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: Weapons (and usually melee weapons, at that) often indicate a character's weapon choice, or imply that they're as dangerous as their namesake.
Examples:
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Any notable firearm manufacturer
Colt, Winchester, Ingram, Glock, Mauser, etc. You're not likely to meet a Alexander U.S. Repeating-Arms, but if you do you should probably run very fast. Zig-zagging. Preferably a very short distance to some sort of solid cover. If behind that solid cover you should happen to find an RPG launcher and a stock of rounds for it, so much the better..
- Soul Eater has Patti and Liz Thompson, equippable allies who turn into, well, guns.
- Subversion: In the anime Scrapped Princess, the Casull family is on the run from the church of Mauser and any last name for any character is a weapon manufacturer. There's enough characters to go from obvious ones like Winya Chester, Barrett and Steyr to more obscure ones such as Galil, Giat, Socom, Scorpse and Peters-Stahl.
- Mauser's nemesis, Browning. Also, Mauser's servants are called the Peacekeepers, and Browning's are the Dragoons.
- Moses Magnum from X-Men
- Monster Hunter International: Owen Zastave Pitt (the Owen submachine gun that his father used in Vietnam, along with Zastava, the main small arms manufacturer in Serbia). Subverted in that Word of God confirms that he's named after the place in Serbia that is also the namesake of the manufacturer, it's just a nice coincident for an author and a character who many people would put under the Gun Nut trope.
- The Winchester brothers on Supernatural. In the episode "The Benders," a county police officer asks, "Like the rifle?" and Dean answers, "Like the rifle."
- In the season 4 episode "It's a Terrible Life," the bewitched brothers believe their names are Dean Smith and Sam Wesson.
- Thomas Magnum of Magnum, P.I.
- Tony Beretta, the cop from the '70's TV show, Beretta.
- Remington Steele
Professional Wrestling
- Oficial AK-47 from the International Wrestling Revolution Group
- Ingram Plisken from Super Robot Wars. Bonus points for sharing the surname of a dude called Snake.
- There are a lot of Banpresto Original characters named like that. There's Kyosuke Nanbu, Excellen and Lemon Browning, Lefina Enfield, Sean Webley, Ingram Prisken, Calico and Spectra among others...
- Death Jr. has Smith and Weston, but in an odd subversion they're just Siamese twins with little to perceivably do with guns. We expected better from a series containing the word, "death."
- Umineko: When They Cry's Chiester Sisters are each named after the make number of a given gun. Thus far there are Chiester 45, 410, 00, and 556. 00 refers to the 00 shotgun shell; 410, the .410 shotgun round; 45, the .45 Colt round; 556, the 5.56x45mm NATO assault rifle round. In the fifth book, two additional Chiester Sisters are mentioned: Chiester 20 and Chiester 127. 20 refers to 20mm rounds fired by a M61 Vulcan Gatling Gun, while 127 refers to 127mm shells fired by a 5-inch deck gun.
Webcomics
- Subverted in Loserz — Ben Winchester, Jodie Beretta, and Eric Remington are all fairly ordinary high school students (although Jodie is a massive slut and is revealed in the sequel strip, Quarter Life Crisis, to have grown up to be a stripper, she's not someone you would exactly run from).
Blade
- Tekkaman Blade. Most of the other Tekkamen have weapon names too (Dagger, Axe, Sword...), and if that isn't enough indication you should run, there's Tekkaman Evil. Then Tekkaman Blade II has Tekkaman Dead.
- The Blade.
Fan Fiction
- Vash of Christian Humber Reloaded gets called "Blade" by
SonicSpin the Hedgehog, because he's "the only one (Spin) know(s) who knows how to wield a sword like a pro".
Film
- Blade
from the Live-Action Adaptation of Masters of the Universe.
Literature
- In Survivor Dogs, the leader of the Fierce Dogs pack is named Blade.
- John "Johnny" Tyler Blade, the main villain of the Walker, Texas Ranger episode "Lost Boys"
- A mutant from VR Troopers.
- Kamen Rider Blade
- Captain Blade, leader of the chameleons (a race of faceless Humanshifter aliens stealing people's identities in order to take over an airport) in the Doctor Who story "The Faceless Ones".
- Variation: Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue.
