Short answer
- Grung names are short, croaking, and built from one or two hard syllables, such as Pok, Krik, Chirr, or P'Rann. In the classic lore from Volo's Guide to Monsters, a grung's skin color marks its caste, and players often borrow that color order when naming: green for warriors, hunters, and laborers, blue for artisans and domestic roles, purple for administrators, red for scholars and magic users, orange for elite warriors, and gold for leaders. Published examples follow the same clipped pattern, from King Groak of Dungrunglung in Tomb of Annihilation to the one syllable example names listed in Volo's Guide to Monsters, such as Akk, Grop, Ploo, and Zoog. Grung also put a tribe name in front of their own name when introducing themselves to outsiders. Color linked second names, such as Verdant or Cerulean, are a popular fan pattern rather than a published rule. Ivrak is not a verified canon grung name or last name on the evidence available to this article. To name a grung today, pick one or two croaking syllables, add an apostrophe only if it marks a real break in sound, and optionally add a color or tribe second name that fits your table's version of grung society.
By Emma Hudson
Grung are the frogfolk of Dungeons & Dragons: small, brightly colored, tree dwelling humanoids from damp rainforests and jungles, known for poisonous skin, prodigious leaps, and, in their classic lore, a strict society ordered by skin color. A good grung name sounds like a croak shaped into a word. It is short, percussive, and easy to shout across a pond, often with an apostrophe marking a break in the sound.
This guide gives you more than 130 original name ideas in the grung style, organized by caste color, by poolside and warrior and elder flavors, and by second name patterns. It also explains how grung naming actually works in the published material, so you can build your own names instead of only picking from a list. One honesty note comes first and runs through the whole article: searches for an Ivrak last name turn up no verified canon grung name that this article can confirm, so Ivrak is treated here as an unverified sample name query, not as a confirmed canon grung name. Nothing below presents Ivrak as official lore. Every name in the lists is an original fan created suggestion in the grung style, either carried over from the source package or created for this adaptation, unless it is clearly labeled as a published example.
If you are naming other fantasy peoples as well, the same sound first approach works across the cluster. Compare the nature rooted sounds in leshy names, the darker infernal patterns in cambion names and demon names, and the heavy, earthy weight of giant names and minotaur names. Grung names sit at the opposite end of the scale from giants and minotaurs: where those names rumble, grung names pop.
What a Grung Is
Grung entered fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in Volo’s Guide to Monsters (2016) and feature in the Chult jungle adventure Tomb of Annihilation (2017), where the grung village of Dungrunglung appears in the Lands of Chult. In brief, in this article’s own words: grung are small frog like humanoids who live in trees in rainforests and tropical jungles, close to water. They are amphibious, they secrete a poison through their skin that is harmless to them but dangerous to other creatures, and they need regular immersion in water. They are fiercely territorial in the classic portrayal, and they mature very quickly, reaching adulthood in about a year.
That classic portrayal comes with a warning label for modern tables. Volo’s Guide to Monsters describes a rigid, color based caste system and a culture of keeping slaves. Later material, including Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, drops the rigid caste framing and the xenophobia emphasis, keeping the colors and the poison while presenting grung in a lighter way. Neither version changes how a name should sound, but the choice matters for what a color linked name means at your table, and this article returns to that choice below. For naming purposes, treat the caste colors as a flavorful organizing tool from the older lore, not as a rule your table must follow.
How Grung Naming Works
Short bursts of sound
Published grung names favor simple, one syllable sounds. The example names in Volo’s Guide to Monsters are almost all single blunt syllables: Akk, Grop, Ploo, Zoog, and dozens like them. Named grung in Tomb of Annihilation run only slightly longer: Groak, the gold grung king of Dungrunglung; Krr’ook, a red grung wildling and priest; and Roark, an orange grung elite warrior. The charity supplement One Grung Above (2017), which gave players official unofficial grung characters from the Stream of Annihilation game, leans harder on apostrophes, with names such as b’Loop and b’Leep.
The pattern underneath all three sources is the same. A grung name is a croak first and a word second. It starts with a hard consonant or consonant cluster, lands on one strong vowel, and stops. Names rarely run past two syllables, and three syllables is usually a sign that a name belongs to an elder, a title holder, or a grung who is showing off.
Apostrophes mark a break, not decoration
The apostrophe in a grung name marks a glottal break, a tiny stop in the throat, as in Krr’ook or P’Rann. Used once, it makes a name sound authentically croaked. Used three times, it makes a name unpronounceable at the table, and a name nobody can say will be replaced by a nickname within one session. Keep names short. A grung name shouted across a swamp should survive being shouted, and a name with three apostrophes will not. One apostrophe is flavor. Two is a statement. Three is a problem you are handing to your Dungeon Master.
