Monster Species Name Generator

A monster species name is a label for a whole kind of creature, so it works differently from a single monster's name. Real bestiaries and games use a few reliable patterns. Compound descriptors name the creature by its most frightening feature (Gravemaw, Thornback, Bilespitter), the same way English produced werewolf, bugbear, and hellhound. Habitat-plus-creature names (Fen Stalker, Glacier Wyrm, Sewer Wretch) tell you where the thing lives, which is exactly what a hunter or player needs to know first.

Folk names are the second pattern. Frightened villagers do not use scientific terms; they say the Hollow Men, the Drowned, the Pale Ones, or the Long-Fingered. Names with The and a plural read as rumor, and they are ideal for horror-flavored fantasy. Scholarly names are the opposite: Latin- and Greek-flavored coinages such as Umbravore (shadow-eater), Ossivore (bone-eater), or Vespertilith (bat-stone) sound like they came from a wizard's monster manual and give a world a sense of naturalists cataloguing its dangers.

Finally, some species names are simply their own harsh, alien words: Vharesh, Skarrn, Tzaargol. These work best for intelligent monster races who named themselves. A strong bestiary mixes all four types, since a single creature can plausibly have a folk name, a scholarly name, and a native name at once.