How is an elf name built here?

From 44 syllable stems written for this style and shared with no other: ael, lith, mir, riel, wyn and their kin, all 44 carrying a vowel, six of them leaning on y. Four letters in ten across that list are vowels, against a little over two in the orc list, and the joins are held smooth: a seam that would put two vowels together, repeat a letter or stack three consonants is thrown back and another stem drawn. That is why an elf name never comes out as something an orc could answer to.

Are there separate male and female elf names, or elf place names?

There is no gender switch on this page, because the elf stems are sounds rather than words and nothing in the set marks a name as one or the other. What most readers hear is the ending, and any of the five endings can appear: iel, dir, eth, ion and lin. In the usual fantasy convention iel and eth are read as feminine and dir and ion as masculine, but the tool claims none of that and does not sort the list, so generate a batch and take the ones that sound right for your character. Place names are a different job. An elf name at medium or long can pick up an epithet such as of Sunhollow, which reads like a homeland, but the epithets are written out rather than generated. For an elven town, realm or island, switch the chip to City, Kingdom or Island: those are place styles and they build the grammar of a place instead of a person.

What is the small line under each elf name?

A reading cue for the invented word, in its own letters, cut at the joins the generator actually used, with one syllable in capitals for the stress. Ilvaelin is shown as il-VAE-lin, because the stress falls where the second part begins. It never respells a letter, so it is a reading aid and not a claim about how any language says the word. The plain words around the name are left out of the cue: in Celmirdir of Sunhollow you get cel-MIR-dir, because of and Sunhollow are ordinary words the tool set beside the name rather than parts it assembled.

How do I keep the elf names I like?

Every name in the grid has a star beside it. Press it and the name drops into a kept list under the tool with its style and its reading cue, and Copy kept copies that list as plain text, one name per line. Press the star again to drop a name from the list. Clicking the name itself copies that one name, and Copy all copies the whole grid. The kept list lives in this tab only and goes when you close it, so copy anything you want to keep before you leave.

Can I get the same elf names back tomorrow?

Type a word into Seed word. 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, so you can plan a cast this week and have it come back unchanged next week, or send a table the seed word rather than the list. Leave the seed empty and every press of Generate draws fresh from the browser's cryptographic generator, which cannot be replayed. The style is part of that, and this page starts on Elf.

Can I use one of these names in a published game or story?

We place no restriction on the names this tool makes. The elf syllables were written for this tool and the assembly is a rule in the page, so a name is invented here rather than lifted from a published character list. What the page cannot tell you is whether a particular string is already in use as a trademark or a character name somewhere, which is a question about the world rather than about this generator, so a name you plan to put on a cover is worth a search first. The accuracy line after these questions gives the full statement.

How do I get shorter or longer elf names?

The Length control changes the assembly rather than the display. Short joins one stem, so it gives names of three to nine letters such as Ren, Syl or Ilvaelin, which suits a passing guard or a nickname. Medium joins two, which is the usual shape for a named character. Long joins three, which is where a Nymirsilrynlin comes from. An epithet from a written list of twelve, such as of the Mistvale, lands on one name in three at Medium and one in two at Long. Because length is part of the draw, the same seed at a different length gives a different list rather than a trimmed one.

Is there a wood elf, high elf, dark elf or half-elf setting?

No. There is one Elf set and no subrace switch, so a wood elf, a high elf, a night elf, a sea elf and a drow all draw from the same 44 stems, and the names suit any of them because no stem carries a place, a colour or a lineage. What you can steer is the register: Short gives brief names, and Long gives ceremonial ones, often with an epithet such as of the Duskglade or of Silverfen. The set is smooth by design, so a harsher sound for a drow is not in it; Demon is the nearest chip built to collide. A half-elf can carry a name from either side: this set for an elven one, or the Medieval chip for a human one, with period given names such as Matilda or Percival. Nothing here comes from a game's own list of elf names.

Elf Name Generator

This page opens the fantasy name generator on its Elf style, so elf names are on screen before you touch anything, whatever style you last used here. The names are built from 44 syllable stems written for elves alone and joined smoothly, so they come out as Ilvaelin or Celmirdir, with a reading cue under each one.

Building names

Style

Elf

Length

Count

Seed word

The chips choose the style, and each one has its own word list: Elf builds character names. 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.