The tribe name comes first for outsiders
Volo’s Guide to Monsters notes that grung add the name of their tribe in front of their own name when they take the trouble to introduce themselves to outsiders, and they do so with great pride. Published tribe name examples are blunt two part compounds in Common, such as Flychewer and Stickyfeet. That gives a grung two public name layers: a proud, descriptive tribe label for strangers, and a short personal croak for everyone else. A full formal introduction might run like this: Mosshunter P’Rann, or Vineleaper Chirr. At the table, this is a gift. The tribe name tells the other players what this grung’s people value before the character says a second word.
Color and caste in the classic lore
Skin color is how classic grung society shows rank. Hatchlings all start a dull greenish gray, and a young grung’s skin shifts from dull greenish gray to its caste color as it matures. Its pool sets that color: in Volo’s Guide to Monsters, each caste keeps its own hatching pool, and the young join that caste when they emerge. From bottom to top the ladder runs green, blue, purple, red, orange, and gold. Most grung keep their mature color for life. Exceptional deeds are the one way out: a grung so honored can enter a new caste, its color changed through herbal tonics and ritual magic.
For a naming article, the practical value of this lore is simple. Color tells you which shelf to look on. A green grung name should sound like it belongs to someone who hunts, hauls, and fights. A gold grung name can afford a little more weight. The lists below are organized on exactly that basis, with two extra lists that cut across caste: soft poolside names for young or gentle characters, and longer elder names for the rare grung who has lived long enough to earn extra syllables.
A Note on Ivrak
Because the search that brings many readers here is some version of Ivrak last name, it deserves a straight answer rather than a quiet paragraph. This article could not verify Ivrak as a canon grung name, a canon grung surname, or a published grung character in the sources it checked, which included the naming material summarized above and reference summaries of Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Tomb of Annihilation. No grung named Ivrak appears in the Dungrunglung material, where the named grung are Groak, Krr’ook, and Roark, and Ivrak does not appear in the published example name lists.
That does not make Ivrak a bad name. It fits the sound pattern loosely, although its soft v and its two even syllables make it smoother than most published grung names, which favor harder stops. If you like it, use it as an original name for your own character, and consider roughening it slightly to Iv’Rak or Brakk if you want it to croak harder. What you should not do is cite Ivrak as official lore, because on current evidence it is not. The same caution applies to any name list on the internet that presents Ivrak as a confirmed canon surname: ask for the source, and if no book and page are offered, treat the claim as fan material.
Grung Names by Caste Color
The six lists below follow the classic color order from Volo’s Guide to Monsters. Each list holds 15 original names tuned to the feel of that caste. They are suggestions in the grung style, not canon names, and you can move any name to any color if it fits your character better. Newer material drops the rigid caste framing, so color surnames and caste matched names are best treated as a fun fan pattern, not as a rule your table must follow.
Green grung names: warriors, hunters, and laborers
Green grung are the tribe’s warriors, hunters, and general laborers, the lowest caste in the classic order and the most numerous. Their names should sound quick, blunt, and ready to be barked across a hunting trail.
Gribbit, Pok, Krik, Vrib, Churk, Snit, Brakk, Jib, Threp, Wik, Doss, Narp, Skiv, Yarp, Quib.
Construction notes: green names lean on single syllables ending in a hard stop, a k, p, or t sound that carries outdoors. If a name sounds like a twig snapping or a pebble dropping into water, it belongs on this shelf. Avoid soft endings here. A green grung named Lirra will sound like a blue grung who wandered into the wrong pool.
Blue grung names: artisans and domestic roles
Blue grung work as artisans and in domestic roles, including caring for the young and trading crafted goods with other peoples. Their names can afford to be a little rounder and friendlier than green names, because blue grung are the caste most likely to talk to outsiders.
Bibble, Gurble, Blee, Dopp, Fen, Glib, Hop, Lirp, Mib, Noll, Pim, Sibb, Twee, Wib, Yoll.
Construction notes: blue names favor liquids and soft repeats, the b, l, and m sounds in Bibble and Gurble, which echo bubbling water. A repeated syllable is welcome here and rare elsewhere in grung naming, which makes it a useful signal that a character comes from the artisan pools.
