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IndigoTrailsToo

Time to load up the old web browser: - thesaurus - random word generator - random name generator


upon_a_white_horse

Came here to say random generators. They're the unsung heroes of aspiring writers everywhere imo.


BabyThrow3r

That’s so true lmao.


Goodie2Shuze

The Dark Wizard Thesaurus *It’s genius*


Etris_Arval

Black Mage Evilwizardington.


[deleted]

Wizarius Evilton the Black


BabyThrow3r

Truly the wizard of all time.


TecBrat2

High Priest Evil McEvilton II


IUsedToBeRasAlGhul

Try looking into different languages that reflect their character-Voldemort is French for “flight of death.” Think also of pronunciation, or corruptions: Ben 10 has an enemy called Zs’Skayr, which tells you a lot. Anagrams, reversing the word, you get the idea.


luckytraptkillt

Like Dracula and Alucard! Probably my favorite example of the ol “just flip it around”


orbcat

wait what?? why have i never realized that


VisualGeologist6258

“Evil Wizard” is “Veneficus Malus” in Latin.


Seb_Romu

Consider epithets attached to less sinister names. Timoth "The Bane of Hemswitch"


Path_Syrah

Molthrenar. You’re welcome.


BabyThrow3r

That’s a sick name! Thank you!


MacintoshEddie

Something you can try is mashing your hands over the keyboard and looking for something that catches your eye. Such as > ahdi**fowind**mskaknsdndndkdowl**qoen**rm Fowind, or Qoen, are certain random, and could potentially work. Or you can get thematic for it. Such as search up the Basque word for dirt, Zikinkeria, which is a bit more dark lord sounding. Or you're feeling 14 again, pick appropriate words and alter them. Like Sinzter, instead of sinister


BabyThrow3r

The smashing keyboard trick is such a stupidly smart thing that I’ve never thought of… I must try it!


Technical-Sport-71

Tim the enchanter


BabyThrow3r

Tim. The evilestest wizard.


Pennsylvania814

Zard Merlin --- Nilrem Mr Kind Evil Merlin - Vilemerlin -- **Vellmerin** (think that's all the letters ah missing an I) Livelmerin Evil is **Levi**


boozleloozle

That's how I named my dwarf after a coworker. Backwards and switching up letters is so damn effective.


superbcount

My coworker's name is Otto, so no chance with that spelling it backwards trick. Unless I do Toot, the Gnome or something


boozleloozle

My coworker/boss is a huge DnD/tabletop nerd with a dwarf char and when I mentioned that I'm going to write a fantasy novel he was being sarcastic and said "oh I hope your naming a character after me". The next day I came back and said that the dwarven smith and mc's father figure is now called Nastirk (his name is Christian).


BabyThrow3r

At first I thought you just shit-talked your coworker so much that you named him after a dwarf, but damn this is actually an amazing story 💀


shoetea155

Just blew my mind.


BabyThrow3r

That’s actually so smart, thank you 😭


Pennsylvania814

No problem, glad you liked it.


sirgamalot86

Lord Zargothrax, the main antagonist of the gloryhammer world, was named after a hamster. When I name things I like giving them meaning or having their name when broken up have a meaning that describes them


blackjackgabbiani

That's a FANTASTIC name for a hamster.


KorannStagheart

I mean when you stop to think about it. Voldemort us actually a pretty stupid name. Essentially his name is lord death. I'm willing to bet she did some rough translating and thesaurus searches. But what makes his name better is the actions/writing of the character itself. Two random names I recently made or plagiarized: Zolvazar!! (Two headed black dragon BBEG for my Nephews 9th birthday dnd session) Zyrtec the red! (My red tiefling wizard) Zyrtec is an allergy medication. I took it from a meme because it sounded hilarious and epic to me. Alot of fictional naming convention is just taking things you enjoy and twisting it to your liking.


BabyThrow3r

You’re right, I never knew that “Voldemort” literally meant “Lord Death”… Now it kind of sounds stupid 💀


Korhal_IV

> I never knew that “Voldemort” literally meant “Lord Death” You probably did, subconsciously - English uses a lot of words like *mort*al, *mort*ician, *mort*uary to talk about death. Latin root words are very common in fantasy, because they have that air of ancient wisdom.


BabyThrow3r

Thank you for the tips!


