Watership Down Name Generator

Richard Adams named his rabbits in two registers, and a convincing Watership Down name comes from one of them. Most of the Sandleford bucks carry plain English countryside names, usually plants a rabbit would actually meet on a Hampshire down: Hazel, Blackberry, Dandelion, Buckthorn, Speedwell, Hawkbit, Silverweed, Cowslip. A few are named for a feature or habit instead, like Bigwig (for his fur), Silver, Pipkin, Haystack and Boxwood. Efrafan officers follow the same pattern with slightly sterner plants: Campion, Vervain, Chervil, Woundwort, Charlock.

The second register is Lapine, the rabbits' own language. Does and mythic figures often keep their untranslated names: Hyzenthlay (shine-dew-fur), Thethuthinnang (movement of leaves), Nildro-hain (blackbird's song), Hlao-roo (little Pipkin), Thlayli (Bigwig), El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé. Lapine favours soft clusters like hl, hr, th and thl, endings in -ay, -il, -ao and -ang, and hyphenated compounds built from real roots: roo for little, rah for chief, hain for song, marli for mother, Frith for the sun and Inlé for the moon.

This generator mixes canon names with new ones from both traditions. For a buck, an English hedgerow plant almost always sounds right; for a doe, a seer or a legendary figure, reach for a Lapine name and give it a small meaning of your own.