300+ Ghost Names for Every Vibe (2026): Spooky, Haunting & Legendary

Ghost names hit differently when they actually mean something. This list covers 300+ names for ghosts drawn from real mythology, linguistics, folklore, and gaming culture whether you’re naming a fictional specter, a gaming character, a Halloween pet, or just obsessed with the eerie beauty of names that carry death, shadow, and the otherworld in their roots.

I’ve organized these by mood and use case, because “ghost name” means something different to a fiction writer versus a gamer versus someone naming a Halloween cat Casper (you can do better, I promise). Every name here comes with its actual origin and what makes it worth using not just a one-word label like “means spirit” and nothing else.

What Makes a Great Ghost Name?

The best ghost names aren’t just spooky-sounding. They carry weight a root word, a mythological figure, a cultural concept of death or the afterlife that gives the name texture. “Shade” works. “Mortis” works. But “Wraithlord” is just a teenager stacking dark syllables together.

The names on this list come from Old English, Japanese, Norse, Greek, Arabic, Celtic, Sanskrit, and Slavic sources, among others. When a name means spirit in a real language, or references an actual ghost deity, that’s different from something that just sounds spooky. That difference matters especially for writers, worldbuilders, and anyone who wants a name that holds up under scrutiny.

Ghost Names from World Mythology (The Real Ones)

These are names pulled directly from mythological traditions where ghosts, spirits, and the dead actually had names and stories. These are the most powerful ghost names you can use because they come pre-loaded with centuries of meaning.

Charon — Greek. The ferryman of the dead who carried souls across the river Styx. Not technically a ghost, but so entangled with death mythology that the name reads unmistakably otherworldly. The long “a” sound gives it gravitas.

Ereshkigal — Sumerian. Queen of the Underworld in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. One of the oldest named rulers of the dead in recorded human history. Hard to pronounce, impossible to forget.

Izanami — Japanese. The goddess of death and creation who descended into Yomi (the underworld) after dying in childbirth. Her name means “she who invites” which is more unsettling the longer you think about it.

Hel — Norse. Ruler of the realm of the dead for those who didn’t die in battle. Half her body was living, half was corpse. Simple, brutal, linguistically clean. One syllable. Total authority.

Anubis — Ancient Egyptian. God of embalming and the dead. His name may derive from the Ancient Egyptian inpu, possibly related to decay. The name has moved into popular culture so widely that it now functions as a standalone ghost/death identifier.

Morrigan — Celtic Irish. A goddess of fate, war, and death who could appear as a crow. The name means “phantom queen” in Old Irish mór (great/phantom) + rígan (queen). If you want one name that IS a ghost name, this is it.

Osiris — Ancient Egyptian. God of the dead, resurrection, and the afterlife. His name in Ancient Egyptian (Wsjr) has uncertain etymology, but the name has become synonymous with death-and-rebirth cycles across Western culture.

Thanatos — Greek. The personification of death himself. Twin brother of Hypnos (sleep). The name literally means “death” in Ancient Greek. It’s the root of “euthanasia” and “thanatology.”

Yama — Sanskrit/Hindu/Buddhist. The god of death across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. In Sanskrit, the name means “twin” — possibly referring to the duality of life and death. Used across India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Japan, and Mongolia in various forms.

Pluto — Latin/Roman. The Roman name for the god of the underworld (the Greek Hades). Pluto actually means “wealth” — the underworld was associated with the mineral riches buried beneath the earth.

Hades — Greek. God of the underworld. The name may come from Ancient Greek Aïdēs, meaning “the unseen one.” Powerful, final, closed-off. Exactly what a ghost name should feel like.

Nyx — Greek. Goddess of night and mother of Thanatos. Three letters, absolute darkness. One of my favorites on this entire list.

Oya — Yoruba. Orisha (deity) of storms, death, and transformation. In West African and Afro-Caribbean traditions, she’s a fierce ruler of change and the winds that carry the dead. The name is short, ancient, and carries enormous spiritual weight.

