mr. sandman, bring me a dream!

Today I'm going to discuss supervillain names.  Being a non-absolutist, I really think that "evil overlords" should not be given names that make them sound even more evil than their puppy-kicking actions imply them to be.  They should be names that you don't look at and think, "yep, that's the big bad."  They should also be names that aren't from a blatantly different, darker, more evil and more ancient universe than your heroes (ex. Vorgendor should not do battle with Mike Collins).  Creepy names are fine.  Creepy is nuanced.  But just like you can't name your villain Pure Evil or Satan or Devil when you're not intending to go tongue-in-cheek (see Austin Powers' Dr. Evil), you can't name them the following:

• Darken Rahl.  Pretty much the worst villain name out there, imo.
• Cruella de Vil.  Enough said.
• Voldemort.  Voldemort vs. Harry Potter?  Do we really have doubts?
• Mordor.  Not a villain's name, but a villain's home, and a very unambiguously evil-sounding one.  [Sauron, by comparison, is not that bad, and I have a particular fondness for both the Witch-King and Angmar]
• Doctor Doom.  Ow.
• Apocalypse.  Hammer, meet head.
• Hannibal Lecter.  As much as I love the dude, he does not exactly have a subtle name.
• Darth Vader.  Sorry, but no.

And some not so shit names:

• Dwight Renfield.  Ok, so Stephen King didn't exactly come up with this one.  Give Bram Stoker credit for it, except Stoker also named his supervillain Dracula (ew).  King made it the big bad's name, and what a good choice it was.
• Pennywise the Clown.  Stephen King has a knack for horror language.
• Nurse Mildred Ratched.  It's almost caricature, but toes the line with reality just enough to be memorable.
• H.A.L. 9000.  Need I say more?
• Sandman.  Starting with E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story, a legendary villain with a rather confusing [if you, like me, hear the Chordettes' "Mister Sandman" whenever you come across the name - I had to sing it in choir] and innocuous name (because the Sandman was a good guy in folklore!) was born. 
• Freddy Krueger.  Freddy is innocent, but that "Krueg" sound is an especially unconventional and nasty one.