Fluffy the Terrible

I have created wounded art. An uncompromising weapon that, in a fit of graceful agony, will rend and tear until there is nothing left. This creature is death.
[beat

I call him Fluffles.
—Unnamed Guard, Goblins

A big, scary, dangerous monster with a bizarre, cutesy name befitting a housepet. Custom dictates for the creature to be introduced by their owner calling for them, the enemies laughing at the creature's ridiculous name, only to be interrupted by earth-shaking footsteps as the pet enters the scene. The customary response is to run away really quickly. Screaming is also highly recommended.

Sometimes writers will play with the trope by making the monster look big, scary, and vicious, and yet be as sweet and lovable as its name suggests. Other times, justified because the monster was named when it was not yet big, scary, or vicious.

A.K.A. Big Monster Cute Name. Compare Killer Rabbit. Polar opposite of Deathbringer the Adorable. See also Fluffy Tamer, the person most likely to name the critter "Fluffy" in the first place. See Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear for this combined with Sealed Evil in a Can. See also Plain Name, Tom the Dark Lord, Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom, People's Republic of Tyranny, and Cute as a Bouncing Betty, a weapon-specific subtrope of this.

Examples of Fluffy the Terrible include:

Anime and Manga

  • Yu Yu Hakusho featured a genetically-engineered monster named Helen, killed by hired villain Toguro as a display of his power.
  • In Ranma ½, Kodachi has a pet named Mr. Green Turtle (Mr. Scaly Green in some episodes of the anime). It turns out to be a ferocious alligator.
  • In Ah! My Goddess, the demon leader Hild has a creature that eats angels, which are effectively the goddess' souls. It is a gigantic, powerful leviathan. And she named it "Kittens".
  • In an episode of Ninin ga Shinobuden, Shinobu names her giant, mobile, carnivorous plant monster Pochinosuke ("Pochi" being the Japanese equivalent of "Rover" or "Fido" and "nosuke" being an archaic boys' name ending). She's the only one who can keep it from wreaking havoc.
  • Its name is Biscuit Hammer; it is the destroyer of worlds.
  • A recurring villain in Kinnikuman is one of the biggest chojin in the series, a living mass of sand who sadistically brutalizes his opponents. He was responsible for Prince Kamehame's death during the Dream Tag Tournament arc. His name? Sunshine. (He's named after the Sunshine Towers of Peru.) There are some other dangerous villains with silly names, but at least they have the decency to look silly, too.
  • In Baccano!, America's craziest and most terrifying assassin has the misfortune of being named Claire which, while not incapable of being attached to total badasses, doesn't exactly work that way when the badass in particular is male. Fans like to joke that this is the reason he keeps on making up new names
    • It works when you realize that prior to the 50s, Claire was a man's name. In 1930, his name would have been normal - the twist only comes for modern viewers who are used to it being a female name, although even in 1930, it was more common for women than for men in this particular spelling.
    • Out of omniscience-boredom, a reality-warping Eldritch Abomination decided to take human form and join the ranks of the Martillo family camorra. It's name is Ronnie.
  • Durarara!! has Celty's headless demon horse. His name is Shooter.
  • Triela of Gunslinger Girl, was given the nickname "Lepretto" (roughly "bunny" or "little hare") by the GIS Special Forces guys she trained with, after a child's doll that shares her Girlish Pigtails. When they meet up again on a later mission, a couple of the GIS guys rub her hair and comment how "rubbing a rabbit's foot before mission will bring you good luck". They need the luck, they're going to be leading the charge into a hostage situation in a bell-tower. Triela lets them get away with it (even though they spoiled a moment with her handler), her job is going to be to climb said tower.
  • In Hunter X Hunter the guard dog of the Zaoldyeck estate is a mindless killing machine to anyone who doesn't come in through the front door, and Gon, who is incredibly good with animals and befriended a bear, is scared of her. Oh, and her name is Miké.
  • Pokémon: Ritchie's "Zippo" will probably evolve into a Charizard eventually.
  • The latest volume of the Baki the Grappler manga has Pickle, who is a giant defrosted caveman. Not only is he undefeated, but after beating Retsu, he tore his leg off and ate it.
  • Every major villain in Dragon Ball since Piccolo Daimaou (with his henchmen, Piano, Tambourine, Cymbal and Drum), culminating in the unstoppable creation of the maniacal wizard Bibidi and servant of his son Babidi... Buu. The machine mutant Baby from Dragon Ball GT is one of the most glaring examples.
  • In Yaiba, when the eponymous hero heard about a Kappa named Kerosuke, he expected a small, thin kappa, not a colossal, super-strong, fire-breathing carnivorous titan with a penchant for human flesh
  • In one chapter of the Tenchi Muyo! manga, the gang is attacked by a seven foot bear-like creature called a Duodo, which is tough enough to block the Tenchi-ken. Mihoshi takes one look at it, cries out "FLUFFY!" and the creature runs over to her and starts purring like a kitten.
  • The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist from Naruto last names mean some type of fruit.
  • Toriko: Battle Wolf Terry Cloth may be a puppy but he can still rip apart foes that Toriko had trouble with.
  • Early in Blood Plus, we are introduced to the Chiropterans: virtually unkillable monsters created in military experiments that rip apart humans and drink their blood. The military's codeword for them: Mouse.


Comic Books

  • To quote Superdickery.com: Who, in their right mind, would name their giant mechanized killing machine "Honeybun?"
  • Atlantis in Gold Digger has a guardian monster, the giant 2-kilometer across crab/kraken.... 'Flaky'. Flaky likes to play with a stuffed plushie of a normal sized crab. Do not mess with the plushie.
  • In The Annotated Mantooth, the giant robot powered by a uranium core was called "World's Greatest Grandpa." It was also built by Hitler, who died in his own Death Trap with man-eating ducks and peanut butter. The entire Mantooth series was made of this.
  • DC Comics Crisis Crossover series Countdown to Final Crisis featured a Monitor, one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, called Bob. "Well, we can't just call you the-Monitor-who-is-trying-to-track-down-the-Atom, it'll take too long."
  • A recurring character in early 90s Superman comics was a seven-foot-tall female Intergang bruiser called Tiny Bubbles.
  • Deadpool once killed a tank-grown monster that had gone berserk (greatly pissing off the agency who owned the monster). Said monster's name was Doris.
  • The Darkwing Duck comics in Disney Adventures featured a newly-made villain in the form of a super-intelligent kitten named Fluffy.
  • The X-Men villain Sugarman is a grotesque looking head on legs with multiple arms who speciliazes is horrific genetic experiments and hails from the Age of Apocalypse.
  • From Apokolips, we have Granny Goodness, the ultimate evil old person.
    • And then there's her personally trained attack dog, Mercy, whom she was forced to kill when Darkseid ordered the canine to kill her.
    • Moreover, you have Glorious Godfrey's sister, the expert assassin Amazing Grace.
  • An unintentional example given that he started out as a good guy, but the name of the character responsible for the most gruesome massacre in the history of comics? Kid Miracleman.
  • You'd think that in a series featuring characters with names like Demonwolf or Deathmonger, someone who goes by the seeming innocuous name of Willy Pete would be relatively harmless. You'd be wrong. Dead wrong.
    • Nobody familiar with what soldiers mean by "Willy Pete" would be at all surprised.
  • In Stanley and His Monster, the Monster was later revealed to be a demon called "The Beast with No Name" that was a pariah in Hell for being too nice. When it accidentally bonded to Stanley Dover and became his friend, Stanley gave it the name "Spot". While Spot is a pretty decent fellow, a friendly demon is still a demon.
  • In the Marvel Adventures Hulk series, Hulk and Rick Jones encounter The Nameless One, a two-headed Eldritch Abomination. One of his heads is certain that they need a name, and finds human ones like "Bob" and "Tom" exotic and appealing. The other head is not amused.
  • In Orson Scott Card's Ultimate Iron Man, there is a male antagonist named Dolores, which seems to be more of a great-aunt than a villain. Subverted because "dolores" is Spanish for "pains," which is why he chose the name.
  • There's a 'Fluffy' in Judge Dredd's Metro incarnation.
  • In Marvel's Journey Into Mystery, Kid Loki names his violent hellhound Thori. Said hellhound would rather have been called Deathripper or one of several other more fitting appellations.


