Need an evil-sounding name

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've been working on some background material for an upcoming Mutants and Masterminds campaign, and while I've got a lot of the essentials about the main villain(s) down, I can't for the life of me come up with a good name(s).

The Big Bad of the campaign is going to be a Darkseid rip-off, the absolute ruler of the plane of Despair. Here's my stock introduction:

"There is a place, not far from here, which has never known laughter, which has never known love, which has a thousand names that all mean pain. Call it Ironshard, call it <needs one more nickname>, call it the Dominion of Tears.

Call it hell, for you will find nothing closer this side of death.

This is the realm of Despair, where the only law is to do unto others before they do unto you."

Despair is a sort of multiversal cancer, conquering and absorbing all manner of alternate realities. It's a frozen wasteland, full of immense, unknowable machines wrought of ice and iron, where betrayal and suffering are the rule, from the highest lord to the lowest slave.

The king, the BBEG, is a tale, menacing figure, eight feet tall in armor made of bones and screams, his hands perpetually dripping with the blood of his victims. His full title is His Imperial Majesty, the Lord of Tears and Prince of All Sorrows.

But he needs a name. Something big, deep, and round, that won't sound stupid when you say it out loud. And I'm stumped.

[Slipperychicken]

Here's a generator for that.

[Xefas]

Normally, this would be a joke. But if you've already settled with "Dyspair" as a reasonable name, I'm going to pose this legitimately.

"Mal Darkbad XIII"

[Slipperychicken]

"Mal Darkbad XIII"

Darkbad Baddark the Third?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Here's a generator for that.

I've seen that generator before, but I want something that sounds like a name, rather than... well... a Diablo monster.

Normally, this would be a joke. But if you've already settled with "Dyspair" as a reasonable name

It looks a lot stupider written down on second glance, yeah. But I do like "Despair." Since this is for a game, it needs to be something snappy and easy to remember.

[Kyberwulf]

Mahadeva Sahadeva

[Benthesquid]

Normally, this would be a joke. But if you've already settled with "Dyspair" as a reasonable name, I'm going to pose this legitimately.

"Mal Darkbad XIII"

Dyspair on its own merits is sort of bad, but it's actually pitch perfect for a Darkseid clone (besides his own name, Darkseid rules over a planet called Apokolips, and has minions like Desaad (the torturer) Devilance (he's evil, and he has a lance) and, for some reason, Steppenwolf).

Kirby, man, Kirby.

Anyway, I would suggest something in line with that. Dys-pater, perhaps.

[Mr Beer]

Honestly, I would just call him Despair or Lord Despair, he is the living embodiment of his plane, is he not? Gets the message across IMO.

[Mutazoia]

I find using foreign names (especially ancient ones) usually works the best. With that in mind...try this....be sure to check out the evil names link on the right

[JHShadon]

Maldoric
Baldorne
Dalgreth
Gornark

[Gnoman]

Typing "Lord Despair" into Google Translate English to Latin gives "Desperatio Dóminus", which doesn't sound too ridiculous, and has an ominous tone.

[Winds]

Other nicknames for the place...

The Land of Chains
The Bleeding Realm


As far as the person...what if skip the name? Take a leaf from ordinary citizens of the 40K universe. He has a name, you know he does. But most call him by his titles, since even knowing his name hurts. (Or maybe that's the reputation he got from not letting anyone call him by name...)

[Mastikator]

Melazar
Desponas
Tarkess
Barakold

Best I can think of

[Hyena]

Despair... Despair... Desperado?

[Tridax]

Perhaps some Lovecraftian names?

Dar'Koth

Yogert

Yuglot

Bhael

(ok, some of them are a joke.)

[zabbarot]

It might be worth mentioning that so many of the 'evil names' in other languages just translate to simple things like evil, black god, or devil. So there's really no problem just naming him Despair if your common tongue is English If a specific race found him first name him in their tongue.

On the other hand I guess he could name himself, but what kind of ancient evil names itself?

[SethoMarkus]

Astriedax

I'll let you come up with an easy to remember nickname yourself

[TheStranger]

Despair... Despair... Desperado?

Why don't you come to your senses?

Ok, actual suggestions:
Mordecant
Ezeroth
Ageron
Ultak
Fluffles

[Morgarion]

The Adversary.

[GungHo]

Despair, hunh?

Saddius Whinger
Ink
Depresso
Nick Cave

[Arkhosia]

Harrowblight

[TheBajaBojo]

I hope I'm not too late, but what usually helps me, is picking already existing names of other things:
If none of your players are religious or Jewish, try demons from Jewish mythology e.g. Belphegor or Baal-berith might be more appropriate from a cultural background... wikipedia is your friend on this one.

If you feel uneasy throwing names with such backstories/implications around you can try rinkworks' generator set the "simple interface" to "dragons" or "consonant heavy" or similar...

If you happen to dislike generators purely out of principle, I can only recommend picking a very rare foreign name, that none of your players could have possibly heard of. You can google "<insert nationality here> baby names" for that.

[Frozen_Feet]

Lucius
Hannibal
Adolphus
Attila
Ghengis
Wukong
Asmodan
Lempo
Samael
Hannishebob
Bahamut
Marduk

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Sparkle Feathergood

[Rondodu]

Lucius
Hannibal
Adolphus
Attila
Ghengis
Wukong
Asmodan
Lempo
Samael
Hannishebob
Bahamut
Marduk

This list lacks a “Nero”.

[Joe the Rat]

Second vote on "Land of chains". maybe "Land of frozen chains." Chain always bring a sense of binding and imprisonment.

[Slipperychicken]

Despair is a sort of multiversal cancer, conquering and absorbing all manner of alternate realities. It's a frozen wasteland, full of immense, unknowable machines wrought of ice and iron, where betrayal and suffering are the rule, from the highest lord to the lowest slave.

Ironman Wastes?

[Stille_Nacht]

I find that rulers can seem more threatening if you give them a title instead of a name:
"The Architect"
"Sovereign"
"The Lord of _____" (chains, dreams, nothing etc.)

Or you could give him a name that sounds vaguely like a word:
"Dominus"
"Sithe"
"Solitas"

Or you could go for a symbolic word:
"Spider"
"Throne"

Or, of course, you could go for an eldritch sounding name:
"Yawgmoth" is a nice grrrr name
"Thanatos", "Lorthos", etc.
"Phyrex"
"Gizemnid", "Mxyhptlck" or similarly crazy sounding thing
"Thune", "Dirne", "Baht" or something one-syllabled can sound more dramatic

[Arkhosia]

This list lacks a “Nero”.

And both Caligula and Incitatus.

[Icewraith]

Did he used to be someone before becoming this entity?

Alternatively he could just go by his title.

This is sort of a math joke, but you could call him Locus. It's always struck me as a sinister sounding term. It sounds almost identical to Locust, which is a crop-devoring spreader of famine and disease. You've got a bunch of bad guy names that live in this general sound- Loki the trickster god, Locutus the evil borg Picard from Star Trek TNG come immediately to mind. IT REALLY turns into a math joke if you call him "Locus, the sum (set would be better) of all fears" so you probably shouldn't do that if you want to keep the game serious. It's also possible someone's already done that and it's just echoing around in my brain.

You probably want to keep it to two syllables. Darkseid, Morgoth, Sauron, Arthas, Mordred, Frieza... all ludicrously powerful big bads in the evil king archetype.

Or you could name him something like "Sam the Eagle"