Dwarf Name Generator
To generate a name, roll for a prefix, a suffix, and combine.
If a letter is in (parentheses) you use it or ignore it as seems best. This is mostly done with hard consonants that combine better with some prefixes than others, or where there is a risk of repeat vowels.
D00 Dwarvish Prefixes
D00 Dwarvish Suffixes
Samples: Gimwort, Flarkin, Balan, Nikvar, Benim, Osrod, Ginalf, Winknod, Hopfar
Dwarf Women
The main technique for using this table is to generate a name, and if that name sounds feminine to your ear, then that’s a female dwarf.
Samples: Deysa, Goldhild, Vodrun, Augra, Sigrid, Mogan, Linkle, Helfi, Grindis
Wild Dwarf Names: the dwarves of the Stonelands are a different cultural group. They don’t wear the dwarf-cap, and the Red and Blue dwarves think they have “funny,” “foreign” sounding names, though few humans can tell the difference.
To generate one, roll two suffixes instead of a suffix and a prefix.
Samples: Dorben, Gongold, Osnik, Digdwal, Deydur, Augbrik, Truffhel, Narvod
Additional Generators
To further customize your band of dwarves, consider the following generators.
Clothing gives you a general idea of how I imagine the various dwarvish cultural groups of my solo game’s loose setting.
Motifs give you a symbol for embroidery, shields, banners, and treasure.
Embellishments can be used to accentuate a leader. When an embellishment tells you to use a motif, you can use the band's motif or roll a new one.
General Dwarvish Clothing
While customs and fashions vary between dwarvish cultural groups, these are mostly variations on a typical dwarvish style. Men wear beards, tunics, and trousers tucked into short boots or shoes. Women wear smocks and apron dresses, usually with shoes. Broad belts, cloaks, and vests are common to both sexes, as are jewelry and the distinctive pointed dwarf-cap.
A Note On Dwarf-Caps
Traditionalist dwarves wear the dwarf-cap, a conical hat, when out in public. The most conservative style is plain, brimless, rises to a stiff point, and is neither too tall nor too short. This shape is echoed in the traditionally conical dwarvish helmet. In practice, attitudes to this traditional garment vary widely among dwarf communities.
More conservative dwarves also wear coif that ties under the chin (for men), or a kerchief (for women), under their caps. These ensure that a dwarf’s head remains properly covered at home, when donning a helmet or work hat that necessitates removing the cap, or when performing the traditional dwarvish bow, in which the cap is removed and swept in front of the bower’s knees.
Red Dwarves
Also known as Exiles, the Red Dwarves descend from clans who have lost their ancestral dwarf-holds. In many cases the loss of these ancestral homes took place generations ago, and some of the “new” fortresses of the red dwarves are hundreds of years old, but the cultural memory remains. As they tend to be more integrated with their neighbors, red dwarves are the most common cultural group encountered by other races, who may not know that there is a distinction between red and blue dwarves at all.
In My Game: Gimwort of Greydelve and Flarkin of Toadmarket are both red dwarves. Greydelve was founded by dwarves of Gimwort’s father and grandfather’s generation, and is relatively poor. Gimwort’s family worked in food production, laboring to keep pests out of the mushroom farms and stock ponds. Greydelve dwarves think of themselves as traditionalists, but Gimwort is not fully fluent in the dwarvish language and uses it only for ritual observances. The Greydelve dwarf-cap is plain and a little shorter than usual, made of grey-ish white felt. It is worn on formal occasions.
Toadmarket is an old, wealthy trading town (the gateway to the east and traffic through Great Swamp) and has a well-established dwarvish diaspora. Toadmarket dwarves tend to be cosmopolitan, more likely to think of themselves as citizens of the Realm. Most Toadmarketers do not wear the dwarf-cap, but specialty hat-shops do sell one in the “Toadmarket style” – brimmed, wine-red, and usually set with a medallion featuring the Toad emblem of Toadmarket. In a shocking move, they sell these hats to non-dwarves as well.
