Daemon Name Generator
Names for your His Dark Materials dæmon
Tap a name to copy itPress Space for a new batch500 names in this generator
Generate a name for your dæmon in the style of His Dark Materials: classical, saintly and Northern names like Pantalaimon, Stelmaria, Kirjava and Hester, plus hundreds of original names that sound like they belong in Lyra's Oxford. Perfect for fan fiction, roleplay, or finally naming the animal soul you'd have in Philip Pullman's world.
About daemon names
In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, a dæmon is the visible animal form of a person's soul, and its name is almost never an animal name. Pullman draws on Greek saints and classical figures (Pantalaimon, Sophonax, Kyrillion), Latin-sounding feminines (Stelmaria, Salcilia, Belisaria), Finnish and Siberian words for the witches and the North (Kaisa, Kirjava, Sayan Kötör), and plain, homely names for working people (Hester, Ratter, Ben, Asta, Anfang). A dæmon's name should sound slightly older and more formal than its human's, like something from a church calendar or a ship's register rather than a pet shop.
The pattern is easy to borrow. Endings in -ion, -ios, -ax, -us, -ia, -ina and -ea give the Greek and Latin flavour; a short English or Nordic name fits a gyptian, a bear-hunter or a scholar's familiar; and a long exotic name with a vowel-heavy second element suits a witch's dæmon. Nicknames matter too: Pantalaimon becomes Pan, and most people shorten their dæmon's name in private.
This generator mixes the canon dæmons from the novels, The Book of Dust and the BBC series with original names built on the same sources: Byzantine saints, Hellenistic kings and queens, Roman gens names, Welsh and Finnish given names, and the occasional mineral or old word that Pullman himself likes to press into service.
Tips for choosing a name
- Match the register to the person, not the animal: a scholar's dæmon gets a Greek name like Sophonax, a gyptian's gets something short like Hester or Ben, and a witch's gets a Finnish or Siberian name like Kaisa.
- Give the name a natural nickname (Pantalaimon to Pan, Stelmaria to Stel); characters use the short form constantly and the long form only when cross or formal.
- Dæmons are usually the opposite sex to their human, so a boy's dæmon often carries a feminine name and a girl's a masculine one; Lyra's Pantalaimon and Will's Kirjava follow this rule.
- Avoid names that describe the animal (Shadow, Fang, Whiskers); in Lyra's world the name is fixed long before the dæmon settles into its final form.
- For your own dæmon, pick a settled form first, then choose a name whose sound matches its temperament: liquid vowels for a cat or hare, hard consonants for a wolverine or snow leopard.
Frequently asked questions
What are the dæmon names in His Dark Materials?
The best known are Pantalaimon (Lyra, pine marten), Kirjava (Will, cat), Stelmaria (Lord Asriel, snow leopard), Hester (Lee Scoresby, hare), Kaisa (Serafina Pekkala, snow goose), Sayan Kötör (John Parry, osprey), Sophonax (Farder Coram, cat), Salcilia (Roger), Ratter (Tony Makarios), Anfang (Thorold), Sergi (Ruta Skadi), and from The Book of Dust Asta (Malcolm), Ben (Alice) and Jesper (Hannah Relf). Mrs Coulter's golden monkey is unnamed in the books and called Ozymandias only in the radio adaptation.
How does Philip Pullman come up with dæmon names?
Pullman has said he chose names that sounded old and slightly foreign: Pantalaimon is a Greek saint (Panteleimon, 'all-compassionate'), Kirjava is Finnish for 'mottled' or 'many-coloured', Kaisa is a Finnish form of Katherine, and Stelmaria and Salcilia are invented Latinate names. Working-class dæmons get ordinary English names.
Do dæmons pick their own names?
The books never show a naming ceremony. Dæmons appear at birth already named, and the name seems to be known to the child and dæmon together rather than chosen by the parents, which is why it often has a different style from the human's own name.
Can I use these names for a pet or a fantasy familiar?
Yes. The list works for any animal companion with a soul-bond: witches' familiars, Patronus-style spirit animals, a cat or bird in your own story. Pair a name here with a settled form from our fantasy animal or familiar generators if you want a full character.