Purple grung names: administrators and commanders
Purple grung supervise and guide the green and blue castes, serving as administrators and commanders. Their names sit in the middle of the range: crisper than blue names, weightier than green names, often carrying the article’s apostrophes because administrators are exactly the grung most likely to insist on correct pronunciation.
Tung, Vess, Orp, Ull, Zenn, Kree, Ahn, P’Rann, D’Vel, K’Ush, M’Rill, S’Vor, T’Lek, R’Ann, Boll.
Construction notes: an apostrophe name reads as formal in grung style, so this shelf holds most of them. If you want a purple grung to sound officious, give the name one apostrophe and make the other characters use it. If you want the same character to sound approachable, drop the apostrophe and watch the personality change with it.
Red grung names: scholars and magic users
Red grung are the tribe’s scholars and magic users, also known as wildlings. They rank above purple, blue, and green grung in the classic order and are given proper respect even by higher castes, because they serve as shamans and priests. Their names can sound stranger and older than the names around them.
Kroak, R’Iss, Krr’Esh, Zik, Errib, Solk, Vrin, Ashk, Orr, Yiss, Bremm, Chirr, Lokk, Sarr, Wex.
Construction notes: red names tolerate hisses, rolled r sounds, and ritual sounding repeats, such as the Krr opening borrowed in style from Krr’ook. Chirr is a deliberate nod to the mesmerizing chirr associated with elite grung in the published stat blocks, repurposed here as a scholar’s name. Keep red names pronounceable, though. A wildling still has to answer when called for dinner.
Orange grung names: elite warriors
Orange grung are elite warriors with authority over all lesser grung, charged in the classic lore with protecting the tribe’s most important and sacred sites. Their names should sound like the green list grown heavier: the same hard stops, with more chest behind them.
Brak, Chonn, Darr, Grell, Hakk, Jorr, Keth, Morv, Narr, Skarr, Thokk, Varr, Yonn, Zarr, Phex.
Construction notes: doubled consonants do the work here. Skarr and Thokk read as scarred veterans without a word of backstory. Roark, the orange grung of Dungrunglung, shows the published version of this pattern: two strong beats, no softness, nothing wasted.
Gold grung names: leaders
Gold grung hold the highest leadership positions, and a tribe’s sovereign is always a gold grung in the classic lore. Gold names are rare in any campaign because gold grung are rare, and they can carry the most weight of any name on this page while still obeying the croak rule.
Grobb, K’Rann, Orrum, Sall, V’Kor, Yarr, Zol, Brem, Koss, T’Rill, Ahnn, Mor, Pell, Rakk, Senn.
Construction notes: compare these with Groak, the one published gold grung name most players meet. The pattern is a strong opening cluster, a deep vowel, and a closed ending. A gold name should sound good announced across a shrine pool by a herald, because in Dungrunglung that is more or less what happens.
Poolside Names and Elder Names
Poolside names for young or gentle grung
Not every grung character is a warrior or a priest. Young grung fresh from the hatching pools, gentle healers, frog charmers, and comic relief characters all want softer names than the caste lists offer. Poolside names trade hard stops for round, bubbling sounds.
Tadpol, Plop, Bip, Dripp, Fip, Glip, Ip, Loll, Mip, Nib, Oop, Pib.
Construction notes: Plop and Dripp are sound effects as much as names, which suits a tadpole aged character perfectly. A nice character arc trick is to let a poolside name harden as the character grows: Plop the tadpole becomes Plokk the hunter, and the table hears the whole childhood in the change. Grung mature within about a year in the published traits, so that arc can play out fast in campaign time.
Elder names for old and honored grung
Grung do not usually collect extra syllables, but age and honor are the exceptions. An elder, a retired wildling, or a gold grung who has ruled for decades can carry a two syllable name with a rolling middle, and the extra length itself signals rank to anyone who knows grung custom.
Barrok, Chulla, Gorren, Kribba, Morrak, Pellin, Ribba, Sorrek, Tullan, Vorra.
Construction notes: elder names are built by stretching a caste name rather than inventing a new pattern. Kribba is plainly kin to Krik, and Morrak grows out of Mor. If your campaign tracks families or pool lines at all, building an elder’s name from a younger relative’s name is the most believable move on this page.
Second Names: Color Surnames and Tribe Names
Grung in the published material do not use family surnames in the human sense. They use two other things instead: a tribe name placed before the personal name for outsiders, and, in fan material, a color linked second name that echoes the caste system. Both patterns are useful, but they should not be confused with each other, and neither one makes Ivrak a canon surname.
