Deity Name Generator

Real deity names almost always mean something in their own language. Zeus and Jupiter descend from the Indo-European word for the bright sky; Amaterasu means 'shining in heaven'; Quetzalcoatl is 'feathered serpent'; Ereshkigal is 'lady of the great earth.' Names also carry the sound of their culture: Greek gods end in -us, -os, -a or -e, Norse gods use hard consonants and short syllables (Thor, Tyr, Odin, Skadi), Egyptian names sit around vowels and soft stops (Osiris, Hathor, Ptah), and Mesopotamian names stack syllables (Ereshkigal, Nergal, Marduk).

When inventing a pantheon, the strongest approach is to give each deity a name plus a title that states the domain: Ashkarath, Lord of the Furnace; Velmora, Mother of Tides; Sorathiel, Judge of the Silent Court. The title tells players and readers what the god does; the name gives worshippers something to swear by. Keep the phonetics consistent within a culture so the gods sound like they belong to the same people, and give distinct sounds to rival pantheons.

Gods also gain epithets and taboo-names over time. Odin has hundreds; the Furies were politely called 'the Kindly Ones.' Nicknames like the Weaver, the Drowned King or the Silent Sister make a pantheon feel lived-in and give you a way for characters to refer to a god without invoking its true name.