Religious Name Generator

Sacred names from monasteries, temples and scripture

Mythology & Religion500 names

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Generate religious names from many traditions: monastic names like Brother Anselm and Sister Mary Agnes, rabbis, imams, swamis and lamas, Puritan virtue names, and theophoric given names that mean gift of God in a dozen languages. Useful for fiction, games and choosing a name in religion.

About religious names

A religious name is one taken or given for the sake of faith, and almost every tradition has a recognisable pattern. Catholic and Orthodox monks and nuns receive a new name at profession, usually a saint's (Brother Anselm, Sister Scholastica) or a devotion (Sister Mary of the Angels, Brother Gabriel of the Passion), and Benedictines, Carmelites and Franciscans each lean toward their own favourites. Jewish names for religious figures attach a title and often a patronymic (Rabbi Yehoshua ben Avraham), Muslim names use Abd plus a name of God (Abdul Rahman, Abd al-Nur) or the -uddin endings meaning "of the faith", and Hindu sannyasis take an -ananda name from a guru while Tibetan Buddhists receive pairs like Tenzin Choden at refuge.

English Puritans went a different way, naming children for virtues and whole sentences (Patience, Hope-Still, Praise-God), and many ordinary given names are theophoric, meaning they contain a word for God: Theodore and Dorothea (gift of God), Gottfried, Bogdan, Dieudonné and Devadatta all say the same thing in different languages.

This generator draws on all of these: monastic names with titles, clergy of several faiths, Puritan virtue names, and plain theophoric given names you could use for a baby, a confirmation, a character or a historical setting.

How to choose religious names

  • Match the name to the specific order or tradition: a Benedictine monk is more likely Brother Bede or Brother Placid, a Carmelite nun Sister Teresa of the Cross, a Franciscan Brother Juniper.
  • For Catholic religious names, the classic structure is a saint's name plus an optional devotional title (Sister Mary Consolata, Brother Anselm of the Cross); "Mary" as a first element marks many older women's religious names.
  • Use theophoric names when you want a quietly religious character without a title: Theodora, Gottlieb, Bogdan, Netanel and Hidayatullah all mean roughly the same thing.
  • Puritan virtue names only read as authentic in a 17th- or 18th-century English or New England setting; pair them with period surnames (Temperance Weld, Resolved Bancroft).
  • If you are choosing a real confirmation or religious name, look up the saint or meaning behind the candidate first; most communities expect you to be able to say why you chose it.

Frequently asked questions

How do monks and nuns get their religious names?

At clothing or profession the superior gives, or the candidate proposes, a new name, usually a saint or a devotion (Sister Mary Immaculata, Brother Boniface). Some orders keep baptismal names today, while Orthodox monastics almost always receive a saint's name.

What is a theophoric name?

A name that contains a word for God or a god's name: Theodore and Dorothea (Greek theos), Gottfried (German Gott), Bogdan (Slavic bog), Abdullah (Arabic Allah), Devadatta (Sanskrit deva). Many of the single-word names in this list are theophoric.

Can I use these as Catholic confirmation names?

Yes, as a starting list. Most confirmation names are saints' names, so check that the one you like belongs to a canonised saint (Anselm, Perpetua, Philomena, Clare) and read about that saint before deciding.

Are these names suitable for fantasy or historical fiction?

Yes. The clergy names (Reverend Josiah Whitcombe, Archimandrite Kyrillos, Sheikh Nuruddin) work for historical settings, and the monastic and virtue names transplant easily into fantasy churches and orders; for an invented religion see the Religion Name Generator.

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All 500 religious names

This is the complete list the generator above draws its random batches from, sorted A to Z and grouped by first letter.

Plain text, one name per line.

A: 35 names

  • Abbess Etheldreda
  • Abbot Aelred
  • Abbot Silouan
  • Abd al-Haqq
  • Abd al-Jalil
  • Abd al-Nur
  • Abd al-Wahid
  • Abdiel
  • Abdul Qadir
  • Abdul Rahman
  • Abdul Wadud
  • Abiah Tilton
  • Abiel
  • Acharya Gyanprakash
  • Acharya Sunanda
  • Adeodatus
  • Adonijah
  • Ajahn Dhammavaro
  • Ajahn Kusalo
  • Ajahn Piyasilo
  • Altagracia
  • Amadeus
  • Amatullah
  • Amatur Rahman
  • Amity Pearsall
  • Ángeles
  • Ani Tsultrim
  • Ansgar
  • Archdeacon Hugh Carrow
  • Archimandrite Kyrillos
  • Asunción
  • Avigail
  • Avishai
  • Azariah Kent
  • Azriel