Color linked second names (fan pattern)
Second names in fan material often link to the skin color a grung takes on as an adult, since color marks caste in older grung lore. The established fan examples are plain color words used as surnames. This article keeps those and adds plainer nature words in the same spirit.
Verdant, Cerulean, Scarlet, Violet, Ochre, Aurum, Emerald, Azure, Amethyst, Crimson, Amber, Golden, Mossback, Pondleap, Reedback, Lilyhop, Marshstep, Canopy.
Used well, a color second name does one of two jobs. It can confirm the character, as in Krr’Esh Scarlet, a red wildling whose name and color agree. Or it can create a story, as in Thokk Verdant, an orange elite carrying a green linked name, which immediately raises the question of whether this grung changed caste, was raised in the wrong pool, or simply likes the name. If your table uses the color caste idea at all, agree first whether color is destiny or just decoration. The name will feel very different depending on that choice, and it is better decided together than assumed.
Tribe names
A tribe name is the older and better sourced pattern. Published examples such as Flychewer and Stickyfeet are blunt compounds that describe what the tribe does, eats, or survives. Original tribe names in the same style are easy to build: pick a jungle verb and a swamp noun, and push them together.
Darttongue, Leafhider, Mudcrown, Nightcroaker, Pondguard, Raincatcher, Vineleaper, Mosshunter.
Construction notes: the compound should be slightly boastful, because grung introduce their tribe with pride. Nightcroaker boasts about voice. Darttongue boasts about hunting. Mudcrown boasts about territory. A humble tribe name is a contradiction, and if your grung comes from a humble tribe, that contradiction is the character.
Building Your Own Grung Name
You can build a reliable grung name in four steps, and the method matters more than any single list, because a method lets a Dungeon Master name a whole village in five minutes without repeating a sound.
First, choose a starting cluster. The productive grung openings are single hard consonants and tight clusters: B, Br, Ch, D, Gr, K, Kr, Krr, P, Pl, Sk, Sn, Th, Vr, and Z. Second, choose one vowel sound. Short, deep vowels carry best: a as in tad, o as in pond, u as in mud. Long bright vowels sound like other peoples, which is why the bright, lilting end of leshy names would feel wrong on a grung. Third, close the name with a stop or a hum: k, p, t, b, m, or a doubled consonant. Fourth, test the apostrophe. Say the name aloud three times at conversation speed. If a natural throat stop appears, as in Krr’ook, mark it. If you have to force it, delete it.
Worked examples using that method: Gr plus o plus kk gives Grokk, a green hunter. P plus a plus sh plus t, softened in the published style, gives a name in the family of Pasht from the Volo’s example list. Krr plus e plus sh, with a break after the roll, gives Krr’Esh from the red list above. The same method scales across the fantasy cluster with different settings: giant names stretch every step longer and lower, minotaur names add snorts and horn heavy clusters, and cambion names and demon names trade the pond sounds for sibilants and grandeur. Grung naming is the minimalist end of that spectrum, and its restraint is the point.
Two traps to avoid. The first is the comedy trap: names like Ribbit, Froggy, or Sir Croaksalot announce a joke character, and joke names are hard to retire when a campaign turns serious. The lists above stay close to published style precisely so a character can be funny in play without being a punchline on the character sheet. The second trap is over length. If a name needs a pronunciation guide in the group chat, it has already failed the swamp shout test.
Using Grung Names at the Table
Give a grung character a croak or a call as well as a name. A battle cry, a greeting croak, or a nervous ribbit tells the table who this character is faster than a paragraph of backstory. A purple administrator whose name is always croaked twice by subordinates, or a gold leader whose arrival is announced by a pool side chorus, becomes memorable in a way that no spelling can achieve on its own.
For player characters, decide with your Dungeon Master which version of grung society your campaign uses. In a Volo’s style campaign, a color matched name is a promise about caste, and breaking that promise in play, a green named grung demanding a scholar’s respect, is a story engine. In a Monsters of the Multiverse style campaign, color is closer to decoration, and the name is free to be pure sound. Either way, write the full formal version, tribe name plus personal name plus any color second name, at the top of the character sheet, and the short croak in the name box. The short croak is what the table will actually use.
For Dungeon Masters naming grung NPCs, name by caste shelf and vary the openings. A village scene falls flat if every grung starts with Gr. Mix the shelves: a green hunting party of Pok, Snit, and Yarp meeting a purple overseer named D’Vel and a red wildling named Chirr gives the players five distinct sound shapes to hold in memory, and distinct sound shapes are what make NPC names stick. Reserve gold shelf names for the one or two grung who rule, because a village where everyone sounds like a king has no king at all.
