Antagonist Title - TV Tropes

Guess who the villain is.^note

"The Lord of the Ring is not Frodo, but the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor, whose power is again stretching out over the world."

— Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings

When you want to use a character's name for a title, you have several options. The most obvious choice is the hero's name, but you could also go with a Secondary Character Title.

Or you could title it after your work's primary antagonist.

Note that this does not apply to a work titled after a Villain Protagonist (which also goes under Protagonist Title). This trope has nothing to do with morality but with role. If there is a clear protagonist (regardless of Anti-Hero status and/or Black-and-Gray Morality), and the film/book/what-have-you they're in just happens to be titled after the person, group, or force The Hero fights against, then it's an Antagonist Title.

Might overlap with The Namesake if it's a vicious Genius Loci or the villain's lair. Commonly seen with Villain-Based Franchises. Often overlaps with One-Word Title, especially with antagonists who have Only One Name.

This is one title you do not want to mix with I Am Not Shazam or Protagonist Title Fallacy.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Aquarion Logos employs the trope in an unusual way: previous Aquarion works were a case of Protagonist Title, and the robot that the protagonists pilot is also named Aquarion. It's not revealed until deep into the show that Aquarion Logos is the name of the villainous robot that the bad guys have spent the whole series trying to recreate, and what the heroes have been using is a mere knockoff based on its parts. It's then fully subverted when Logos is the machine that the protagonists take control of for their final battle against the true villain.
Assassination Classroom: Episode 21 is titled "Takaoka Time", named after the Big Bad of the Assassination Island arc.
In Attack on Titan, the very manga itself turns out to be the title of the biggest Big Bad in the series, Eren Yeager's Attack Titan. It is Not Hyperbole to state that this Titan shaped the entire series, by influencing Eren Kruger to handpick Grisha Yeager to carry out the objective to find the Coordinate Titan, causing Grisha to brutally massacre the Reiss family down to its unarmed women and children, only to spare Rod Reiss as he has a role in influencing Historia against her family. Eren then blackmailed Grisha into surrendering the Coordinate and Attack Titans to a young Eren by showing him a nightmarish future in which he wins. All this to ensure his ultimate goal, extermination of all life outside Paradis, goes off smoothly.
Black★Rock Shooter: Though technically, at the point this trope becomes applicable, she's renamed Insane Black Rock Shooter.
Dinosaur King or Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu has more in common with the goals of the villain Dr. Z, as this is what he wants to become by ruling the world with dinosaurs. Meanwhile the D-Team, Max, Rex and Zoey are just trying to keep the dinosaurs safe.
Dragon Ball's various "sagas" may qualify; they are sets of episodes (what other shows may call "arcs") usually named after a certain character, almost always a villain, who plays a central role in that saga, dating all the way back to the Emperor Pilaf saga, the very first set of episodes. There are exceptions, such as the Tournament sagas, "Future" Trunks Saga, or Universe Survival Saga, but those named after villains make up the majority.
Jujutsu Kaisen: The first chapter of the manga and the first episode of the anime adaptation are both titled Ryomen Sukuna, after the story's Big Bad.
Monster (1994): Johan Liebert is the Serial Killer and Big Bad of the manga. He uses a line from a children poem, "The monster inside me has already grown this large", as his Calling Card, and his allies and enemies alike who got to know him in person refuse to call him human.
Noein: Noein is the Big Bad.
Pluto: The protagonist is detective Gesicht, hunting down robot Serial Killer (as in a robot killer of robots) Pluto.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
- Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Oriko's villain status might be somewhat debatable, but she's definitely the main antagonist.
- Puella Magi Suzune Magica is named after the Serial Killer of magical girls. Though she's not the main antagonist.
Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas (full title Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas - The Legend of Hades): Hades is the Big Bad and the ominous Lost Canvas is the primary tool in his Evil Plan to eradicate all life on Earth.
While Saki is the protagonist of her own series, her name is in the title of spin-off Saki Achiga-hen despite often being mentioned as an opponent the Achiga girls must face should they reach the finals.
Soul Eater: According to Atsushi Ohkubo, the title does not only refer to its protagonist of the same name (who is actually secondary to Maka Albarn, the main heroine), but also the concept itself and the story's ultimate villain, Kishin Asura, who is an eater of souls. Surely enough, Asura is referred to as the "Soul Eater" in the penultimate chapter, and interestingly enough, the protagonist named 'Soul Eater' did end up playing a very crucial role in his defeat in the finale, being the reason the heroes are actually able to damage him at all.
Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V turns out to be this when ARC-V is revealed to be the fifth dimension created by Leo Akaba, meant to absorbed the four dimensions to recreate the original dimension. It fits how different ARC-V is compared to other series as they usually have Protagonist Title.

Asian Animation

The first episode of Motu Patlu (2012) is titled "John the Don", after the main villain, in its official English version. One official upload refers to it as "Don John", and in the original Hindi it's "John Banega Don" ("John will become don", John's Catchphrase).

Comic Books

Age of Ultron: Ultron is the villain whom The Avengers are fighting.
Aggretsuko (Oni): Rei, the villain of Aggretsuko: Little Rei of Sunshine, is the titular "Rei of Sunshine".
The Amazing Spider-Man #300: One of Spider-Man's most famous enemies makes his first major appearance in a story simply titled Venom.
Blacksad: Arctic Nation is the group of white fur supremacists in the album of the same name who serve as Blacksad's antagonists. It's eventually revealed as a subversion; the real antagonist was Jezebel, who orchestrated everything that happened to get revenge on her father.
Doctor Mortis: Doctor Mortis is the Big Bad. He has many aliases, but "Doctor Mortis" is his true name.
Dracula (Marvel Comics): Some stories in The Tomb of Dracula did use Dracula as the Villain Protagonist, but in most, the protagonists were his hunters.
Fiends of the Eastern Front: The fiends are the evil vampires.
Oxymoron: Oxymoron is the Ax-Crazy psychopath carving a bloody path through Swanstown; the protagonist is Detective Mary Clark.
Sandman Mystery Theatre: With the exceptions of "The Hourman", "The Blackhawk", "Return of the Scarlet Ghost", "The City" and "The Hero", every arc's title is either the name of the arc's villain or mentions said name.
Sin City:
- A Dame to Kill For is how Marv describes Ava, the Femme Fatale who turns out to be the main villain of the story.
- The comic That Yellow Bastard refers to Hartigan's antagonist, the serial killing, child molesting Roark Jr. whom he must destroy to protect Nancy. It's the form Roark ended up as after the experimental treatment his corrupt father paid for to regrow his penis.
- Family Values pits Dwight against the Mafia.
- "Daddy's Little Girl" is about a guy whose girlfriend gets him to try to kill her father over a Parental Marriage Veto. Except that the attempt is doomed (the gun she gave him is loaded with blanks) and he was really sent to be beaten to death as foreplay between her and her father.
Sonic X: The Archie Comics tie-in introduced the Society for Observing and Neutralizing Inter-dimensional Creatures and Xenomorphs.
Superman:
- The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk! features the first appearance of Mr. Mxyztplk, one of the main enemies of Superman.
- How Luthor Met Superboy tells the origin of Superman's archnemesis Lex Luthor.
- The Death of Luthor is named after of the villain who attempts to get rid of Supergirl.
- The Team of Luthor and Brainiac! is named after both Superman villains.
- Drang the Destroyer is named after the titular Supergirl villain.
- The Super-Revenge of Lex Luthor revolves around Lex Luthor's scheme to gaslight Superman until driving him crazy and useless.
- Computo the Conqueror is named after the crazy A.I. which attempts to kill the Legion of Super-Heroes and take over the world.
- In Brainiac's Blitz, the titular alien villain sets a trap for Superman, but Supergirl gets in his way.
- The Death of Ferro Lad: The storyline's original title was The Fatal Five, after the eponymous super-villain team.
- In The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot, the titular heroines are scheming against Superman and Batman. Then it is revealed that Mister Mxyzptlk and Batmite were impersonating them.
- Escape of the Fatal Five is named after the titular super-villain team.
- The Mordru the Merciless story arc is named after evil sorcerer Mordru, one of the most feared villains of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
- In Starfire's Revenge, the Big Bad is a crime lord nicknamed Starfire.
- The Conspiracy of the Crime-Lords!: The titular crime lords are four Superman villains who band together to gaslight him into a trap.
- The Plague of the Antibiotic Man is named after Nam-Ek, an enemy who (Superman thinks) is spreading a contagious sickness all over one city.
- In The Planet Eater Trilogy, Superman must fight a horrific humongous machine called the Planet-Eater.
- Luthor Unleashed! is named after Superman's nemesis.
- Brainiac: Rebirth is about the villainous Brainiac rebuilding himself into an even more dangerous threat.
- Superman is the protagonist of Emperor Joker, and the Joker is only revealed as the villain halfway through the series (which until The Reveal is called Superman: Arkham). But once the Joker does appear, he almost becomes the Villain Protagonist.
- Superman: Brainiac is about the titular alien villain making his definitive Post-Crisis appearance.
- Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom is named after the Female Fury who wants to kill Superman to earn her master Darkseid's favor.
- The Hunt for Reactron is about Supergirl and her allies clearing their names by hunting down the super-villain Reactron.
- Bizarrogirl is named after the eponymous adversary.
- Day of the Dollmaker: The titular villain calls his toyfied slaves "the Daring Dollmen".
- Reign of Doomsday revolves around a Doomsday clone attempting to destroy Earth.
- The Killers of Krypton is about Supergirl investigating who were the real culprits for her homeworld's destruction... in other words, the killers of Krypton.
The Walking Dead: The comic deals with the main characters living in a Zombie Apocalypse fighting off zombies whom they dubbed as "Walkers". It becomes a different meaning when the main characters start fighting fellow survivors who have killed their humanity due to the stress of said apocalypse.
X-Men:
- The Dark Phoenix Saga: The villain is Jean Grey as the titular Dark Phoenix, or rather, the Phoenix masqurading as Jean Grey.
- Age of Apocalypse: The villain in this apocalyptic story is Apocalypse and his followers. The heroes are the alternate X-Men.
- Onslaught (1996): The Big Bad is the titular Split Personality of Professor X, though his look invokes the other half of his origin, Magneto.

Fan Works

Adventures of a Line Hopper: Mr. Hart and Acathla are both the named after the main villain of the respective fics. Four Five Six is a slightly less direct one, as the villains are the 456 (written as numbers instead of words).
Alex (MovieVillain), named after the villain attempting to turn the land into a dark place.
Calvin & Hobbes: The Series: "Thunderstorm" and "Lightning Man" refer to the enemy of the week.
Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach, an Undertale fanfiction exploring the very dark possibility of Flowey deciding to toy with Papyrus in some of the meanest ways imaginable.
A Force of Four is named after the quartet of villains opposing the main heroes.
Frozen Wight refers to the man-eating Wight who arrives in Arendelle and seems to be mysteriously obsessed with Elsa and Anna.
Hellsister Trilogy refers to Supergirl's enemy Satan Girl— the eponymous "Hellsister" and main enemy.
Here There Be Monsters: The "Monsters" referenced in the title are the Monster Society of Evil, a super-villain team opposing the Marvel Family.
Hop to It, has most of its chapters named after the akuma of the day, with the exception of "Rabbit" (the hero's origin story) and "Jack Hammer" (the nickname Rabbit picks up when others think she's a villain).
Kara of Rokyn's story arc "Zoners" is named after the villains from the Phantom Zone who escape to Rokyn with the intention of conquering the whole planet.
Redbone AU is titled after the serial killer the characters relentlessly try to unmask and capture. It turns out, it's Ochaco Uraraka, taking on a Red Baron name since turning to villainy after flunking out of U.A.
The Shin Sekai is the title of a Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan fic, as well as the name of the main antagonist faction.
Sonic.exe is the name of the soul-stealing Sonic fan we all know and love, as well as the title of the story itself.
Soul Eater Zeta features a cryptic organization called The Zeta that are presumably the core antagonists of the story.
Star War Remnants has the titular remnant of the Empire in the antagonist role.
Shendu, simultaneously the Big Bad and Villain Protagonist of The Ultimate Evil, is referred to as "the Ultimate Evil" by the posthumous sacred warrior Lo Pei (though Shendu's obsession named Valerie Payne uses the title for another context in the final chapter).
Ultrasonic, befitting a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic, is named for Clawhauser's akumatised form.
The Vampire of Steel is named after Zol-Am, the Kryptonian vampire who intends to open the Sunnydale Hellmouth.
Weight of the World: The Atrocities of Atlas is named after Atlas (both the personification and the Kingdom), the antagonists of the book.
The Wrath of Avelina, where Avelina is the Big Bad tormenting the Madrigals.

