a humanoid cat, who in the epilogue is revealed to be the real Aleister Jaspers, implying the Big Bad was an example of this.
  • One interpretation of Joyce Carol Oates's short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is that the antagonist is a representative of Satan. This is supported by his strange name, "Arnold Friend."
    • In addition to this, flies are present throughout the story. Flies are often associated with Beelzebub, Belial, and Satan. The car in the story also has the words "Man the Flying Saucers" written on it, which, rearranged, spells: "Lying man, he uses craft".
    • Plus, there is a sort of offhand line, if I recall correctly, ever so slightly suggesting Arnold Friend—A(r)n Old F(r)iend?—just might have hooves instead of feet.
      • In particular, he's wearing boots and has really bad balance. It's not so much implied, though; he either has hooves or literally no feet, since his boots bend sideways at the ankle at one point.
    • He also describes events taking place several blocks away as they're happening, in enough detail that makes it seem unlikely that he's just making it up.
  • The title character in Charlotte Dacre's Zofloya; or, The Moor.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Battlestar Galactica (1978) had one Count Iblisnote  during its "War of the Gods" two-parter. A mysterious visitor to the rag-tag fleet, he uses mysterious powers and miracles to persuade the Colonials to willingly grant him their loyalty, while mysterious beings of light start appearing and the characters start talking about theology. He's eventually driven off when he accidentally strikes down a protagonist who explicitly rejected his authority.
  • Invoked in the Burn Notice episode "Friendly Fire" — Michael presents himself to some credulous Latino gangsters as a mysterious figure dressed in black and red, who seemingly causes explosions with a snap of his fingers and speaks in a very low, calm voice. He calls himself "Luis" after the leader himself outright sarcastically asks if he's supposed to be The Devil.
  • Criminal Minds, while it doesn't have canonical supernatural elements, has still invoked this trope—the cannibalistic Satanist unsub of "Lucky" is named Floyd Feylinn Farrell. Since F is the 6th letter of the alphabet, "FFF" is "666". "Mr. Scratch" is another example; not only is "Mr. Scratch" itself an actual commonly used name for a devil, the killer's own name is Peter Lewis.
  • The Danny Thomas Show: In one episode, Danny suspects that his rival Jack Benny owes his success to a Deal with the Devil. He imagines a meeting between Benny and the Devil, AKA "Lucifer H. Mephistopheles."
  • The Drew Carey Show took this Up to Eleven when Kate's boyfriend "Jack" comes to Drew for a job interview and reveals that "The Devil" is not merely his nickname. ("Does he have a van? I bet the Devil has a really cool van.") At one point he even shows the gang his driver's license (first name The, last name Devil). We learn that he's from Jersey (natch) and his previous job experience includes used car sales, the DMV, the post office... and UNICEF. ("Hey, nobody's all bad!")
  • One of these appears on Good Eats, making a pact with a woman (and eventually her rival) to help her win a cake-baking contest with a new recipe: Devil's Food Cake (and for the rival, Red Velvet Cake).
  • In the sitcom Homeboys in Outer Space the Devil appears in one episode under the name of "Mr. Tan". The heroes realize the truth when one of them says "say, Tan..."
  • Averted in Lucifer (2016). Lucifer straight up tells everyone that his name is Lucifer Morningstar and that he is the Devil. It is then subverted because in Los Angeles people are used to strange names and assume that it is just a stage namenote  and refuse to believe him that he is the Lord of Hell.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000:
    • Jokingly invoked during the riffing in the episode "The Wild World of Batwoman", while watching an educational high school short called "Cheating". As a student is shown getting high marks for a test on which he'd cheated, Tom Servo mimics his teacher saying, "This contract arrived for you from a Mr. Elzebub."
    • Subtly referenced in the episode "The Undead" when Mike quips "Thank you, Mr. Zebub" when a hand comes from off-screen and lights Diana's cigarette for her.
  • Briefly, Ray Wise's character in Reaper, although he identifies himself pretty quickly.
  • Riverdale has Veronica lampshade this upon meeting the Devil appropriately named Louis Cypher.
  • On Supernatural, Lucifer's vessel is named Nick.
  • The Twilight Zone (1959):
    • "Printer's Devil" centers around a strange gentleman who goes by the name "Mr. Smith" who appears after the protagonist says he'll do anything to keep his failing newspaper business going. Mr. Smith modifies their Linotype machine and everything he reports eerily happens shortly after he writes about it. Then he tells the protagonist he'd like him to sign a contract turning over his soul as payment...