All 500 daemon names
Browse the full list
- Pantalaimon
- Kirjava
- Stelmaria
- Hester
- Kaisa
- Sayan Kötör
- Sophonax
- Salcilia
- Ratter
- Kyrillion
- Anfang
- Sergi
- Jesper
- Asta
- Ben
- Ozymandias
- Belisaria
- Castor
- Cerebaton
- Galen
- Lyuba
- Nyx
- Perpetua
- Sandling
- Thessalon
- Thorvald
- Zohariel
- Achilleon
- Adrastea
- Aeliana
- Aesculon
- Agathion
- Aglaia
- Alcestis
- Alcidon
- Aldebarax
- Alethia
- Almarien
- Amaranthe
- Ambrosios
- Ammonite
- Anaximander
- Andromache
- Anselmion
- Antheia
- Aphelion
- Apollodora
- Arcturion
- Ardelia
- Argentine
- Ariston
- Arkadios
- Artemisia
- Asphodel
- Astrapha
- Atalanta
- Athanasia
- Aurelion
- Auriga
- Avenzoar
- Azrael
- Balthazar
- Basilion
- Bathsheba
- Belladonna
- Benedikta
- Berengar
- Bertrandus
- Boreas
- Brightling
- Brisander
- Cadmus
- Caelion
- Calliope
- Calpurnia
- Camillus
- Candelabra
- Caradoc
- Carillon
- Cassiopeia
- Celandine
- Celestion
- Cerulean
- Chrysanthos
- Chrysaor
- Cinnabar
- Clarimond
- Clementia
- Clytie
- Columbine
- Comfrey
- Corax
- Cordelion
- Corvina
- Crispin
- Cyrenaica
- Damaris
- Damocles
- Daphnis
- Demetria
- Despoina
- Dianthus
- Dimitrios
- Dionysia
- Dorothea
- Drusilla
- Dulcimer
- Eirene
- Elazar
- Eleutheria
- Elpis
- Emmerich
- Endymion
- Eoghan
- Ephraim
- Erasmion
- Eridanus
- Eumenides
- Euphrasia
- Eurydice
- Evander
- Ezekiel
- Fenwick
- Fidelia
- Filomena
- Florimond
- Fortunatus
- Galatea
- Galliard
- Gaspard
- Gedeon
- Gennadia
- Giles
- Glaucus
- Gregorion
- Gwendolen
- Halcyon
- Halvard
- Harmonia
- Heliodora
- Heraklion
- Hesper
- Hieronymus
- Hilarion
- Hollin
- Hyacinth
- Hypatia
- Iakovos
- Ianthe
- Ignatia
- Ilse
- Inachus
- Iolanthe
- Iphigenia
- Isidore
- Ismene
- Jasperine
- Jerome
- Jocasta
- Joachim
- Juniper
- Kallias
- Karolus
- Katharos
- Kedrion
- Kepler
- Kestrel
- Klaas
- Kleon
- Konstantin
- Lasair
- Laurentia
- Leander
- Leocadia
- Leontine
- Leontius
- Lethe
- Lisbet
- Lucasta
- Lucian
- Lysander
- Lysistrata
- Maelis
- Magnus
- Malachi
- Marcellus
- Marigold
- Marzipan
- Matthias
- Melisande
- Melanthios
- Mercator
- Meriel
- Methodius
- Minerva
- Mireille
- Modestine
- Moravia
- Myrrha
- Nasturtium
- Nechama
- Nereus
- Nestor
- Nicodemus
- Nicolaos
- Nikephoros
- Oberon
- Octavian
- Olwen
- Onesimus
- Ophelion
- Orestes
- Orsolya
- Osric
- Ottoline
- Pallas
- Pandion
- Parthenope
- Pelagia
- Pellinore
- Penrose
- Perdita
- Peregrine
- Phaedra
- Philemon
- Philippa
- Phoebus
- Pietro
- Pimpernel
- Placida
- Polydora
- Polyxena
- Porphyrion
- Praxis
- Prosper
- Quillon
- Quintilla
- Radegund
- Raphael
- Raskolnik
- Remedios
- Rhiannon
- Rosalind
- Rowan
- Rufinus
- Sabinus
- Saffron
