Martial Arts Name Generator

Real martial arts are named in a handful of predictable ways, and once you see the patterns you can invent styles that sound like they have three hundred years of lineage behind them. Chinese arts are usually named for a founder or family (Hung Gar, Yang-style Taiji), an animal or plant (Praying Mantis, White Crane, Plum Blossom Fist), or a number of forms (Five Ancestors Fist, Eighteen Arhat Hands). Japanese arts add the suffix -ryu for a school or lineage (Yagyu Shinkage-ryu), -do for a way (Judo, Aikido), or -jutsu for a technique (Ninjutsu, Kusarigama-jutsu). Korean schools historically used -kwan (Moo Duk Kwan), and Southeast Asian arts often name a regional variant, like Muay Chaiya or Silat Cimande.

Invented styles for wuxia, xianxia, and shonen stories usually go one step further with poetic imagery: Heaven-Splitting Chop, Ghost Step Art, Way of the Still River. The trick is to keep the structure of a real name (element + body part or weapon + type of art) while swapping in a vivid image. "Iron Sand Palm" and "Frost Petal Sword" both follow that formula.

The list below mixes documented arts you can research further with invented ones ready to drop into a story or campaign, so you can pick a real base style and give your character's secret technique a name that fits alongside it.