Siren Name Generator

The original sirens were not mermaids but bird-bodied women who sang sailors to their deaths off the coast of Italy. Greek writers named them: Parthenope ('maiden-voice'), Leucosia ('white being'), Ligeia ('clear-toned'), Thelxiepeia ('enchanting words'), Aglaope ('splendid voice'), Peisinoe ('persuading mind'), Molpe ('song'), and Himerope ('longing voice'). Almost every siren name is Greek for a quality of voice or persuasion, which is the single most useful rule for coining a new one. The city of Naples was built where Parthenope's body washed ashore, and their island was Anthemoessa, 'flowery'.

Medieval and later folklore turned sirens into fish-tailed singers and gave the type new names across Europe: the German Lorelei on her Rhine rock, the French Melusine, the Slavic Rusalka, the Scottish Ceasg, and the Irish Merrow. Modern fantasy borrows freely from the Nereids (Thetis, Galatea, Cymothoe, Halimede), whose names describe waves, calm, and sea-light, and from words for music itself (Aria, Cadenza, Lyra, Melody).

The names below are grouped loosely by that history: attested sirens first, then Nereids and sea deities, then song-and-water names that sound like they belong on a reef, so you can pick a register that suits a Percy Jackson-style retelling, a gothic romance, or a D&D encounter.