In defense of mustache twirling railroad moguls everywhere, a sinister-sounding name is not necessarily cheesy. Consider Garcia Flynn. The first name uses a long S that almost sounds like a hiss, while the last name cuts off suddenly. If your villain was named Anne Marie, we may imagine her cackling to herself in a rocking chair while she knits her doilies of human hair. Names can set the tone for your writing if you select them carefully. The sounds they make when we say them can immediately give your character a vivid personality that would be hard to describe. You can also consider harsh-sounding K names, because they tend to be jarring. Jack could be a scary name on the right character. Lucias could be sinister. Anyway, hope this helps.
For me personally, I find that the right name is the starting point, as it tends to bring the character to my mind's eye. Might not work for you though. Definitely check out name generators too. I have a long list of cool character names, as yet unemployed, curteousy of name generators. What is your character like? Might help you pin their name down.
While it is true that villains make the name, you also have to take certain things into consideration. Two of those are culture and history. What I mean by this is that throughout history there have been people, seen as villains, who become so infamous that their mere name seems to inherit a notoriety. Adolf and Judas are two that spring to mind. The movie industry is also good a source, because people do often remember villainous name even if just subconsciously. For instance one of my favorite movies, The Mask with Jim Carrey, the main villain was named Dorian, so every time I hear that name it make me suspicious of the character until I learn more. On the flip side of that coin, any name can be villainous really, depending on the person's deeds and actions. You have Theodore and John that don't seem too insidious, unless you put Bundy and Wayne Gacy behind them, then you have two of the most notorious serial killers of the 20th century.
Lucius, Marius, Julius - anything that rolls deliciously like that definitely has a touch of highbrow evil for me. Or hunt up a peerage page on the web and check out the more obscure branches of Victorian/Edwardian families...
Royalty as villains? No! I never would have suspected those shining pillars of moral fortitude as being nefarious!
Wow you were really right. Thanks guys, this was a lot of help. Or most of it was. The random naming of politicians didn't really help.
Sorry about that, CT and I got a bit carried away. I typically distant people who name drop politicians. Anyways, as for the topic at hand.... Thinking about how I name villians, when I was a Kiddo I used names I hated like Anna, or Henry, which i've come to love those names but I still hate Charles and Luis and use them from time to time. . But, it really depends, some times I develop a name around the villain or the villain around the name or the purpose they serve. Sometimes it's pretty random, though for the villains I make a name around, if they are a badass, I try to think of a bad ass name for them like Virgil or Stan... (Just kidding) . I have a corrupted knight named Loriec (forgot where I heard the name for the first time, I believed it was a James Woods movie), who later becomes an Immortal Hero. Actually, this thread has just inspired me to make a list of my Villains though it will be a short list, since some of my stories don't have actually villains, unless you count mental disorder as a villain.
Not a villain, but James Bond was the name of an ornithologist who Ian Fleming picked because he sounded utterly boring. The character makes the name.
Big Hairy Bald Jones Big Hairy Man Big Bald Hairy Man Big Ball Jones Big Hairy Man Big Bald Hairy Jones
I would focus mostly on background. Realistically, people get their names that reflect their parents not themselves, and it's our own similarity to our parents in culture, attitude and beliefs that produces the appearance that we fit the name. As well as the obvious fact that we grow into our names and people start to associate qualities of us onto our names, as is particularly obvious with famous names as has been mentioned. Therefore I would focus, if you are doing something fairly realistic, on producing a name that sounds good with the surname and fits the social and cultural background of the character's family, including what kind of people they might take names from- unless of course, the person renames themselves. I do find that, as Necronox mentioned, sometimes it's nice to pick a name that feels right for the character as you see them, but you do want to be careful not to descend into stereotype there and sometimes it can be just as effective to pick a name that is associated with the kind of person the character definitely isn't for an interesting twist/quirk, or to play into the character's misleading superficial appearance and/or persona.
Well, this is the real answer, isn't it? Unless, as others have said, you want a comic book or James Bond villain, Mr. Capone shows that it is the deeds and words of a villain that lend weight to their name. Norman Bates, Freddy Krueger, Anton Chigurh, Randall Flagg, James Moriarty, Bill Sykes-- all fairly common or bland names, when removed from the characters'. Other times, if you want varying degrees of obvious villainy, you can go with names like Nurse Mildred Ratched (sounds a bit like wretched), Roger Chillingworth, Hannibal Lecter, Cruella de Vil, Victor von Doom. It really depends on the type of story you're going with.
it all depends, if it's fantasy, you can make up some extravagant name. I like simple names mixed with strange names. Like Adam Lajinski or Marius Jones. Something slightly otherworldly and ethereal. I have an antagonist on one of my stories simply known as Mr Green.
It's the Reverend Green in Cluedo, I believe. Mr Green is an online casino, I think? If your villain is of the urbane, cultured, well-educated sort, is that because he chooses to be or because he was brought up that way and it comes naturally to him? Was he sent to a public school? If he was, his parents were likely wealthy and public school alumni themselves, so that would likely be reflected in the names of their children; I doubt there are many Jaydens or Kaydens at Eton, for example, but probably rather more Georges and Alberts and the like than you'd find in the average inner-city comprehensive. Apart from that, culture, politics and religion can also come into it. My own kids, for example, are named so as to reflect their background and slightly redress the balance away from the near ubiquitous use of foreign 'Biblical' names like John, David, Peter and the like which have almost wiped out indigenous names in most areas.
