The Arcana of Beasts
About
How the deck is made
FantasyNames.io is a deck of illustrated cards, one for each creature, people or place of fantasy. Each card holds a field-guide entry, a set of name styles and a name generator for its subject.
The entries, images and name pools are generated ahead of time with three AI models, then reviewed by hand before a card goes into the deck: Claude writes the field-guide entry and the notes on how names are formed, Gemini paints the illustrations, and GPT writes the names and their meanings. The only live AI call on the site is when you choose a style, gender or length and ask for a fresh set of names.
The entries are written as if by a naturalist who has seen the subject firsthand. They are fiction.
Using the names
Names generated here are yours to use however you like, in anything you make. Creature and place names such as those of published monsters belong to their respective owners, and this site is not affiliated with them.
Contact
Questions, corrections and requests: [email protected].
Frequently asked questions
Are the names really free to use?
Yes. Every name you generate here is free to use in any creative work: novels, tabletop campaigns, games, comics, art and class projects. No attribution or permission is needed, and credit is welcome but never required.
Where do the names come from?
Each card has a short description of how names for that subject are formed: the sounds it favors, how long its names run, and whether titles or epithets are common. A language model reads those notes and invents names to match, then each name gets a one-line meaning.
Why do I sometimes get the same name twice?
Pressing Generate draws from a large pool of names written ahead of time, and your browser remembers the last hundred it showed you so repeats are rare. Choosing a style, gender or length makes a fresh set instead.
What do the Gender and Length options do?
Feminine and masculine shift the sound and endings the way the card's naming notes describe. Neutral leaves names unmarked. Short means one or two syllables; Long means four or more, or a name with a title or epithet.
Is anything saved about me?
No. There are no accounts, and your hand of names lives only in the open tab. See the privacy page for the short list of what the site does and does not collect.
Can I suggest a creature or report a problem?
Please do. Write to [email protected] with the name of the subject or the page and what you would like changed.