What Makes a Ghost Name Work
Ghost names are weird. They operate under different rules than names for the living because ghosts themselves exist in a liminal space — part person, part place, part feeling. The best ghost names don't just label a character; they create an atmosphere. You hear "The Grey Lady" and you're already in a drafty corridor at midnight, aren't you?
That's the power of a good ghost name. It's less a name and more a haunting compressed into a few syllables.
The Two Schools of Ghost Naming
Ghost names broadly fall into two categories, and the distinction matters more than you might expect.
The Human Name approach gives the ghost a name it had in life — or could have had. Lady Ashmore. Old Mary. Thomas Still. These names work because they remind you the ghost was a person, which is often more unsettling than any supernatural name could be. There's something about hearing "Poor Marguerite still walks the east hallway" that hits different than "The Spectral Entity manifests in Corridor B."
The Inhuman Name approach gives the ghost something it couldn't have been called in life. The Crawling Whisper. Hollowgaze. Soulreaver. These names say "this thing was never a person" or "whatever it was, it isn't anymore." They work best for ghosts that have lost their humanity entirely — or never had any.
The scariest ghost names often blend both. "Elsie Hollowgaze" — a human first name attached to something deeply wrong — creates instant dissonance that the brain can't quite resolve.
Ghost Naming Across Cultures
Every culture has ghosts, and every culture names them differently. These traditions are goldmines for authentic, atmospheric names.
- British and Irish folklore gives us the most familiar Western ghost naming patterns. Descriptive titles (The Grey Lady, The Headless Coachman), location-based names (The Tower Ghost, Coldfield Jenny), and simple human names that have become synonymous with their hauntings. Celtic traditions add banshees with keening, Gaelic-influenced names — Caoinagh, Morragh, Bean Sí.
- Japanese ghost traditions (yūrei, onryō) produce names that follow Japanese phonetics but carry specific supernatural weight. The structure often includes nature words twisted into something ghostly — Yukionna (snow woman), Teke Teke, Kuchisake. Our demon name generator covers the Oni side of Japanese supernatural naming.
- Latin American traditions give us La Llorona (The Weeping Woman), La Lechuza, El Silbón. Names that describe what the ghost does, turned into proper names through generations of storytelling.
- Slavic ghost lore produces hard-consonant names that feel appropriately cold and unforgiving. Rusalka, Strigoi, Mora. These phonetics carry built-in unease for English speakers.
Naming by Horror Tone
The tone of your story should drive your ghost naming more than anything else. A ghost in a comedy and a ghost in cosmic horror need names from completely different dictionaries.
- Gothic horror: Formal, Victorian-inflected names. Titles matter here — Lady, Sir, The Governess. These ghosts haunt manors and wear period clothing. Their names should sound like they belong on a brass nameplate. Thornbury. Mr. Graves. The Ashmore Sisters.
- Modern horror: Strip away the formality. Modern ghost names are uncomfortable precisely because they don't sound ghostly. "Room 4B." "The Upload." "Caller Unknown." The mundanity makes them scarier — these are hauntings that fit into your inbox, not a graveyard.
- Folk horror: Rural, rooted, simple. These ghosts have been around so long they're part of the landscape. Old Mary. The Lantern Man. Whistler. Names that sound like they've been whispered as warnings for centuries.
- Whimsical: If you're going Casper, lean into it. Boo, Glimmer, Spooky, Sir Floats-a-Lot. These names need to be endearing, not frightening. The humor should be gentle, not ironic.
The Sound of Haunting
Certain sounds register as ghostly in English, and understanding them helps you craft names that feel right:
- Whisper sounds: SH, WH, and soft TH create a hushed, breath-like quality. Shademist, Whisperhollow, Thornveil. These names sound like they should be said quietly.
- Hollow vowels: Long O, OO, and AW sounds create emptiness. Hollowgaze, Mournveil, Gloomwrath. The mouth literally opens into a void when pronouncing these.
- Cold consonants: Hard C/K, crisp T, and thin S sounds feel cold. Coldfield, Crispin, The Static. Temperature is one of the most universal ghost signals — cold spots, cold drafts, cold names.
- Fading endings: Names that trail off — ending in soft consonants or unstressed syllables — mimic the way ghosts appear and vanish. Evershade, Dimling, Paleshade. They dissolve as you finish saying them.
Using the Generator
Ghost type is your primary lever — it determines whether you get ethereal specters, aggressive poltergeists, or mournful revenants. The haunt style then places your ghost in a specific aesthetic context. A Victorian specter and a modern-horror specter are both specters, but their names come from entirely different worlds.
Don't overlook the whimsical option if you're working on lighter projects. Not every ghost needs to be terrifying, and the generator produces genuinely charming friendly-ghost names that work for children's stories, comedy, and lighthearted fantasy.
