Orc Name Generator

Orc names: Origin, structure, and meaning

Humanoid, goblin-like, monstrous—there are a lot of words to describe orcs, and few of them are good. But if you want to depict an orc character in tabletop games or in a fantasy world, you’ll need to know how their names work.

Orcs feature prominently in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but their culture also extends to half-orcs and other warrior species across a range of fantasy media and video games.

Orc naming conventions in fantasy worlds

Orc names are harsh to reflect their lives: hard, sudden consonants like K sounds and hard Gs will feature prominently. The more awkwardly the syllables clash, the better. As with barbarians, you can also pair mononyms with epithets, especially if those epithets are especially scary: “the dread,” for example. 

Orc name inspiration

Many orc names get their rules from the Dark Tongue of Toklien’s Middle-earth, but you don’t have to limit yourself to these conventions. Orc name inspiration tends to reflect many of their real-life barbarian influences, which means you can also draw on human history. 

Unleash your orcish persona with a name as imposing as your character's odor! Use our orc name generator to forge a name that carries the harsh sounds and formidable strength of orc culture.

List of orc names

With names as ugly as Uglúk, you can expect orc names to reflect their brutish nature and ill will. These are classic fantasy villains, which means you’ll want to draw on some of the most fear-inducing names this side of Middle-earth.