Half-Orc Name Generator

Names with something to prove

Half-orcs in fantasy often live between two peoples who don't fully accept them, and their names show it. One raised in an orc camp carries a blunt orcish name; one raised in a human village gets a plain human one; and some wear a name that is visibly half of each. Every name in a mixed list here says which:

• Orcish + human: an orcish given name with a human family name.
• Human + orcish: a human given name with an orcish deed-name or clan epithet.
• Blended: a given name built from both sounds, with a family name from either side.

The list on this page begins with Kraglind Rotear (Blended).

How the blend works

Our blended grammar uses parts of our orc and human grammars. One half sets a human beginning before an orcish ending: Bram- with -ak, Wil- with -ash, Hal- with -sha. The other half sets an orcish beginning before a human ending: Grak- with -mund, Maz- with -ric, Urg- with -hild. The rules of both grammars still apply: no doubled vowels, no doubled consonants such as kk at a join, and a few harsh clusters that look like typos (-lrg-, -krg-) are not allowed at all.

Orcish names here come from our orc grammar in both its harsh and clan styles; human names come from all three of our human regions.

Deed-names and family names

From the orcish side a half-orc may carry a deed-name, a compound earned by doing something hard to forget (Tuskbreaker, Ashgnasher), or a clan epithet such as of the Broken Tusk. From the human side they get an ordinary family name or the name of a town. A half-orc with a gentle human name and a fearsome deed-name, or the other way round, is a character in four words.