Names that mean something.
Every other generator hands you a name and leaves you guessing. Kenning breaks each one into its parts and tells you what they mean, so you can judge whether it fits before you commit a character to it.
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- Zarhart Everborn
Zar flame + hart stag
flame stag
Ever + born
ever born
- Eirwyth Moonhelm
Eir mercy + wyth willow
mercy willow
Moon + helm
moon helm
- Ashsworn Bearthorn
Ash + sworn oath
ash oath
Bear + thorn
bear thorn
- Nerborn Ravengate
Ner deep + born born of
deep born of
Raven + gate
raven gate
- Ysavela Wolfhelm
Ysa devoted + vela veil
devoted veil
Wolf + helm
wolf helm
- Jetdawn Blackhelm
Jet jet black + dawn
jet black dawn
Black + helm
black helm
- Talsten Truewind
Tal tall + sten hard
tall hard
True + wind
true wind
- Astrette Deeprider
Astr divine + ette little
divine little
Deep + rider
deep rider
Fantasy races
Creatures
Tabletop
Fandom
People
Music
Objects
Real world
How a name is built
¶Every set on this site is two hand-built lists: fragments that can open a name, and fragments that can close it. Each one carries a meaning. When the generator joins Ael to wyn it also joins noble to friend, and reports both — the name, and the sense it was assembled from. That is the whole difference between this and every other generator: you can tell whether a name fits before you commit a character to it.
The fragments are not random syllables. Each set follows the phonetic rules of the tradition it belongs to — which consonants may open a word, which may close it, which combinations a reader of that tradition would recognise. It is why an elvish name and an orcish name are distinguishable at a glance even though they come out of the same machine, and why the dwarven sets close hard where the elvish ones stay open.
Where a real language is involved, the meanings are the real ones. Japanese elements, Old Norse compounds, English surname roots and Irish patronymics carry their actual attested senses, and anything we could not verify was left out rather than guessed at. Invented traditions get invented systems, built to the phonetic rules of the register they belong to. Nothing here is scraped from a published setting.
What a kenning is
¶A kenning is the Old Norse device of naming a thing by welding two meaningful words together — hronrād, "whale-road", for the sea. Every name on this site is built the same way: two glossed fragments, joined, with the join shown. 70 sets, 262,007,316 possible names, and not one of them arrives without its meaning.