Witch Hunter Name Generator

The witch hunter of fiction is a composite of three real historical figures, and each left its own naming style. The English Puritan witchfinder of the 1640s, Matthew Hopkins being the model, carried a stern Old Testament given name (Obadiah, Ezekiel, Hezekiah, Mehitabel) or a hortatory virtue name (Fear-Not, Be-Steadfast, Kill-Sin, Hopestill) attached to a plain English surname. The German Hexenkommissar of the Holy Roman Empire trials was a jurist or cleric with a heavy Germanic name like Balthasar Nuss or Friedrich Forner, and Scottish witch-prickers were tradesmen with solid Lowland surnames like Kincaid, Cockburn and Rutherford.

Fantasy witch hunters, from Warhammer's Victor Saltzpyre and Mathias Thulmann to Solomon Kane, keep that period feel but sharpen the surname: Ashpyre, Blackcandle, Gallowglass, Ironbrand. The trick is restraint. One grim element per name is enough, and the given name should stay devout and plausible, so that the character reads as a person with a profession rather than a walking stake.

This list mixes authentic seventeenth-century English, German, Scottish, Dutch, French and Spanish names with original fantasy zealots, plus titled forms (Witchfinder, Hexenjager, Pricker, Inquisitor, Brother, Goodwife) for NPC sheets and character introductions. The few historical names included are long dead and are there to anchor the tone.