Goblin Name Generator

Small, quick and a little grim

Goblins have lurked at the edge of European folklore for centuries: small, quick, greedy, sometimes funny and sometimes frightening. Their names should be the same. Ours are short (three to eight letters), with a sharp beginning and an ending that clicks or squelches, and they are stressed on the first beat, so you can shout one across a cave. The list on this page begins with Swibb of the Bent Ditch, said swib.

The goblin is a creature of shared folklore, not of any one game, so every syllable here is our own and well-known goblins from books, films and games are blocked.

Sneaky and grubby

• Sneaky goblins have thin, hissing names with s, k, z and x: the scouts, thieves and lookouts. Their endings, -kkit, -zzik or -bbet, sound like something scuttling.
• Grubby goblins have round, muddy names with b, d, g and m: the diggers, cooks and hoarders. Their endings, -bbins, -dge or -mble, sound like something being stirred.

Each name can carry one doubled consonant per pair (one kk, one zz), never three letters in a row, and no part twice, so a crowd of goblins stays easy to tell apart.

Deed-names, titles and tribes

Goblins rarely get a family name. They get a reputation instead, in one of three forms: a deed-name for what they are known to steal, chew or find (Candlethief, Bonepicker, Spoonsnatcher), a title that other goblins gave them and they wear with pride anyway (the Damp, the Thrice-Bitten), or a tribe named after something battered in the warren (of the Bent Nail, of the Leaking Bucket). No form takes more than four names in ten, so a list mixes all three.