Demon Names: Original Names for Fiction and Fantasy Games

Short answer

• For an original demon, invent the name and build it from parts that carry the tone you want: hard consonants and short syllables for brutality, long vowels and liquid sounds for elegance, and archaic roots and endings for age. The invented lists in this article give you ready made options in three tones, ancient, elegant and brutal, plus the dread, cunning and infernal royalty lists carried over from the source collection. For a demon rooted in tradition, borrow carefully from documented sources. The Ars Goetia, the first book of the 17th century Lesser Key of Solomon, lists 72 named spirits with ranks such as King Bael and King Paimon. Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, published as an appendix in 1577, lists 69 and is the main source the Goetia drew on. Dante gives 12 comic grotesque Malebranche in the Inferno, and Milton gives a formal catalogue of fallen angels in Book 1 of Paradise Lost, including Moloch, Chemos, Belial and Mammon. Traditional names bring instant recognition and real folklore weight, but they also bring fixed associations your readers may already know. Invented names bring freedom and no baggage. Choose based on whether your demon is a figure of legend inside your world or a legend borrowed from ours.

By Emma Hudson

A demon name does two jobs at once. It has to sound like it belongs to something old and dangerous, and it has to stay usable across hundreds of pages or hours of play. Readers and players will say the name aloud, shorten it, fear it and eventually judge the character by whether the name earned its menace. This guide is a fiction writing resource. It treats demonology as folklore and literary tradition, the material of grimoires, epic poems and world mythology, and it keeps two kinds of names strictly separate. Traditional names are the ones that actually appear in historical texts, with their sources named so you can check them and understand what using them signals. Invented names are new coinages made for original characters, grouped by tone so you can pick the register your story needs. Mixing the two without knowing which is which is the most common mistake in fantasy naming, and it is an easy one to avoid.

If you are building a wider cast of supernatural beings, the same approach works across the cluster. Half human offspring need a different register again, covered in our guide to cambion names. Culture specific traditions need culture specific research, as in Korean names that mean demon. Scale and wilderness call for their own sounds, covered in giant names, minotaur names and leshy names.

Traditional Demon Names and Where They Actually Come From

Traditional does not mean ancient in every case, and it does not mean biblical in every case either. Most of the demon names modern fiction treats as timeless come from a fairly small shelf of texts written between the 14th and 17th centuries, layered over much older folklore. Knowing the shelf matters because each source gives a name a different flavor.

The Ars Goetia and the 72 spirits

The Lesser Key of Solomon, in Latin Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, is an anonymously compiled grimoire from the 17th century. Its first book, the Ars Goetia, catalogues 72 spirits said to have been bound by King Solomon, each with a rank, a description and a seal. The ranks follow a court hierarchy: kings, dukes, princes, marquises, presidents, counts or earls, and one knight. That hierarchy is a gift to fiction writers, because it shows a complete infernal court already imagined as a mirror of a human one.

A verified selection, in the Goetia order, runs: King Bael (1), Duke Agares (2), Marquis Amon (7), King Paimon (9), President Buer (10), Duke Astaroth (29), Asmoday (32, the form of Asmodeus used in the Goetia), Prince Stolas (36), Duke Focalor (41), King Belial (68) and Count Andromalius (72). Bael is described as appearing in the shapes of a man, a cat or a toad, sometimes all at once, and granting invisibility. Paimon arrives, in the text, seated on a dromedary with a crown, announced by trumpets and cymbals, and teaches arts and sciences. Belial distributes honors and favors. None of these descriptions is a modern invention. They are what the grimoire itself says, which is why Goetia names feel dense with detail when a writer uses them well.

Use Goetia names when your fiction wants occult scholarship, ritual and rank. Avoid them, or change them, when you want a clean slate, because knowledgeable readers will expect the traditional powers and personalities to come with the names.

Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum

The Goetia did not appear from nowhere. Johann Weyer, a Dutch physician, published De praestigiis daemonum in 1563, and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, meaning the false monarchy of demons, appeared as an appendix to the 1577 edition. Weyer listed 69 demons, in a different order and sometimes with different ranks and spellings, such as Bael written as Bael with a diaeresis and Purson written as Pursan. One name, Pruflas, appears in Weyer and does not appear in the Ars Goetia. Four names go the other way: Vassago, Seere, Dantalion and Andromalius are in the Goetia but not in Weyer. For a writer, Weyer is useful in two ways. His variant spellings are a legitimate, documented way to make a traditional name feel slightly less familiar, and his catalogue proves that even the classic lists disagreed with each other. There was never one fixed canon.

