How to Come Up With Your Own Elven Names
A step-by-step way to build your own elven names, with a free builder that follows your rules.
To come up with elven names, pick a feel, build names from a start and an ending, and give the parts meanings if you want them. Then say each name aloud and check it isn't already famous. This guide walks through each step, with a builder near the end that makes names from your own rules.
Decide what the name should feel like
Before you write a single letter, pick a feel. Is this elf gentle and musical, old and formal, or sharp and a little dangerous? That one choice decides most of what follows.
Soft names lean on l, n, m, th, and open vowels. Sharp names use k, z, x, and tight clusters like dr or kr. Formal names are simply longer. On this site, wood elf names lean soft and short, high elf names lean long, and drow names lean sharp.
Build from a prefix and a suffix
Most elven naming conventions, in games and in fan writing, come down to the same shape: a start (a prefix), an optional middle, and an ending (a suffix). Write a short list of each. Starts carry the main sound of the name; elf name suffixes often carry a hint of gender or role.
Here are a few starts and endings from this site's wood elf tables, to show the idea:
| Part | Position | Say it | Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bel | Start | bel | leaf |
| Orl | Start | orl | bark |
| Yl | Start | eel | (describes) young |
| Rha | Start | rah | ridge |
| -a | Ending | ah | (describes) graceful |
| -elle | Ending | el | bell |
| -dil | Ending | dil | friend |
| -ian | Ending | ee-an | (describes) faithful |
Mix one start with one ending and say it aloud. If it sounds good, add a middle part for a longer version. If two vowels crash together, add a consonant between them.
Give the parts meanings, if you want them
If you'd like your names to mean something, give each part a short meaning as you write it: oak, river, quiet, bright. Then a name's meaning is just its parts read together. That's exactly how the constructed meanings on this site work.
Keep your list written down. Once a part means "river" in one name, let it mean river everywhere, and your setting will start to feel like it has a real language underneath.
Watch out for -riel and other famous pieces
Some endings are so tied to famous characters that they read as borrowed. The big one is -riel. In Tolkien's Sindarin it means "crowned maiden" and it's the end of Galadriel (Eldamo). Because Galadriel is so well known, -riel turns up in a huge number of fan-made names.
You can still use it. Just know it'll make readers think of Tolkien. If you want your elves to feel like their own people, pick an ending nobody associates with a famous character, or invent one.
Be careful with Tolkien's languages
Sindarin and Quenya are real constructed languages with grammar. When their words join, sounds change. In Arwen, gwend "maiden" becomes -wen (Eldamo). Gluing two roots together without those changes gives you a name built from attested roots, not a real Sindarin name.
If accuracy matters, for a Tolkien fan project say, look names up in a lexicon like Eldamo and follow its notes. If it doesn't, invent freely and don't claim the result is Elvish.
Try your own rules
Set a few rules below and build ten names from them. Choose whether the name starts with a vowel or a consonant, how many syllables it has, how it ends, and whether it sounds soft or sharp. You can type your own ending of up to four letters.
Test the name before you keep it
- Say it out loud a few times. Anywhere you hesitate is a spot where your players or readers will hesitate too.
- Search it. Make sure it isn't a famous character or a real word in another language that means something you didn't intend.
- Write it next to your other names. If every name in your story starts with the same letter or ends the same way, change a few.