Follow TV Tropes

Following

Names To Run Away From / Religious Names

Go To

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 from religion and mythology.

Subtypes:

See also Religious and Mythological Theme Naming.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Abraxas 
A name of God from Gnostic theology.

Comic Books

  • Abraxas is an evil cosmic being in Marvel Comics, the antithesis of Eternity.

Films — Live-Action

Literature

  • Abraxas Malfoy and the Abraxan flying-horse breed in Harry Potter.

Live-Action TV

  • Abraxas is the name of demon in Charmed who tries to steal the Book of Shadows by reading its spells reversely.

Tabletop Games

  • In Pathfinder, Abraxas is a demon lord with enough magical power to erase entire spells from existence and strip casters of their power forever.

Web Original

    Alastor 
A demon of vengeance in Greek myth (the name literally means "Vengeance"), and a possessing entity akin to Nemesis in Christian demonology. Spelled "Aleister," may be an allusion to purported black magician Aleister Crowley. It is often confused with/disguised as Alasdair/Alastair/Aistair, which is the Scottish Gaelic form of Alexander (which is of course a Name To Run Away From Really Fast in itself).

Anime & Manga

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • Alastair is one of the highest and most evil demons in Supernatural. Throughout his appearances his goal is to bring about the Apocalypse, but he really wants to return to Hell so he can continue his "studies" in torturing souls.

Tabletop Games

  • The Executioner of Hell in the Ninth Hell of Nessus in Dungeons & Dragons.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade, alastors are the Camarilla enforcers charged with hunting down and destroying the Anathema, those vampires who the Camarilla have marked for death.

Video Games

Web Animation

    Allelujah 

Anime & Manga

  • Allelujah Haptism from Mobile Suit Gundam 00... well, not so much him as his sociopathic split personality Hallelujah.

Literature

  • In Tom O'Bedlam, by Robert Silverberg, "synthetic human" Alleluia is superhumanly fast and strong. She's also seriously mentally unstable.

    Circe 
A classical sorceress who enjoyed turning men into pigs. This name tends to indicate a vamp.

Comic Books

Literature

Video Games

  • Strangetown, a neighbourhood in The Sims 2 has Circe Beaker, a ruthless and cold-hearted woman married to resident evil scientist Loki.

Web Comics

    Cronus, Kronos, or Saturn 
In Greek mythology, the titan Cronus (also spelled Kronos) was the former King of the Gods and the father of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Fearful that his kids would overthrow him, he tried eating them - this didn't work and Zeus overthrew his father.

The Roman name of Cronus is 'Saturn', and the titan is indeed associated with the planet. The Roman form also has the added effect of sounding a bit like 'Satan'.

Anime

  • Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon. When our heroines first meet her, they (mistakenly, mind you) think she's evil, due to being possessed by Mistress 9.

Film - Animated

  • In The Incredibles, "Operation Kronos" is the name of an evil plan cooked up by Syndrome. The plan is to build Omnidroid robots capable of killing superheroes.

Film - Live-Action

Webcomics

  • The background lore of Girl Genius mentions a Saturnus Heterodyne who tried to kill his kids Bill and Barry.

Real Life

  • In medicine, "saturnism" is an old-fashioned word for lead poisoning.

    Dagoba 
A Buddhist monument or burial mound, also known as a stupa, although that name is less menacing.

Films — Live-Action

  • The swamp planet Dagobah in the Star Wars franchise. It is here that Luke trains in seclusion with the hermit Yoda, in a tradition that is clearly drawn from [Western perceptions of] Buddhism and Eastern mysticism.

    Dante 
Of The Divine Comedy fame (including the Inferno), and thus:

Anime & Manga

Films — Live-Action

  • Dante's Peak is the name of the volcano that catastrophically erupts in the film.

Live-Action TV

Literature

Tabletop Games

Video Games

Real Life

    Electra 
A figure from Greek myth who conspired to kill her own mother after she murdered Electra's father. In modern times it has been used occasionally to denote the female form of the Oedipus Complex. Even when not completely evil, almost always mysterious and alluring. The direct translation Amber is never used this way, however.

Comic Books

Films — Live-Action

  • Elektra King, the Femme Fatale in The World Is Not Enough who gets involved with Bond. It eventually turns out that she's the main villain, having seduced Renard previously and using him to fulfill her plan.