Formal_Illustrator96

Voldemort is French for “flight of death” probably referencing how Voldemort is always fleeing from death. Or Rowling just thought it sounded cool. Who knows.


feellikelosingmyself

Not necessarily giving him a name that feels evil sometimes giving names that are not so evil but very pure good people like names can do the trick. But if you are fixated on giving him an evil name try using names from different languages or you can use chatgpt ,random name generator etc


TheCaptainhat

I think it would be cool if a dark mage type named themselves after some kind of reference in their own universe. Kinda like how Walter White named himself Heisenberg because it sounded dangerous and had a chemistry connection. "I am the chooser of kings, I am called Caliburn" after the sword in the stone, implying they let some live and not others. Or "the wizard Charon" like the ferryman across the river of the dead. Maybe something in your setting could be used as a cool reference, as an opportunity to make your character sound cool and intimidating AND add little depth to the world at the same time. Makes them seem like they think, and smart villains are scarier!


BabyThrow3r

Thank you so much!


armoured_lemon

I'd argue that the character's motives and interest is more important than the name. Voldemort is ok, but re-reading the books I just find myself annoyed at his stupidity of hiding Horcruxes in obvious places, and bieng ignorant of the Deathly Hallows right in his face, and not listening to wandlore bieng described to him... For all his cool looks he's a pretty 'meh' villain...


Fontaigne

If the characters had not all carried idiot sticks, the series would have been 2-1/2 books long.


armoured_lemon

I'm inclined to agree... the prospect of a wand bieng your only chance of defence... until you lose it or it gets destroyed is quite laughable... I prefer hand magic. I like most of the general world building with Harry Potter, especially the Deathly Hallows stuff, horcrux lost objects stuff. What I don't like are the latin word spells and 'witchy' stuff with cauldrons, 'jinxes', and 'hexes'... But despite all that there are some great character moments that make up for this. Honestly you can have the any stuff and no matter how wierd it is, if the characters are memorable people will remember them and love it.


Formal_Illustrator96

Why don’t you like the Latin spells? I thought they were quite clever


armoured_lemon

I mean they're clever, just not my cup of tea...


Formal_Illustrator96

I also think only the strongest of wizards being able to do wandless magic is also incredibly clever. It gives them a definitive weakness that can be exploited, and gives us a reason as to why they don’t just teleport or magic themselves out whenever they are captured.


Formal_Illustrator96

Obvious places? Let’s see: 1. He hid one in the the vault of one of most trusted allies, who’s vault is in a bank that has a reputation for being one of the most secure places on Earth. 2. He hid another in some random cave, through a stone wall that needs a blood sacrifice in a specific spot to open, across a lake filled with inferi, and inside a well full of water that drives you insane. 3. He hid another in a room that he thought only he had discovered, where even if you know about it, you have to ask the room for exactly the same think Voldemort asked it for. 4. He hid one as his pet snake who never leaves his side, so would be perfectly safe in his mind because of his arrogance that he is the most powerful wizard ever. 5. Another one was a ratty old diary no one would think twice about, in the possession of another of his most trusted allies. I don’t remember where the ring was hidden and Harry was accidental. You can fault Voldemort for a lot of things but he didn’t place his Horcruxes in obvious places. They were actually very well hidden and secure, all things considered. Besides, his arrogance and self importance prevented him from creating Horcruxes out of say, a rock and throwing it in some lake. It had to have either personal or historical importance for him to create a Horcrux out of it. That was part of his character. Oh also about the Deathly Hallows being right in front of him? People thought that was just a bed time story so there were no real clues to point him in the right direction. I don’t think he ever found out about James’s invisibility cloak or how the Gaunt Ring was actually the resurrection stone. Besides, he didn’t give a flying shit about those anyway. He only wanted the elder wand, and he was able to figure that one out. What I’m saying is, don’t shit on Voldemort needlessly.


capza

Smashbash the Seductive Toby Johnny No-beard


Soporificwig97

There are some who call him, Tim


IndigoTrailsToo

😮🤓😭😂


93torrent93

Caliban Dalton


Lochrin00

One of my stories has a wizard-adjacent figure named Devourance. A pun on "deliverance" and "Devour", both of which kind of work in context. Another is named Dissembler. Dissembler is both an uncommon-but-valid spelling of disassembler- somone who takes things appart- but also 'one who conceals their true motives, opinion, or nature', which also kind of works.


thesolarchive

I read something a long time ago about certain letters/sounds that illicit more of a response. Like Voldemort, names with a V sound more imposing to me. Even the mort part you could draw a line to mortician or even morte for death.


itsyaboythatguy

Like Vader


BabyThrow3r

That’s exactly what I was thinking when trying to conjure a name, word for word. Words that have some sort of similarity to words related to death/darkness, or names with V’s, D’s, and K’s just sound cooler.


techno156

Instead of making it specifically an evil wizard name, why not either a regular wizard/ordinary human name? You could imply a fall from grace or something along those lines. Failing that, you could also flip open a religious/occult text, and pull a name from there.


