Call of Cthulhu Name Generator

Investigator, NPC and cultist names for 1920s Lovecraftian horror

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Generate Call of Cthulhu names for investigators, NPCs, cultists and Mythos threats: 1920s American and British names by occupation (professors, doctors, detectives, dilettantes, flappers), Lovecraft Country Puritan names like Jedediah Whateley and Mercy Gilman, plus canon characters and Great Old Ones for reference.

About Call of Cthulhu names

Call of Cthulhu names should sound like they were printed in a 1920s newspaper. Lovecraft's own cast is the model: Henry Armitage, Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, Francis Wayland Thurston, Asenath Waite. Investigators get a given name that was common for someone born between 1870 and 1905 (Walter, Harold, Mildred, Edith, Clarence, Beatrice) and a surname that fits their background: old Yankee names for New England academics, Irish, Italian and Polish names for city police and reporters, double-barrelled or titled names for British dilettantes in Gaslight or London-based campaigns. A professional title does a lot of work, so Dr., Professor, Inspector, Reverend, Captain and Lady appear throughout.

Lovecraft Country locals follow a different rule. Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth and Kingsport families keep Puritan names that were already old-fashioned by the 1920s: Jedediah, Hepzibah, Obadiah, Mercy, Zebulon, Thankful, paired with the canon clans Whateley, Marsh, Gilman, Waite, Sargent and Eliot. That archaism is itself a warning sign at the table.

This list also covers cultists and foreign contacts for globe-trotting campaigns (Cairo, Shanghai, London, the Continent), the named antagonists players may have met in Masks of Nyarlathotep, and the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods a Keeper will need to name in a tome or a cult's litany.

How to choose Call of Cthulhu names

  • Choose the surname by the investigator's background before anything else: a Miskatonic professor is a Pell or a Haverford, a Boston beat cop is a Brennan or a Kowalczyk, a New Orleans socialite is a Deveraux, a London antiquarian is a Penhaligon.
  • Use a title in the character's name on the sheet (Dr. Harriet Dunning, Inspector Reginald Harcourt) because occupation drives skills in Call of Cthulhu and other players will address the character by it.
  • Give Lovecraft Country NPCs deliberately old Puritan given names (Hezekiah, Patience, Asaph) and recycle the canon surnames Whateley, Marsh, Gilman and Waite sparingly; one per town is a clue, five is a joke.
  • Check the era. Gaslight (1890s) leans Victorian and British, the classic 1920s leans American, and modern-day campaigns should drop the Mildreds and Clarences in favour of names current today.
  • Keep cultist names human and respectable; a bank manager called Cyril Danvers who is secretly High Priest of the Esoteric Order is scarier than someone named Malignus.

Frequently asked questions

What are good names for a Call of Cthulhu investigator?

Period-appropriate full names with a title that signals occupation: Dr. Theodore Vance (physician), Professor Amelia Haverford (Miskatonic academic), Detective Frank Castellano (police), Lady Honoria Fenwick (British dilettante), Ruby Valentine (entertainer), Jack Halloway (private eye). Pick a given name common for someone born around 1880-1900 and a surname that fits the character's hometown and class.

Which canon Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu names are included?

Lovecraft's characters such as Henry Armitage, Wilbur Whateley, Obed Marsh, Richard Upton Pickman, Herbert West, Charles Dexter Ward, Randolph Carter and Asenath Waite; Masks of Nyarlathotep figures like Jackson Elias, Roger Carlyle, Edward Gavigan and Omar Shakti; and the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods (Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, Hastur, Dagon and others). Use them for references and in-world texts, and the original names for your own investigators and NPCs.

How do I name NPCs from Arkham, Dunwich or Innsmouth?

Use Puritan given names that survived in isolated Massachusetts towns (Jedediah, Mehitabel, Ezekiel, Mercy, Zebulon, Hepzibah) with the families Lovecraft established: Whateley in Dunwich, Marsh, Gilman, Waite and Eliot in Innsmouth, Sargent and Babson around Kingsport. Add Old or Deacon as an honorific for the elders.

