Until today I wondered whether it was right to like the name of an evil thing, or enjoy making up names for evil things. But then I thought of a few things today, and now I love making up names for Evils.

Obviously it is not the name itself that is evil, or good. But I had the vague thought that Evils ought to be given "evil" names. But I liked all the names that I made up and therefore gave them to good things.

Then I remembered reading part of the book of Matthew in Greek, when Jesus was speaking to Satan. The Greek name Satana sounded so appropriate: it expressed perfectly the contempt that God has for Satan. I also thought of Romans 9:21-22.


I realized that a good name for an Evil does not express Evil, but what Evil is (or should be) to you. A good name for Evil express' hatred for the Hateful, and loathing for the Loathsome.

Now I realize why Sauron did not allow his name to be spelt or spoken.
Evil does not like to be named.
So I say, name Evil!

And name it well. The better the name for Evil the more it stirs us up to hate Evil.

The fear of the LORD [is] to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverbs 8:13

Romans 9:21-22
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 [What] if God, willing to show [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:



So, how do you make a good evil name?

My villain's name is Larry.

My villain's name is Machre. It sounds evil somehow.

Actually, I have numerous villains in my series, but y'know, there's one big 'un. He's not a lord, emperor, magician, and he doesn't command armies. He's actually weak, sickly, and in constant groaning. He has no super-powers and no magic. But he's clever and pushes people into his schemes, almost without them knowing. Really, he's something terrifying. I named him Scratch - one of Lucifer's ancient names. He's actually based on Lucifer. The name seemed to suit him because rather than inflicting any true catastrophic devastation, he scratches, and by such seemingly little scratches is able to bring down kingdoms. That's how Satan himself works, I think.

There are lots of other baddies in my book. There's a dwarf pair called Cradis Diggrin and Timly Tawkins. The latter of these is an "atheist." His name is taken from two contemporary atheists - Dawkins and Hawkins.

I don't try to make the names of my villains sound evil, and neither do I try to make my heroes sound good. I have four protagonists: two are named Dythus and Soulis. Neither of these are truly "nice" sounding names. In fact, Soulis sounds like a sith-lord (Darth Soulis....cool!), and Dythus sounds like it belongs to an orc chieftain with a big bloodied axe.

I have a lot of villains...but the ones that currently have names are Pavix, Terminus, and Rasputin.

Pavix means "evil" (or something similar, been awhile since I looked at my name dictionary) in Latin.
Terminus means "The End" in Latin.
And Rasputin is a name that was chosen due to a bad person in history.

Typically, when I chose a villain name, I just go with what sounds bad and has a dark or sinister meaning. I really don't have any special things I do for villain names, I name them just like I name any other character. I study their personality and the role they play in the book then I find a name that depicts that in one word.

Bethany Faith

The End.
Cool!

Pavalini, I loved your villain's name and story! Sounds like something very unusual, original, and somehow terrifying.

In my current story, my human villain is named Corlath, and there's also Hazar-Sol. Nice evil-sounding names. My "megavillain" is not named - just "the void" or something thereof. But y'know, come to think of it, the philosophy of naming evil is a really, really good idea... Hm...

*goes off to ponder deep philosophical implication of names*

@ Pavalini

Larry is the most awesome villain name ever.

Scratch sounds creepy.

My main villain is named Mai-Wear Ottin Tellemarkus. But his initials make up the word MOT, which is the name for some Persian god of destruction, I guess.

- Terra

Interesting thread.

The names of the three evil guys in my story are Galverin, Dunndar, and Volgarin. Volgarin being my favorite evil sounding name.

I use names as definitions of character. That's why evil doesn't like a name, it likes to hide in the shadows and a name gives it the last thing it wants associations with: the Truth.

Yes! Saruman put the S on the helmets of his orcs, because he was a traitor, and his name was a name of honor. But of course names of that sort are not evil-names.

Machre I love. A detesting name for detestable malice. How is it pronounced? I pronounced it to myself mah-khrei.

I like the essence of the name Scratch. Is there a made up language it has a translation in?

How do you pronounce Pavix? Terminus makes me think of a dark executioner. A very profound name. I think Rasputin would do better spelled Risputin, though you did not make it up. A good evil-name.

