Tom the Dark Lord

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The villain is a universe-destroying, child-killing, virgin-raping douche and his name is Steve. Generally played for laughs, Tom the Dark Lord is when a character that's evil doesn't have a particularly evil name. In fact, this could effectively be used as Nightmare Fuel if you have the character human and a Complete Monster. Tom the Dark Lord sometimes goes hand in hand with Embarrassing First Name, but not always. Bonus points if it manages to be meaningful or ironic. Contrast with Names to Run Away From Really Fast, which is about evil people with obviously evil names. See also Fluffy the Terrible which is about vicious animals and beasts with cutesy names.

Examples of Tom the Dark Lord include:

Anime and Manga

• Adam, known by his more feared nickname "the Millenium Earl" in D.Gray-man?

Comic Books

• In the original V for Vendetta comics, Adam Susan definitely counts. However, in the film, it sorta counts, but not quite because while he's still named Adam, his surname has been changed to make him Adam Sutler.
• In the limited series Venom: Lethal Protector, the eponymous Villain Protagonist was captured by the Life Foundation, who used his symbiote to spawn five offspring, and then gave them to five mercenaries, hoping for a team of warriors that were as deadly as Carnage. They... didn't exactly fit the bill, emphasized by the fact that they went by their human hosts' names, Donna, Carl, Ramon, Leslie, and Trevor. Eventually, once madness took hold (a recognized side-effect of humans who bond with symbiotes) they figured they did need villain-names, calling themselves Scream, Agony, Lasher, Riot, and Phage, not that those were much better.

Fan Works

• Fandom trope Ron the Death Eater.
• In the Worm/Harry Potter crossover A Wand for Skitter, the only name Taylor initially has for Voldemort is "Tom", thanks to eavesdropping on a conversation between Snape and Dumbledore immediately after first arriving in Hogwarts. She is spectacularly unimpressed with both his real name and his Sobriquet, and basically invokes this trope by name to mock him in her private thoughts.

Film

• In Hoodwinked, the villain, Boingo the Bunny, berates his Mook Keith.

Boingo: Dolph, tie up the brat; Liesel, hold the book; Vincent, get the truck; and Keith... darn it, change your name, please. That's not scary and I'm embarrassed to say it. Boris, try that. Keith, ya know? Oooo Watch out for Keith!/

• • Which is ironic, considering the name "Boingo".
• Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
  • Jason, too.
  • Michael Meyers, two dull names in one fearsome killer.
• How about Kung Pow! Enter the Fist, where the evil kung fu master demands to be called 'Betty'?
• "Frank Cotton" seems like an innocent enough name, until you realize he's the sadistic and violent Serial Killer from the original Hellraiser who flays victims and wears their skins.
  • Also, the name usually given to the lead Cenobite - Pinhead - is a Fan Nickname. While some of his in-universe titles sound both evil and cool - like the Pope of Hell, the Engineer, and the Cold Man - his actual name is Elliot Spencer.
• In The Babysitter and the later sequel, Bee is the only member of the cult who does not have a generic name; the other members are Max, Sonya, John, and Allison.
• Chuck De Nomolos, the Big Bad from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey; something of an Embarrassing First Name when you're trying to be an Evil Overlord.
• From The Lost Boys, this is true both for David, the most visible antagonist, and also for Max, the true Big Bad.
• The horror movie Rubber is about a living, murderous tire with Psychic Powers (no, seriously) named... Robert.

Literature

• Trope Namer: Voldemort from Harry Potter. His real name is Tom Riddle. He hates it, in part because of this trope - though more accurately it's because it's not very interesting or unique , rather than not very evil.
  • The Death Eater who betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort was named "Peter".
• From Discworld: Dr. Hix, the University totally-not-a-necromancer, whose real name is actually Hicks. However, he's not really a threat, as his acts of evil fall squarely into Poke the Poodle territory by university statute.
  • There is also the horse of Death, who would not be seen as nearly as ominous if more people knew his name was Binky.
• Randall Flagg from The Stand and The Dark Tower books by Stephen King. Even better, that's not even his real name. His real name is Walter Padick, and has been known as Walter o' Dim in the past. Real intimidating...
• The Saga of Darren Shan has the evil Lord of the Vampaneze, revealed at the end of book 9 to be Steve Leonard. Justified in that book 1, where Steve first appears, was written and published before the rest of the series was planned, and also in that he is usually referred to as Steve Leopard, which is slightly more badass.
• The Empire of the East contains a partial example: the Emperor of All the East is a rather ordinary-looking man named John. It's a partial example because his surname is the rather ominous-sounding "Ominor."
• In Good Omens the eleven-year-old Antichrist is named Adam.
• In E. E. "Doc" Smith's Triplanetary, the human characters are menaced by an Abusive Precursor who introduces himself as "Roger". That's not his real name (it's Gharlane), but still it's oddly funny to have the crew of the Boise stumble across him on a random planet and go "Oh Crap, it's Roger!".