- The Queen of Blades.
- Jack of Blades, from Fable.
- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Blados is such a nice guy.
- Jonathan Blade, the Bounty Hunter in Eternal Champions.
- Power Blade.
- The secret sixteenth student in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is called Mukuro Ikusaba, which roughly translates to 'Corpse Warblade'. Subverted in IF when it's revealed she's not really a bad person.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The Blades are a group of ancient dragonslayers, led by the Dragonborn, who can steal the souls of dragons and kill them permanently. When they ran out of dragons to kill, the Blades became the personal bodyguards of the Dragonborn Emperors. The Aldmeri Dominion made a smart (if slightly dickish) move in wiping them out before beginning the war with the Empire.
- The Blades of the Darkmoon in Dark Souls are servants of Velka, Goddess of Sin. They are charged with punishing people with outstanding sins(in-game, this constitutes killing NPCs, getting indicted by players you've invaded and killed, etc.), usually by invading their world and killing them. Velka's influence is so great, other deities fear her power.
- Blade, the subfinal boss of Red Earth
Real Life
- Bloody Knife, a Native American scout who fought for Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer during the Great Sioux War of 1876. He died along with Custer at Little Bighorn.
Bullet
- Bullitt, from the movie of the same name
- Bullet, the protagonist of Cynthia Voigt's The Runner, though it's technically not his real name. He's a very fast runner. It proves a tragically appropriate name, as he is killed in the Vietnam War.
- One of the Fierce Dogs in Survivor Dogs is named Bullet.
- Subverted in the Red Dwarf episde "Back to Reality", where Kryten tries to sound tough with the name Jake Bullet ... only to discover that his Badass-sounding 'Cybernetics Division' is traffic control.
- Calvin and Hobbes: One of Calvin's imaginary alter egos is the hard-boiled private eye, Tracer Bullet.
- Bulletta (B. B. Hood) from Darkstalkers.
- The Bullet Bills from the Super Mario Bros. games. Justified because that's what they are—giant bullets with human faces.
Gunn
Anime & Manga
- In Sword Art Online's second season, we have "Death Gun", who is actually two murdering brothers.
- Tommy "The Machine" Gunn from Rocky V.
- Subverted in Snatch., where Tommy tells people he was named after the gun when he was actually named after a famous ballet dancer.
- Gunn, the chief of security in The Return of Swamp Thing.
- Wayside School has Bebe Gunn and her little brother, Ray Gunn
- The Nightside's Shotgun Suzie aka Suzie Shooter aka Oh God, It's Her! Run!
- Ben Gunn from Treasure Island, at least in the past. Now he's become senile and weak from being abandoned on the island for so long.
- In Mass Effect 2, the protagonist is given the alias Solomon or Alison Gunn (depending on their gender).
- Peter Gunn
- Charles Gunn, the muscle on Angel.
- Subversion: Tim Gunn of Project Runway, consistently the nicest person on the show.
- Funnily enough, the tenth season of the very same show featured a Designated Villain named Gunnar. Gunnar Deatherage. It's almost hard to believe that's someone's actual name.
Hammer
- The very hard-boiled Mike Hammer.
- Iron Man foe Justin Hammer.
- Enemy Ace, real name Hans von Hammer
Film
- Star Wars: Darth Maul, anyone? This can actually work as a verb too.
- Thir13en Ghosts has The Hammer as one of the ghosts of the Black Zodiac. Said ghost is a Scary Black Man with railroad spikes embeded in his body and his blacksmith hammer in place of his hand.
- Jack Vance has Villain Protagonist Cugel the Clever, a homophone for cudgel. Also a jab at the character, since a cudgel is the exact opposite of his attempt to be clever and subtle.
- In the Warrior Cats series, the main villain was named Hammerclaw in drafts of the first book. Someone pointed out that the cats wouldn't know what a hammer is, and his name got changed to Tigerclaw (the cats know vaguely what Big Cats are).
- Roran Stronghammer from the Inheritance Cycle.
- The title character from Sledge Hammer!, who's a borderline insane, over-the-top parody of violent Cowboy Cops.
- The Maulotaur (episode 2 boss) from Heretic, named after the huge maul (sledgehammer) which is his weapon.
