About Character Name Generator
What It Does
The Character Name Generator produces character names for fiction and tabletop games in three modes: realistic, fantasy, and science fiction. It runs entirely in your browser — pick a mode and options, generate a batch, and pin the ones you like.
Realistic Names
Realistic names are drawn from bundled public-domain and CC0 datasets — no name is invented:
- English by era — first names from the U.S. Social Security Administration, aggregated into three eras (Victorian 1880–1919, Early/Mid-Century 1920–1969, Modern 1990–present) and split by recorded sex.
- English surnames — the most common U.S. surnames from the 2010 Census.
- World cultures — Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Indian, and Nordic forenames and surnames (romanized), from the open popular-names-by-country dataset.
Because the source data varies by culture, a few cultures have first names only. Where surnames aren't available, the surname toggle simply has no effect for that culture.
Fantasy & Sci-Fi Names
Fantasy and sci-fi names are not from a dataset — they're built on the fly from hand-authored syllable part-sets and join rules, one per style:
- Fantasy — elvish (soft and vowel-rich), dwarvish (short and guttural), orcish (harsh consonant clusters), and human-medieval (Anglo/Germanic roots).
- Sci-Fi — human-future (sleek and clipped) and alien (exotic clusters with the occasional apostrophe).
Each name is assembled from a prefix, an optional middle syllable, and a suffix, with a join rule that smooths awkward seams so the result reads right. Surnames in these modes come from curated house, clan, and family-name lists that match each style's flavor.
Features
- Three modes with mode-specific controls (culture/era/gender, or style)
- Adjustable count and an include-surname toggle
- Copy a single name or the entire batch
- Pin favorites to a session list and copy them together
- Generate more without losing your pinned names
Licensing
The underlying name data is public domain (U.S. government works) or CC0. The authored fantasy and sci-fi syllable systems are original content. Names you generate are yours to use freely, including in commercial projects. See the tool page and the bundled DATA-SOURCES.md for source details.
Privacy
Everything runs in your browser. No data is sent to any server.