Camel Name Generator

Most pet camels get either a hump or sand pun (Humphrey, Humpty, Sandy, Dune), a colour name that matches the coat (Caramel, Biscuit, Toffee, Khaki), or a dignified human name that plays against their grumpy look, like Gertie, Horace or Mabel. Spitting jokes such as Spitfire and Sir Spits-a-Lot are popular for males.

Racing and beauty-contest camels usually carry short Arabic names: ordinary given names like Hamdan or Thuraya, or single admired words such as Shaheen (falcon), Barq (lightning), Dhahab (gold) and Sarab (mirage). Coat colour terms like Hamra, Safra and Majaheem are also used, and prize camels are often known by their owner's stable name as well.

It helps. Two-humped Bactrians come from Mongolia, China and Central Asia, so Mongolian names (Altan, Naran, Tsagaan, Khongor) and Silk Road city names (Samarkand, Kashgar, Dunhuang) suit them. One-humped dromedaries are the camels of Arabia, North Africa, India and Australia, where Arabic, Tuareg, Rajasthani and outback nicknames fit better.

A few nod to real camel culture: Maandeeq is the poetic Somali camel that symbolises independence, the Ghan is the Australian railway named after the Afghan cameleers, and Alice and Sally come from children's camel songs. The rest are original or traditional names you can use freely for pets, mascots, characters and game mounts.