Witch names can go in two directions. Some sound like the edge of a village: herbs, hedgerows and somebody's formidable great-aunt. Others sound like a storm. This list has 99 witch names for fictional characters, covering both, with surnames and names for male witches too.
Witches in fiction borrow freely from folklore. These are names for characters in stories and games, not for any real practice or tradition.
For more invented names, the mage name generator covers witches, wizards and sorcerers.
The names in the first, third and last lists are invented, with invented meanings. The herb names are real plants, and the old-fashioned names are real historical names.
- Hesperyn: could mean "evening star"
- Grimelda: could mean "the grey lady"
- Ravenelle: could mean "little raven"
- Sybelline: could mean "she who foretells"
- Moraithe: could mean "sea mist"
- Thornabel: suggests someone beautiful and sharp
- Hexabeth: a sensible name with a hex hidden in it
- Elspira: could mean "breath of the elder tree"
- Cauldra: could mean "of the kettle"
- Umbraline: could mean "thin shadow"
- Oleandra: after oleander, a shrub that is pretty and poisonous
- Lunaveth: could mean "moon vow"
Real plant names make gentle, practical-sounding female witch names.
- Agrimony: a bitter hedgerow herb with yellow flowers
- Betony: an old cottage-garden herb
- Vervain: a herb with a long history in folklore
- Marigold: sunny, for a witch who bakes
- Pennyroyal: a small wild mint
Hyssop, Saffron, Lovage, Angelica, Comfrey, Feverfew, Foxglove, Mallow, Meadowsweet, Mugwort, Elderflower
- Morgrenna: could mean "bitter queen"
- Wrathilde: could mean "battle anger"
- Vinegra: sour by name and by nature
- Sablewick: could be a surname or a warning
Bleakwen, Curdessa, Dreadwyn, Gnarlette, Jinxara, Murkella, Scowlene, Spitewell, Witheria, Zorabel
Real names that fell out of fashion, for crones, grandmothers and coven elders.
- Euphemia: long, Victorian and impossible to rush
- Ermintrude: sounds like a kettle coming to the boil
- Sophronia: for the witch who has outlived the village
- Temperance: a Puritan virtue name, ideal for someone with no patience
Philomena, Lettice, Araminta, Clementina, Millicent, Cordula, Jerusha, Thomasina, Zipporah, Verity
- Fizzlewick: her spells mostly work
- Bixie: small, cheerful and slightly on fire
- Poppet: an old word of affection
Bramblette, Dottie, Figlet, Hazelnut, Moppet, Nubbin, Pocket, Spindle, Tuppence, Whimsy
In most stories a male witch is simply called a witch. These names keep the same hedgerow feel.
- Corvell: could mean "crow's boy"
- Hawthorn: the hedge tree, thorny and protective
- Eldritch: an old word for uncanny
- Mosswick: for the quiet one with the garden
Alder, Bartleby, Crispin, Fenwick, Gideon, Nicodemus, Peregrine, Wendell, Zebediah, Yarrick
- Nettlewick: a village name that became a family name
- Blackthistle: sounds like trouble at a parish meeting
- Kettlewright: makers of cauldrons for six generations
- Grimalkin: an old word for a cat, adopted as a surname
- Thornapple: an old name for a poisonous plant
Crowmoor, Mosscombe, Hollowmere, Wychelm, Ravenscroft, Fogwell, Marrowby, Spindlewood, Toadflax, Candlebrook, Owlsworth
There are three reliable recipes.
1. An old-fashioned first name plus a nature surname. Pick a name nobody has given a baby in eighty years, then build a surname from a plant, animal or weather word and a place ending (-wick, -moor, -mere, -croft, -combe, -brook). Euphemia Crowmoor. Wendell Fogwell.
2. A plant as a first name. Kitchen herbs sound kind (Marigold, Lovage). Poisonous plants sound dangerous (Oleandra, Thornapple). Check what the plant actually does before you use it, since readers who garden will notice.
3. An invented name from witchy syllables.
- Openings: Mor, Hes, Grim, Rav, Syb, Thorn, Hex, El
- Endings: -elda, -wen, -ella, -ine, -abel, -yn, -ilde
Grim + elda is Grimelda. Rav + en + elle is Ravenelle.
To tilt a name toward good or evil, change the vowels. Open, bright vowels (a, e, i) sound friendly: Betony, Bixie. Closed, dark ones (o, u) with r and g sound threatening: Morgrenna, Murkella.
- Decide what kind of witch she is before you name her. A village healer and a storm-caller shouldn't sound alike.
- Try the name with a title. Granny, Mother, Mistress and Old all change how the same name reads.
- Give her a name her neighbors would actually use. Formidable witches often have very ordinary nicknames.
- Check that the name doesn't already belong to a famous witch from a book or film.
For tower-dwelling spellcasters see wizard names. For something smaller and wilder, fairy names. For the far end of the dark scale, female demon names. The mage name generator will make more, and the Character Creator can show you what your witch looks like.
Hesperyn, Ravenelle, Betony and Euphemia Crowmoor are all good. Choose a herb or an old-fashioned name for a kindly witch and darker sounds for a wicked one.
Marigold, Bixie, Poppet, Elspira and Lunaveth suit young witches. Short names and plant names tend to feel youngest.
Corvell, Hawthorn, Fenwick, Crispin and Nicodemus. Male witches use the same plant and old-name patterns as female ones.
The best-known come from myth and folklore, such as Circe in Greek myth and Baba Yaga in Slavic tales, or from books and films that own their characters. For your own story, a new name is the safer choice.
