Good synthwave names sound like the end credits of an 80s action film: a hero with a chrome surname, a year in the name, a coastline at midnight. This synthwave name generator covers retrowave and outrun artists, bands and albums, with a vaporwave style for ｆｕｌｌｗｉｄｔｈ text, fake corporations and empty shopping malls.
Eight good synthwave names
All eight came from the generator, synthwave and vaporwave:
- Moonracer 1983: a year in the name, a synthwave habit since the 2000s.
- Nightglider: one compound word that sounds like a car in a video game.
- Danny Danger & the Datakids: a frontman with an action-hero name and a backing band.
- VCR-88: letters and a number, like old hardware.
- Rooftop Chase: an album title that's a scene from a film that was never made.
- Glow Sticks & Gasoline: neon and petrol, the two smells of the genre.
- ＶＩＲＴＵＡＬ: fullwidth capitals, the signature look of vaporwave.
- Welcome to the Skyline Hotel: a vaporwave album that sounds like a lobby in 1995.
How synthwave and vaporwave name themselves
Synthwave took off in the mid-2000s, made by producers who grew up on 80s film soundtracks, arcade games and the synths of John Carpenter and Vangelis. Kavinsky's "Nightcall", used in the film Drive (2011), brought it to a much wider audience. Outrun, one of its other names, comes from Sega's 1986 arcade driving game Out Run.
- Years and numbers. Many acts put a year from the 80s in their name, as Timecop1983 and FM-84 do. The generator does the same: Laguna Nights 1987, VGA-84.
- Film heroes. A made-up action star with a band behind him: Rex Racer & the Night Pilots.
- Album titles are places and moments: a motel pool, a highway, the skyline at 3am.
Vaporwave came a little later, in the early 2010s. Macintosh Plus's Floral Shoppe (2011) is the album most people point to. It loops slowed-down muzak and adverts, and its names look like corporate logos, Japanese shop signs or text typed in wide, spaced-out letters. Choose Vaporwave for names like パラダイス Multimedia or ＯＰＥＮ ２４ ＨＯＵＲＳ.
Using a synthwave name
- Think about the artwork. Sunsets, grids and chrome lettering are part of the genre, and a name that suggests a picture makes the cover easier.
- Vaporwave text is hard to search. Fullwidth letters and Japanese characters look great but people can't easily type them, so add a plain-text version in your profile.
- Check the name is free on Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube before you print the first cassette.
For something slower and dustier, try the Lo-Fi Name Generator. If you want stars and space instead of neon, cosmic synth sits with the Dungeon Synth Name Generator. For albums in any genre, the Album Name Generator has more.
For more genres, see all the music genre name generators.