Live-Action TV

• A minor villain from the third season of Lexx had the name Fifi. It's worth mentioning that this villain is male.
• Among the Big Bads of Buffy the Vampire Slayer there are Richard Wilkins III (The Mayor) and Adam. Also in Buffy, there is The Trio, consisting of three generally pathetic guys whose lair is a basement. Their names are Jonathan, Andrew and Warren.
• John Sheppard of Stargate Atlantis played this trope with the Wraith whether they wanted it or not, which gave us such villains as Steve, Michael, Bob, Todd and Kenny.
• BOB, also known as "Killer BOB", the Big Bad of Twin Peaks.
• Supernatural, Death is simply called Death (occassionally called by his titles, the Pale Horseman and the Angel of Death). His servants, however, called Reapers, adopt normal sounding names. Known Reapers include Ajay, April, Betty, Billie, Bobby, Jessica, Tessa, Martin, Maurice, Merle, and Violet.

Tabletop Games

• Bob, Lord of Evil, a Bob, tabletop game that parodies the horror genre.
• The Primarchs from Warhammer 40,000, the gene-sons of the Emperor of Mankind himself, aren't necessarily evil (by this grimdark universe's standards, unless they're among the ones who defected with Horus), they're still the chief enforcers of a rabidly genocidal anti-alien empire that can and will strong-arm human populated worlds into serving their father and will destroy them outright if things get bad enough. Most of them have impressive, dignified names fitting of their station like Sanguinius, Rogal Dorn, and Roboute Guilliman (which admittedly is a fancy way of saying Robert William, but still)... but then there's Lion El'Jonson. He does go by "the Lion" which takes the edge off, but it doesn't change the fact that his full name still attracts plenty of snickers from the fans since he's a powerful genetically-enhanced demigod named Lionel Johnson.

Video Games

• The most significant villain in Final Fantasy X is named Seymour. The name's not treated as embarrassing in the story - it's not a completely plain name even if it is in use in real life, and it's not an ironically cute name. But it probably still fits this trope.
  • It's probably worth mentioning that in Japan Western names are considered exotic in much the same way that Eastern names are in the US. The renaming of Tina to Terra in Final Fantasy VI was a way to avert this; in the case of Final Fantasy X they simply may not have cared. In addition, Seymour's initial appearances are benign, and a clear villain name would have spoiled the surprise later.
• Fleming, Lord of the Demons from Shadows of the Damned.
• In the Mass Effect series, The Illusive Man -- the leader of the pro-human rogue paramilitary group Cerberus and part of the Big Bad Ensemble with Harbinger in Mass Effect 3 -- never has his name revealed in-game. However, if you read the tie in comics, it's revealed that his name is actually Jack.
• The main villain of Silent Hill 4 is... Walter Sullivan. Common name for a guy who looks pretty average most of the time, but he's a Serial Killer and an insane cultist.
• The trailer for the Nintendo Switch Updated Rerelease of Miitopia shown during the February 17th Nintendo Direct features a literal Dark Lord named Stan.
• Two of the most dangerous and influential people in Honkai Impact 3rd are named Kevin and Otto.
• While he's only a villain to the Scary Dogmatic Aliens trying to Kill All Humans, one Enemy Chatter line in Halo Infinite expresses incredulity that the real name of The Dreaded One-Man Army slaughtering them is John.
• The public leader of world controlling criminal gang The Grapplers in Metal Max 2 is named Ted Broiler. Ted being a crazy, dual flamethrower wielding giant with a giant red mohawk and metal implanted in his head that kills a group of the world's strongest bounty hunters (including the main character's mother) in the intro and roasts his own minions alive for retreating. Early concept art suggests he was originally intended to be "Mad Broiler", but for whatever reason the developers went with "Ted" instead.
• Alice from Monster Girl Quest subverts this, as "Alice" is short for Alipheese Fateburn XVI. And while she is a Dark Lord, she's actually a benevolent one.
  • Played straight however, in Witch Hunt Village. The place has a lot of nasty foes with nasty-sounding names, including Suck Vore, Worm Villager, and Iron Maiden. Their leader is... Lily.
• The app game Hero Wars has quite a few Bosses, including the ogre chieftan Gro Bulgor, the tree-demon Skrump, and the undead dragon Morth Chrone. At any time, the player can scroll to the map of Chapter 15 of the campaign and see that the final challenge, should he get there, is an eerie shadow concealing a boss, the shadow an "Eternal Darkness". Should he actually get there, he finds that the Big Bad of the game is a renegade Titan named... Seymour.