- Salome
- Samphire
- Sapphira
- Saraband
- Sebastien
- Selene
- Seraphion
- Severin
- Sibylla
- Simeon
- Solon
- Sorrel
- Stavros
- Sulpicia
- Tamsin
- Tarquin
- Telemachus
- Theodosia
- Theron
- Thisbe
- Thomasina
- Timotheus
- Tobias
- Tristram
- Tryphena
- Tullia
- Ulysses
- Urania
- Ursuline
- Valentin
- Valeria
- Venetia
- Verity
- Vespertine
- Vitalis
- Wilhelmina
- Xanthe
- Xenophon
- Yolanda
- Ysolde
- Zacharias
- Zenobia
- Zephyrine
- Zosimus
- Ælfric
- Æthelind
- Bronwen
- Cadfael
- Dafydd
- Eluned
- Ffion
- Gethin
- Heledd
- Idwal
- Lowri
- Meirion
- Nerys
- Owain
- Rhodri
- Seren
- Taliesin
- Wyn
- Alabastron
- Cantharis
- Chrysolite
- Electrum
- Heliotrope
- Kyanite
- Malachite
- Obsidiana
- Peridot
- Rhodonite
- Sardonyx
- Tanzanite
- Aalto
- Aatami
- Aino
- Eero
- Ilmari
- Kerttu
- Lumi
- Mielikki
- Onni
- Pirkko
- Sisu
- Tapio
- Tuuli
- Väinö
- Vellamo
- Ahti
- Kauko
- Ilta
- Ruska
- Sampo
- Tenho
- Untamo
- Louhi
- Kyllikki
- Alekto
- Amaryllion
- Anastasios
- Aniketos
- Antigone
- Apollonia
- Arsinoe
- Atticus
- Bartholomea
- Beatrix
- Berenike
- Cassander
- Chione
- Cleandra
- Cosimo
- Cyprian
- Delphine
- Demosthenes
- Eulalia
- Eusebius
- Fiammetta
- Florentius
- Gelasia
- Hadrian
- Heliogabal
- Hortensia
- Iason
- Idris
- Innokenti
- Isambard
- Kallisto
- Kasimir
- Laelia
- Leocritus
- Linnea
- Lucretia
- Maximian
- Melchior
- Morwenna
- Nikandros
- Oriel
- Pamphilos
- Penelope
- Philocles
- Romilly
- Rosamund
- Sabine
- Sixtine
- Stephanos
- Teodor
- Theophania
- Theophrastus
- Vashti
- Vivienne
- Xenia
- Zinaida
- Abelard
- Agrippina
- Alphege
- Amadeo
- Ananias
- Archelaus
- Ariadne
- Aristarchos
- Barnabas
- Benedetta
- Cecilio
- Clio
- Corisande
- Cuthbert
- Demelza
- Dominika
- Eleazar
- Emrys
- Eunike
- Fabiola
- Ferdinand
- Gavriel
- Gideon
- Godwin
- Hilde
- Honorine
- Ingram
- Isabeau
- Jolyon
- Justinian
- Kirke
- Lazarus
- Leopoldine
- Lucinda
- Marcelline
- Nikolai
- Odalys
- Oriana
- Pascal
- Philbert
- Quenby
- Raimund
- Sebastiana
- Sidonie
- Theodoric
- Ulric
- Violetta
- Wystan
- Yevgenia
- Zephaniah
- Alcyoneus
- Ambrosine
- Amphion
- Anthousa
- Aristomache
- Asterion
- Basilissa
- Callixtus
- Charmion
- Cleopatros
- Damaskenos
- Diokles
- Dosithea
- Eirenaios
- Euthymios
- Eudoxia
- Gerasimos
- Hieronyma
- Hippolyta
- Irenaeus
- Kallirhoe
- Leontia
- Lykaon
- Makarios
- Melitta
- Nikomachos
- Olympias
- Pankratios
- Philomela
- Polycarp
- Prokopios
- Sotiria
- Thekla
- Theokritos
- Timandra
- Zenodotos
- Aigul
- Altyn
- Erkhe
- Gulnara
- Kökçü
- Nuray
- Sarangerel
- Tuya
- Theodora
- Eustathios
- Mirabel
- Pherenike
- Anatolius
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