Good angel names end in -el, the Hebrew word for God, which is why nearly all the traditional ones do: Gabriel is "God is my strength" and Raphael "God heals". This angel name generator gives you the angels named in scripture and tradition, with their meanings, or new names built the same way, masculine or feminine. Add a domain, a choir, an epithet or a D&D rank to give your angel a purpose.
Ten good angel names
All ten came from the generator, traditional and new:
- Raphael: "God heals", the archangel of the Book of Tobit.
- Uriel: "God is my light", one of the seven archangels in the Book of Enoch.
- Raziel: "secret of God", the keeper of God's secrets in later tradition.
- Haniel, Angel of First Steps: a traditional name, "grace of God", given a gentle domain.
- Peniel, the Emissary of Peace: Peniel, "face of God", is where Jacob wrestled with the angel in Genesis.
- Barael, the Sentinel of the Gates: a new name with the -el ending and a guardian's epithet.
- Meliel of the Thrones: a feminine name placed in one of the nine choirs.
- Ithael, Deva of the Last Hour: a D&D deva with a solemn charge.
- Liressa, Planetar of Sleep: a planetar, one of D&D's angelic warriors, with a quiet domain.
- Adeon, Solar of the Second Heaven: a solar, the mightiest of D&D's angels, from one of the Seven Heavens.
Biblical angels and their names
- The word angel comes from the Greek angelos, a messenger, which translated the Hebrew mal'akh, meaning the same.
- The Bible names very few. Michael and Gabriel appear by name; Raphael is in the Book of Tobit, which is in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.
- The Book of Enoch, an older Jewish text, names seven archangels: Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel, Gabriel and Remiel.
- Later tradition added many more, from Raziel, keeper of God's secrets, to Azrael, the angel of death in Islamic tradition.
Archangels and the nine choirs
Around the year 500, a writer known as Pseudo-Dionysius arranged the angels into nine ranks, or choirs, which medieval writers took up and Dante built into his Paradiso:
- Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, closest to God.
- Dominions, Virtues and Powers, who govern the order of the world.
- Principalities, Archangels and Angels, closest to people.
Choose "With a choir" to place your angel in one of them.
Fallen angels
Fallen angels are the angels said to have rebelled against God and been cast out of heaven.
- Lucifer means "light-bearer". The name comes from the Latin translation of a line in Isaiah about the fallen "morning star", which later tradition read as the fall of Satan.
- The Book of Enoch tells of the Watchers, angels who came down to earth, led by Semyaza and Azazel.
- John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) gave the fallen angels their best-known names in English literature: Beelzebub, Mammon, Belial and Moloch among them.
The masculine and feminine styles make names that suit a fallen angel too, especially with a dark domain. For the other side entirely, try the Demon Name Generator.
D&D angel names
D&D 5th edition has three kinds of angel. All are celestials, and from the least to the greatest they are:
- Devas (challenge rating 10): messengers and agents sent to the mortal world, who can take mortal form. The name is borrowed from the Sanskrit deva, a divine being.
- Planetars (CR 16): a god's warriors, sent where a battle has to be won.
- Solars (CR 21): the mightiest angels of all.
Choose D&D celestial, with masculine or feminine names, for a rank and a charge: Orael, Deva of Bridges, or a home in the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia, D&D's lawful good plane: Maliel, Solar of the Third Heaven. For a celestial player character, try the D&D Human Name Generator or the Paladin Name Generator.
Making a new angel name
- Keep the ending. -iel, -ael and -uel make a name sound angelic at once. The new names here all use them.
- Give them one job. Traditional angels have a single task: healing, secrets, death. An Angel of Lost Things or of Thresholds is more memorable than an angel of everything.
- Fiction borrows freely. Castiel in Supernatural comes from Cassiel; Aziraphale in Good Omens is invented, but sounds right because of that ending.
- Female angels are rare in tradition, where the named angels are male, but common in fiction. The feminine names here keep the angelic sound with softer endings: -aela, -ielle, -essa.
Building a whole pantheon? The God Name Generator makes gods and goddesses by domain.