Angels and demons are the two fantasy name categories where players are most likely to sense that something is wrong without being able to say why. Everyone has absorbed a few real celestial names — Michael, Gabriel, Raphael — from centuries of art, literature and film, and that familiarity sets an expectation. Invent an angel called Zar'kul and the table's ear rejects it immediately. Invent a demon called Aurielle and it sounds like it wandered in from the wrong side of the war.
The good news is that both traditions have real, learnable structure. Angelic names are built from a Hebrew naming pattern that produces meaning-bearing sentences. Infernal names come out of a grimoire tradition with its own conventions of rank, office and sound. Once you know the grammar of each, you can build hundreds of names that feel authentic without borrowing anyone's scripture wholesale.
How Angelic Names Are Built
The great majority of traditional angel names end in -el, from the Hebrew El, meaning God. The rest of the name is typically a verb or noun, so the whole functions as a compressed statement about the divine. Three of the best-known examples show the pattern clearly:
- Michael — "who is like God?"
- Gabriel — "God is my strength"
- Raphael — "God heals"
- Uriel — "God is my light"
A second, smaller family ends in -iah or -yah, from another divine name, and a large body of later angelological writing extends the pattern with the linking vowel -i-, giving the very common -iel ending. For your own names, the recipe is:
- Pick a concept the angel embodies: mercy, silence, thresholds, harvest, judgement, memory.
- Render it as a short root of one or two syllables with a soft, open sound.
- Attach -el, -iel, -ael or -iah.
- Check the stress falls before the suffix — SAR-a-phiel, not sar-a-phi-EL.
Keep the consonants soft (m, n, l, r, s, th, v) and avoid hard k, x and z clusters; those belong on the other side.
Traditional Angel Names with Meanings
Names drawn from the broad Judaeo-Christian angelological tradition. Meanings are the commonly cited ones; different sources vary.
Original Angelic Names
Built with the recipe above, so they scan correctly without borrowing a specific figure. Each is a concept plus a divine suffix.
Naming by Choir
Traditional angelology sorts angels into ranks — seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels. You can let the choir govern the shape of the name as well as the character's role:
- Seraphim (burning, closest to the divine) — long names, three or four syllables, fire and light roots: Seraphiel, Ignariel, Auramiel.
- Cherubim (guardians of holy things) — names about knowledge, gates and watching: Thurabiel, Kerabiel, Sentriel.
- Thrones & Dominions (order, justice) — legal and structural roots: Ordaniel, Zadriel, Mishparel.
- Powers & Virtues (the martial ranks) — shorter, harder-edged, ending flat in -el: Karmel, Ozriel, Tzavel.
- Angels & Principalities (those who deal with mortals) — the plainest names, often two syllables: Anael, Rhael, Simiel.
A fallen angel keeps its name but the sound sours: vowels shorten, the -el erodes to -ael, -al or nothing at all. Naming a fallen character Ozriel before the fall and Ozrach after is a single elegant detail that does a whole page of exposition.
How Infernal Names Are Built
Demonic names come from a different tradition — the medieval and early-modern grimoires, of which the best known is the Lesser Key of Solomon, whose first book (the Goetia) catalogues seventy-two spirits. What makes those names feel demonic is not that they are ugly; many are quite melodic. It is that they follow a distinctly different sound pattern from the angelic one:
- Endings in -as, -os, -us, -ith, -oth, -ax, -aal, -on rather than -el.
- Doubled and clustered consonants: bb, ll, ss, zz, gr, str.
- Back vowels — o, u, a — carrying the stress, which pushes the sound toward the throat.
- A rank and a legion count. This is the signature move of the grimoire tradition: each spirit is a Duke, Marquis, President, Earl, Prince or King commanding a specific number of legions. Nothing else makes a demon feel bureaucratically real so quickly.
Demon Lords & Infernal Nobility
Goetia-Style Names with Rank
Use the full formula and the name does half your worldbuilding: name, rank, legions, office. Give each demon a portfolio that is oddly specific — the specificity is what unsettles people.
Abyssal Epithets
Lesser fiends rarely rate a proper name. They are known by what they do, which is bleaker and often more frightening than a name would be.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does every angel name have to end in -el?
No, but a strong majority of the traditional ones do, so the suffix is the fastest way to signal "angel". The -iah family and simple two-syllable names such as Anael give you variety without breaking the pattern.
Is it a problem to use real religious names in a game?
It depends entirely on your table. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are so embedded in fantasy that most groups read them as genre furniture, but if anyone at the table would find it uncomfortable, the original-name recipe above gives you names with the same texture and none of the baggage.
What makes a demon name sound demonic?
Back vowels, consonant clusters, and a hard or hissing ending — plus the absence of -el. Try saying a name with your jaw slightly forward; if it still works, it's infernal.
How do I name a devil versus a demon?
Devils are the lawful, contractual half of the fiendish world, so give them names with rank, office and legion counts — the Goetia formula fits perfectly. Demons of the chaotic sort do better with raw, unranked names and epithets. The angel name generator and the demon name generator build both sides using these rules.