Films — Animation

Aladdin: The Return of Jafar, also known as simply The Return of Jafar. It is the first sequel to Aladdin (1992, Disney) and, as the title suggests, features the comeback of the main antagonist from the first film.
"Chow Hound" is named after its villain, a greedy, brutish, and manipulative bulldog who forces a cat and mouse to do scams for him so he can have meat.
Many Dragon Ball movies play this in the English dub, such as Lord Slug, Broly The Legendary Super Saiyan, Broly Second Coming, Bio-Broly, Cooler's Revenge, The Return of Cooler, Bojack Unbound, Broly.
Kirikou and the Sorceress: Kirikou is the protagonist, but the sorceress (Karaba) is the Big Bad.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack is named for Char Aznable, the film's Big Bad, and the Gundam franchise's most recognizable and iconic character.
Monster House is named after the titular monstrous house that was possessed by the spirit of the fat woman named Constance Nebbercracker.
"The Old Man of the Mountain": The titular Old Man is the Big Bad of the short.
One Piece Film: Z: The antagonist is simply called "Z".
The Pirate Fairy refers to the Zarina, a dustkeeper fairy who turned against Pixie Hollow after she got banished from there.
Pokémon:
- Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back: Mewtwo is the Big Bad until his Heel–Face Turn at the end.
- Pokémon 3: Spell of the Unown: The Unown aren't evil per se, they just happened to be obeying the whims of a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
Shark Tale: The shark mafia is the primary antagonist of this film, and The Protagonist Oscar provoked them by exploiting Frankie's death.
The Toy Warrior has a twist to the title: the original Toy Warrior is the main antagonist after the design flaw of his head popping out.
Wreck-It Ralph is named after the antagonist of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. Fictional Video Game (though he is the protagonist of the film proper).
Yo-kai Watch: Shadowside - The Return of the Oni King is named after the titular Oni King, Rasen, whose return happens every several hundred years or so.