B: 53 names

  • Baba Kishan Das
  • Baba Tarlochan Singh
  • Bairagi Ramcharan
  • Baladeva
  • Barakat
  • Bathsheba Pym
  • Be-Courteous Cole
  • Bhagwan Das
  • Bhai Amardeep Singh
  • Bhai Gurbaksh Singh
  • Bhai Nirmal Singh
  • Bhante Nandaratana
  • Bhante Ratanajoti
  • Bhikkhu Bodhiratana
  • Bhikkhuni Sumedha
  • Bibi Harsimran Kaur
  • Bishop Ambrose Whitlock
  • Bogdan
  • Bogumil
  • Bohdan
  • Bozhidar
  • Brahmachari Arjun
  • Brother Aidan
  • Brother Ambrose
  • Brother Anselm
  • Brother Anthony of Padua

B, continued

  • Brother Bede
  • Brother Benedict Joseph
  • Brother Boniface
  • Brother Columba
  • Brother Crispin
  • Brother Cuthbert
  • Brother Fintan
  • Brother Gabriel of the Passion
  • Brother Gildas
  • Brother Ioannikios
  • Brother Isidore
  • Brother Jerome
  • Brother Lawrence
  • Brother Martin de Porres
  • Brother Maximilian
  • Brother Meletios
  • Brother Nektarios
  • Brother Pachomius
  • Brother Paisios
  • Brother Paschal
  • Brother Peregrine
  • Brother Placid
  • Brother Seraphim
  • Brother Thaddeus
  • Brother Wilfrid
  • Brother Xavier
  • Bruder Konrad

C: 11 names

  • Candelaria
  • Canon Alistair Penrose
  • Cantor Avraham Yosef
  • Chaplain Naomi Strand
  • Chaplain Tobias Fenn
  • Charity Sewall
  • Christiana
  • Comfort Dunstan
  • Concepción
  • Constant Merrow
  • Content Perkins

D: 13 names

  • Deacon Amos Pettigrew
  • Deaconess Phoebe Lang
  • Dean Matthias Oakes
  • Deliverance Marsh
  • Deodatus
  • Desire Whitlock
  • Devadatta
  • Devapriya
  • Devendra
  • Dieudonné
  • Diosdado
  • Dom Oswald
  • Dorothea

E: 13 names

  • Ebenezer Standish
  • Elder Enoch Wardley
  • Elder Jedidiah Moss
  • Elder Solomon Pike
  • Eldress Hannah Kendrick
  • Eliphalet Sumner
  • Elkanah
  • Elnathan Hoyt
  • Emmanuel
  • Encarnación
  • Epifanio
  • Experience Goodridge
  • Ezekiel Coverdale

F: 31 names

  • Faint-Not Rowley
  • Faith Endicott
  • Fakhruddin Hussain
  • Father Aloysius
  • Father Athanasius
  • Father Barnabas
  • Father Bartholomew
  • Father Bonaventure
  • Father Chrysostom
  • Father Cosmas
  • Father Cyprian
  • Father Ephrem
  • Father Eusebius
  • Father Hilarion
  • Father Iakovos
  • Father Ignatius
  • Father Kallistos
  • Father Nikodemos
  • Father Polycarp
  • Father Porphyrios
  • Father Savvas
  • Father Sophrony
  • Father Stylianos
  • Father Theophilus
  • Father Vianney
  • Father Zosimas
  • Fear Hartwell
  • Fray Tomás
  • Freegift Wells
  • Frère Dominique
  • Freydis

G: 14 names

  • Gamaliel
  • Gauri Shankar
  • Gavriel
  • Geshe Lhundup
  • Giani Kuldeep Singh
  • Giani Sant Singh
  • Godric
  • Godwin
  • Gottfried
  • Gottlieb
  • Govindaraj
  • Gurpreet Singh
  • Guru Devananda
  • Guru Rajendra Das

H: 21 names

  • Habibullah
  • Hadassah
  • Hafiz Ahsan Karim
  • Hafiz Tariq Mahmood
  • Hafiza Aisha Noor
  • Hakuyu
  • Hanif
  • Haridasi
  • Haripriya
  • Harjinder Kaur
  • Hate-Evil Pryor
  • Hephzibah Strong
  • Hermana Guadalupe
  • Hezekiah Bradford
  • Hidayatullah
  • Hieromonk Arseny
  • Hodaya
  • Honour Fletcher
  • Hope-Still Peabody
  • Hopewell Harcourt
  • Humility Warrender

I: 13 names

  • Ichabod Pratt
  • Imam Abdullah ibn Yusuf
  • Imam Anwar Fattah
  • Imam Hamza Farouk
  • Imam Haroon Rasheed
  • Imam Idris al-Mansur
  • Imam Musa Bakr
  • Imam Sulayman Qureshi
  • Imam Zayd al-Amin
  • Inayatullah
  • Increase Allerton
  • Ingvar
  • Ishani