- Sister Hammer, from Fable II
- Orgrim Doomhammer from the Warcraft series, a double whammy.
- Subverted by Hammer in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, a scary-looking American army man who, upon finding himself in Dracula's castle, starts collecting weapons... to open a shop. Mina is spooked; Soma is just perplexed.
- The Mjolnir (after Thor's hammer) cyborgs in the Marathon verse, and the Mjolnir armor of the Spartans in Halo. Also, Foehammer, the dropship pilot from the first installment of the latter series.
- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: "The Hammer is my penis."
- Vyacheslav Molotov is a double-whammy - the incendiary bomb is named for him, and molot is Russian for "hammer".
- Charles Martel, illegitimate son of Pepin of Herstal and de facto ruler of the Franks from 718 to 741 CE. If you're curious, his last name was actually a cognomen, meaning "Hammer", for the way he crushed his enemies on the battlefield.
- The Malleus Maleficarum, or "Hammer of the Witches" in Latin, was a witch hunting manual that aided in the frenzied wave of executions responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during The Renaissance and The Cavalier Years.
Hook
- Peter Pan: Captain James Hook, though it's revealed to be an alias.
- Caleb Hooks, a recurring antagonist of Walker, Texas Ranger.
Theatre
- Peter Pan: Captain James Hook, "Mrs. Hook's little baby boy."
- One of the Constructicons was named Hook.
Icepick
Toys
- There's a Decepticon by the name.
- Icepick is also a bad guy from one of the Double Dragon games and one of the Skate or Die games.
Knives
- Evil brother Millions Knives from Trigun
- Shanks from One Piece. Subverted in that he's really a nice guy, and not in an Affably Evil way. Then double-subverted when it's revealed he's one of the Four Emperors, one of such power that not even the Marines, Warlords, nor other Emperors want to antagonize directly. When the Marineford War was about to devolve into a Mêlée à Trois, his appearance and threat to join in the brawl stopped the war right there and then.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim
- Dagger from the Marvel Comics duo Cloak and Dagger.
- Tough-looking character actor (and real-life ex-con) Danny Trejo often plays characters named after edged weapons. He's been Navajas ("knives" in Spanish), Razor Eddie, Razor Charlie, and Machete no less than four times.
- Flight of the Intruder features resident Ensign Newbie "Razor", so dubbed because he doesn't look old enough to shave. When he proves to be very bloodthirsty when defending downed pilots from enemy ground forces, he is renamed "Straight Razor".
- Shank, the gang leader antagonist in the ultra-violent Slaughter Race game in Ralph Breaks the Internet. Though, like most Wreck-It Ralph video-game villains, she's a decent person once you get to know her.
- The Nightside's Razor Eddie, punk god of the straight razor.
- Andy Shank, who has a posse mainly because 'it was safer to be beside Andy than in front of him.' His favourite weapon was cutlass.
- In Survivor Dogs, one of the dogs in the Fierce Dogs pack is named Dagger.
- Mack the Knife, the character from the song of the same name.
- Not sure if it fits here, but Tezzeret is actually a term for any improvised weapon (at least, in his native tongue. He got his name after he used a crude knife to take down an older boy who had been bullying him. He takes the name to heart, as he sees his intellect as a great weapon that many take for granted.
- Shank
- Dagger, from Final Fantasy IX
Webcomics
- Dirk Strider from Homestuck.
- The Daggers from SeaQuest DSV.
Mace
So badass it actually got two weapons, a spiky club and a tear gas, named after it. It thus can be an incredibly tough-sounding name for both men and women, and so can certain sound-alikes such as "mason"—after all, it's somebody who cuts rocks. On the other hand, "Macy" isn't a good, tough name, as naming tough people after department stores is a no-no.
- Luke Cage foe Mace. Justified three times: His real name is Gideon Mace, his hand is a mace and it sprays mace.
- Mace was also the name of the Jerkass hero of The Ewok Adventure.
- Also from the Star Wars universe is Mace Windu. Given that he beat Sidious in a lightsaber duel, is one of the only Jedi to freely draw upon anger, aggression, and dark side of the force, has torn apart droids with his bare hands and is played by Samuel L. Jackson, yes, you should run away really fast.
Literature
- In the David Gemmell novel Morningstar, the main character has two of these, his real name being Jerrik Mace and his title being Morningstar.
