Religious and Mythological Theme Naming - TV Tropes

• Ymir is named after a primeval being in Norse Mythology who is the progenitor of all jötnar (giants). Fitting because she's named In-Universe after Ymir Fritz, the progenitor of all Titans ("giants" in the original Japanese) and possessed the power of the Founding Titan. This gives her more in common with the Myth.
• The Castle Utgard is named after the Norse jotun Utgard-Loki who lives in a massive illusory castle

• Rakshas, who is of Kushan origin, derives his name from the shapeshifting demons commonly depicted as antagonists in Hindu texts.
• The incantation Schierke uses to summon the Four Kings comes from the Kabbalistic Cross, the first part of the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram. It is commonly spelled as "Ateh Malkuth Ve-Geburah, Ve-Gedulah, Le-olam" ("For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever"). The third part of the ritual deals with invoking the four elements and the presence of the archangels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael and Uriel, each guarding a cardinal point.

• The flying fortress "Damocles" at the end of season two very much counts as one. King Dionysius offered his kingship to his courtier, Damocles, who gladly accepts. While enjoying the spoils of his new found title, he realizes a sword dangling high above his head, held only by a single horse hair. This could be compared to Lelouche's claim to his father's throne near the end of season two, with his brother Schnizel using the Damocles' incredible air power (comparable to the perilous sword above of Damocles) to subdue him as well as the entire world. With the justification of Peace Through Superior Firepower.

• Mr. Satan is nicknamed after the biblical Satan, while his daughter Videl's name is an anagram of "devil". Neither represent him though. And Goku and Mr. Satan's mutual granddaughter gets two references: "Pan" is a loanword from Spanish meaning "bread," as her father's name, Gohan, means "rice;" they're both carbohydrates and staple foods, and it also refers to the satyr, Pan, who has the physical form we associate with Satan. In the Funimation dub, his first name is Hercule, obviously based off the Roman hero Hercules (the Latin name of Heracles).
• Goku is based off of and even shares his name with Sun Wukong ^note , a character from Journey to the West.

• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and its sequels have a lot of things named for angels. The protagonists' ship is named the Archangel and its sister ship is named the Dominion (another order of angels). The leader of Blue Cosmos in the original is named Azrael, his successor in Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny is named Djibril (the name of Gabriel in Arabic), and his successor in Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom is named Michael. On the other side, in Destiny, Durandal names his special forces unit "FAITH", gives Athrun a Gundam called the Savior, and names his giant battlestation the Messiah.
• All Gundams from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (except for the titular one and 0 Gundam), are named from the Christian Angelic Hierarchy. The protagonists are even called Celestial Being. Further, one of the Meisters' name is Allelujah, while his alter-ego is called Hallelujah. There's also another trio of meisters whose surname are Trinity.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: As a contrast to the angelic theming of 00, the seventy-two Gundam Frames are all named after the seventy-two demons of the Ars Goetia. It is later revealed that the enemy the Gundam Frames were commissioned to fight, the Mobile Armors, had angelic names, with one that we see being named "Hashmal".

• Many members of YOMI are also named after mythological figures as well. Castor and Pollux(Greek), Atalanta(Greek), Nagaraja(Hinduism), Narasimha(Hinduism), Suparna(Hinduism), and Lugh(Celtic).

• Kanna Kamui and her father Kimun Kamui are both named after Ainu deities.
• Lucoa is a diminutive taken from the Japanese pronounciation of Quetzalcoatl.
• Subverted with Tohru, whose name is noted to sound identical to Thor (when pronounced in Japanese), but has a different origin in-universe.

