Right, I have a question for you guys. In a new story im making, I'm having a little bit of trouble creating a name for the heroine/protaganist. She is a demon, evil, mostly evil throught out the story, but she those have a soft spot, and isnt as evil as she pretends to be, especially near the end(oh damn im making her out to be a mary sue i swear she isnt, if you want proof, i can give it to you). For those of you who have watched Pandora Hearts, think of her like Alice, only more of a b**** I was going to give her an english name, but as my friend rightly pointed out, english names dont sound very mean. So, long story cut short, can you guys think up a mean, but not full blown evil voldemortish name that I can give her?
Anything Russian seems to be associated with those dirty commies, making it sound mean if you're in America. I wonder if names like 'Kyle' are mean-sounding in Russia...
Depends what you mean by English name: Edna Evelyn Myra Rosemary Agnes Angela Bella Becky Have all been successfully used for evil characters or belong to serial killers. My evil women are Athena, Lucinda and Evelyn. You could take the names of serial killers there is a list on Wikipedia. I did that for my detetives (had planned on them being serial killers took the names of four of them and made two new ones).
Rather than coming up with an evil sounding name, you could choose a name which, due to popular culture, people associate with evil. My bad guy character's name is Luther, which a lot of people associate with Lex Luther, nemesis of Superman. You don't assume he's evil straight away but in your mind you associate him with evil. Given how your main character is a woman, it might be harder. I can't really think of any "evil" women with whom people would make that subconscious association. Guess you could call her Hitler or something, but it's not exactly subtle.
I don't think you'll get an answer that two people can agree on in this case. None of the names Elgaisma listed really made me think those characters would immediately be evil (on the contrary, two of my friends both have 1 year old children named Evelyn, so I wouldn't immediately associate that name as evil). I have heard that people have a tendency to believe "Morgan" and similar derivatives of Morgan le Fay are associated with being evil (Morgana, etc.). Honestly though, unless you are writing books for children, I wouldn't focus too much on meaningful names. It comes across as cheesy since no parents would be able to name their child so aptly.
There are a gazillion one year olds called Morgan as well. It is the character that will make the name evil rather than the name being evil. Evelyn for me came from Evilyn from He-Man. Names like Eldora, Lilith, Bloduedd, Guinevere, Elspeth, Morag etc also have a mixed heritage. Freya, Pandora, Minerva, Juno, Elphaba can all be tweaked.
I always liked onomatopoeiac last names for mean characters. They can sound very abraisive. Clang, clunk, thunk, baff. They're very blunt sounding, like being hit by a boxing glove. Other than that, try grating-sounding letters, the sharp ones such as T, K, or X, or sounds such as CH. These might be better for antagonists and minor douche-baggy characters, though. Antiheroes, protagonists, and sidekicks... ehhhhh... not so much. If the reader is going to spend a lot of time with this character, naming him or her something that grates on the mind's ear might prove to be annoying.
Sometimes I look at flowers names for some of my characters, like how about Azalea? It can be a name too, and the Z gives it a bit of an edge. Or how about Dahlia, Crysantha, Hyacinth, Lillian, Violet...
I don't think there are any names that sound "mean". It's the people with the name, not the name itself, that helps us to form an opinion of it. If you just choose a name you think suits the character, rather than going for one that sounds mean, then you might have the power to change the reader's opinion of the name itself through your writing. Despite this, I think using a name with hard sounding consonants would be effective.
yes i know but its more affective to name, say a serial killer, and mean, frightening name, than naming him/her and name, typically associated with pretty butterflies ex. lol
dunno I have a character - he isn't evil but his name is Hyacinth - he can be very scary at times lol Insists upon being called Jack.
HA LOL no aparently it means 'thorn' XD im stuck between acacia and alile(which is 'crying' in some african language)
Mm, I disagree. The Thoressa horishana is a very pretty butterfly, but Thorese sounds like a strong name to me. Instantly makes me think of the Norse God.
Whenever I can't come up with a character name off the top of my head, I always go to babynames.com and you can look up any nationality or even what the names mean. I think its fun to name my characters that has something to do with their personality, or even what they are. For example, I named a dog in one of my stories Kaleb because it means 'dog.'
There are no mean names, it all depends on who you ask. Every one has their own names that sound mean to themselves but I don't think there is such a thing as an evil name by all standards. You should just use your own imagination and come up with one that sounds mean to you, because whoever you ask you will have different answers. I'm not even going to list my own ones because you could bet I would be offending someone on here.
I actually think a mean character seems more mean when they are called Flower, Fifi, Tiddles, Frilly etc
Have you ever upset a cat lol However a kid called Tiddles would have to become scary pretty quick. Kinda like with my Hyacinth he was the only guy that would take on 6ft10 Angus at school.
Lilith Darthoven, (Pronounced: DAR-THOE-VIN) Mother Superior and master at striking abject terror into the hearts and minds of catholic school children everywhere. Cylanis Briarthorn, potentially as romantic/tragic as you want to make it. Mayentarrusdecorbinus Kizarrentallonivexious (Pronounced: MAY-IN-TAR-US-DEE-COR-BEN-US KAI-ZAR-RIN-TAL-LON-EYE-VEX-E-US), being a demon, her actual name is unpronounceable in your tongue, but that is close, even though it has lost a lot in translation.