Can I use these names for Delta Green, Pulp Cthulhu or Arkham Horror?

Yes. The 1920s investigator and NPC names work directly in Pulp Cthulhu and Arkham Horror; for Delta Green or a modern campaign keep the surnames and swap the given names for ones common today, or use the international entries (Ivan Volkov, Nadia Hassan, Hideo Nakamura) as-is.

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All 500 Call of Cthulhu names

This is the complete list the generator above draws its random batches from, sorted A to Z and grouped by first letter.

Plain text, one name per line.

A: 36 names

  • Abdul Alhazred
  • Abel Keane
  • Abhoth
  • Abigail Waite
  • Abijah Hoag
  • Absalom Greer
  • Ada Thornbury
  • Adelaide Moss
  • Agatha Blythe
  • Agent Harold Pierce
  • Agnes Whitcombe
  • Ahja Singh
  • Al Brennan
  • Albert Wilmarth
  • Algernon Wickes
  • Alma Kowalski
  • Ambrose Dewart
  • Ambrose Pelletier
  • Amelia Fairchild
  • Ammi Pierce
  • Amos Bishop
  • Annabel Stoke
  • Araminta Pike
  • Archibald Pennyworth
  • Archibald Stokes
  • Arthur Danforth
  • Arthur Jermyn
  • Arthur Munroe
  • Asaph Waite
  • Asenath Waite
  • Atal of Ulthar
  • Atlach-Nacha
  • Aubrey Penhew
  • Aubrey Stanhope
  • Aurelia Strange
  • Azathoth

B: 20 names

  • Barnabas Eliot
  • Barnaby Finch
  • Baron Hauptmann
  • Baroness Ilse von Rothberg
  • Barzai the Wise
  • Basil Elton
  • Beatrice Holloway
  • Beatrix Lyall
  • Benny Schultz
  • Bernice Whitaker
  • Betty Sinclair
  • Beulah Crandall
  • Big Jim Donovan
  • Blanche Osgood
  • Boaz Fenimore
  • Bokrug
  • Brother Elias of the Esoteric Order
  • Brother Ignatius
  • Brown Jenkin
  • Bunny Ashcroft

C: 36 names

  • Caleb Sargent
  • Captain Elias Crowninshield
  • Captain Jorgen Halvorsen
  • Captain Josiah Baxter
  • Captain Nathaniel Wakefield
  • Captain Obadiah Marsh
  • Captain Silas Herrick
  • Carl Stanford
  • Cassius Vail
  • Cecily Rowland
  • Celia Marchbanks
  • Charles Dexter Ward
  • Charlie Navarro
  • Charlotte Winslow
  • Chaugnar Faugn
  • Chester Vandermeer
  • Chief Inspector Arthur Penhaligon
  • Cicely Marchmont
  • Clara Wentworth
  • Clementine Voss
  • Colonel Bartholomew Rourke
  • Colonel Edmund Thornhill
  • Commander Hugh Ashby
  • Conrad Felstead
  • Constable George Ashdown
  • Constance Whitlock
  • Cora Lindqvist
  • Cornelia Dunwich
  • Cornelius Bradford
  • Corporal Frank Mullins
  • Count Emil Ferenczy
  • Crawford Tillinghast
  • Cthugha
  • Cthulhu
  • Cyril Danvers
  • Cyrus Whateley

D: 63 names

  • Dagon
  • Daisy Brennan
  • Daniel Marsh
  • Daniel Upton
  • Danny O'Rourke
  • Daoloth
  • Deacon Barnabas Marsh
  • Deliverance Marsh
  • Deputy Clyde Barlow
  • Detective Frank Castellano
  • Detective Lieutenant Sam Hargrove
  • Detective Mary Dolan
  • Detective Sergeant Thomas Mulligan
  • Detective Vincent Moretti
  • Dolores Vance
  • Dorothea Winslow
  • Dorothy Pembrook
  • Dot Sullivan
  • Dr. Adele Fontaine
  • Dr. Ali Kafour
  • Dr. Alonzo Whitfield
  • Dr. Ambrose Hale
  • Dr. Anatole Roux
  • Dr. Augustus Fenn
  • Dr. Bartholomew Crane
  • Dr. Caspar Holroyd
  • Dr. Clement Hurst
  • Dr. Constance Abbott
  • Dr. Cornelius Ward
  • Dr. Edmund Blackwood
  • Dr. Elias Cromwell