• Most of the Sharingan's techniques are named after Shinto kami, including Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, Susanoo, Kotoamatsukami, Kagutsuchi, Izanagi, and Izanami. Susanoo carries the Sword of Totsuka, the name of a certain type of sword in Japanese myths, and it also possesses the Yata Mirror and Yasaka Magatama abilities, both named after two of Japan's Three Imperial Regalia. The one exception to this rule is Kamui, which is instead named after the Ainu word for gods.
• The Rinnegan's techniques are named after things and beings in Buddhism. The Six Paths are themed around the six domains that beings can reincarnate before they achieve Nirvana, a cycle known as Samsara ("Rinnegan" itself means "Samsara Eye" in Japanese). The Outer Path, also known as Tirthika, is the Buddhist term for non-Buddhists (though it originally referred to adherents of Jainism), whom they see as following an unnatural path of life; appropriately, one of the Outer Path's techniques is bringing people back from the dead. There's also a bit of Shinto theme thrown around with Rinnegan techniques called Amenotejikara (the god of brute who figures prominently in the "Amaterasu in the Cave" myth) and Takamimusubinokami (one of the five Kotoamatsukami, the first gods who came into existence).
• Ninja folklore, naturally, gets referenced a lot in the series. Both Sasuke and the Third Hokage get their names from Sarutobi Sasuke, one of the Sanada Ten Braves, bodyguards of Sanada Yukimura. One of his teammates was Saizo Kirigakure, a Pretty Boy who is famed for his deadliness; his prettiness is inherited by Haku, his deadliness is inherited by Zabuza, and the name Kirigakure (meaning "vanished into the mist") itself not only is the name of one of the ninja villages but also the naming template for the rest. Dan Kato and Danzo Shimura reference Kato Danzo, an enemy ninja to the Sanada and thus a rival to the Sanada Ten Braves.
• Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade are named after the three main figures of The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya, an Edo period folktale about ninja who can summon animals (and yes, they've been associated with frogs, snakes, and slugs back then). Orochimaru's imagery additionally references Orochi, and his weapon is named Kusanagi, one of the aforementioned Imperial Regalia. It is said that when the mythological Susano'o slew Orochi, he found Kusanagi in the snake's corpse.
• Ebisu is the name of the god of prosperity and wealth and one of the Seven Lucky Gods. During his introduction, he has mannerisms of an Upper-Class Twit, boasting of having trained "elite" ninja. Also Ebisu is often conflated with Hiruko, the eldest son of Izanagi and Izanami, who is said to have been born without bones. Sasori's favorite puppet, Hiruko, is shaped in such a way that forces him to crawl, as if he doesn't have a backbone.
• Kabuto's surname, Yakushi, is short for Yakushi Nyorai, the Japanese translation of Bhaisajyaguru, the Buddha of medicine.
• Naruto's mother, Kushina, is named after Kushinadahime, the maiden whom Susano'o married after saving her from Orochi. His father has the last name Namikaze, which means "wave and wind", the features of a storm, which Susano'o personifies.
• The Otsutsuki clan as a whole is themed around old Japanese folktales:
  • Kaguya is the main heroine of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a story about a princess who came from the Moon inside a bamboo stalk, before she had to return after she became the target of an Engagement Challenge. The Narutoverse's Kaguya came from the heavens, settled on Earth, but was eventually sealed away in the Moon when she became a menace. "Otsutsuki" means "big bamboo tree", though the word actually refers to a passage in Kojiki, which states that the legendary Emperor Suinin wedded a woman named Kaguya-hime, the daughter of King Otsutsukitarine. Kaguya's unique dojutsu, the Rinne Sharingan (the predecessor of the Rinnegan and Sharingan) has the technique Amenominaka, short for Amenominakanushi, the eldest of the Kotoamatsukami, while her space-time ninjutsu is called Yomotsu Hirasaka, the literal Hellgate in Japanese beliefs.
  • Kaguya's eldest son, Hagoromo, is named after the robe that the mythological Kaguya used to return to the Moon. Hagoromo wields Nunoboko, named after the sword that Izanagi and Izanami used to create Japan, and the Truth-Seeking Balls (Gudodama), a reference to the main goal of Mahayana Buddhism, which is to find the true way (Do) of the world.
  • Hagoromo's children, Indra and Asura, got their names from the king of the gods and a race of wrathful gods in Hinduism.
  • Momoshiki and Kinshiki are named after two of Japan's folk heroes: Momotaro, a boy who tames animals by feeding them dango, and Kintaro, a boy with superhuman strength. Momoshiki can enhance his strength by eating Kinshiki, who himself is very durable and strong.
  • Urashiki's main weapon is a fishing rod, a clear reference to his mythological namesake, the fisherman Urashima Taro.
  • Isshiki is a reference to Issun-boshi, a boy who measures only one-sun (3.1 cm / 1.2 inch). His signature dojutsu, Kokugan, enables him to use Sukunahikona, which minimizes him until he is invisible to the naked eye. Sukunahikona itself is the name of a kami often depicted as a dwarf. Another technique he has is called Daikokuten, one of the Seven Lucky Gods.

• The franchise gives us Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranus, three ancient and ungodly powerful secret weapons. They're all named after Classical gods, and from the sound of it are meant to evoke the "land, sea, and air" arrangement of Kronos' three sons (Uranus isn't directly named after Zeus, but presumably that would be too obvious).
• King Neptune and his late wife Otohime are both directly named after mythology; with Neptune being the Roman equivalent to Poseidon and Otohime being the daughter of the Japanese sea-god Ryūjin, fitting a couple of Merfolk. And to tie with the previous point, their daughter Shirahoshi is the current incarnation of Poseidon.
• Prometheus and Zeus, Big Mom's top homies, are respectively named after a Greek titan that brought fire to mankind and the Greek god of thunder.
• Also Loki, the Giant Prince of Elbaf, is named after - yep, you guessed it - Loki, the Trickster God of Norse Mythology. Makes sense, considering that Loki was also said to be a Jötunn, which are a race of giants. On the other hand, it is also likely that his name is a reference to Utgard-Loki, a Jotunn whom, unlike the Norse god of mischief, is the ruler of Utgard in Jotunheim, the homeland of the giants.
• The World Nobles have religious themed naming scattered throughout their entire culture. Their formal name is the "Celestial Dragons", they all bear the title of "Saint" and reside in the "Land of the Gods" Marijoa, they demand "Heavenly Tribute" from the member nations of the World Government, and have "Holy Knights" at their call if things get dicey. Unsurprisingly, they almost all have major A God Am I complexes such that, when Marijoa is called the "Land of the Gods", they're the gods. At the top of it all is Imu, a mysterious person who secretly rules over it all, and whose name is derived from "Im", a jotunn in Norse mythology, while an Alternate Character Reading makes his name look like "Buddha".

• Sailor Venus, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Saturn, and Sailor Pluto are all named after Greco-Roman gods (and one goddess), and/or after the planets named after said gods (and goddess). Queen Serenity and Princess Serenity are named after Selene, goddess of the moon, while Endymion is named after her human lover. A Sailor Senshi's powers and characteristics often relate to her god namesake: Neptune/Poseidon is the god of the sea, Jupiter/Zeus is associated with the oak tree ("Jupiter Oak Evolution"), Sailor Saturn's glaive is reminiscent of Saturn/Cronus' sickle, etc.
• Their animal guardians fit too. The names of the cats (Luna, Artemis and Diana) are also names of the moon goddess, while Sailor Mars' crows (Phobos and Deimos) bear the names of the sons of Ares, Mars' Greek equivalent. Helios is named for a solar deity (some fans assume he takes the place of the nonexistent Sailor Sun), but he initially appears as a Winged Unicorn named Pegasus (yet another name from Greek mythology).
• Among the villains, some types of Monster of the Week (youma, daimon, lemures) are named for mythical creatures, and sometimes the individual monster has its own mythological reference, such as Thetis. The Oppositio Senshi are named for Babylonian deities that are similar to the Sailor Senshi's Greco-Roman namesakes.