Fanfic

  • In Enemy of My Enemy, there are Lekgolo/Hunters, 12-foot-tall armored warriors that scare the shit out of their foes and their allies. What does young Sarah Jennings call the pair she made friends with? Jib and Jub.
  • Jamie "Rabbit" Rodriguez. A complete psychopath whose death toll was so large that several police officers decided to go vigilante and gunned him down while he was in a public restroom full of witnesses. They gave those police officers the keys to the city. Then he was resurrected as a undead supersoldier and after brutally murdering the people who tried to control him, went back to his old job of hiring himself out to various gangs and promptly slaughtering their rivals and the gang who hired him if he felt like it. His only redeeming point he has a problem with killing kids. Doesn't mean he won't do it but it leaves a sick taste in his mouth. And his nickname is Rabbit.
  • In the fanvideo MLP FIM Fanfic, Celestia uses a Kill Sat to blow up the planet. The name of said Kill Sat, H.A.R.M.O.N.Y.
  • Some fanfics themselves fit this trope. Rainbow Factory, Celebrian, Cupcakes...
  • The Emiya Clan managed to get Primate Murder, the White Beast of Gaia, First Dead Apostle Ancestor, the creature whose task is to destroy humanity, as a pet. It kind of came as a packaged deal when Altrouge Brunestud forced herself on Shirou as his newest wife. They call him "Primmy."


Film

  • Possibly the trope namer -- "Fluffy" was a 1965 Tony Randall film about the title character, a full grown household dwelling lion.
  • The creature from "The Crate" segment of Creepshow, mainly made up of claws and fucking huge teeth... and referred by effects supervisor Tom Savini as Fluffy.
  • The special effects crew of |The Host nicknamed their giant tadpole monster "Steve Buscemi". The resemblance is uncanny.
  • In Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, the main (male) villain was named "Betty". It's actually quite a bit worse than that, his name used to be "Master Pain;" he then changed it to Betty.
    • Which is an hour-long setup for a Brick Joke of epic proportions.
  • In Winter's Bone the criminal, prone-to-Ax Crazy-violence, meth-addicted uncle of the main character is named... "Teardrop".
  • The mechanical shark from Jaws was nicknamed "Bruce" by the crew. Innocuous enough, until you realize "Bruce" was also the name of Spielberg's lawyer.
  • The diabolical crime lord from RoboCop has the unassuming name of Clarence. In keeping with the joke, he also looks like a balding, spectacled accountant.
  • In the Muppet version of "The Frog Prince", the evil witch has a very large ogre henchman named "Sweetums."
  • Prince Nuada in Hellboy II: The Golden Army has a large cave troll with a robotic fist on a chain. He calls him Mr. Wink. He's named after Selma Blair's one-eyed dog.
  • Audrey II, the giant man-eating venus flytrap of Little Shop of Horrors
  • Cats and Dogs has Mr. Tinkles, the Magnificent Bastard Butt Monkey Blofeld cat. "Evil DOES NOT wear a bonnet!"
  • 'Pumpkin'/'Ringo' from Pulp Fiction isn't psycho enough, but his girlfriend 'Honeybunny' most definitely is.
  • Dr. Giggles.
  • Dr. Rotwang. It sounds like some kind of horrible disease in English, but "Rotwang" is actually German for "rosy cheeks".
  • Not a creature but it still fits the trope: the gun that Kay gives Jay in Men in Black is a tiny little thing that looks rather like a water pistol. It's called a Noisy Cricket. And when Jay fires it the first time, it takes out a wall, and the kickback is enough to throw him back several metres.
  • Spoofed in the Starsky and Hutch film, where they're looking for a man named Tiny who runs a bar; the guy they find there is 5' 9", neither small enough to be actually tiny, nor big enough to be "one of those ironic names".
  • In Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, there is a giant, fearsome Baryonyx that even scares a T. Rex. Crazy Survivalist Buck names it... Rudy.
  • In Trick 'r Treat, the monstrous king of Halloween is named Sam. Short for Samhain.
  • The title demon of vengeance in the Pumpkinhead films.
  • In Reservoir Dogs, Nice Guy Eddie is actually quite a mean son of a...gun. For that matter, you wouldn't really think that guys named Mr. Pink, Mr. White, and Mr. Blonde would be so bad. You would be very, very wrong.
  • From How to Train Your Dragon fits quite well, seeing as Toothless is a dragon. He just... doesn't have teeth. Except for the fact that he does (when he wants them). What more, he's the baddassest, the fastest, fiercest, most accurate, most-powerful flame-wielding dragon of them all (minus, you know, that one). And he's called Toothless.
  • The monster in Cloverfield became known as... Clover. And before that, his Fan Nickname was Mr Grumpy Pants.
  • In the Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, "Baby" is a fully-grown leopard. He's friendly enough, but he's still a leopard.
  • In Seven Samurai, Toshiro Mifune's character is named Kikuchiyo after the fake papers he has to "prove" he's of noble birth. Unbeknown to him and to the amusement of the others, Kikuchiyo is the name of a little girl. He still kicks lots of ass.
  • Lilo's social worker in Lilo and Stitch is a huge black man (voiced by Ving Rhames in the movie, no less) who habitually dresses in formalwear and a gold earring... named Mr. Bubbles. Subverted in that his first name is Cobra.
  • In The Unborn, the spirit of the unborn child terrorizing Odette Yustman's character is named Jumby.
  • Bunny in Platoon.
  • In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there is the great wizard who leads the Knights to the grail. He announces himself thusly: "THERE ARE THOSE WHO CALL ME... Tim?"
  • The black horse owned by Judge Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame is actually named Snowball.
  • Lady and the Tramp II featured a large, mean, brutish-looking dog who menaced Lady and Tramp's son Scamp at one point named Reggie.
    • Are you saying the Kray brothers had funny names?
  • When your name sounds like "Saccharine", people probably expect you to be as sweet as your name, right? Not true for the Big Bad in Tintin, where Mr. Ivan Ivanovich Sahkrine is willing to kidnap, murder, and steal all to find the location of Red Rackham's Treasure. Well, he is Rackham's descendant and possible reincarnation, after all...


