Ransom: Lovecraft's names are famous. I have never read a book of H. L., but I know names like Chtulhu thanks to many RPGs. There have been many TV shows about the Necronomicon and The Call of Chtulhu...I don't remember a TV show about Tolkien.
Sauron became the Lord of Mordor in a second moment...you should know of the dark period passed with Morgoth...or what he did in Nùmenor. He rivalled with his Master!
I didn't say they weren't famous. I said they weren't half as famous as Tolkien's. Most people have heard the name Lovecraft, but only a fraction of those know he was an author let alone anything more detailed.
The Call of Cthulhu has
never been adapted for TV - in fact it's only recently the first movie based on that story came out. It's a black and white silent film which never screened in cinemas. People who aren't big fans of Lovecraft will never see it. The Necronomicon I'll give you, but that has really extended well beyond Lovecraft's universe - it was made famous because of how many things referenced it, to the point where people who have never even heard of Lovecraft can recognise the name. The Evil Dead movies are probably the best example of this.
There have only been a handful of TV shows based on Lovecraft works. There's a few films, but most of them are
very loosely based on stories which don't involve Cthulhu and none of them are major. Where did you get the idea there were 'many' of them?
Lovecraft floats around in the public consciousness, but you simply cannot argue he is anywhere near as recognisable as Tolkien. Cthulhu and the Necronomicon are pretty much the only ones which are at all widely known, and Cthulhu isn't actually in that many of his stories.
Sauron makes a bad ship name because it's about as unsubtle as a reference can get. Cthulhu isn't much better, I'll agree. Derelict's use of Nyarlathotep on the other hand is actually quite appropriate given the role that name had in Lovecraft's stories, and it's suitably obscure. And the less recognisable of Tolkien's names - like, say, the Numenor you mentioned - that'd be decent ship name material. When you reference other fiction you have to strike a balance between clear enough that fans will recognise it, and subtle enough that people who aren't will not. Otherwise it's just obnoxious.
