: Yes and No.
: Words alone like "Hobbes", "Calvin", "Halo",
: and "Cortana" can not be copyrighted because they are common
: place words and names. However, combinations of words can be. Words like
: "Halo 2", "Superman", and "Back To The
: Future" can. Fully made up words can be trademarked and copyrighted
: as well. Ungorry would be a great example of that; as would most names of
: Halo characters and species. But "Grunt", Elite",
: "Jackal", and "Forerunner" can not. Names of
: characters like "Bruce Wayne", "Avery Johnson",
: "Peter Parker", etc can not be copyrighted because they are real
: names used by hundreds of people.

: However, the unique spelling and appearance of names can be copyrighted. But
: when done, they then fall into the graphical logo category.
: "Portal" is a great example of this

: Sadly, technology and the internet has made naming parodies (true parodies) a
: nightmare. Parody artist are consistently running into ID bots on a daily
: bases. These IDbot look at the names, keywords, & tags of all images
: online. If ANY OF THOSE WORDS match copyrighted material in their
: databanks, then they create a false claim on behalf of the company in
: their databanks and have the supposedly infringing art removed. The IDbots
: completely ignore the art and the rights of the parody artist for the
: equal rights of the larger artist/company.

: Think of it as the same issues we are all having with the IDbot on YouTube
: type sites. But Parody Artist have been dealing with it for two years
: longer and on multiple websites. RebBubble has such a bot and is the
: reason I've stopped using them. Their Bot has removed all of my Portal
: parodies and claiming Valve made the claims. I've contacted Valve each
: time and they have denied making the claim. They agreed that the claim was
: ridiculous after seeing the art in question and wrote a nice approval
: letter to RedBubble to support my rights. They even went a step futher and
: promoted the art once it was back up for sale. Needless to say, but that
: was a good week for me. However, once a claim has been removed from said
: art, RedBubble does not put any protection on it to prevent future false
: claims. And the exact same art was removed. I had to go through this
: process four times because of the stupid IDbot. I got tired of it and
: moved it to SpreadShirt. None of my other parodies are attcked by the bot
: because none of them have the word "Portal" in the title. But I
: can't remove the word because "Dr.Portal" is the best name for
: the design.

: Companies like RedBubble also have the DMCA. This is a group od actual human
: being going through online art submissions to ensure parodies and art are
: indeed parodies and/or original works of art. And for the most part, they
: do their job very well. However, they also get paid on commission which
: results in them removing parodies during the release dates of the parody's
: subject matter's promotions. These promotions are game and movie releases
: as well as clothing releases. Although they have no right to remove
: parodies, they do so to ensure sales traffic is driven toward the parody
: subject instead of the parody. This earns them a higher commision (based
: on traffic flow). It wouldn't be companies like Valve paying the
: commisions. It'd be the retailers and third party product companies behind
: it.

: Hopefully that was easy to understand.
: In short, I have the right to use "Hobbes" in my parody's title.
: But because of the IDbot, I can't take the risk of it being falsely taken
: down.

I'm pretty sure you mean trademark, not copyright. Names of things and names from things are often trademarked; I don't think a name can be copyrighted.