Island Name Generator
Island, atoll and skerry names built from real Norse and Gaelic sea vocabulary: -ey, -holm, -sker, -inish and -ness, each element glossed.
3,224 combinations in this form
Island names, each with the meaning of every element shown.
- Tidevoe
Tide rising water + voe narrow inlet
- Fuglsound
Fugl bird + sound strait
- Ebbhead
Ebb ebb tide + head headland
- Barereef
Bare treeless + reef submerged ridge
- Svalinnis
Sval cool + innis island
- Bleaksound
Bleak cold and exposed + sound strait
- Kelprocks
Kelp brown seaweed + rocks stone outcrops
- Keelstrand
Keel ship's spine + strand shore
- Skuaholms
Skua skuas + holms islets
- Ternstack
Tern terns + stack sea stack
- Keelaird
Keel ship's spine + aird high promontory
- Herringtaing
Herring silver shoal fish + taing low point
- Sailshoal
Sail spread canvas + shoal sandy shallows
- Stormaird
Storm tempest + aird high promontory
- Waveholms
Wave waves + holms islets
- Ebbness
Ebb ebb tide + ness headland
- Mistholm
Mist fine haze + holm islet
- Hiddenkyle
Hidden concealed + kyle narrows
- Innercay
Inner nearer the shore + cay low island
- Codrocks
Cod cold-water fish + rocks stone outcrops
- Coralnoup
Coral reef stone + noup steep headland
- Bleaktaing
Bleak cold and exposed + taing low point
- Flatcay
Flat level and low + cay low island
- Sealbight
Seal seals + bight wide bay
Need a name that means something in particular? Build one from its meaning.
How island names are built
¶Almost every island name in northern Europe ends in a word that simply means island. Old Norse ey is the commonest: Orkney, Lundy, Jersey, Anglesey and Ramsey all carry it, worn down to -ey, -ay, -oy or -y. Anglesey is the Angles' island, Lundy the puffin island, from lundi. Because ey attaches to any first element, Norse settlers could name a whole archipelago in an afternoon and the names still work exactly the same way today.
The rest of the vocabulary marks size. A holmr is a small islet, often tidal, and it gave Stockholm, Flatholm and Steepholm. A sker is a bare rock that ships hit, which English borrowed as skerry. A stack is a pillar of rock left standing offshore. Tropical charts add their own layer: cay and key from Spanish cayo, atoll from Dhivehi, and reef, bank and shoal for the things that are barely islands at all.
Headlands use their own set, and the two often sit side by side on a coast. Norse nes gave -ness and, softened, -naze; Gaelic maol gave Mull; Orcadian and Shetland charts are full of voes, geos, taings and noups. Gaelic and Irish supply inch, innis and inish, all from innis, island. Pair any of them with a seabird, a wreck, a weather word or a saint and the result reads like a real chart.
More island names
Names island names
- Mistholms fine haze islets
- Galekey strong wind low island
- Outercove farther seaward sheltered inlet
- Fuglay bird island
- Pearlay sea gem island
- Outervoe farther seaward narrow inlet
- Dulseeyot edible seaweed river islet
- Bleakcalf cold and exposed lesser island
- Gannetcay gannets low island
- Bleakkyle cold and exposed narrows
- Curlewskaw curlews jutting cape
- Mastsands ship's spar stretch of sand
- Langholms long islets
- Outeroy farther seaward island
- Codkey cold-water fish low island
- Skuabrough skuas fortified islet
- Petrelkyle petrels narrows
- Foamkey sea froth low island
Questions
What does -ey mean at the end of an island name?
It is Old Norse ey, meaning island, and it is the single most common island ending in Britain and Scandinavia. Orkney, Lundy, Sheppey and Jersey all end in it, sometimes spelled -ay, -oy or just -y. Because it is short and unstressed it will attach to almost any first element without sounding forced.
What is the difference between an island, an islet and a skerry?
An island is large enough to work or live on. An islet, from Norse holmr, is small and often tidal, sometimes just a grassy hump in a river. A skerry, from Norse sker, is bare rock with no soil, dangerous to shipping and usually named as a warning rather than as a place.
What is the difference between a cay and a key?
None, really. Both come from Spanish cayo, a low sandy island built on coral, and key is simply the anglicised spelling used in Florida and the Caribbean. Use cay for a chart that feels Spanish or Atlantic, and key for one that feels American. Atoll, from Dhivehi atolu, describes a ring of them round a lagoon.
How do I name a fantasy island chain?
Choose one island word and repeat it across the group so the chain reads as one archipelago, then vary the first elements: seabirds, seals, weather, wrecks, saints, colours. That is how the Orkneys and the Faroes work. Reserve a different ending, such as -skerry or -stack, for the rocks nobody lives on.