• Two of the Big Bads are named after the ancient mythical beings, Medusa and Arachne (which follow an animal motif of being a snake and spider respectively).
• Medusa invades the body of a child (in the form of a snake no less). Her name? Rachel, which is likely a reference to Jacob's wife in the Bible.
• Ragnarok
• Marie Mjolnir, who turns into a hammer.
• Tezca Tlipoca^note 
• The Seven Deadly Sins are featured in the Book of Eibon. The protagonists in the book are also affected by whatever sin that chapter encompasses. The villain of the Eibon Arc is called Noah.
• Speaking of Noah, his henchman is called Gopher, which is a reference to the gopher wood that Noah's ark was said to have been made of in the Bible.
• The name Asura also comes from Hindu Mythology.
• Baba Yaga Castle
• Nidhogg (oddly, it's a ship rather than a dragon)

• Further, many people see a connection between the main inspirational figure of TTGL having a name containing "kami" (the Japanese word for "God") and his friend/partner/successor being called Simon, as in Simon Peter, Jesus' disciple and the first pope. There's also something to be said about many of Kamina's original comrades dying in their efforts to defeat the enemy. Not sure about him being pierced by a spear though.
• Yes, he was pierced by Thymilph's Gunmen, which carries a spear.

• Jomon Venus
• Venus of Brassempouy
• Venus of Dolni Vestonice
• Venus of Langenzersdorf
• Venus of Lespugue
• Venus of Willendorf

• A major crossover event called Armageddon 2001 (Book of Revelation).
• Apokolips, Artemis, Azrael, Cain and Abel, Cerberus, Chronos (already confounded with Kronos by the Greeks), Diana (Prince), Doomsday, Female Furies, Hippolyte, Jericho, Lady Shiva, Lord Chaos, Lord Satanus, Maxie Zeus, Morpheus (Sandman), Naiad, New Genesis, Oracle, Orion, Project Cadmus, Rhea Jones, Son of Vulcan, Troia (Donna Troy), Wotan, Zatanna.
• Legends of the Dead Earth: In Detective Comics Annual #9, Typhon's Binary Suns Osiris and Iris are located in the Greater Amun system. Osiris, Isis and Amun are all major gods in Egyptian Mythology.

• The minor super-powered group the Pantheon took its names from The Iliad, while the Lords of Light and Darkness had names and powers patterned after the Vedic deities of India. The supervillain group Zodiac has twelve members named after the signs of the Zodiac, which are connected to Greek mythology.
• Callisto and Ursa Major are ultimately named after the same person, who was first transformed into a she-bear and then a constellation.
• Spider-Man clone Kaine and the Juggernaut (Cain Marko) are both named after Abel's brother.
• Elektra wanted to avenge her murdered father. What are the odds?
• Other characters with names from Greek and Roman mythology: Arachne, Aurora (known to the Greeks as Eos), Calypso, Cassandra Nova, Chimera (and Kymaera), Cyclops, Elysius, Eros, Gorgon, Hydra, Janus, Luna, Medusa, Mentor, Oracle, Phoenix (also Egyptian etc.), Plutonia, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., Proteus, Psyche, Selene, Sersi (= Circe), Siryn, Titan, Titania, Triton, Ulysses Bloodstone. Also possibly Colossus (the Colossus of Rhodes was a giant statue of the god Helios).
• With names from the Bible, Judaism and Christianity: Ahab (possibly via Moby-Dick), Apocalypse and his Horsemen, Angel/Archangel, Black Goliath, Celestial Madonna, De'Lila (a Skrull), Diablo, Doc Samson, Exodus, Ezekiel, Gabriel (the Devil-Hunter), Genesis, Gideon, Gog (and Magog), Golem, Goliath, Jude (the Entropic Man), Kaballa, Legion, Mephisto, Nicholas Scratch (i.e. the devil), Professor Paxton Pentecost, Prester John, Revelation, Satannish, Son of Satan, Succubus. Possibly Joseph.
• From other religions and mythologies: Banshee, Basilisk, Jihad, Juggernaut, Karma, Kismet, Merlin, Rama-Tut, Sphinx (the name is Greek, of course), Thunderbird. Possibly Karnak.

Aloy: I guess Sylens named them, then.
Alva: He's the only real option, unless they found the name after they got their Focuses!
Aloy: Actually, I meant because absolutely everything about that culture and that story sounds like his sort of thing.

• Morpheus is named after the Greek mythological "lord of dreams", which is fitting since the "real world" is a simulation.
• Persephone, the Merovingian's wife, is named after the consort of Hades, the Greek ruler of the Underworld. In the myths, while Persephone is Happily Married to Hades, she eventually came to resent the gloomy underworld. Likewise, the films' Persephone describes her marriage as happy in the beginning, only to turn sour later on as the Merovingian slowly ignored her.

• The MUTOs, who were introduced before this was established, are given the alternate name Jishin-Mushi, Japanese for 'Earthquake-Beetle", and the Skullcrawlers are posited to be one of the origins of the concept of demons (the other being Rodan).
• Furthermore, the kaiju who existed in movies prior to this continuity (Godzilla, Mothra, Kong, Ghidorah, and Rodan) are each given mythical motifs of their own, each being associated with the concept of gods/angels/demons/devils.

• A lot of the higher-level people use mythological names. Though for many, it's not clear what exactly the source is—Orcus, for example, is the name of a Roman god, but based on context he's probably named after the Dungeons & Dragons demon prince. Some of them get pretty obscure, too. How many people know that Aramazd is the father of the gods in Armenian mythology?
• Orcus is confirmed in the culture documents to be named after the Roman god. He originally named his culture Thanatosians, but people missed the point and just started calling them orcs.