Music

    Faust 
And all derivations of it; it means "fist" in German and carries some pretty diabolic undertones due to Faust being the subject of the quintessential tale of the Deal with the Devil.

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

  • Felix Faust is a longtime Justice League of America villain.
  • '90s Anti-Hero Faust from the eponymous comic series. He used to be a painter, but prefers bloodbaths to acrylics since his resurrection.

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • Dark Faust from Ultraman Nexus, the first of the evil Ultras called Dark Giants.

Music

  • German Progressive Rock band Faust, culpable of terrifying deeds such as performing the Cabaret/noise-rock anthem "Why Don't You Eat Carrots".

Theater

  • Faust from the various versions. Origin of the name.

Video Games

Real Life

    Fenrir 
Norse Mythology. A giant wolf, son of god Loki, fated to break free from his chains on the coming of Ragnarok and eat Odin. Also known as Fenris, Fenrisúlfr...

Literature

Video Games

  • You can actually get a dark magic tome in Fire Emblem.
  • Fenris Wolfbrother, an orc chieftain in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal.
  • Fenris Isle in World of Warcraft, probably not named after the orc. Home of a dark wizard and his Gnolls (hyena-like humanoids) minions until the Cataclysm expansion pack. Also Fenrus the Devourer, a gigantic wolf worg.
  • Fenris from Dragon Age II.
  • A villain in the Marathon Game Mod Courier 11.

Live-Action TV

  • Doctor Who features an ancient evil entity with the name of Fenric in the Season 26 serial "The Curse of Fenric", a being trapped by the Doctor in a flask and using its still considerable powers to manipulate various people as pawns over the centuries in order to gain his freedom.

    Hades and/or Acheron 
The Greek underworld (likewise the god that rules said underworld) and the river one must cross to reach it, respectively.

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

  • Red Robin: The Daughters of Acheron are women who have left behind their names and gained dangerous dark powers. There are at least two of them, one of whom is a half-sister to Ra's al Ghul, and they nearly kill Tim.

Literature

  • In the novelization of Aliens, Acheron is the name given to the planet LV426. Why the Company would do so is not mentioned, but it's implied it may have something to do with the constantly burning fusion-powered atmosphere processors giving the Death World a hellish aspect.
  • The entire Hades family in the Thursday Next novels, named after the Greek underworld and the rivers in it.
  • Acheron Parthenopaeus, the leader of an army of immortal vampire hunters in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series.

Tabletop Games

  • The Infinite Battlefield of Acheron in Dungeons & Dragons is an Outer Plane situated between the planes of pure law (Mechanus) and lawful evil (Nine Hells). This plane of existence is better known as the afterlife for evil Blood Knights who died believing that War Is Glorious, as well as being the home of certain evil war gods such as Maglubiyet and Gruumsh.

Video Games

    Hydra 
In Greek mythology, a multiheaded water serpent that would regrow two heads in the place of each one that was cut off.

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Literature

  • In The Executioner novel Stony Man Doctrine, Hydra is the codename for a KGB plot to attack the United States using chemical weapons deployed by thousands of terrorists.

Video Games

    Janus 
The Roman God of Gates, Doors, etc... Often depicted as having two faces. The doors of his temple were ritually opened when Rome went on war.

Films — Live-Action

  • The Big Bad of GoldenEye is codenamed "Janus". He's revealed to be Alec Trevelyan, former British agent 006.

Literature

  • The Janus Man is a Colin Forbes novel about the hunt for a double agent during the Cold War, the eponymous Janus Man "who faces both East and West".
  • Janos Slynt is the name of a villain in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Video Games

  • Janus from Chrono Trigger who not only prophesizes that Chrono will die in his fight with Lavos, but is also the past self of apparent Big Bad Magus.

Western Animation

  • Butters was once sent to a therapist called Dr Janus in South Park who (falsely and for ridiculous reasons) diagnosed him with having multiple personalities, in reality it's Janus who has multiple personalities some of them Ax-Crazy

    Jormungandr 
The World Serpent of Norse myth.

Anime & Manga

  • The namesake of the manga and animé series Jormungand, where it is the name of a system designed to deprive humanity of the use of planes and crash the ones who are airborne at the moment of activation.