Hazar-Sol may be my favorite evil-name on this thread so far. It seems high and cruel.

Galverin and Dunndar could be as good as Volgarin if they were changed to Golvurin, or Galvairon, and Dune-Dar. You have good names.

I like the name Merhios. It does seem gray. Drakunur is an excellent one.
Psalms 11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

There are many good evil-names on this thread already.
Does any one have tactics that they could share for making up good evil-names?

One thing I have noticed about evil names is the intensity of their emotion. One difference between a good-name and an evil-name seems to be that the evil-name is like the stroke of a spear or sword- which is what our dealings with evil ought to consist of mainly- and the good-name is more like a shout of Glory- or a quiet Hum to oneself.

But we must remember that an evil-name is not evil, but a name for evil.


Since I have until only recently been hesitant to represent Evil, I have only a few evil-names. I do not have a name for the Great One, the first to become evil, but I call his servant Lumir, pronounced loomeer. They are of the Lost Giants. Lumir is weaker than the rest, but greater through deceit, and he builds more and has greater armies.

But the first of the Men to turn to evil was the Queen. She is also called the mother of rebellion, the child-slayer, and the dim dancer. Her name is Yamme. It is pronounced yăm.

There are also Rule and Kolor. I thought of Orgon, Maryon, Tolnei, and Tholsein while I was reading this thread.

The three highest demons (under the Highest Dark Lord of course) are the only Evil Ones I have named (yeah, there is Dairon, but he isn't evil, just... arrogant and stupid): Dyrgul, Semjeize, and Locket. I am probably going to rename Semjeize though, since the essence doesn't really fit him and I borrowed the name from a real demon.

Dyrgul works nicely, I think, because it has an illusion of beauty about it, masking a sense of brutality and evil power. It does this by having a simple, easy to pronounce structure (two syllables, each CVC), with a natural, graceful sounding initial syllable (but which can easily be twisted to sound disgusting or worshipful or disdainful), followed by a gutteral, forceful syllable.

Locket is a fascinating name... but there is a whole book (with tons of backstory) on him and why he is called that, haha.

Golvurin. That is brilliant! I'm going to snag that!

My original evil being was first created by Attensie along with the other E'shawnti. He, like Satan, started out good, but was corrupted (I'm still working on his exact story) and turned from Attensie. His name stayed the same even after his corruption; Natorii.
Since he was first named by Attensie when he was created good, his reflects the same background and history that all the other E'shawnti names have. I actually quite enjoyed the process of naming them all.

As for evil characters, some of them started good and kept their names after turning bad. Some started bad and have stayed that way.
Teynon is one those who started good and turned evil. He was the first person to learn magic (my form of it) and used it to destroy his own race.
Visus was another who turned bad, though he almost changes back later.

A lot of my Zarack are evil and have sinister names to match:
Guy Kaliid (meaning: my killer)
Tak Skaakae (meaning: the snake) this person was also called Jurksta-En by one of the races he enslaved (it has the same meaning as his real name)
Vagatil Zouriz (meaning: violent wrongs)
Drakon Krazen (dark crown) also called Ikap Kinada (same meaning)
Velezaar Avarez (vengeful avenger) also called Kask-Ka (vengeful)

Oh goodness... do I have a villain?
My favorite form of evil is an unnamed, unknown, and unseen malice. It never enters directly into my stories. My favorite villains are ordinary people, good people, with good names, driven by some force beyond their control. My villains are traitors, haunted and tormented. I don't really have an evil villains.

Herene is my traitor, who destroyed his world for the sake of a truth no one else could see.

Michael Haert was given the title of Lightning Ranger during his years as an outlaw and assassin.

she'are is a word meaning the great deception, and was the name given to a drug used for mind control.

All four of my villains from the Last Wizard turn out to be not as malevolent as they seem at first. Tirol is Morgon's tormentor, but we learn that he is the last of his race; a race of noble kings and princes. Mallorey Adray is the given name of the High Lord; born a simple peasant, but who slew Tirol's race, and manipulates Morgon into killing Tirol. Dorath is the monstor who haunts Tirol's forests, but once he was a creature of wisdom and beauty. (I just realized something... Dorath needs a new name. Badly. )

I do not tend to name evil when it does make an actual appearence. The evil that haunts Dylann is very present, but very unnamed. The Invisible Ones, the Gateway to the Unknown, and the Darkness.

