Spooky Island Name Generator

The scariest island names on any chart are usually real. Britain's coasts alone offer Deadman's Island, Gallows Point, and the Isle of the Dead in Tasmania; the Caribbean has Isla Muerta and Dead Chest Island; and the Great Lakes have Manitou and Skull Island. What these have in common is that they were named by sailors, fishermen, and coastal villagers describing something they saw or feared: a wreck, a gibbet, a fever quarantine, a lost boat, a bell that rang under water. A spooky fictional island name works the same way. It should read as if it were penned onto a chart in the 1700s, not as if it were invented for a haunted house.

Generic words in place names carry a lot of atmosphere. "Holm" and "Skerry" are Norse-derived British terms for a small islet and a rocky reef; "Cay" and "Key" mark Caribbean and Floridan islets; "Reach" and "Point" suggest a headland sailors had to round. Pairing them with a grim specific (Hangman's Holm, Widow's Cay, Gallows Reach) produces a name that feels found rather than made. Saints' names, plural sisters ("the Grey Sisters"), and stories embedded in the name ("Isle of the Missing Fishermen") add folk-horror texture.

This generator draws on all of those conventions, in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, so you can name the setting of a horror novel, a cursed island for a pirate or Sea of Thieves-style campaign, a D&D adventure location, or a Halloween treasure map.