Literature

  • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the entrance to the tunnel leading to the titular stone is guarded by a giant, slobbering three-headed dog named Fluffy, which Hagrid got from a Greek chappie.
    • Other similarly terrifying creatures with cutesy names appear throughout the series; Hagrid has a tendency to treat dangerous supernatural creatures as if they were fluffy little housepets. He's half-giant, and they usually respond quite well to such treatment. The more dangerous the animal, the cuter the name. See Norbert the dragon.
    • On the other hand, he named his extremely friendly but cowardly sissy dog Fang.
  • On Discworld Death rides a pale horse, and it is named Binky. Although it is just a regular horse (albeit an impressive, incredibly intelligent one).
  • An Empathic Weapon sort-of example from Dragaera- The owner of the Great Weapon Godslayer thinks that its/her name is melodramatic and instead calls her by the name of the person whose personality she has (from eating her soul, no less.) Thus, we get a magical knife that can and does destroy souls entirely accidentally, eliminates magical effects, and was designed to kill the Demon Goddess Verra (who, despite the title, is not a villain, exactly)... and it's referred to as Lady Teldra.
  • One of the major plots in The Diamond Age revolves about a chinese crime lord suspected to deal in child trafficing but is actually rescuing tens of thousands of abandoned baby girls and raising them in secret over many years with heavy use of nano technology to be an army of Tyke Bombs. As the chinese love to give flowery names to things, he calles them the Mouse Army. Even at the age of twelve they become the largest and by far strongest army in the civil war.
  • The Anti-Hero protagonist of the Burke novels by Andrew Vachss has a hulking Neapolitan mastiff named Pansy. This is intentional as authorities are automatically suspicious of dogs with names like 'Killer' or 'Satan,' and tough guys are reluctant to report that they were savaged by a dog named 'Pansy.'
  • In the ancient Roman novel The Satyricon, one character has a hulking watchdog whose name translates as "Puppy" and apparently, this was a joke also found in some earlier satirical works. This makes this trope Older Than Feudalism.
  • A side character in one of the My Teacher Is an Alien books is an astonishingly huge alien that takes up the better portion of a house. He is called Big Julie by the protagonists, the only portion of his true name they are able to figure out. This appears to be a Shout-Out to "Big Julie," a mobster character from Guys and Dolls.
    • To give an idea of Big Julie's proportions, the only thing the characters ever see of him is a gigantic eyeball filling up a doorway into the part of the house he inhabits. When the aliens vacate the house, they extract him by cutting him into bits, beaming those aboard their spacecraft, and putting him back together.
  • The Orphan Disposal Agency in Sean Cullen's Hamish X series are led by Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet. All the other agents we see keep this in mind.
  • In Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Adam, the young man who is fated to become the anti-Christ names his dog "Dog." Dog, however, is a hell hound.
    • This slowly becomes a subverted trope when Dog becomes as harmless and friendly as his name suggests, because this is his name.
  • In Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero, Hiero's morse (a giant, combat-trained, mutant moose riding animal) is named "Klootz." During one fight, it caves in the skull of an equally-large mutant bear with one kick.
  • The Dresden Files features Harry's massive, evil-hunter mastiff/dog-a-saurus cross and is actually a Foo dog, which is so reliable in its abilities that his glare could be used as evidence in the highest White Council courts named "Mouse", whose bark can send shocks through multiple dimensions. Dresden describes this as 'every cell of his body flinching' or something like that. It also scares the ectoplasmic piss out of every other supernatural being in the local vicinity. He also survived a hit from a speeding van and was only mildly inconvenienced at worst by a gunshot wound. Unless there's danger present, he's just a Big Friendly Dog.
  • In John Ringo's Posleen War Series there is a supertank the size of a city block that shoots rocket sized shells with an anti-matter core that's named "Bun Bun." On the other hand it is named after that Bun Bun so maybe it's a subversion of sorts.
  • Shaggydog, a vicious dire wolf, from A Song of Ice and Fire, who had the misfortune to be named by a three-year-old. It's actually one of the most feral of all the dire wolves... which makes sense, as the young Rickon has turned somewhat feral himself due to lack of parental supervision.
  • In Hannah Tinti's The Good Thief, Ren becomes pals with a man named Dolly, whom he meets under unpleasant circumstances. Somewhat inconveniently for all concerned, Dolly is a murderer-for-hire who has no qualms whatsoever about his profession.
  • The titular "kittons" of Cordwainer Smith's "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons" are not very nice at all, and kept heavily sedated to avoid ... accidents.
  • The Master-Shark from the Young Wizards series, Ed'rashtekaresket, is quickly dubbed "Ed" by one of the wizards.
  • Most warships built by The Culture. In fact, most ships built by The Culture.
  • Kumiko's enormous London bodyguard in William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive - "My name, you see," he said, as though this would immediately reassure her, "is Petal."
  • Gregor. The giant cockroach. That kills children and eats people while they're still alive. The name is actually a reference to The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, proving that Lord Loss at least has a sense of humour.
  • Betsy's dancing bear, Petunia, from The Whipping Boy.
  • Ayla from the Earth's Children series of novels set in the last ice age has a gigantic cave lion pet named Baby.
  • Keladry of Mindelan has a bad-tempered scarred gelding with a mean streak. He's a small warhorse who is (eventually) trained out of biting people for no reason, but is still worth a squad in combat. After he catches a would-be horse thief's arm in his mouth, Kel tries to dissuade the man by saying "He's not for sale or for stealing. He'll kill you. He's killed men before, he doesn't seem to find it difficult." The horse's name is Peachblossom.
    • Don't forget Kitten the dragon (though her "real" name is Skysong.) She's a fairly nice dragon, but she is rather badass.
  • Dally Rumpe, the Big Bad of The Witches of Bailiwick. A powerful, cackling. usurping sorcerer. Named Dally Rumpe.
  • Non-animal example, the Honor Harrington spaceship the HMS Hexapuma, named for the apex predator of his home world, is referred to by its crew as the Nasty Kitty.
  • One of the titular genetically-engineered, fanged, clawed, fast-moving, intelligent, bloodthirsty, and very, very hungry creatures in the novel Ancestor by Scott Sigler is referred to in the narration as "Baby McButters." (She was born from an ordinary cow whom one of the human characters named Molly McButters.)
  • In Robert A. Heinlein's The Star Beast, the eponymous critter is called Lummox. Admittedly, 'he' wasn't too impressive ... until after that time he ate a Buick....
  • Percy Jackson and The Olympians has Mrs. O'Leary the hellhound.
    • Also, Percy calls the Ophiotaurus Bessie....which, while cute, is a monster capable of destroying the gods
      • and Percy, after seeing the monster Typhon, hopes that he is instead 'Our giant friend, Leroy'
  • A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, has the protagonist become the owner of a pair of hellhounds. He finds on their collars the names "Alvin" and "Mohammed".


