Faun Name Generator

Fauns are the Roman cousins of Greek satyrs: goat-legged, horned spirits of woodland and pasture who play the pan-pipes and follow the god Faunus. Roman sources give the core names, Faunus and his female counterpart Fauna, the forest god Silvanus, the woodpecker-king Picus, and Lupercus of the Lupercalia festival. Greek satyr and Pan-follower names supply the rest of the classical stock: Marsyas the piper who challenged Apollo, Silenus the old drunk tutor of Dionysus, Krotos, Ampelos, Komos and Aegipan.

Modern fauns owe most of their personality to C. S. Lewis. Mr. Tumnus, with his umbrella and parcels, made fauns gentle, bookish and slightly nervous, and Narnia's other fauns (Dumnus, Voluns, Voltinus, Girbius, Mentius, Obentinus, Nausus, Oscuns, Urnus) established a naming style: a Latin-sounding stem plus -us. Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth pulled the faun back toward the eerie and ancient. Virgil's Eclogues add a third layer, the pastoral shepherd names Tityrus, Meliboeus, Corydon and Menalcas that poets have used for centuries.

Original faun names work well when they pair a Latin or classical given name with a hedgerow surname: Rufus Thistledown, Livia Hazelfoot, Cassius Brackenhoof. Words like pipe, whistle, reed, hoof, horn and the names of woodland plants (bramble, fern, rowan, ivy) instantly place the character. For a wilder satyr-type faun, stick to Greek forms like Skirtos (leaper) or Oistros (frenzy).