This witch name generator makes witch names for stories, Halloween characters and D&D. The first names are English names from the witch-trial era, and the last names come from plants, birds and the landscape. You can also have a name with a title, such as Goody Tabitha or Old Mother Agnes, a list of witch last names on their own, or a name for a coven.

Four Kinds of Witch Name

Format	Example	Use it for
First name and surname	Hester Thistlewood	A main character or a named villain
Title and name	Goody Tabitha, Granny Hawthorne	A village wise woman, known by what people call her
Last names only	Wormwood, Foxglove	A family of witches, or a character who already has a first name
Coven name	Sisters of the Waning Moon	The group she belongs to

The titles change the tone at once. Granny and Auntie suit a healer the village trusts. Dame and Mistress suit someone with standing. Old Mother is what frightened neighbours say.

Names from the Witch Trials

The women accused in the trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had the common names of their day. At Salem in 1692 they included Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good. The Pendle trials of 1612 in Lancashire involved Alizon Device and her grandmother, known as Old Demdike. Isobel Gowdie gave a famous confession in Scotland in 1662. None of these names was unusual then. They sound eerie now because that is where most people have met them. One of the Salem judges was John Hathorne, an ancestor of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, which is one reason the surname turns up so often in stories about witches.

Plants in Witch Names

The herbs in these surnames were the working materials of folk medicine. Yarrow was used on wounds, foxglove affects the heart and is the source of the drug digitalis, wormwood is the bitter herb in absinthe, and hemlock is the poison that killed Socrates. A surname from this list suggests a character who knows which plant does what. For other practitioners of magic, see the Warlock Name Generator and the Druid Name Generator, and for the brews, the Potion Name Generator.

How to Use the Witch Name Generator

Choose what you need: Pick witch names for a character, or coven names for a group.
Pick a name format: A first name and surname, a title with a name, or last names only.
Generate: Each press gives six new names.
Copy: Use the copy button beside the name you want.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a good witch name?

An old-fashioned first name and a surname from the hedgerow. Names such as Hester, Tabitha, Agnes and Ursula were ordinary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and sound witchy now because they survive mostly in trial records and old stories. Pair one with a plant or landscape surname, such as Hester Thistlewood.

What are good witch last names?

Plants with a reputation make the strongest ones: Hemlock, Wormwood, Foxglove and Yarrow are all poisonous or medicinal herbs. Trees and birds follow, as in Hawthorne, Blackwood and Crowe. Choose last names only in the generator to get a list of surnames.

What does Goody mean in a witch's name?

It is short for Goodwife, the ordinary polite way to address a married woman of modest rank in seventeenth-century England and New England, much like Mrs. It appears throughout the Salem records, which is how it came to sound like a witch's title.

Are these the names of real accused witches?

The first names were in common use at the time, and several were borne by women who were tried: Bridget Bishop and Rebecca Nurse at Salem in 1692, Alizon Device at Pendle in 1612, and Isobel Gowdie in Scotland in 1662. The generator pairs first names with invented surnames, so it does not reproduce a real person's full name.

How do I name a coven?

After a family, a meeting place or a sign. The Hawthorne Coven is named for its founders, Sisters of the Crooked Stile for where they gather, and the Black Hen Circle for an omen. A place name is useful in a story because it gives the coven somewhere to be found.

Where does the word witch come from?

From Old English wicce, a female practitioner of magic, and wicca, the male form. Modern Wicca takes its name from the same word, though it is a twentieth-century religion and not a survival from that period.