Dante’s Malebranche

Dante Alighieri, writing the Inferno in the early 14th century, took a completely different approach. His Malebranche, the name means evil claws, are 12 demons who guard the fifth ditch of the eighth circle, where corrupt politicians are held under boiling pitch, in Cantos 21 to 23. Their names are Italian, grotesque and deliberately comic: Malacoda, their leader, meaning evil tail; Barbariccia, curly beard; Alichino; Cagnazzo, nasty dog; Calcabrina; Ciriatto, wild hog; Draghignazzo; Farfarello; Graffiacane, dog scratcher; Libicocco; Rubicante; and Scarmiglione. They bicker, they lie to Dante and Virgil about the road ahead, and they fall for a prisoner’s trick. The lesson for naming is that demon names do not have to be solemn. A name built from an insult, an animal and a physical flaw can be more memorable than another grand title, especially for low ranking enforcers rather than kings.

Milton’s catalogue in Paradise Lost

John Milton’s Paradise Lost, published in 1667, gives the most influential literary catalogue of all. In Book 1, the fallen angels rise from the burning lake and Milton names them in the style of an epic muster roll: Moloch, Chemos, Baalim and Ashtaroth, Astoreth, Thammuz, Dagon, Rimmon, the Egyptian figures Osiris, Isis and Orus, then Belial last among that first roll, with Beelzebub as Satan’s second in command and Mammon and Mulciber appearing as Pandemonium, the capital of Hell, is built. Milton’s stated logic, inside the poem, is that these fallen angels were later worshipped as the gods of neighboring nations. That is why his list mixes biblical names for foreign deities with personifications such as Mammon, greed, and Belial, worthlessness. A writer borrowing from Milton is borrowing grandeur and tragedy. His demons have speeches, arguments and a lost cause, so his names suit fallen royalty and debaters better than monsters.

Older folklore figures behind the lists

Behind the grimoires sit older figures who entered demonology from scripture, apocrypha and folklore rather than from the catalogues above. Lilith comes from Jewish folklore as a night figure, with a single biblical mention of the underlying Hebrew word in Isaiah. Azazel is named in Leviticus in connection with the scapegoat sent into the wilderness, and grows into a fallen angel figure in the Book of Enoch tradition. Mephistopheles is different again: the name is not ancient at all, but comes from the German Faust chapbook tradition of the late 16th century, which Christopher Marlowe and later Goethe carried into world literature. Treat each of these as traditional, but name the tradition correctly. Calling Mephistopheles a biblical demon would be an error; calling him a figure of the Faust legend is accurate, and accuracy is what lets a reader trust the rest of your world building.

Invented Demon Names by Tone

Every name in this section is invented for fiction, including the 24 names retained from the source collection and the new lists that follow. None of them is presented as a historical demon. That freedom is the point: an invented name can be pronounced your way, spelled your way and given exactly the history your story needs.

Dread names (retained from the source collection)

These names aim for weight and threat, built on hard consonants, dark vowels and endings that echo the grimoires without copying any single entry.

• Malachar
• Vorath
• Dreadmoor
• Kharzul
• Abyssiel
• Grimvain
• Tormentra
• Nethrak

Cunning names (retained from the source collection)

Tempter and trickster demons need names a mortal could plausibly trust, with smooth sounds, a hint of silver or whispering, and nothing that warns the victim too early.

• Silvertongue
• Vexille
• Whispermaul
• Trickster
• Lurienne
• Slythera
• Cozen
• Mirthless

Two of these, Silvertongue and Trickster, work best as epithets or titles rather than true names, which is itself a useful device. A demon widely called by a nickname may be hiding the name that matters.

Infernal royalty names (retained from the source collection)

Rank does half the work in these names. The title sets the scale before the name itself is heard, exactly as the Goetia pairs every name with a court rank.

• Lord Ashmaran
• Lady Velphegor
• Prince Duskryn
• Queen Malefica
• Duke Obsidius
• Baroness Cindrel
• Marquis Thornveil
• Empress Nightfall

Use one title system consistently. A court that mixes a marquis, a baroness and an empress in the same small circle needs an in world reason, or readers will feel the ranks as decoration rather than structure.