Live Action TV

  • Kitty the lion from The Addams Family.
  • In Drake and Josh when Drake is sent to remedial English, one of the other students there has a big, intimidating Rottweiler named Cuddles.
  • Spot the dragon from The Munsters (never seen in full).
  • The Doctor Who episode "The Long Game" has "[t]he Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. The editor of Satellite 5 prefers to call him Max, as it's less of a mouthful.
  • In Power Rangers in Space, misfit henchman Elgar is threatened with being made to play with Scrudley, a never-explicitly-seen monster.
  • Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer. She's a tiny blonde who routinely breaks necks, chops off heads, slices priest's goods off, and does other things most men named Jed or Dirk would shudder at.
    • Lampshaded when Wishverse Vampire Xander says "Someone has to talk to her people. That name is striking fear in nobody's hearts."
    • "Angel" too, for that matter.
  • Tibbles from iCarly, the pooch of Fred/Lucas, described by Freddie as being either a large dog or a small bear.
  • In Stargate Atlantis, you knew the child princess was going to be trouble the second you found out her name was "Harmony." She didn't disappoint.
    • Also in Atlantis, Colonel Sheppard routinely names the big scary Space Vampires things like "Bob", "Steve", etc.
  • Jayne, The Big Guy of the Firefly crew, is a human example, and he's named his BFG Vera. Also, the single most dangerous, violent, and destructive member of the crew has the gentle, pastoral name of River.
    • And naming the ship Serenity? Not remotely as comforting as it sounds.
  • "Jayne" is also the title character from The Comic Strip Presents: Mr Jolly Lives Next Door - he's a hitman.
  • An episode of Life had a suspect talking about his cat "Fluffy." When Crews returns later, he encounters Fluffy, who happens to be a tiger.
  • In the episode of MythBusters that dealt with the Hindenburg, the B Story involved the build team annoying some crocodiles, and at one point they were introduced to the three most ornery crocs at the farm where they filmed: Fluffy, Skipper and Bob.
  • Torchwood keeps a Weevil, one of the man-eating local aliens, in their Elaborate Underground Base. Her name is Janet (Jack was going to call her Barbara, but it just didn't suit her...)
  • One episode of Hustle had a scary-ass Implacable Man named Pinky Byrne.
  • Inverted in an episode of Empty Nest where a small lost dog charms the Weston family while destroying the household and the larger family dog Dreyfuss getting the blame. When the real owner appears, he explains to Harry Weston what the little bastard really is and calls him the appropriately named "Satan".
  • Twinkles the monstrous kitten in The Goodies.
  • The unspeakably frightening main villain of Twin Peaks is a demon who likes to possess people and turn them into serial killers who murder and rape the people they love. His name is Bob. Or actually BOB. It's spelled in all caps.


Music

  • In Devin Townsend's concept album "Ziltoid The Omniscient," the Sixth Dimensional Planet Smasher is named... Herman. He hates musicals.


Tabletop Games

  • You'd think that a creature called The Polka-Dotted Pansyface would be rather harmless, right? In Mortasheen, you'd be very, very wrong. The author reportedly did it as a parody of how people think Ladybugs are cute even though they're vicious predators, and reportedly based its design off of the Tyranids.
  • Forgotten Realms contains a lot of fun. The Old Xoblob Shop (Waterdeep) has a bouncer named Guraim the Gentle Persuader, also useful as a rack for candles. It's an iron Golem.
  • In Eberron the fringe religion of The Blood of Vol has many sub-organizations like the "Crimson Covenant," the "Order of the Emerald Claw," the "Hornblade Clan," or the "Keepers of Blood." And then there's the much more happy sounding "Cult of Life." Yes, you should start running now.
  • In Munchkin, any piece of equipment can be an "x ...OF DOOM" with the right bonus card attached. This occasionally results in a player toting around a Cute Shoulder Dragon...OF DOOM.
  • Magic: The Gathering: "To the camp, it was a fierce and loyal protector. To the sentry's youngest daughter, it would always be her Wuv Muffin." - Flavor text for Patrol Hound
  • The sample characters in Toon include The Crusher, a two-foot tall little green man with a meek voice who nevertheless makes the ground shake when he walks. He's not an example of this trope, but his enforcer, a hulking alien brute named Percy, is.

Theme Parks

  • Several examples at Disney Theme Parks:
    • The 50 foot king cobra inside the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland is known as Fluffy to those who work there.
    • Along the same lines, the roaring, red-eyed, befanged Yeti on the Matterhorn Bobsleds is named "Harold."
    • To the cast members who work on "Fantasmic" the animatronic dragon Maleficent was named "Bucky." Since the upgrade, its name has been changed to "Murphy" as a shout-out to Murphy's Law.
    • The horrifying flaming skeletal ghost starring in the Halloween Space Mountain "Ghost Galaxy" overlay is named "Bob."


Video Games

  • Mechwarrior Living Legends has Mr. Bubbles. Mr. Bubbles is a one hundred ton bipedal tank with three ten ton rotary autocannons which can shred anything in the game in seconds.
  • In Tomb Raider: Legend, Amanda has befriended and trained a giant shadowy thing, the origins of which are never explained, and named it "Fluffy." She taught it to fetch, do tricks and kill Lara. Then again, what hasn't?
  • Several Final Fantasy games contain a side quest where you need to find/kill a runaway pet named Carrot. Carrot is an absurdly powerful Malboro.
  • An enemy in Icewind Dale II had a pet three-headed chimera named "Precious".
  • The Little Sisters in BioShock (series) affectionately refer to the hulking Big Daddies as "Mr. Bubbles" or "Mr. B." The Big Daddies are protective enough of the Little Sisters to earn such an affectionate nickname.
    • BioShock Infinite brings us Elizabeth's bodyguard, a huge mechanical monstrosity with the unimposing name of Songbird.
  • Tiny Tiger from the Crash Bandicoot games, isn't. He is a hulking genetic mutation engineered by Dr. Cortex created to deal with Crash and is a boss of several games in the series.
  • The Interactive Fiction game Wishbringer features a Hell Hound named Alexis.
    • This later received a Shout-Out in Return to Zork: when you walk into a particular house, you find a dog that looks like a poodle. It's a HellHound. Her name is Alexis.
  • In the Expansion Pack of the RTS Star Wars: Empire at War, The Zann Consortium employs Silri, a Baroness who uses Dark Side Powers and owns a pet rancor named 'Cuddles'.
  • In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Rexxar's huge bear is called Misha, which in Russian is a diminutive form of Mikhail and is something a kid is likely to call their teddy bear.
    • World of Warcraft incorporates an additional Fluffy the Terrible with a powerful ghoul named Timmy. This seems to be based on the child Timmy, whom Arthas meets in the first Alliance mission in Warcraft III, and who is apparently turned into a ghoul when the Scourge attack a few missions later. However, the ghoul's battle cry of "TIIIIIIIIMMMY!!!!" suggests someone else...
    • Also, Hunters recently gained the ability to tame 'exotic' pets (the bigger, nastier critters in the game). Guess what trope 90% of people used when naming their new beasts?
    • There's also the NPC Simone the Inconspicuous. Her pet Precious looks like a small wolf at first. However, when she reveals her true form, her pet becomes a huge Fel Hunter named Precious the Devourer.
    • More recently, there's a boss in a Cataclysm dungeon, a giant hellhound named Beauty, with pet smaller hellhounds Spot, Lucky and Buster.
  • The Curse of Monkey Island features a pirate known as Edward "Snugglecakes" Van Helgen.

"Mine is the name that pirates fear the most!"

