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A form of Names to Run Away From Really Fast: People and families can have animals, real and mythological, as part of their names, but in fiction it's usually a dangerous sign to meet someone with a predatory animal in their name. Wolf, dragon, lion, tiger, coyote, snake.
Note that animal names can go either way depending on the setting; they can imply evil, or can simply be used to imply that a character is fierce and dangerous, and as such, can be used for good characters or even heroes. Some animals are tipped more one way than others, of course; lions and wolves can imply nobility, but snakes and scorpions usually don't.
Bear[]
Most kinds of bear aren't well-known or catchy enough to get their own section, but watch out for anyone who goes by "Grizzly" or "Kodiak". However Russian bears (as a name, nickname, or title) definitely fit in this trope.
Anime and Manga[]
- Fullmetal Alchemist's Briggs Bears. With minds and bodies tempered by the driving cold of the border between Amestris and Drachma (approximate Fantasy Counterpart Cultures of Germany and Russia, respectively), they're a force to be reckoned with.
- One Piece: Bartholomew Kuma.
Literature[]
- Beowulf: Beowulf's name is usually interpreted by linguists as "the bees' enemy", which in turn is tentatively a poetical expression for "bear".
- The name of Beorn from The Hobbit means literally 'bear'. He can — guess what? — turn into a bear.
Live-Action TV[]
- Chuck: 'Sugar Bear'.
- This trope with a twist: in the Red Dwarf episode "Gunmen of the Apocolypse", one of the denizens of Kryten's western-themed dreamscape was named 'Bear-Strangler' McGee.
Video Games[]
- Bear Hugger, the gigantic Canadian Lumberjack and Boxer in Punch Out.
- Return to Krondor has Big Bad Bear, who is very tall, very muscular, and very deadly.
Western Animation[]
- Ursa (her name meaning 'she-bear') from Avatar: The Last Airbender is an aversion. Despite being the wife of the Fire Lord, she is shown to be a kind and loving mother ...who admittedly killed Azulon, the then-Fire Lord, for threatening the life of her son.
- Ursula. The name actually means "little she-bear," but she turns it into a Name to Run Away From anyway.
Bull[]
Literature[]
- From Ivanhoe, the stubborn and thuggish Reginald Front-du-Boeuf ("bull-head").
Live-Action TV[]
- Bull Shannon from Night Court.
Theatre[]
- Thady "The Bull" McCabe from John B. Keane's drama The Field.
Video Games[]
- Red Minotaur from Devil Kings.
- The Turkish Bald Bull from Punch Out, who is one of the few characters with a One Hit Knock Out move and a nasty temper to boot.
Coyote[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Bleach — Coyote Starrk: The Primera Espada.
Video Games[]
- King Hardin, a.k.a. Coyote, from FireEmblem 1/3/11.
Western Animation[]
- Gargoyles: Xanatos' own look-alike robot.
Crow[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Karasu from Noein, a badass with ridiculous speed and strength, along with the power to warp time and space.
- The Karas, supernatural guardians of Japan's human and Youkai population, who can turn into and cars and jets and stop time.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Crow, the Robinhood-esque, heavily Markered friend of Yusei.
Comic Books[]
- Ashe Corven from The Crow series also qualifies, as it appears to be derived from 'corvus', the Latin word for 'crow'.
Fanfic[]
- Karasu (Japanese for crow) from Three of Heart, One of Blood doesn't seem like this at first: He offers to Bring Yukimori back to life. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold, as he's a Legacy and can't raise the dead — but he can cast extremely realistic illusions.
Live-Action TV[]
- Justin and Iris Crowe in Carnivale.
Video Games[]
- Jacob Crowe of Time Splitters: Future Perfect fits the bill.
- Cosmic Horror Story Victorian horror mishmash Nightmare Creatures had Aleister Crowley as the Big Bad of the series.
- Earthworm Jim's archnemesis PsyCrow.
