Armor Name Generator

Named armor is one of the oldest fantasy traditions, from the mail-shirt Beowulf inherited from Hrethel to Sir Gawain's green girdle, and video games have turned it into a science. Most legendary armor names follow one of four templates. Material plus type describes what it is made of (Dragonbone Plate, Mithril Hauberk, Kraken Leather Coat), which is the Skyrim and Elder Scrolls style. Type plus epithet gives it a legend (Aegis of the Fallen Star, Cuirass of the Weeping Saint), the classic D&D and World of Warcraft form. Owner names make it an heirloom (Havel's Stone Plate, Harness of Queen Isolde), the Dark Souls approach. And a single-word title (The Steadfast, The Bastion) treats the armor as a character in its own right.

The armor vocabulary itself does a lot of work. Cuirass, hauberk, brigandine, lamellar, gorget, panoply and harness are all real historical terms, and using the right one instantly signals period and weight: a hauberk is mail, a cuirass is a solid breastplate, a brigandine is cloth over riveted plates. Aegis, bulwark, ward and vigil are abstract nouns that read as protective and mythic without naming a specific piece.

For game masters, a good armor name should tell the player at a glance whether the item is holy, cursed, draconic or ancient before they ever read the stat block.