D, continued

  • Dr. Elihu Whipple
  • Dr. Evelyn Marsh
  • Dr. Ezra Holcomb
  • Dr. Francis Morgan
  • Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt
  • Dr. Geoffrey Talbot
  • Dr. Harriet Dunning
  • Dr. Horace Witherspoon
  • Dr. Ignatius Pell
  • Dr. Imogen Blackstock
  • Dr. Jeremiah Pickering
  • Dr. Jonah Stillwater
  • Dr. Leonora Wells
  • Dr. Lionel Farrow
  • Dr. Ludwig Prinn
  • Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett
  • Dr. Mortimer Slade
  • Dr. Nathaniel Pyke
  • Dr. Oswald Fenner
  • Dr. Philippa Rourke
  • Dr. Phineas Blackwell
  • Dr. Quentin Marlow
  • Dr. Raymond Tessier
  • Dr. Rupert Vail
  • Dr. Samuel Blackwood
  • Dr. Thaddeus Brown
  • Dr. Theodore Vance
  • Dr. Victor Lindqvist
  • Dr. Wallace Kirby
  • Dr. Walter Abernathy
  • Drusilla Hawthorne
  • Dudley Pinchbeck

E: 33 names

  • Ebenezer Phillips
  • Eddie Calhoun
  • Edgar Penhallow
  • Edith Fairbanks
  • Edmund Hatherley
  • Edna Pickett
  • Edward Gavigan
  • Edward Pickman Derby
  • Eihort
  • Eleanor Cartwright
  • Eli Corey
  • Elias Crowther
  • Eliza Orne
  • Elkanah Gilman
  • Elmer Stroud
  • Emmett Sorensen
  • Enoch Sallis
  • Enoch Whateley
  • Ephraim Cobb
  • Ephraim Waite
  • Erasmus Keeler
  • Erica Carlyle
  • Erich Zann
  • Esteban Villareal
  • Estelle Garrity
  • Ethel Rowan
  • Eugenia Hollister
  • Evelyn Sayers
  • Everett Thorne
  • Experience Hoag
  • Ezekiel Marsh
  • Ezekiel Pratt
  • Ezra Gilman

F: 9 names

  • Father Anselm Dupuis
  • Father Michael O'Connell
  • Father Patrick Doyle
  • Father Tobias Renwick
  • Florence Hathaway
  • Francis Wayland Thurston
  • Frankie Russo
  • Frau Margarethe Holz
  • Frederick Ashby

G: 13 names

  • Genevieve Sterling
  • George Gammell Angell
  • Gertrude Hollis
  • Ghatanothoa
  • Gideon Lusk
  • Giles Ambergate
  • Ginger Calloway
  • Gla'aki
  • Gladys Fothergill
  • Gus Papadakis
  • Gustaf Johansen
  • Gwendolen Hurst
  • Gwendolyn Pryor

H: 27 names

  • Harley Warren
  • Harriet Fenwick
  • Harriet Lowell
  • Harriet Steadman
  • Harry Lindgren
  • Hastur
  • Hazel Ingram
  • Hector Lindsay
  • Helen Bradbury
  • Henry Akeley
  • Henry Anthony Wilcox
  • Hepsibah Corey
  • Hepzibah Gilman
  • Herbert West
  • Herr Gustav Weiss
  • Hester Mallory
  • Hezekiah Waite
  • Hideo Nakamura
  • High Priest Nahum Dagon
  • Hilda Crawley
  • Hiram Delacroix
  • Ho Fong
  • Hollis Thorngood
  • Homer Caldwell
  • Hosea Babson
  • Humphrey Addison
  • Hypatia Masters

