Dynasty Name Generator

Ruling house names for medieval and fantasy realms

FantasyPart of: fantasy name generators500 namesUpdated Aug 2026Free · no sign-up

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Generate dynasty names for kings, emperors and noble houses: real historical lines such as the Plantagenets, Habsburgs, Abbasids and Tang, alongside hundreds of original medieval dynasties for Crusader Kings, Bannerlord, D&D kingdoms and fantasy novels.

About dynasty names

A dynasty name is the name a ruling family is remembered by, and history shows a few ways to make one. Many come from a founder: the Carolingians from Charles Martel, the Abbasids from al-Abbas, the Timurids from Timur, the Jagiellons from Jogaila. Arabic and Persian lines add -id to the founder (Ayyubid, Samanid). Others take the family's first castle or county: Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Lancaster, Savoy, Anjou. Chinese dynasties name the state itself, often with a word of good omen: Han, Tang, Ming (bright), Qing (pure). A few come from a badge or nickname, like Plantagenet from the sprig of broom Geoffrey of Anjou wore in his hat.

Real dynasties from Europe, the Islamic world, India, East Asia and Africa come first as models. The original names are built the same way: Norman-French and Anglo-Norman seats (Aubrecourt, Thorncastle, Harrowgate), German and Italian lordships (Falkenrath, Lichtenau), Byzantine and Slavic patronymics, -id dynasties with invented founders, and East Asian state names. Each works bare, as House of X or as the X Dynasty, whichever register your setting prefers.

The best dynasty names are short, hard to confuse with a common word, and hint at where the family came from. Say it with a regnal number, as in Edmund III of the House of Ashgrove; it should sound three centuries old.

How to choose dynasty names

Name the dynasty after a founder, a seat or a badge, the three ways real dynasties got their names; a house called after its first castle (Falkenrath, Hohenberg) instantly feels rooted in a map.
For an Islamic-flavored or Persianate empire, add -id to a founder's name (Zaydanid, Harunid); for a Chinese-style empire, use a single syllable with an auspicious meaning and let later historians add Northern, Southern, Former or Later.
Write the name three ways before you commit: bare (Varenne), as a house (House of Varenne) and as a period (the Varenne Dynasty). If one of them sounds wrong, keep looking.
Give cadet branches a hyphenated or doubled form (Habsburg-Lorraine, Saxe-Coburg, Petrović-Njegoš) to show a split in the family tree without inventing a whole new name.
Avoid names that are common English words or famous living families; a dynasty that sounds like a brand or a neighbour breaks immersion fast.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a good medieval dynasty name?

Short, distinctive and tied to a place or a person: Plantagenet, Habsburg, Capet, Árpád and Piast are all two or three syllables and point at a founder, a seat or a nickname. Avoid names that are ordinary words, and test the name with a regnal number after it.

Where do real dynasty names come from?

Mostly from founders (Abbasid, Carolingian, Timurid), from the family's castle or county (Habsburg, Lancaster, Savoy), from a badge or nickname (Plantagenet, Capet) or, in China, from the name chosen for the state itself (Han, Tang, Ming, Qing).

Can I use these for Crusader Kings 3, Bannerlord or D&D?

Yes. The original names are designed for exactly that: they sound period-correct next to CK3's real houses, fit Bannerlord's clan naming, and work as a ruling house for a D&D kingdom or a fantasy novel. Real historical dynasties are included as reference.

Should I write it as House X or the X Dynasty?

Both are correct in different registers. House of X is how contemporaries and heralds speak of a living family; the X Dynasty is how historians speak of the era it ruled. Many settings use House for noble families and Dynasty only for lines that held a throne.

