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The name Mallory has a "bad" meaning. In fact, any Mal- name would sound "bad" to my ear because of the meaning of this root. (Think malicious, malfunction, malfeasance, etc.)

I think Aeschylus (ES-kuh-lus) means "shame". Good playwright though :). And yes, there are names with "bad" meanings on this site.

This message was edited 9/23/2007, 3:01 PM

Well, I wasn't exactly thinking "evil hearted one" but rather something suiting a Prima Donna evil stepmother and her Paris Hilton-esque daughters. I have some ideas for names -- the stepmother character is Fiorinetta, a commedia dell arte character known for overdressing. The daughters have the name Trivelina, derrived from another cda character, and her name sounds somewhat like 'trivial' (although this is not actually what it means), and the second sister is Cassia, derrived from Cassius which means "empty and vain"
I'd love to elaborate on the name I've come up with for another antagonist, but a: I'm satisfied with it and b: I don't wish to spoil the story
Am I doing ok so far?
PS: I actually don't know Japanese. I just chose the name because it was a pun on "Message in a Bottle" (my real last name is bottle. Seriously)

I have to agree with some of the previous posters. Sometimes it's more than just the meaning that can determine bad or good. To have an antagonist with "evil hearted one" or some such meaning would seem cliched to me - and as an avid reader myself, I often go researching names of the characters in books I've read to see where they've come from.

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Adolf (Hitler), means "noble wolf" and Lucifer means "bringer of light". Good, wholesome meanings, wouldn't you agree? But not so good namesakes...

I think you will find that this site is interested in real names whether or not their meaning is good. Furthermore, your question is imprecise: a lot of the world's moral thought does not hold good and bad as separate categories; bad is very often the good in excess, and your fiction can play on that. And, depending on the style of writing, you might want to make up a name, or use a foreign name whose sound pattern in the language of your story suggests the evil in your protagonist.

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I know that in India I have heard of the use of names which are variations on the theme of unfortunate, though I cannot recall any this early before my first coffee. Pet names are often based on less than ideal qualities of a person. I do not know if you would count any of this as bad.

well parents usually give good meanings and else some countries have laws regarding negative names (in Germany you are not allowed to name your child "Satan" f.ex.), that's why real names with bad meanings are rather rare.

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I think Claudia and Dolores are rather negative though. As well as Cecilia.

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Else it seems there is a naming tradition in some asian countries to give children ugly names or insults, because children with beautiful names are more likely to be kidnapped by ghosts (a vietnamese girl told me that), altough those negative names have become pretty normal now.