  • Psychonauts features a lake monster known as The Hulking Lungfish: A bizarre, mutated, wart-covered, slime-shedding, ten-foot-tall abomination with a deep, echoing voice. Actually, her name is Linda, and she's quite friendly.
  • The most menacing-looking characters in Phantom Brave is named "Sprout". He's also the penultimate boss of the main game.
  • From Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant comes Spot the dinosaur, a nasty boss fight at the end of the Giant Caves. Especially bad if you aren't expecting it.
    • In Wizardry 8, in the Mount of Ascension lives Pee Wee, a huge golem.
  • In Crysis Warhead one of the nanosuit super soldiers has Cupcake as his call sign.
  • In the Modern Warfare series, the Badass John MacTavish; field commander of Task Force 141, composed of the best soldiers America and the Commonwealth has to offer; has the nickname... Soap. To be fair, he got that nickname before he got to that position, but he still had the nickname while he was a new member of the SAS. The rest of the Task Force has some pretty cool callsigns, but there are some much lesser ones, such as: Cherub, Meat, Taco, Scarecrow, Peasant, Worm, and Driver.
  • In Achaea, the terrible Kraken that lurks beneath the ocean wave and crushes entire ships is commanded by the sea god Neraeos.

Neraeos: Good kraken, Fluffy.

    • And the lurching, undead, murderous Cryptbeast of Thera is affectionately known to experienced players as "Bianca".
  • In Skies of Arcadia, the cowardly Valuan admiral Alfonso has a war beast named Antonio.
    • Ramirez's massive flagship is called the Monoceros. Translate that from Greek, and you end up with a ship called the Unicorn.
  • The Fan Nickname for the Dark Servant pet in City of Heroes actually is 'Fluffy'.
  • One of the Victory Pose sketches in Tales of the Abyss, though admittedly it can be said for any random encounter, fearsome monster or not:

Luke: What's that monster called?
Tear: Fluffy!
Luke: Huh?
Tear: I...thought it'd be cute...

Raine: I wonder what the enemy's name was.
Colette: I like "Poochy!"
Raine: No, dear, I was referring to the species.

  • There is also Bonaparte in Suikoden II, a rather small ... thing which can suddenly grow in size and swallow your party members or enemies. In truth, though, if something is named after Napoleon Bonaparte it's quite reasonable to be intimidated...
  • The Ace Attorney series features a hired assassin named "Shelley de Killer", named as such to match with the seashell motif of his calling card.
  • Kitaniji, the conductor from The World Ends With You. He wears black, has several Kick the Dog Moments with Neku, wants to mass-brainwash... and has the given name "Megumi". A GIRLS name. The agressive variant of the Pig-Noise could count as well.
  • The SS Tea Cup guard and one of Captain Syrup's most important soldiers in Wario Land 1 and 2 is called Bobo. And this is a creature that looks like a cross between a crow and a dragon, that happens to be bigger than a car in the original game.
  • Metal Slug 3 has giant monstrous eels named Helen, Linda, Jenny, and Barbie.
  • DOG in Half-Life 2 is a multi-ton apelike robot that can throw cars and tear Striders apart with its bare hands... and it's equipped with a personality of a dog: Playful, protective and affectionate towards Alyx Vance and her allies.
  • Dragon Fable has Fluffy as the name of the Big Bad's undead dragon.
    • and the doom kitten. the one who looks like a kitten but is really an evil summoner of the undead
  • One can easily invoke this trope in Dragon Age Origins when naming your Badass Mabari Warhound. One the game's writers dubbed it "Rabbit". Penny Arcade went with "Barkspawn". It's almost certain that some fans have actually named it "Fluffy" at one point.
    • The name of the Fifth Blight's Archdemon is Urthemiel, the former Old God of Beauty.
    • "Barkspawn" became an Ascended Meme in The Darkspawn Chronicles DLC, wherein Alistair gave him that name.
  • Drakan: Order of the Flame leaves this one to the player's imagination - while you never get to encounter its owner, there's a weapon hidden in a cave in the Wartok Canyons level called "John the Monster's Axe" (and given the kind of world Drakan is and what kinds of enemies are encountered, there's no telling what kind of Monster this John is).
  • The moat monster in A Vampyre Story is called Inky.
    • Well, Froderick calls him Inky. No one else calls him anything, so it could just be Froderick being derogatory (since said lake monster's defining feature is that he is an inky black amorphous blob).
  • One of the most fearsome Space Pirates in Tachyon: The Fringe is Redship Rory. Jake, being voiced by Bruce Campbell, can't help but make fun of the name the first time they meet (as much as an encounter in space counts as a meeting). Rory doesn't appreciate the humor and sends his Mooks to kill the hero.
    • On the other hand, Rory got the nickname Redship following a rumor of him painting his ship with the blood of his enemies.
  • The Big Bad of Death Smiles is a Corrupt Corporate Executive turned wizard who was stranded in Gilverado and is trying to get back to the real world, and doesn't care if he has to open hundreds of portals to the demon world to do it. His name? Jitterbug.
  • Any of the monstrous Summoned Beasts and Demons that hang out around Fluffy Tamer Keelyn in Fall From Heaven. This includes a vicious Imp she named 'Puppy', and a towering, sulphur-smelling, horned Balorg called 'Giggles'.
  • In Ratchet and Clank Future A Crack In Time, an Eldritch Abomination ally summoned by the Rift Ripper 5000 is known as Fred.
  • The third season of the Sam and Max Freelance Police games introduced the most horrible and fearsome of the elder gods, whose birthing wails shattered the great continent of Pangaea. His name...is Junior.
  • In Mega Man Legends, the Bonnes have collaborated to create the ultimate killing machine and Mega Man's greatest challenge yet: Bruno!
  • Tabitha the super mutant, from Fallout: New Vegas. Nothing looks less like a "Tabitha".
  • Speaking of Fallout, there's the helpful Mr. Handy? Such a cute little explosive robot, yes he is!
  • In the "Nazi Zombies storyline of Call of Duty: World At War, the first ever hellhound is named Fluffy.
  • Dead Rising 2 has a psychopath fight against a hungry tiger, lovingly named Snowflake by her trainer. Played straight at first, but can be somewhat subverted if you tame her.
  • Phantom Brave gives us "Sprout," who is a grizzled, muscular, bearded, white-haired fighter with a gigantic sword who's going around absorbing monsters for dark energy; not exactly the kind of person you'd expect to have a name meaning "small leafy growing plant."
  • The bosses in Darius are giant, heavily-armed mechanical fish with frequently silly names like "Little Stripes", "Fatty Glutton", and "My Home Daddy".
  • The head demons in Shadows of the Damned are grotesque abominations which can rip you apart in seconds. They have names like George, Christopher, and for the King of Demons himself, Fleming.
  • The player character of Ace Combat 4, Mobius One, is often times referred to as "the ribbon" or "the ribbon fighter", after the mobius strip design on his plane's tail. Mobius One is more or less singlehandedly responsible for turning the tide of the war, and in a extra mode in Ace Combat 5, is said to be more effective in combat than a squadron of other pilots.
  • In the Cold War simulator Theatre Europe, you have the option to use a massive nuclear strike that will bring about The End of the World as We Know It. It's called "Fireplan Warm Puppy".
  • In Eternal Lands, there is the Fluffy Rabbit, a Shout-Out to the Killer Rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It looks like an ordinary white rabbit, but actually one of the more powerful creatures in the game.
  • Trolls in RuneScape after named for the first thing they eat, or the sound it made when eating it. It was only a matter of time until a vicious troll warlord named "Pretty flower" came along.
  • Fantasy Quest: The angry murderous drawf's name is Mr. Snorri "Fruitloop" Throfssonsson.
  • The OTAS Venti in the X Universe sounds like something you'd buy at Starbucks. Actually, it's a very deadly Space Fighter with twin wing-mounted gatling lasers.
  • In Dragon Fable, Sepulchure names his Dracolich Fluffy.