Real Life[]
- The Jim Crow laws of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- Russell Crowe might not look as sinister as some of the other examples listed here, but God help you if you ever edit his poetry!
Dragon[]
Anime and Manga[]
- From One Piece, Dragon the Revolutionary. As noted further down, also overlaps with "Monkey."
Literature[]
- Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter.
- Dracula: Dracul, in Romanian, means "dragon" as well as "devil". Therefore, "Dracula" means "son of the dragon".
- Rand Al'Thor and Lews Therin Telamon from The Wheel of Time.
Live-Action TV[]
- Count Dregon, the Big Bad from Saban's Masked Rider.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki. Ryu is Japanese for Dragon.
Other[]
- Dragin from yerCake.
- Drago from Rocky 4.
Video Games[]
- Date Masamune, the One-Eyed Dragon of Oushuu from Sengoku Basara. It's especially significant since he's referred to mostly by (and is infamous through) this name.
- The Dovahkiin, who's title in Dragon litterally means Dragonborn.
- Drake of the 99 Dragons.
Western Animation[]
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Uncle Iroh, nicknamed "The Dragon of the West".
- Long Feng, whose name means "Dragon Phoenix" in Chinese. Bonus points for sounding like "long fang".
Real Life[]
- Draco, a lawmaker from ancient Greece, from whom we get the term "draconian" as in "draconian penalties", meaning extremely harsh penalties. His name is similar enough to the Greek word for dragon, and so little is known about the man himself, that it's up for debate whether this is a coincidence, or whether Draco is an assumed name chosen to invoke this trope.
- Vlad Dracul and his son Vlad Dracula of Wallachia (the bynames meaning "dragon" and "the dragon's son" respectively), who were certainly apt to invoke this trope in their lifetime. The name, however, has a relatively harmless origin story, as it became the elder Vlad's nickname when he joined the the Order of the Dragon, a late-medieval chivalric order.
- Billy Drago is the stage name of a character actor who generally plays Smug Snake variants. Coincidentally, it's his mother's real surname.
- Sir Francis Drake works if you're Spanish.
Eagle[]
Anime and Manga[]
- The entire team from Eagle Riders (a.k.a. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman).
Film[]
- General Orlov from Octopussy ("oryol" means "eagle" in Russian).
Live Action TV[]
- Bartlet's secret service code name on The West Wing is Eagle.
Video Games[]
- Eagle of Advance Wars.
- Psychonauts, where Eagle is one of the four animal-themed luchadores running around in the head of Edgar Teglee, with Tiger, Cobra, and Dragon making up the rest. His catchphrase: Ca-caw!.
Falcon[]
Video Games[]
- Captain Falcon from F-Zero.
- Falco Lombardi from Star Fox.
- The main protagonist of the Silent Scope series (except for EX).
Flamingo[]
Anime and Manga[]
- One Piece: Donquixote Doflamingo, a nihilistic pirate and puppet-master who slices people into pieces. He dresses in a pink, feathery coat and dabbles in slave trade, and abandons it because it's become passe (the slave trade, not the coat).
Literature[]
- Lord Vetinari of the Discworld series often reminds people of a sober flamingo. A predatory one.
Live Action TV[]
- CJ's Secret Service codename on The West Wing is flamingo. She does not appreciate this.
CJ: The flamingo is a ridiculous-looking bird! |
Fox (Vixen, Reynard, etc.)[]
Variations of "Reynard" — the original trickster-fox from the medieval stories — include, but are not limited to, Renard, Reinhardt, Reineke; possibly even Renfield. If somebody in your group has a variation of that last name, avoid him. He's The Mole.
Film[]
- In the Rush Hour sequels, not one but two villains have names that translate to "Fox" in that character's native language: Hu Li, from 2, and Inspector Renard from 3.
- After The Fox, starring Peter Sellers as the criminal Master of Disguise "The Fox". Of course, this is a subversion, played for laughs.
- Renard, the Big Bad of The World Is Not Enough.