I: 13 names

  • Ichabod Gilman
  • Ida Pemberton
  • Imam Hassan Kamal
  • Increase Martin
  • Inspector Edmund Fairbairn
  • Inspector John Raymond Legrasse
  • Inspector Reginald Harcourt
  • Irene Kessler
  • Isabel Tremaine
  • Ithaqua
  • Ivan Volkov
  • Ivor Pryce
  • Ivy Pendergast

J: 18 names

  • Jack Brady
  • Jack Halloway
  • Jackson Elias
  • Jane Wexford
  • Jasper Hollings
  • Jasper Northcote
  • Jedediah Whateley
  • Jeremiah Eliot
  • Jervas Dudley
  • Joe Szymanski
  • Johnny Marconi
  • Jonas Phillips
  • Jonathan Pemberton
  • Joseph Curwen
  • Josephine Haverly
  • Josephine Marlowe
  • Josiah Babson
  • Jubal Crane

K: 7 names

  • Keziah Bishop
  • Keziah Mason
  • Khalid Mubarak
  • Kitty Brannigan
  • Kitty Lorraine
  • Klaus Meissner
  • Kuranes

L: 35 names

  • Laban Shrewsbury
  • Lady Agatha Thorndike
  • Lady Augusta Penhaligon
  • Lady Beatrice Ashcombe
  • Lady Cordelia Wrexham
  • Lady Evangeline Coates
  • Lady Honoria Fenwick
  • Lady Millicent Hargreave
  • Lady Ophelia Carrow
  • Lavinia Postlethwaite
  • Lavinia Whateley
  • Lazarus Dunne
  • Lemuel Whateley
  • Leonard Marchetti
  • Leopold Garnier
  • Lester Quimby
  • Leticia Brandt
  • Letitia Hawkesbury
  • Lieutenant Commander Jonas Weld
  • Lieutenant Gideon Pratt
  • Lillian Crane
  • Linus Hatherley
  • Lionel Darkwood
  • Lola Fontaine
  • Lord Bertram Havisham
  • Lord Edgar Trevelyan
  • Lord Lucian Ashbury
  • Lord Rodney Castleford
  • Lou Petrakis
  • Louisa Cartwright
  • Louisa Gaunt
  • Louise Garnett
  • Lucas Harrington
  • Lucille Barrow
  • Lucius Drear

M: 29 names

  • M'Weru
  • Mabel Quincy
  • Madame Yvette Marchand
  • Mae Hollister
  • Major Rupert Hawley
  • Malachi Drummond
  • Margaret Ashcombe
  • Marguerite Deveraux
  • Marion Talbot
  • Marjorie Holt
  • Marshal Jeb Whitlock
  • Matilda Cobb
  • Matthias Rook
  • Maude Ellison
  • Max Feldman
  • Mehitabel Sargent
  • Mercy Whateley
  • Mickey Flanagan
  • Mildred Carver
  • Millard Gaunt
  • Minerva Fairclough
  • Miriam Haskell
  • Miss Zahra Shafik
  • Montgomery Blackstone
  • Mordecai Waite
  • Mortimer Wycroft
  • Mother Hydra
  • Muriel Fenton
  • Myrtle Ashdown

N: 12 names

  • Nadia Hassan
  • Nahum Gardner
  • Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee
  • Nick Kowalski
  • Nicodemus Grave
  • Noah Babson
  • Nodens
  • Nora Castellano
  • Nurse Agnes Mulvaney
  • Nyarlathotep
  • Nyarlathotep the Black Pharaoh
  • Nyogtha

O: 13 names

  • Obadiah Waite
  • Obed Marsh
  • Octavia Stillwell
  • Officer Patrick Brennan
  • Old Man Hoag
  • Old Whateley
  • Oliver Hargreaves
  • Omar Shakti
  • Opal Ferguson
  • Oriana Penhallow
  • Orson Kellerman
  • Oscar Wendt
  • Otto Brandenburg

