Werebear Name Generator

Werebears are the gentle giants of lycanthrope lore. In Dungeons & Dragons they are usually lawful good hermits guarding a stretch of forest; in Tolkien, Beorn the skin-changer keeps bees and hates goblins; in Norse saga, the berserkr (literally bear-shirt) fights in a bear's fury. Good werebear names borrow from all three: they sound older and heavier than werewolf names, and they very often hide the word bear inside them.

Almost every European language has bear-names you can use. Norse and Germanic give Bjorn, Bersi, Bjarki, Torbjorn, Bernhard, Osborn (god-bear) and the female Bera, Birna and Bjorg. Old English has the Beorn- names (Beornwulf, Beornred). Celtic bear-words give Artair, Artos, Arthur and Irish Mathan; Slavic gives Medved and the affectionate Mishka; Finnish has Otso, Ohto, Karhu and the folk-taboo name Mesikämmen (honey-paw). Latin and Greek add Ursula, Orso, Orsino, Arktos and the myth of Callisto and Arcas.

Pair a bear-rooted given name with a surname that says where the den is (Hollowoak, Mosshollow, Barrowmere, Frosthollow) or what the hide looks like (Thickpelt, Russetcoat, Greymuzzle). For clan-style or saga characters, an earned byname works even better: Halvard the Unsleeping, Gunnar Eats-the-Hive, Hilde of the Birch Sleuth. A sleuth, incidentally, is the collective noun for bears, and makes a good word for a werebear family.