- In Survivor Dogs, one of the dogs in the Fierce Dogs pack is named Mace.
- Colonel Mace of UNIT in Doctor Who. When confronted with a Sontaran invasion, changes the bullets to steel jacketed, nullifying the Sontarans anti copper jacketed bullet field, calls in the Valiant, a flying aircraft carrier with massive fire power, gives a rousing speech, then proceeds to kill the Sontaran field Commander with a revolver, after saying "You will face me sir!"
- HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic.
- Mike Morningstar again, as a morning star is also the name for a mace with spikes.
- The Morningstar is also a common nickname for this guy named Lucifer, ever heard of him?
- Yes, but that aspect of the name is already on the appropriate page.
- The Morningstar is also a common nickname for this guy named Lucifer, ever heard of him?
Needles
- The Needle, member of Spider-Woman's Rogues Gallery.
- Back to the Future: What's the matter, McFly? Chicken?
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Monster of the Week "Needlenose".
- The murderous psychopath clown from the Twisted Metal series is called 'Sweet Tooth' after his ice cream truck by most people, but his ''real' name? Needles Kane.
Scourge
- Scourge from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), an Evil Counterpart of Sonic.
- Marvel Universe:
- The dreaded Scourge of the Underworld, a group dedicated to murdering super villains.
- With The Mighty Thor, the villain known as the Executioner is also known as Skurge.
- Cluny the Scourge from the first Redwall book.
- Scourge from Warrior Cats.
Tropes
- During the 2009 Christmas campaign, RuneScape introduced a Scrooge expy named Ebenezer Scourge. He wasn't all that scary, mind you, but he was a jerk before his inevitable Heel–Face Turn.
Spike
Anime and Manga
- Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop fame is an Afro Asskicker (actually, make that Jewfro Asskicker) and one hell of a bounty hunter.
- Spike, a one-off Angry Guard Dog from an episode of Script Fic Calvin & Hobbes: The Series.
- Spike the vampire from Buffy the Vampire Slayer starts as a villain, and being a hundred-and-twentysomething he poses a far bigger threat than most regular vampires. He also has a unique record (as far as we know) of having killed two Slayers. Interestlingy, a 'Beware Dog' sign is regularly shown in the background in his scenes.
- Spike, the Angry Guard Dog from Junk Yard.
- Spike the bulldog from Tom and Jerry, who is strong, dangerous, and imposing. While Jerry was generally on his good graces, Tom was frequently disposed of by him.
Swords
Anime and Manga
- Motoko Kusanagi. Admittedly a pseudonym, but still...
- Given that it would be like a westerner calling herself "Mary Excalibur", yeah...
- The Ten Espada from Bleach.
- Tsurugi Inugami, is named after a sword. He's also named after a Japanese Mythology god as a bonus. The thing is, he is not one bit of a badass. In fact, he is a downright pushover to Misao Nanjo.
- The legendary assassin of the Bakumatsu, Hitokiri Battousai, which practically translates as "the assassin quick at drawing swords."
Film
- General Katana in Highlander II: The Quickening.
- Saber from the Inheritance Cycle.
- Swords of Blood and Fire from David Gemmell's White Wolf
- The Sword of the Morning, Ser Arthur Dayne from "A Song of Ice and Fire"
- Domingo Espada from DoubleShot, whose last name is Spanish for "sword".
- Kamen Rider Sasword
- Sabre on American Gladiators.
- Star Saber and Wing Saber of Transformers
- Durandal of Marathon.
- Durandal from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and The Blazing Blade.
- As well as Cortana from Halo.
- Jerkass antihero of Climax's Dreamcast Timestalkers game, simply named Sword. Actually, everyone playable has a simple object name like the puppet being named Marion, except the elf Nigel, who was a hero from a previous game (though Sword is the only one people want to get away from for being such a smug Ahole). Lady scares the three mobster bad guys a lot, but that's because they're really just bluffing blustery types who are used to others doing their work.
- The Wario series has Kat & Ana, twin ninja girls. They also have a pet bald-eagle and monkey named "Shuriken" and "Nunchuck" respectively.
- Bayonetta. Not necessarily evil, but you're sure going to want to run very fast if you ever bump into her.