• Cressida's cameramen, Castor and Pollux, are named after Helen of Troy's twin brothers, who were sired by a different father; Castor was sired by a mortal, while Pollux, like Helen, was sired by Zeus, meaning the latter ended up outliving the former. Guess which twin dies in the story. Cressida herself technically fits, as her Shakespearean namesake is based on Chryseis, a Trojan who was given as a sex slave to the Achaean king Agamemnon.
• Persephone is the name of the Greek goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology. Persephone Price from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was fed human meat by her father.

• Cersei Lannister is named after a witch who enjoyed turning men into pigs.
• In-universe, Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, the three dragons that Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters used to subjugate Westeros, were named after ancient Valyrian gods. Syrax, the dragon mount of Rhaenyra Targaryen, was also named after a Valyrian god.

Hank: Mark, Luke and John? Really?
Wu: I'm just the messenger. And not from on high.

• In "Lithia", Hera and Phoebe are named after female characters from Greek Classical Mythology, while Lithia's neighboring enclave Hyacinth is named after a male Greek hero, in spite of the fact that this female-only world abhors men. Major Jason Mercer is presumably named after Jason, the leader of the Argonauts.
• In "Promised Land", almost all of the former slaves have given names which are derived from Hebrew such as Rebecca, Tali, David, Isaac, Caleb, Ruth and Joshua. This is in keeping with the storyline's resonance with the Book of Exodus. Exceptions to the theme include Alex and Henry.
• In "A New Life", Daniel, Thomas, Beth (short for Elizabeth) and Jacob are all named after major figures from The Bible.

• All the Goa'uld are named after gods from different mythologies (and took on those names specifically to control humans by pretending to be gods. There's Ra, Osiris, Apophis, Anubis, Hathor, etc. from the ancient Egyptian sphere; Ba'al of the Canaanites (mentioned in the Bible); Cronus from Greek mythology; Nirrti from Hinduism, and those are just a few of the main ones.
• Tau'ri warships get their names mainly from figures in Greek Mythology that haven't been identified as Goa'uld. The first and only BC-303 was the Prometheus. The later BC-304 Daedalus-class continued the trend; three of the four operated by the US Air Force are named Daedalus, Apollo, and Odyssey, respectively. The fourth USAF 304 was to be named Phoenix, but was rechristened George Hammond after the SGC's founding general. Averted for the other two 304s, which are operated by Russia and China and named Korolev^note  and Sun Tzu respectively.

• A slightly more specific example: Castiel's rebellious inclinations are first hinted at when he starts not being particularly bothered by being called "Cass" for short. (The -el suffix being the part that refers to God).

• Icarus, who is billed from "Mount Olympus".
• The Osirian Portal, "The Funky Pharaoh" Amasis and "The Venomous Vile Serpent from the Nile" Ophidian, whose whole gimmick was derived from Egyptian Mythology.
• Tursas and Nøkken of Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes. The former is a Finnish Sea Monster, and the latter name is taken from Norwegian river demons.
• Deucalion, taken from a hero who survived the Greek mythological version of The Great Flood. Ironically, he was the Big Bad of The Flood, the amalgamation of Heel groups out to destroy CHIKARA, and the most evil villain in the promotion's history.

• The Dark Angels use the names of biblical figures, angels, and demons, matching their in-universe obscure morality and issues with internal division between loyalsts and Fallen, such as Azrael, Ezekiel, Asmodai, Belial, Sammael, and Lazarus.
• Saul Invictus' name is a homophone of Sol Invictus, a Roman sun god who was considered the patron deity of soldiers, signifying his position as a war hero of the Roman-coded Ultramarines.
• The Chapter Master of the Iron Snakes, a Chapter with a heavily nautical and Grecian culture, is named Seydon after the sea-god Poseidon.
• Asterion Moloc, the Chapter Master of the Minotaurs, is named after the father of King Minos II of Crete^note  and, in some versions of the myth, the given name of the Minotaur itself, and Moloch, the biblical name for an ancient Canaanite god with the head of a bull.
• The Craftworlds Biel-Tan, Saim-hann, and Lugganath are named after Gaelic holidays — Beltane, Samhain, and Lughnasadh. Iybraesil is instead named after the mythical island of Hy-Brasil.
• Tyranid hive fleets are named after mythological monsters, usually but not exclusively aquatic ones, such as Kraken, Leviathan, Behemoth, Hydra, Gorgon, and Jormungandr.

• Egyptian mythology: The source that inspires this whole Yu-Gi-Oh! universe. Three out of the four Egyptian Gods are based on real gods: "Slifer the Sky Dragon" (known in Japan as "Osiris"), "The Winged Dragon of Ra" and "Holactie, the Creator of Light". The "Hieratic Dragons" are also named after Egyptian gods, but their names are spelt in funny ways, for example, "Hieratic Dragon of Asar".
• Greek Mythology and planets of the Solar System: Several cards from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, including "Athena", "Splendid Venus", "The Big Saturn", etc.
• Norse Mythology: These are from the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's era: the three most well-known gods, "Odin, Father of the Aesir", "Thor, Lord of the Aesir" and "Loki, Lord of the Aesir", and related groups of cards "Nordic Ascendant", "Nordic Alfar", "Nordic Beast" and "Nordic Relic". Less known are the "Valkyries" from Yu-Gi-Oh!.
• Native mythology of the Americas: A couple of other cards from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's are also inspired by Mayan and Inca gods, such as "Ultimaya Tzolkin" and the "Earthbound Immortals".
• Japanese, Chinese and Hindu mythology: The biggest source of inspiration so far for Spirit monsters and related cards: "Izanagi", "Izanami", "Amaterasu", "Tsukuyomi", "Susa Soldier", "Sword of Kusanagi", "Yata-Garasu", "Yamata Dragon", "Asura Priest", "Rasetsu", etc. Various other cards, such as "Yosen", "Shiranui" and "Mayakashi" cards, also draw inspiration from Asian mythology.
• Cthulhu Mythos: The "Elder Entities", "Old Entities" and "Outer Entities".