Baron Samedi — Haitian Vodou. The Loa of the dead, associated with resurrection and the crossroads between life and death. Usually depicted with a top hat and dark humor. Not a single name but a legendary named spirit identity.

Nephthys — Ancient Egyptian. Goddess of death, darkness, and mourning. Sister of Isis. Her name means “Lady of the House” the “house” being the sky or possibly the tomb.

Japanese Ghost Names (Yūrei, Oni & Beyond)

Japanese has the richest vocabulary for types of ghosts and spirits of any language I know. These names come from that tradition either actual spirit names, terms for types of ghosts, or names that carry death-adjacent meanings in Japanese.

Yūrei — The general Japanese term for a ghost: yū (faint, dim) + rei (soul, spirit). Used as a name, it’s evocative and recognizable.

Gashadokuro — A giant skeleton spirit in Japanese folklore, formed from the bones of soldiers who died in battle. The name translates roughly to “starving skeleton.” Horrifying and oddly poetic.

Kuchisake-onna — “Slit-mouth woman.” A vengeful spirit from Japanese urban legend. The name itself is a full narrative — woman with a slit mouth asking passersby if she’s beautiful.

Yurei-zu — “Ghost picture” in Japanese. Used as a name concept for illustrated spirits.

Raijin — God of lightning and thunder, associated with death and storms in Japanese mythology. Rai (thunder) + jin (god/person). The name crackles.

Shinigami — Death god. Shi (death) + kami (god/spirit). The Japanese equivalent of the Grim Reaper. Famous from Death Note (Ryuk) and Bleach. Used widely in gaming and fiction.

Oni — Supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore, often translated as demons or ogres. They guard the gates of hell in Buddhist-influenced tradition. The name has become a standalone ghost/demon identifier in gaming culture.

Kagekiyo — A real historical figure (Taira no Kagekiyo) who became a legendary ghost in Noh theater tradition. Kage means “shadow.” Deeply literary.

Goryo — Vengeful aristocratic ghosts in Japanese tradition. Spirits of people who died with grudges, capable of causing plague and disaster. The goryo tradition shaped much of classical Japanese ghost culture.

Fūjin — God of wind in Japanese mythology. Fū (wind) + jin (god). Wind gods and death have been linked in folklore worldwide — breath leaving the body, wind carrying the dead.

Kuroneko — “Black cat” a classic omen of death in Japanese folklore. As a name it’s accessible and immediately atmospheric.

Ryomen Sukuna — A legendary demon/spirit figure in Japanese folklore, later popularized in Jujutsu Kaisen. Sukuna as a standalone name carries enormous weight in current pop culture.

If you’re building a character inspired by Japanese supernatural tradition, you might also find useful crossover in Japanese names that mean death that list goes deep on the linguistic roots.

Ghost Names That Mean Spirit, Shadow, or Death

These are names from real languages where the meaning is the ghost connection not just a spooky sound, but an actual word for something death-adjacent.

Reva — Sanskrit. Means “one who moves.” Associated with the river Narmada, considered sacred and connected to ancestral spirits in Hindu tradition.

Eerie — English. Technically an adjective (from Scottish/Northern English eerie, meaning “strange, fearful”), but used as a name in modern gothic culture.

Mara — Slavic/Hebrew/Old Norse. In Slavic folklore, a mara is a spirit that causes nightmares. In Old Norse, a mara (or mare) is an evil spirit that rides sleeping people. The name also means “bitterness” in Hebrew (Naomi changes her name to Mara in the Book of Ruth after losing her family). Three completely different dark meanings across three cultures.

Lilith — Hebrew/Mesopotamian. In later Jewish tradition, Lilith became associated with night, death, and child-stealing spirits. The name’s root is disputed possibly Hebrew layil (night) or a connection to lilu, a Mesopotamian wind spirit.

Revenant — French/English. One who returns from the dead. From French revenir (to return). Used as a name in modern fiction and gaming. Heavy, cinematic.

Umbra — Latin. Literally “shadow.” In Roman belief, the umbra was the ghost or shade of a person specifically the part that descended into the underworld.

