Writing Advice

Fantasy Name Ideas

Sometimes I need a little help coming up with the name of a character or place. I'm compiling a list here of the name generators I find most useful. Note that they have a decidedly fantasy genre bend to them; that is what I write, after all. Also, I rarely take a random name literally. Rather I'll tweak it a bit. But I've found these sites good starting places when the mind is stuck.

People

Humans

  1. Fantasy Land: Comprehensive Fantasy Names Links
  2. The Baby Name Network
  3. A Barrel of Names
  4. Social Security Administration Popular Names
  5. Most Common Surnames in the U.S.
  6. 100 Most Common U.S. Surnames
  7. Wikipedia: Most Common Surnames
  8. Behind the Name
  9. Rinkworks Fantasy Name Generator
  10. Donjon Name Generator
  11. Behind the Name Random Name Generator
  12. YAFNAG: Yet Another Fantasy NAme Generator
  13. Squid.org Random Name Generator
  14. 20,000 Names

Dwarves

  1. Seventh Sanctum: Dwarf Name Generator
  2. Dwarf Names
  3. RPGInspiration: Dwarf Names
  4. Dwarf Names

Orcs

  1. Orcish Name Generator

Krill/Cat-people

  1. Seventh Sanctum: Cat Being Namer

Ratmen

  1. Rats Rule: Males / Females

Demons

  1. Weird Encyclopedia: Demons A-Z
  2. Demonology: Demon Names
  3. Names of Demons
  4. Seventh Sanctum Angel/Demon Name Generator

Any/Other

  1. Dungeons & Dragons: Fantasy Name Generator
  2. Seventh Sanctum: Lovecraftian Name Generator

Places

  1. Place Name Generator
  2. Seventh Sanctum: Tavern Name Generator
  3. Manon's Garden: Fantasy Place Name Generator
  4. Dwarven Strongholds
  5. Denmark Castle and Palaces
  6. Native North American People Tribal Names
  7. African Tribal Names
  8. Wikipedia: List of Celtic Tribes
  9. List of earldoms
  10. A Barrel of Names: Street Name Generator

Further Reading 

  1. Paperback Writer: Place Names
  2. BabyNames.com: Tips for Writers
  3. Fantasy Author's Handbook: The Name Game

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