KEYSER SOZE

"Keaton once said, 'I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him.' Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze."

The Cigarette Smoking Man

After Darth Vader...

From the Bond movies:
Oddjob
Ernst Blofeld

Dr. Evil

Some many thoughts, so little time.

WOW! I guess I am the only one here to give the villians from GIJoe any props...

Storm Shadow
Firefly
Destro
Serpentor
Zartan
Ripper/Buzzer/Thrasher/RoadPig/Zanzibar/Zarana/Zandar
Major Bludd
The Baroness
Tomax and Xamot

In a not-entirely-unrelated moment of inspiration because of bparker805's post, I'll repsond with some good 'ol homestarrunner, that oddly enough ties in with what you're talking about.

http://homestarrunner.com/cheatcommando.html
http://homestarrunner.com/cheatcereal.html
Fucking hilarious. Blue Laser is awesome.

Destro was a great supervillian name, but Firefly? That's not very intimidating. When I think of fireflies, I think back to being a little kid, and my friends and I around the fourth of July would collect fireflies in a jar, and the next day they would be dead. That wouldn't instill much fear in a hero.

Hands down...Betty from Kung Pow!

Mojo Jojo

Acheron Hades

Keyser Soze would be my choice.

What was Geoffery Rush's name in Mystery Men? That was a good name, but I can't remember it.

Lots of good ones.

There's a great one in <i>The Vanishing Tower</i> but It's a jawbreaker. Voilodion Ghagnasdiak. An there are plenty more in the Elric Books. Arioch, the Knight of Swords, Pyaray, and Theleb K'aarna, to name a couple.

Boris Badenov. He was at the top of my list. (Along with Keyser Soze, who many other folks mentioned.)

A sovreign entity unto himself, the Raven is absolutely one of the coolest villians every, and definitely in the running for badass king of the literary world, but the name isn't particularly cool, at least, compared to the rest of the character, which is exceedingly cool.

Let's not forget:
The Evil Midnight Bomber what Bombs at Midnight!, Proto Clown, Pineapple Pokopo, Octo Paganini and the Forte Brothers, and El Seed!

The Other Tick's name was Barry.

Chairface Chippendale has got to be the best of them, though.

Sardon Numspa (sp) or "Numsie" - The Golden Child
Snidely Whiplash - Dudley Do-Right
Hedley Lamarr - Blazing Saddles
Hannibal Lecter

Leatherface
Freddy Kruger
Jason Voorhees
Deacon Frost
Micheal Myers
Hannibal Lecter

No one is greater than DOOM!

Dr. Doom is probably my favorite.

Ming the Merciless

"the terminator" is the best one in my opinion! (as a name, i'm sure theres some better vilan)

Raven - from Snow Crash... he is the ultimate bad ass... ever.

I have to agree with Cruella DeVille. Even though she isn't the greatest villian of all time the name is awesome. Since I was so young when I saw it, it took me a while to actually get the name.

Venom

Kraven the Hunter.
Best spidey villain ever!

Apollo Creed

I wish I had a name that cool.

Honorable mentions:
Mr.Teatime ("Hogfather" by Terry Pratchett)
Darth Vader (Star Wars)

And the coolest villain name ever is...
Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, the Traveler! (Ghostbusters)

OK so he's not technically a villain per se, but the Punisher.

I usually like the name of any villian that sticks in my head ans a true mark of villiany.

Being that as it is:

Judge Claude Frollo
Jareth, King of the Goblins
Captain James Hook
Steerpike
Boba Fett
Darth Vader, a Lord of the Sith
The Lord of Darkness
Mohawk
Jenner
King Haggard
Captain Barbossa
Jafar
Scar
Ursula
Maleifecent
Ares
Set
Loki
Hel
Thakisis, Queen of Darkness
Chemosh, Lord of the Dead
Mephisto, Lord of the Eighth Hell of Bator
Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness
Thanatos, the Deathless Wizard
Kefka, the Mad General
Chaos, the Soul of Garland
Sin
Ra's Al Ghul
Magneto
Apocalypse
Omega Red
Carnage
The Green Goblin
Dorian Grey
Edward Hyde
Gollum
Saruman
Sauron
and last but certianly not least,
The Ring of Doom, The One Ring

And for a few real life villians:

Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
General Custer
Rasputin, the Mad Monk
Vlad Tepes, Dracula

Aren't villians grand? I'm sure I'm missing the some other great names though . . .

Wow. Most people, when they have some names in their head, they have maybe 3 or 4. Kalnaur has 16 thousand.

But a few opinions: The Green Goblin? No. Any name including the color describing the villian is not very cool, and starting with "the" doesn't help either. That's why Omega Red is passable. If he was "the omega red" or even worse, "the red omega" he would suck.
and Magneto? I am not denying that the charcter is cool; i think he is a damn cool bad-ass. But his name rhymes with "Neat-o!" Well gee-whiz! That's just hunky-dory. Not exactly a name to set fear in his opponents.

If you want cool real life villain names, you have to include Ghenghis Khan.

Turgidson: "Strangelove. What is that, German?
"He changed his name; it was originally Merkwurdigliebe."

Damn, I knew I forgot one.

Genghis Khan

thanks kalashnikov.

I also really wanted to name the Paladin turned Death Knight from Warcraft 3, but I haven't really played the game accept the demo. I do know he has a cool name, I just can't remember it for the life of me.

And a side note, villians are my favorite characters. Not that you could tell or anything. ;)

I'd have to say "Voldemort".. It just rolls off the tounge and sounds evil..

Khan Noonien Singh

I don't know if you'd consider them villians but,
"Rodeo clowns!" (kudos to who knows what movie that's from)

Name's Smalls. Leonard Smalls. My friends call me Lenny... only I ain't got no friends.

-The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse (aka Leonard Smalls) from "Raising Arizona"

Others I love
Doctor Octopus aka Doc Ock ("A guy named Octavius gets eight limbs... who'd have thought...)

Magneto

Stewie Griffen (from family guy, come on he is such a villian)

The Clockwork King (from City of Heroes)

The last two are groups but the names are cool
The Sentinals
The Hellfire Club

Cassanova Frankenstein

Peter Angelos

BILL

I can't believe I forgot these ones!!!!:
METROID PRIME
RIDLEY
KRAID
MOTHER-BRAN
NIGHTMARE
THARDUS
...and so many more!

Mogambo

George Bush.

That name scares the shit out of me.

Also Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

People people people. I am SOOOOO disapointed. With all the great villian names here, how could you for get to of the greatet all time names?

Jack the Ripper, one of the greatest more fear inspireing names ever, and Grendel.The Devil By the Deed. One of the greatest comic book villians ever.
Also, I noticed Nemisis Enforcer was missing fro the G.I. Joe run. While I gave up on G.I. Joe when I notcied they put vertical ejetcor seats on helos when I was 12, that name is just cool.

One more that needs to be on here...

MARVIN THE MARTIAN!

Quick literary history here: Grendel was a bad ass villian for hundreds of years before comics were invented, being the nemesis of Beowulf.

No kidding. I've read Beowulf. Great poem. Doesn't change the fact that the comic book Grendel was a lot better character then the monster from Beowulf. I may be a comic book fanboy, but I do read other things.