Gladiator Name Generator

Real gladiators almost never fought under their birth names. When a slave or prisoner entered a ludus, the lanista gave him a single stage name, and the surviving graffiti and tombstones from Pompeii and Rome show the patterns clearly. Some names were weapons or fire (Spiculus means 'little spear,' Flamma means 'flame'), some were qualities (Ferox, Celer, Audax, Pugnax), some were animals (Leo, Ursus, Tigris, Aquila), and a great many were borrowed from Greek myth because the crowd liked seeing Hercules, Ajax or Achilles walk out of the gate. Origin names like Thrax, Gallus, Syrus and Dacus marked where a man came from, and free volunteers who signed on (auctorati) kept their Roman names, like the famous Marcus Attilius of Pompeii.

A name was rarely spoken alone. Posters and fan scratchings added the fighter's school, armor class or record, so you get Celadus the Thracian, Verus of Pompeii or Tetraites the Unbeaten, and a champion earned the title primus palus, first pole of his ludus. Women fought too, usually under heroic Greek names; a relief from Halicarnassus records Achillia and Amazon.

This list mixes attested names with originals built on the same rules. For a retiarius pick something quick and sharp, for a murmillo something heavy and blunt, and give the crowd favorite an epithet they can chant.