Hi, I'm currently in the works on writing a superhero graphic novel with many characters and such, but I am stuck on creating a name for my anti-hero. Lets try and keep it to one word ie: Shade, or Punisher. His powers are the ability to manipulate matter and energy with his hands allowing him to "shoot" bolts of energy at his opponents.
It's hard to find a good one-word name for a superhero, since all the obvious ones are already taken.
Does he have a theme outside of the powers, or a personality trait you want to emphasize? I'd probably go with something like Force, Blast, or Catalyst based just on the powers, but that's without really knowing the individual behind the mask.
Not Thor, please. You don't go and name your bad guy, let's say, Jahve or Allah, so don't go naming them Thor either.
How about Gamma, Beta, or Alpha? You said he can shoot bolts of energy out of his hands, right? Well, what better name for a character that manipulates matter and energy and shoots energy out of his hand than some form of electromagnetic radiation?
Thor is like Joshua (Jesus), Mark, Martin, Athena etc it is a religious/divine name that has made it into normal naming. Neither Jahve or Allah have - whilst I considered naming my middle child Thor I wouldn't dream of calling him Allah. Likewise with characters - I have an Athena, Evelyn, Mark and a Thor but I wouldn't use a Jehovah variation - I do however have an Elizabeth which contains a Hebrew compound for God.
Wehell, Xanatos could as well go and name the character Zeus! Wouldn't bother me as much though, because I'm really not that interested in Greece mythology, but I'm rather sure that there'd be someone who'd get offended. It's better to leave the names of deities out when naming bad guys, in my opinion. Even if they're megalomaniacs. I think Nilfiry's suggestion is good. Where is the "like" button? xD
He is a pretty dark character. His life is as much a mystery to him as it is to the reader. He has a very dark personality, usually keeping to himself. His powers come from an extraterrestrial artifact that has somehow given him godlike powers, yet also causing amnesia and spontaneous flashbacks of his life before he was imbued with his powers and also memories of the origins of the mysterious artifact which gave him his powers. He uses his powers to fight crime yet he also fights whoever gets in his way, including the law, making him and antihero. He is partially based off of Rorschach from the Watchmen graphic novel. I hope that helped.
What about something really innocous then like John, Simon, Tom etc Often that can give a rogue character a more sinister feel - my Lord of Evil is called Jim lol
"A dark mysterious stranger, clad in blooded leather, armed with sniper rifle, and black shades...They call him..Sunbeam." I would love to read that story.
I can see that concern for deities who are still widely worshipped in the world's religions, but for those who are not and are remnants of a cultural mythology, it doesn't worry me. One of my bad guys is not only named after a figure from mythology, he IS that deity.
i think since he's such a mystery to himself and others his name should not be a name at all.. but a mystery as well.. hmmmm... maybe a word that means something to this extent.. I don't have a dictionary around.. but you could try this idea.. if you havent already.. nothing dumb though "mysterio" would be dumb..
Thats the same thought that came to me. Something like Enigma. Something that might help is to decide if your character named themselves or if he was named by the populous\someone else. E.G: Batman named himself and styled his look to suit. Superman however was named by Lois lane I believe. So as a point of conflict you could give the character a name that they don't like but has 'stuck'.
I could tell, having read the rest of the description. Of course "Rorschasch" is a perfectly normal surname, it just has associations, which might be a way to go. Or, since your character seems so clearly to actually be Rorschach, maybe come clean and make it fanfic.
Call him John Doe or Jane(Jayne?) Doe. These names are given to corpses whose identity are unknown. John for male, Jane for female.
I do like the Gamma/Beta idea. A name that makes reference to energy directly would be your best bet. Electron? Nova? Photon? Emcee2 the second. (E=mc2)?
And different cultures have different concepts of what's sacrilegious. Hindus don't seem to mind using their gods in modern stories, like films and comic books. (Wall Street Journal) Monotheistic religions, like Christianity and Islam, seem to be more sensitive about how their God is depicted. Personally, I would consider borrowing from any polytheistic religion, even if it's still practiced today. But try to do it respectfully, of course.