Films — Live-Action

Aleta: Vampire Mistress: Aleta is the first vampire to ever exist, and frequently sends out her underlings to feed and bring back sacrifices.
Alien (1979): The antagonist is an alien; the title could also be read as an adjective, emphasizing the strangeness of the antagonist.
Alligator, referring to a gigantic reptile who turned out to be protagonist Madison's former pet.
Alpha Dog refers to the kidnapping's ringleader Johnny Truelove, or rather what he imagines himself to be. He's actually an idiotic Psychopathic Manchild who sets up an astoundingly bad criminal scheme and ends up paying for it.
The Amazing Mr. X: The psychic consultant Alexis is never called Mr. X, but it's clear that the title (as well as the film's alternate title The Spiritualist) refers to him. Christine is the protagonist and is Alexis's victim.
A.M.I.: Artificial Machine Intelligence: The film is named after a SIRI knockoff named, of course, A.M.I..
APEX (1994), referring to the Advanced Prototype EXploration Unit — a prototype Killer Robot sent to 1973, became self-aware, and mass-produced itself to kickstart a Robot War, and by 2073 humanity is on their last legs.
In Atom Man vs. Superman, the evil Atom Man gets top billing as he clashes with Superman.
Austin Powers in Goldmember, being a spoof of the James Bond movies, uses "Goldmember" in place of "Goldfinger". Goldmember is indeed the antagonist, just not the only one.
The Awful Dr. Orloff: Dr. Orloff is a former prison doctor who abducts beautiful women from nightclubs and tries to use their skin to repair his daughter's fire-scarred face.
Axeman: The Axeman is the psychopath stalking the heroes.
The Babadook: The antagonist is the Babadook, the personification of grief.
Baghead (2023): Baghead is the shapeshifting Sealed Evil in a Can in the basement of the pub Iris inherits.
Beetlejuice (1988): The antagonist is Betelgeuse, a ghost who serves as an "exorcist of the living". The confusing spelling of his name is a plot point in the film, and it's simplified for the title.
Big Driver: 'Big driver' is Betsy's nickname for Lester: the rapist/murderer that Tess is hunting. She has seen him around town but does not know his name.
The Big Lebowski: Although the main character shares the surname Lebowski, he goes by The Dude. The Big Lebowski is one of a number of antagonists.
The Birds: The titular birds are the main antagonists of the film, they gather in large numbers and attack humans for no apparent reason.
Black Rat refers to the killer dressed in the schoolgirl uniform and rat mask. The main protagonist is Misato.
Blackenstein refers to Eddie, who is the monster of the film.
Blacula is the Tragic Villain. The protagonist is Dr. Gordon Thomas.
The Blob (1958): The antagonist is an alien blob, though no one ever calls it a blob.
The Bloody Man: The Bloody Man is the malevolent being who tries to kill Sam and his family.
Boogeyman (2005): The Big Bad is the titular Bogeyman who took away Tim's father right in front of him when he was a kid.
The Bravados refers to the gang of four outlaws protagonist Jim Douglass is pursuing.
The Butchers refers to six Serial Killers raised from the dead. The main protagonist is Simon, the de facto leader of the tourists trapped in the Ghost Town.
The Candy Snatchers, about the kidnapping of a girl named Candy.
Candyman: The antagonist is the Candyman, a supernatural killer.
Children of the Corn is titled after the corn-worshiping psycho cult of kiddos.
The Collector (2009): The Collector, a torturer and kidnapper, is also the main villain.
The Comancheros is the name of the outlaw gang providing guns to the Comanches that Texas Ranger Jake Cutter is hunting for.
Count Yorga, Vampire. Naturally the main villain is a vampire named Yorga. Ditto for the sequel The Return of Count Yorga(which oddly doesn't follow the story from the first).
Creature from the Haunted Sea: The creature is a monster that a gangster discovers is Real After All.
The Critters series is named after a race of tiny Extreme Omnivore aliens that are the main threats.
In Curse of the Headless Horseman, the Horseman is a ghost who haunts the ranch that Mark inherited, and seems to be intent on driving Mark and his friends off the land.
Despiser: "Despiser" is also the name of the movie's Big Bad, who's planning to invade the human world by using Purgatory as a launching pad.
The title Dr. Giggles comes from the nickname that the main villain's doctors gave him at a mental hospital.
Dust Devil: The main antagonist of the movie is none other than an entity known as a Dust Devil.
Elves (2017): The main protagonists are haunted by only one elf doll, but the one from the first movie appears sporadically, allowing this title to count, though on a technicality.
Event Horizon: The titular ship becomes alive after passing through Hell.
The Evil refers to the evil force terrorizing the house.
Evil Cat: An ancient Sealed Evil in a Can feline demon returns once every half a century to terrorize humanity.
Evil Dead: Rather obviously, the "Evil Dead" in the title are the Deadite antagonists, not the badass protagonist Ash. Army of Darkness refers to Evil Ash's undead skeletal army.
In Eyes of a Stranger the Serial Killer antagonist is the titular stranger.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: The subtitle refers to the evil wizard who escapes captivity in the opening scene.
Fantômas Trilogy: Named after its Diabolical Mastermind antagonist.
- Fantômas
- Fantômas Unleashed
- Fantômas Against Scotland Yard
Freddy vs. Jason is named after the two slashers that the heroes find themselves contending with. Their original franchises also had this, with Friday the 13th having Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and Jason X, while A Nightmare on Elm Street had A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
The German, a Short Film centering on an air-to-air duel during World War II.
The Ghoul refers to Professor Morlant after he has risen from the grave to avenge himself upon his tomb robbers. The actual protagonists are his heirs: Ralph Morlant and Betty Harland.
In Russia, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra's title is translated as "Rush of the Cobra".
The Giant Gila Monster is a... well... giant gila monster.
Giant Monster Gamera: The protagonist is Dr. Hidaka. Gamera is the giant monster.
The Gingerdead Man series is named after a killer gingerbread man who is the Big Bad.
Godzilla (1954) is the first appearance of Godzilla, who is the villain here.
Another spoof of the original Bond movies, Dr. Goldfoot (his name clearly an amalgamation spoof of Dr. No and Goldfinger) is the antagonist in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, facing off against super(ish)spies portrayed by Frankie Avalon and Fabian.
The villain of Goth (2003) is so obsessed with being goth that she named herself "Goth."
Gremlins, named after the short, reptilian and large-eared humanoids who delight in cruelty and mayhem in general.
The Happiness Salesman; while not obvious at first, near the end of the Short Film the Salesman is shown or at least implied to be a servant of the Devil.
Surprisingly, Heat fits this trope, even though the title is about the good guys. Because the focus of the film is evenly divided between the villain (Neil) and the hero (Vincent) the title counts for this. The "heat" is a slang term for the cops, whom Neil needs to outsmart and escape to succeed in the end. It is personified in Vincent (Neil's antagonist), who eventually literally becomes the 'heat' for which Neil needs to drop everything he is attached to in 30 seconds flat to make his escape.
Heathers is the first name of the Alpha Bitch and also of her two Beta Bitches which the heroine is trying to get back at.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man. The subtitle refers to the entity that has been haunting the Appalachia's and serves as the film's main threat.
The Hitcher refers to a suspicious and ultimately murderous guy who protagonist Jim picks up on the road.
Hive Mind (2009): Doug Trench, the last man (sort of) on Earth, is the actual protagonist.
Hollow Man. The title refers to Caine, the turned-invisible man who became evil. It refers to him both literally (he became invisible) and figuratively (his soul is hollow).
Hook: Peter Pan is the protagonist.
Jack Frost (1997) is titled after a Serial Killer turned snowman.
The title of Jack the Reaper refers to Railroad Jack: a seemingly immortal figure who appears to people and then hunts them down with a pick axe. He is actually a Grim Reaper, claiming the souls of those who die on the stretch of road known as Death's Door; hence the 'Reaper' part of the title.
The Jackal: The title character is the assassin the FBI is hunting.
From James Bond:
- Dr. No (1962) and Goldfinger (1964): Simply the names of the films' Big Bad.
- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974): The Big Bad whose signature weapon is a "multipurpose" golden pistol.
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): The KGB agent who tried to kill Bond in the opening and ended up killed. He was the lover of agent XXX (Anya Amasova) who later has to work with Bond, hence "who loved me".
- Moonraker (1979): The space shuttle manufactured by Drax Industries, whose theft in the Cold Open kicks off the movie.
- GoldenEye: The Big Bad's Doomsday Device.
- Tomorrow Never Dies. "Tomorrow" is the name of Carver's newspaper.
- Quantum of Solace. Quantum is the name of the evil syndicate James Bond is fighting against. The original meaning is a "measure of solace".
- Spectre: The name of the terrorist organization Bond fights in the movie.
Jo (1971), named after the unseen eponymous extortionist.
Jumanji, the game, must be beaten by the protagonists before it kills them.
Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W Featuring Skull: Movie Wars Core. Kamen Rider Core is the Greater-Scope Villain of the film.
Kill Bill. The Bride is the main character, Bill the man who tried to kill her and who is now the target of her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
Killdozer! refers to the murderous possessed bulldozer.
Killer Crocodile: The antagonist is an unusually large and aggressive crocodile mutated by toxic waste.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The antagonists are aliens who look like clowns and drink human blood.
The Killer That Stalked New York: The title refers to smallpox, the disease that threatens to cause an epidemic in New York City.
In Krampus the Big Bad is The Krampus.
Kuntilanak: The antagonist is a spirit of Indonesian folklore known as a Kuntilanak.
Brutal dictator Idi Amin is The Last King of Scotland referred to in the film's title (which was a real life title he took for himself). The Scottish doctor Nick Garrigan is the protagonist.
The Limehouse Golem is the nickname of a Serial Killer stalking the streets of Limehouse in London.
La Llorona: Sort of. La Llorona is the Hero Antagonist.
Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent: "Lockjaw" is the nickname Sarge gave to the serpent as a kid.
M3GAN: The film is named for the titular android / doll that slowly becomes more self aware and violent in her mission to care for a little girl. Does not apply to the sequel, where she is not the antagonist anymore.
Madman (1982) has an Ensemble Cast, and Madman Marz is killing our heroes.
Mad Warrior, the title refering to the Big Bad, Malzon, an insane ex-gladiator-turned-warlord who rules a gang of marauders terrorizing the world After the End. Ironically, the film itself is a ripoff of the Mad Max series which isn't this trope.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we have Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, the Winter Soldier is just The Dragon to his employers in the former.
Master of the Flying Guillotine: The film is a sequel starring the One-Armed Boxer, so in some markets it's called One-Armed Boxer 2 or One-Armed Boxer vs the Flying Guillotine, but the most common title in America refers only to the villain.
The Matrix is not a character technically, but a tyrannical system the heroes set out to destroy.
The title of Mean Girls refers to Regina and her lackeys; Regina is the antagonist of the film. By the end of the film, it refers to the protagonist as well.
Mister Scarface is the name of the mob boss Tony cons and who comes after him.
Monster in the Closet refers to a beast that travels through closets.
Mr. Jingles is a serial-killing Monster Clown who comes back from the dead.
Mr. No Legs, although he's not the main villain, and even dies before the climax!
The Mummy Trilogy. Thought the third does not feature The Mummy, Imhotep, but still adds the new mummy villain in the subtitle ("Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"). The trope also applies for Imhotep in The Mummy (1932), Kharis in the Universal and Hammer movies, and Ahmanet in The Mummy (2017).
The Naked Witch: The title character is a witch who rises from the grave, naked, to take revenge on the descendants of the man who betrayed her.
The Night Flier: The eponymous "Night Flier" is the vampiric villain of the story, alluding to the way he goes to airports at night with his private plane to claim victims.
Night of the Eagle refers to the Living Statue of a giant eagle Flora sends to kill Norman.
Night of the Living Dead (1968): The protagonist is a man named Ben, with the "Living Dead" being the horde of zombies outside his door.
Nosferatu: The antagonist is a vampire, another word for which is "nosferatu." His actual name is Count Orlok.
Old People: The movie is about the village's elderly population suddenly going violent and killing every young person they can.
Piranha (1972): The alternative title Caribe refers to the Egomaniac Hunter antagonist of the film.
Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: I Love Wolffy and its sequel I Love Wolffy 2 both have titles referring to the series' main antagonist, Wolffy.
Poison Ivy (1992) insinuates herself into the protagonist's family and is determined to make them her own family... by any means necessary.
Predator is named after the alien hunters (though the only time it is used in-universe is in the second movie - "Well, we've prepared a trap for this predator." - and the fourth, where it's even noted how non-indicative is calling it "predator" when he's hunting for sport, not subsistence). Inverted with Prey (2022).
The Prowler (1951): Played with. The actual prowler only appears in the opening scene of the movie. However, Webb uses the existence of the prowler as part of his plan to murder John Gilvray.
The Prowler: The protagonist refers to the drifting serial killer.
Prince of Darkness: Subverted. The "Prince of Darkness" aka Satan is a malevolent disembodied presence who starts a zombie plague against the human protagonists. However, it turns out that he is merely the foot soldier of an entity far more terrifying and a threat to reality itself—the Anti-God.
Psycho: Norman Bates is the psycho, not the woman he murders in the shower (Marion Crane). Averted by the sequels, where Bates becomes a straight Villain Protagonist.
The Pumpkinhead franchise is named after the vengeance demon it is centered around.
Akasha is the Queen of the Damned, a superpowerful Vampire Monarch whose bloodlust is so great that she feeds on everyone, mortals and undead alike.
Used both in- and out of universe in Ra.One: Ra.One is villain both of the video game he escapes from, and the movie.
Riders of Justice: The antagonists are an outlaw biker gang called the Riders of Justice. However, the title could also refer to our heroes, who are out for revenge against the bikers.
Rattlers: A noted herpetologist investigating a series of fatal rattlesnake attacks on people discovers that the reptiles' brains have been affected by a mysterious nerve gas that was disposed of in the Mojave Desert by the military.
RoboCop 2 isn't just the sequel to the original 1987 movie, it is also the name of OCP's attempt to create a successor to the titular cyborg policeman.
The 1976 Russian/French pop musical Rock 'N Roll Wolf is an adaptation of The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, where the Wolf is the Big Bad.
R.O.T.O.R. is named after the homicidal robot invented by the protagonist.
Sadako vs. Kayako, featuring the ghosts of the Ju-on and the Ring series against each other.
The Sadist is Charlie Tibbs; the psychopath who holds the three teachers hostage
The Sniper: Eddie Miller, the eponymous sniper, has aspects of being a Villain Protagonist, but ultimately more of the film is devoted to the police efforts to catch him than to him and his crimes.
Spaceballs. The Spaceballs are The Empire in the film.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Khan is Captain Kirk's enemy.
Star Trek: Nemesis. Shinzon is Picard's nemesis.
Star Wars has this thrice in the main films:
- The Phantom Menace refers to the Sith who are pulling the strings of the obvious threat of the Trade Federation. Specifically, it refers to Darth Sidious himself, who mostly appears as a mysterious hologram giving orders to Nute Gunray and Darth Maul.
- Revenge of the Sith is about the Sith taking revenge on the Jedi Order, which the protagonists are part of.
- The Empire Strikes Back, The Empire in question is the one headed by the Sith, which the protagonists are rebelling against.
Stitches (2012): The title refers to a clown that after being revived goes on a murderous rampage.
Svengali, the film adaptation of Trilby, was titled after the story's villain.
The Terminator is named after the now-famous killer robot who tries to kill Sarah Connor. Also the only film in the franchise to use this trope, since the later films divided the title's association between multiple Terminator models and made some of them protagonists.
The Terror of Tiny Town is The Rustler and Outlaw Bat Haines.
The Thing (1982): The antagonist is an amorphous alien that can only be referred to as a "thing". Also applies for The Thing from Another World (1951), albeit a more tangible monster.
The Third Man: The man of the title is a mysterious witness to the apparent accidental death of Harry Lime, a friend of the protagonist, Holly Martins. It eventually turns out that the death was faked and the Third Man was none other than Harry Lime himself, who finally becomes Martins' antagonist. The film is also notable for how little screen time Orson Welles as Harry actually got, so the title almost doubles as a Secondary Character Title.
Trancers: the name refers to the people hypnotized by the villain to execute his orders.
Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: The antagonist is The Fallen, one of the original Primes.
Two Thousand Maniacs!: The protagonist is named Tom. The two thousand maniacs refers to the population of the town which terrorize Ton and his friends.
The Vampire is an interesting case. The Protagonist is Beecher, a man who begins investigating murders in a small town. The murders are committed by his Superpowered Evil Side. This trope still applies, since the sides are in conflict throughout the film.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage: Carnage is the film's Big Bad and the eponymous Venom's Antagonistic Offspring.
Wendigo refers to a deformed beast from Native American folklore who changes from a human to a hideous beast after engaging in cannibalism, which may or not really exist in the film.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit has a very clear "who", in the form of Judge Doom. His schemes go beyond antagonizing Roger and Eddie as he's the murderer who framed Roger in question as well as the assailant behind Maroon's assassination and Teddy Valiant's murder that's part of Eddie's backstory.
Wicked Little Things refers to the villainous zombie children.
Wishmaster: The Wishmaster is the evil Djinn, although he's not referred to by that name until he uses it to describe himself in the second movie.
Der Wixxer is a German comedy where British police try to arrest the titular Wixxer, a masked supercriminal who started killing off notorious figures of the Brtish underworld. His name, for the record, sounds exactly like Wichser, which means "wanker." This is in line with the Edgar Wallace Films it parodies: This Films based on mystery novels are named after the villainous criminals, not the heroes.
X-Men: Apocalypse: En Sabah Nur, better known as Apocalypse, is the Big Bad.
Zodiac (2007), a movie about the real-life Zodiac Killer. The protagonist is a reporter who tries to find him.
Zoltan, Hound of Dracula: Dracula's vampiric dog Zoltan attempts to track down Dracula's last mortal descendant to convert him into a new incarnation of the Count.