J: 10 names

  • Jamaluddin Rafiq
  • Jampa Dorje
  • Jedidiah Lathrop
  • Jehiel
  • Jemima Rowlandson
  • Jerusha Lovejoy
  • Jesús
  • Jochebed
  • Jophiel
  • Josias Pomfret

K: 6 names

  • Karma Wangchuk
  • Keturah Whitcombe
  • Khenpo Tsewang Rigzin
  • Krishnadas
  • Krishnaveni
  • Kunga Samten

L: 4 names

  • Lakshminarayan
  • Lama Gendun
  • Lament Willard
  • Love Chalcroft

M: 30 names

  • Madhusudan
  • Madre Inmaculada
  • Mahadevi
  • Mahant Girdhari
  • Makepeace Thornton
  • Manpreet Kaur
  • Matthias
  • Mawlana Siddiq
  • Mehitabel Pruett
  • Mercy Bradstreet
  • Michaiah
  • Milagros
  • Minister Caleb Drummond
  • Mother Agatha
  • Mother Angela
  • Mother Benedicta
  • Mother Hildegard
  • Mother Macrina
  • Mother Mary Clare
  • Mother Mary Gabriel
  • Mother Matrona
  • Mother Mechtild
  • Mother Thekla
  • Mu'min
  • Mufti Imran Qadri
  • Mufti Zakariyya
  • Mullah Ghulam Rasul
  • Muni Vimalprabha
  • Muralidhar
  • Myoshin

N: 8 names

  • Nathanael Wilmot
  • Natividad
  • Nechama
  • Netanel
  • Ngawang Rinchen
  • Ni'matullah
  • Noor al-Huda
  • Nuruddin Abbas

O: 2 names

  • Obedience Colby
  • Osric

P: 32 names

  • Padre Anselmo
  • Pandit Brijmohan Tiwari
  • Pandit Lakshminarayan Mishra
  • Pandit Ramakrishna Sharma
  • Pascual
  • Pastor Abigail Crowe
  • Pastor Deborah Nkemelu
  • Pastor Elias Thornbury
  • Pastor Esther Marlowe
  • Pastor Hosanna Reed
  • Pastor Jonah Winterbourne
  • Pastor Jotham Reyes
  • Pastor Lydia Marchbanks
  • Pastor Micah Ashworth
  • Pastor Miriam Oyelaran
  • Pastor Ruth Ellender
  • Pastor Thaddeus Moon
  • Pastor Zechariah Holt
  • Pater Benedikt
  • Patience Whitfield
  • Pema Lhamo
  • Père Jean-Baptiste
  • Piety Arkwright
  • Pir Murad
  • Praise-God Tindall
  • Preacher Ezra Dunmore
  • Preserved Hallett
  • Prior Lambert
  • Prioress Hedwig
  • Prudence Hale
  • Pujari Subramaniam
  • Pujari Venkatesh

Q: 1 name

  • Qari Mustafa Hakim

R: 78 names

  • Rabbi Akiva Stern
  • Rabbi Avigdor Klein
  • Rabbi Binyamin Zev
  • Rabbi Dovid Feinberg
  • Rabbi Elchanan Weiss
  • Rabbi Eliezer Halpern
  • Rabbi Elimelech Bloch
  • Rabbi Eliyahu Katz
  • Rabbi Ephraim Fishel
  • Rabbi Gershon Kahana
  • Rabbi Menachem Wolf
  • Rabbi Mordechai Leib
  • Rabbi Moshe Aharon
  • Rabbi Naftali Hirsch
  • Rabbi Pinchas Ehrlich
  • Rabbi Shimon Bar Zev
  • Rabbi Shlomo Halevi
  • Rabbi Shmuel Brodsky
  • Rabbi Simcha Greenbaum
  • Rabbi Tzadok Landau
  • Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi
  • Rabbi Yechezkel Rosen
  • Rabbi Yehoshua ben Avraham
  • Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh
  • Rabbi Yisroel Dov
  • Rabbi Yonatan Perlow
  • Rabbi Yosef Lieber
  • Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Adler
  • Radheshyam
  • Raheem
  • Rahmatullah
  • Ramprasad
  • Rav Asher Anshel
  • Rav Chaim Meir
  • Rav Daniel Ben-Tzion
  • Rav Ovadiah Ben-Shimon
  • Rav Uri Ben-Shalom
  • Rav Yitzchak
  • Rebbetzin Chana Leah