Literature[]
- Le Renard Subtil is the name of the villain in the novel Last of the Mohicans. DEFINITELY traitorous.
- Zorro. Means, in case you didn't know, 'fox'.
Live-Action TV[]
- Evgeniy Fox, archvillain from The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.
- An UnSub from the Criminal Minds episodes "The Fox" and "Outfoxed" was known as... "The Fox"
Video Games[]
- Steve Fox from Tekken.
- Metal Gear: Pretty much every member of Foxhound.
- Star Fox.
- La Volpe from Assassin's Creed.
- Vulpes Inculta of Fallout: New Vegas.
- Maria Renard from Castlevania Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and she can kick some ass. Also, Reinhardt Schneider from Castlevania64.
Web Comics[]
- Gunnerkrigg Court's resident plush doll-possessing fox spirit Reynardine, a.k.a. Renard.
Western Animation[]
- Janine "Fox" Renard from Gargoyles.
Real Life[]
- Wacky Nazis Reinhard Heydrich and Erwin "The Desert Fox" Rommel.
- Megan Fox.
- Justin Volpe, the Dirty Cop who Prison Raped Abner Louima.
Hawk[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Berserk: Griffith's Band of the Hawk. Well, the second one, anyway.
- Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist is a scarily good shot.
- One Piece: Dracule "Hawkeyes" Mihawk.
- Hajime no Ippo has Takamura Mamoru and Brian Hawk, both violent boxers that used to fight on the streets.
Comic Books[]
- Hawkeye, of The Avengers.
Film[]
- Frank Hawkes from 1982's Alone in The Dark 1982.
Literature[]
- Spenser's partner from the Spenser series of novels.
- Merlin from the King Arthur legends, whose name is also that of a small falcon.
- Natty "Hawkeye" Bumppo from The Leatherstocking Tales.
Live-Action TV[]
- Stringfellow Hawke, pilot of the meanest chopper in the skies, Airwolf.
Professional Wrestling[]
- Hawk of the Legion of Doom.
Video Games[]
- Metal Wolf Chaos: Richard Hawk.
- There's also Hawke from Advance Wars.
- T. Hawk from Street Fighter.
- Hawk in Pilotwings 64.
- Hawk in Soldier of Fortune.
Web Original[]
- Agent Gilbert Hawk of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum; PPC agents may be the good guys, but they're still dangerous.
Jackal[]
Pretty much anybody named "Jackal" is either an assassin or a terrorist.
Comic Books[]
- The Jackal, one of Spider-Man's foes.
Film[]
- The otherwise anonymous assassin, from 1973's The Day of the Jackal (an adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth novel), and 1997's remake of the movie, The Jackal.
Literature[]
- The Assassin from the Frederick Forsyth Novel The Day of the Jackal.
- Mr. Jacquel from Neil Gaiman's American Gods, better known as the Egyptian god Anubis.
Video Games[]
- An assassin called Jackal tails the characters in Illusion of Gaia.
- Falcon's loose cannon partner in Silent Scope 2.
Lion (Leo, Leonidas, etc.)[]
"Ari", "Aslan" or any non-English variant that's not immediately obvious doesn't count.
Anime and Manga[]
- Leos from Gundam Wing, on the other hand, are only dangerous if you yourself are not also in a Humongous Mecha.
Film[]
- Mirror Mask star Stephanie Leonidas, and her sister Georgina Leonidas.
- King Leonidas from 300.
Live-Action TV[]
- Lionel, Lex Luthor's uber-villainous dad in Smallville.
Tabletop Games[]
- Lion El'Jonson, in addition to being an homage to a poet. Primarch of the Dark Angels of Warhammer 40000.
Video Games[]
- Lyon from Fire Emblem 8.
- Leon Magnus from Tales of Destiny who is practically unbeatable when you first meet him. Also prideful, and his last name is Magnus.
- Leon S. Kennedy of the Resident Evil series.
- Leon, the shotgun-wielding second boss of Winback.