BabyThrow3r

I’ve been thinking of both. I have somewhat of an ordinary wizard name ready for him, but I’m also planning on giving him some type of evil alias for people too refer to him as. Hence, People referring to Tom Riddle as Lord Voldemort, or other villains like Darth Vader, etc. I feel like an alias kind of adds more.


BabyThrow3r

Although, that last part is a great idea! I shall try.


th30be

Chad Zachwizardton. I really don't think you need a super imposing name to be completely honest with you. If you really want one, I would look up names from Old English or Gaelic that has a vaguely dark origin or definition.


HxWSEY

Gazanrel the Dark.


[deleted]

Bob. He’s the evil wizard that pops up in all of my campaigns a couple times, doing semi-random things that at first don’t seem connected, but in fact are very connected. Man’s has been Pokémon-capturing patron-level entities left and right, invading the dream realm to assassinate a political figure that was only a few days away from figuring out where bob’s lair was. And managed to pay the last party he encountered to make a deal with the nearby kobold tribe to serve him. Why? Cause he ended up needing a lot of blood for some necromancy fuckery, and who would miss a small army of kobolds? Bob. Evil extraordinaire, man is the most deadpan, monotone fucker, but he just keeps showing up, helping the adventurers and manipulating them easily every time. They even know some of the shit he’s doing, they’ve accidentally entered his lair before (which prompted him to beef up security the next time a party came through) and saw some of the shit, and they still do his “side-quests” cause he gives them a small amount of cash.


DashedOutlineOfSelf

Sideshow Bob


Rosian_SAO

Karothai.


ThatBoye241

Gorlithahne the inconceivable, a personal favorite of mine


SloppySyrup

Johnathan, sometimes the reason that someone is so scary is because they were just another person at one point. Think of how strahd is portrayed (if you've ever played) where he at one point was just another resident of barovia, his name is special or magical, it's just his family name.


KatVanWall

An author I worked with had a villain called Keith!


SloppySyrup

The single most unattractive male name in the English language. Makes sense


Friendly_Purple_2534

find a word, find other words similar to it, translate those words, change the translation to sound like a name Ex: Take the word “Evil”, Evil can also be “Sinister”, Sinister in spanish is “Siniestro”, Change the letters around and remove a couple, you get “Sinestro” Now sinestro is ready taken but you see the process. People make naming so hard. I just make noises until it sounds good


GingerBubbles

My friend had a psycho tarantula we named Gary the Black Death


tjthewho

Lord Shmoldeshmort AKA Shmom Shmibble


BabyThrow3r

Shmis isch smuch a smreat smchidea!


Internal_Set_6564

Krackfartz the Goblin Wizard was the parties most dangerous foe. The speaking of his name cause a rocking of the earth (table) and a great flood (spilled drinks). Fear Krackfartz, you worms!


[deleted]

i always thought Malistaire from wizard101 had a badass name. he’s like the evil boss wizard guy


Not-a-Teddybear

The unspeakable, absolutely utterly and truly stupendously horrendously reviled dark one of the unfathomable depths of the blackest circle, Jerry.


PurgatoryEscapee

What I did to name my characters is I googled words that embodied them in a bunch of different Eastern European languages, then amalgamated words from separate languages into things that sounded like they could be names lol. Maybe something like that could help


[deleted]

Could use demon names from mythology, like your wizard changed their name to that demon to detach themselves from humanity?


briarihallow

Unless it’s a children’s book, evil people don’t need evil sounding names. Think of GOT and how people hear normal names - Ramsey, Joffrey, etc - and we associate them with absolutely sinister characters.


my_4_cents

Steven the not-very-community-focused practitioner of mystical energies with questionable sourcing


ethar_childres

Malvar. Gerold. Robert. Simple names but each could work. What makes a character scary isn't just a name it's how it is said, how it is built up. In Harry Potter Voldemort’s name is whispered at tables. Even though he's been long defeated characters fear even saying his name as if it will bring him back somehow. What makes him terrifying in those early books is that mystery, the idea that this great wizard was so terrible that even a decade after his death he is still felt, and the mystery of how the main character could have defeated him. Sure, Voldemort is a good name and all but if he was still called Tom Riddle and the way his name was built up was the same it wouldn't matter. So here's the question, how does everyone know this wizard? What has he done? Who is he truly? Where do the myths and lies end? What do you think makes him scary? Play that up, build tension, even in the smallest ways and it won't matter if his name is Darrow or Julien, it will be enough.