R, continued

  • Rebbetzin Devorah Rivka
  • Rebbetzin Esther Malka
  • Rebbetzin Malka Gittel
  • Rector Oswin Bellamy
  • Remedios
  • Remember Shaw
  • Repentance Oakes
  • Resolved Bancroft
  • Reverend Abner Cuthbertson
  • Reverend Absalom Greaves
  • Reverend Asa Whitfield
  • Reverend Bartholomew Quist
  • Reverend Cornelius Blythe
  • Reverend Cyrus Pemberton
  • Reverend Ebenezer Faulk
  • Reverend Eliab Sowerby
  • Reverend Elijah Sparrow
  • Reverend Ezekiel Hart
  • Reverend Gideon Falconer
  • Reverend Hezekiah Lamb
  • Reverend Ishmael Bracken
  • Reverend Jabez Cartwright
  • Reverend Jeremiah Kettle
  • Reverend Josiah Whitcombe
  • Reverend Keziah Blount
  • Reverend Lemuel Hastings
  • Reverend Malachi Stroud
  • Reverend Mercy Allingham
  • Reverend Nehemiah Crane
  • Reverend Obadiah Finch
  • Reverend Priscilla Dunne
  • Reverend Seth Abernathy
  • Reverend Silas Goodwin
  • Reverend Tabitha Greer
  • Reverend Tobiah Sunderland
  • Reverend Zephaniah Cole
  • Rinchen Palmo
  • Roshi Daishin
  • Ryoshin

S: 84 names

  • Sadhu Haridas
  • Sadhu Madhavdas
  • Sadhvi Anuradha
  • Sajida
  • Salahuddin Akhtar
  • Salik
  • Salvador
  • Sant Baba Harnam Singh
  • Saraswati Devi
  • Sayadaw U Kovida
  • Sayadaw U Nyanika
  • Schwester Hildegund
  • Sensei Kyogen
  • Shamsuddin Malik
  • Shaykh Isa ibn Dawud
  • Sheikh Abdul Hadi
  • Sheikh Abdus Samad
  • Sheikh Adnan al-Sabah
  • Sheikh Ahmad al-Hakim
  • Sheikh Badruddin
  • Sheikh Ilyas Nadwi
  • Sheikh Muhammad Nur
  • Sheikh Nuruddin
  • Sheikh Taqiuddin
  • Sheikh Ubaydullah
  • Sheikh Ya'qub
  • Sheikh Yusuf al-Rashid
  • Sheikha Ruqayya

S, continued

  • Shinryu
  • Shlomit
  • Shubael Treat
  • Siddiqa
  • Silence Pelham
  • Simranjit Singh
  • Sister Agnes Marie
  • Sister Assumpta
  • Sister Bernadette
  • Sister Catherine of Siena
  • Sister Clare Marie
  • Sister Concepta
  • Sister Dominica
  • Sister Emmanuel
  • Sister Evdokia
  • Sister Kassiani
  • Sister Lioba
  • Sister Marie-Bernard
  • Sister Mary Agnes
  • Sister Mary Benedict
  • Sister Mary Cecilia
  • Sister Mary Consolata
  • Sister Mary Faustina
  • Sister Mary Immaculata
  • Sister Mary Josephine
  • Sister Mary Loyola
  • Sister Mary Magdalen
  • Sister Mary of the Angels

S, continued

  • Sister Mary Pius
  • Sister Mary Raphael
  • Sister Mary Vianney
  • Sister Olympias
  • Sister Pelagia
  • Sister Perpetua
  • Sister Philomena
  • Sister Rose Marie
  • Sister Scholastica
  • Sister Teresa of the Cross
  • Sister Theodora
  • Sister Walburga
  • Sister Xenia
  • Soeur Marie-Thérèse
  • Soledad
  • Sonam Gyaltsen
  • Sunim Dojin
  • Sunim Hyegak
  • Sunim Hyewon
  • Swami Anandagiri
  • Swami Bhaktiprem
  • Swami Jnaneshwarananda
  • Swami Nityachaitanya
  • Swami Prabodhananda
  • Swami Satyananda
  • Swami Tattvananda
  • Swamini Atmaprakasha
  • Swamini Shraddhananda

T: 21 names

  • Taigen
  • Taqwa
  • Tashi Norbu
  • Tehila
  • Temperance Weld
  • Tenzin Choden
  • Teodora
  • Thankful Ames
  • Theodoric
  • Theodosia
  • Theokleia
  • Theophania
  • Thich Tam Duc
  • Thich Tue Minh
  • Thorbjorn
  • Thubten Nyima
  • Timothea
  • Tirzah
  • Trinidad
  • Truth Fairbanks
  • Tulsiram

U: 5 names

  • Unity Crossley
  • Uriel
  • Ustadh Bilal
  • Ustadha Khadija
  • Uzziel

V: 6 names

  • Venerable Anuruddha
  • Venerable Dhammika
  • Venkateswaran
  • Verity Blackwell
  • Vicar Edmund Hartley
  • Vishnupriya

W: 1 name

  • Wrestling Fenwick

Y: 4 names

  • Yehudit
  • Yochanan
  • Yogeshwar
  • Yogi Dhyanprakash

Z: 4 names

  • Zadkiel
  • Zeal Rushworth
  • Zebulon Cheever
  • Zipporah Goodnow