How NOT to create a character - my pet peeves

OK, I have been quiet for a long time and I haven't really kept up with Whateley, but this is as good a forum as any to discuss this.

I was thinking about the age of certain people -- whether they are pre-boomers, boomers or gen X -- and I remembered an old character from pre-Crisis DC, namely a villain from Infinity Inc. There was this group named Helix, formed by artificially mutated children. One of them had her growth arrested at early childhood but had the power of creating explosions. Her codename? Baby Boom. Yeah, really. Shame on you, Roy Thomas.
So... that's one thing you shouldn't do. Don't think of a cutesy codename taken from an existing thing and then create a character tailor-made for that codename. I don't have a problem with Boom-Boom of the New Mutants, because that is not a convoluted derivation -- it derives solely from her powers. Tabitha is not even *that* buxom. But Baby Boom is clearly a case in which the character creation began from the codename.

Also, don't go overboard with aptronyms. I mean, Victor Von Doom, really, Stan Lee? Roy G. Bivolo (Rainbow Raider), Cary Bates? Edward Nigma? (Although I might give that a pass, in some versions he wasn't born with that name) Otto Octavius? Victor Fries? Stephen Strange? Auric Goldfinger? Pussy Galore? (I'm giving Vandal Savage a pass, because he *chose* that name)

 

We probably should ask Bek how much Tao Jones inspired Hazard. Nice costume if a little stereotypical... Mr. Bones was even more on the nose.

My character Dastardly Daughter was pretty much designed around that name. I just liked the idea of a teen girl Dick Dastardly.
But I tried to make her unique by having her create that persona so people wouldn't suspect her of being a violent, dangerous devisor.
So it can work, I hope.