Red Dwarf Fashion
Red dwarves tend to keep their hair and beards trimmed shorter than their more conservative blue dwarf cousins (although their beards are usually still long by human standards), and favor simpler styles. Some men even shave their mustaches, though of course leaving the beard. Women tend to wear their hair up, with buns and coronet braids being common. As more red dwarves work in woodcarving and textile production, as well as making do with less wealthy mines, their jewelry and ornamentation uses a wider range of materials: wooden toggles, horn buttons, patterned cloth, and baser metals such as copper, bronze, or even iron feature prominently in red dwarf fashions in addition to the typical gold and silver. Red dwarves match this variety of materials with bolder styles. There is even a fashion for glass gems among some coastal dwarfholds, which blue dwarves find unbearably crass. Red dwarf homes and castles tend to be snug, with low ceilings, decoratively carved and painted wood, and patterned or quilted fabrics.
Red Dwarf Motifs:
Bees & Wildflowers
Boar
Dancing Bears
Dragon
Dwarf Face or Figures
Fox & Raven
Goat or Pony
Goblin Face
Mushrooms
Suns & Stars
Troll Face
Weapons
Red Dwarf Embellishments:
Beard or hair clasp with motif
Belt buckle with motif
Bracers w/ motif
Buttons with motif (wood, horn, or brass)
Cloak pin or brooch with motif
Contrasting pattern on shirt, leggings, or shift (stripes or checks)
Embroidered or quilted motif on clothes
Finger ring with motif
Fur collar or mantle (badger, fox, rabbit, or wolf)
Iron-toed boots with motif
Necklace
Torc with motif
Red Dwarf-Caps
The term “red dwarf” stems from the most common color of the dwarf-cap among exile dwarves, rather than the color of their hair or other garments (as is commonly believed among humans and halflings). The oldest dwarfholds traditionally held that young, unmarried people wore a red cap and married people or master craftsmen (who may be considered “married” to their work) wore blue ones. With the loss of the dwarfholds' relics and sacred spaces to dragons and the terrible Goblin Wars, many dispossessed dwarves felt that these ceremonies were no longer ritually sound and persisted in wearing the red cap into adulthood as a mark of remembrance.
Among red dwarves, the traditional dwarf-cap has undergone considerable stylistic changes, and some communities omit the hat entirely.
Attitudes to the Dwarf-Cap – d6
1. Fully assimilated. Nobody wears it in my community; hats and hoods are a matter of practicality and personal taste.
2. That’s something that old people and rustics do… but it’s still kind of rude to go out with your head bare.
3-4. That’s something old people and rustics do. I only wear mine for formal occasions.
5. I wear it whenever I’m trying to look good. Taking it off in front of other people invites intimacy, a sign that we are formally on informal terms.
6. Everybody wears the dwarf-cap! It’s traditional.
Dwarf-Cap Color – d6
1. The dwarf-cap is made of a material other than wool, such as fur or leather.
2. The color of your cap is a matter of personal taste.
3-4. Caps match the color of the local heraldry.
5. Colors indicate social status. Blue has not reappeared, but shades of red, green, and yellow are common.
6. Red is the only correct color!
Dwarf-Cap Style – d6
1. Floppy
2. Brimmed
3. Ear flaps
4. Unusually tall or unusually short
5. Decorative – roll twice for Decorations
6. Traditional
Decorations - d6
1. Embroidered with motif
2. Medallion with motif
3. Feather
4. Tassel
5-6. Plain
Blue Dwarves
Blue dwarves are descended from dwarves who have retained their ancestral or “founding” dwarfholds into the present day. They tend to be richer, more conservative, and more isolated than red dwarves, although some mansions have fallen into poverty and disrepair over the ages. Blue dwarves typically grow up speaking dwarvish exclusively, and it is not unusual to meet a blue dwarf who cannot speak common at all or who do so only with thick accents. The term “blue dwarf” is a newer term, coined by red dwarves to distinguish themselves from their neighbors, and many older blue dwarves refuse to use it. However, most blue dwarves still use the traditional blue cap in one way or another.
Blue Dwarf Fashion
Blue dwarves tend to wear their hair and beards long and favor elaborate knots and braids. Women traditionally wear long pigtails or single braids, though older women often wear hairnets. Men often tuck their beards into their belts. Clothing tends to be more austere, acting as a backdrop for the display of jewelry. Blue dwarf jewelry is more stylistically conservative than red dwarf work, favoring fine detail and the use of gold, silver, and gems in set styles. Blue dwarf interior design favors large, open spaces with high ceilings and stark stonework accented with delicate, subtle engravings, inlays, and gem-work.