Web Comics

• From Looking for Group, there is a character whose titles include "Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, King of the Dance, Mistress of Magma (he's a... man... he's undead, but he was a man in life) and mayor of a little village up the coast (read that as "village of flesh-eating, undead hell-beasts in humanoid form")." The character's name? Richard. This is constantly mocked in the comic. The protagonist Cale is fond of referring to him as Dick just to get on his nerves.
• In Sluggy Freelance we have "Chaz", an unstoppable sword also known as the Unholy Evil Death Bringer, forged in the most insidious of flame by the blacksmith known only as... Bob.
• Exterminatus Now gives us the Conspirator, Greater Daemon of the Patterner... Kevin.

Jamilla: Wait, Kevin? Kevin: "Kevin" is not my real name, since that is unpronounceable in your feeble mortal tongue. If you were able to pronounce it, the skies themselves would shatter! Morth: Actually, it is his real name. Kevin: Oh, just tell everybody why don't you!

• The titular character from Jack, which in life was a powerful genocidal dictator and on death was condemned to be the Grim Reaper and incarnation of the Sin of Wrath. Played with: when the story begins, he is the only person left with that name, as his infamy was such that no one wanted to be confused or identified with him, bringing what was once a common and ordinary name into extinction.

Western Animation

• Phineas and Ferb‍'‍s Dr. Doofenschmirtz is often called Dr. Doof. He also provides examples of this himself; in one episode, he started an Evil League called the League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investment in Naughtiness. Or as it's better known, L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N.
  • Another Phineas and Ferb one: Khaka Peu Peu.^[context?]
  • Galactic Overlord Mitch. Some people call him "Big Mitch".
• Bill Cipher, the Big Bad of Gravity Falls, often called simply "Bill" by the rest of the cast. He's downright terrifying (in-universe and out) despite his many silly attributes.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • The diabolical Plankton's first name is... Sheldon.
  • In the first movie, SpongeBob and Patrick are menaced by a sadistic and merciless assassin named... Dennis. Spongebob and Patrick only escape from him because Dennis fails to see the Cyclops behind him, but even being crushed by the giant's boot doesn't keep Dennis down for long.
• Yin Yang Yo! has Carl the Evil Cockroach Wizard.
• In Dave the Barbarian, there is Chuckles the silly piggy.
• Simon from Trollz.
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee:
  • The Sandman. The Vision Crafter, Given of Wishes, the Lord of the Sleep Realm, the King of Dreams! But you can call him Steven.
  • Overlapping with Ironic Name is the League Of Villainous Evildoers, or L.O.V.E.
• At the third Jimmy/Timmy Power Hour, there was a male villain named "Shirley".
  • Poof's anti-fairy counterpart hated being named Foop.
• The Superhero Squad Show once had a villain mocked by MODOK and the Abomination for being named "Pete". No, he's not Disney's Black Pete.
• Rick and Morty has, well, Rick. His last name - Sanchez - is pretty common too.
• The Powerpuff Girls:
  • Dick Hardy. Despite the common name and being completely human - until act 3, anyway, where an accident gives him a monstrous body to match his monstrous soul - he's one of the most vile villains in the history of the show; fans often point out that even HIM (the show's version of the Devil) has more decent qualities!
  • A more lighthearted example with the Monster of the Week in "Super Zeroes" - a giant, slimy, blob with strong-looking arms, beady red eyes, and a vertical mouth full of sharp teeth. And the name is... Steve. He's likely a parody of Hedora, and even points out the girls should be more secure in who they are, instead of trying to emulate other heroes (which. among other things, was interfering with his attempts to fight them for a Rite of Passage).)
• In Lilo & Stitch: The Series (and its Pilot Movie), the main villain is a rodent-like alien named Dr. Hämsterviel, often mispronounced to sound like the not-very-threatening Hamsterwheel.
• In The Owl House, the Golden Guard is The Dragon to Emperor Belos; in his second appearance, Luz gives him "The Reason You Suck" Speech where she implies he's a remorseless monster, while addressing him by his title. He tells her he does have a name - Hunter, this being the first sign that he does, indeed, have Hidden Depths.
  • For that matter, Belos himself, as his true name is Philip Wittebane.
• In Helluva Boss, the leader of the Exorcists (Knight Templar angels who carry out the annual purge) are led by Adam. Of course, this is due to him being the actual Adam.