    • "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" has a Corrupt Corporate Executive end up in the office of one Miss Devlin, who sends the exec back in time to (supposedly) get richer earlier. The exec ends up instead becoming a janitor in the firm where he should have worked while the janitor he'd previously abused got his old job. It's implied that "Miss Devlin" makes a game out of eternally tricking the two into switching places, ruining their lives 'for the first time' every time.
  • The Twilight Zone (1985):
    • In the episode "Dealer's Choice", a group of friends find themselves playing poker with a stranger named "Nick", who keeps getting three sixes in every hand he is dealt...
    • Yet another episode features an "A. Daemon".
  • The 2017 Brazilian series Vade Retro, whose title translates to something on the lines of begone, is protagonized by an unscrupulous, richer-than-rich entrepreneur named Abel Zebu and his naĂŻve lawyer, Celeste (literally from the sky). There are also Abel's wife, Lucy Ferguson, their son, Damien, his stepdaughter, Carrie, and his employee, Lilith, a burlesque dancer.
  • Whitechapel (TV Series) had a Gender Flipped version in the form of Louise Iver. Which as an added bonus, is also an anagram of "I rouse evil", which is exactly what she does throughout the episodes.

    Music 
  • The Polish stoner rock band Corruption has a song titled "Lucy Fair".
  • The first song of the album Smite And Ignite, a tie-in for the video game League of Legends, is entitled 'Lightbringer', with the vocalist proclaiming this as his title in the chorus. On the face of it, like most of the songs on the album, this is simply an allusion to one of in-game items... but guess how 'Lightbringer' would be rendered in Latin?
    • This is made even more obvious if you know who the vocalist is, since he's been somewhat typecast as this in another band...
  • There's a German screamo band that goes by the name of Louis Cyphre.
  • In "El dĂ­a del final", a Les Luthiers play, the antichrist is born from Satan as a woman called LucĂ­a FernĂĄndez. Luci-FernĂĄndez.
  • Don McLean's American Pie features such a character, identified by the narrator as "Jack Flash," in the song's climactic penultimate verse, his appearance heralding the final transition from the turbulent but hopeful '60s to the ultra-cynical '70s. Many have speculated that this character is a metaphor for Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, owing to the Stones' songs "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Sympathy for the Devil;" McLean disliked the Stones' Darker and Edgier brand of rock and at the close of the '60s they had become infamous after a man was stabbed to death during their performance at the infamous Altamont Free Concert (though contrary to popular belief, the song they were playing at the time was not "Sympathy for the Devil").
  • The Narrator of Regina Spektor's "Pavlov's Daughter", Lucille, can be interpreted as this.
  • For U2's ZooTV tour in the '90s, Bono introduced the character of Mr MacPhisto.
  • Lil Uzi Vert chose a named that sounded like Lucifer.

    Pinballs 
  • The "Luci" Premium Edition of the AC/DC pinball table is named after Hot as Hell devil girl Luci, who is heavily implied to be Satan.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Radio 
  • Frequently used in Old Harry's Game, although not as a twist since we know which character's Satan. There's sometimes a twist when the detail of who he's disguised as gets held back, instead.
    • In more recent episodes, he goes by the name 'Mr. Harrison' when disguised as a human, presumably a reference to 'Old Harry'.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • The protagonist of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War goes by the callsign Cipher of the Galm (Garm) Team of the 66th Division of the 6th Air Force, and gains the title Demon Lord of the Round Table.
  • In Alan Wake there is a character called Barbara Jager, who probably has no direct connection to Baba Yaga. Also Mr. Scratch from Alan Wake's American Nightmare.
  • Castlevania:
    • Castlevania: Curse of Darkness has a priest named Zead who occasionally advises Hector, who turns out in the end to be Death. He uses the Sdrawkcab Name approach, but to add a twist, he reverses the Japanese pronunciation of his English name. Also, though it's spelled differently, Zed (the Commonwealth pronunciation of the letter Z) is equated with the Omega of the Greek alphabet, which in turn is often associated with ending and death.
    • Renon from Castlevania 64 claims he is nothing more than a demonic businessman who sells goods because "one needs gold even in Hell these days". According to the contract if you spend 30,000 or more he owns your soul, and when he swings by to claim it he reveals himself to be a very high-level demon with power that actually surpasses Death himself.
  • In Demonbane, there's a mysterious woman calling herself Nya. As the story progresses, players can see her face briefly change to a demonic being with three burning eyes. Eventually, it's revealed that she's Nyarlathotep. It appear again as Father Ny in the Elder Gods ending and as Nyarla in the prequel novel.
  • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: A side case involves a girl named "Athena" who has been chatting all the time with a third-year middle schoolboy who became a Hikikomori because of her. The girl turns out to be Minervamon.