Literature

"1408": 1408 is an evil Genius Loci room.
Some books in the Alex Rider series are named after the antagonistic factions the hero fights against. Scorpia is the organisation Alex has to stop. Ditto for Snakehead.
"Amina": The title comes from the name of the mother ghoul, not the protagonist or anyone with less human-eating intentions.
Attack of the Mutant: The Masked Mutant is the titular character and primary antagonist of the Masked Mutant comic book series.
Awful Auntie: The titular Awful Auntie is Alberta Saxby, the aunt of the real protagonist, the recently-orphaned Stella Saxby. The story follows her as Alberta attempts to steal from her the rights to Saxby Hall.
The Belgariad: A few book titles refer to antagonists.
- Magician's Gambit refers to Ctuchik, the eponymous magician and a major antagonist who is faced at the climax.
- Demon Lord of Karanda refers to Nahaz, the demon lord who becomes a prominent antagonist in that book.
- Sorceress of Darshiva refers to Zandramas, the Big Bad of The Malloreon.
Benny Rose, the Cannibal King is named after the Serial Killer and cannibal monster Benny Rose, who is stalking and murdering the children of the town of Blackwoods.
"Bluebeard", a folktale about a Serial Killer known as Bluebeard. The variants "The Robber Bridegroom (Brothers Grimm)" and "Fitcher's Bird" are also named after a serial killer.
Caliphate (2008) refers to the fundamentalist Islamic regime that has taken over Western Europe.
"The Callistan Menace": The title refers to the mysterious danger on Callisto, one of Jupiter's moons. The menace is a creature, one to four feet long, with the ability to manipulate magnetic fields, using them to kill prey from a distance.
Carnage in New York and its sequel Goblin's Revenge.
Carrie is a subversion. While Carrie White does kill scores of people and serves as the "monster" of the story, she's presented as a Tragic Monster and Anti-Villain who had an understandable (though not necessarily justified) reason for doing it. The people who pushed her over the edge, from her bullies at school to her domineering mother, get far less sympathy.
Christine: The name of the evil living car.
Cthulhu Mythos: "The Colour Out of Space", "The Dunwich Horror", "The Call of Cthulhu", "Nyarlathotep".
Cujo: He's the dog of the protagonist, and he's infected with rabies, corrupting him into a savage beast.
The Day of the Jackal: The title refers to the assassin villain.
"The Death of Koschei the Deathless" is about Prince Ivan trying to rescue his wife from the evil and terribly powerful sorcerer Koschei.
The Demonata. The first book in the series, Lord Loss, also counts.
The Demon Headmaster — also an Artifact Title, as he's only a school headmaster in the first book (but for lack of any other name, the heroes keep calling him that).
In "The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs", the main character must get three hairs from the head of the Devil.
Some of the Discworld novels, such as Lords and Ladies (one of the "safe" names for the Elves) and Wintersmith.
Dracula: Count Dracula is the vampiric antagonist.
A Feast for Crows: Euron "Crow's Eye" Greyjoy makes his physical debut in this book, and is the main "crow" referenced in the title. While there are other scavengers picking Westeros' corpse and taking advantage of the chaos in the aftermath of the first phase of the war, Euron is the most powerful, ambitious and comes close to giving a full Title Drop.
Foundation Series:
- "The General (Foundation)": The title refers to General Bel Riose of the Galactic Empire, who wages war against the Foundation. The final line of Chapter 3 summarizes the conflict: "a dead hand against a living will." The 'dead hand' refers to Seldon's Plan while 'living will' refers to General Riose's determination.
- "The Mule": The titular Mule is a narcissistic paranoid, and the only one to have beaten the Foundation.
Franny K. Stein: The seventh book's title, The Frandidate, refers to a sentient shape-shifting suit Franny creates to run for class president before it gains a mind of its own and tries to manipulate everyone into electing it King of the World.
"Frau Trude" is a witch who lures a naughty girl to her death.
Fu Manchu: The title character is an elusive Diabolical Mastermind, rarely appearing in the stories named after him.
"Gentle Nerandi": The title character is a selkie who is menacing a coastal town, capturing and drowning those who venture into the water. The protagonist is trying to stop her.
"The Gentle Vultures": The title is a metaphor that describe the alien Hurrians, who kidnapped the Human protagonist because they're tired of waiting for Humanity to self-destruct.
In "The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body", the titular giant turns the main character's six older brothers into stone.
Hannibal Lecter:
- Hannibal, although he's turned into a Villain Protagonist by that point.
- Red Dragon as well, although it's an indirect example. "Red Dragon" is actually a shorthand for the painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed In Sun" that figures into the plot. Francis Dolarhyde, the villain, believes himself to be representative of it, stating "I am the Great Red Dragon" and "I am the Dragon" at several points.
- Averted with Hannibal Rising, in which Vladis Grutas is the villain.
Harry Potter:
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, this trope is subverted. The prisoner is set up as a villain for the whole book, only for it to be revealed at the end that he was a good guy all along and that he had been framed by the real villain.
- Also, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ends with the Prince killing a major character and running off with Death Eaters. It's also a subversion, although that's not revealed until the next book.
The Immortals (1992): The title of Emperor Mage is one of the titles of Ozorne, Emperor of Carthak (and a mage, hence Emperor Mage), and the Big Bad of the quartet.
The Inkworld Trilogy: Inkheart. While this is not the villain's actual name, it is the description of him given by his creator: "...a man whose heart was as black as ink."
It: "It" is literally the true name of the Big Bad.
James Bond:
- Some novels are named after their respective Big Bads: Dr. No (see the Film version above), Goldfinger, Colonel Sun, Scorpius and Brokenclaw.
- It is stated in The Man with the Golden Gun that the main villain Francisco Scaramanga has the novel's title as one of his nicknames.
- Cold is named after the Nebulous Evil Organisation whose actions run most of the plot.
- There are two instances in the narrative of The Man with the Red Tattoo where the main villain Goro Yoshida is referred to as such.
"The Jezinkas" is about evil creatures known as the Jezinkas who try to gouge out the eyes of anyone who dare trespass their territory.
Keeper of the Lost Cities: Book 4, Neverseen, is titled after the faction of the same name who serve as the series' main villains.
The Keys to the Kingdom features seven books, each named after one of the antagonistic Morrow Days. Subverted in Drowned Wednesday.
Laughing Jack: The story is named after the "imaginary" Monster Clown that causes the violence and madness that plagues his victims.
Left Behind: Nicolae refers to the villain character and Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia.
"Little Master Misery": The titular character is the embodiment of misery, who clings to the main character and tries to lead him to ruin.
"Little Otik": A tale about a man-eating monster who devours his adoptive parents and half a dozen other people.
The Lord of the Rings: Sauron is the eponymous Lord of the Rings, fought against by the host of protagonists. I Am Not Shazam applies, and is indeed referenced in-universe when Pippin calls Frodo "Lord of the Ring" and Gandalf tells him not to Speak of the Devil. Note that in-universe, the title is meant to be a contraction of The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King.^note
Lord of the World: Hint, the "Lord of the World" isn't God but rather someone quite the opposite.
The Master Key: It has chapter 6: "The Buccaneers", or pirates.
Misery: Misery is not the direct antagonist, but she serves as part of the villain's motivation. She's the heroine of a novel series the protagonist wrote, and the reason Anne Wilkes is keeping him with her is because she is furious that he killed Misery off and wants him to write another book in which Misery comes back.
The Mist: The creatures that plagues the heroes are created from the titular mist.
Moby-Dick is a large sperm whale who the arguable protagonist Ahab is trying to hunt in revenge for Moby Dick taking his leg off.
Night Shift (1978): The enemies in "Children of the Corn" are children, and much of the action takes place in a cornfield.
"The Nix in the Mill-Pond": A water sprite tricks a poor miller into promising to give her his newborn son.
"Old Rinkrank" is named after the villain who kidnaps the protagonist and forces her to be his slave.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The first book, The Lightning Thief, is named after an unknown figure who stole Zeus' lightning bolt. The protagonist Percy is accused of being the thief, but in truth it's Luke Castellan, acting under the orders of Kronos.
Pump Jack: Pump Jack (capitalized) is the name of an old childhood bogeyman of Cal's; whether the thing is real or not, it certainly can be called the antagonist, with how wracked Cal is by the fear of it. It's real.
Rebecca, despite the title character being dead.
The Reckoners Trilogy:
- Played straight in Steelheart, where Steelheart is the main villain that the heroes are trying to take down.
- Muddled with a bit in Firefight, seeing as Firefight isn't the main antagonist, but she is working for them. Subverted by the end, where she's pulled a Heel–Face Turn.
- It seems to be averted in Calamity, with Prof having taken the reins as the Big Bad. Except it turns out that Calamity itself is the true Big Bad, and is in fact the one responsible for the events of almost the entire series up to that point.
Three of the Redwall books are named for the main villain or group of villains: Marlfox, Doomwyte, and The Sable Quean.
Rick Brant:
- The eponymous characters in The Pirates of Shan have kidnapped two friends of the heroes and repeatedly threaten their lives.
- In The Phantom Shark, said name belongs to an infamous thief and murderer who Rick aims to identify, although their crimes are mostly made-up lies to scare away the innocent and attract the guilty to their fairly legal and harmless (albeit deceptive) underground pearl market and a greedy employee of the Phantom Shark is the real antagonist.
- The The Deadly Dutchman title refers to the leader of a gang menacing Rick and Scotty as they bike through Europe.
The Robber Hotzenplotz: The title is named after the bandit whom the main characters are chasing.
"Rumpelstiltskin": The titular character is an imp with whom the miller's daughter is forced to make a deal.
Many of the 1930s novellas about The Shadow by Walter B. Gibson are titled after a (usually short-lived) colorful and vicious master criminal or evil organization (the Blur, the Cobra, the Wasp, the Voodoo Master, Malmordo, the Hydra, the Red Blot, the Hawk, the Skull, the Hand, the Getaway Ring, the Golden Master/Shiwan Khan, the Prince of Evil/the Murder Genius, Double Z, the Silver Scourge, the Black Falcon, the Red Envoy, the Gray Ghost, the Black Master, the Murder Master, the Golden Vulture, the Salamanders, Blue Face, the Unseen Killer, the White Column, the Spy Ring, Zemba, the Condor, the Python, the Five Chameleons, the Silent Seven, the Devil Master, the Thunder King, the White Skulls, Five-Face, the Golden Masks, the Blackmail King, etc.). Played with in The Devil Monsters, where the eponymous creatures are dangerous attack beasts but were harmless until they came under a villain's control, and Lingo, where the eponymous character manipulates his way into running a crime syndicate but is The Alleged Boss, is seen as a pawn and annoyance by the real antagonists, and turns out to have been the hero in disguise the whole time.
The Shadow (Fairy Tale) is also named for its antagonist.
The Shadow of the Vulture refers to the Crimean Tatar hunter Mikael Oglu, also known as the Vulture, who is ordered by the Sultan to track and assassinate the Christian knight Gottfried.
The Snow Queen: The Snow Queen is the one who kidnapped the protagonist Gerda's brother Kai (her friend in some versions), and the story is about Gerda journeying to get Kai back from her.
Spellslinger Series: Book three, Soulbinder, is titled for the villain of the week who has the ability to bind and control the souls of people suffering the shadowblack curse.
"The Spirit in the Bottle" is named after a demon who wants to kill the protagonist.
Star Wars Legends:
- The Thrawn Trilogy is named after the Grand Admiral himself who serves as the Big Bad of the story.
- Darth Bane is about the origins of the Sith Lord and the Rule of Two.
- Darth Plagueis focuses on the Greater-Scope Villain of the Prequel Trilogy and the mentor of Palpatine.
- The second book of The Dark Nest Trilogy, The Unseen Queen, is named in reference to Lomi Plo, the Dark Jedi who acts as the Hive Queen of the Dark Nest and the overall Big Bad of the trilogy.
Tartuffe: The title refers to Tartuffe, a lustful hypocrite who has fooled the family patriarch into thinking he's a holy man.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch: Palmer Eldritch is the evil industrialist rival whom the Can-D development team are working against. Turns out he's also an Eldritch Abomination, living up to his name.
The Traitor Son Cycle: The title of The Dread Wyrm refers to the villain, who participates openly in the conflict for the first time in the series.
Treasure Island was originally published under the title "The Sea Cook" in reference to the narrative's Big Bad, Long John Silver.
"Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard": The "wizard" is the evil and immortal sorcerer Koshchei, who holds the main character's mother and several princesses captive.
The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign: The Unexplored-Class are a category of summoned beings in the setting. The White Queen, the most powerful of these, is the Big Bad.
The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara has a Big Bad Ensemble, and each book in the trilogy is named for the main villain it spotlights — Ilse Witch, Antrax, and Morgawr.
"The Water Nixie": This tale is named after a nixie who kidnaps the protagonists and chases them when they escape.
Whateley Universe: Silver Ghost, Golden Angel. Silver Ghost is the protagonist while Golden Angel is the criminal antagonist who Silver Ghost repeatedly fails at capturing.
The Witches. The protagonist is a young child trying to disrupt the witches' plans.
Worm: The 'worms' are actually powerful aliens who gave people superpowers in the first place to cause conflict, effectively causing all the conflict in the book. One of them, Scion later causes the end of the world.
"The Yellow Dwarf", about a Depraved Dwarf who tries to force a princess to marry him.

