Fantasy name generator

Names for every people in your world, from elves and dwarves to sea-raiders and colonists of distant planets. Each style follows its own sound rules, so a cast from one culture sounds like it belongs together.

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Style

Any Feminine Masculine

6 12 24 48

Include a surname Keep given name Keep surname

or press G

Familiar medieval roots with family names built like English place names.

Shortlist

Press the star on a name to keep it here. The shortlist is shared by all of Feldar's name generators.

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How fantasy names are built

Readers can't hear your world, but they feel its sound. A name made of soft consonants and open vowels reads gentle and old; one full of hard stops and short vowels reads blunt and close to the ground. Most memorable invented names come from a small set of choices made once and kept: which sounds a people uses, how those sounds join into syllables, and what a family name looks like.

Choose a sound palette for each people

Pick the consonants and vowels a culture favors and, just as important, the ones it never uses. The Elvish style here leans on l, r, n, th and v and avoids k and g; the Dwarvish style is the reverse. Even three or four rules ("no names end in a vowel", "always a double consonant") make a cast sound related.

Fix the syllable shape

Open syllables (consonant then vowel: la, ri, ve) sound light and flowing. Closed syllables (dag, mor, grim) sound heavy. Decide how many syllables a typical name has: two for common folk, three or four for nobility, one for a people who value brevity.

Decide what the family name says

Family names carry a culture's values. The styles here use four patterns found in real naming: a father's name (Eysteinsson), a place (Westerdale), a trade or clan byname (Slatefist) and a deed or title (the Unbowed). Picking one per people gives readers a quiet clue to who they are.

The styles at a glance

Every name below came from this generator. Several styles have their own page with a longer guide: elves, dwarves, orcs and goblins, dragons, witches, fairies and villains.

Name	What makes it work
Loriel Celondil	Elvish: liquid consonants, a flowing family name.
Haleth Alderwhisper	Wood elf: earthier syllables, a nature compound for a family.
Belga Coppermaker	Dwarvish: two closed syllables and a craft byname.
Shagra Stonetusk	Orc: guttural sounds, a clan name of strength.
Geirgerd Bergulfsdottir	Norse: two Old Norse elements, then her father's name.
Talenn nic Ailemar	Celtic: invented name, Gaelic nic for daughter of.
Kaslira of the Sun Gate	Desert: bright vowels, a byname from a place.
Fenna Pearlmere	Sea-faring: an open, rolling name and a harbor surname.
Hester Blackbloom	Witch: a real old given name with a hedgerow surname.
Vesaxa the Cinder Crown	Ancient dragon: a long name and a title earned by deeds.

Pitfalls that pull readers out

Unreadable spellings. If a reader can't say a name in their head, they will skip it, and your hero becomes "the X name". Keep main characters easy on first sight.
Decorative apostrophes. An apostrophe should mean something: a glottal stop, a clan marker, a dropped letter. Used everywhere, it means nothing.
Same first letter, same shape. Aerin, Aeron and Aerith in one cast blur together. Vary first letters and lengths across your main characters.
Accidental borrowing. Famous names from existing books (and close variants) read as fan fiction. The generator skips the best known; search anything you keep.
One culture's names for every villain. If all the harsh-sounding names belong to one people, readers notice the pattern, and so do the people that culture resembles.

Questions writers ask

Are these names free to use in my book or game?

Yes. You don't need anyone's permission, and in the United States names, including the name of a character, are not protected by copyright (US Copyright Office, Circular 33). A name used as a trademark is a different matter, so search any name you build a series on.

How is this different from a random syllable generator?

Each style has its own syllable lists and rules: which sounds may start or end a name, which may meet in the middle, how long names run, and what family names look like. Filters drop clumsy clusters, unpleasant words and well known names from existing books.

Can I keep a first name and change only the family name?

Yes. Press Keep given on any card, or type a name into the Keep given name field, and every new set varies only the family name. Keep surname works the other way round.

Will these work for Dungeons and Dragons characters?

Yes. The styles cover the peoples most tabletop games use, and every set can be shared with a link so your group sees the same names.

How do I make names for my own invented culture?

Pick the closest style, generate a few dozen, and keep the ones that share a sound. Then write down what they have in common (letters, endings, length) and use those rules when you name the rest of that culture by hand.

Keep your names where the story is

In Feldar each character, place and faction can be a card on the Canvas, linked to the others and kept beside the pages you are writing. When Feldar helps you write, it draws on those cards, so its suggestions use the names you chose.

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More name generators

Keep reading

Free tool Word counter for writers Words, pages and reading time, with novel lengths by genre. Guide How to outline a novel A full worked example and a free template. Feature The Canvas Characters, places and plot beats as linked cards.