OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Drow Name Generator
Dark Elf Names With Noble Houses, Titles and House Mottoes for D&D
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How the Drow Name Generator works
This drow name generator makes drow names for the dark elves of the underground: full names with a noble house, first names alone, house names with the apostrophe in the middle, names with matriarchal titles such as Matron Mother or Weaponmaster, and houses with a rank, a city and a motto. Choose female, male or either and generate up to a hundred at once.
How the drow name generator works
Drow names have a sound all their own: doubled consonants, z and x and v in places English does not put them, a first name that hisses and a house name broken by an apostrophe. Female names run longer and end in -rae, -ithra or -vyn; male names are clipped and hard, Zaknyr, Ryzzt, Kelvraxx. The house name is the important half, because drow society is built on houses ranked against each other, and a drow is introduced by house before anything else.
This generator gives five kinds of result. Full name gives a first name with a house, occasionally styled "of House". First name only gives just the given name, for a batch of siblings or a temple of priestesses. House name gives the house alone, sometimes with an epithet, the Fallen House of Do'Tharen, for the family the party is about to offend. Name with title attaches a rank appropriate to the gender, since drow society is matriarchal: Matron, High Priestess and First Daughter for women; Weaponmaster, Patron and House Wizard for men, with the memo in the generator keeping the title matched to the name. House with motto gives the house, its rank in a city and its motto, for a full faction entry.
The gender option selects the first-name list and the title list together, so a Matron is never given a male name. Either mixes them per result.
The cities, houses and mottoes are original inventions for this section; drow names in published games share the apostrophe convention and a similar palette of sounds, so a house or first name here may echo one by coincidence, and none is reproduced. Search any name meant for commercial use.
For a broader dark elf register without the house structure, the elf page's Dark elf option; for the poison the house keeps, the potion page; and for the curse the house lays on its rivals, the curse page.
FAQ
Why do drow house names have apostrophes?
Convention. The apostrophe marks a glottal break between two syllables and has become the signature of dark elf naming in games, so a house without one reads as merely elven. Every house here has one, in the middle, and the two halves are built from the same sound palette as the first names.
Are the titles matched to gender?
Yes. Drow society is matriarchal in almost every setting, so Matron, Priestess and First Daughter go to female names and Weaponmaster, Patron and House Wizard to male names. The generator keeps the pair matched within each result even when the gender option is set to Either.
What is the difference between this page and the elf page's dark elf option?
Structure. The elf page gives a dark elf first name and surname in a general gothic register. This page adds the house system, the titles, the city ranks and the mottoes that make a drow a drow, and the names lean harder into the hissing, apostrophe-broken style.
How do I build a drow city?
Generate ten houses with mottoes, rank them, then a name with title for the matron of each and a batch of full names for their children and weaponmasters. The rank in the motto results gives you the political map; the mottoes give you the tone of each house.
Are any of these names from published works?
No. The houses, cities and mottoes are original and no published drow house or character is reproduced. Drow names share a small palette of sounds across games, so a coincidental match with some published name is possible and worth a search before commercial use.
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