Live-Action TV

The Adventures of Superman: "The Human Bomb" is named after Villain of the Week Bet-A-Million Butler, who straps a bomb to himself and takes Lois hostage.
The various shows that make up the Arrowverse have a few episodes with an Antagonist Title. Sometimes these are simply that of the Villain of the Week, while others are episodes that introduce or focus on a Big Bad.
- Arrow: "Vertigo", "Dodger", "The Huntress Returns", "League of Assassins", "Heir to the Demon" (a reference to Nyssa Al Ghul), "Deathstroke", "The Magician" (referring to Malcolm Merlyn's League of Assassin's alias), "Vigilante".
- The Flash (2014): "Plastique" (though she isn't as antagonistic as the other examples), "The Man in the Yellow Suit" (referring to the Reverse-Flash), "Revenge of the Rogues", "Tricksters", "Who Is Harrison Wells?", "Grodd Lives", "Enter Zoom", "Gorilla Warfare" (referring to Gorilla Grodd), "The Reverse-Flash Returns", "King Shark", "Trajectory", "Versus Zoom, "Rupture", "Magenta", "The New Rogues" (referring to Mirror Master and the Top), "Monster" (although the titular "Monster" is just a hologram created by the real antagonist), "Shade", "Killer Frost", "The Wrath of Savitar", "Into the Speed Force", "Abra Kadabra", "Luck Be a Lady" (referring to Hazard), "Therefore I Am" (referring to the Thinker), and "Null and Annoyed". Played with with the episodes "Going Rogue", "Rogue Time", "Rogue Air" and "Family of Rogues", as the titles are a reference to "The Rogues" from the comics, and feature characters who are members of the Rogues in the comics, but in none of the episodes do they call themselves that — "Going Rogue" doesn't even feature any of the Rogues except Captain Cold.
- Supergirl (2015): "Livewire", "Bizarro", "Medusa" (the name of the bioweapon used in the episode, not the mythical creature), "Luthors", "Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk", and "Reign".
- Legends of Tomorrow: "Leviathan" (it's the name of the giant Killer Robot with which VandalSavage attacks the heroes), "Shogun", "Abominations" (referring to the zombies the team face in the episode), and "The Legion of Doom".
Cobra Kai is a Double Subversion. Originally it's a Reformed, but Not Tamed Order Reborn of the antagonistic Thug Dojo from The Karate Kid film series. However, the titular dojo's founder eventually regains control of it in the Season 2 finale, causing it to revert to its nefarious ways seen in the films (if not, worse) from Season 3 onwards. Subverted again in the final part of Season 6, where Johnny retakes the Cobra Kai name/dojo and finally builds it up to be the reformed version he had always intended for it to be
Extremely common with story titles in Doctor Who.
- For starters, there are 21 episodes and serials bearing the word "Daleks".^{Specifically...} This is because the episodes were originally intended to be read as "Doctor Who and the [Episode Title]" — the Target books follow this naming pattern, and "The Silurians" was entitled "Doctor Who and the Silurians" by mistake.
- The Cybermen, for their part, appear in considerably fewer titles: "The Tomb of the Cybermen", "Revenge of the Cybermen", "Attack of the Cybermen", "Rise of the Cybermen" and "Ascension of the Cybermen".
- The Sontarans appear in two titles: "The Sontaran Experiment" and "The Sontaran Stratagem". "The Time Warrior" refers to a lone Sontaran named Linx and "The Vanquishers" refers to a group of Sontarans who seek to take control of the Flux.
- The Zygons have been mentioned in three titles: "Terror of the Zygons" and "The Zygon Invasion"/"The Zygon Inversion".
- Antagonistic Time Lord the Meddling Monk first appears in "The Time Meddler".
- Antagonistic Time Lady the Rani is mentioned in the titles of both of the serials featuring her: "The Mark of the Rani" and "Time and the Rani".
- The Weeping Angels have gotten into three titles: "The Time of Angels", "The Angels Take Manhattan" and "Village of the Angels".
- Titles with other recurring villains:
- Titles mentioning one-shot villains:
  - "The War Machines"
  - "The Faceless Ones"
  - "The Abominable Snowmen" (the Great Intelligence's robot Yeti)
  - "The Dominators"
  - "The Krotons"
  - "The Claws of Axos" (the Axons)
  - "The Dæmons"
  - "The Sea Devils"
  - "Planet of the Spiders" (the Eight-Legs)
  - "Robot"
  - "The Brain of Morbius"
  - "Image of the Fendahl"
  - "The Horns of Nimon"
  - "Meglos"
  - "Ghost Light" (Light, of the Eternals)
  - "The Curse of Fenric"
  - "The Family of Blood"
  - "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (the Vespiform, a wasp-like alien)
  - "The Vampires of Venice" (the Saturnynians, who appear to be vampires due to quirks of their physiology and their Perception Filter)
  - "The Snowmen" (the Great Intelligence's Snowlem minions)
  - "The Eaters of Light"
  - "The Star Beast" (Beep the Meep)
  - "Lux"
Hannibal: The cannibalistic Dr. Hannibal Lecter is the arch-villain; Will Graham is the protagonist.
The Hunting Party has every episode named after the inmate the team is hunting that episode. There is some variation, however; Brenda Lowe's episode is simply titled "Lowe" to set up a Bait-and-Switch where we're initially led to believe a male outdoorsman is the titular inmate and Brenda is his victim, while the episode "Denise Glenn" has Denise in custody while the team tries to figure out who her copycat is.
Interceptor has the Interceptor, an over-the-top bad guy stalking the two contestants and attempting to render the game unwinnable by locking their backpacks.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent: While the entire Law & Order franchise deals with criminals, this is the show that really focuses on the suspects and their intentions.
Law & Order: Organized Crime: Focuses on stopping crime syndicates. Doubles as Team Title as it also refers to the Organized Task Force.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
- As always, the series takes its name from Sauron the Great, Enemy of all Middle-earth, forger of the One Ring to rule all others.
- Season 1 has the episode "Adar". Adar makes a blurred appearance barely at the end of the episode.
In The Mentalist, the title character might be mentalist Patrick Jane, but each and every episode has a title that somehow alludes to the color red, in reference to Jane's nemesis, Serial Killer Red John. After Red John is finally killed in season six, the remaining episodes are named after other colors.
Every single episode of Monster Squad had the title also being the name of the episode's villain.
Red Dwarf has a few of these: "Queeg", "Polymorph", "The Inquisitor", "Psirens", "Legion", "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", "Emohawk: Polymorph II", and "Epideme".
Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Original Series:
  - "Charlie X": Charlie Evans becomes a Reality Warper and goes mad with power.
  - "The Enemy Within": Kirk is split into a good and an evil version. Guess which one is the enemy.
  - "The Devil in the Dark": Subverted. The devil in question is the silicon-based Horta who lives in a mine and was killing the miners to protect its eggs. The Enterprise crew heal it and communicate with it.
  - "The Doomsday Machine": It is a planet-eating machine from another galaxy.
  - "The Ultimate Computer": M-5, the computer, is a typical A.I. Is a Crapshoot.
  - "The Tholian Web": The energy web is being created by the Tholians to destroy the Enterprise.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  - Most of the episodes featuring Q are Epunymous Titles on his name, such as "Hide and Q" or "True Q".
  - "Datalore" merges the name of a protagonist with that of his Evil Twin.
  - "11001001" is made up of the names of the Bynars who commandeer the Enterprise.
  - "Skin of Evil": The villain is a black liquid known as Armus.
  - "The Enemy" is a partial subversion: the Romulans remain the enemy, but La Forge and a Romulan soldier learn to work together to survive.
  - "The Hunted": The party being hunted is a genetically modified super-soldier.
  - "Devil's Due": The antagonist is Ardra, the titular "devil".
  - "Imaginary Friend": An alien being mimics a little girl's imaginary friend and threatens the ship.
  - "Man of the People" refers to an alien ambassador who is draining Troi's life.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  - "The Passenger": Refers to the villain, initially a normal passenger (albeit a prisoner) who at the moment of death hitches a ride inside Dr. Bashir.
  - "The Circle": The station is besieged by the Bajoran faction by that name.
  - "The Maquis" and "The Jem'Hadar" both introduce the titular antagonists.
  - "The Adversary" brings this trope to its logical extreme (referring to a Changeling wreaking havoc aboard the Defiant).
  - "The Muse": An alien presence appears as a seductive woman who inspires Jake Sisko's literary work so as to feed off his mental energy.
- Star Trek: Voyager:
  - "Warlord": Kes's mind is taken over by the warlord in question.
  - "Nemesis": The Nemesis are a monstrous species of aliens engaged in a war of extermination against the humanoid natives. Subverted, as it's revealed to be a simulation run by the natives to brainwash new recruits, and the "warlike aliens" were the ones who helped rescue a kidnapped Chakotay.
- Star Trek: Enterprise:
  - "The Andorian Incident": At the end, the real villains are revealed to be the Vulcans, but the Andorians are still the antagonist for the majority of the episode.
  - "Silent Enemy": The enemy is an alien ship which attacks the Enterprise.
  - "Marauders": The Klingons are the antagonists.
  - "The Augments": The Augments are the genetically altered humans led by Dr. Arik Soong.
Supah Ninjas: Most episodes of the show are named after their main villain.
Torchwood:
- "Cyberwoman" refers to the titular villain, a girlfriend of Ianto's called Lisa who has been partially converted into a Cyberman, and who seeks to rebuild the Cyberman army.
- "Adam" refers to a malicious Backstory Invader who is messing with the personalities, sanity, and memories of the team.
Van-Pires: The Van-Pires are the vampiric car robots who drink gasoline instead of blood. Of course, it's stated in the show that since the Motor-Vaters (the show's protagonists) need gasoline as well, then they too are Van-Pires.
Much like its source material, The Walking Dead (2010) deals with the protagonists fighting zombies in a Zombie Apocalypse whom they dubbed as "Walkers", as well as fellow survivors who killed their humanity due to the stress of, or to survive, said apocalypse. And compared to the comics, the latter is much more emphasized.
Walker, Texas Ranger:
- Season 3's "Tiger's Eye" had Tiger, an enforcer of the Yakuza responsible for the kidnapping of a Texas power broker's daughter.
- The last two appearances of the titular Ranger's most hated nemesis, Victor LaRue: "The Return of LaRue" and "The Trial of LaRue", the latter of which Walker, finally fed up with him hurting Alex, shoots him dead.
- "El Coyote" in Season 4, who is among the villains responsible for a human slave-labor smuggling operation in Mexico.
- "Iceman" in Season 6, where the Rangers pursue the titular bomber, Maxwell Kronert, who, after they see his face for the first time, bears a striking resemblance to their old friend, Charlie Brooks, and when the real Iceman ends up in the hospital following an explosive high-speed chase, they enlist Charlie's help in impersonating him in order to catch a mob boss planning his next heist. This is not surprising, as Terry Kiser played both Brooks and Kronert dually.
- "Angel", also in Season 6, who is an old flame of Trivette's, though she's more of an Anti-Villain, who ultimately helps him bring down a gang of drug dealers.
The 2002 GSN version of Press Your Luck was called Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck after the trope-naming Whammy character, which is functionally the same as naming a future Wheel of Fortune relaunch Bankrupt! It helps that the Whammy is one of the most memorable parts of Press Your Luck.
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?/Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?: Carmen Sandiego herself, naturally. The crux of these two game shows is recovering whatever item(s) her henchman of the episode stole, and the final round of both shows involve trying to find and capture her.

Music

"Shia LaBeouf" Live is about cannibal hermit Shia LaBeouf, who kills people in the woods, and your encounter with him.
The Big Bads of Twenty One Pilots' Trench Concept Album saga are a cabal of nine necrocratic Bishops whose leader is named Nicolas "Nico" Bourbaki, and the eponymous first album's ninth track is named "Nico and the Niners".

Pinballs

Black Knight (Steve Ritchie): Black Knight is the antagonist on these three tables, and he likes to taunt and mock the player whenever possible.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (Williams): The goal is to kill Dracula.
Centaur (1981): The goal is to battle a cyborg being known as "Centaur".
Gorgar: On this table the player is in the role of a barbarian warrior who ventures into the demon Gorgar's volcanic lair to try to rescue your lover and defeat him.
Hook (Data East): As with the movie, Peter Pan's antagonist is the star of the game.
Kingpin (Capcom) is named after the mafia leader of the Big City.
Sorcerer (1985): The player challenges a being known as the Sorcerer to a magic duel on this table.
Varkon: The goal of the game is to attack the face of Varkon, which can be easily seen on the table.

Pro Wrestling

Perro Aguayo Jr's Power Stable Los Perros Del Mal are the main antagonists of Perros Del Mal Producciones.

Roleplay

Destroy the Godmodder: The main villain of this forum game/roleplay hybrid is the Godmodder. His goal in Destroy the Godmodder 2 was initially to make everyone playing Minecraft rage quit, but eventually became more and more unhinged and obsessed with defeating the Anti-Godmodder Descendants as the game continued.
Warrens of Oric the Awesome is named after the dungeon where the game takes place, which is named after the main antagonist. So in a round about way it fits this trope.