  • Doom (2016): You can initialize Samuel Hayden's name to S. Hayden. Uh oh. It turns out to be a Red Herring in the sequel. His real name is Samur Maykr, the Seraphim.
  • One quest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is started by randomly encountering a man named Sam Guevenne in a bar. As it turns out, he is actually Sanguine, the Daedric Prince of Debauchery and Hedonism, and you're in for a ride if you choose to join him. As is the case for most Daedric Princes, he isn't inherently "evil" and, in this case, is more interested in just having a good time. For completing the quest, he gives you a powerful magical artifact as a gift "to remember old Uncle Sanguine".
  • Eternal Darkness plays a variation, where the Big Bad Pious Augustus often masquerades as a human named P. Augustine.
  • The Final Boss battle of Guitar Hero III involves a guitar duel between the player and a recently revealed to be demonic manager named... you guessed it... Lou. As a matter of fact, he points out to the band, in some extremely fine print, a clause stating "Your soul is MINE!" The not-quite-part-of-the-band Guitarist is essentially called down to "Lou's Inferno" (aka Rock 'n' Roll Hell) to save his/her bandmates' asses. They duel to a heavy metal version of ''The Devil Went Down to Georgia''. In this case, up until the point the hapless band tumbles to Hell... pardon me, "Lou's Inferno"... there isn't any clear evidence that there's anything otherworldly about him. For all they know, he's just a veteran metalhead who's a little too into it. Given how vanishingly few metal bands who used Satanic imagery ever took it seriously, this lapse of judgment is perhaps forgivable.
  • In the H-Game Lucy Got Problems the succubus protagonist, Lucy, is more properly named Lucile Furr, and has about five or so middle names, nicely crossing over with I Have Many Names. It's not stated whether or not she's related to You Know Who, but...
  • The flash game Motherload, in which you play as a mining company whose benefactor is the mysterious "Mr. Natas". A real head-scratcher, that one.
  • Pony Island: Louey in the colorful version of Pony Island.
  • In all the IF routes in Sengoku Rance, a woman named Keikoku with long pink hair that has flower patterns on it shows up. Eventually, one way or another she is revealed as being some sort of evil figure. It's actually difficult to figure out exactly what she is, though. She isn't human, she's not a demon and she isn't a youkai. She's classified as Monster in Free For All.
  • Louis Cypher/Cyphre is a common pseudonym for Lucifer in the Shin Megami Tensei series, where he often interacts with the main character disguised as a human.
    • In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey he switches genders as "Louisa Ferre".
    • In Shin Megami Tensei IV, where he appears as Japanese schoolgirl Hikaru.note 
    • In the first SMT, there's also Ambassador Thorman. That one's pretty obvious. But an inversion of the trope as Thor is rarely considered evil, at worst a jerkass.
  • Trisha from Catherine turns out to be the goddess, Ishtar using an anagram of her name.
  • One of the rulers in the "Chronicles of the Sword" side game in SoulCalibur III is named Demuth Beel Zebus Halteese. Guess which alignment he falls under. Go on, guess.
  • A rather strange example of Moral Guardians meddling with the game, The North American version of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time features a character named Luther. His name is Lucifer in the Japanese version. The weird part is that the game really has no particular reason to make such a change. Religion in general, fictional or otherwise, is avoided.
    • In general, however, while specific religious themes aren't harped on, MANY names of antagonists were changed in most Star Ocean games for localizations. For instance, Azazel, the original JP name for a SO3 antagonist, was changed to Azazer, as the original refers to a fallen angel of Abrahamic lore, and most of the Ten Wise Men from SO2 had similar changes to avoid sounding overtly religious.
    • The PSP port rendered them back to the original names. As for Lucifer/Luther, it could also be a subtle Take That! to the Moral Guardians by giving the comparison the Luther being related to Martin Luther, the man who kicked off the protestant reformation. Add in that most Moral Guardians are Protestant...
  • In a non-devil example, there is the Arc Villain for the Wall Street mission in Unavowed, one "Mr. Roy Fellows", the enigmatic CEO of Grant City Trust. It turns that Fellows' real identity is that of Robin Goodfellow, one of The Fair Folk.
  • One of these appears in the World of Warcraft raid instance Ulduar, a vast prison built to contain the Old God Yogg-Saron. Throughout the instance, players hear the voice of Sara, a vrykul woman trapped by minions of Yogg-Saron, calling out to them to help her. When they reach him, Sara spends the first phase of the fight helping and encouraging the players... and reveals in the second phase that she's really an avatar of the Old God himself. She'd lured the players down through the prison to unlock all the gates and break the final bonds holding him in place.