New invented names: ancient

Ancient feeling names lean on archaic roots, th and kh sounds, and endings borrowed from old languages. They suit demons who predate the kingdoms they haunt.

• Threnokar
• Ossuveth
• Kharimath
• Ulthazan
• Memnorath
• Saqmel
• Ithkazar
• Vhumiel

New invented names: elegant

Elegant names use long vowels, l, v and s sounds, and balanced syllables. They suit courtiers, tempters and fallen princes who are more dangerous in conversation than in combat.

• Valesindra
• Lucerion
• Seraphelle
• Ondraviel
• Velissande
• Cassimora
• Elouaneth
• Thistlevane

New invented names: brutal

Brutal names are short, consonant heavy and hard to say softly. They suit tormentors, war demons and creatures who are named by the people they terrorized rather than by scholars.

• Ghorza
• Brakketh
• Skarn
• Uzgroth
• Vrekk
• Morgrath
• Thokk
• Razhul

Notice the length pattern. Brutal names cluster at one or two syllables, elegant names at three or four, and ancient names in between with heavier endings. Length alone signals a surprising amount before a character speaks.

How Demon Names Are Constructed

Once you see the parts, you can build names to order instead of hoping a generator lands on the right one. Traditional names were built this way too, by scribes reshaping Hebrew, Greek and Latin material over centuries.

Endings that do the heavy lifting

The ending -el, and its fuller form -iel, comes from the Hebrew word El, meaning God. It appears in the archangel names Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and it means those names are phrases: Michael is traditionally read as a question, who is like God. Fallen angel names in the Enoch tradition often keep the same ending, which is why an invented name such as Abyssiel or Vhumiel reads as a fallen celestial rather than a monster. Use -iel when you want that specific echo of a heaven the demon fell from.

The ending -oth has no single clean source, and that is worth stating plainly. Hebrew uses -oth, also written -ot, as a feminine plural ending, and modern fantasy has stretched it into a general marker of the ancient and the unholy, helped by later horror fiction. Names ending in -oth, such as Memnorath’s near neighbor style or a coinage like Zheroth, feel old and ritualistic to most readers. It is a genre signal, not a translation, and using it knowingly is better than assuming it means something specific.

Other productive endings include -gor, suggesting bulk and violence, as in an invented Gorvath; -ath and -eth, which feel archaic and funereal; -is and -os, borrowed from Greek and Latin shapes; and -bub or -baal patterns, which you should avoid inventing with, because Baal and Beelzebub are real traditional names with real religious history, not spare parts.

Roots from Latin, Greek and Hebrew

Latin roots give institutional, funereal weight: mort for death, noct for night, ciner for ash, as in Cindrel, and umbr for shadow. Greek roots give older, stranger color: nekros for a corpse, skotos for darkness, and oneiros for a dream, useful for a demon of nightmares. Hebrew and Semitic roots give the grimoire flavor, but they carry real religious meaning, so use them for sound patterns rather than fake translations. Never claim an invented name means something in Hebrew unless you have actually verified the words. A name can simply sound right. Invented etymology presented as fact is the fastest way to lose an informed reader.

Sound, length and pronounceability

The source collection’s best advice survives every expansion: aim for dread that can still be spoken aloud. A name readers cannot pronounce becomes a blur they skip, and a skipped name loses every scene it appears in. Read each candidate aloud three times. Check that it does not collide with a word you do not intend, that it shortens naturally, since characters will shorten it, and that two demons in the same cast do not share a first syllable. In games, also check the name at small sizes and in voice chat: if players cannot say it under pressure, they will rename your demon themselves, usually to something comic.

Titles, true names and epithets

Three naming layers give a demon depth. The common name is what most people use. The epithet is what reputation adds: the Ash Duke, the Widow’s Creditor, the Saint of Locked Doors. The true name, in many folklore and fantasy traditions, is the name with power over the being, which is why mortals in a story may fear to speak it and why the moment someone finally does should land hard. Use the true name sparingly. If it is spoken in chapter two, it cannot be a revelation in chapter twenty.

Choosing and Testing a Name for Your Demon

Match the name to the job first. A tempter needs a smooth name a mortal would trust across a table. A tormentor needs a name that hurts slightly to say. A ruler needs a name that takes a title without buckling. A name that fights its role confuses readers before the demon ever appears.