Tabletop Games

Magic: The Gathering does this a lot with sets. The last two blocks ended this way, with Rise of the Eldrazi and New Phyrexia.

Theatre

The Bat: The Bat is a Serial Killer who is terrorising the inhabitants of an Old, Dark House.
Comus, named for the Evil Sorcerer (or spirit or god) who captures the protagonist. Technically, John Milton called it A Mask presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: on Michelmas night, before the Rt Hon. Iohn Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackly, Lord President of Wales, and one of His Maiesties most honorable privie councill, but people opt for something simpler and more descriptive.
Djingis Khan: Genghis Khan is trying to sack the city of Samarkand.
Don Giovanni is the villain who the others are trying to stop.
The second Latibær play, Glanni Glæpur Í Latabæ, is named after its antagonist Glanni Glæpur.
Part V of the Mrs. Hawking series, Mrs. Frost, is named after Mrs. Hawking's arch-nemesis.
Nabucco: Nabucco is the antagonist, the King of Babylon who enslaves Jews.

Video Games

Aka Manto is named after the red hooded figure that pursues you in the school.
Akuma Mortis Immortal refers to the evil demon, Akuma Mortis, who wants to make himself immortal by reviving six ancient demon lords to trigger the apocalypse. And you've got to stop him.
All Alone With Mannie: Mannie is an Ax-Crazy anthropomorphic mouse girl you need to avoid and hide from.
Amelia's Cafe: Amelia is the eponymous cook who will hound you towards the end in an attempt to cook your remains.
Arkandian Legends: Revenant is the villain of Arkandian Revenant.
Kongregate's Army of Destruction is named after the enemy army.
The Aveyond prequel game, Ahriman's Prophecy, refers to the Big Bad.
The original title of Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja was simply Dragon Ninja, referring exclusively to the president-kidnapping ninjas.
Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning: Baldi might not seem like a villain at first, but sooner or later, you'll screw up a math question, and he'll start trying to punish you for messing up. There are other characters, but they just slow you down or make it easier for Baldi to get you.
Batman: Arkham Knight features the titular Arkham Knight, who forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with the Scarecrow.
Battle for Wesnoth:
- The scenario in The Rise of Wesnoth where the heroes have to fight a dragon is titled simply "The Dragon".
- The Rise of Wesnoth scenario "The Vanguard" refers to the enemy troops, who are merely vanguards blocking the heroes' path to the coast where the main forces are.
- Son of the Black Eye has a scenario titled "Shan Taum the Smug" where Kapou'e gets into a fight with the eponymous orcish warlord. There's also a later scenario titled "The Coward", referring to the same person, but it's subverted as even though Kapou'e comes to fight Shan Taum, the coward goes into hiding and the heroes only fight his troops.
Bendy and the Ink Machine is named for both Bendy, the Ambiguously Evil Ink Demon that Henry runs and hides from; and for the Ink Machine, the game's Monster Progenitor and the cause of all the horrible things that happened prior to the game.
Binky Show: Binky is the Monster Clown Big Bad of the game.
Bio Metal: The name of the evil aliens the player fights in the game.
BLAM! Machine Head (simply titled Machine Head in North America), named after the Physical God responsible for the game's event and main antagonist.
Bloons Tower Defense: The Bloons are the enemy balloons that your monkeys have to pop.
Bram the Toymaker: The toymaker is the ghostly figure who haunts the house that you're stuck in.
The titular Breed refers to a hostile alien race who had conquered most of the galaxy, and you spend the whole game battling Breed soldiers and their war machines.
Brood Star is named after the monstrous leader of the Horde of Alien Locusts menacing humanity.
Bully (2006): "Bully" from the prospective of a Bully Hunter towards their target.
Captain Silver: Captain Silver is the name of the final boss, and his treasure the MacGuffin of the game. Your character is named Jim Aykroyd.
The Carmen Sandiego games (Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, etc.) are all named for the antagonist, an elusive criminal mastermind that you, as an unnamed investigator, must track down.
Castlevania:
- Castlevania is the castle in which Dracula lives, but in Japan, it's known as Devil's Castle Dracula, referring to both the castle and its lord.
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's subtitle refers to the Lords of Shadow that Gabriel Belmont is tasked to defeat.
A fairly large amount of golden age arcade games, such as Centipede, Donkey Kong (1981), Qix, Sinistar, and Space Invaders, were named after their villains.
Children of the Sun: The title refers to a Luddite Cult the protagonist and her family used to be part of, only for a series of terrible experiences to make her enact revenge and slaughter whole camps of acolytes with a single bullet (and her psychic abilities allowing her to control the bounce trajectory of said bullet, among other things).
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers - The Adventures in Nimnul's Castle is set in the castle of Prof. Nimnul who holds the Big Bad mantle in this outing where the rangers must sneak into his castle and attain parts needed to help Monty out of a mousetrap Nimnul set.
Choo-Choo Charles: The game is named after its main antagonist, the evil half-spider half-train monster known as Choo-Choo Charles.
CLOWN (2020): The game is named after the Monster Clown you need to banish by collecting the cards.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge
Crash Bandicoot series:
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex: The Big Bad of nearly all of the series is Doctor Neo Cortex (besides his employer Uka Uka, who is introduced in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped).
- Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced on Game Boy Advance: The Dragon to Big Bad Doctor Nefarious Tropy (after Uka Uka sacked Cortex for another failure) is master hypnotist N. Trance and the first three bosses are Crash's siblings and recurring gag character Fake Crash, who have all been entranced by him.
- Crash of the Titans refers to Cortex's army of brute mutant mooks known as Titans and is a Pun-Based Title on Clash of the Titans.
The titular CyClones are alien Cyborg bio-weapons designed to hunt and kill humans, and you spend most of the game's first half battling them.
The titular Daemon Summoner refers to the evil Vampire Twins who's attempting to awaken a Big Red Devil, the titular Daemon, to Take Over the World. They're also the villains who made your life a living hell by killing your son, turning your wife into one of their vampire servants, and leaves you for the dead.
A few of the Dark Parables are named for their antagonists. In the second game, The Exiled Prince, said prince is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of many people, including the daughter of the German Chancellor. The ninth game is The Queen of Sands, who is wreaking havoc on a small village in France.
In Day of the Idea, Idea is the name of the principal antagonist.
Day of the Tentacle: The titular villain is a sentient purple tentacle, an Ascended Extra of the previous game.
Death in the Water, Death being the name of an ancient, prehistoric Giant Octopus who haunts the depths of Blackwater Bay and the game's most powerful aquatic monster.
The Diablo series is named for the titular archdemon, one of the setting's three Prime Evils and at the end of Diablo III, the personification of demonic evil in the universe.
- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction: The Lord of Destruction is Baal, the antagonist of the Expansion Pack.
- Diablo III: Reaper of Souls refers to the rogue angel Malthael.
Donkey Kong:
- The original arcade game has the eponymous ape playing the role of the bad guy, tossing barrels and other obstacles at Mario to keep him from reaching Pauline.
- Donkey Kong 3 has Donkey Kong riling up insects in a greenhouse to annoy Stanley the Bugman, who uses his bug spray to shoot him and the insects.
- Donkey Kong (1994) returns to the classic formula: Donkey Kong kidnaps Pauline, Mario goes after him to get her back.
The first DLC released for Dragon Age: Inquisition was called Jaws of Hakkon, which is the name of a hostile tribe of Avvar who serve as the primary antagonists of the DLC's main quest.
Dragon's Lair plays with this trope. The title really refers to the final scene, although the Dragon referenced is the final boss.
The titular monsters from Dreamkiller are demons which resides in the dream world, who devours the sweet dreams of anyone who went to sleep and inflict crippling phobia on humans who enters their realm. You play as a psychologist with psychic powers and a "Dream Saviour" who enters Dream Land to battle these monstrosities.
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Dr. Robotnik is the final AI opponent, and the rest of the AI opponent roster consists of his creations.
The Everybody Edits campaign world "The Glitch" is named after a sentient glitch that traps the player character into various Video Game worlds.
EXTRAPOWER:
- EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Named after the man who just finished conquering the Shakun Star at the game's start, and who heroes across the EXTRAPOWER universe have to unite together to stop before he takes over and destroys the Earth.
- EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: Zophy has some powerful punches and can throw boulders as easily as he can a Mook, but his fist isn't appreciably gigantic. Zet though? Especially when it turns out that the sought-after bracelet is actually the ring of the gigantic Latour warriors? There's the giant fist.
Final Fantasy XIV:
- Played straight, then averted. The first expansion post-A Realm Reborn is titled Heavensward. The main foes of the initial storyline is the "Heavens' Ward", a group of twelve knights of Ishgard who side with King Thordan VII in wanting to take over the world via Primal forms. Later in the storyline, after a lot of upheavals, the narrator for this saga describes the feeling of change within Ishgard to be like ascending "heavensward".
- The Shadowbringers expansion is both a protagonist title and an antagonist title — on the protagonist side, the Player Character becomes the Warrior of Darkness to save a world full of corrupting Light to bring back the night and shadows. On the villain side the Shadowbringers are the Ascians, specifically Emet-Selch, who worship a god of Darkness and whose plans on the First are to revive said god. The Japanese name, "Villains of Pitch Black", is even more explicit: on one end, the people of the First call themselves villains in a sarcastic manner due to being hunted down by the Sin Eaters, and on the other hand it refers to the actual, literal villains of the story.
Five Nights at Freddy's has Freddy Fazbear himself. Well, for one game...
The eponymous Gene Troopers are bio-engineered alien troopers serving the antagonists, and a recurring, powerful enemy in-game. The protagonist was originally supposed to be one of their ranks, but retains his sanity thanks to being saved by the resistance.
The Gnarled Hag is the Wicked Witch who imprisoned the protagonist inside her house and the one you must evade while escaping the house.
G.O.D.: Heed the Call to Awaken: God Himself! You better believe it — The One whom everyone is working towards. Also doubles as Fun with Acronyms, attempting to somewhat obscure this.
Subverted in God of War I. The Title Drop at the end makes it clear that Ares was not actually the title character, but Kratos, who takes his place.
Golvellius is the name of the final boss.
Hades is the name of Zagreus's father, and the reason he's trying to escape the Underworld in the first place. He also serves as the game's Final Boss.
Hanako: The game is about trying to survive against the ghost of Hanako-san.
The Haunted Hotel installment The Axiom Butcher plays with this. The Axiom Butcher is suspected of being the game's Big Bad, but since he was killed in a police standoff a few years earlier, there's some doubt as to whether it's his ghost or a Copycat Killer. It's the latter.
Heavy Rain uses this occasionally, with chapter names such as "Origami Killer", "Nathaniel", "Mad Jack", "The Doc", and the DLC "The Taxidermist".
Hollow Knight is a fairly straight example. The Hollow Knight is the (initial) final boss of the game, though certain endings involve fighting other bosses either instead of or in addition to the Hollow Knight.
Hunt the Wumpus: The Wumpus is only one of two enemies in the game (the other being Goddamned Bats), but hunting him down is the sole objective.
Hydorah: The name of the Final Boss.
I. M. Meen. The protagonists are two children whom the child-hating man known as I.M. Meen had kidnapped and trapped in his maze.
Iron Meat: It's revealed that the eldritch entity responsible for the Meat invasion and assimilation is called The Iron Meat, who also serves as the Final Boss.
Jaws (1987): Unlike the movie it's based on, the big shark here is explicitly named Jaws.
Jones in the Fast Lane. Jones is the name of the optional, computer-controlled competitor.
The Jotun of Jotun are the giants whom protagonist Thora has to defeat in order to earn her place in Valhalla.
Karen Sees: The game has you playing as a night guard having to avoid a Karen out for blood in The Mall where he works, while collecting the complaints she left there previously.
Kingdom Hearts, in the context of the series lore, is perfectly benign. However, since the bad guys' plan almost always involves summoning it and using it to distort the balance of light and dark, hearing the name mentioned in any of the games usually is very bad news for the heroes.
Kirby:
- Kirby Super Star has this for the sub-games Dyna Blade and Revenge of Meta Knight.
- Kirby: Squeak Squad's titular Squeaks are the main antagonistic faction.
In the obscure top-down Beat 'em Up Kyros, you fight enemies in the titular vampire's mansion. Averted in the Japanese version (which is called Kyros no Yakata), the European version (which is called Halls of Kyros, a translation of the Japanese title), and the home computer ports (which are called Desolator).
The Lacerator: This game is named after a masked Stock Slasher with particular fondness of cutting off limbs and other body parts who has kidnapped two porn stars (the protagonist being one of them) and a cameraman.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, in which the titular mask is the Big Bad (or rather Man Behind the Man).
LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin: Ronin is the main antagonist of the game who steals the ninjas' memories and brainwashes their former enemies to do his bidding.
Lunch Lady: The game is named after the titular lunch lady, whom the Player Characters are trying to avoid while collecting sheets of test answers.
Madman (2022): The game is named after the murderous man dressed as a doctor out to kill you.
Mad Dog McCree is named after the main antagonist of the series who causes mischief with his band of outlaws in The Wild West. The player plays as The Stranger, a character similar to The Man With No Name.
One game in the Madou Monogatari series is Madou Monogatari III: Kyuukyoku Joou-sama, with Kyuukyoku Joou-sama translating to "Ultimate Queen." The "ultimate queen" in question is Rulue, The Rival to series protagonist Arle.
Mafia III: While the previous Mafia Series games had you playing as ruthless members of Los Cosa Nostra, this game flips the perspective by having you playing as black Vietnam vet Lincoln Clay taking the fight to the Sicilian mob after one of their crime bosses murders Lincoln's family.
