Good island names say what the island is like before anyone lands: a soft fantasy name like Isle of Vaelis, a tropical cay, a pirate's reef or a rock nobody visits twice. Every map needs a few islands, and this island name generator gives you fantasy isles for your D&D campaign, tropical cays, pirate hideouts, eerie rocks lost in the fog and cute names for the island in your cosy life-sim game, with a short description if you want a story to go with it.
Eight good island names
All eight came from the generator, across its five styles:
- Isle of Saldrenne: a flowing fantasy name with the old "Isle of" in front.
- Wizardsey: built like a real British island name, with the Norse -ey ending.
- Cowrie Atoll: a tropical ring of coral named after a shell.
- Gloaming Skerry: a skerry is a small rocky island, and gloaming is Scots for dusk.
- Lantern Rock, that no two maps place in the same spot: a mysterious island with its own legend.
- Wrecker's Reef: a pirate name with a hint of what happens to ships there.
- Captain Calloway's Key: a pirate hideout named after the captain who found it.
- Scone Isle: a cosy island for a life-sim game.
How islands get their names
Real island names are full of old words for "island", which is why so many end the same way:
- -ey and -ay come from the Old Norse ey, island. Anglesey, Orkney and Lundy all have it, and Lundy means "puffin island".
- Holm is a small island, as in Steep Holm and Flat Holm in the Bristol Channel.
- Ynys is Welsh for island: Anglesey is Ynys Môn in Welsh.
- Skerry, from the Norse sker, is a rocky islet too small to live on.
- Cay and key come from the Spanish cayo, a small, low island, which is why Florida has the Keys.
- Atoll is a ring of coral round a lagoon. The word comes from Dhivehi, the language of the Maldives.
The generator borrows these: fantasy names use "Isle of" and the Norse ending, tropical names use cays and atolls, mysterious names use skerries and rocks, pirate names use reefs, keys and captains, and cosy names are anything you could eat with a cup of tea. Choose With a description for a line of story, like Isle of Vintrelle, where storm-mages train on the cliffs each winter.
Putting islands on your map
- Name a chain together. Islands near each other often share a name, like "the Runic Isles", with each island named separately.
- Let sailors name the dangerous ones. A rock that wrecks ships gets a blunt name, like Weeping Rock.
- Give each island one thing it's known for, which is what the description format is for.
For the land beyond the sea, try the Continent Name Generator, and for the whole world, the World Name Generator. If pirates are involved, the Pirate Name Generator names the crew.
For more, see all the world-building name generators.