Names to Run Away From Really Fast/Foreign Language Names

A form of Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Languages besides English can be quite open when coming up with names you normally wouldn't give your child.

See also Ancient Dead Languages.

Yue
A word meaning a 'tragic accident' or 'lethal occurence'. Though, this name is given to children who died either before birth or shortly thereafter. Still some parents don't quite get it. It's more widely known to be the Chinese name for "moon."

Anime and Manga

 * Angel Sanctuary's Katou's seldom mentioned first name is Yue, given by his father, because he was not his child, but the result of his mother's betrayal. It didn't finish him off after birth, but in the course of the series he gets killed - or most often kills himself - four times total.
 * Yue from Cardcaptor Sakura counts as well, since as the Judge he had the power to strip away the memories and emotions of everyone Sakura knew and loved. Sakura certainly seemed intimidated by him, though that may also have been due to his appearance and emotionless facade.
 * Yue's name in CCS is actually meant to be Chinese and carries the meaning of 'moon', not the above mentioned meanings. Could still be sort of playing with this meaning, though.
 * Yue Ayase from Mahou Sensei Negima averts the majority of this trope, despite all signs that she might.

Literature

 * In Dune, The Mole is named Wellington Yueh.

Western Animation

 * Princess Yue from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Both meanings ("tragic accident" and "moon") apply: she

Jafar
From the Arabic Ja`far, meaning, of all things, "brook." Probably gained its notoriety from Ja'far ibn Yahia al-Bamarki, about whom read below.

Film

 * Conrad Veidt's role as the evil grand vizier, later caliph in The Thief of Bagdad.

Video Games

 * Jaffar is one of the Black Fangs (an elite group of assassins) in Fire Emblem 7. Averted in that he's also the only one to do a Heel Face Turn.
 * Ja'afar in Quest for Glory II is an aversion; he is neutral at worst.

Western Animation

 * Jafar seems to be the perfect name for an Arabic Evil Chancellor, as demonstrated in Aladdin and Prince of Persia.

Real Life

 * The original Jafar, the one they were all named after, was Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, who was of all things a pious warrior and a cousin/companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Yep.
 * Ja'far ibn Abi Talib's great-umpty-great nephew, Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, was the Sixth Imam of Shi'a Islam (being a descendant of Ali ibn Abi Talib and the Prophet's daughter Fatima) and one of the founders of Islamic jurisprudence. As indicated by his laqab (nickname), he was noted for being upright, honest, trustworthy, and not in the least bit interested in actually ruling (despite claiming to be the legitimate leader of the Muslims).
 * Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki, aka the Grand Vizier Jafar, was a Persian nobleman and the Grand Vizier (i.e. Prime Minister) of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid. He was executed under suspicion of having an affair with the Caliph's sister Abbasa. He appears in the Arabian Nights as a sort of detective (in a tale often cited as the Ur Example of the Detective Story), but his patronage of learning—specifically the revival of Greek and Persian science and the encouragement of the paper industry, recently arrived from China—may have led to a reputation as a sorcerer: hence the villainous connotations.
 * It wasn't exactly "having an affair with Abbasa." Harun al-Rashid basically told Ja'far and Abbasa to get married but not to sleep together. He then flipped out when they disobeyed him. Honestly, he's the one who should have gotten the Historical Villain Upgrade.

Geist
A common Badass name. It translates as "ghost" or "spirit," but people/things named Ghost tend to be far less threatening... unless of course you've built up your tech tree.

Anime and Manga

 * MD Geist
 * Signum from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's can summon the Panzergeist (Armored Ghost).
 * This is more commonly translated as "Tank Spirit", which is more accurate given the effect that it has.
 * In the new .hack manga and video game series, .hack//Link, one of the Big Bad's minions is thus named. It's interesting to note that within Schicksal all members other members are named after musical instruments in German, making Geist the Odd Name Out.

Film

 * The remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari gives this as Francis' surname.

Literature

 * Heh, this gonna be fun... One of Polish literature classics, Lalka, features a certain Professor Geist, late XIXth Century scientist (this trope should be closest. Or this.) working on lighter-than-air metals.

Tabletop Games

 * Geist: The Sin Eaters, of course.