Maka Maka (1992) has the final boss, Maka-Maka, a demon king reborn. Also the antagonistic forces in general, which are known as the Maka Maka Society.
Master of Darkness is named for Dracula, though you don't fight him directly in the game, instead battling a vampiric noble who is channeling his powers.
Mental Omega: The title refers to the Mental Omega Tower, a global-scale Mind-Control Device built by the Epsilon Army for the purposes of ending strife and unifying humanity into "one mind" to progress peacefully together.
While technically not a character, Metal Gear is the name of the bipedal tank that Solid Snake faces in the end of the original MSX2 game. The sequels usually involve Snake (or one of his predecessors) fighting against the latest model of the mech.
- The second Solid title is called Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The historically inclined may pick it up as a reference to the actual Sons of Liberty, but it is the name that Solidus Snake picks for his terrorist organization.
- The third, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, is an aversion, as it refers to Snake himself (fighting the Cobra Unit), but it could also represent The Boss who eats Snake out of his naivete and his code name.
- The fourth is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, referring to the antagonist's plan and ultimate goal.
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is named after the Final Boss. The Metal Gear, on the other hand, is on your side for once which doesn't prevent the plot from having you fight it anyway.
Meteos is a phantasmagoric matter that can destroy planets and they originate from the planet Meteo, the Big Bad of the game.
Metroid:
- The series itself is named after the Metroids. These creatures are never the primary antagonists as they're more or less alien animals, but their devastatingly effective life-energy siphoning capabilities make them a prime bioweapon candidate. All of the mainline sidescroller entries up through Metroid Dread have at least parts of their stories influenced by at least the knowledge that some antagonistic force will wish to utilize the Metroids, if they aren't doing so already. The species itself is supposedly extinct as of Metroid Fusion, though series protagonist Samus Aran carries some of their DNA within her; this fact, combined with an early retcon that "Metroid" means "Ultimate Warrior" in the Chozo language, means that the Metroid series has more of a Protagonist Title these days, since Samus herself is a Metroid on more than one level. This becomes a full-on protagonist title as of the events of Dread, as while the species was rendered wholly extinct thanks to the events of Fusion, their DNA lives on in Samus, who practically becomes a humanoid Metroid, in both meanings of the word, in time for its climax.
- The Metroid Prime Series shares Metroid Prime as an antagonist for the first three main games in the subseries. This creature has many names, including the Worm and Dark Samus.
Misao: The game is named after the Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl who serves as one of the primary antagonists.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: LeChuck is the Big Bad of the entire Monkey Island series.
Monster Hunter: World: Iceborne: Velkhana, the flagship monster of the expansion, has the in-universe title of "The Iceborne Wyvern".
Mr. Hopp's Playhouse: Mr. Hopp is the titular demonic stuffed rabbit you have to evade throughout the series. However, it's the case of Secondary Character Title as Mr. Hopp ultimately serves as The Heavy for the Entity, the true villain of the series.
Murder in the Alps: The title of the first chapter of Part 3, The Dada Killer, is the nickname given to the Serial Killer who's obsessed with Dadaism.
The Mystery Trackers installments The Four Aces and Queen of Hearts are named for their respective Big Bads. The latter is also a direct sequel to the former; the woman who calls herself the Queen of Hearts is the sister of the man who called himself the Ace of Hearts.
Neo Contra is the titular terrorist organization in the game's plot.
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos, named after the eponymous Mascot Mooks, though the word "Dogoos" is at the very end of the title rather than at the very start.
NieR was released as two version in Japan; Nier Replicant and Nier Gestalt. Nier's replicant is the player character, while Nier's gestalt (AKA: the Shadowlord) is the (well-intentioned) primary antagonist.
Nightcaster: Defeat the Darkness features the Nightcaster that, as its name indicates, shrouds the world in perpetual darkness.
Nine Sols: The titular Nine Sols are the rulers of New Kunlun where game takes place and are antagonistic tyrants that Yi seeks to take revenge on. There are actually ten Sols, but one of them, Kuafu, is an ally rather than a villain, so the title still holds.
No Luca No: The game's title refers to how Luca keeps trying to eat the bowl of cereal against his owner's wishes.
No Straight Roads is literally the name of the corrupt conglomerate that regains over the in game setting and the foes the protagonists must fight throughout the game.
Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas: Oceanhorn is a Sea Monster that the Player Character's father left to battle.
OMORI is a straightforward Protagonist Title, up until the game reaches Black Space and Omori is revealed to be Sunny's Enemy Within.
One Lonely Outpost is a game about building up a colony and growing social connections to the colonists that move in. The devs thus half-joke that the titular "loneliness" is, conceptually, the antagonist.
Orcs Must Die!: The majority of the mooks in the series are Orcs. The first game does have a non-Orc Big Bad, but the sequel is Big Bad-less; just an army of Orcs and other monsters to fend off.
Paper Mario: The Origami King: The Origami King refers to King Olly, the main antagonist of the game who wants to fold the entire Mushroom Kingdom into origami.
Parasite Eve (1998) is referring to the main antagonist, the sentient Mitochondria Eve.
This is a major plot twist two thirds of the way into in Phantasy Star Nova, where the titular Nova is a sentient Gigantes that is covering the entirety of Makia's surface. Its "antagonist" status is debatable since it's basically an out-of-control machine, but it's definitely preventing the main characters from leaving.
Poppy Playtime: Downplayed. The titles don't have the names of the toy you'll be facing in the title itself, but a saying related to them. By way of example, Chapter 1 is "A Tight Squeeze", where you encounter Huggy Wuggy. Poppy herself, however, is not an antagonist.
The Red Dragon Island from Poptropica actually takes its name from the Ax-Crazy Red Dragon that the player must fight in the end. The island is also a crossover with the Magic Tree House books, but none of the antagonists of that series appear.
Psycho Killer (1992) refers to the Serial Killer who's the Big Bad.
Quake is named after the code name for the Big Bad of the original game. However, this name becomes an Artifact Title in future releases as they use the name for brand recognition sake.
Rayman Raving Rabbids is a strange case, as it is both a Protagonist Title (Rayman) and an Antagonist Title (Raving Rabbids). Furthermore, after being spun-off from Rayman, the Rabbids become less antagonistic (primarily due to being the only characters of note in their series) and thus less referred to as "Raving."
Relayer is named after the antagonist faction, the Relayers.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, named after the Super-Persistent Predator that chases Jill throughout the game.
Subverted in Robo Army. True to it's title, the game sees you fighting a Robot War, but it actually refers to the two player heroes, a pair of cyborgs on the side of good.
Rodland of Pipes refers to both the titular villain of the game and the fictional plumbing business he's either named after or that is named after him.
Rygar is a strange example. The Japanese version's title is Argus no Senshi (Warrior of Argus), with the hero being nameless, and the villain being named Ligar. But the English version renamed the game Rygar, probably intending to use this trope, but due to the Japanese Ranguage problem, "Rygar" was instead interpreted as the hero's name, with the villain's name still being "Ligar".
Scary Baboon is reffering to the baboon and baboon-like monsters who chase the player around, who are also very scary.
The Screecher: The aggressive owl-headed humanoid the title refers to is not called a screecher in-game nor in the game files, where it is known as a shambler instead. However, nothing else in the game screeches, so the owl-headed humanoid responsible for the deaths of most of the campers at Pillet Creek is the eponymous screecher.
Shadow Master is the titular alien overlord who reigns entire galaxies, which you spend the whole game battling against.
SIMULACRA turns out to be named after the Eldritch Abomination that is responsible for Anna's disappearance.
The arcade game Sinistar was named after its extremely memorable — and vocal — boss.
The Skeletons: The game is named after the skeleton is trying to kill you.
Skullgirls, which refers to the girl who holds this title (as well as the title as a whole).
Skuljagger: Revolt of the Westicans is named after its Final Boss.
Skullmonkeys is named after the race of violent monkey-like creatures enslaved by the Big Bad.
The Japanese title of Socket is Time Dominator, which is the name of the game's main villain.
Soul Edge, the first game in the series, was titled after the eponymous evil sword, which serves as the primary motivating antagonist of the entire series. For the release on the original PlayStation, the name was changed to Soul Blade in the US to avoid a nasty trademark squabble with a game developer named "Tim Langdell" (notorious for suing anyone in the game industry who would use the word "edge" for their products); later games were named after Soul Edge's polar opposite, Soul Calibur. As it turns out, Soulcalibur is also an example.
Space Invaders may be one of the oldest video game examples of this trope.
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!: Ripto is the villain.
SSTR is the name of both the game, and the killer AI who's hunting The Horizon's crew down.
The Playstation and Saturn game Swagman (from the original creators of the Tomb Raider series) is named for the main antagonist who was captured all of the Dreamflight (also known as the "Dreamflies").
The Tale of ALLTYNEX: Referring to the evil super-computer who serves as the Big Bad of the entire series.
Targ: The Targs from the title are the in-game enemies. You play as the Wummel instead.
TimeSplitters: The TimeSplitters are an evil alien race that are trying to destroy humanity by using Time Crystals to alter Earth's history.
Touhou Project:
- In general, each game has a boss whose name shares a kanji or two with the game's title (except the very first game, where this falls on Reimu instead^Note as the bosses officially have only English names).
- Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil: "The Scarlet Devil" is the nickname of the Final Boss.
- Touhou Suimusou ~ Immaterial and Missing Power: This is a really roundabout reference to the Final Boss and her abilities.
- Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night: Sounds like an aversion, as the protagonists are the ones responsible for the title incident, but can be interpreted as a reference to the immortals who drive the plot.
- Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith (Wind God Record): The wind god is the Final Boss.
- Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character: The double dealing character is the Pre-Final Boss who's actually The Man in Front of the Man manipulating the Final Boss.
The Tower of Druaga: Druaga is indeed the villain of this game, and your objective is to climb his tower and defeat him.
Trillion: God of Destruction is all about the overlords of the underworld trying to defeat the eponymous character. Keyword is trying.
Trog (1990) is named for the one-eyed cavemen who are your main foes.
Turtle Head is the alias of the Serial Killer haunting Smithlane High School.
The subtitle of Ultima III is Exodus, after the main antagonist.
Andrew Schultz's Very Vile Fairy File is named after the titular Artifact of Doom that will show up to insult you throughout the game until you finally destroy it.
Vomitoreum refers to the titular Eldritch Abomination entity who afflicted the entire world with its disease that turns living beings into unspeakable eldritch horrors.
Wardner: Wardner is the name of the final boss.
Wario's Woods is the only game with Wario's name in the title (aside from Mario & Wario, which lists the more obvious hero first... but not the actual player character) in which he is the antagonist. The protagonist is Toad, with support from Birdo.
Warriors Orochi is an interesting case, as the title starts as this, but becomes more of an Artifact Title as the series continues. In the second game, Orochi is more of a Greater-Scope Villain, with his dragon, Da Ji, being the main threat. In the third game, the main foe is The Hydra, which is a manifestation of Orochi's power, but due to a lack of consciousness, is generally considered more of its own separate being. By the fourth title, Orochi is reduced to an Arc Villain.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is of course, the main threat Geralt has to face in the main story.
Witchkin is named after a trio of toys who act as the Candy Lady's children.
World of Goo is named after the World of Goo Corporation, a seemingly benevolent or harmless company in the first two chapters, but is revealed to be the antagonist group in the third chapter threatening humans and the environment alike.
World of Warcraft uses it regularly. In order, you stop the demonic invasion of the Burning Crusade and kill the eponymous Lich King in Wrath of the Lich King. Cataclysm also fits, in that you're stopping Deathwing, the perpetuator of the Cataclysm (although he also proclaims "I AM the Cataclysm!" at one point.) This appears to be averted with Mists of Pandaria, where the mists are just the explanation for how no one had found Pandaria before. Subverted when it's revealed that the mists of Pandaria were a manifestation of the Sha of Pride, one of the Eldritch Abominations plaguing the land. The usual pattern returns in Warlords of Draenor, said warlords are the ones who launch an invasion with the intent of world domination and must be stopped. In Legion, we return to Azeroth to once again fight the Burning Legion. Bonus points: It's made clear at this point in the story that if the Old Gods/Void Lords succeed in corrupting Azeroth, which is in fact the last Titan, the LITERAL world of Warcraft would be the series antagonist.
Xargon is named for the Big Bad. The last of the three episodes, Xargon's Fury, also shares his name.
Xybots is named for the enemy Mecha-Mooks.
Your Toy could count, seeing as the Killer Teddy Bear Big Bad belonged to the Player Character.
Yuki Onna (2020) is named after the Yōkai who chases you and tries to freeze you to death.
Zeddas Servants Of Sheol: Zeddas is the titular villain.
In Japan, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is known as ANUBIS: Zone of the Enders, which is the name of antagonist Colonel Nohman's Orbital Frame.
Zork: Grand Inquisitor: Grand Inquisitor Mir Yannick is the Big Bad of the game, and the plot revolves around overthrowing his rule and bringing magic back to the land of Zork.