- Squall Leonhart in Final Fantasy VIII.
Western Animation[]
- Lion-O of Thundercats and Thundercats 2011.
Real Life[]
- Leon Trotsky fought off an assassin who had just whacked an icepick into his skull.
Monkey[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Goku from Dragon Ball. In the first series, he has a tail, the cloud that transports him around, and his magic staff, not to mention adapted forms of many of the companions.
- The title character from the Saiyuki series, a Bishounen-looking fellow restrained by the crown from the original stories, who fights with a staff.
- The Monkey D. family of One Piece, which includes main character Monkey D. Luffy, his father revolutionary leader Monkey D. Dragon, and his fearsome Marine grandfather Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp.
Film[]
- Jet Li's Monkey King from The Forbidden Kingdom.
- Goku from the Film adaptation of the popular anime, Dragon Ball Evolution.
Literature[]
- The Baboon Warrior is a post-human 'tagonist (pro-? an-? it's never quite clear) from Shiva3000. He kills malfunctioning Hindu gods.
- One of the lead characters in the oft-retold Journey to the West, Sun Wukong (or Son Goku).
Mustelids (weasels, skunks, badgers, and wolverines)[]
They may not be particularly dangerous on the surface, but they will be the sort of person who holds a grudge and will not let go of it.
Anime and Manga[]
- Itachi from Naruto, whose name literally means "Weasel".
Comic Books[]
- Years ago there was a comic series starring one Norbert Sikes, who put on a costume and fought crime in the streets as... the Badger. Yeah, he was nuts. It was a great book, though.
- Marvel's Wolverine.
Film[]
- Newsies has a character named Weasel.
Literature[]
- The Wind in the Willows: Mr. Badger, who is a badass Jerk with a Heart of Gold. And a badger.
- The naming of the Weasleys of Harry Potter subverts this.
- The final one of Tavi's many names in the Codex Alera is Gaius Tavarus Magnus. Lord Wolverine the Great. You may now shit yourself.
Live-Action TV[]
- Badger from Firefly.
Western Animation[]
- "Brock", as in The Venture Brothers' Brock Samson, is old English for "badger".
Other wildcat species[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Bleach: The name of Grimmjow's release counts: Pantera.
Literature[]
- J. C. Cooger from Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Video Games[]
- Revolver Ocelot.
- Jean-Luc Cougar from Winback.
Raptor[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Rex Raptor of Yu-Gi-Oh! could be a subversion.
Video Games[]
- Lord Raptor in Darkstalkers.
- Raptor in X-Kaliber 2097.
Raven[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Ravenus from the Linkage mini-comics packed in with the Micron Legend DVD's in Japan. Also a pun on "ravenous", to boot.
- Also, Raven from Zoids.
- Raven is also one of many Chains found in the world of Pandora Hearts.
Comic Books[]
- X-Men: Mystique's real name is Raven Darkholme.
- Raven of Teen Titans, both comic and cartoon versions.
Fanfic[]
- My Immortal: Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. Yes, the apostrophe's included.
Film[]
- Eric Draven from The Crow.
- Raven, the Perky Goth from Cecil B. Demented.
Literature[]
- The ultimate Badass from Snow Crash
- Raven is one of the worst of a legion of anti-heroes in Glen Cook's The Black Company series.
- Raven from the HIVE books is an incredibly well-trained ex-Soviet assassin who serves as personal assistant to the school's headmaster.
- Harry Potter — Ravenclaw, one of the four Houses of Hogwarts.
- Reflections of Eterna: The raven is the crest of Alva's.
Live-Action TV[]
- That's So Raven — Oh Snap!
- Ironically, American Ninja Jonathan Raven was played by an actor named Jeffrey Meek.
- Korax, first officer on the IKS Gr'oth in The Trouble with Tribbles.
Other[]
- The Baltimore Ravens of the NFL, named for Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven. Definitely run, rather than try to get into an altercation with one of them in a nightclub.