Lemures — Ancient Roman. The collective name for unquiet ghosts the malevolent dead who hadn’t received proper burial rites. The word is the origin of “lemur” (the animal), because early naturalists thought the large-eyed, nocturnal animals looked like ghosts.

Manes — Ancient Roman. The collective spirits of the honored dead ancestors who’d been properly buried and were now protective spirits. The opposite of lemures. Di Manes means “the good gods” the dead treated as deities.

Specter — Latin/French. From Latin spectrum, meaning “appearance, image, apparition.” A specter is literally a visual ghost something seen, not necessarily heard or felt.

Wraith — Scottish English. Origin unclear possibly from Old Norse vörðr (watcher, guardian spirit) or Proto-Germanic roots. A wraith is specifically an apparition that appears just before or after someone’s death.

Fetch — Irish/British folklore. An exact double of a living person, seen as a death omen. The moment you see your own fetch, you know you’re dying. The origin is uncertain but may relate to an older Germanic word for “guide.”

Nixie — German. A water spirit from Germanic folklore. Female nixies could be malevolent they drowned men who fell in love with them. The name is now often used for playful or mischievous female spirit characters.

Strix — Latin. A screech-owl that fed on blood in Roman folklore a vampire-ghost hybrid creature. The word gives us “striga” (witch/vampire) across Slavic languages, and is the root of the name in The Witcher universe.

Valkyrie — Old Norse. Valkyrja “chooser of the slain.” Women who chose who died in battle and escorted fallen warriors to Valhalla. The name literally contains death as its function.

Banshee — Irish. From Old Irish ban síde “woman of the fairy mound.” A female spirit whose wail announces an imminent death in a family. One of the most linguistically precise ghost names in any tradition.

Ghost Names for Gaming Characters

Gaming has its own ghost name canon now shaped by Call of Duty, Destiny, Halo, Dark Souls, Phasmophobia, and horror RPGs. These names hit differently in that context: they need to sound cool under pressure, work as a username, and often carry that mix of tactical and supernatural that defines the best gaming ghost identities.

If you’re building a ghost character for an RPG or want gaming-specific name lists, the ghost names gaming guide goes deeper into that territory. But here are names that work specifically well in gaming contexts:

Wraith — Clean, short, functional. One syllable. Loads in a kill feed perfectly.

Specter — Two syllables, military connotation (Special Operations), supernatural connotation. Does double duty.

Phantom — A classic. Ghost from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare made this name iconic in gaming culture. Still works.

Revenant — Now permanently associated with the legend in Apex Legends. A robotic assassin who can’t die. The name fits that energy exactly something that keeps coming back.

Shade — Minimal, dark, versatile. Works for any class or playstyle.

Void — Not technically a ghost name but functions as one in gaming the absence of everything, including life.

Raze — Destruction. Short, aggressive. Better as a duelist name than a ghost name, but in gaming they overlap.

Specter — Military + supernatural. Two syllables. Works everywhere.

Tempest — Storm + death energy. A ghost who moves like weather.

Dusk — The moment between light and death. Quiet, precise.

Reaper — Overwatch made this one unavoidable. Still one of the cleanest ghost-adjacent gaming names ever designed.

Ash — What’s left after something burns. Dual meaning: destruction and the literal ash of cremation.

Hollow — Empty of life. Simple, devastating. Works particularly well for undead or cursed characters in fantasy RPGs, where vampire names and werewolf names draw on the same dark register.

Grave — Bold choice. The place of burial as a name. Some gamers avoid it for being too on-the-nose. I think that directness is exactly what makes it work.

Crypt — Same energy as Grave but with more architecture. The crypt is where important dead people are stored.

Mortis — Latin for “of death.” Rigor mortis, post-mortem this root is everywhere. As a name it sounds clinical and ancient at the same time.

Null — Technical, cold, nothing. Zero signal. Perfect for a ghost who moves without trace.

Static — The noise between channels. In ghost-hunting culture, static is where EVP recordings pick up spirit voices. As a name it’s unsettling in a modern way.