Visual Novels

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club: Emio is the eponymous "Smiling Man" of urban legend who targets and kills teenage girls.
Gore Screaming Show, named after the chaotic monster whom Yuka befriends.
Sisterly Bliss ~Don't Let Mom Find Out~ features Ichika and Futaba's mother who must not find out about the two's relationship.
Snatcher, named after the race of bioroids that the player faces in the game.
Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius is named for Veniczar Arcadius, a masked dictator out to conquer the galaxy.

Web Animation

Bento Banana: The first episode, "The Wrath of Broclotron" is named after the episode's antagonist, Broclotron.
Dr. Havoc's Diary: The titular man is the Villain Protagonist.
EEFF Animated Adventures: Legion of Doom villains Blot and Prince Pyron have their episodes titled "The Menacing Blot" and "Pyron Strikes Back".
Helluva Boss:
- "Murder Family" is this and a Double-Meaning Title. At first the episode seems to just refer to the mother of a family being the target of I.M.P.'s latest assassination, but as it turns out, her entire family is made of murderous cannibals who try to fight back against I.M.P., forming the main villains of the episode.
- "C.H.E.R.U.B." is about the title group of angels who are opposing foils to I.M.P., saving people as opposed to killing them.
- The eponymous "Truth Seekers" in that episode are D.H.O.R.K.S., an organization of human agents who attempt to prove the existence of demons and capture Blitzo and Moxxie in the process.
Murder Drones: The Murder Drones are vampiric robots who pray on the population of Copper 9. This is subverted when the main character befriends two of them, and they team up against the true antagonist: the MegaCorp that made them.
Red vs. Blue: Zero has the subtitle derived from Agent Zero, who defects and creates a syndicate to seek an Ultimate Power.
The Skibidi Toilet Series is titled after the eponymous toilet-based species whose army are the one whom the Alliance are fighting against.

Webcomics

Moby Dick: Back From The Deep is named after the titular undead white whale that's terrorizing White Sands Beach.
No Follow is the surname of Spider, a Corrupt Corporate Executive attempting to take over a GeoCities Expy.
Star Power: "Robo-Scorpions": About a foe in a Show Within a Show and a real enemy facing Danica.
Trevor (2020) is named after Trevor, the character who kills off the cast one at a time

Web Videos

Mitten Squad: The video "Borderlands The Pre-Sequel: Part 4 | Deadlift". Deadlift is a boss that needs to be killed to progress the plot.
The Slender Man Mythos is, of course, named after everyone's favorite faceless Humanoid Abomination. Though whether he's actually an antagonist or just running off instinct or even trying to help is, outside of a few series, ultimately up to interpretation.

Western Animation

Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- The titular character of "Jet" becomes the antagonist after the lengths he'll go to in order to fight the Fire Nation put him at odds with the Gaang.
- "The Puppetmaster" refers to the real villain of the episode, Hama, a vicious waterbender who was capturing civilians out of Black-and-White Insanity.
- The first part of the Grand Finale is subtitled "The Phoenix King", taken from the title the Big Bad Ozai gives himself as he prepares to become ruler of the world with his plan to burn the Earth Kingdom to glass.
- There's an in-universe example with the play The Boy in the Iceberg. The title refers to Aang, but keep in mind that the play was made in the Fire Nation, where Aang is public enemy number one.
Quite a few episodes of Batman: The Animated Series had the name of the villain (typically making his/her first appearance) as the title.
Belphégor (2000): A series in which the Big Bad is a masked man named Belphégor.
Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines is most likely the first cartoon show where the villains are the stars.
The Dragon Prince: The second arc of the show gains the subtitle, Mystery of Aaravos, the logo framed in front of a star field, signifying the character taking centre stage as the shows Big Bad.
Gravity Falls: "Society of the Blind Eye" is named after that episode's villain of the week, a hidden group that aims to make the town forget of any encounters they had with the supernatural.
Inhumanoids is named after a group of subterranean monsters who terrorize the surface world. The protagonists are Earth Corps, a team of heroic scientists in Powered Armor.
Most episodes of Miraculous Ladybug are named after the akumatized Villain of the Week. Season 3 and 4 episodes will sometimes be named for a sentimonster instead, but that still fits the "antagonist" pattern. Season 5 uses a different naming scheme for its episodes, but the episodes' villains go back to being the titles in season 6.
The Lion Guard has "The Rise of Makuu", "Janja's New Crew", "Lions of the Outlands", "The Rise of Scar", "The Bite of Kenge", "The Scorpion's Sting", "Ghost of the Mountain", "Mama Binturong", and "Little Old Ginterbong".
The Pirates of Dark Water: Dark Water is The Corruption in the show's world.
The Powerpuff Girls:
- The pilot, "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins", which also serves as the debut episode for Fuzzy Lumpkins.
- "Abracadaver": The titular villain, a reanimated magical zombie, was formerly known as the famous magician Al Lusion and sought revenge on all those who mocked him and ruined his reputation decades earlier (with Blossom at the end of his list due to her bearing a striking resemblance to the young girl he called onstage whom he made her bear disappear), having been revived after a demolition crew, while wrecking the theater he once performed in, inadvertantly hit the Iron Maiden he was killed in, which served as his makeshift casket.
- The first episode the Rowdyruff Boys appear in is named after them.
Secret Squirrel: While most episodes are named after the villain the titular secret agent fights, the majority of the trope occurs in the 2 Stupid Dogs reboot, Super-Secret Secret Squirrel.
Skeleton Warriors: The title refers to Baron Dark and his minions, who are the antagonists of the show.
The Smoggies — the heroes are actually the Suntots. In the US, it was aired with the Market-Based Title Stop the Smoggies, just to make it more clear that the title characters are the bad guys.
Spliced: In-universe. In the segment that ends "Gordon", a fake film is advertised that is titled The Robot with a Sandwich Brain, referring to the robot who shows up on Keep Away Island and scares the mutants. There's no indication of how exactly the robot is an antagonist to the mutants aside from scaring them, but Two-Legs Joe's suggestion to eat its brain clearly indicates that it must be stopped.
SpongeBob SquarePants:
- The debut episode for Plankton is named after him.
- "The Bully" is about The Bully in Mrs. Puff's class who threatens to kick SpongeBob's butt (in those exact words).
Steven Universe:
- "Frybo" is Beach Citywalk Fries' creepy mascot costume, which becomes the Monster of the Week after being animated by a Gem shard.
- "Mirror Gem"/"Ocean Gem": The Gem in both cases is Lapis Lazuli, the Anti-Villain Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds of the two-parter.
- "Bismuth", the first half-hour special of the series, turns out to be this once it's revealed the title character is actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist who's become He Who Fights Monsters, and while not exactly evil is certainly the antagonist of the special.
- "Earthlings" manages to be both this and a Protagonist Title, due to being a Double-Meaning Title meant to emphasize the similarities and differences between the Gems to which it refers. The first gem referred to is Amethyst, who was born in the Prime Kindergarten on Earth after the war was over. The second Gem is Jasper, born in the Beta Kindergarten on Earth during the war, and who fought against the Crystal Gems.
Thomas & Friends: "Bulgy" is named after a bad-tempered double-decker bus who tries to steal passengers from the railway only to get stuck under a bridge and is turned into a hen house at the end.
Victor & Hugo: Bunglers in Crime is exactly what it says. Two inept criminals who call themselves Naughtiness International go to great and unfruitful lengths to commit the perfect crime.
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?: Same as the Live-Action TV and Video Game entries of the franchise above. Averted with the reboot Carmen Sandiego (2019), where she is the protagonist.

Real Life

A lot of cultures name their wars after the main enemy they were facing. For example:
- The Second Indochina War (1955-1975) is known to Americans as the Vietnam War and to North Vietnamese (later the unified Vietnam) as the American War, or "Resistance War against America" (transliteration of "Kháng chiến chống Mỹ"). Even though it continued for years after the Americans had left.
- The War of the Triple Alliance is known in Brazil as the Paraguyan War (Guerra do Paraguai).
- The 1648-1666 Polish-Swedish conflicts are popularly termed the Swedish Deluge (Potop szwedzki) in Poland.
- The writers of the Holy Roman Empire generally called their 1683-1699 conflict with the Ottoman Empire the "Great Turkish War" (Großer Türkenkrieg). The Ottomans in turned called it the "Holy League Wars" (Kutsal İttifak Savaşları).
- The Napoleonic Wars were named specifically after Napoleon Bonaparte instead of the nation of France which he led.
- The Pyrrhic Wars were retroactively named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus by the Romans, while the Punic Wars after "Punicus", the Latin name for Phoenicians.

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