Beast Name Generator

A beast is not quite a monster. Monsters are unnatural; beasts are animals grown too large, too old or too clever, and their names tend to come from the people who had to live alongside them. That is why the strongest beast names fall into a few recognisable kinds: the guttural proper name a bard or cult might use (Vashkar, Skarnoth, Ozrakhan), the epithet a hunter gives after one bad meeting (Marrowtusk, Splitbrow, Old Ninetoes), and the local title that grows up around a creature nobody has seen clearly (The Beast of Harrowfen, The Sow of Caer Bryn, The Hound That Counts the Dead).

This generator mixes all three with genuine legendary beasts such as Fenrir, the Calydonian Boar, Twrch Trwyth and the Tarasque, plus Norse stag and wolf names and Japanese-styled names for JRPG settings. Epithets work best when they record a single physical fact, which is how real animals get named: a notched ear, a missing toe, a white muzzle. Titles work best when they name a place, because a beast that belongs to a bog or a pass feels older than one that belongs to nowhere.

For a campaign or novel, give a great beast two names, the one villagers whisper and the one in the bestiary, and let the gap between them become the legend.