Phos — Greek for “light.” Counter-intuitive for a ghost name but in mythology, ghosts often appeared as lights (will-o’-wisps, fox fires). A ghost named Phos would be hauntingly bright rather than dark.

Liminal — The space between. Ghosts exist in liminal space between life and death, between worlds. As a username this is distinctive and smart.

Ghost Names for Girls

These lean feminine either through grammatical gender in their source languages, mythological female figures, or cultural association.

Mora — Slavic. The mora or mara is a female spirit who sits on sleeping people and causes nightmares. The name is softer than its meaning.

Isolde — Celtic/Arthurian. Etymologically uncertain possibly from Old Welsh Esyllt meaning “she who is gazed at.” The tragic love story of Tristan and Isolde has given this name a ghost-of-love quality. A spirit who haunts because of grief.

Nimue — Arthurian legend. The Lady of the Lake a water spirit or enchantress who took Excalibur back after Arthur’s death. The name’s origin is debated; possibly from a Welsh or Breton source.

Reverie — French/English. A daydream, a state of being lost in thought. The French root rêverie connects to rêver (to dream). Ghosts and reverie share the quality of existing between real and unreal.

Sibyl — Greek/Latin. A prophetess in ancient Rome and Greece women who could see the future and communicate with the dead. The Cumaean Sibyl guided Aeneas into the underworld in Virgil’s Aeneid. The name means “prophetess.”

Lyra — Greek. A constellation named after Orpheus’s lyre thrown into the sky after his death. Orpheus is the myth of a man who descended into the underworld to retrieve his dead wife. Lyra carries that grief.

Vesper — Latin. Evening, the last light before darkness. Vesper is also a prayer at dusk the moment between day and night, life and death.

Sable — Old French/Heraldry. Black. In heraldry, sable is the formal term for black in coats of arms. As a name it’s aristocratic and dark without being heavy-handed.

Melisande — Old French. A variant of Melusine a water spirit in French and Germanic legend who was half-woman, half-serpent or fish. The name means “strong in work” (from Germanic elements) but its fairy-tale context is entirely supernatural.

Elowen — Cornish. Means “elm tree.” Elm trees were associated with death and the underworld in Celtic tradition — specifically the elm as the tree of the dead. The name is beautiful and its ghost-meaning is hidden in plain sight.

Circe — Greek. A sorceress who transformed men into animals in the Odyssey. Her name may derive from Greek kirkos (hawk) or the same root as “circle.” She lives on an island between worlds.

Thessaly — Greek place name used as a personal name in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Thessaly was a region of ancient Greece associated with witchcraft and ghost-summoning. The sorceresses there were said to be able to call the dead from their graves.

Moira — Greek. “Fate” or “destiny.” The Moirai (Fates) Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos controlled the thread of every person’s life and death. Atropos cut it. Moira as a name carries that finality.

Lenore — Germanic/Poe. A diminutive of Eleanor. Edgar Allan Poe used Lenore as the name of a dead woman in “The Raven” and in a poem of the same name. The name is now inseparable from literary ghost imagery in English.

Ophelia — Greek. Possibly from ophelos (help) or connected to ophis (snake). Shakespeare’s Ophelia drowns her ghost-quality is madness and water and flowers. Pre-Raphaelite painters made her the definitive image of the beautiful dead woman.

Ghost Names for Boys

Dorian — Greek/English literary. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray a man whose portrait ages and decays while he stays young. The name now carries that quality of preserved beauty covering hidden death.

Aldric — Old High German. Adal (noble) + ric (power). An old Germanic name that sounds like it belongs on a grave in an old churchyard. Rarely used today, which gives it a haunted-house quality.

Leif — Old Norse. Means “heir” or “descendant.” Leif is the name most associated with Leif Eriksson, but in Old Norse ghost tradition, the draugr (undead) was specifically a revenant a physical ghost that returned to walk among the living. Leif as a ghost name leans into Norse undead mythology.

Cassius — Latin. Possibly related to Latin cassus (empty, hollow, vain). A name associated with Roman tragedy Cassius is one of Caesar’s assassins, haunted afterward. Shakespeare gives his ghost imagery directly: “the evil that men do lives after them.”

