Orc Name Generator
This page opens the fantasy name generator on its Orc style, so orc names are on screen before you touch anything, whatever style you last used here. The orc set is 44 syllable stems written for this style and shared with no other: bruk, grukk, mazg, skarn, thrukk, zhogg and their kin, three to six letters each, thirteen of them ending in a doubled consonant. Under one letter in four across that list is a vowel, 45 of 190 counting the single y, and the joins are left rough on purpose: a seam that stacks consonants stands rather than being thrown back, which is where a Lugztugg or an Ulzklorg comes from. Nothing in the orc set appears in the elf set, not a stem, not a prefix, not an ending, and the elf list runs above four vowels in ten and is smoothed, so it refuses the very seams this one keeps. One draw in six picks up the prefix ur or gor, and one in two takes an ending: uk, az, ok, nar or gul. The grammar sits on top of the word. A name can come plain, as Torg or Mazgok; it can carry an epithet from a written list of eight, as in Hokk Gutripper or Ulzklorg Skullsplitter; or it can take a clan form, Lugztugg of Clan Dukkmurg, where Clan, Warband, Pack or Host is followed by a second invented orc word. Under every name is a reading cue cut at the joins the generator made, mazg-OK for Mazgok, with one syllable in capitals for the stress. Up to a hundred names a press, a star to keep the ones you want, a seed word to make the run repeatable, and nothing you type leaves the browser.
Building names
The chips choose the style, and each one is a different syllable set: Orc 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 I get an orc clan name or a second name?
- Orc names here carry a clan or an epithet rather than a surname, and the clan form is one of the three shapes a medium draw can land on: an invented orc word, then of, then Clan, Warband, Pack or Host, then a second invented orc word, as in Lugztugg of Clan Dukkmurg or Zhogg of Host Fargh. Set Length to long and the plain one-word name drops out of the draw entirely, so every name comes back either with a clan or with an epithet such as Ironjaw or Bonechewer. There is no family-name list behind any of it: the clan word is assembled from the same 44 stems as the personal name, so a clan reads as an orc word rather than an English one. If you want the warband itself rather than the orc who leads it, take the last word of a clan name and use it on its own.
- How do I get shorter or longer orc names?
- The Length control changes the assembly rather than the display, and for orc it does two separate things. Short and medium both join one stem, so the invented word is the same size in either: Torg, Mazgok, Gormurgok. Long joins two, which is where a Gormurgyaggok or a Sargmazgaz comes from. What changes between short and medium is the grammar in play: short gives a plain name or a name with an epithet, medium adds the clan form, and long drops the plain name so every result carries an epithet or a clan. Because the length is part of the draw, the same seed at a different length returns a different list rather than a trimmed one. If it is the number of names you want to change rather than their 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.
- Could an orc name here come out sounding like an elf name?
- No, and that is a property of the two word lists rather than a filter on the output. Elf and orc share nothing at all: not one of the 44 orc stems is in the elf list, and neither are the orc prefixes ur and gor or the endings uk, az, ok, nar and gul. The letters differ before the grammar does. Under one letter in four in the orc stems is a vowel against more than four in ten in the elf stems, and the orc joins are left harsh while the elf joins are smoothed, so an elf seam that would stack three consonants is thrown back and redrawn while the orc one stands. The only joins the orc set refuses are a stem drawn twice running, a stem that simply repeats the end of the one before it, and a seam that would double a letter across it.
- Are any of these orc names taken from a game or a book?
- No. Every orc stem, prefix, ending, epithet and clan word was written for this tool and lives in this repository, and the tests that ship with the generator 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 an orc name uses, but nothing here is copied from a published list and no stem carries a meaning or an etymology in any language. We place no restriction on using a name you generate, and what we cannot tell you is whether a particular string is already a trademark or a character name somewhere, so a name you plan to put on a cover is worth a search first.
- Can I get the same orc 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 name a warband this week and have it come back unchanged next week, or send the rest of a table the seed word rather than the list. The style is part of that, and this page starts on Orc however you last left the tool. Leave the seed empty and every press of Generate draws fresh from the browser's cryptographic generator, which cannot be replayed. A seed of only spaces counts as empty.
- How do I keep the orc 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, or Remove in the kept list, to drop a name from it. 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 before you leave. The style, length, count and seed word are remembered in this browser instead, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets them.
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.