Fantasy Name Generator
Pick a style and get a grid of fantasy names built for it, up to 100 at a time, with a reading cue under each one that cuts the name's first invented word at the joins the generator used. There are 31 styles here and each one owns its corpus: at least forty syllable stems written for that style alone, and no two styles draw from the same stem list, so an elf name is built from different parts than an orc name and the two could never be swapped. Character styles give personal names, and the place styles give the grammar of a thing instead: a settlement, a realm, a planet, a guild, a clan, a ship. A seed word makes a run repeatable, which is the part a game master planning a session actually needs: the same seed with the same style and length returns the same names in the same order, on any machine. Leave the seed empty and every press draws fresh names from the browser's cryptographic generator. Nothing is uploaded and no account is asked for.
Building names
The chips choose the style, and each one is a different syllable set: Elf builds character names. Type a seed word to make a run repeatable, or leave it empty for a fresh set every press. The line under each name is a reading cue for the invented word the name is built on, cut at the joins the generator used.
Common questions
- How do the 31 styles differ from each other?
- Each style has its own stem list and its own grammar. Every style carries at least forty syllable stems written for that style alone, and no two styles draw from the same stem list, so the elf list and the orc list have no overlap at all. A few short prefixes and endings do sit in more than one style's trimmings, ard and ur among them, but they are never the stems that make the body of a name. The shape differs too: elf stems join smoothly and refuse a seam that stacks consonants, while orc stems are short, consonant-heavy and allowed to collide, which is most of what makes the two sound like different peoples. The grammar on top differs again. A kingdom comes out as a title form such as Kingdom of an invented realm, a country comes with a demonym built by a fixed suffix rule, a vampire carries a personal name and a separate house, a robot is a sayable designation whose letters are the initials of its own expansion, and a clan can carry a short tag taken from its own last word.
- What does the seed word do, and when should I use one?
- The seed word is what makes a run repeatable. Type one and the generator runs from a small stream started by that word, so the same seed with the same style and the same length returns the same names in the same order, on this machine and on any other. Use one when you want to come back to a list later, share it with the rest of a table by sending the word rather than the names, or keep a session's cast stable while you change nothing else. Leave the seed empty and every press draws from the browser's cryptographic generator instead, which cannot be replayed and is not predictable from the names before it. A seed of only spaces counts as empty.
- Am I free to use a name in a published game or story?
- We place no restriction on the names this tool produces: the syllables are written for this tool, the assembly is a rule in the page, and neither is licensed to you or withheld from you. What we cannot tell you is whether a particular string is already in use as a trademark or a character name somewhere, because that is a question about the world and not about this generator. The tool never draws from a published character list, so a collision would be chance rather than copying, and a name you plan to put on a cover is worth a search before you commit to it.
- Is any name taken from an existing book or game?
- No. Every stem, prefix and suffix in the tool was written for it and lives in this repository, and the tests that ship with the tool check the whole corpus, and thousands of generated names, against a list of well-known characters and places from books, films and games. A name can still land near a real one by chance, because there are only so many ways to arrange the sounds a fantasy name uses, but nothing here is copied from a published list and no stem carries a meaning or an etymology. The tool never claims that a name means anything in any language.
- How do I get a name of a particular length?
- The Length control has three settings and it changes the assembly, not just the display. In seven of the styles it changes how many stems are joined into the invented word: elf, dragon and alien join one more stem at every step up, and orc, planet, island and villain join an extra stem at long. In the other twenty-four the number of stems is fixed. The length is part of every draw, so the same seed at a different length gives a different list rather than a trimmed one, and in thirty of the styles it also changes which grammars are in play: a long draw can reach for a title, an epithet, a second invented word or a hull code that the short draw never uses. If you want a specific number of names rather than a specific size, the Count field takes any whole number from 1 to 100, and the tool says which limit you crossed when the number is outside that range.
- What is the small line under each name?
- It is a reading cue for the invented word the name is built on: the first word the generator assembles itself rather than picks from a written list, in its own letters, cut at the joins the generator made and with one syllable marked in capitals for stress. It is built from the parts that were assembled rather than from a guess at how a language would say the word, which is why it never respells a letter. A word built from two stems is cut between them, and inside a part the cut follows one rule: a syllable ends after its vowel group, and a pair of letters that spells one sound, such as th or ch, is never split in half. The cue leaves the rest of the name alone: the plain words of the grammar, the of and the House and the Kingdom, an authored word the grammar can set in front of the assembled one, as Stormcut sits in front of Ravenswood in The Stormcut Ravenswood, and a second invented word where the style makes one, such as a vampire's house or an orc's clan.
- Does anything I type leave the browser?
- No. The corpus is bundled with the page and the assembly runs in your tab, so no name, seed word or setting is uploaded anywhere and no account is asked for. The style, length, count and seed word are remembered in this browser so the tool opens where you left it, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets them. Names you star are kept for this tab only and go when you close it, which is why Copy kept copies them as one block, one name per line.
Every syllable set here is written for this tool and assembled by rule, so a name can land near a real one by chance but is never copied from a published character list. The pronunciation cue is built from the same syllables, so it is a reading aid rather than a claim about any language.