A good school name sounds like it has been there for generations: a place, a founder or a saint, plus the right word for the kind of school, from Academy to High to Gakuen. This school name generator makes fictional British academies and grammar schools, American high schools, rambling boarding schools, anime-style Japanese high schools (with what the name means) and fantasy academies for squires, bards and dragonriders.
Eight good school names
All eight came from the generator, across its five styles:
- St Audrey's C of E Primary School: a Church of England village school, named after a saint, like hundreds of real ones.
- Dame Eleanor Rainsford School: named after a founder, the way many old English schools were.
- Sugar Ridge Union High School, motto “Pride, Honor, Excellence”: an American high school, with American spelling in the motto.
- Quenbrook School for Girls, motto “Spectemur agendo” (let us be judged by our deeds): a boarding school with a proper Latin motto.
- Ditchwell Hall, motto “Excelsior” (ever higher): a boarding school that sounds like a country house, because it probably was one.
- Hoshino Gakuen: hoshi means star in Japanese, and a gakuen is an academy.
- Mizuyama Boys' High School (“water mountain”), motto “Bunbu ryōdō” (excelling in both study and sport): an anime school with a real Japanese four-character motto.
- Cairdor School of Alchemy, whose library is guarded by a very old tortoise: a fantasy academy with a story in its description.
How schools get their names
Most real schools are named after a place, a founder or a saint, and the last word tells you what kind of school it is.
- British schools: a grammar school was originally a school that taught Latin grammar, and the name stuck to the selective state schools of the 20th century. C of E means a Church of England school, and many English state schools have become Academies since the 2000s.
- American high schools are named after towns, local landmarks or notable people: Thaddeus Quimby High School, Green Mills High School. A Union high school serves several districts.
- Boarding schools often occupy old country houses, so they keep the house name: Egmere Castle School, Tunleigh Park School. Their Latin mottos are part of the tradition.
- Anime schools follow real Japanese patterns: a place name built from nature words (Sakurahara, cherry blossom plain), then High School, the Japanese kōkō, short for kōtō gakkō. Prefectural schools are run by the prefecture, and Private ones are independent. The mottos are real Japanese sayings, such as Jūnin toiro, ten people, ten colours: everyone is different.
- Fantasy academies are named after what they teach: arms, alchemy, archery, bardic song or griffin riding.
Choose With a motto for a school crest, or With a description for a line that says what the school is like.
Using a school name
- For a school story, the name sets the tone: a Free School or a C of E primary feels everyday, a Hall with a Latin motto feels like midnight feasts.
- For anime or manga, pick a name whose meaning fits the setting: a seaside school suits -hama, beach.
- For a game, the motto is a ready-made clue, or a joke when the school fails to live up to it.
- Check real schools. Many place names are reused, so search before you publish a school in a real town.
For wizards rather than pupils, try the Magic School Name Generator. For older students, there's the University Name Generator, and for a school trip, the Theme Park and Zoo name generators.
For more, see all the place name generators.