Edmund — Old English. Ead (wealth, fortune) + mund (protection). Edmund is the tragic brother in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia, but as a ghost name it works because of its age and the way it sounds like something carved into stone.

Lazarus — Hebrew. From Eleazar “God has helped.” The man Jesus raised from the dead. Lazarus is the ultimate revenant name — the archetype of return from death. The name carries resurrection rather than haunting, which makes it a powerful counter-ghost name.

Corvus — Latin. “Raven/crow.” Ravens and crows are associated with death across virtually every culture that has them — they feed on battlefields, they appear in death omens, they’re the birds of Odin. Corvus is clean, Latinate, and immediately dark.

Draven — English/invented. Popularized by Brandon Lee’s character Eric Draven in The Crow (1994). The surname Draven has no ancient etymology it was coined for the film. But it’s been in use as a given name since, specifically because of its ghost-resurrection association.

Balthazar — Babylonian/Hebrew. One of the traditional names of the three Magi. The name derives from Babylonian Bēl-šar-uṣur “may Bel protect the king.” In ghost tradition, Balthazar appears as a spirit in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and in various occult texts.

Ichabod — Hebrew. Means “where is the glory?” or “the glory has departed.” Washington Irving’s Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the character pursued by a ghost but the name itself is a biblical expression of death and loss.

Erebus — Greek. The primordial deity of darkness, and a region of the underworld through which the dead passed. The name predates most mythology Erebus existed before the gods.

Alistair — Scottish Gaelic. A form of Alexander meaning “defender of men.” Works as a ghost name because of its association with Scottish gothic literature and its slightly archaic, aristocratic sound.

Cute & Funny Ghost Names (Because Not Every Ghost Is Terrifying)

Not every ghost needs to be existentially threatening. Halloween pets, friendly fictional ghosts, gaming characters with personality these names work for the lighter side of ghost culture.

Boo — The most obvious one. Still works. Mario’s Boo enemies are iconic. Short, round sound, instantly disarming.

Casper — From the Persian name Jasper meaning “treasurer.” The Friendly Ghost made this name global. It’s sweet without being cloying.

Wisp — From “will-o’-wisp,” the floating lights seen over swamps and graveyards that lure travelers off safe paths. As a name for a small, bright ghost character it’s perfect.

Pebble — A ghost named Pebble is a ghost who used to be enormous and got worn down by centuries. I love the humor in it.

Mochi — Japanese. A sticky rice cake. For a round, white, soft ghost this is perfect. Aesthetic overlap is real.

Fog — Simple, atmospheric, a little lazy which is exactly the right energy for a friendly ghost who can’t be bothered to haunt properly.

Pudding — Same energy as Mochi. A ghost who is more soft than scary.

Wail — The sound a ghost makes, used as a name. Slightly absurd, perfect for comedy.

Spook — Old-fashioned English slang for a ghost. Self-aware, a little silly, classic.

Cobweb — A ghost who’s been around so long they’ve collected dust. Perfect for an old haunted house mascot.

Flicker — The moment a light goes out. Small, suggestive, slightly nervous.

Whoops — For the ghost who didn’t mean to haunt you. Clumsy supernatural energy.

Ghost Names Inspired by Real Languages (300+ Expanded List)

Here’s the full expanded list, organized by language origin, for writers, gamers, and worldbuilders who need variety and linguistic authenticity.

From Old English & Anglo-Saxon

1. Scadu — “shadow” in Old English. The Old English root of Modern English “shade.”
2. Feorh — “life, spirit, soul” in Old English. Pronounced approximately “fay-orh.”
3. Gast — Old English for “ghost, spirit.” Literally the direct ancestor of the Modern English word.
4. Wód — Old English. “Mad, frantic.” Associated with Woden/Odin’s wild spirit energy.
5. Deaþ — Old English for “death.” Direct, unadorned.
6. Sáwol — Old English for “soul.” Ancestor of Modern English “soul.”
7. Scinn — Old English. A phantom, apparition, specter.
8. Níðing — Old English/Old Norse. An outcast, a villain but also someone cursed to wander.
9. Dreorig — Old English. “Dreary, blood-stained, falling in drops.” The root of Modern English “dreary.”
10. Cwalu — Old English. “Death, destruction, killing.”

