Tribe Name Generator

How tribe names are built

A tribe is usually named for what it does or where it lives, and the plainest names are the oldest: the Reed-Walkers, the People of the Grey Crag. Others are a founder's name with a word for folk or kin attached. Outsiders often use a different name, so a tribe that calls itself the Ellani may be the Fern People on a trader's map. A good tribal name is easy to say around a fire, and it hints at the land without explaining it.

Treat the name as part of a living culture. Use descriptions, not caricature, and avoid borrowing the real names, dress or sacred symbols of living peoples.

Keeping tribes consistent

Give the tribe a name in its own language and a translation others use, and let both appear in your book. Keep the invented words in the same sound family across neighbouring peoples, and let a tribe that migrated carry a name from its old country into the new. Tie the name to the land, the work and the stories: a coast tribe called Net-Callers should have songs, boats and a habit of watching the weather. Avoid giving every tribe an animal name, since that reads as a template. Mix in names from places, founders and events, and record who gave each name.

Twenty example tribe names

• The Fern-Walkers forest guides who know every path by smell.
• The Ellani People a river tribe that shares the water with nobody.
• The Grey Heron People patient fishers on the marsh edge.
• The Crag-Herders of Brakmund goat keepers on the high pastures.
• The Golden Hare Tribe of Sarandel plains riders who trade horses.
• The Salt-Weavers coast folk who braid nets and stories.
• Torvash Tribe a mountain people with a long memory.
• The Reed-Singers marsh dwellers who talk through music.
• The Dust-Runners plains scouts who cross a day in an hour.
• The Mirelan Folk quiet forest farmers who trade honey.
• People of the Hidden Glen a tribe that most maps do not show.
• The Stone-Carvers of Hakkund mountain masons who build with no mortar.
• The Tide-Callers coastal pilots who read the moon.
• The Wild Boar Tribe of Orsvik tough hunters at the edge of the north.
• The Velanor People nomads who follow the grazing and the rain.
• The Birch-Keepers forest healers with a quiet code.
• The Wind-Walkers a high plains tribe with kites and drums.
• The Shell-Gatherers of Maralis a patient people with a famous market.
• The Iron Goat Tribe stubborn miners who keep their own laws.
• The Dune-Drifters travellers who cross the sand without maps.