Every zombie was someone once, which is why the funniest zombie names are ordinary ones: Groaning Gary from accounts, Shambling Sharon from next door. This zombie name generator makes those, grimmer names for the undead of horror stories, and names for the virus behind your outbreak.
Where zombies come from
The zombie comes from Haitian folklore, where a zonbi was a dead person raised and controlled by a sorcerer. The flesh-eating, shambling zombie of modern films comes largely from George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), which never actually calls its monsters zombies.
Naming the outbreak
Modern zombie stories usually blame a disease, and give it a name: the T-virus in Resident Evil, the Rage virus in 28 Days Later, Solanum in Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, and the Cordyceps fungus in The Last of Us. A good outbreak name sounds scientific and ominous at the same time. The generator mixes classical names (Lazarus, Cerberus), Greek letters and medical words.
Using the names
- Funny zombies suit Halloween parties, zombie runs and comedy horror: an adjective and a very ordinary first name.
- Grim zombies suit horror stories and tabletop games, where a named zombie is someone the survivors once knew.
- Virus names give a campaign or story its villain before anyone has seen a zombie.
For other creatures, try the Werewolf and Vampire name generators.