• Planets are named after (mostly) mythological figures. As a Genius Bonus, the setting is a Death World called Pandora (after the box, presumably) and its more civilized, developed moon is called Elpis (after Hope, the last thing that survived the box opening).
• Also, both the Mega Corps in the setting are mostly named after Greek Titans. Hyperion does another Genius Bonus by naming its Pandoran space station base Helios, after Hyperion's son.

Christian angelic hierarchy

• The game's artificial intelligences are named after Greek mythology: Icarus, Daedalus, Helios, and Morpheus.
• In the original design document, the main villain was an AI named Adam.

• Most demons and Devil Arms in the series are named after mythological figures and creatures from various origins. Some demons who share a similar role or backstory are often named from the same source, such as the Seven Hells from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening (named after each of the Seven Deadly Sins), the brothers Baul and Modeus from Devil May Cry: The Animated Series (their names are derived from Baal and Asmodeus from Judeo-Christian demonology or from the Ars Goetia), or the cloaked Mephisto and Faust demons from Devil May Cry 4 (who are named after the Faust myth from German folklore).
• This can also apply to objects and structures. Devil May Cry 5 for instance borrows names from mythologies that revolve around a World Tree; "Qliphoth" comes from Jewish mythology and is interpreted rather literally as the Tree of Death, while the "Nidhogg Hatchling" is named after Nidhogg of Norse mythology, the dragon who chews the roots of the cosmic tree Yggdrasil.

• Shiva from Hindu Mythology is the male god of destruction, while Final Fantasy's Shiva is the female goddess of ice.
• The Titans from Classical Mythology were an entire race of non-elemental Abusive Precursors to the Olympians, while Titan in Final Fantasy is the singular god of earth.
• Odin from Norse Mythology is the Top God of his setting and carries a spear named Gungir, as opposed to Odin of Final Fantasy just being an extremely powerful summons who wields the Zanketsuken sword.

• The Elibe games (Binding Blade and Blazing Blade) drew from The Song of Roland.
• Path of Radiance pulled from Arthurian Legend.
• Some weapons and characters in the series, especially from the Jugdral games are named or based on Norse Mythology. Exaggerated in Fire Emblem Heroes, where the whole universe the game takes place in is themed entirely on Norse Mythology.

• Terran ships get their names from Greek mythology. Apollo, Athena, Medusa, Hercules, Orion, etc. Also from Norse mythology as well: Valkyrie, Loki, Mjolnir, Fenris, etc.
• Vasudan ships have an ancient Egyptian theme: Horus, Serapis, Hatshepsut, Aten, Anubis...
• Shivan ships have a demonic motif: Seraphim, Basilisk, Lucifer, Sathanas, Ravana, Lilith, and so on. There's also a destroyer class that's simply called "Demon".
• The first game designated Terran wings with Greek letters (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.). Enemy Terrans were Traitor Alpha, Traitor Beta, etc. Vasudan wings were Zodiac signs (Aries, Virgo, Libra...) and Shivan wings were Hindu gods (Brahma, Vishnu, Durga...). The second game simplified this by simply designating allied wings by Greek letters and enemy wings by Zodiac signs, regardless of race.

• Paimon, Morax (a.k.a. Rex Lapis), Barbatos, Baal and Decarabian are named after demons from Ars Goetia.
• The various elemental gems used to Ascend characters are named after various Hindu gods.
• From Norse Mythology, Dainsleif takes his name from the cursed sword of King Högni, while the dragons Dvalin and Durin are named after dwarves.
• There are also terms and concepts taken from Gnosticism, such as the seven Archons (the servants of the Demiurge) and Gnosis (knowledge of the divine).
• Tartaglia's real name is Ajax, the famed Trojan hero in Classical Mythology and warrior of courage from Homer's The Iliad. His little brother is also named Teucer, the half-brother of Ajax in Classical mythology.

• Playable characters like Yggdrasil, Tiamat, Fenrir (who also act as summons and bosses), Leviathan, Lucifer, Sandalphon, Azazel...
• Non-playable characters like Loki, Belial, Beelzebub, and the four Primarch Angels Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel...
• Summons like Odin, Zeus, Thor, Baal, Athena, Tsukuyomi...
• Raid bosses like the Four Beasts Zhuque, Xuanwu, Baihu, Qinglong...
• Some Weapon skills are also named after deties like Gaia, Horus, Aeolus, Shalim...

• The recurring Ragnarok ability is named after the end of the world in Norse mythology.
• Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: Some of Xaldin's alternate weapons are named after constellations, mythological creatures, and other religious themes.
• Kingdom Hearts III: A lupine Heartless is named Skoll, named after the wolf who chases after the sun endlessly and is fated to swallow it during Ragnarok.
• Most of the residents of Scala ad Caelum are named after characters in Norse mythology. In Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, Xehanort and Eraqus's fellow classmates are named Bragi, Vor, Urd, Hermod, Baldr, Vidar, Vala, Vali, Hoder, Heimdall, Helgi, and Sigrun, with their Keyblade Master being named Odin. χ also has a character named Sigurd, and Union χ has Skuld.
• The Foretellers are named after the Seven Deadly Sins. We have Ava (avaritia=greed), Ira (wrath), Aced (acedia=sloth), Gula (gluttony), Invi (invidia=envy), and Luxu (luxuria=lust). There's no character named after Superbia (pride), but their Master certainly acts prideful.