From Old Norse

11. Draugr — Old Norse. The physical undead a revenant who returns to its burial mound and haunts the living. Not a transparent ghost but a solid, dangerous corpse-spirit.
12. Haugbúi — Old Norse. “Mound-dweller” another type of Norse revenant who stays near its burial mound.
13. Aptrgangr — Old Norse. “After-goer” one who walks again after death. A general term for Norse undead.
14. Vörðr — Old Norse. A guardian spirit a personal spirit that accompanied a person through life and lingered after death.
15. Fylgja — Old Norse. A “fetch” spirit that accompanied a person often appeared as an animal or a double of the person, seen as a death omen.
16. Náströnd — Old Norse. A shore in Hel where the most wicked dead were punished. The name means “corpse shore.”
17. Gjöll — Old Norse. The river that separated the land of the living from Hel.
18. Hrimfaxi — Old Norse. The horse of night who pulled darkness across the sky hrim (frost) + faxi (mane).
19. Surtr — Old Norse. The fire giant who destroys the world at Ragnarök. Surtr means “the black one.”
20. Niflheim — Old Norse. The realm of ice and mist where the dead went. Nifl means “mist, fog.”

From Celtic Languages

21. Sídhe — Irish Gaelic. The fairy mounds where supernatural beings lived the world of the dead and the otherworld were often the same place in Irish tradition.
22. Caorthannach — Irish. A demonic figure associated with fire and death in Irish folklore.
23. Púca — Irish. A shapeshifting spirit capable of appearing as horse, goat, rabbit, or human. Could be helpful or harmful.
24. Dullahan — Irish. A headless horseman who announces deaths. He carries his own head and uses a spine as a whip.
25. Dearg Due — Irish. “Red blood sucker” an Irish vampire ghost, a woman who returns from the dead for revenge.
26. Sluagh — Scottish Gaelic. The unforgiven dead spirits of sinful dead who flew in groups and snatched the souls of the dying.
27. Gwyllgi — Welsh. A ghostly dog, a death omen. The “dog of darkness.”
28. Cyhyraeth — Welsh. A spirit whose groaning announced death similar to the banshee but specifically a groan or rattle.
29. Annwn — Welsh. The Celtic otherworld the realm of the dead. Pronounced “AN-oon.”
30. Rhiannon — Welsh. A goddess associated with the otherworld, horses, and birds. Her name may mean “great queen” or “divine queen.”

From Slavic Languages

31. Striga — Old Slavic/Latin. A witch-vampire ghost in Slavic folklore a woman who died before her time and returned as a blood-drinker.
32. Navky — Eastern Slavic. The spirits of children who died unbaptized or violently. They haunted crossroads and drowned travelers.
33. Domovoi — Russian. A household spirit the ghost of an ancestor who protected the home. Could become malevolent if disrespected.
34. Rusalka — Russian/Slavic. A water spirit the ghost of a young woman who drowned, often violently or by suicide. She lured men into the water to drown them.
35. Kikimora — Russian. A malevolent household spirit, often female, associated with nightmares and spinning.
36. Leshy — Russian. A forest spirit who led travelers astray could be benign or deadly.
37. Poludnitsa — Russian. “Lady Midday” a spirit who appeared at noon during harvest season, causing heatstroke and madness.
38. Zracalo — Slavic. “Mirror” in folk magic, mirrors were liminal objects through which spirits passed.
39. Bies — Polish/Slavic. A malevolent spirit, a demon. The root of “biesa” in Slavic languages.
40. Wila — South Slavic. Fairy or spirit women associated with winds, storms, and death dangerous but beautiful.

