The genie of stories, freed from a lamp or bottle to grant wishes, grew out of the jinn of Arabian folklore and the tales of the Thousand and One Nights. In D&D, genies are tied to the elements of air, fire, water and earth. This genie name generator makes elemental genie names and fun lamp genie names.
Jinn and genies
The wish-granting genie of stories grew out of the jinn of Arabian folklore and Islamic belief.
- Jinn are described in the Qur'an as beings created from smokeless fire, living alongside humans and, like them, free to choose good or evil. For many Muslims they are part of faith, not fairy tale.
- The word genie comes from the French génie, chosen by Antoine Galland when he translated the Thousand and One Nights into French in the early 1700s, because it sounded like jinn and like the Latin genius, a guardian spirit.
- Aladdin and his lamp aren't in the older Arabic manuscripts of the Nights: Galland added the story, which he heard from the Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab.
The generator uses invented and English-language names, so it doesn't borrow real Arabic names or religious terms.
Fantasy genies by element
D&D has four genies, one for each element, and the generator follows them.
- Air: the djinni, light and changeable (Mistralwind, Stormveil).
- Fire: the efreeti, proud and hot-tempered (Pyresmoke, Scorchflare).
- Water: the marid, vast and grand.
- Earth: the dao, greedy and stubborn.
- The lamp style is the panto genie: Sir Wishalot of the Brass Lamp, Twinkle-in-a-Bottle.
For other spirits of fire and smoke, try the Phoenix Name Generator.
For more beasts of legend, see all the mythical creature name generators.