Web Comics

  • Sluggy Freelance, while having its share of killer rabbits, has a borderline example of this in the form of the large centipede called Fluffy—it's big compared to a human, but it's large for a bug and considered scary and unpleasant by the humans in the strip. (It's the alien Aylee who considers it cute and gives it the name.) Later, all its species get labelled "fluffies".
  • Dragoon in 8-Bit Theater has a pet dragon named Muffin - who, like all dragons, he thinks is a parrot. She is also the world's most evil dragon that founded the order of Dragoons to kill all of the other dragons, without them knowing, and then killed all but one of them.
  • Something*Positive has the cutely named Choo-Choo Bear and Twitchy-Hug. The former, while terribly cute, is a shapeshifter, occasionally prone to fits of psychotic and homicidal violence. The latter was quite clearly homicidal. That's OK, though. Choo-Choo Bear had him shot. Then Davan made the remains into an ashtray.
  • In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Dr. McNinja's gorilla receptionist, who is known to take out hunters of giant lumberjacks and go toe-to-toe with velociraptors, is named Judy.
  • Mr. Scruffy, from Order of the Stick, recently Took a Level in Badass by slaughtering a 1st level commoner - with one scratch.
  • A running joke regarding Virus of Exterminatus Now is his tendency toward pets like this, including a massive combat cyborg he named 'Skippy', though the only one of these pets to get significant screentime is a Chao that absorbed the DNA of a demonic dog, who he named 'Blasphemy', which is actually quite fitting.

Eastwood: The traits you find endearing, most right-thinking people have nightmares about.

    • Also, a Patterner cult are summoning a demon named...Kevin.
  • Variation: Lackadaisy Cats features the "Sunshine Special", a perfectly cheery name for a train, but that's hardly reassuring to Rocky when he's nailed to its tracks
    • The comic also includes a mob boss named Asa Sweet and little orange tabby over there who massacres a group of people while laughing maniacally? He's known as Freckle to his cousin.
  • Goblins supplies the page quote, in the form of an Owlbear, tortured over months by the guard quoted in order to make it a killing machine. It works, but not quite in the way the guard might have hoped...
  • Sequential Art has in-universe MMORPG "Realm of Lorcraft" where the fearsome beast named Pickles scared everyone. An incredibly frightening and powerful creature is a little, bug-eyed chihuahua-looking puppy who can turn himself inside out. (See the start of that storyline right here.)
  • Looking for Group has the Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead. His name is Richard. His friends call him "Dick" (at their own risk).
    • On later days he's picked up the titles "Lord of the Dance" and "Mistress of Magma" as well. He's also the mayor of a small town up the coast, quite scenic in spring... A small town of the undead that's called "Pretty, Pretty Unicorn." It's a work in progress.
  • CRFH fans know the tentacle goo monster that spawned in the guy's kitchen as 'Mr. Friendly'.
  • The Scout Report, a World of Warcraft comic, features a hunter detailing the advanced features of her pet in a two-paragraph lecture ending as follows:

Scout: ...he can sneak up behind an orc, rip his throat out, eviscerate the corpse, and pee on the bloody entrails in four point two seconds. I've timed it.
Dorna: That's... nice. What's his name?
Scout: Precious.

Web Original

  • In The Gamers Alliance, Plushiebunny's second form turns into a horrific monster whose appearance makes many heroes wet themselves in fear.
  • AH Dot Com the Series has Bobo the giant flying tentacled brain and Dave Howery's Gatling-cannon-wielding Canada-Destroying Mechs, which are all named after Sesame Street characters.
  • The Salvation War has Yahweh's pet, the first beast of revelations, which is essentially a 200 foot giant leopard with seven heads and ten horns. Its name? Wuffles. The name is practically a throwaway line in Yahweh's court, the humans it was sicced on have yet to identify it other than "ruthless giant killing machine which it takes aerial bombing and tank fire to kill, after it smacks Fort Bragg, and at death it was trying to form a portal to crawl away through". Then it turns out the Scarlet Beast is named Fluffy.
  • In chapter 9 of The Intercontinental Proliferation of Disgusting Characters, Peter Perfect's new paladin mount is revealed to be an undead great wyrm gold dragon. He calls her "Fluffball."
  • In Red vs. Blue, the Blue team finds a very dangerous alien who teams up with them.

Caboose: Ok, gargantuan alien... Now that we've decided to keep you, you need a real name. I vote for "Fluffy".
Tucker: Fluffy?!
Caboose: Fluffy! The alien that only loves!

  • Commissar Dan, Warhammer 40,000 character from /tg/, has a pet Basilisk (a self-propelled gun, which he uses as a frontline tank) called "Fluffy".
  • Survival of the Fittest v4 has Kenny the bear, whose one and only appearance on the island so far is attacking and killing an inactive student. It's heavily implied he used to have human owners who kept him in the cage.
  • In the Whateley Universe, several Ultraviolents (students with a penchant for violence and blood) keep a twenty-foot-long flesh-eating demonic worm as a beloved pet. They call it 'Fluffy'.
  • From the pages of Deviant ART, we get the LemonLoaf. Most of this guys weapons qualify as BFS, but he has done some BFG work as well.


Western Animation

  • On Avatar: The Last Airbender, King Bumi's pet "Flopsie" turns out to be a hulking Goat-Gorilla, though he's actually pretty friendly. There's also "Foo Foo Cuddly Poops" who actually is small since he is a baby, but will eventually grow up to be a gigantic sabertooth moose-lion.
    • Season 3 brings us Sparky Sparky Boom Man, an assassin that shoots explosions from his forehead and works like the freakin' terminator. Fortunately, he later gets the more appropriate name of Combustion Man.
  • One episode of SpongeBob SquarePants has Spongebob buying a friend for Gary and naming him "Puffy Fluffy." Only problem is, this critter hates having to share a house with another pet. This provokes Puffy Fluffy into becoming a horrific, hideous monster, almost bordering on Eldritch Abomination, with multiple Sarlacc-like tongues!
  • Looney Tunes has Gossamer, the Big Hairy Monster from "Hair-Raising Hare". He also appeared in "Water Water Everyhare" under the slightly more imposing name Rudolf.
    • Anything that invokes images of a red-nosed reindeer isn't imposing.
      • Rudolf actually would have been to some a pretty frightening name to hear during World War I and II.
    • He wasn't even named Gossamer until Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century in 1980.
  • An episode of Johnny Bravo had Johnny hatch a dinosaur egg which was accidentally stolen from a museum. What did he name the dinosaur? Mr. Wuggles.
  • The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy from Dave the Barbarian is the living embodiment of both this trope and the Killer Rabbit. He's one of the primary villains of the series and a powerful dark wizard, but he not only has that absurd name, he actually is a small pig.
  • The Rocko's Modern Life episodes "To Heck and Back" and "Heff in a Handbasket" feature a demon known as Dread Lord Peaches.
  • An episode of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers had a soda-worshipping cult leader whose big bruiser was named "Bubbles".
  • An episode of the Earthworm Jim cartoon featured a frightening-looking demon named Rosebud.
    • Also the revelation that the real name of The Evil Queen, Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed Slug-for-a-Butt was actually "Lucy".
    • And would Bob the Killer Goldfish (who's also in the Earthworm Jim video games) count too?
  • On The Mighty Ducks, one of the one-shot villains had a giant frakkin' snake named Boopsie.
  • Pinky and The Brain has an example much like the Dave the Barbarian example above: the Brain's archenemy, who's proven to be just as smart the already superintelligent Brain (as well as more ruthless and insane), is... a hamster named Snowball, whose name could have been a Shout-Out to George Orwell's Animal Farm.
  • Played with in Metalocalypse; as governor of Florida, Nathan Explosion is given the opportunity to name a powerful hurricane barrelling towards the state, and he dubs it "Scrambles the Deathdealer".
  • A subversion, or at least a joke in the same vein: In Quack Pack, Donald Duck was captured by an alien race and sentenced to receive 50 lashes with a "wet noodle." Said noodle was, in fact, a giant serpent with sharp teeth. Although, it did look something like a flat noodle.
  • Tiny in Meet the Robinsons. He is a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I've got a big head, and little arms: I'm just not sure how well this plan was thought through... Master?

