Character Name Generator
Pick a setting and a gender, generate 10 full names, and keep the one that sounds like your character.
Create a character card — no sign-upThis character name generator draws from a hand-picked bank of about 630 first names and 190 surnames matched to each setting: contemporary, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, xianxia and palace drama, and fantasy commoners. Choose a setting, choose male, female or any, and press Generate names to get 10 names. Xianxia names put the family name first, in pinyin; fantasy commoners go by a single short name. Copy any name in one click, or start a character card with it. Every press brings a new list.
Generate character names
Pick a setting and a gender, then press Generate names to get 10 full names. Copy any of them in one click, or create a character with that name right away.
- Chloe Kowalski Create a character with this name
- Saoirse Reyes Create a character with this name
- Luca Ashgrove Create a character with this name
- Miles Hartley Create a character with this name
- Theo Whitfield Create a character with this name
- Tom Ashby Create a character with this name
- Naomi Osei Create a character with this name
- Sienna Jansen Create a character with this name
- Emory Barros Create a character with this name
- Amara Mendez Create a character with this name
Template preview
A few names from each setting
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Contemporary · male | Owen Hollis, Caspian Thorne, Idris Okafor |
| Contemporary · female | Nadia Reyes, Saoirse Lindqvist, Margot Calloway |
| Historical · male | Josiah Pemberton, Thaddeus Hargrave, Silas Crowther |
| Historical · female | Cordelia Ashcombe, Prudence Wingate, Harriet Fenwick |
| Fantasy · male | Corin Thornvale, Aldric Duskwater, Kael Fletcher |
| Fantasy · female | Elowen Stonemere, Nerys Ravenmoor, Aisling Warden |
| Sci-fi · male | Zander Okoro, Vikram Lindahl, Rix Varga |
| Sci-fi · female | Yara Castell, Juno Ibarra, Kess Voss |
| Xianxia · male | Shen Changfeng, Murong Jingchen, Gu Huaijin |
| Xianxia · female | Su Qingyi, Shangguan Ruoxue, Jiang Qingshuang |
| Fantasy commoners · male | Hob, Tam, Wat |
| Fantasy commoners · female | Tansy, Maud, Tilly |
Xianxia, wuxia and Chinese fantasy names
These names follow the spelling English cultivation novels and drama subtitles use: Hanyu pinyin, no tone marks, the family name first, and a one- or two-syllable given name written as a single word (Shen Rui, Murong Jingchen, Su Qingyi). Six two-syllable family names (Murong, Shangguan, Ouyang, Nangong, Dugu, Situ) give a clan or a great house extra weight.
The same setting works as a wuxia name generator. Wuxia heroes live in the martial world of sects, swords and rival schools; xianxia heroes chase immortality through cultivation. Both genres name their characters the same way, so the bank serves either. What changes is what surrounds the name: a wuxia swordsman often earns a nickname from the jianghu (the Swift Blade of the South), while a cultivator may take a Daoist name when entering a sect.
A few letters read differently from English. A quick guide for you and your readers:
- x sounds close to sh: Xiyue is roughly SHEE-yweh.
- q sounds close to ch: Qingyi is roughly CHING-yee.
- zh sounds close to j in jam: Tingzhou is roughly TING-joe.
- c sounds like ts in cats: Cangyu is roughly TSAHNG-yoo.
Before settling on a lead's name, search the full name together with xianxia or C-drama. This bank leaves out famous protagonists, but with so many translated web novels, popular combinations turn up in more than one book.
Names for fantasy commoners
Farmhands, innkeepers, soldiers in the ranks: in many fantasy worlds the people outside the noble houses have no family name at all. This setting gives them one short given name, one or two syllables, so they sound plain next to Aldric Duskwater.
When a commoner needs a second name later, build it the way English surnames formed: from a parent (Tam Hobson), a trade (Tam Miller) or a place (Tilly of the Ford). A character who gains a surname mid-story has usually moved up in the world, and readers notice.
How to fill in this template
Pick your main cast from one setting. Names from the same setting sound like they belong together, so the cast reads as one world. If your story has two cultures, generate a list for each and keep them apart.
Ten names at a time is plenty. Pick one or two that are easy to say, then check them against the rest of the cast: different first letters, different syllable counts, different stress.
Match the sound to the character. Sharp, clipped names (Kest, Bram, Voss) often feel tough or direct, while flowing vowels and softer consonants (Elowen, Marisol) read as lyrical or gentle.
Before you commit, search the full name once. If the first page belongs to a famous person or another book's protagonist, generate again.
In xianxia and palace drama, the family name comes first: in Shen Changfeng, Shen is the family or clan name and Changfeng is the given name. To link siblings, cousins or sect disciples of one generation, give them the same first syllable (Qinghe, Qinglang, Qingshuang), the way Chinese families use a generation name.
Fantasy commoners go by one name. When a village has two Tams, people tell them apart by trade, parent or place: Tam the miller, Hob's Tam, Tam from the ford. That habit says more about the setting than an invented surname would.
Fill the template in four steps
Choose a setting
Contemporary, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, xianxia and palace drama, or fantasy commoners. Each setting has its own given names, surnames and name order.
Choose a gender
Male, female or any. Any mixes both lists in one go.
Press Generate names
Ten full names appear. Not quite right? Press it again.
Copy a name or start a character
Copy the name, or press Create a character with this name to open a character card with the name filled in.
Better together
Don't want to draw the table yourself? Do it with LitMemo
This template maps to these LitMemo features — fill it in online and everything auto-links:
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Frequently asked questions
Where do the names come from?
How do I get a fantasy name with a surname?
How do I get a Chinese-style name for a xianxia or cultivation novel?
Can I use this as a wuxia name generator?
Why do fantasy commoner names have no surname?
Why do some names show up for both male and female characters?
Can I use the names in my book?
Can I save a name to a character profile?
Fill it in online — make the character card right here
Start without signing up, then link the character to foreshadowing and chapters