Name Generator

The aim of our name generator is to help you find the perfect name for any occasion. You can either generate random names or guide the process. You can find names for characters and babies from different backgrounds including searching by country, religion and name popularity by birth year. You can specify male names, female names or both. Our robots also use a thesaurus and other word lists, to suggest names that are related to words you give us. Some of our tools actually invent names, generating examples that are completely unique.

What's in a Name?

Would a rose really smell as sweet if it was called dungy binjuice? Would we even know this Shakespearean quote if Romeo and Juliet had been called Cecil and Mavis? Names matter.

Naming Real People

In life, a name is often the first thing you somebody finds out about you. Whether you like it or not, people do make snap judgements and form first impressions. Throughout history, names have given clues to people's age, gender, social class and even personality. Historically, the upper classes favoured different names to the working classes. Parents are influenced by popular culture, hence the boost in popularity of Hermione after the Harry Potter books were made into films in the 00ies.

Naming Characters

When you're naming characters, you get a chance to bundle a huge amount of information into a very short phrase, by relying on readers' and viewers' preconceptions. You can also, if necessary, us a name as a springboard for humour if you're working on something comical.

Design and Development

Random name generators are useful for developers and designers who wish to avoid 'greeking' (e.g. using corrupted Latin such as 'Lorem ipsum') to present templates, apps and websites. Names typically follow a different structure to typical placeholder text and are therefore randomly generated names look more natural to clients than Greek or Latin. Similarly random names can be used to effectively test features such as form fields an newsletter sign-ups. Because we allow you to narrow down by features such as country, you can generate random names that don't jar with your audience.

Names for the Privacy Conscious

People are becoming more and more aware of identity theft and the need to keep your identity private in some situations. A name generator can be a quick and easy way to grab a false identity for web signs ups and any other interactions with people or companies that you'd prefer not to know your real name.

Pets, Places and Businesses

But it's not just people who need to be named. Often you may be looking for a name for a pet, house or business and be lost for inspiration. Our name generator gives you ideas that you can either use 'off the peg' or as inspiration to get you started. If you've already narrowed down your requirements, you can specify the kind of names that you want to see, but you can also start with random names and see where it leads.