Element Name Generator

Element names come in two traditions, and the word 'element' means something different in each. In the scientific tradition, an element is a substance on a periodic table, and real names follow a handful of patterns: a root plus -ium (helium, titanium), -on for noble gases (argon, xenon), -gen for the old 'producers' (hydrogen, oxygen) and -ine for halogens (chlorine, iodine). Roots come from gods (thorium, promethium), places (europium, polonium), colors in Greek (chromium, rhodium) and scientists. A fictional element sounds right when it borrows one of those patterns and a root with a story: Noctrium for a dark metal, Styxium for something from the underworld, Handwavium for a joke.

The older tradition is the classical and alchemical one: fire, water, earth, air and the fifth essence, plus the substances alchemists actually named, such as Aqua Regia, Brimstone, Quicksilver, Butter of Antimony and the Green Lion. Fantasy magic systems usually draw from here, often through Latin (Ignis, Glacies, Fulgur), Greek (Pyr, Hydor), Japanese (Kaze, Kaminari) or Sanskrit (Agni, Vayu, Akasha).

This list is grouped by use: invented elements and ores, real alchemical names, classical element words in several languages, elemental spirit names such as Pyrakos and Zephyrelle, and full character names with elemental surnames like Ingrid Stormholt, for writers and game designers who need a person named for a force.