A seed word makes a run repeatable. Type one and this style and length return the same names in the same order, on any machine, so a session you planned last week comes back unchanged. Leave it empty and every press draws fresh from the browser’s cryptographic generator. Nothing you type is uploaded, and we place no restriction on using the names you keep.

Common questions

How is an elf name built here?: From 44 syllable stems written for this style and shared with no other: ael, lith, mir, riel, wyn and their kin, all 44 carrying a vowel, six of them leaning on y. Four letters in ten across that list are vowels, against a little over two in the orc list, and the joins are held smooth: a seam that would put two vowels together, repeat a letter or stack three consonants is thrown back and another stem drawn. That is why an elf name never comes out as something an orc could answer to.
Are there separate male and female elf names, or elf place names?: There is no gender switch on this page, because the elf stems are sounds rather than words and nothing in the set marks a name as one or the other. What most readers hear is the ending, and any of the five endings can appear: iel, dir, eth, ion and lin. In the usual fantasy convention iel and eth are read as feminine and dir and ion as masculine, but the tool claims none of that and does not sort the list, so generate a batch and take the ones that sound right for your character. Place names are a different job. An elf name at medium or long can pick up an epithet such as of Sunhollow, which reads like a homeland, but the epithets are written out rather than generated. For an elven town, realm or island, switch the chip to City, Kingdom or Island: those are place styles and they build the grammar of a place instead of a person.
What is the small line under each elf name?: A reading cue for the invented word, in its own letters, cut at the joins the generator actually used, with one syllable in capitals for the stress. Ilvaelin is shown as il-VAE-lin, because the stress falls where the second part begins. It never respells a letter, so it is a reading aid and not a claim about how any language says the word. The plain words around the name are left out of the cue: in Celmirdir of Sunhollow you get cel-MIR-dir, because of and Sunhollow are ordinary words the tool set beside the name rather than parts it assembled.
How do I keep the elf names I like?: Every name in the grid has a star beside it. Press it and the name drops into a kept list under the tool with its style and its reading cue, and Copy kept copies that list as plain text, one name per line. Press the star again to drop a name from the list. Clicking the name itself copies that one name, and Copy all copies the whole grid. The kept list lives in this tab only and goes when you close it, so copy anything you want to keep before you leave.
Can I get the same elf names back tomorrow?: Type a word into Seed word. 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, so you can plan a cast this week and have it come back unchanged next week, or send a table the seed word rather than the list. Leave the seed empty and every press of Generate draws fresh from the browser's cryptographic generator, which cannot be replayed. The style is part of that, and this page starts on Elf.
Can I use one of these names in a published game or story?: We place no restriction on the names this tool makes. The elf syllables were written for this tool and the assembly is a rule in the page, so a name is invented here rather than lifted from a published character list. What the page cannot tell you is whether a particular string is already in use as a trademark or a character name somewhere, which is a question about the world rather than about this generator, so a name you plan to put on a cover is worth a search first. The accuracy line after these questions gives the full statement.
How do I get shorter or longer elf names?: The Length control changes the assembly rather than the display. Short joins one stem, so it gives names of three to nine letters such as Ren, Syl or Ilvaelin, which suits a passing guard or a nickname. Medium joins two, which is the usual shape for a named character. Long joins three, which is where a Nymirsilrynlin comes from. An epithet from a written list of twelve, such as of the Mistvale, lands on one name in three at Medium and one in two at Long. Because length is part of the draw, the same seed at a different length gives a different list rather than a trimmed one.
Is there a wood elf, high elf, dark elf or half-elf setting?: No. There is one Elf set and no subrace switch, so a wood elf, a high elf, a night elf, a sea elf and a drow all draw from the same 44 stems, and the names suit any of them because no stem carries a place, a colour or a lineage. What you can steer is the register: Short gives brief names, and Long gives ceremonial ones, often with an epithet such as of the Duskglade or of Silverfen. The set is smooth by design, so a harsher sound for a drow is not in it; Demon is the nearest chip built to collide. A half-elf can carry a name from either side: this set for an elven one, or the Medieval chip for a human one, with period given names such as Matilda or Percival. Nothing here comes from a game's own list of elf names.

Every word list here is written for this tool and each name is assembled by rule from it, so a name can land near a real one by chance but is never copied from a published character list; some styles, Medieval, Clan and Guild among them, use real names and English words on purpose. The pronunciation cue is built from the same syllables, or for a Clan or Guild word from a written reading of the whole word, so it is a reading aid rather than a claim about any language.