P: 30 names

  • Patience Marsh
  • Pearl Langford
  • Pearl Lindstrom
  • Peggy Donovan
  • Percival Dunmore
  • Peregrine Ashcombe
  • Persephone Crane
  • Pete Dubois
  • Philippa Wyndham
  • Philomena Gray
  • Professor Alistair Greaves
  • Professor Ambrose Leland
  • Professor Amelia Haverford
  • Professor Cyrus Lockhart
  • Professor Edmund Blackwood
  • Professor Edwina Carstairs
  • Professor Ernestine Vogel
  • Professor Henry Armitage
  • Professor Hester Quayle
  • Professor Isadora Finch
  • Professor Li Wen-Cheng
  • Professor Lucius Holbrook
  • Professor Lydia Carmody
  • Professor Mortimer Greene
  • Professor Nigel Ravensworth
  • Professor Rutherford Pell
  • Professor Thaddeus Monroe
  • Professor Wallace Thorne
  • Professor Winifred Dace
  • Prudence Orne

R: 27 names

  • Rabbi Samuel Weisz
  • Randolph Carter
  • Ransom Peabody
  • Ray Hollister
  • Reginald Crowe
  • Remember Eliot
  • Reuben Sargent
  • Reverend Cornelius Bell
  • Reverend Elias Thornbury
  • Reverend Ezekiel Hubbard
  • Reverend Josiah Blackford
  • Reverend Thaddeus Crane
  • Rhan-Tegoth
  • Rhoda Cavendish
  • Richard Upton Pickman
  • Robert Blake
  • Robert Olmstead
  • Roderick Sallow
  • Roger Carlyle
  • Rosalind Ashworth
  • Rosamund Feversham
  • Rowena Kingsley
  • Ruby Valentine
  • Rufus Gaskell
  • Rupert Fairweather
  • Ruth Ellsworth
  • Ruth Lindgren

S: 28 names

  • Sal Moretti
  • Sam Donnelly
  • Sarah Gilman
  • Selah Whitcombe
  • Septimus Rourke
  • Seraphina Moody
  • Sergeant Leo Kowalczyk
  • Sergeant Major Thomas Bale
  • Seth Marsh
  • Sheriff Amos Tuttle
  • Shub-Niggurath
  • Shudde M'ell
  • Sigmund Kesterson
  • Silas Atwood
  • Silas Trumbull
  • Silence Corey
  • Simeon Tarrant
  • Sir Alistair Penrose
  • Sir Gerald Wycliffe
  • Sir Humphrey Dalrymple
  • Sir Julian Mortlake
  • Sir Percival Rothwell
  • Sir Reginald Fitzwilliam
  • Sister Mary Agatha
  • Sister Ruth of the Silver Twilight
  • Stan Wojcik
  • Submit Hoag
  • Sylvia Drummond

T: 24 names

  • Tabitha Sargent
  • Teddy Lindqvist
  • Tempest Blackwood
  • Tewfik al-Sayed
  • Thankful Bishop
  • The Black Goat of the Woods
  • The Bloated Woman
  • The Bloody Tongue
  • The Crawling Chaos
  • The Haunter of the Dark
  • The Honourable Miles Ashford
  • The King in Yellow
  • The Lurker at the Threshold
  • Thelma Birch
  • Theron Blackmarsh
  • Thomas Ellery
  • Thomas Olney
  • Tobias Kettering
  • Tobias Marrow
  • Tommy Gallagher
  • Trevor Mallinson
  • Trixie Malone
  • Tsathoggua
  • Tulzscha

U: 1 name

  • Ulysses Moreland

V: 8 names

  • Vera Lindstrom
  • Verity Ashgrove
  • Vernon Halloway
  • Vince Delgado
  • Violet Hanlon
  • Virgil Haskins
  • Vivian Thorne
  • Vivienne Larkin

W: 10 names

  • Walt Kessler
  • Walter Gilman
  • Walter Pruitt
  • Ward Phillips
  • Warren Rice
  • Wendell Pike
  • Wilbur Whateley
  • Wingate Peaslee
  • Winifred Hale
  • Winthrop Sallow

Y: 3 names

  • Y'golonac
  • Yig
  • Yog-Sothoth

Z: 5 names

  • Zachariah Holt
  • Zadok Allen
  • Zebulon Corey
  • Zillah Moss
  • Zoth-Ommog