Literature

Video Games

  • Blizzard likes this one: Jormungar are giant ice worms in the Norse-themed Northrend of World of Warcraft.
  • A gigantic serpent called Jormungandr serves as an early boss in Magicka.
  • In StarCraft, the Jormungand Brood, controlled by the player during the Zerg campaign, and therefore responsible for the invasion of Aiur.
  • The Midgar Zolom of Final Fantasy VII, a fearsome optional encounter in the early game, although easily defeated if you go back later with a levelled-up party. His name is a mistransliteration of Midgardsormr (literally "Midgard Serpent"), the epithet of Jormungandr.

    Kali 
One of the most powerful forms of the Hindu arch-goddess Shakti and the most terrifying of demon-slaying deities. Her name literally means "the dark/black one".

Live-Action TV

Pro Wrestling

  • The Great Khali.

Theater

Video Games

    Lamia 
An ancient Greek demon whose description boils down to 'succubus of children.'

Anime & Manga

  • Also see Demon Lord Dante by Go Nagai. Lamia wants to alternatively either screw or eat everyone in the city to have/make food for her zillions of spider babies. (She's a drider instead of the typical half-snake version fantasy works usually toss up.)

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

Video Games

    Loki 
The Norse god of mischief who did a Face–Heel Turn and murdered Baldr/Balder/Baldur. He's destined to lead the enemies of Asgard in the ultimate battle at Ragnarök.

Comic Books

Films — Live-Action

  • Marvel Cinematic Universe: One of the recurring characters is Loki, a Frost Giant and the God of Mischief.
  • Dogma: One of the disgraced angels is called Loki.

Literature

  • American Gods: Shadow's cellmate is called Low-Key Lyesmith. Y'know, Loki Lie-smith.

Live-Action TV

Video Games

  • Bayonetta 2 has Loki, one half of the god Aesir. Though he is definitely a mischievous one and has Balder gunning for him due to him blaming him for Rosa's death, he's not the evil one in this game. That honor belongs to Loptr, Loki's Evil Twin, who wants the Eyes of the World for himself.
  • A Gender Flipped version of the character of the same name in Fire Emblem Heroes.
  • God of War (PS4) has Kratos' son Atreus, whose birthname by his mother Faye is Loki. Though more of an accident, he did take a huge role in Baldur's death.

    Morrigan 
From Irish Mythology, "the goddess of battle, strife, and sovereignty" as stated in The Other Wiki. Properly, she is The Morrígan, with an acute accent, but who's counting?

Comic Books

  • In The Wicked + The Divine, she is a young woman who flashes between three separate aspects (and in the vein of WicDiv's pop star pantheon, separate aesthetics as well) of the goddess: Her dominant personality, the one closest to the person Marian used to be, is the icy furious Macha; her anger manifests as the violent war-goddess Badb; and the kindest, arguably wisest, part of her is Anand, or Gentle Annie.

Live-Action TV

  • Morgwyn of Ravenscar, the leader of a group of Satanist nuns in the Robin of Sherwood two-parter "The Swords of Wayland".

Video Games

    Nergal 
A Babylonian deity, a fiery god of war and destruction. Identified with the planet Mars.

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

  • In Hellblazer, Nergal is a demon who is one of John Constantine's oldest and most frequent enemies.
  • In The Wicked + The Divine, it is revealed that Baphomet is actually Nergal, but he took the name of Baphomet because he didn't want people making Warhammer 40K jokes.

Literature

  • In The Stormlight Archive Nergaoul, one of the Unmade, granting the Thrill—a supernatural thirst for combat and conquest.

Tabletop Games

  • Nurgle, the oldest of the four Gods of Chaos in Warhammer 40,000, the God of Death and Decay, whose specialty is spreading nasty disease.
  • Pathfinder has the demon lord Nurgal and the infernal duke Nergal. They were once a single being, an evil deity of the sun and deserts, before being cut into two parts by a rival.

Video Games

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Nergal, frontman/lyricist of the Polish death-metal band Behemoth. Somewhat fitting, since their lyrics play with theosophy a lot.

    Nemesis 
Greek goddess of revenge.