Video Games

 * BloodRayne's' Gegengeistgruppe
 * Geist in Asura Blade
 * Maken X/Shao's Big Bad.
 * John Raimi, alias Geist from the Gamecube title of the same name.
 * The Geist Balrog in Maple Story is a more vicious version of the Crimson Balrog, and is an additional party quest boss.
 * Geists are a kind of undead in World of Warcraft.
 * Schwarzgeist(black ghost) in Einhander.

Web Comics

 * Girl Genius has Geisterdamen ("ghost ladies").

Real Life

 * The Geisterbahnhöfe in the days of the Berlin Wall were quite creepy.
 * Duh. German uses Geist- in the same way as English. Geisterstadt is 'ghost town'.

Mal-
The syllable mal- means "bad", "evil" in many Romance languages, being derived from Latin malus (with the same meaning). It also appears in many English words, as in malicious, malign, malevolent, malignant and (yes, these words exist) maleficent and malfeasant. Malefica particularly is Latin for "witch".

Anime and Manga

 * The dub name of Digimon Adventure 02's Big Bad, BelialVamdemon (see Demons Or Angels): "MaloMyotismon".
 * In the English dub of Sailor Moon, Kunzite was renamed to Malachite. Still a semiprecious stone name, but...

Comic Books

 * Minor Marvel Comics Mad Scientist Doctor Malus, who grants super-powers to deserving C-list Mooks.
 * Malice is the name of two supervillainesses, one in effect the Dark Invisible Girl.
 * Rogue of the X-Men is called Malicia in French, an obvious reflection of her status as a former supervillain.

Film

 * Father Zachary Malius, Evil Albino Sinister Minister in the Slasher Movie Happy Hell Night.
 * Mal Cobb from Inception.
 * Maleagant (see below) is also the main villain in First Knight, under the name Malagant.
 * Mallory "Mal" Knox, one of the Natural Born Killers.

Literature

 * The Malfoy family from Harry Potter. This one is actually only indirectly derived from Latin; thanks to Rowling's obsession with French/Old French wordplay, the name is rough Old French for "bad faith" (modern French would have something else).
 * Ivanhoe has a lot of these. The Templar Preceptor Albert de Malvoisin ("bad neighbor"), for one.
 * Maladict, coffee-addicted vampire  from Monstrous Regiment.
 * Matron Malice from the Dark Elf Trilogy.
 * The Demonata - Malice.
 * Maleagant, a villain from Arthurian legend, introduced by Chretien De Troyes.
 * Gualterio Malatesta, an assassin and villain from the Captain Alatriste series.

Live-Action TV

 * Firefly: Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, who if not an Anti-Hero is certainly flawed. River even Lampshades that interpretation of his name.
 * Mal is supposed to be a subversion of a Villain Protagonist. He's ruthless, but not evil. The entire reason Jayne is there is so you have an actual Villain Protagonist to compare Mal to.

MMORPG

 * The villain of the MMO Wizard 101 is named Malistaire.

Tabletop Games

 * Malekith, the Witch-King of the Dark Elves from Warhammer Fantasy.
 * Earlier we have Malekith the Accursed, the Dark Elf who seeks the Casket of Ancient Winters in the Walt Simonson run of Marvel's Thor comics back in the 80's.

Theatre

 * Malvolio from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Toys

 * Malum, desert-wandering antihero from Bionicle.

Video Games

 * Bishop Malveaux from Zork Nemesis.
 * Special mention to Dr. Malcolm Betruger, the villainous Mad Scientist responsible for the demon invasion in Doom 3. Not just "mal" in the name but Bilingual Bonus as "Betrüger" is German for "deceiver" or "swindler," not to mention sounding a lot like "betrayer," which he does to you early on.
 * And then in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil,.
 * Malus from Castlevania 64.
 * Malus, the  colossus in Shadow of the Colossus. The other colossi have much more harmless-sounding Latin titles.
 * There's also Dreadlord Mal'Ganis from the Warcraft universe.
 * There are a few more, like Malas, Malakk etc. However, the trope is also often subverted, most notably with Malfurion Stormrage, who is one of the good guys.
 * Malin Keshar from Battle for Wesnoth. And the necromancers / liches from the Mal- line.
 * And there's Malpercio from the Baten Kaitos series. Origins reveals.
 * Darth Malak.
 * Malladus. Hoo boy.
 * Malicia, the Wicked Witch from King's Quest VII.
 * Mother Mallum, the ancient, evil Slug Queen that gets
 * Malroth, the True Final Boss of Dragon Quest II.