  • Yo-kai Watch 3 reveals that the mysterious Lucas' last name is Schiffer. Lucas Schiffer. Considering he's a Yo-kai and the son of the original Enma, it makes sense.

    Web Animation 
  • Glitchtale has a very, very subtle version with the Big Bad of season 2, Betty. An ordinary, innocent name until you find out that it's actually a shorthand for BĂȘte Noire, referring to the object of a very strong hatred, or literally meaning "Black Beast"..

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • In the British/Canadian cartoon The Baskervilles the owner of Underworld: The Theme Park is Mr. Boss, whose real name is Nicolas Lucifer III.
  • Big D in the Class of 3000 episode "The Devil and Lil' D".
    Lil' D: What's your D stand for?
    Big D: Uh... Dwight.
  • The Red Guy from Cow and Chicken. He was blatantly referred to as The Devil in the pilot.
  • Although the Devil from The Cuphead Show! is always referred to as such, he doesn't pass up the opportunity to name a few of his many aliases during his introduction song.
    "They call me Old Scratch, Mr. S, the Big D,
    I'm the king of the underworld, yeah, it's great to be me!"
  • In The Devil and Daniel Mouse, Jan Mouse signs a recording contract with a producer named B. L. Zeebub. Bad move.
  • Luci from Disenchantment is a clear reference to Lucifer though he's at the bottom of the demon ladder rather than being the devil. This gets played with throughout the show, from revealing its simply short of "Lucille" to the final season revealing His full name is actually Lucille Lucifer Jr. DCLXVI, and he is in fact one of Satan's children.
  • The Gary Coleman Show: The villain Hornswoggle, implied to be a demon; his name is another word for conning, deceiving or swindling somebody.
  • Gravity Falls features an Eye of Providence-esque demon by the name of Bill Cipher. A relative?
  • Lucius Heinous VII and his son Beezy on Jimmy Two-Shoes. It's never directly stated, but the implication is obvious. It's even more obvious with Lucius Heinous I, who (based on his memorial painting) looks a lot more like the traditional interpretation of Satan.
  • Moville Mysteries: One episode focuses on a boy trying to out-do the musical talents of her sister and takes a guitar lesson from a blind guy named Blaine Louis Zee Bonsoir. When the man mysteriously disappears and leaves him his guitar, the boy becomes really talented. Moville, seeing this, points out that the man's initials in the guitar read "BLZB". At the end, it's subverted in that the guy doesn't really have that name but that he changed it to fit the initials on the guitar. One he won from a guy so talented that people claimed made a Deal with the Devil...
  • The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Devil to Pay". The Ghostbusters appear on a game show called "Race the Devil", hosted by one "Dib Devlin". The question that lands them a spot on the quiz is "give me two additional names for the Devil"... For some reason, Egon gets a bit suspicious. The appearance of Satan himself on a kid's show is unconvincingly averted by this bit of writer wit:
    Winston: I have sold my soul to the Devil. I have sold my soul to the Devil.
    Ray: Actually, Winston, Dib is a minor demon, not the Devil per se.
    Winston: I have sold my soul to a minor demon. I have sold my soul to a minor demon.
  • Rick and Morty:
    • "Something Ricked This Way Comes" gives us Mr. Lucius Needful, who owns a mysterious store that offers magical items for free whose "price" is that they always have some kind of ironic twist attached to them. Being wise to these tricks, Rick outright asks him if he's the Devil upon meeting him. After that, Needful doesn't even bother hiding it and straight-up calls himself the Devil. When Needful reveals his true identity to Summer, her response is essentially "Well, duh, but you've been nice to me."
    • In "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", Morty's gym teacher, Coach Feratu, is revealed to be a vampire. Hilariously, "Feratu" isn't even his real name, but an alias he picked out to blend in with humans (his real name being Balik Alistane). When The ruler of all vampires hears of Coach Feratu's death, he goes into a rant about how stupid it is for masquerading vampires to give themselves names with subtle clues to their identity.
    • Subverted in later episode with Mr. Lunas, who Morty suspects lives on the moon. He is just a regular human being; what Morty saw was just a smidge on his telescope.
  • In the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu", an alien satyr named Lucien is revealed to be the Lucifer of Earth mythology. Notably, in this one, Lucifer is actually a good guy.

Alternative Title(s): Lou Cypher, Lou Siffer, Satan Was My Agent, Suspiciously Devil Name, Your Name Sounds Suspiciously Like Lucifer, Satanic Alias, Devilish Suspicious Name, Louis Cyphre, Lou Cipher

Top