• Link's horse Epona is named after a Celtic fertility goddess and guardian of horses.
• The three oracles from the Oracle games are an in-universe example, being named after the three Golden Goddessess at the center of the series' mythology. Any actual connection between the two trios beyond the names is unclear.

• Azraflail = Azrael
• Crabaddon = Abaddon
• Catsiel = Cassiel or Castiel
• Headraniel = Hadraniel
• Santaquiel = Sahaquiel
• Tentaluchus = Temeluchus
• Hatasiah = Hahasiah
• Sandolphin = Sandalphon
• Chairman G/Mammon = Mammon, an Aramaic word for money, which was personified by early Christians as a deity of greed and wealth.
• Delvin is pretty clearly a near-anagram of "Devil".
• Lenna, as the 'mother of monsters', is likely standing in for Lilith.

• The three classes of Mecha-Mooks in Mass Effect 2 are LOKI (humanoid), FENRIS (dog-like), and YMIR (giant).
• The planet the Overlord DLC takes place on has four stations; Hermes Station, the communication center, Vulcan Station, the geothermal power plant, Prometheus Station, a crashed geth ship and Atlas Station, the main base where the Overlord himself is housed.
  • In Mass Effect 3, Cerberus continues the classical mythology theme with the Atlas mech, a YMIR mech refitted so it can be manually piloted, and an earlier model, the Triton mech, adjusted for deep-sea diving. There's also the Nemesis, but the allusion to classical mythology may or may not be intentional.
• Husks, which are formed from bodies impaled upon massive spikes nicknamed "Dragon's Teeth", a throwback to the Greek myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece in which 'dragon's teeth' were sown on Athena's instruction to create vicious warrior-men.

• Most Bosses from the Mega Man Zero series derive their names from creatures of various myths and religion, like Guard Orotic, Anubis Necromancess, Asura Basura, Hanumachine, etc. Three of the Four Guardians are named after a harpy, the fafnir and the leviathan.
• Mega Man Star Force 2 had villains based on UMAs (Unidentified Mysterious Animals), like ghosts, the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster.

• Max Payne: Apart from being a Whole-Plot Reference to the Ragnarök (which supplies the name for the club Ragna Rock), it introduces Alex Balder and a helpful and one-eyed old guy named Woden. Of course, there also are the Aesir Corporation, the drug Valkyr, and a little something called Project: Valhalla (the information to which can be accessed through the computer network Yggdrasil).
• Alan Wake: Pretty much an Alternate History horror thriller to Max Payne with plenty of Shout Outs to the game franchise. Features an 80s Heavy Mithril band themed after Norse Mythology called The Old Gods of Asgard, whose members were Odin, Tor, Loki and "Fat Bob" Balder. The Eldritch Abomination Big Bad uses an old woman named Barbara Jagger as its human host, who used to live in Bird Leg Cabin, both references to Baba Yaga.
• Control and Alan Wake II reference Finland's pre-Christian pagan religion with Ahti, a strange Finnish janitor who just happens to share his name with the god of water and seems to hold some power over the element, as water puddles near janitor's buckets serve as portals to other realities in the latter game. It's also implied that his singing can ward off evil- cassette players playing his singing appear in the former game warding off a supernatural mold infestation, and mark safe areas in the latter game -as Finnish pagan mysticism incorporates a lot of singing.
• Alan Wake II also introduces businessman Ilmo Koskela, whose given name derives from Ilmarinen, the Ultimate Blacksmith and inventor from Finland's national epic The Kalevala who created the Sampo, a device which brought good luck, only for his homeland to be cursed when it is stolen. In the same way, Ilmo is constantly forging up new products and ventures and refocusing the Dying Town of Watery on them in search of a "Sampo" to save his hometown's struggling economy.

• The Estuaries all have names given to the Biblical descendants of Cain (to quote a passage, "To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael the father of Methushael, and Methushael the father of Lamech", with the world's first blacksmith Tubal and his sister Naamah being the offspring of Lamech and Zillah. In the end, it turns out they're indeed the offspring of the player's "Brother", Cain.
• Numerous Relics mention the name of deities or figures from several religions or myths (though most are from Classical Mythology). For some examples, the game has Achilles' Shield, Aether's Grace, Aite's Sword, Amaterasu's Sun, Atropos' Scissors, Clotho's Spindle, Demeter's Trial, Hermes' Boots, and so on.

• The planet on which the humans settle, the second planet of Alpha Centauri A, is called Chiron, after the greatest, noblest, and wisest of the centaurs (he taught Hercules in some versions of the myths). Most of the settlers, however, simply call it Planet.
• Planet has two moons; these are named Pholus and Nessus. Pholus in Greek myth was the only good and wise centaur other than Chiron, and a friend and teacher of Hercules. Nessus was a more typical brutish centaur, but was crafty enough to kill Hercules by tricking his wife (albeit while he was dying from a wound inflicted by Hercules).
• The first planet of Alpha Centauri A is a Mercury-like dead ball of rock named Eurytion, after a centaur who tried to extort King Dexamenus into giving him one of his daughters (either Deianira or Mneisimache). For this, Eurytion was also killed by Hercules, and (in stories where Deianira is the daughter of Dexamenus and not Oeneus or Dionysos) Hercules got to marry Deianira.
• We should note here that Chiron and Pholus were both accidentally killed by Hercules as well; Chiron when a poisoned arrow Hercules had fired at another, nastier centaur nicked him on the way, and Pholus when he foolishly picked up the arrowhead to marvel at how it could kill so great a being as Chiron. It should therefore come as no surprise that Alpha Centauri B, whose perihelion makes Planet's native life go into a very nasty overdrive, is dubbed Hercules by the settlers.
• The standard "Map of Planet" contains many names of geographical features that refer to some of the above figures, as well as a few others. For instance, the largest island is called the "Isle of Deianira."

