Gotham Name Generator

Gotham City names work because the whole setting is built on one mood: a 1930s East Coast metropolis that never got over the Depression, all gargoyles, gaslight and rain. The rogues are the clearest example. Classic Batman villains take a mundane trade or object and make it a title, usually with a definite article: the Penguin, the Riddler, the Ventriloquist, the Mad Hatter. Originals in that vein should do the same thing with something equally ordinary, such as the Lamplighter, the Pawnbroker or Doctor Lachrymose, rather than reaching for generic "dark" words.

The civilians carry the other half of the atmosphere. Gotham's old-money families (Wayne, Kane, Elliot, Cobblepot) have Anglo-Dutch surnames and first names that sound like they belong on a brass plaque, while the GCPD and the mob lean Irish, Italian, Polish and Eastern European in the pulp tradition. Street gangs and landmarks follow the city's real comic-book map: neighborhoods like the Narrows, the Bowery, Burnley and Otisburg, and places named for Batman artists and writers, from Sprang Bridge to Finger River.

The list below mixes a few canon anchors with hundreds of original names in the same register. Use the aliases for villains and vigilantes, the full names for detectives, socialites and informants, and the businesses, bridges and districts to fill out your own corner of the city.