  • Plucky Duck discovers that Montana Max follows this trope in "Return of the Toxic Revenger":

Monty: Get outta my factory, duck dweeb, or I'll sic my dog Muffin on you!
Toxic Revenger: Oh, be still my heart. I'm gonna be attacked by a little doggie named...Muffin? * CHOMP*
Maim-arity Ensues

Scientist: Fingers!
Batman: *incredulous* Fingers?
Scientist: My kids named him.

  • In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, SpongeBob and Patrick are chased by a menacing bounty hunter named... Dennis.
  • In the Fairly Oddparents episode "This is Your Wish", Cosmo has a three-headed fire-breathing dragon named Snowballs.
    • In another episode, a bunch of pirates had crocodiles named "Cuddles" and "Muffin".
  • In the Phineas and Ferb episode "The Chronicles of Meap", the bad guy is a sinister, stock-villain-looking space poacher who goes by the name Mitch. "Some of the guys call me Big Mitch."
  • In one episode of Mighty Mouse, Oil Can Harry tries to charge an exhorbitant insurance premium on Pearl Pureheart's circus, to which Pearl declares "Let's see what Theodore thinks about this!", and Harry replies not being afraid of anyone named "Theodore". When Pearl does call "Theodore", loud thundering footsteps are heard, and the door flings open revealing a huge gorilla who then hurls Harry and Swifty out of Pearl's office. "Theodore" is later revealed to be Might Mouse in a gorilla suit.
  • In one episode of Doug, the titular character and his friend lost a frisbee in a yard with an Angry Guard Dog named Lady.

Doug: That's not a dog, Skeeter. That's a monster!

  • A Flash Back episode of Rugrats revealed that the name of the big, mean, nasty, monster dog next door is Frou-Frou (who apparently used to be... considerably less intimidating).
    • Then there's Fluffy, Angelica's demon of a cat.
  • Lampshaded in Sabrina the Animated Series when the witches get captured by an army of humanoid mutant squirrels (aptly named the Killer Squirrels). Their leader's name? Fluffy.

Sabrina: Your name is Fluffy?
Fluffy: My mother wanted a girl.

Leela: According to this, the fountain is located within the darkest, most ancient region of space, just past Teddy Bear Junction.
Professor: Teddy Bear Junction. The worse scum hole in the universe.

    • An earlier episode had Bender and Fry riding giant lizards. To get his to stop, Bender said, "whoa, Nibbles!"
    • While not a living being, Scooty Puff, Sr. (the DOOMBRINGER) deserves mention.
  • An episode of Garfield and Friends saw the fat cat find a new home with little girl that tortures him with her unique brand of affection. The girl decided her new pet needs to play with her pre-existing pet, a dog named Boopsie. Expecting another Odie to kick around, Gafield meets a large pitbull, and delivers a timeless line:

Garfield: This... is a Boopsie?!

    • In the U.S. Acres segment, Wade Duck once had a bull named Fido. Fido remained unseen until the end of the episode and only then his species was revealed to the viewers and Orson's brothers.
  • The Duck Dodgers episode Back to the Academy, Dodgers' instructor is a man named Sgt. Emily (voiced by Randy Poffo, AKA Randy "Macho-Man" Savage!). Justified in that theirs is a future with a more lax take on names with gender-specific connotations, and that his Mom was a literature buff.
  • The Bully in The Amazing World of Gumball is a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Tina.
  • Tatsurion the Unchained is called Bob by his friends. (Well, relucatntly accepted the nickname, but still...) He's also a giant hybrid monster that combines the savagery of the Beast Kin and the firepower of the Armored Dragons, and probably the most badass monster of the series.


Other

  • This joke: A burglar has broken into a house and starts looking for valuables. Suddenly, he hears a voice: "I can see you and so does Jesus!" He waves his flashlight around, but can't see anyone. Again, the voice says: "I can see you and so does Jesus!" Then he sees a birdcage with a parrot in it.

Burglar: "Damn, you scared me! Who the hell are you?"
The parrot: "Gilbert."
The burglar: "What idiot names a parrot Gilbert?"
The parrot: "The same idiot who named the rottweiler Jesus."

    • There've been some variations of this joke, such as the parot being named Moses and/or simply saying "Jesus is watching". Jesus remains a rottweiler, though.


New Media

Real Life

  • "Beppo" was the goofy nickname of Dr. Josef Mengele.
  • There was a Viking warlord known as Ivar the Boneless. Theories about the reason for his name range from impotence to having lost his legs to osteogenesis imperfecta (leaving him with no real use of his legs), and the last one is supported by the chronicled fact that he was carried into battle. The point is, whatever was wrong with him, he was a chieftain and a warrior, and apparently well respected, in a culture where physically weak men were despised. How badass is that?.
    • The evil Viking king in The Sea Of Trolls was called 'the boneless' because he has no spine.
    • Ragnar Lodbrok or "Hairy-Breeks" ("Hairy-Pants"), one of the most feared and ruthless warlords of the viking era.
    • Harald Bluetooth, who (retroactively) sounds like a computer nerd: his name was given to the device as he was the one who united the Norse factions in his area, just as the Bluetooth device apparently 'unites' electronics.
  • In Rome, one of the emperors marched alongside the legions when he was a child. They made the child, a boy named Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, a set of armor that included little leather boots. Gaius received the nickname "Bootsy", or "Little Boots". Guess what the Latin word for "Little Boots"/"Bootsy" is.
  • Roman Gladiators would sometimes adopt stage names like "Pearl" or "Puppy", to use this trope.
  • During World War Two the Germans planned to build a 188-ton superheavy tank called the Mouse. And designed a 1000-ton monster called the Rat.
    • As modern Germans are not too fond of martial sounding names (they are not destroyers, they are really large frigates), many German army vehicles are named after the smallest and cutest predatory animals like fox, weasel, fennec, marten, lynx, and dingo. Exception are the leopard main battle tank, and the 25 ton grizzly armored truck.
  • In any online competitive video game, players with names like 'KILLA234' or 'xXDarKLordXx' will be cannon fodder (or sometimes cheaters stupid enough to be obvious), but players called 'Fluffy Bear' or 'Pink Kitten' will mercilessly slaughter you. Usually it's because the former are overcompensating 13 year olds, while the latter are more mature and experienced players who aren't nearly as self-conscious. Also, because it's twice as funny for the latter to crush the opposition with the name 'Fluffy Bear', especially if the opponents are the former. And if they don't even have a cute name? Nothing will save you from someone called SoccerDad742, JustForFun21, or VolleyballGrrl.