Finally, a practical note on spelling at the table. Agree the spelling early and keep it in the shared notes. Apostrophe names get typed five different ways in five different session logs, and Krr’ook will become Krook, K’rook, and Krr-ook by session three unless the first spelling wins. The same discipline helps when you move between peoples in one campaign: the spelling conventions you settle for grung will contrast cleanly with the flowing forms in leshy names and the harsh grandeur of demon names, and the contrast itself helps players remember who is who.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a grung?
A grung is a small frogfolk humanoid from Dungeons & Dragons, living in trees in damp forests and jungles, known for poisonous skin, strong leaping, amphibious life, and, in the classic Volo’s Guide to Monsters portrayal, a color based caste system. Grung feature prominently in the Chult adventure Tomb of Annihilation, in the village of Dungrunglung.
Is Ivrak a real grung name?
Not as far as this article can verify. Ivrak is treated as an unverified sample name query. It does not appear in the published example name lists or among the named grung of Dungrunglung checked for this article, so do not cite it as canon without a source. It remains usable as an original name for your own character.
What are the grung caste colors in order?
In the classic Volo’s Guide to Monsters order, from lowest to highest: green grung are warriors, hunters, and laborers; blue grung are artisans and domestic workers; purple grung are supervisors and administrators; red grung are scholars and magic users; orange grung are elite warriors; and gold grung hold the highest leadership positions, and the tribe’s ruler is always a gold grung. Later material drops the rigid caste framing.
Can I use a color surname for my grung?
Yes, as a fan pattern. Color linked surnames such as Verdant, Cerulean, and Aurum echo older grung lore, but they are a community convention rather than a published rule, and newer material moves away from rigid castes. Treat a color surname as flavor, not as a rule, and check whether your table wants caste to matter at all.
How do you pronounce grung names with apostrophes?
The apostrophe marks a short throat stop, a break in the sound. Krr’ook is said as a rolled krr, a stop, then ook. Say the name in two beats rather than running it together. If a name cannot be said comfortably in two beats at normal speed, it has too many apostrophes and should be simplified.
Are grung a playable race?
Grung were introduced as monsters in Volo’s Guide to Monsters. Playable grung traits were released in One Grung Above (2017), an official unofficial charity supplement, and grung traits have since circulated widely in reference material. Whether grung are legal at your table is your Dungeon Master’s call, and the traits include real constraints, including poisonous skin and a need for daily immersion in water, that a good name cannot fix.
How is a grung name different from other fantasy names?
A grung name is shorter and more percussive than most. Where giant names and minotaur names use length and weight to signal power, and cambion names use elegance to signal danger, a grung name signals power through caste color and tribe pride while the name itself stays a one or two syllable croak.
Sources & references
- Volo's Guide to Monsters (Wizards of the Coast, 2016). Grung introduction for fifth edition: rainforest and jungle habitat, color based caste system, separate hatching pools, dull greenish gray young taking on caste color, green through gold caste roles, color change through herbal tonics and ritual magic for exceptional deeds, tribe name placed before the personal name for outsiders, and the example name list of short one syllable names. Summarized in this article in its own words; no text reproduced.
- Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast, 2017). The grung village of Dungrunglung in Chult and its named grung: Groak, gold grung king; Krr'ook, red grung wildling priest; Roark, orange grung elite warrior.
- One Grung Above, by Christopher Lindsay (Wizards of the Coast, Dungeon Masters Guild, 2017). Official unofficial playable grung supplement from the Stream of Annihilation; source of apostrophe heavy player character name examples such as b'Loop and b'Leep.
- Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (Wizards of the Coast, 2022). Later grung presentation in which the rigid caste and xenophobia framing of the Volo's account is dropped while colors and poison remain.
- Blackjack Rants, Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters: Volo's Guide to Monsters, Part 3. https://blackjackrants.blogspot.com/2020/04/reviewing-5e-d-monsters-volos-guide-to_12.html . Secondary summary used to cross check caste color roles and the Monsters of the Multiverse change.
- RPGnet, Let's Read Volo's Guide to Monsters, page 19. https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads%2Flets-read-volos-guide-to-monsters.842215%2Fpage-19 . Secondary summary used to cross check hatching pools, caste roles, and the color change rite.
- Black Citadel RPG, Grung Race 5e Guide. https://blackcitadelrpg.com/grung-race-guide-5e/ . Secondary summary used to cross check caste order, poison by color, and the fifth edition introduction of grung.
