Evil Spirit Name Generator

Every culture has names for the things that knock in the night, and the best evil spirit names borrow from that shared vocabulary. Mesopotamia gave us Lamashtu, Pazuzu and the Gallu; Jewish and Christian demonology the Dybbuk, Lilith and the spirits of the Testament of Solomon such as Ornias and Onoskelis; Slavic villages the Kikimora, Nocnitsa and Poludnitsa; South and Southeast Asia the Churel, Pishacha, Pontianak and Toyol; Japan the Onryo and Jikininki; the Americas the Wendigo, Baykok and Soucouyant. Read aloud, they share a texture: hard stops, sibilants and a sense of great age.

Original evil spirit names tend to follow one of three patterns. The first is a folkloric-sounding proper name built from harsh clusters (Malgrith, Vezzrakh, Orzhagul). The second is the epithet, where the spirit is known only by what it does or where it lurks: The Hollow Tenant, the Wraith of Cinder Row, Mother of Flies, the Thing Behind the Wainscot. The third is the homely nickname people use to avoid saying a real name at all, like Old Scratch, Jenny Greenteeth or Mister Whistle; these are often the creepiest because of how ordinary they sound.

This generator mixes all three, plus named ghosts of the hanged and drowned, for poltergeists, possessing spirits, cursed places and campaign villains.