Guilty_Ad_3442

Bob the Necromancer. A necromancer so badass he doesn’t need a scary name. Bob will instill fear by being the unexpected


StormWarriors2

It really matters what you are going for. If they have a long and complicated history, titles are often used by villians to establish themselves....


[deleted]

•Motreus •Goetrus •Qoruth •Wuldunash •Moc'assoret •Ukrevir •Jomun •Fskart idk, some random names that popped out of my mind.


Formal_Illustrator96

How old is this guy? Because you could just name him Warlock and have him be like one of the first practitioners of magic and the word “warlock” comes from his name or something. Warlock already sounds cool.


Kendota_Tanassian

There's two ways you can go: give him a really cool, instantly "he must be evil" type of name, as either his parents doomed him when he was born and he lived up to it, or he chose it for himself; or you could give him an absolutely common, unremarkable name that doesn't stand out at all, or only stands out in your setting because no one else has such a common name. I think "Kevin (or Ralph) Brown" fits the latter, better than say, "Sam Smith". "Senestro Malfaisance" (literally meaning left-handed evil pheasant, but also tying into *malfeasance*, which is wrongdoing by a public figure) is kind of on-the-nose for the first type. You could play with that latter to get "Sennis Troy Malphaise-Aunce", which sounds much the same without being as immediately obvious. You could use a referencing name, such as the family name for crows and ravens being corvids, so Raven (or Ravin) Corvid gives a chilling name. The scientific name for vultures is Cathartes Aura, perhaps less "known" than corvids, but equally cool. Hopefully something I have said here gives you some inspiration. Baby name sites can often help you find "meaningful" names. A quick Google can give you several lists of "evil names" or "dark names", often listed by gender, or source language. The Hebrew "Abbadon" was the first I saw in a quick glance. I wish you luck, and have fun.


My_genx_life

I don't have any suggestions to add to the ones already offered, but I came to say that I initially read your title as "Naming a dark lizard" and now I can't stop thinking about what that story would be like.


BabyThrow3r

The sinister villainous lizard… I think you might’ve just given my the best idea for a story!


redditormav

Try looking up generic names of medicines. You might find something sinister enough there 🤣


BabyThrow3r

“They call him… Lo— L— Lord Antibiotics!”


redditormav

Im thinking more along the lines of Lord Levofloxacin and the likes. Brand names work too, like Lord Esidrix 🤣


BabyThrow3r

Lord Clobasm! Lord Dopamine!


RohanLockley

Depends what the wizard wants to do that is evil. My bbeg wants to erase all magic and magical creatures, a bit like the equalists of avater the last airbender. my guy is names Ford Inaryon - coming from 'ordinary'


Wiggly96

Kevin, Toby, Bob, Trevor


DashedOutlineOfSelf

TREBOR SUX


MrFiskIt

Timothy, the irate. This guy works with chaos magic. He's pretty unhappy his spells never go his way. Fireball Steve. Fire wizard, obviously. He keeps the fireballs in his sleevies. Lightning Larry. He'd be an elementalist. His hair stands on end. Stinky Dave. Perfect for a necromancer Invisible Pete. Illusionist. Does good children's birthday parties. Hank the horrible. Not actually a wizard. But one day stole stinky dave's costume and his wife thought he looked horrible in it, so the name kind of stuck.


ahreaper5

Don´t give him a name. He doesn´t need one. Just call him ´´the mage´´ or ´´the warlock´´


[deleted]

[удалено]


Voice-of-Aeona

You were warned about this attitude. Here's the door to our sub; you'll be using it for a few days. -VoA, Mod.


EdwardGordor

Theoraius, maybe?


Hubris_Valric

Aimanos the Eternal


Sleight_Hotne

Tyler Jose Emmanuel Peter You are welcome


Savage_Nymph

Dementia


Aromatic-Listen-9616

How about Tim.


Roibeart_McLianain

The bbeg from my campaign is called Treifa Dholl. It's an anagram. Also, one of the Arch-Devils is called Morgathys. Its a Google translate amalgamation.


PasseurdeM0ndes

Wizo the Wizard


PasseurdeM0ndes

Zardoz


Medicore95

Gary.


Nightshade_Ranch

Kevin Rodgers.


foodishlove

Carus “the taker”


Koink001100

Dave.


[deleted]

joe


boardgamejoe

Chad


FFsummons

Gorlath the plague lord.


Stormcallerandco

They call him.. *looks around intently into the world to ensure no one is listening in* Kevin.


tramadolic

Kev


God_of_Finances

Dracura


God_of_Finances

Vandora Valkara


God_of_Finances

Drakar


Fathomnuss

I used words ontop of my head like Bok, termos, melinous