In My Game: Nogi of Firedeep is a blue dwarf. Confusingly, he is an exile but not an Exile – he was banished from Firedeep for his crimes but is not a member of the Exile dwarf cultural group, as Firedeep is an ancient dwarfhold that has never fallen to outside attack. Nogi does not wear the dwarf-cap because his was ritually stripped from him as a condition of his banishment, but Firedeep dwarves keep the old custom of red caps for unmarried people and blue caps for married people. Distinctions of rank have crept into the city, however: more important families wear taller hats.
Blue Dwarf Motifs:
Crown & Stars
Dragon
Dwarf Face or Figures
Fountain
Goblin Face
Hammer & Anvil
Harp
Raven
Runes
Songbirds
Sun & Moon
Tree of Life
Blue Dwarf Embellishments:
Beard or hair clasp with motif
Belt buckle with motif
Belt medallions with motif
Bracers w/ motif
Buttons (gold, silver, pearl)
Cloak pin or brooch with motif
Finger ring with motif
Gemstone eyes or embellishments on motif
Heraldic or guild badge
Jewel on a chain
Necklace
Torc with motif
Blue Dwarf-Caps
Even among the blue dwarves, dwarf-cap colors and styles vary somewhat. Some dwarfholds have simplified their color schemes, while others have introduced further complications and variations of rank.
Attitudes to the Dwarf-Cap – d6
1. That’s something that old people and snobs do. I only wear mine for formal occasions.
2-3. I wear it whenever I’m trying to look good. Taking it off in front of other people invites intimacy, a sign that we are formally on informal terms.
4-6. Everybody wears the dwarf-cap! It’s traditional.
Dwarf-Cap Color – d6
1. Blue is the only correct color!
2. Men wear blue, women wear red.
3. Unmarried people wear red, married people wear blue. The nobility wear silver or gold hats instead.
4. Children wear yellow or green, unmarried adults wear red, married people wear blue.
5-6. Unmarried people wear red, married people wear blue.
Dwarf-Cap Style – d6
1. Unusually short
2. Unusually tall
3. The more important you are the taller your cap is
4. Conservative, but women incorporate a veil or cointoise to cover their hair
5-6. Traditional
Decorations - d6
1. Embroidered with motif
2. Medallion with motif
3. Tassel
4-6. Plain
Wild Dwarves
Also known as “yellow dwarves” for the gorse flowers that grow in their native lands and feature in their dyes and art, the so-called wild dwarves are native to the Stonelands. Among themselves they are simply “dwarves” and red and blue dwarves are “outsiders” or “Realmish dwarves”.
In My Game: Dorben is a wild dwarf. Having been captured by goblins as a dwarf-lad and spent most of his life in slavery, he is cynical and has few connections to dwarvish customs.
Wild Dwarf Fashion
Wild dwarves share many of the same customs as Stoneland goblins and wild elves, favoring thick wool tunics, striped leggings, and long cloaks in muted shades of grey, green, purple, and yellow. Their jewelry tends to feature more horn, leather, copper, iron, and rough-cut gems than other dwarves prefer. Their hair and beards tend to be long and unbraided, kept back from the face with leather circlets or thongs. Like red dwarves, the homes of wild dwarves tend to be snug and low-ceilinged, but brightly colored and lavishly decorated, with quilts, carved and painted wood, and colorfully patterned pottery. Wild dwarves do not wear the dwarf-cap as a ritual garment. However, they do have a typical brimmed and pointed work hat that resembles it, pointing to a common (if ancient) cultural ancestry.
Wild Dwarf Motifs:
Beetles & Worms
Bees & Wildflowers
Finch & Flowers
Dragon
Dwarf Face or Figures
Fox & Raven
Goat
Goblin Face
Mushrooms
Running Hares
Suns & Stars
Troll Face
Wild Dwarf Embellishments:
Belt buckle with motif
Belt pouch with motif
Braided leather circlet
Buttons with motif (wood, horn, or knotted leather)
Cloak with tasseled hood
Cloak pin or brooch with motif
Embroidered motif on collar and hems
Finger ring with motif
Fur collar or mantle (badger, fox, rabbit, or wolf)
Goblin-hide goods (gloves, belt, or mantle)
Hat medallion with motif
Torc with motif