• Subversion in Super Robot Spirits and the other games with the Judecca; while "Judecca" refers to Judas Iscariot, the disciple of Jesus Christ who betrayed him, each of the Judecca's attacks ("Caina", "Antenora", "Ptolomea" and "Judecca") corresponds to a section of the ninth and lowest circle of hell in The Divine Comedy.

• "Keter" means the divine will to create - Jade is from Keterburg, and that's where he created the first replica
• "Daat" is the "central state," the unity of the 10 Sephiroth. This makes sense as Daath is sort of like Vatican City - an independent religious city.
• "Hod" means "withdrawal or surrender," in the positive sense. Hod itself 'withdrew' and 'surrendered' in the negative sense.
• "Malkuth" means "Kingship" - pretty obvious, as Malkuth is an Empire - though it does have an Emperor, not a King.
• In addition to this, the word Qliphoth is also stolen from the Sephirot - the Qliphoth is a metaphorical shell around the Sephirot, which both protects it and blocks access to it.

• Kratos is the God of strength, power and war. Kratos gets a nod to this in one of his titles, which is "War God."
• Nike is the Godess of strength, speed and victory. That's probably why it's also the name of a sportswear company.
• Zelus is probably the most interesting; he's the God of zeal and dedication, but is also associated with rivalry, jealousy and envy. Considering how deeply Zelos envies everyone who isn't Tethe'alla's Chosen, it's pretty appropriate.
• Altogether, it's interesting because the three characters serve interdependent functions, and all three can be very integral to Lloyd's character. Kratos is his father, Colette is his official love interest and his main motivation, and Zelos acts as a Foil to Colette (as well as the most obvious romantic substitute for Colette if you believe the fangirls) and a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Kratos. This game knows its stuff.

• Psychology - Lacan, Id
• Kabbalah - Zohar, Shevat, Nisan, Merkava, Path of the Sephiroth.
• Gnosticism - Sophia, Deus, Uruborous.
• Christianity - Cain, Abel, Fatima, Balthazar, Golgotha.

• Christianity - Zohar emulators named after disciples of Jesus. Abel's Ark.
• Judaism - The mecha driven by Anima Relics are all named after Hebrew patriarchs.
• Alchemy - Nigredo, Albedo, Citrene, and Rubedo are named after stages of alchemical transfiguration.
• Jungian psychology - UMN, collective unconscious.
• Wagner's Nibelung - The Dammerung, the Rhine Maidens.
• Nietzsche - Each of the game's subtitles is the name of a text by German philosopher Nietzsche.

• Maria is of course, a variation of Mary, which typically refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus, but can also refer to Mary Magdalene.
• Jael, Maria's friend who is banished in the opening Apologia Assembly of the story, is named after the heroine who delivered Israel from the army of King Jabin in the Hebrew Bible.
• Eve comes from the figure from the Book of Genesis, said to be the first woman.
• Amaris is a variation of Amariah, a name that means "promised by God" in Hebrew and features several times in the Hebrew Bible.
• Grace comes from the concept of "divine grace."
• Magda comes from Mary Magdalene, a companion of Jesus. This also gives her an extra connection with Maria.
• Nils comes from "nil," which is just a word for "zero" (coming from their original name "0"), which is sometimes associated with God.
• Magda decides to rename herself Lilia after fusing with Nils. "Lilia" is the Latin word for lilies, a flower commonly associated with the Virgin Mary, but can also refer to an obscure battle tactic used by the Romans in which spiked pit traps are dug in a quincunx... that is to say, the shape of a cross.

• Eva, Ange and Lion spell out Evangelion, which means "Gospel", or "Fukuin" in Japanese, which is also the name of the orphanage where the servants are taken from.
• Beatrice, Virgilia and Clair Vaux of Bernard are all taken from The Divine Comedy. It's commented in the story that Virgilia^note  is meant to guide Dante (represented by Battler) towards Beatrice − i.e. help him figure out her identity and motive.
• Kyrie's and Ange's names are taken from Christian prayers: Kyrie Eleison and the Angelus.
• Juza Amakusa shares the same family name (written in the exact same kanji, no less) as the Japanese Christian saint Amakusa Shiro.
• Maria's name is a direct reference to The Virgin Mary. Discussed in EP7.
• The names of the Seven Stakes are taken from an old classification of demons and their correspondence to the Seven Deadly Sins.
• Ronove, Gaap, Furfur and Zepar are all taken from the Ars Goetia.

• Aradia Megido is named after Aradia, a figure who, according to an American folklorist, was worshipped by Tuscan witches, and Tel Megiddo, the place where, according to the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse will happen and which is the root of the word "armageddon". Aradia is associated with the occult and is obsessed with the end of the universe.
• Sollux Captor, the Gemini troll, is named after Pollux and Castor, the twins who became the constellation in Greek myth.
• Kanaya Maryam, the Virgo troll, derives her last name from the Aramaic name for the Virgin Mary, Maryam. Befitting of the matronly and fussy Kanaya.
• Vriska Serket, the Scorpio troll, is named after Serqet, the Ancient Egyptian scorpion goddess.
• Equius Zahhak, the Sagittarius troll, is named after the Zoroastrian mythic villain Zahhāk, who was also known as Bēvar Asp, "he who has 10,000 horses", matching Equius' equine Animal Motif

• Molly named her teddy bear Callisto, after a Greek nymph who was changed into a bear.
• Molly's clone Galatea is named for Pygmalion's statue who came to life.

