Lightning Name Generator

Lightning names come from three places. The first is the world's thunder gods: Zeus with his keraunos, Thor and Mjölnir, the Japanese drum-beating Raijin, the Slavic Perun, the Yoruba Shango, the Hindu Indra and his vajra, the Aztec Tlaloc and the Lakota Wakinyan thunderbird. These are ready-made character names with real weight behind them. The second is simply the word for lightning or thunder in another language — Blitz (German), Rayo and Relámpago (Spanish), Éclair and Foudre (French), Fulmine and Saetta (Italian), Inazuma and Kaminari (Japanese), Molniya (Russian), Yıldırım (Turkish), Kidlat (Tagalog), Umeme (Swahili) — which sound exotic to English ears but mean exactly what you want.

The third is real given names with a lightning meaning. Barak is Hebrew for lightning; Saiqa is Arabic for thunderbolt; Damini, Saudamini and Tadit are Sanskrit lightning names for girls; Dorje is the Tibetan thunderbolt; and the whole Scandinavian family of Thor-names (Torsten, Thorvald, Thordis, Thora) carries the thunder god inside it.

For pets, horses and racing names, English works best: Bolt, Zap, Sparky, Flash, Jolt, Volt, Zigzag, Streak, Thunderclap, Greased Lightning. The list also covers storm science (Derecho, Supercell, Red Sprite, Catatumbo), electric pop culture (Zapdos, Livewire, Shazam, Raiden) and fantasy spell and weapon names like Thunderfury and Chain Lightning.