- Fate/stay night. Any Servant called Saber. Especially King Arthur. SHE's badass. Their Masters have canonically won every Grail War that has happened. (Technically, no Servant has won the War.)
- The Kusanagi Unit.
- Brian Randall, author of Kyon: Big Damn Hero, chose the punny pseudonym "Durandall" for himself.
Weapon
- In Galaxy of Fear, Eppon is actually Pokémon Speak. It's explicitly stated to be a corruption of "Weapon".
Webcomics
- Far Out There features a little boy named "Megaweapon." Disturbingly, it fits him perfectly.
- Weapon Brown. Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame took about 35 levels in Badass and his whole milieu got Darker and Edgier.
Others
- Just about every character in Soul Eater was named both after their weapon or weapon form and a famous musician. Examples: Maka Albarn, whose first name is an anagram of the Japanese word for scythe, "kama". She wields a Sinister Scythe and is one, in the anime. Black Star uses a giant shiruken, the Thompson sisters turn into Thompson Eagles, Jackie O'Lantern Dupre is a flamethrower, and Harvar D. Eclair is named after the French word for "lightning", conciding with the fact that he is an electric lance.
- Empowered: Willy Pete gets his name from the military lingo for white phosphorus.
Film
- The James Bond franchise gives us Francisco Scaramanga, also known as "Pistols" or "The Man with the Golden Gun''.
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, another movie based on an Ian Fleming book, has the villainous Vulgarian rulers Baron and Baroness Bomburst.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze provides mutant wolf Rahzar, which sounds like "razor" (to the point the 2012 cartoon returns the name to someone Mikey compared to a "dog with razors").
- The last name of the Serial Killer in Replicant is eventually revealed to be Garrotte (like the strangling wire).
- Citizen Admiral Esther McQueen from the Honor Harrington series - aka "Citizen Admiral Cluster Bomb".
- Snaga the Sender, The Blades of no Return. Druss the Legend's axe
- Simon Green's Nightside gave us "Shotgun Suzie," aka "Suzie Shooter," aka "Oh Christ, It's Her, Run!"
- Heinz Axmann, Stasi officer from Schwarzesmarken
- Ryan Laserbeam from True Jackson, VP. He's a good guy, but still, damn!
- Chuck has Hugo Panzer, who is actually a skilled swordsman. However, since he's played by Steve Austin, he is built like a German tank.
- Lost Girl has The Glaive, said to be the attorney general for all Faekind.
- Laser and Nitro on American Gladiators.
- One episode of Blackadder the Third has Edmund Blackadder and Baldrick taken captive by French revolutionaries and handed over to a female torturer/executioner named Madame Guillotine.note Fortunately, she turns out to be The Scarlet Pimpernel in disguise. Unfortunately, this only becomes apparent after Edmund poisons him.
Radio
- Captain Lazerbeam from his skits on Thrilling Adventure Hour, though the running away part depends on how opposed the villian/listener is to a nonstop barrage of puns.
- In certain Transformers continuities, there is Bludgeon, a ruthless Decepticon martial artist who, in most incarnations, has a skeletal samurai motif. Ironically, he doesn't wield a bludgeon at all, favoring swords and/or Metallikato techniques for close combat.
- Duke Nukem. Or does that count as a verb?
- Mocked in Dragon Age II in the Mark of the Assassin DLC; the party gets ambushed after speaking to a contact named Edge, and your party members point out either that the name is ridiculous ("Edge? That's his name?") or that they shouldn't have trusted a guy with a name like that.
- The Iron Knuckles enemy from The Legend of Zelda series.
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown has the player control the hot-headed Trigger.
- Saints Row has Johnny Gat, a staple character of the series. Bonus points for Gat being both gang slang and a legit surname.
- Batman Beyond had a nasty one pop up while Terry was investigating a Nebulous Evil Organisation of psychics. As you would expect, the creepy lady can blow things up with her mind.Terry: By the way, what's the creepy lady's power?
Tamara: I don't know, but they call her "Bombshell".
Terry: Oh, THAT'S encouraging.
- Eric Bloodaxe, King of Norway and Northumbria.
- Henry Shrapnel. And by his own doing: the reason he's got a name to run away from really fast is because shrapnel was named after him.