• The three Weird Sisters are named Luna, Phoebe and Selene, all of which were moon goddesses.
• Many members of the Avalon Clan, such as Angela, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, have angelic names.

• In most Germanic languages (including English), four days are named after gods in Germanic paganism. The only one that doesn't follow this is Icelandic, which, except for Sunday and Monday, number their weekdays.
  • Tuesday = Tiw/Tyr. Cognates include: Danish and Norwegian "Tirsdag" and Swedish "Tisdag". But not Dutch "Dinsdag" and German "Dienstag", which are named after, believe it or not, "thing"—in the old Germanic sense of "assembly", as apparently the assemblies of the Germanic peoples met on Tuesdays.^note 
  • Wednesday = Woden/Odin. Cognates include: Afrikaans and Dutch "Woensdag" and Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish "Onsdag".
  • Thursday = Thunor/Donar/Thor. Cognates include: Afrikaans and Dutch "Donderdag", Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish "Torsdag", and German "Donnerstag".
  • Friday = Frige/Frija/Frigg. Cognates include: Afrikaans "Vrydag", Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish "Fredag", Dutch "Vrijdag", and German "Freitag".
• Similarly, Romance languages number their weekdays after gods in Roman paganism. One of them even manages to sneak their way into English and Dutch vocabulary. Again, there is an exception: Portuguese, which, like Icelandic, number their weekdays.
  • Tuesday: Mars, so: French "Mardi", Spanish "Martes", Italian "Martedi", and Romanian "Marți".
  • Wednesday: Mercury, so "Mercredi", Spanish "Miércoles, Italian "Mercoledi, and Romanian "Miercuri".
  • Thursday: Jupiter, so French "Jeudi", Spanish "Jueves", Italian "Giovedi, and Romanian "Joi".
  • Friday: Venus, so French "Vendredi", Spanish "Viernes", Italian "Venerdi", and Romanian "Vineri".
  • Saturday: Actually not Saturn, which only gives it way to English "Saturday", Afrikaans "Saterdag", and Dutch "Zaterdag". Latin once had a Saturn-related word, but for whatever reasons, it didn't stick, since its descendants name the day after Sabbath, which was formerly held on Saturday before it changed to Sunday to coincide with the Lord's Day (it's still on Saturday in Judaism). So it goes: French "Samedi", Spanish "Sábado, Italian "Sabato", and Romanian "Sâmbătă"
• "Sabbath" itself is actually the norm word for Saturday in many languages not named English. Those that adopted Christianity necessitated the loan of the word to describe the day where you would rest (which by then would already be an artifact due to the whole Lord's Day mentioned above. Christianity technically still differentiates Lord's Day with Sabbath, but how many people know this?), while those cultures that adopted Islam received the word as part of the Arabic loanwords-package (this time, the Sabbath in the Jewish sense is moved to Friday since the religion's founding. Now that word's etymology is harder to track. It might be a legacy of pre-Islamic Arabia, which adopted Judaism and or/Christianity in some places, or it received it the same way that Hebrew did: from Akkadian; they're both Semitic languages, after all.). Examples include: Hungarian "Szombat", Czech "Sobota, Armenian "Shabat'", Tagalog "Sabado", Malay "Sabtu"...

• And Earth. Though in English it's not as clear as those who named it after Terra - and in Greece's case, Gaia.

• It goes deeper than that. Mars's moons are named after his sons Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror). Jupiter's moons are named for his lovers and daughters (79 and we haven't run out!), Saturn's for Titans^note , and Neptune's for water divinities.
• And there are now established rules for surface features on those bodies - for example, craters and crevasses on Jupiter's moon Europa are named after characters and locations in Celtic Mythology, while those on Saturn's moon Phoebe are named after items from the story of Jason and the Argonauts. These can sometimes get a bit funny—for instance, mountains on Saturn's moon Titan are named for mountains in Tolkien's Legendarium, plains on Titan are named for planets from Dune, and many features on Phobos are named for places and characters in Gulliver's Travels. See the planetary nomenclature page on The Other Wiki for details.
  • Features on Venus are named after fertility goddesses from various traditions, such as the mountain Sif Mons, named for Thor's wife Sif.
• Some of the dwarf planets and minor planets are named after deities from other mythologies. While Pluto, Eris, Ceres, and Orcus are all classical deities, there's also Haumea (Hawaii), Sedna (Inuit), Gonggong (Chinese), Makemake (Easter Island), Quaoar (Native American)...
• Since there are a lot of asteroids, astronomers looking for names for them began naming them after mythological heroes (which conveniently there are also a lot of). At first semi-accidentally but now by convention, those in Jupiter's L4 and L5 Lagrangian points are named after characters from the Iliad, with those on one side of Jupiter being named for heroes from the Greek side, and those on the other named after heroes from the Trojan side. There are two exceptions from before the convention was established: 624 Hektor (a Trojan) is in the leading "Greek camp" and 617 Patroclus (a Greek) is in the trailing "Trojan camp".

• A series of coastal defence ships built for the Imperial German Navy in the 1890s had names from Germanic mythology: SMS Aegir, SMS Odin, SMS Hagen, SMS Heimdall, SMS Hildebrand, SMS Frithjof, SMS Beowulf, and SMS Siegfried. A series of light cruisers built shortly after had names mostly from Greek mythology: SMS Medusa, SMS Amazone, SMS Ariadne, SMS Thetis, SMS Nymphe, SMS Niobe, and (odd name out) SMS Gazelle.
• Similarly, the Italian navy went into World War I with, among others, a class of torpedo-boats named after mythological figures - Calliope, Canopo, Cassiopea, Centauro, Clio, Calipso, Pegaso, Perseo etc.
• The Royal Navy in World War II had three classes of light cruisers named after figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the Leander, Arethusa and Dido Classes.