Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. This week’s theme is Top Ten Kick-Ass Names for Kick-Ass Characters.
My favourite genre is fantasy, and as well as the names sometimes being hard to pronounce (I know there are a few I’m still pronouncing incorrectly) they’re also pretty kick-ass. Granted names don’t really have much to do with saving the world but an epic name just stands out more, and fantasy is full of epic names.
Nemesis
The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid
All of the Diabolics have tough and kick-ass names; Nemesis, Anguish, Hazard, Enmity. Brutal names for brutal characters.
Paige Mahoney aka. Pale Dreamer aka. Black Moth
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Sarai aka. The Muse of Nightmares
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Diana Prince aka. Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo
When it comes to kick-ass characters I don’t think there’s any out there more kick-ass than Wonder Woman.
Lada Dragwyla
And I Darken by Kiersten White
Inej Ghafa aka. Wraith
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Aelin Galathynius
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Aelin is a character with more pseudonym’s than Daenerys Targaryen; Adarlan’s Assassin, Aelin Light-Bringer, and my personal favourite Fire-breathing bitch-queen.
Nova aka. Nightmare
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Virginia au Augustus aka. Mustang
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Lyra Belacqua aka. Lyra Silvertongue
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
Lyra had her name changed to Silvertongue after helping Iorek re-claim his throne, and she was only a child at the time.
So what do you think? Did you take part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, if so let me know what your favourite character names are, kick-ass or otherwise?
Reading Every Night 
These are amazing names! I especially love the names from Strange the Dreamer. They are unique and also sound lyrical 🙂 It is also interesting how the characters that you listed sometimes have more than one name! Great post ❤
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Yeah everything about Laini Taylor’s writing is beautiful, and most times I focus on the world building and the way she writes but it applies to the names she picks as well doesn’t it?
Names are one thing, nicknames can be much more kick-ass! ❤
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Definitely 🙂
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Really great list! I especially love the name Sarai! And her alias Muse of Nightmares! And Inej, Aelin, Nova and Lyra are all fantastic names and I love their alias as well 😀 I always forget Mustang has a real name as well 😉
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Thanks so much. 🙂 Sarai’s a beautiful name, but Muse of Nightmares strikes fear into enemies heart I suppose. Ha, yeah I do the same, it seems strange when people call her Virginia.
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You’re welcome! Absolutely! hehe yes!
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Diana Prince!!! ❤ ❤ Glad to see it make the list!!! 😀
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I had to include Diana, she’s one of the most kick-ass characters I’ve read. 😀
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I love Inej, too! And all of the Six of Crows character names.
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Yeah the characters in Six of Crows have great (Inej is my favourite though!) 😀
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Fantastic choices, Beth! I love the name Lyra so, so much, it’s one of my favorites I think ❤ I also really like Inej, it sounds really cool – damn, I have to read that book soon hahaha 🙂
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Inej Ghafa is QUEEN! (And of course her name matches her amazing character 😆) I also loved how all the Diabolics in S.J. Kincaid’s books have matching brutal names… I thought that was really clever, to give them names that are meant to be the opposite of the goodness of humanity. Great list, Beth!
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She really is. I wanted to include a character from Six of Crows and Inej is perfect, in my opinion she’s one of the most bad-ass of the six! 😀
Yeah I thought that was clever too, their names match what they’re supposed to be, brutal killing machines programmed to protect one person above all else.
Thanks so much. 🙂
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I love Sarai and Aelin!! Your choices are great!
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Thanks so much. Yeah Sarai is such a beautiful name, and Aelin is pretty epic too. 🙂
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Nova makes me want to legally change my name, but I featured a different name from Renegade in my TTT
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Nova is a pretty epic name, but actually if I was going to change my name to match a character there are so many to choose from I wouldn’t know where to start! 🙂
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I love all of Aelin’s names too… she’s right up there on my list 😊😊
You have some great sounding ones on your list that I didn’t know about… 👍👍
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Ha, yeah there are so many to choose from I feel like everyone could have had one of Aelin’s names on their list! 😀
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Tats so true 😊😊
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I always love the name Lyra Belacqua… especially the way Nicole Kidman says it!
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Oh I haven’t seen the film in ages so I can’t remember how Nicole Kidman pronounces it, but whatever she’s being called I just love Lyra’s name. 😀
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Such a good list Beth! So many badass ladies with matching badass names. ❤️
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Thanks so much Ashley, and yeah it kind of makes me wish I had a bad-ass name to match! 🙂 ❤️
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You and me both! 😁
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I love Aelin and her many names! Fire breathing bitch queen is by far the best haha! Also I am currently reading Red Rising and am loving some of the names!
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I feel like fire breathing bitch queen is the one most people remember when it comes to Aelin (definitely the best in my opinion too!)
And yeah the names in Red Rising are pretty epic, they fit the characters really well too. 🙂
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I have Lazlo Strange on my list from Strange the Dreamer but Sarai is also really pretty. And I love Aelin and all of her pseudonyms–one of them is on my list too!
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I love all the names in Strange the Dreamer, they’re so lyrical and they fit in so well with Laini Taylor’s writing style.
So many pseudonyms, it’s hard to know what to actually call her as the series goes on right? 🙂
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Ooh I like Nemesis. Aelin Galathynius is awesome and I like Nova too.
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Nemesis is defiantly a bad-ass name, I love it, and SJM always manages to come up with epic names for her characters right? 🙂
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I love the name Aelin. It’s so pretty.
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It really is, all the names SJM has come up with in her books are pretty epic. 🙂
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I love the name “Diana,” though I think “Diana Prince” is kind of weird because it makes me think of Princess Diana…except not “Princess,” LOL!
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Ha, I never made that connection before but now it’s probably all I’m going to think of when I hear the name. 🙂 Definitely weird.
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I totally agree about Sarai and Mustang! The Muse of Nightmares is such a badass name, and Mustang suits her so well
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With a name like the Muse of Nightmares you’d stop your enemies before they ever reached you wouldn’t you? 😀 And yeah I can’t think of Mustang as anything other than Mustang, even though we know her real name. 🙂
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I had a student named Sarai once. Her name was not pronounced in the same way as the audiobook. Every time I read along, it took me a second to remember who we were talking about.
eli @ the (book) supplier
My TTT
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Oh that’s a shame, but I hope you managed to enjoy the book otherwise. I feel like one of the reasons I’ve never listened to audio books is because I know I’m pronouncing the names wrong, so I know that would throw me when I started listening. 🙂
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Definitely did. It’s just interesting how context outside of novels influences our reading
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Yeah I know what you mean. Luckily when it comes to fantasy, which is pretty much all I read, I don’t know many people in real life with the same names. 🙂
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