Anime & Manga

  • Team Nemesis of Gundam Build Fighters. In the sequel, it's revealed that it's apparently the owner's surname, as his grandson Lucas Nemesis is the undefeated European champion.
  • In Sailor Moon, the tenth planet, infused with evil energy and homeworld to the villanous Black Moon Clan, is called Nemesis.

Video Games

Western Animation

  • In Transformers, especially in the cartoons, there is almost always a Decepticon ship called Nemesis, more often than not Megatron's flagship. The title "Nemesis Prime" is also common, generally given to an Evil Twin of Optimus Prime (and whose toy is generally easy for Hasbro to make; they just take a preexisting Optimus Prime mould and use black plastic instead).

    Odin 
Norse Mythology. Usually referred to as 'the Allfather', 'Old One-eye' or 'the Ferryman' and two hundred additional names. Not evil, but doubtlessly a badass and capable of scary extremism sometimes, especially when it came to his love of hunting and sacrifice. Some of his names translate into "Chooser of the Slain", "God of the Slain", "Ruler of the Gallows" and "Visitor of the Hanged". Naming Him directly might bring you unwanted attention.

Anime & Manga

Literature

  • Odin from American Gods, although he actually avoids using the name.
  • The Dresden Files: Donar Vadderung is Odin in modern day, or at least is the inheritor of his Power. A former god, the man gave up his godhood to become more mortal and be allowed to stay in the mortal world and help influence things. He runs a mercenary group filled with Valkyries and Einherjar, the chosen dead, and every weapon and armament since the stone age is in perfect condition in his base, from old stone-and-stick clubs to modern tanks. He is a powerful and dangerous fighter even if he is weaker than what he was before. He is also Santa Claus and enjoys leading The Wild Hunt.

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Real Life

  • David Lane, founder of a neo-Nazi terrorist organization called "the Order," followed a white supremacist variant of Germanic Neo-Paganism and used "WOTAN" as an anagram for "Will Of The Aryan Nation."

    Pandora 
Not evil by intention, but released evil upon the world.

Anime & Manga

  • Gives its name to the research organization PANDORA in Darker than Black, which like Nergal in Nadesico is ostensibly good - apparently no one in either cast studied mythology.

Films — Live-Action

  • Pandora is also the world inhabited by the Na'vi in Avatar. Not evil itself, but a foreshadowing that it won't remain undisturbed. Also fits the Greco-Roman theme naming of planets note 

Literature

  • Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles have a vampire named Pandora, though she's not particularly evil.

Live-Action TV

Music

Video Games

Webcomics

  • In El Goonish Shive, Pandora is (one of) the chosen names of the world's most powerful Immortal. She chose it because she saw herself as similar to the original's box, a trap for the curious... but people didn't get it when she just called herself "Box".

    Set(h) 
Egyptian god of power, sandstorms, rage, and the desert. Began as a very powerful but good deity, gradually turned into an asshole and then into a near-personification of evil in later myths.

    Shiva 
Hindu god of destruction. Associated with fertility and life as well. His famous dance (seen on classical Indian bronze statues) symbolizes destruction and rebirth.

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Tabletop Games

  • The Shiva Squadron from the Feng Shui supplement Glimpse of the Abyss are a Demon Slaying Amazon Brigade with eight arms much like their namesake (they're even called "shivas"). They're also not too keen on anyone who associates with demons, even if the demon in question has joined the forces of good (like quite a few Supernatural Creature PCs).

Video Games

    Ragnarok 
The End of the World as We Know It in Norse Mythology.

Anime & Manga

  • The street gang, Ragnarok, from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. It's top eight members are all martial artists who go by the names of various figures from Norse Mythology.
  • In Soul Eater, Ragnarok is a demon sword bonded to Crona — literally, as it's fused with their blood.

Comic Books

Live-Action TV

Video Games

    Reaper 
These are usually some take-off on The Grim Reaper.

Anime & Manga

  • Rory the Reaper from Gate.

Live Action TV

  • Altered Carbon. Reaper is the street name for a drug used for near death experiences, though the protagonists only use it for a knockout drug.

Video Games

Real Life

    Tantalus 
A figure from ancient Greek legend better known for his Ironic Hell punishment than for what he did to earn it.

Comic Books

Literature

Live Action TV

  • Star Trek: The Original Series. In the evil mirror universe, Captain Kirk has an alien device called a Tantalus Field which he uses to monitor and if needed destroy his enemies.

