Guild Name Generator

How guild names are usually built

A guild name tells outsiders what the guild wants to be known for, and tells insiders what it is. Thieves take a trade name that sounds harmless to a guard and meaningful to a friend: the Velvet Knives, the Paper Crows. Merchants favour a plain and respectable line with a place and a purpose, such as the Tidewater Trading Company. Mage orders reach for a symbol and a quality, as in Order of the Silent Lantern.

The grammar carries the culture. An Order of the something sounds old and ceremonial, a Company sounds modern and ambitious, and a plain The Hands sounds like a secret.

Keeping guilds consistent

Each guild should have a symbol, a motto and a way of being greeted that matches its name. Rival guilds can mirror one another so the reader sees the feud, with the Silver Door against the Hollow Door, for instance. Give members a short form they use among themselves, and decide how a guild writes its name on a door, a ledger and a contract. If one guild uses plain names and another uses grand ones, the contrast does half the world-building for you. Keep a list of every guild in a city so that no two share a symbol or a nickname by accident.

Twenty example guild names

• The Velvet Knives assassins who dress as courtiers.
• The Paper Crows forgers and couriers of stolen letters.
• The Tidewater Trading Company a merchant house with its own ships.
• Order of the Silent Lantern mages who keep the old lights burning.
• The Hollow Keys burglars who open any door but never take the first coin.
• The Honourable Guild of Salt Traders sells the one thing every town needs.
• Order of the Ninth Door a secretive circle of planar scholars.
• The Ash Masks a gang that works the night fires.
• The Harbour League a cartel of dockside brokers.
• Order of the Veiled Mirror illusionists with a taste for politics.
• The Crooked Lamps smugglers who signal by candlelight.
• The Northern Concern a frostbitten firm that trades in furs.
• The Pale Hands pickpockets whose training begins at six.
• Order of the Burning Star fire mages sworn to a long vigil.
• The Three Rivers Exchange a market guild that sets prices.
• The Midnight Locks safecrackers for hire.
• Order of the Open Eye seers who trade in warnings.
• The Honourable Guild of Cartographers maps are their currency.
• The Quiet Fingers a guild so careful it denies it exists.
• The Ember Coast Consortium shipping and whispers along the south shore.