Professional Wrestling[]
Tabletop Games[]
- The Raven Guard of Warhammer 40000 .
- Ravenloft is an entire game setting to run away from really fast.
Video Games[]
- Vulcan Raven and Raging Raven in Metal Gear Solid.
- Subverted, then played straight, then subverted again in Tales of Vesperia.
- Korax (Greek for 'raven'), the Big Bad from Hexen. Something of a pun on the part of RavenSoft who wrote Hexen.
- Raven, the Fire Emblem mercenary who can solo entire maps on his own.
- Badass McNinja (and Wesley Snipes'-lookalike) Raven from Tekken. He'll See You in Hell.
- A lesser known example is the badass bodyguard of the big bad from 2097.
Web Comics[]
- Mr. Raven from El Goonish Shive.
Western Animation[]
- Raven from Teen Titans.
Scorpion[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Sasori from Naruto.
Comic Books[]
- Scorpion and Scorpia from Spider-Man.
Film[]
- The Scorpio Killer from Dirty Harry.
- The Scorpion King from the movie of the same name and The Mummy Returns.
- Eliyahu Scorpio from the Israeli film Ushpizin.
Literature[]
- The Alacráns from House of the Scorpion count. Their last name, of course, means scorpion.
- Arguably Scorpius, Draco Malfoy's son in the epilogue of Harry Potter.
- Scorpio, the international criminal organisation from the Alex Rider books.
Live-Action TV[]
- Scorpius (Farscape and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy).
- Scorpina (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).
- Robert Scorpio from General Hospital.
- Kamen Rider Sasword (from the word Sasori, meaning scorpion).
Video Games[]
- Plain old Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.
- Scorpio from Devil Kings.
- Scorpion the Butcher in Silent Scope.
Web Comics[]
- Vriska Serket from Homestuck.
Western Animation[]
- Hank Scorpio, Homer's 'Bond villain'-esque boss on The Simpsons.
- Scorponok of Transformers: Beast Wars was an exception. Other Transformers with the name aren't, though. And given the main theme, often were likely to have a form that involves a stinger hanging over their body.
Real Life[]
- Older Than Dirt: King Scorpion from Predynastic Egypt makes this (vaguely) Truth in Television.
Shrike[]
A bird that impales insects or lizards onto sharp branches to feed on them. In short, the animal gets shish-kabobed.
Literature[]
- The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons features a Nigh Invulnerable, time-traveling robot assassin known as The Shrike, who is definitely not someone you want to mess with, primarily because it will live up to its name.
- Shrike the Stalker in the UK release of Mortal Engines (Grike in the US).
- The Edge Chronicles features "shrykes", vicious and merciless birdwomen.
Tabletop Games[]
- Warhammer 40000: Captain Shrike of the aforementioned Raven Guard, who likes to pop up out of nowhere with his jet pack and impale people with his impossibly sharp weapon.
Video Games[]
- Shrike the vehicle expert in Red Faction II.
Snake (Viper, Cobra, etc)[]
American Football[]
- Famed Oakland Raiders (among others) quarterback and noted hellraiser Ken "The Snake" Stabler.
Anime and Manga[]
- Orochimaru of Naruto fame. In Japanese, his name is usually written as 大蛇丸; the middle character 「蛇」 means "snake." Additionally, the Orochi (written as 大蛇) is itself an evil snake from Japanese mythology.
- One Piece: Boa Hancock, the "Snake Princess". Also Nefertari Cobra, King of Alabasta.
- Kimba the White Lion: Viper Snakely, the resident Evil Poacher.
Comic Books[]
- DC Comics villain Kobra.
- Marvel Comics has enough snake-themed villains that they formed their own team, the Serpent Squad (later expanded into the Serpent Society).
- G.I. Joe: Cobra.
Film[]
- Everybody from Kill Bill.
- Escape from New York — Snake Plissken anyone?
