ken|ning

Build a name from its meaning

Say what the name should mean. Kenning finds the naming traditions that can say it, and builds names out of fragments that carry those meanings.

    Names meaning wolf

    Worked example

    This is what the tool returns for a single meaning, rendered here so the page works without JavaScript. Each row shows the two fragments the name is made of and what each one means in its own tradition.

    1. Hierolykos

      Hiero sacred + lykos wolf

      sacred wolf

      from the set Greek

    2. Ulfbite

      Ulf wolf + bite jaw snap

      wolf jaw snap

      from the set Werewolf

    3. Escutwulf

      Escut shield + wulf wolf

      shield wolf

      from the set Griffin

    4. Fox the Wolf

      Fox bushy-tailed hunter + the Wolf wolf

      bushy-tailed hunter wolf

      from the set Nickname

    5. Bernulphe

      Bern bear + ulphe wolf

      bear wolf

      from the set French

    6. Deorfaol

      Deor tear + faol wolf

      tear wolf

      from the set Banshee

    7. Lykosthena

      Lyko wolf + sthena vigour

      wolf vigour

      from the set Centaur

    8. Virtuulf

      Virtu virtue + ulf wolf

      virtue wolf

      from the set Paladin

    How the engine finds them

    Method

    Every fragment in the corpus is filed under what it means, not under how it sounds. Old Norse ulf and Old English wulf and Welsh bleidd all sit under the same entry, because a reader who wants a name meaning wolf does not care which language spells it which way. Asking for a meaning is therefore a lookup, not a search: the engine already knows every fragment that carries it and which half of a name each one can occupy.

    Asking for two meanings is where it gets interesting, because the pair has to exist inside one tradition. A name is an opening fragment plus a closing one, and the two have to come from the same naming system or the result is a word in no language at all. So the engine looks for traditions where one of your meanings can open a name and the other can close it, and shows you only what those traditions can actually build. If nothing comes back, that combination genuinely does not exist in the corpus rather than having been hidden from you.

    Nothing here is invented at the moment you press the button. The fragments were placed by hand, one tradition at a time, with the meaning of each one written down beside it; the engine only decides which of them can stand next to which. That is also why a name it gives you is identical to the same name on its tradition's own page — both run the same rules for seams, for forms, and for the combinations a set refuses to make.

    Start from a meaning

    Lexicon

    Each of these opens the full entry for that meaning: every tradition that has a word for it, the fragments themselves, and where in a name they sit.

    Questions

    FAQ
    How do I get a name that means two things?
    Fill in both fields. The engine then looks for a tradition where one meaning can open a name and the other can close it, which is how compound names work in most of the systems here — Old Norse, Old English, Welsh, Germanic and the fantasy sets built on them. Some pairs exist in a dozen traditions and some in none, and the result tells you which.
    Why does a meaning I typed return nothing?
    Either no tradition in the corpus has a fragment for it, or the two meanings you asked for never meet inside one tradition. The field only suggests meanings that exist, so the second case is the usual one. Widen it by dropping the second meaning, or by picking a neighbouring sense — wolf and hound, or moon and night — which often sits in a tradition the first pair does not.
    Are these real names?
    They are real fragments, combined the way that tradition combines them. In the sets built on a living or recorded language the elements are attested and glossed from standard references, so a name is one that language could have formed; in the invented sets — elf, dragonborn, and the rest — the elements are consistent within the set rather than historical. Which kind you are looking at is named under every result.
    Can I use these names for anything?
    Yes, including commercially. A generated name is yours and needs no credit — for a character, a campaign, a band, a business or anything else. The one thing worth checking yourself is whether a name you intend to trade under is already in use by someone else, which no generator can tell you.