Medieval Name Generator

Real names from real records

Most medieval name generators mix modern guesses with fantasy. This one starts from the records. We took given names from four published editions of medieval documents: the Worcestershire lay subsidy roll of about 1280 and the West Riding poll tax of 1379 for English, the Paris tax roll of 1292 for French, and the Zürich tax rolls from 1357 for German. The selection and the spelling clean-up are ours.

A small model learns which letters tend to follow which in those lists, then writes new names in the same patterns. Every name is labelled: historical means it is in our list from the records, invented means the model made it. At most half of any list is historical, so you get period names and fresh ones side by side. Only the model is sent to your browser, never the lists.

How medieval people were named

Medieval Europe used surprisingly few given names. In the 1379 Yorkshire returns, John, William, Thomas, Robert and Richard alone cover a large share of the men, and Alice, Joan and Agnes many of the women. That is why by-names mattered: they told one John from another.

• Trade names said what you did: Webster (weaver), Milner, le Barbier, Müller.
• Nicknames described you: Broune, le Petit, Fuchs (fox).
• Place names said where you lived or came from: atte Wode (at the wood), del Grene, de Wentworth, von Glarus.
• Kin names named a parent: Jakson, Dobson, Hancok.

In England these by-names were only becoming fixed family surnames during this period, so a son did not always share his father's.

Women's names and by-names

The records show women's by-names working differently by region. In Paris a woman might carry a feminine trade name such as la Regratière (the retailer); in Zürich a by-name often took the feminine ending -in, as in Mülnerin. The generator uses those attested forms for women, which is why the first names on this page, such as Mabel de Halyfax, may come with a by-name you won't find in a modern list.