More like this

Browse categoryAll Fantasy

All 500 dynasty 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: 42 names

Abbasid
Achaemenid
Acquaviva
Adelsheim
Afsharid
Aftasid
Aghlabid
Ahom
Aksumite
Alaouite
Albret
Alburquerque
Aldemar
Aldhelmsby
Aldobrandeschi
Aldric
Alidosi
Almohad
Almoravid
Ambrosewell
Angelos
Angevin
Anjou
Annazid
Antigonid
Antonine
Argead
Armagnac
Árpád
Arsacid
Artuqid
Arvendahl
Asen
Ashcombe
Ashford
Ashgrove
Ashikaga
Askia
Attalid
Aubrecourt
Aviz
Ayyubid

B: 36 names

Babenberg
Baglioni
Bagrationi
Balhae
Balliol
Banu Ghaniya
Banu Hud
Banu Qasi
Baradid
Barcelona
Basarab
Báthory
Bavandid
Beauchamp
Beaufort
Beaumont
Bentivoglio
Bernadotte
Bhonsle
Bigod
Blackwater
Blackwood
Bohun
Borgia
Borjigin
Bourbon
Brackenridge
Braganza
Brandeloft
Branković
Brenholt
Brienne
Bruce
Bryennios
Burgundy
Buyid

C: 31 names

Cadwallon
Calderwyn
Campbell
Cantacuzino
Capet
Caracciolo
Cárdenas
Carolingian
Carrara
Carrow
Castellane
Castelo Branco
Castro
Chagatai
Chakri
Chalukya
Chandela
Châtillon
Chera
Chiaramonte
Chola
Chōsokabe
Clairmont
Colonna
Constantinian
Corvane
Corvinmoor
Coucy
Courtenay
Craon
Czartoryski

D: 19 names

Dabuyid
Dadiani
Dampierre
Danishmendid
Del Balzo
Delacroix
Della Scala
Despenser
Dessaline
Dhunnunid
Dolgorukov
Dornmere
Douglas
Doukas
Drăculești
Draven
Dreux
Drummond
Dunmarrow

E: 9 names

Eberstein
Eldergast
Ellsworth
Elsinmoor
Enríquez
Este
Estermont
Evenfall
Évreux

F: 17 names

Faircastle
Fairweather
Fajardo
Falkenrath
Falkenstein
Farnese
Farrukhid
Fatimid
Ferrers
Fitzalan
Flavian
Foix
Folkung
Fontaine
Frankopan
Frundsberg
Fujiwara

G: 23 names

Gambacorta
Garrowby
Gediminid
Gervaise
Ghaznavid
Ghica
Ghurid
Girón
Glenmore
Godunov
Godwin
Gonzaga
Gordon
Goryeo
Great Hua
Great Xuan
Great Zhen
Greifenstein
Greystoke
Grimaldi
Grimsby
Gupta
Guzmán

H: 27 names

Habsburg
Hafsid
Haldrake
Halloway
Hamdanid
Hamilton
Hammadid
Han
Hanover
Harcourt
Haro
Harrowgate
Hartwell
Harunid
Hashemite
Henneberg
Hohenberg
Hohenstaufen
Hohenzollern
Hōjō
Hollinshed
Hosokawa
Hoysala
Hudid
Hulagid
Huntingdon
Hunyadi

I: 12 names

Idrisid
Ikhshidid
Ilkhanid
Ilvermark
Imagawa
Inchcape
Ironbridge
Isaurian
Isenbard
Ishaqid
Ispahbudhid
Ivrea

J: 9 names

Jagiellon
Jahwarid
Jarrahid
Jin
Joinville
Jorvik
Joseon
Julio-Claudian
Justinianic

K: 18 names

Kadamba
Kakatiya
Kakuyid
Kalbid
Kantakouzenos
Karađorđević
Karakhanid
Karenid
Keita
Kenmare
Kestrelmoor
Khalji
Khwarazmian
Kirkaldie
Komnenos
Konbaung
Kotromanić
Kyburg

L: 18 names

Lancaster
Langdale
Lanyon
Lara
Laskaris
Laval
Lazarević
Lê
Leiningen
Lévis
Liao
Lichtenau
Lindenmere
Lockwood
Lodi
Lusignan
Luxembourg
Lý