Then test against your own world. Does the name fit the language family of the culture that named the demon, or is the mismatch itself a clue that the demon came from elsewhere? Is it too close to a traditional name for comfort? Velphegor, retained above, sits one syllable away from Belphegor, a genuine traditional figure associated with Baal Peor in the Hebrew Bible and later demonology. That closeness can be a deliberate nod, but it should be a choice, not an accident a reviewer points out. Run the same check for the rest of your cast, including related beings: a demon, a cambion heir and a minotaur champion sharing similar sounds will blur together in a reader’s memory. Finally, search the exact name once. Invented names are occasionally already in use by a game, a band or another author, and finding that early is far cheaper than finding it after publication.

For culture specific lists, do not generalize from this article. Korean tradition has its own figures and its own naming logic, covered separately in Korean names that mean demon, and forest and wilderness beings follow different patterns again in leshy names and giant names. Keeping each tradition in its own article, with its own sources, is what keeps the whole cluster trustworthy.

Using Demon Names in Games

Tabletop and video games add two pressures that prose does not. The first is repetition under time pressure. A game master or a voice actor will say a recurring demon’s name dozens of times in a session, so test the name in a full sentence at speed, not just on the page. If it tangles, shorten the common name and keep the long form as the formal or true name, which turns a practical fix into a piece of lore. The second pressure is the interface. Names appear in quest logs, dialogue boxes, subtitles and wikis that players write themselves. Consistent spelling matters more than clever spelling: a player searching for your demon by the spelling they half remember should still arrive at the right page. Avoid silent letters, doubled consonants that carry no sound, and two demons whose names differ by one letter. Save the ornate forms for the one figure who anchors a campaign or a novel, and give recurring lesser demons names a new player can read correctly on first sight. That hierarchy of effort mirrors the old lists themselves, where kings carry the grand names and ditch guards carry jokes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the traditional names in this article real?

Yes, in the specific sense that they appear in the named historical texts. The Ars Goetia lists 72 spirits including Bael, Paimon and Belial. Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum lists 69, including Pruflas, who is absent from the Goetia. Dante names 12 Malebranche. Milton names Moloch, Chemos, Belial, Mammon and others in Book 1 of Paradise Lost. Real here means documented in folklore and literature, not a claim about the physical world.

Are the other names in this article from mythology?

No. The dread, cunning, infernal royalty, ancient, elegant and brutal lists are invented for fiction. They were written as original character names, some retained from the source collection for this article and some newly coined for this edition, and they are labeled as invented wherever they appear.

Can I use a Goetia name for my own character?

Writers do it constantly, and the texts are centuries old. Understand the trade first: the name arrives with a rank, a set of powers and a personality that informed readers will expect. If your Paimon does something entirely different, some readers will read it as an error rather than a choice. Invented names carry no such expectation.

Should a demon name be hard to pronounce?

Only slightly. One unfamiliar cluster of letters can add age and menace. Three in a row makes readers skip the name entirely. If a beta reader stumbles twice, simplify the spelling while keeping the sound.

What is the difference between a demon name and a devil name?

In most fiction the words are used interchangeably. Where authors make a distinction, the Devil is a single supreme figure and demons are the many beings under or around that figure. The Goetia’s court of kings and dukes, and Milton’s council in Pandemonium, both follow that many under one pattern.

How do I make a demon name sound ancient rather than just complicated?

Use age markers instead of letter pileups: an -ath or -oth ending, a th or kh sound, a root that recalls ash, night, stone or binding, and a syllable count of two or three. Age in names reads as weight and wear, not as difficulty.

Sources & references

• Wikipedia, The Lesser Key of Solomon and List of demons in the Ars Goetia, for the 72 spirits, their order, ranks and descriptions, and the relationship to Weyer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goetia
• Wikipedia, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, for Weyer's 69 demons, the 1577 appendix publication, Pruflas, and the four Goetia additions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruflas
• Wikipedia, Malebranche (Divine Comedy), for the 12 named Malebranche, their ditch in the eighth circle and Cantos 21 to 23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebranche_(Divine_Comedy)
• John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, Standard Ebooks text, for the catalogue of fallen angels including Moloch, Chemos, Belial and the building of Pandemonium. https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-milton/paradise-lost/text/book-1
• Behind the Name, submitted Judeo Christian legend names containing el, for the Hebrew element El meaning God in names such as Baraqiel and Hadraniel. https://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/usage/judeo-christian-legend/substring/el