Web Comics

 * Zola Malfeazium from Girl Genius, who out-Magnificent Bastard-ed the Big Bad.

Western Animation

 * El Tigre features a gigantic monster named El Mal Verde (The Green Evil).
 * The DCAU Superman series had Superman free a trapped Phantom Zone Kryptonian named Mala. Any Spanish speaking viewer knew immediately where the episode was going.
 * The witch Maleficent, the villain of Sleeping Beauty from 1959. As one of the most (maybe the most) distinguished Disney villains, she also appeared in the Kingdom Hearts video game series.

Tod / tot
The German words for "death" and "dead" are "Tod" and "tot" respectively, so people with names that look or sound like it tend to be scary.

Comic Books

 * Frau Totenkinder in Fables, who was every nameless evil witch from fairy tales, and in the story is mostly good but very sinister.
 * Possibly inspired by Friedrich Rückert's Kindertotenlieder (Children's songs of the dead), some of which were set to music by Gustav Mahler.
 * Otto Von Todt, the first vampire met in Requiem Vampire Knight.

Film

 * Major Arnold Toht, the Nazi Torture Technician in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
 * Dr. Totenkopf (= Death's Head) in Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow.

Literature

 * Mr. Tod, the fox in Beatrix Potter. (Though since "tod" is a traditional North English dialect word for "fox," that one may just be a coincidence.)
 * Sweeney Todd, legendary London serial murderer.

Real Life

 * Tod Slaughter, an actor in the early-to-mid-twentieth century who specialized in Card Carrying Villains, including Sweeney. His real surname was "Slaughter", but he added the "Tod".

Others
Russian (and Slavic, in general) names seem to be frequently used in Western fiction for bad guys, probably due to the Überwald and Red Scare tropes. See also the Vlad examples under Conquerors

Comic Books

 * Ra's al Ghul is Arabic for "The Demon's Head."
 * Lobo. Even on earth, it conjures the idea of a rabid wolf, but on his planet, it translated into "He who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it."
 * Why did his planet even need a word for that? How common can that actually be that they need a single word to describe it?

Film

 * The Big Bad of the Seven Swords wuxia movie is named ???? (Feng Huo Lian Cheng), which translates to "Wind and Fire All Over the City", or "city-razing firestorm"...so yeah.
 * Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels is named after "doku", the Japanese word for "poison".

Literature

 * In Scottish, "Thrawn" means a combination of obstinacy, assertiveness, and more than a hint of willful perversity.
 * A variation: Granny Weatherwax's name in certain dwarven dialects translates to "Go 'Round The Other Side Of The Mountain". She's also known in some tongues as "She Who Must Be Avoided".

Live-Action TV

 * Hugo Panzer, from "Chuck vs. First Class".
 * Guerrero, from the TV Show Human Target. Spanish for "warrior."

Video Games

 * "Mathias Cronqvist", anyone? Mind you, that's a real name, but "Cronqvist" certainly sounds intimidating.
 * Mind you, it translates roughly as "crown-twig." Then again, if you get creative with it, you could interpret it as "a branch in the crown of a tree," which would imply that he's just better than you.
 * Or perhaps a crown of thorns?
 * Skeith from .hack. It means "shadow". And for added Run Away Now points, it carries the Boss Subtitle "The Terror of Death".
 * In Adventures of Rad Gravity, Kakos' name vaguely hints at him being the true Big Bad. The final planet is named Telos, the Greek word for "end".
 * The bosses Sonnenblume (German for sunflower), Loewenzahn (dandelion), and Alraune (mandrake, a hallucinogenic nightshade) in P.N.03.

Web Comics

 * Kamikaze Kate from Misfile, evoking images of the Kamikaze suicide pilots from World War Two and also has the hard "K" sound for bonus scariness.
 * It also refers to a specific type of Japanese attack bomber, codenamed "Kate" by the Allies, that would be the type to commit kamikaze runs.
 * Veled from Last Res0rt. It's Arameic for "Rose", which isn't terrifying in itself, but she sure is thorny.

Web Original

 * Adele Couteau, a volent doctor on a proboards RPG site called Eclipse913.

Real Life

 * One of Hitler's generals was called Manteuffel, a name broadly translating as Man-devil. This also comes into English as the name of the sinister country mansion in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca - Manderville. Mrs deWinter, you cannot say you were not warned.

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