M: 45 names

Mac Carthaigh
Mac Murrough
Macedonian
Maddoxbury
Majapahit
Malatesta
Mamluk
Manfredi
Mangrai
Manrique
Mansurid
Maratha
Marchbanks
Marinid
Marwanid
Marwood
Matsudaira
Maurya
Mauvoisin
Mavrocordat
Mazyadid
Medici
Melissenos
Mendoza
Meneses
Merina
Merovingian
Merrivale
Mihranid
Minamoto
Ming
Mirdasid
Montclair
Montefeltro
Montferrat
Montgomerie
Montmorency
Mōri
Morrowgate
Mortain
Mortimer
Mowbray
Mughal
Murzahid
Mușat

N: 12 names

Nasrid
Nassau
Nemanjić
Nesle
Netherby
Neville
Nguyễn
Noronha
Norrington
Northcote
Northern Wei
Numayrid

O: 15 names

Ó Briain
Ó Néill
Oakhurst
Obrenović
Oda
Oldenburg
Orbeliani
Ordelaffi
Ormesby
Orrinshaw
Orsini
Ortenburg
Osorio
Ottoman
Ottonian

P: 23 names

Paduspanid
Pahlavi
Pala
Palaiologos
Pallava
Pandya
Paramara
Pellingham
Pemberly
Pendragon
Penrose
Percy
Petrović-Njegoš
Phokas
Piast
Pico
Pimentel
Plantagenet
Poitiers
Ponce de León
Přemyslid
Prideaux
Ptolemaic

Q: 7 names

Qajar
Qarmatian
Qaysarid
Qin
Qing
Quarrendon
Quennell

R: 19 names

Radcliffe
Radziwiłł
Rashidun
Rashtrakuta
Rasulid
Ravandid
Ravenel
Ravensworth
Reuss
Rohan
Romanov
Rosscarron
Rotenburg
Rothwell
Roucy
Ruffo
Rurikid
Rustamid
Ruthvenne

S: 41 names

Saadi
Sablewood
Safavid
Saffarid
Saint-Pol
Salian
Samanid
Sanseverino
Sapieha
Sasanian
Satavahana
Savoy
Schwarzburg
Sedgewick
Sefawa
Seleucid
Seljuk
Severan
Severinhall
Sforza
Shang
Shaybanid
Shimazu
Shuisky
Silla
Sinclair
Skleros
Soga
Solomonic
Song
Sponheim
Stafford
Stavely
Stellingworth
Stormont
Stuart
Šubić
Sui
Sulayhid
Sulaymanid
Surenid

T: 24 names

Tahirid
Tahmasid
Taira
Takeda
Tancarville
Tang
Tarrowmere
Tessarin
Theodosian
Thistlewood
Thorncastle
Timurid
Tokugawa
Torriani
Toulouse
Toyotomi
Trần
Trastámara
Tremaine
Truhendingen
Tudor
Tughlaq
Tulayhid
Tulunid

U: 6 names

Uesugi
Ulverston
Umayyad
Umfraville
Underhill
Uqaylid

V: 15 names

Valcourt
Valois
Vance
Varenne
Vasa
Vatatzes
Vaudrey
Velasco
Ventimiglia
Vere
Vermandois
Vijayanagara
Vilhena
Visconti
Vorstenholt

W: 14 names

Waldeck
Warenne
Weissenfels
Wendeline
Wessex
Western Xia
Westmarch
Wettin
Wexley
Windischgrätz
Wittelsbach
Wolkenstein
Woodville
Wyndham

X: 1 name

Y: 5 names

Yamato
Yarrow
Yngling
York
Yuan

Z: 12 names

Zagwe
Zähringen
Zand
Zápolya
Zaydanid
Zengid
Zhou
Zinjanid
Zirid
Ziyarid
Zrinski
Zúñiga