Aboriginal Name Generator

Kylie, Kirra, Jarrah, Alinta, Jedda, Yindi, Tarni, Killara, Bindi, Talia, Allira, Kiah, Marlee and Nerida are all in general Australian use and have Aboriginal-language origins or associations, though some of them came through films, place names or early settler spellings rather than directly from a community.

Traditionally no; surnames arrived with colonisation and were taken from stations, missions, employers or relatives. In the Western Desert the subsection or skin names (Napaljarri, Nungarrayi, Tjapaltjarri, Tjupurrula and so on) became surnames, Tiwi and Arnhem Land families use clan-based surnames, and families in the south-east mostly carry English surnames that have been Aboriginal family names for six or seven generations.

Language-derived given names in general use (Kirra, Jarrah, Alinta) are widely used by Australians of all backgrounds. Be more careful with sacred terms, ancestral names, names of the recently deceased, and clan-specific Yolngu or Arnhem Land names, which belong to particular families. If you are writing an Aboriginal character, research the specific nation and, where possible, consult its community or language centre.

Bennelong, Barangaroo, Pemulwuy and Patyegarang were Eora people who dealt with the first Sydney colony; Yagan and Midgegooroo were Noongar leaders; Windradyne was Wiradjuri; Truganini, Mannalargenna and Walyer were Tasmanian Aboriginal people; Jandamarra led resistance in the Kimberley. David Unaipon, Albert Namatjira, William Cooper, Vincent Lingiari, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Charles Perkins and Neville Bonner are twentieth-century inventors, artists, activists and politicians.