Every tiefling name is a political act. Whether a tiefling chooses "Hope" to defy a world that assigned them none, keeps "Morthos" to refuse apology for their blood, or goes by "James" to demand normalcy they were never offered — the name is always a statement. The 5e Player's Handbook codified three naming traditions, but the story behind them is richer than any rulebook entry suggests.
Tieflings were transformed simultaneously when Asmodeus claimed their bloodline as a condition of the god Bane's divine essence. Their fiendish features — horns, tails, unusual skin — are the visible mark of that ancient bargain. The naming question that follows is philosophical: do you carry the mark quietly, weaponize it, or build something new on top of it? The answer lives in the name.
Three Traditions, One Identity Question
The PHB lists three paths. They're not just stylistic options — each represents a fundamentally different relationship with heritage, society, and self.
Abstract concepts chosen by the tiefling as a personal declaration. The name isn't descriptive — it's aspirational, ironic, or confessional.
- Hope
- Torment
- Silence
- Creed
- Wrath
- Reverence
Names drawing from Infernal, Abyssal, and classical Greek and Latin roots. Harsh consonants, unusual vowel clusters, an air of something ancient and slightly wrong.
- Morthos
- Kallista
- Damakos
- Bryseis
- Akmenos
- Criella
Names adopted from the communities tieflings grow up in. Often a deliberate choice: refusal to perform exoticism, demand for ordinary belonging.
- Marcus
- Elena
- Kira
- Thomas
- Selin
- Dara
None of these is the "correct" tiefling name. The interesting question is why your specific character chose one over the others — and that answer is the beginning of a backstory.
What Virtue Names Actually Mean
The PHB lists 21 examples: Art, Carrion, Chant, Creed, Despair, Excellence, Fear, Glory, Hope, Ideal, Music, Nowhere, Open, Poetry, Quest, Random, Reverence, Sorrow, Temerity, Torment, Weary. Read them again. That's not a random list of words.
It's a psychological portrait. Half the names are reaches toward something (Hope, Excellence, Glory, Reverence, Poetry). Half are acknowledgments of hard truths (Despair, Carrion, Torment, Weary, Nowhere). A tiefling chooses the name that fits their specific relationship with their own existence. A tiefling who made it through something awful and emerged with faith intact might choose "Hope" — not as naivety, but as hard-won conviction. A tiefling named "Nowhere" is telling you exactly where they come from without saying a word about it.
Virtue names work best when there's friction. "Mercy" on a tiefling who was never shown any. "Glory" on someone who hasn't found it yet. "Silence" on a bard. The gap between name and reality is where character lives.
Infernal Names, Linguistically
The PHB infernal names aren't invented sounds — they follow recognizable patterns from Greek, Latin, and what the lore calls the Infernal tongue. Understanding those patterns lets you construct new names that feel authentic rather than random.
Kallista — "the most beautiful one"
This structure — classical root, infernal consonant cluster, gendered suffix — runs through most PHB infernal names. "Morthos" layers mort- (Latin for death) onto -os (masculine Hellenic). "Nemeia" draws from Greek nemesis (retribution). "Bryseis" echoes the Trojan War captive Briseis, filtered through an infernal lens.
Male infernal names typically end in -os, -on, -us, or -ai. Female names lean toward -a, -ia, -is, or -eia. If you want to build a new infernal name, start with a Latin or Greek root (mors, vis, gloria, nox, pyr, umbra), add an infernal consonant cluster (kk, sk, mn, kr), and attach the right suffix. "Nocthaeis" — from nox (night) and -eis (feminine) — reads as authentic without appearing in any sourcebook.
Naming by Bloodline
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018) expanded the standard Asmodean tiefling into nine distinct bloodlines, each tied to a different archdevil. The bloodline doesn't determine the naming tradition — any tiefling can use any tradition — but it shapes the aesthetic sensibility behind the choice.
These are tendencies, not prescriptions. A Zariel tiefling named "Patience" is immediately more interesting than one named "Wrath" — the gap between bloodline and name creates the story you have to explain.
Naming Tips for Character Creation
Your name choice does one of three things at the table: it creates questions, it answers questions, or it does nothing. The last outcome is the one to avoid.
- Pick a virtue name that contradicts something your character struggles with
- Let the name create one obvious question that NPCs can ask
- Consider keeping an infernal birth name if your character hasn't resolved their heritage
- Use a human name when your character's story is about belonging, not heritage
- Match hard consonants (K, G, Sk) for infernal names to your character's personality
- Choose "Torment" or "Despair" purely for edginess — earn the dark name
- Stack two virtue names (first and surname) unless the contradiction is intentional
- Use apostrophes in infernal names — canonical PHB names don't include them
- Name your tiefling paladin "Holy" or "Blessed" without a real reason behind the irony
- Forget that a human name is itself a choice — it signals something specific
One underused option: virtue surnames. A tiefling named "Kairon Silence" has both infernal heritage and a philosophical declaration. "Damaia Hope" suggests someone who kept the infernal name but chose something better for the rest of the world to see first. Layering traditions gives you more to work with than committing entirely to one.
For a full party, the D&D Name Generator covers naming conventions across every race and class — useful when building around your tiefling's relationships. If you're playing Baldur's Gate 3, the Baldur's Gate 3 name guide covers the three specific bloodlines available in that game and how to match names to companion dynamics.
The Tiefling Name Generator lets you filter by naming style, tone, and gender — generating virtue names, infernal names, and human-influenced names across all the traditions covered here.
Common Questions
What are tiefling naming conventions in D&D 5e?
D&D 5e tieflings use three naming conventions: virtue names (abstract concepts like Hope, Torment, or Silence chosen by the tiefling themselves), infernal names with Greek and Latin roots (like Morthos, Kallista, and Damakos), and humanoid names adopted from the communities they grew up in. Most tieflings choose their own name as an act of self-definition rather than inheriting one.
Do different tiefling bloodlines use different names?
Bloodline doesn't dictate naming tradition — any tiefling can use virtue, infernal, or humanoid names regardless of ancestry. That said, each bloodline carries an aesthetic that shapes which names feel right: Zariel tieflings tend toward hard, martial virtue names; Glasya toward elegance and irony; Levistus toward isolation and loss. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018) introduced all nine bloodlines, each tied to a different archdevil of the Nine Hells.
Can I use both a virtue name and an infernal surname?
Absolutely — and it's often the most interesting choice. "Kairon Silence" or "Damaia Hope" layers two traditions, creating a name that tells two parts of a story. The infernal name might be the birth name they kept; the virtue name the one they claimed. Or vice versa. Combining traditions is not non-canonical; it just means your tiefling has a more complex relationship with their own identity, which is usually the point.
What tiefling name ideas work for a D&D 5e paladin?
Tiefling paladins are practically built for naming irony. "Torment" on a paladin who survived something awful and came out devoted is an entire backstory in one word. "Wrath" on a paladin struggling to contain their anger fits the Oath of Redemption. "Valor" reads straightforwardly — which means it works best when the character hasn't earned it yet. The goal is friction: a name that creates a question the character has to answer through play.