Fantasy name generator

One generator for the whole world you are building: heroes, villains, elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, kingdoms and taverns. Describe what you need and get names that belong together.

Try an idea:

90+ fantasy name ideas

  • Aelwyn
  • Seraphine Vale
  • Lyra Thornfield
  • Ysolde
  • Maeris

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Fantasy names that sound like they share a world

The names in a fantasy setting are the first proof that the world is real. Tolkien drew Elvish names from languages he had built, which is why Galadriel and Lothlórien sound related. George R. R. Martin nudged familiar names one step sideways: Eddard, Petyr, Jaime. Ursula K. Le Guin gave everything in Earthsea a hidden true name. Each chose a method and kept to it, and that consistency is what makes a cast feel like one culture.

Most generators mix syllables at random. This one reads a description. Say who or what you are naming, such as a half-elf smuggler from a river city, a dwarven clan of glassmakers or a necromancer who was once a court physician, and it returns names that suit the race, the role and the tone, each with a short note you can use in a backstory.

  • Any race, class or place

    Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, tieflings, dragons, wizards, knights, kingdoms, cities and inns. One box covers what would otherwise take a dozen separate tools.

  • Names with a reason

    Each suggestion comes with a line on its sound or meaning, so you can pick the name whose story fits the character instead of guessing from a bare list.

  • Consistent across a cast

    Describe a culture once and ask for more: siblings, a rival house, the capital city. The names keep the same sound family, the way names from one real language do.

5 tips for choosing a fantasy name

  1. Give each culture its own sounds

    Pick a handful of consonants, vowels and endings for a people and stay inside them. Elves who favour l, th and long vowels, and dwarves who favour k, d and short vowels, are told apart by ear before any description.

  2. Borrow from a real language

    Welsh, Finnish, Old Norse, Persian and Yoruba have all fed fantasy naming. Taking the sound patterns of one real language for one culture gives you a consistent base far faster than inventing from nothing.

  3. Go easy on apostrophes

    K'thar'ael looks exotic and is impossible to say. One unusual feature per name is enough. Readers remember Ged, Arya and Kvothe; they skip over names they cannot pronounce.

  4. Vary first letters and length in a cast

    Sauron and Saruman have confused readers for decades. In a party or a chapter, give main characters names that start with different letters and have different lengths, so nobody is mistaken for anyone else.

  5. Search the name before you commit

    An invented word can turn out to be a brand, a rude word in another language or a famous character you forgot. A thirty-second search saves renaming a protagonist in the third draft.

Want names made for yours? Describe what you're naming and Nomi finds names that fit.

Frequently asked questions

Decide on the culture first, then the name. Choose a small set of sounds for that people, borrow patterns from one real language if it helps, and build a name of two or three syllables you can say without stopping. Check it against the other names in your story so that no two main characters look alike on the page.

Tolkien was a philologist who built languages first and stories second. Elvish names come from his invented Quenya and Sindarin, so they have real internal meanings: Galadriel means maiden crowned with a radiant garland. For other peoples he adapted real sources, taking many dwarf names, and the name Gandalf, from the Old Norse poem Völuspá.

Consistency. A name sounds real when it shares sounds and endings with other names from the same culture, when it can be pronounced on first reading, and when it is not overloaded with apostrophes and rare letters. Eddard and Catelyn feel real because they sit one step away from names we already know.

Yes. The names are generated for you and are free to use in novels, tabletop adventures, video games and other commercial work. Search any name you plan to build a series on, to be sure it is not already a well-known character or a trademark.

Yes. If you only need one kind of name, the dedicated elf, dwarf, orc, tiefling, dragon and wizard name generators go deeper into the naming conventions of each. This page is the general one, for when a single project needs names of several kinds.

Real place names are mostly a description plus a feature: Oxford is a ford for oxen. Do the same in your world's sound system: Greyhaven, Stormreach, Ironvale. For older or more important places, use a single invented word from the local language and let characters explain what it once meant.

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