Giant Rat Name Generator

Giant Rat names and their meanings

Select a name to copy it. Every name below is free to use.

Cooper Words

Names drawn from barrel-making and pickling vocabulary, blunt and practical.

• KetterFrom the cooper's croze, the groove that holds a barrel head.
• GurrelNamed for the grog cask kept beneath the salting bench.
• KarkerA cellar name borrowed from the iron hoop around pickle barrels.
• GrutterFrom the bung, the plug knocked into a cask's filling hole.
• KipperNamed after the sharp brine used to keep fish through winter.
• TarrelA blunt household form of tarred stave, dark with barrel sealant.
• KraggerFrom the keg rack where chipped hoops gather underfoot.
• GatterNamed for the gate that keeps fermenting crocks from cellar rats.
• KurritFrom the racking stick used to settle pickling liquor between tubs.
• GurkinA cellar name taken from the sharp green pickle in stone jars.
• KresterFrom the cask's creased stave, split where the hoops press hardest.
• GripperNamed for the cooper's gripping dog, used to tighten iron hoops.
• KrontleFrom the bung cloth, packed tight to stop brine leaking out.
• Brurrel'brine' joined to the cooper's grooved stave for a pickle cask
• Kroven'croze,' the groove holding a barrel head, shortened by cellar speech
• Drasket'drask,' an old measure for the hoops around a storage tub
• Grindle'grindling,' the scraping of a cask's inner rim before sealing
• Trurket'trunnel,' a small vent bored through a barrel's wooden head
• Crurper'crupper,' the stout crosspiece bracing a cooper's workbench
• Grasket'grask,' the coarse salt crust left beneath a pickle crock
• Brurkin'bruin stave,' the dark oak strip saved for a sound cask

Clipped Young

One-syllable call names used for young rats, easy to shout across a cellar.

• TegA clipped call for the pup that slips through the flour hatch.
• BrutThe cook's blunt call for the young rat raiding the root basket
• Klint'clink' shortened for the young rat that raids the loose nails
• DriltA clipped cellar call, first used after flour sifted through its teeth
• SkantNamed for the sharp scrape left beneath the pantry door
• GroltThe household's quick name for a pawprint in spilled pickle brine
• KrentA hard little name heard beside the gnawed crate slat
• FlektCalled after it flicked a candle stub from the cellar shelf
• ThrikA tooth-clicking name for the youngster that stole a rind
• VrittA sharp call coined when it dragged thread beneath the door
• ZraktNamed for the dry crack of its nibbling in the wall
• PlenkNamed when its nose knocked a tin spoon from the rack

Name and Theft

A short name followed by the object that made it notorious.

• Kip LidNamed after the tin lid it dragged from the pickle crock.
• Grit CrockIts name recalls the stone crock cracked during a midnight raid.
• Tuk HatchCalled for the loose cellar hatch it worried open from below.
• Krat KeyNamed after the brass key carried off from the pantry peg.
• Gek WickIts theft of a candle wick left the cellar dark till dawn.
• Tuck LoafNamed for the heel of bread it hauled beneath the flour chest.
• Krit PlugCalled for the cork plug it pulled from the vinegar jar.
• Gup SackIts notorious theft was a seed sack dragged through the drain.
• Teg CombNamed after the wooden comb missing from the washroom shelf.
• Krik HamIts name marks the smoked ham stolen from the pantry hook.
• Gat CapCalled for the bottle cap it carried into its nest of rags.
• Tep BootNamed after the child's boot gnawed through at the cellar wall.
• Krak SaltpotNamed for the saltpot dragged from its shelf and scattered across the floor
• Grit WaxlidIts name stuck after it gnawed through the waxed lid of the preserves
• Brak BrasskeyThe household named it for the brass key carried off into the wall
• Druk HamhockThis cellar thief hauled a hamhock into the dark beneath the pantry
• Trek SootragA soot rag vanished into its nest after the chimney sweep's visit
• Kruk TurnipKnown for rolling a turnip beneath the cold stove and eating it there
• Gak OilflaskThe keeper named it after the oil flask found drained behind the casks
• Brik HatchIt became notorious for squeezing through the loose hatch beside the coal bin

Heavy Elder

Weighty names for the oldest, biggest rats, with a doubled consonant.

• GribbleIts thick-set name suits the broad back wedged beneath the stairs.
• KurrenA weighty name for the rat that rules the lower pantry stones.
• GarrikIts doubled sound recalls the iron grate bent by its shoulders.
• RettunAn elder's name taken from the rotten timber beneath the bins.
• KappetNamed for the thick paws that crack nutshells against cellar flagstones.
• GollitIts heavy name fits the broad animal that guards the warm drain.
• TekkumA doubled name for the old rat that shoulders aside crockery.
• BurrikNamed for the burred barrel hoop caught around its scarred foreleg.
• DaggonIts weighty name marks the oldest body beneath the grain loft.
• RakkelA heavy cellar name for the rat that gnawed through two doors.
• GrannokThe doubled middle marks an old gnawer that outlasted three cellar keepers
• DrassikA heavy name for the broad rat whose teeth scored the oak door
• KellumIts doubled consonant recalls years spent pressing through crowded communal nests
• BrannukThe cellar folk named this old brute for its deep, relentless burrowing
• GrettokA weighty name for the scarred rat that claims the warmest drain stones
• TrasselThe old animal's doubled sound echoes its slow tread along the barrel racks
• DruppitA stout name for the elder that cracked crock rims with its jaws

How giant rat names are made

Names for giant rats are given by the people who live with them, since the rats keep none. The sound palette is low and gnawing: hard stops like k, g and t, rolled r, and short closed vowels that click against the teeth. Most names run one or two syllables, rarely three. A name tends to stand alone, though a householder may add a plain epithet after the thefts begin, naming the item taken or the wall it came through. Sources are mostly trade and habit: coopery words, pickling words, the wood a lid was cut from, the hour of a theft, the name of the household that lost the most.

Ancestry matters little, because nests are communal and nobody tracks litters. Names avoid anything soft or pretty, since a rat given a gentle name is said to grow bold. Older, larger animals get heavier names with a doubled consonant, while young ones are called by a clipped syllable. Example shapes: a single clipped syllable ending in a hard stop; a two-syllable craft word with a rolled r; a short name plus the thing it stole.

The giant rat: bestiary entry

Questions about giant rat names