Literature[]
- William Makepeace Thackeray had a lovable traitor family named the Crawleys, and Anthony Trollope, who was heavily influenced by him gave the last name to a noble character.
- It's probably worth noting Good Omens has Noble Demon Crowley originally named "Crawly" (he was the serpent in the Garden of Eden), and whose present name is an allusion to famous Satanist Alastair Crowley. (The demon's first name however, subverting this, is Anthony.)
- Harry Potter — Slytherin House (whose emblem is a snake, and whose name sounds like 'slithery') and its founder Salazar Slytherin. In-universe, "Slytherin alumnus" is almost a synonym of "dark wizard".
Live-Action TV[]
- The title character of Blackadder.
- Kamen Rider Ohja. His name translates to Snake King.
Video Games[]
- Solid (and Liquid and Solidus) Snake of Metal Gear Solid.
- Serpent from Mega Man ZX, and his company, Slither Inc.
- Orochi, of the Warriors Orochi games.
- Onaga, the name of the Big Bad of Mortal Kombat: Deception, is Japanese for "king cobra". Also, Kobra from the same game.
- The assassin known as "The Azul Viper" in Rift. (Also keep in mind that with a real name like "Kira Thanos," she scarcely needs a nom de guerre.)
- Cobra the Iron Man from Silent Scope.
Western Animation[]
- Snake Jailbird of The Simpsons.
- Subverted with Lilo and Stitch's Cobra Bubble.
- Snake of The Gangreen Gang on The Powerpuff Girls.
Spider[]
Much like Fox, it's a trickster's name.
Anime and Manga[]
- Onigumo from Inuyasha, whose name is composed of "oni" (a troll or ogre) and "kumo" (spider). And if Kikyo had just run away from him really fast, the whole series could have been averted.
- Pani Poni Dash!: Tsurugi Inugami in addition to Tsurugi, he is also Inugami — not just an animal, it is a Japanese god.
Comic Books[]
- Special mention to the various Black Widow villainesses.
- Transmetropolitan: Spider Jerusalem, rogue journalist.
- In a rare plant-related example, Bone's Briar and Rose. Guess who's the baddie.
- Spider Man, as well as Tarantula and Black Tarantula.
Film[]
- Dr. Aranya from Mesa of Lost Women, a play on the word araña, which is Spanish for Spider.
- Lost in Space: Dr. Smith.
Literature[]
- Spider from Anansi Boys, which is also a Meaningful Name, because he's the son of Anansi.
- The Spiderwick family from The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Western Animation[]
- Tarantulas from Beast Wars.
Tiger[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Benitora/Crimson Tiger from Samurai Deeper Kyo.
- Aisaka Taiga (yes, it's pronounced pretty much the way it sounds) from Toradora!. For bonus points, in addition to the Spanish meaning of the title, "Tora" means "tiger".
Comic Books[]
- Marvel Comics had the Sons of the Tiger, whose magic amulets went to a single man who became the White Tiger.
- DC Comics has the Bronze Tiger.
Film[]
- White Tiger, from the Jackie Chan movie Rumble in The Bronx.
- Tiger Tanaka from You Only Live Twice is a Badass on the side of good.
Live Action TV[]
- Kamen Rider Tiger.
Video Games[]
- Furio Tigre from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations.
- Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai from Sengoku Basara and his ward Sanada Yukimura, known as the Young Tiger.
- Great Tiger, the Indian boxer with access to magical powers of illusion and duplication, from Punch Out.
- General Leang from Command and Conquer Generals, better known as 'The Tigress'.
Western Animation[]
- El Tigre takes this trope and runs with it.
Real Life[]
- Lady of War Caterina Sforza, nicknamed Il Tigre, the Tiger.
Wolf (Wolfen, Wulf, Adolf, Lupin, Volk, etc.)[]
Though after World War II, naming a villain "Adolf" has become a Dead Horse Trope.
Anime and Manga[]
- Averted in Fushigi Yuugi: Tasuki's nickname, Genrou, means "phantasm wolf", hence the phantom wolves that shoot out of his talismans.
