DC has introduced readers to some amazing villains, but not all of them have the greatest names. In fact, some of them are downright stupid when it comes down to it. DC has been around for a long time, and naming conventions among villains have changed a lot over the years. Comics fans have gotten used to these names, but it's impossible to deny how bad some of them are.
Many of these villains have reached rather great heights in the supervillain community. This doesn't really help their names, though, which are bad for a variety of reasons, whether it be because they're old-fashioned or just plain lame.
10 Vandal Savage's Name Is Just Way Too On The Nose
Vandal Savage debuted in the Golden Age and has battled the heroes of the DC Universe for decades. His backstory is that he's an immortal caveman, given his long life, enhanced physical attributes, and super intelligence by a radioactive meteorite. A fairly standard comic origin trope, and he's a pretty great villain. Except for his name, that is.
Vandal Savage is just way too on the nose. To begin with, it plays into the Vandals, one of the many barbarian hordes that attacked Rome. Of course, then there's the word "savage" because he's a caveman. The whole thing is meant to elicit a certain response, but it's so simple that it does away with any cleverness.
9 Trigon Is Fierce Except For His Name
Trigon has been battling the Teen Titans for years now, trying to get his daughter Raven back in order to take her powers. He's a powerful demon lord and one of the most formidable villains ever. His presence elicits fear, and he could challenge any superhero team out there. However, his name is the least fierce part of him.
Trigon isn't exactly a frightening name, and it definitely doesn't fit an all-powerful demon lord. The only reason he is named Trigon is because he has three pairs of eyes. It's just such a stupid reason for him to be called that. Maybe his supervillain origin is really that all the other demon lords made fun of him.
8 Psimon Is Another Teen Titans Villain With A Bad Name
Psimon is a weird case when it comes to bad villain names. The leader of the Fearsome Five's name comes from both his psionic powers and the name Simon. It's sort of clever but what makes it so stupid is the question it raises. Does anyone in-universe know it's Psimon, or do they just think his name is Simon? The characters in the comics aren't reading the speech bubbles, after all.
Thinking about it from that perspective takes away the clever wordplay of Psimon and makes it ridiculous. Does everyone just think he's a guy named Simon who is really into his first name? There's really no way of knowing.
7 There Are Much Better Names For Two-Face
Two-Face and Batman have had a storied rivalry. He's one of the most popular DC villains and has starred on TV and the big screen, among others places. Harvey Dent's tragic origin and fall to darkness is a big part of Batman's mythos, cementing his place as one of the greats. His simplistic name doesn't help matters very much, though.
The thing about Two-Face is that it goes with his gimmick, but there are better names out there, like Janus, a Roman god that had the same kind of thing going on as Two-Face. Comics often use things like this in intelligent ways, so it's strange they just went for the simple name instead of the clever one.
6 Perpertua Doesn't Have Any Menace To It
Perpetua is the most dangerous villain the Justice League ever faced. She was one of the Hands, an order of beings who create multiverses. She re-entered the Multiverse through a crack in the Source Wall and decided that she wanted to scuttle everything and start all over again. She stomped the Justice League every time they fought and almost ended everything.
Perpetua was a scary foe when it came to power level and her plan, but her name had no menace to it. It was meant to play off the word perpetuate because she created life, but it didn't really work well to sell her as a big-time threat.
5 T.O. Morrow Really Needs No Explanation Why It's Bad
Not every Justice League villain is all-powerful. There are plenty of examples of weak Justice League villains, with T.O. Morrow topping the list. Morrow is an old-school evil scientist, his focus being in robotics. He's bedeviled the team for years, creating androids like no other, including Red Tornado and Tomorrow Woman, both of whom turned against him.
Just one look at Morrow's name, and it's plain to see that he's a Silver Age villain. He's a scientist who creates robots, so his name is basically the word tomorrow, something that was certainly clever sixty years ago but is now little more than a bad punchline.
4 Flash's Rogues Have Terrible Names, But Everyone Still Loves Them
The Flash has some of DC's best villains, but they many of them have the worst names. It's impossible to pick one Rogue with the stupidest name because so many of them have stupid names. Some, like Heatwave and Girder, aren't bad, but all the classic Rogues have the kind of names that comic fans love but deep down know are trash.
Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Golden Glider, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, the Top, and the others all have extremely on-the-nose names that are so easy to make fun of. The Rogues may be the best for a lot of reasons, but their names definitely have little to do with it.
3 Everyone Should Have Known Sinestro Was Up To No Good
The Guardians of the Universe are supposedly the oldest race in the universe, with knowledge and power like no other. However, the fact that they ever trusted a guy named Sinestro really puts that in doubt. The Lantern from Korugar was once the greatest in the Corp, but his fascist tendencies saw him kicked out.
Since then, he's had some titanic tussles with the Green Lanterns. His name is one of those that screams villain, which it's obviously meant to, but looking at it today robs of it any of its sinister undertones and just makes it a little too obvious for modern audiences.
2 Brainiac Really Doesn't Do The Coluan Conqueror Justice
Brainiac has been through many permutations over the years, but one thing that never changes is that he's one of Superman's most dangerous foes. In fact, he's one of the few beings in all the universe that Superman actually fears, adding an edge to the villain that few others have. However, Superman definitely isn't afraid of him because of his name.
Brainiac isn't a name that inspires fear, and it really downplays just how dangerous he is. Sure, he's intelligent, so the name is accurate to an extent. Still, it doesn't really fit what an alien genius traveling the cosmos and destroying entire solar systems would be called.
1 Eclipso Is Way More Dangerous Than His Name Would Lead Anyone To Believe
Eclipso is named Eclipso because it was the Silver Age, and he got more powerful when there was an eclipse, with his evil side taking control at those times. That was the extent of why he got his name, and it's what makes the character's later origin changes so funny. Eclipso is one of the most powerful magical beings on the planet, the former Angel of God's Wrath, and has been a thorn in the side of the heroes for years.
Eclipso's name is from a bygone era and doesn't really do much to make an argument for why he is so dangerous. It's not the best name in the world to elicit the literal fear of God in people. Villain names that end in "o" aren't great in general, and Eclipso's is one of the worst.