Super Heroes abroad

[Crow T. Robot]

As my D&D campaign starts to enter it's final stretch, I've started to look onward to what comes next. So I've been working on a super hero setting, as I felt it would be a nice change of pace.

Bit of a snag though. I am arm pit deep in heroes located around North America, but sadly my ability to think up names for European or Asian heroes things just fall apart. And since I am trying to avoid useing established names for heroes.

So, if anyone has any ideas of where I should look or some that I could just use.
I would be grateful for any help.

Though I would like to avoid overtly silly names, like Pudding Man defender of England or some such.

[kpenguin]

Well, you could just make up normal superheroes and change their background a little to make them a part of any specific nation.

If you want region specific themes, the names can get very silly.

[Collin152]

Asian hero names tend to follow a simple pattern:
Adjective Noun
sometimes proceded by the.
Red Fang
Soaring Crane
Mighty Blade
Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon (Okay, last two are stolen, but you get the point)

[kpenguin]

Try using characters based in local folklore or mythology as well.

[Ralfarius]

I would say that Euro-supers aren't going to be too much different from North American, as they're mostly just kind of western. If you want specific flavour, look up myth and legend for the culture the hero is from. Beowulf wouldn't be a bad Scandinavian hero name, for instance.

Also don't be afraid to just use basic words describing their abilities in their native tongue. Der Kunstflieger ("trick flier") for a flying, German superhero, for instance, or Tormenta de Fuego ("Firestorm") for a Spanish pyrokineticist. Mind you, these are pretty lame, 2-minute translator jobs, but unless your players are linguists they'll not be able to tel the difference.

[kpenguin]

Also, DON'T USE PUNS!

Putting a British super-strength hero named "Big Ben" will cause a roar of giggles throughout the table. Trust me, I know.

[AtomicKitKat]

UK heroes
Union Jack. His power is the ability to cause any 2 living beings to become stuck together for variable periods. Sort of like Spidey's webbing, but a little less flexible(ie, can't be stuck against objects).
Black Pudding Man. Flows around his opponents with his amorphous body and immobilises them with solidified Black Pudding. Exuded from his pores(EWWW!).
Spotted ****. Short-ranged worm-holing, allowing him to throw punches from weird angles, for example(if you ever saw the 90's Spiderman cartoon, it's stolen from that guy from the last season, who looks like a Dalmation).

"Asian"
Well, there's different kinds of "Asian". Most of the names wouldn't be understood by your players, so you'd have to resort to "translated into English, it means..." Deus Ex Machina. There's Chinese, Japanese, Korean(Even N and S have differences), Indian, Malay/Indonesian(similar language, a few differences here and there), Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian. Chinese/Japanese/Korean has some overlap, but not much. Chinese alone has like 20 regional dialects, with varying degrees of overlap. Vietnamese/Thai/Cambodian all sound very similar to the untrained ear, but are probably very different from one another.

[Ditto]

In our M&M game, one member of the British superteam was named Big Ben. Sorry, kpenguin, I ache on your behalf. He was a big hulking guy, but not superhumanly strong, actually - he would flex is prodigious muscles in such a way as to create intense sonic shockwaves. With a big BOOOOONG! to accompany it. It was obnoxious, but at least a little clever.

I introduced my character (which I've also played as a member of the X-Team Excalibur) at this point: Thom Thames, the River Avenger. He's a water-based London-based Cockney hero, and is constantly frustrated by foreigners pronouncing his name phonetically (to Americans, at least), instead of the proper 'Tom Temms'. He was fun!

[Crow T. Robot]

Ah yes mythology. Not thinking of it is making a middle school teacher of mine weep somewhere. This also means there will be a water using Russian supervillianess named "Rusalka" they are going to wish they never met.

Anyway, this all means I am going to spend some quality time with a translation service of some kind. I suppose a web based one would be close enough.

I have just tried to avoid any well know names. So anything by a major comic book label is out, but Freedom Force is right in, due to relative obscurity.