Just three words...
... You-Know-Who ~Various Characters
You-Know-Who, He Who Must Not Be Bamed, The Dark Lord: all names for one individual, a certain evil genius. Tom Marvelo Riddle.
Lord Voldemort was quite proud that his name was so infamous that people could not bear to utter it. However, deep down he was also rather annoyed.
Do you know how long it takes to come up with a name for an evil dark wizard?
The greatest of all time?
He had to think really hard to fashion himself a name which was not only individual and recognisable, but would also put unbelievable amounts of fear into people.
He had tried several names:
The Master? Too science fiction.
The Riddler? But that would imply that he only spoke in riddles.
Count Riddicula? That made him sound like a blood sucking vampire. Sure, he was really pale and had blood red eyes, but...no.
He had nearly killed someone with joy when he discovered LORD VOLDEMORT, after arranging an anagram of his full name. He was now a master at anagrams. Lord Voldemort was his third attempt; Immortal lover and Moved Drollrot did not quite make the cut.
So as he relaxed back into his old wooden chair and lazily stroked Nagini, he contemplated why he had spent so long thinking up a name when no one called him it. Even his Death Eaters, his own loyal followers, called him something else. Dumbledore had the nerve to just ignore all his hard work and called him Tom anyway.
Deciding that he was getting far too stressed over such a trivial matter, he turned his mind to more important things like killing Harry Potter and taking over the world!
A massive thank-you to clonedmemories for proof reading! :)