I vary on how to pronounce it---it really sounds just as good (that is, evil) either way. But I mostly pronounce it "Mak--Cre".
I don't know anything about him save his name. But his name gives me an idea of his looks, his personalty, and his morals.
And the funny thing is, I made up the name kind of on the spot.

An interesting logical consequence of this discussion is the conclusion that Evil has a Name.

Take, for example, Sodom. The Bible doesn't use Sodom merely as the name of a place, it is the name for the essence of the spirit that Sodom came to represent. Deceiver is an adjective that can be applied to any liar, but "deceiver" became the devil's name because his essence (well, part of it) became deception. The name of evil is a part of itself: the devil's essence became the same as the essence of "deceiver".

But that's somewhat beside the point.



But Satan isn't out to disguise evil for good. That's not the ultimate goal. Satan would like each person to accept evil for what it is, not what he pretends it is. Satan deceives in many ways. Sometimes he disguises evil, but sometimes he deceives us by telling us we want something that we really don't.

Evil does try to make evil look like good, and good look like evil, and it also tries to make people accept evil in blatant rebellion and pride. It does whatever it has to do to tempt you, whoever you are. Evil can be "pretty," and entice you, or utterly repulsive, and dare you to accept it.

So when we make up names for Evils in our stories there are two kinds: the names that Good gives to evil, and the names that Evil gives to evil. Good gives names to evil that express hatred for evil, but Evil can name evil nearly anything.

Remember that both Good and Evil have both love and hate: Good loves Love, and hates Hate; Evil loves Hate, and hates Love.

I think perhaps, but you could also argue that isn't truly love. I think it depends on how you're defining love. (Oh, to be like the Greeks with multiple words for love...)

These have all been interesting points. For myself, I don't think I've named Evil very often in my stories. I did make up a name (Iclorin) for one evil creature/being that hasn't been terribly well-defined, but I don't currently know if that name has any meaning. I should figure that out. I'm also using the Deceiver for a name for a Satan-equivalent at the moment. *shrug* Not much other than that, though, that I can think of at the moment.

All I'm saying is that Satan wants us all to accept evil for what it is. We don't fully embrace evil until we accept it fully for what it is. Satan did it (loose application of scripture, not exactly dependable), and he wants us to.

I recently made up a name for a giant, black spider, or a race of giant spiders: Hengroth (hen-groth). It probably means:
Hen = spider, and Groth = fell beast: Fell Spider Beast.

I thought of the name Gan-goth recently.

Since this is a thread about naming Evil, not necessarily Villains, you could post about made up language words for Evil, for example:

Tlachah means violent and bloodthirsty in the Sedra tongue.

By the way, Oloi is the name of a traitor of the First Generation of Men. The others are Rul, Herilei, Kolor, Galdon, and Fe-Rak; Yamme was the first traitor.

One of my villians is Velcorr... I just like saying that; Velcorr. It's fun to say

It seems that a lot of evil-names include "or," such as Melkor, Morgoth, Mordor, Morgul, Morganthu, Morgai, Gorgon, Dark Lord, Moria, Ortornasuk, Morgon, Kolor, Bor, and your Velcorr. Of course a lot of those came from Tolkien's Elvish root "Mor," meaning darkness I believe.

Velcorr is fun to say.

*Thinks about Velcro*

Yes, from the knowledge that Morgul means sorcery, I think Mor means black or dark...

*deliberately does not think about Velcro*

Actually Velcro, especially magnified, is a sinister looking device.

I was thinking about Velcro too... but that's hilarious.

Moved topic to Naming. Carry on.

My mainest villain is named Gogo...heh. It means grandfather. It's really only a nickname, though...he has other nicknames too. It seems like everyone has a name for him of their own. I haven't an idea of what his real name is.

My other very bad person that I know of is named Treecé. It means...death, I think. He was named by a demonic cult leader of sorts, so it's not very surprising.

Oh, and there's Rhe...he's bad too. I don't know what his name means. But it is ordinary sounding...that's 'cause his mother didn't know he was going to be a villain when he grew up, I suppose.