Comic Books[]
- Lobo. There's a reason he's known as The Last Czarnian.
- The Fenris twins from X-Men — see the note about Fenrir in literature.
Film[]
- The Star Wolves from Fugitive Alien.
Literature[]
- Averted with Harry Potter's Remus Lupin, even though he is a werewolf. Fenrir Greyback on the other hand is quite the villain (Fenrir is the giant demonic wolf from Norse Mythology).
- Also keep your eye on anyone named Isengrim, Ysengrin or any variant thereof, because they're either a Big Badass Wolf or a Genius Bruiser. Sometimes both, if you're unlucky. He was Reynard the Fox's nemesis in the Reynard cycle, and a certain General Ysengrin is also a villain in Gunnerkrigg Court under the employ of Coyote. Unsurprisingly, he has a wolf's head.
- The Dark Tower and The Stand: Randall Flagg.
- Arkadiy Volkov, Russian chief vampire from the Midnight World. Lampshaded in the chapter La scorta: Count Saint-German's assistant juxtaposes him and the Japanese chief vampire as "White Wolf and Little Black Riding Hood".
Live-Action TV[]
- Wolfram & Hart from Angel.
- El Lobo Fuerte from Mega64 Version 2.
Real Life[]
- Adolf Hitler seemed to have had an affinity of some sort for wolves. His first name derives from Athalwolf, Old High German for "noble wolf", and for this reason "Wolf" became his childhood nickname. He later used it as a pseudonym for himself in the 1920s, ostensibly for security reasons. Three of his military headquarters were named Wolfsschanze ("wolf's lair"), Wolfsschlucht ("wolf's chasm"), and Werwolf ("werewolf").
- The Eighth Fighter Wing is collectively known as "The Wolfpack", named after their most famous wing commander, Robin Olds, who used the callsign "Wolf 01" when he lead the 8th in battle during the Vietnam War. Famous for using F-4C Phantoms to imitate the much slower and more vulnerable F-105 Thunderchiefs.
- Vladimir Wolfovich Zhirinovsky is a right-wing Russian politician known for extreme electoral promises and utter lack of principles.
Tabletop Games[]
- The Space Wolves of Warhammer 40000.
- Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun.
- Wolfgang from The Fifth Elephant, who gets an added bonus for being a werewolf.
Video Games[]
- Claudia Wolf from Silent Hill 3.
- Wolf from Need for Speed Carbon.
- Wolf O'Donnell in Star Fox.
- Sniper Wolf of Metal Gear Solid.
- Lang means wolf in Chinese. Shi-Long Lang, from the Ace Attorney series, is meant to have a Big Badass Wolf vibe, but is ultimately a good character.
- Jack Lupino from Max Payne.
- Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat.
- Wolfenstein (2009 video game).
Web Comics[]
- Girl Genius: The family of Wulfenbach. May or may not be evil, but if you're on the baron's bad side, run.
Other[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Sylia Stingray of Bubblegum Crisis.
- From Naruto is Hoshigaki Kisame (Kisame means demon shark) and his sword Samehada (sharkskin). It's also very literally a Meaningful Name, since Kisame looks like a shark, uses shark-based attacks and can fuse with Samehada in a shark hybrid.
- Alligator Nichol from Jackals is not to be trifled with.
Film[]
- Leo Rook from Lighthouse.
- Parodied with Sea Bass from Dumb and Dumber
Video Games[]
- Mega Man 4 brings us Snake Man, Toad Man, and Mega Man Battle Network's Beast Man.EXE (as well as having .EXE versions of the other two). And 10 has Sheep Man.
- King Hippo from Punch Out.
- Wild Dog, the recurring villain of the Time Crisis series.
- The Do Don Pachi("mad boss bee") series, and its recurring True Final Boss, Hibachi("fire bee").
Western Animation[]
- The Big Bad Hippo from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- The Slaughtering Rat People from Invader Zim.