Homunculus Name Generator

Homunculus is Latin for 'little man', and the name a homunculus carries usually says who made it and why. Paracelsus, who gave the 16th-century recipe for growing one in a sealed flask of horse dung, wrote in the vocabulary of alchemy, so the oldest-sounding names are the stages and substances of the Great Work: Nigredo, Albedo, Rubedo, Azoth, Vitriol, Mercurius, Prima Materia, Caput Mortuum. Goethe's Faust kept Wagner's creation nameless, and Ewers' Alraune is named for the mandrake root, the folk ancestor of the idea.

Modern fiction added its own conventions. Fullmetal Alchemist named the Father's seven children after the deadly sins (Lust, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Pride, Gluttony), which is why a homunculus called Avarice, Penance or Solace reads instantly as a manufactured being defined by one trait. Fate's Einzbern homunculi carry soft Germanic names and a maker's surname (Irisviel, Illyasviel, Leysritt, Sella), while games like Ragnarok Online use short pet-like names such as Lif and Amistr. Dungeons & Dragons artificers tend to treat the homunculus servant as a pocket familiar and call it Pip, Thimble or Inkwell.

When naming your own, decide whether the creator is proud (a Latin name or a numbered vessel like Septimus or Vessel Nine), sentimental (a human given name) or indifferent (Specimen Six), and let the homunculus's personality come from that gap.