[Killzone’jaeden]: Yeah and you can always tell which guilds are going to suck
[Killzone’jaeden]: Rule of Guild Names: The more awesome the guild name tries to sound, the more the guild sucks.
[Killzone’jaeden]: If I see, like, "Lords Of Chaos And Darkness"... done
[Killzone’jaeden]: "The Right Hand Of God"... they don't even make it through the instance
[Killzone’jaeden]: But if I ever see, like, "Ain't Misbehavin"
[Killzone’jaeden]: I'm like SHIT

  • The argument can be made for many hurricane names here. I mean, would you run away from Mitch, Wilma, or even Gay (Yes, really)
    • Even better are the names of tropical cyclones (typhoons) in the Asian-Pacific region: if something is called Dolphin, Usagi or Yu-Tu (The Moon Rabbit), it's got to be pretty harmless, right?
    • Typhoon Tip though silly in name is the most intense and largest typhoon on record. At its full size it would be able to (roughly) cover half of the US.
      • Also in the above image is Cyclone Tracy, the smallest and most compact cyclone on record that completely leveled Darwin, Australia in the 1970s.
    • Both Lewis Black and Robin Williams talk about unthreatening-sounding hurricanes in their standup acts. Robin talks about hurricane Terrence, which sounds like a "slightly gay" hurricane, and Lew wonders why the fuck anyone would name a hurricane Lenny.
    • Out of all of these, however, Hurricane Fifi has them all beat. It killed anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 people in Honduras alone, and caused $1.8 billion in damage—in 1974 dollars, to boot.[1] It went down as the fourth-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. And we must emphasize—the hurricane's name was Fifi.
  • Similarly, there's the Haboob (which is actually Arabic for "strong wind"). Haboobs are monstrous desert duststorms usually caused by atmospheric disruptions. They're not so much destructive as they are disruptive, but they sure are threatening-looking. So the next time you're in Arizona and you see a six kilometer-tall wall of dust flying toward you at 100 km/h, just remember: Haboob.
  • See the real life Fluffy the Terrible here! [dead link] Admittedly, pythons don't move around that much....
  • General Butt Naked, leader of the appropriately named Butt Naked Battalion. Names sound hilarious? Right? Wrong. They committed some horrifying acts. All while naked.
  • You'd think an animal called a "honey badger" would be pretty docile, right? WRONG.
  • And speaking of war machines, how about other ones being given cute nicknames by their drivers/pilots? There's the famous B-29 bomber Enola Gay (named after the pilot's mother) that dropped the big one on Hiroshima in World War II. The last remaining airworthy B-29 is named Fifi.
  • In Cricket, Joel Garner, the much-feared 6'8" West Indies fast bowler of the 80s, was nicknamed "Big Bird".
  • The name of the only individual known to have single-handedly exterminated an entire species? Tibbles.
  • The dinosaur Saichania, which is a large ankylosauroid covered in spikes, horns, and thick, bony plates. Its name actually means "beautiful" in Mongolian.
  • One of the most unpleasantly spiny plants in the menagerie of unpleasantly spiny plants that covers the southwestern United States and northern Mexico: The Teddy Bear Cholla, so named because when viewed from a distance, the thousands of needle-thin, transparent, barbed spines that cover every inch of the plant make it look like it's fuzzy or has a sort of halo. To give you an indication of how easy it is to get those spines stuck all over you, the other name for the stuff is "jumping cactus."
  • American documentary television series Shockwave once showed an obese man lift a crashed 1600 lbs helicopter [dead link] in order to have rescuers pull the pilot away from the wreckage. The big guy's name: Tiny!
  • The U.S. made a habit of giving nuclear devices very innocent names.
    • The atomic bombs dropped during World War II? Fat Man and Little Boy.
    • The first thermonuclear test device was named Sausage. It weighed 62 tons and exploded with a force of 10.4 megatons. It created a crater 1 mile across and was the fourth most power test done by the U.S.
    • The device responsible for the third most powerful nuclear test done by the U.S. was named Runt.
    • The device responsible for the second most powerful nuclear test done by the U.S. was named Runt II.
    • At 15 megatons, the most powerful bomb ever tested by the U.S. was named…Shrimp. It was also the greatest radiological disaster in U.S. history; the exclusion zone for later tests was increased 917,326 square km or about 1% of Earth’s total land area.
  • How about the combat sport named Tap Out? Oooh, now that sounds really impressive!
  • One of the most invasive plants in the eastern United States is the Ailanthus tree, commonly known as the Tree of Heaven. While it's pretty, it spreads so quickly that it rapidly chokes out all other plant life, and there is a very good reason that it's acquired the nickname "stink tree."
  • The Israeli armored version of the Caterpillar D9 bulldozer, a nigh-invincible machine which tears through buildings as if they're made of paper, is nicknamed "doobi", which means "teddy bear".
  • In general, the military is quite fond of giving elite units underwhelming names as obfuscation, like the Military Assistance Command Vietnam–-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), which sounds more like the name you assign to a group of sociologists and logistics experts.
  • The Pakistan Army has a long standing tradition of giving "feminine" sounding nicknames to its Artillery guns. Popular names include "Rani" (Queen), "Shazadi"(Princess) and "Soni"(cute girl).
  • "Katyusha" is a Russian diminutive of the name Yekaterina, and there's a popular song about it. It's also the name of rocket artillery that the Russians used in WWII.
  • There was a Royal Navy submarine which sent many Italian and Japanese ships to the bottom of the Ocean.She was feared and respected. Her name? HMS Shakespeare.http://www.rnsubs.co.uk/Boats/BoatDB2/index.php?Boat ID=357
  • Gustave sounds like one of the least intimidating names ever, right? It's also the name of a 20 foot crocodile in Burundi, Africa that's a notorious man-eater.
  • "Love waves" sound pretty romantic, hem? They are actually the most destructive of seismic waves. The kind that tears down building foundations, brings down bridges and makes railroads wavy. (In case your wondering, geologists aren't sadists, the waves are named after the man who discovered them, Augustus Love.)
  • Russian soldiers have a habit of putting the endearment -ka at the end of their war machines. Which would be rather as if Americans called a tank "Abrams-sweetie".
  • Admiral Arleigh Burke, terror of the Solomon islands and bane of the Imperial Japanese Navy. His first name means "Hare-meadow".
  • Admiral Andrew Baines Cunningham, one of Britains greatest admirals in World War II. His name means village of the milk pail.
  • The meaning of the name Manfred is "Man of Peace". Yeah, right.
  • Dudley Morton one of the most famous American submariners and one of the most ferocious(on one notorious occasion he strafed castaways in the water) was nicknamed, "Mush".
  1. ↑ That's $8.1 billion in today's money.
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