Dwarf name generator

Generate a batch of dwarf names, given name and compound surname together, or take one of the fifty further down the page. The surnames pair a stone or a metal with a trade, which is how most holds do it.

253,392 possible names · Written and checked by Wren Calloway

Each batch carries a seed number. Paste the link into a game chat and everyone sees the same list. Batch number 254346

50 dwarf names with surnames

Chosen one at a time for how they sit in the mouth, with a note on the trade or the hold that each surname implies.

The double n is the old Norse spelling and it drags the ending out half a beat. Ironbeard is the plainest surname a dwarf can carry, which is why it never sounds invented.
Two even syllables in front, rock and armour behind. This is the dwarf name to hand a party leader who has to be shouted at across a crowded hall.
Ends on the i that runs through half the oldest dwarf lists. Deepdelve tells you the family digs for a living rather than fights for one.
The doubled r drags the ending out and makes the name sound spoken rather than written. A hewer works a pick, so this one starts underground.
Torgund lands hard on the d and Flintfist piles two more stops on top of it. The whole name is one long thud.
A short, friendly given name against a surname that describes a body worn out by a trade. It suits an older dwarf who still works a seam every day.
A binder works with heat and rune rather than a hammer, so this reads as a smith of the strange sort instead of a soldier.
One of the female forms here. Vigdis is sharp at the front, and Runewarden gives her an office rather than a trade.
Two syllables and a surname taken from a shaft that runs through rock salt. Not a grand dwarf name, and that is exactly the appeal.
The gnv cluster is the hardest thing to say on the page. Marblehand puts a carving chisel in his fist instead of an axe.
Yngvi comes straight out of the old dwarf catalogues, and Copperjaw suggests a face that has been rebuilt at least once.
Skagund is blunt and northern. Quartzheart belongs to a family that struck something valuable and has never once stopped mentioning it.
Ends open, which is unusual for a male name in this set. The mantle in the surname is a cloak of office, not a garment.
Thrym is a giant name borrowed by a dwarf clan, so the character begins with something to prove to everyone in the hold.
Falkir has a hawk sound in the first syllable. Amber in a surname usually marks a family that trades stock rather than cutting it.
A female dwarf name with no soft edges anywhere in it. Frostshield is the surname of a house that guards a high pass.
Morgin is quiet for a dwarf, and Deepshaper is the title of the person who decides where a new tunnel is allowed to go.
The hr opening is authentically Norse and awkward in most other mouths. Basalt puts the family somewhere with a volcano above it.
Vargur means wolf in the old speech, which is a strange thing for a dwarf to be called, and that is the hook for the character.
A day name, given to a child born at first light. Set against Ironmantle it reads as a dwarf who inherited a duty far too young.
Four syllables in the given name alone, so the table will cut it to Bram inside one session. Stonewarden survives the cut intact.
Thekk turns up in the oldest dwarf lists and the extra i turns it into a nickname. Coalfist is about as plain as a surname gets.
Orm is the old word for a serpent, which is a rare thing to find on a dwarf. Silverbinder implies fine work rather than heavy work.
Heavy at both ends with a hum in the middle. This is the dwarf name for a shift foreman rather than for a lord.
Korgald grinds in the middle. Flintbrow describes a permanent expression, which most dwarves would take as a compliment.
The ulfr ending is a wolf suffix lifted straight out of Icelandic. Saltdelve names the shaft the family has worked for six generations.
A female dwarf name that stays warm the whole way through, which is something almost nothing else on this list manages.
Short, clipped and easy to shout down a tunnel. Quartzhand belongs to a family of cutters rather than to miners.
Halvard is the most human sounding name here, so it works well for a dwarf raised in a trading town rather than a hold.
Drogi drops at the end like a tool put down on stone. Marblebeard turns grey hair into an inherited family trait.
Two thudding syllables and a surname with four more behind them. It fits a dwarf who gets described before he gets introduced.
Vigur carries a battle root, so the name is already aggressive before the surname turns up and makes it ceremonial.
Long, rolling and faintly archaic. Coldshield is a hold name that became a family name after one very famous siege.
Bramir is broad and open at the front. Granitejaw is what the rest of the hold calls the family whether they like it or not.
Skagi is a headland word, so the family reached the mountain from a coast rather than being born under it.
Torgald has thunder in the first syllable. Ambershaper drops the volume again, and that tension is the useful part of the name.
A female dwarf name assembled from the same pieces as the male ones, with a single a at the end doing all of the work.
Grim at the front and a posting at the back. It suits a gate keeper who has held the same door for eighty years.
Hrokir sounds like a bird call in the old tongue. Copperdelve tells you precisely which shaft the family owns.
Kolmald is cold and metallic. A binder of frost is a strange trade, which is a reason for the party to ask about it.
Yngvar is a genuine Norse name and needs no fantasy respelling at all. Deepmantle marks a family that rarely comes to the surface.
Vargi is short enough to pass for a nickname, and Slatehammer is heavy enough to balance it out.
The ulf ending brings a wolf edge that most dwarf names do without. Emberhand is a burn scar promoted to a surname.
Morgi is soft for a dwarf and the surname is not, which makes the pair useful for a character everyone underestimates.
Brumi is round and easy to say. Stonefist is the least imaginative dwarf surname available and it works perfectly.
A longer form of the same old root behind Thekki, and the ald ending pushes the family several rungs up the ladder.
Ormar is a real Norse name that has never needed fantasy dressing. Coalwarden hands him a store to guard and a ledger to keep.
Korgund is all grind and no music. Marblehelm implies a helmet carried in a procession rather than worn in a fight.
Rangvi is lopsided on purpose, with all the weight on the first syllable. Deepbrow is what a hold calls a family that never leaves the lower levels.
A female dwarf name with a hard g in the middle to keep it from turning gentle. Slatemantle is an office passed down the female line.

Why do dwarf names sound Norse?

Because the oldest written list of dwarf names is Norse. The Dvergatal in the Poetic Edda supplies most of the roots modern fantasy still runs on, so dwarf names lean on hard consonants, on the endings in, ur, ald and i, and on compound surnames built from a material and a trade.

A dwarf name has two halves and they fail in two different ways. The given name carries the culture, which in almost every setting means Old Norse, and the surname carries the work. Get the first half wrong and the character sounds elvish. Get the second half wrong and the character sounds like a mascot.

How the given names are built

Every stem in this dwarf name generator ends on a hard sound such as g, k, m or b, and every ending opens on a vowel and carries only n, r or l behind it. The two sets share nothing, so a seam can never double a letter or push a vowel against a vowel. Torg and und give Torgund. Grim and arr give Grimarr. Nothing in the pools can hand you a name you cannot pronounce.

Surnames that mean something

The surname pool pairs a material or a place word with a craft or a body part: Ironbeard, Slatehewer, Quartzheart, Deepdelve. That pairing does more than decorate. A hewer swings a pick, a binder works runes, a warden holds a gate, and a beard or a brow says the family is known for a face rather than a trade. If the character already has a job, pick the surname first and let the given name settle around it.

One warning about length. Dwarf players read the full name aloud once and then use the short form for the rest of the campaign, so make sure there is a short form worth using. Torgund Flintfist becomes Torg. Bramaldi Stonewarden becomes Bram. A given name with no natural first syllable will get shortened to something you did not choose.

More name generators

Same syllable rules, different genre. Each one has its own tool and its own fifty picks.

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