Random name generator

How the random picks work

Every name here is a real one. Given names come from curated lists for each culture, built from national birth rankings where they exist (US Social Security data for American names, recent rankings for England and Wales for modern English names) and from historical records for older eras. Surnames come from each culture's common family names. Nothing is invented, so the names read as people, not as characters.

With Any culture, each name in a set is drawn from a different culture until all 30 have been used, and from an older era where we have one (medieval and Victorian English, mid-century American, Showa-era Japanese). The small label beside each name says where it came from, so you can keep the pick or skip it in a second. Choose one region or one culture to narrow the draw. Turn off Include a surname for first names only.

What the generator keeps right for you

• Name order. Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese names come family name first, as they are written in those languages: Yoshida Koharu, Tian Xinyi.
• Two surnames. Most Spanish and Mexican names carry the father's surname and then the mother's (Pilar Moreno Marín); many Portuguese and Brazilian names carry two as well.
• Surnames that change with gender. Russian, Polish and Greek surnames take a feminine form for women: Tarasov and Tarasova, Dąbrowski and Dąbrowska, Panagiotopoulos and Panagiotopoulou.
• Accents and letters. Names keep their own spelling: Rasmus Dalgaard, İpek Bulut, Đỗ Văn Khang, Úna Gallagher.

What a random set looks like

These came from this generator. The middle column comes from the label on each card; the last says what the name tells a reader.

When a random name is the right tool

Most names in a novel don't need deliberation. The landlord in chapter three, the nurse on the night shift, the passenger in seat 14C: each needs a name that sounds like a real person and doesn't draw attention. That is what this page is for. Press G until one fits, click it to copy, and get back to the scene.

• Walk-on parts and crowds. A class register, a list of the dead on a memorial, the names on a jury: generate 24 at once and take what you need.
• Placeholders while drafting. Use a random name so you don't stall, mark it, and come back to choose properly later.
• Test records and sample data. Real names with accents, apostrophes, two surnames and family-first order are a good check that a form or a database handles real people.
• Game nights. A name for the shopkeeper your players just decided to question.

For a main character, where the era, the family and the meaning of the name matter, the character name generator lets you set a culture and an era, keep a first name while the surname changes, and switch to fantasy styles.

Pitfalls with random names

• Real names belong to real people. A common first name and a common surname will match living people, and now and then a famous one. Search any name you give a character with a real job or a crime.
• A name carries a family history. If the random pick is Farah Zaki or Bram Mulder, the character's parents chose that name somewhere. Decide whether that matters to your story; if it does, write it in.
• Era gives age away. Names rise and fall with birth years. A mid-century American name on a teenager reads as a choice, so make it one or pick again.
• Too many first letters alike. Random sets don't check your cast list. Keep main characters on different first letters and lengths.
• Mixed order on one page. If you keep family-first names for some characters and given-first for others, readers will wonder why. Choose one convention for your book.