Video Games

    Titan 
Named after the Titans, ancient proto-gods from Greek mythology. If you are in a superhero work, and you hear the name, or title, Titan, why are you still around to hear it?

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Films — Animation

  • In Megamind, an Ascended Fanboy becomes "Titan" when super-powered, but turns out to be a lot less heroic than his empowerer had in mind. (Also, he misspells it "Tighten")

Video Games

Real Life

  • The Titanic.

    Valkyrie 
Valkyrie (from Old Norse valkyrja, "chooser of the slain") has been used to name aircraft in both fiction and reality. It's also one of the few "tough" female names. The Xtreme Kool Letterz probably don't hurt — a V, a K and a Y?

Anime & Manga

Fan Works

  • Rocketship Voyager. In her Back Story, Kathryn Janeway was assigned to the UNRS Valkyrie whose female crewmembers mutinied against their male officers.

Films — Live-Action

  • In Thor: Ragnarok, Valkyrie is a bounty hunter who captures Thor on Sakaar, and later helps him escape. Subverted in that her real name is later revealed to be Brunnhilde, and Valkyrie is just her (former) occupation.

Tabletop Games

Real Life

     Xibalba 
The underworld in K'iche' Maya mythology, also translates as "place of fear".

Films — Live-Action

Music

  • A trilingual extreme metal band from Pomona, CA.

Western Animation

    Others 
Anime and Manga
  • The names of two Gundams in Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer are derived from the Qur'ān, the Islamic counterpart of the Christian Bible:
    • Zabanya - derived from Al-Zabaniya, the name describing the 19 guardians of Hell
    • Harute (and by extension, the Marute System)- derived from Harut and Marut, a pair of angels who descended from heaven to test the people of Babel/Babylon by performing deeds of magic.
  • Same goes for the legendary yandere Yuno Gasai of Future Diary — named after Juno, the Roman equivalent of Hera.
  • The Deuteragonist of Romancing Apoptosis Doll Sartain In Love is named Kusari Izanami, Izanami as in the Japanese God of the Dead. He's a Mad Scientist who severaly violates What Measure Is a Non-Human? by trapping a group of Artificial Intelligence-loaded dolls in a serial experimenting site to find one who can actually "love" without becoming "an idiot". Any doll who becomes an "idiot" (showing odd expressions and just overall acting like love freaks) are unquestionably all but Killed Off for Real and he's not far from manipulating or outright controlling Sartain to carry out the executions in his place.

Film

  • In the 1962 adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate, the Chinese agent who "reprograms" the title character is named Dr. Yen-Lo, which is the same name as the Taoist god of death.
  • FernGully: The Last Rainforest's Big Bad, Hexxus, takes his name from hex, meaning an evil spell or curse, itself derived from the Germanic word for "witch".

Literature

Video Games

Webcomics

  • Rhea, of Slightly Damned, happens to be named after a Greek titan—the mother of Zeus, in fact.
  • "Dullahan" is the original name for the Headless Horseman, a sinister Implacable Man who wasn't even slowed down by the loss of his head. 6 Gun Mage has the rebel leader Dullahan Cas, who survived being hung with barbed wire (though presumably his head didn't actually come off). He's an absurdly skilled sharpshooter, animals don't like him, is supposedly the chosen one of a long-forgotten god, oh and he appears to be either lucky beyond belief or nigh unkillable. Possibly both.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • Beast Wars's Megatron uses this as an invoked trope, in an attempt to be the figure from the series' equivalent of The Bible, "The Covenant of Primus". The Transformers Wiki put it best: "What distinguishes Megatron from the countless others who share [his] goal is his chutzpah. This is a guy who named himself after his faith's equivalent of the Antichrist."

Real Life

  • Oda Nobunaga is often referred to as "Dairokuten Maou", "Devil King of the Sixth Heaven", in various franchises he appears in (a nickname he apparently chose for himself in Real Life). This is roughly the Buddhist equivalent of Satan.
  • Orcas. otherwise known as Killer Whales (if that name wasn't bad enough), have the scientific name of Orcinius orca, Basically named after Orcus, the Roman god of death. That's right, Shamu is named after the god of death.
  • The Greek god Pan is a literal one, as his name is the root of the word Panic.


Top