About ghost/spirit names
Half the results are gentle human names like "Spiro" and "Bones", the rest grim titles such as "The Graveyard Demon", and the gap between them is the storytelling hook. A haunting hits harder when something locals fear by title once answered to a plain name. Use both forms for the same spirit, one for its life and one for its death.
How ghost/spirit names are built
Ghost names work two ways. A bare personal name pulls a single token from a gendered bank (76 male, 97 female, 75 neutral synthesized forms). A titled form puts "The" before an epithet and a name, pairing a 100-deep epithet bank with a gendered surname-like bank to make a haunt-title. So you get either a lone spirit-name (Thua, Reysasi) or a named apparition (The Dicle Kasper).
Thua
Thua (male synthesized bank)
a bare, half-formed name reads as a forgotten identity
Reysasi
Reysasi (female synthesized bank)
The Dicle Kasper
The (fixed article) + Dicle (epithet bank) + Kasper (neutral name bank)
Naming notes
The synthesized bare names are deliberately slippery and half-formed (Tellhim, Memademe) to read as a half-remembered identity. Use the bare form for a wandering, forgotten ghost; switch to the titled epithet-plus-name form when the spirit is a known local haunt with a reputation. Good for haunted-house adventures, séance NPCs, and folklore spirits.
Questions about ghost/spirit names
- Why do some ghost names start with 'The'?
- That is the titled haunt form: "The" plus an epithet plus a name marks a spirit famous enough to have a reputation, like a named local ghost. The bare single-word form is for an anonymous wanderer.
- Why do the bare names sound incomplete?
- They are synthesized to feel half-remembered (Tellhim, Memademe), reflecting a soul whose identity has eroded. That slippery quality is intentional for a ghost rather than a living person.
- How do I pick gender for a spirit?
- Each gender has its own bare-name bank and its own surname bank for the titled form. Neutral works for an apparition whose sex is unclear in the haunting.