Zine Name Generator

Zine titles have their own grammar, shaped by decades of photocopied punk fanzines, riot grrrl perzines and art-school minis. The best ones are short, usually one to three words, and they borrow from the physical world of making the thing: toner, staples, glue sticks, scissors, copy shops, mail boxes and bedroom floors. A title like Paper Cuts or Low Ink tells the reader you know the medium. Others take an overheard or found phrase and make it the whole point, so signs (Wet Paint, Out of Order), school slips (Detention Slip, Permission Slip) and customer-service filler (On Hold, Ask Again Later) all work once they are hand-lettered on a cover.

Perzines, the personal diary-style zines, lean toward confessional and small-scale titles: Sad Girl Hours, Dear Nobody, Unsent Letters, Small Hours. Music and punk fanzines want noise and gear (Amp Hum, Fuzz Pedal, Basement Show), skate and street zines want concrete (Curb Wax, Loading Dock), and art or comics zines often go absurd or cryptid (Mothman Mail, Jackalope Journal). Queer and feminist zines frequently reclaim an insult or a slogan. Whatever the genre, avoid anything that sounds like a glossy magazine; a zine name should feel like it was typed on a broken typewriter and stapled twice.