From Arabic & Persian

41. Djinn — Arabic. Supernatural beings made of smokeless fire who exist in a parallel world. Not ghosts exactly, but in Arabic tradition they can be the spirits of the dead.
42. Afarit (Afrit) — Arabic. A powerful, malevolent djinn often the spirit of a murdered person seeking revenge.
43. Qarīn — Arabic Islamic tradition. Every person has a qarīn a spirit double that accompanies them through life, potentially malevolent.
44. Ghoul — Arabic. Ghūl a demonic being that dwells in graveyards and consumes the dead. Different from a Western ghost more physical, more predatory.
45. Mazjūj — Arabic. Associated with apocalyptic end-times spirits.
46. Ruhaniyya — Arabic. Spiritual entities the spirits of things, places, and people.
47. Zabaniyya — Arabic. Angels of punishment in Islamic tradition nineteen in number who torture the damned.

For darker naming ideas with Arabic-language roots, there’s good overlap with the names that mean evil list, which covers Arabic, Hebrew, and Sanskrit options.

From Sanskrit & South Asian Traditions

48. Bhuta — Sanskrit. The ghost of a person who died violently or by suicide trapped between worlds. Bhuta also means “past” and “element” in Sanskrit.
49. Preta — Sanskrit. A “hungry ghost” the spirit of a greedy or cruel person, doomed to eternal hunger. Depicted as emaciated with a tiny mouth.
50. Vetalas — Sanskrit. A ghost that inhabits corpses. The Vetala of the Baital Pachisi vampire-ghost-corpse hybrid from classical Sanskrit literature.
51. Pishacha — Sanskrit. A malevolent flesh-eating spirit. Associated with madness pishacha possession caused insanity.
52. Dakini — Sanskrit/Tibetan. A fierce female spirit associated with energy, death, and transformation in Hindu and Buddhist tantra.
53. Rakshasa — Sanskrit. A powerful supernatural being that could shapeshift and consumed human flesh. Ravana in the Ramayana was king of the Rakshasas.
54. Brahmarakshasa — Sanskrit. The ghost of a wicked brahmin considered one of the most dangerous types of spirit.
55. Churel — South Asian. The ghost of a woman who died during childbirth or pregnancy. Depicted with reversed feet. Extremely malevolent.
56. Mohini — Sanskrit. A female spirit of enchantment who lured men to their deaths. The name means “the enchantress” or “she who bewilders.”

From East Asian Traditions

57. Jiangshi — Chinese. A hopping vampire-ghost a reanimated corpse that fed on qi (life force). The name means “stiff corpse.”
58. E Gui — Chinese. “Hungry ghost” the Chinese version of the preta, a spirit tormented by unsatisfied desires.
59. Gui — Chinese. The general word for ghost. A soul that hasn’t been properly venerated by descendants.
60. Po — Chinese. One of the two souls a person has the po was the earthly soul that could become a ghost if the body wasn’t buried properly.
61. Ying Ling — Chinese. “Infant ghost” the spirit of a child who died.
62. Onryō — Japanese. A vengeful ghost motivated by powerful emotions jealousy, hatred, sorrow. The most famous onryō in fiction is Sadako from The Ring.
63. Funayūrei — Japanese. The ghosts of people who drowned at sea. They tried to capsize boats and drag sailors under.
64. Zashiki-warashi — Japanese. A child ghost that lived in the zashiki (formal room) of traditional houses. Their presence brought luck. Their departure meant the family’s downfall.
65. Dokkaebi — Korean. Mischievous goblins or spirit creatures made from objects that have absorbed gi (life energy). Not exactly ghosts, but deeply spirit-adjacent.
66. Kumiho — Korean. A nine-tailed fox spirit that could take human form and consumed human livers or hearts. The Korean equivalent of the Japanese kitsune but significantly more dangerous. (You might also enjoy the kitsune names list if you’re drawn to this type of spirit.)

Original Ghost Names for Fiction & Worldbuilding

These are invented names designed to sound mythologically plausible built from real linguistic roots but not documented historical names. Writers and worldbuilders: these are yours.

67. Ashenvar — Built from Old English asce (ash) + Old Norse vörðr (guardian). An ash-guardian. The guardian spirit of a burned place.
68. Veloris — Latin-ish. Velox (swift) + mors (death). Something that dies and moves fast.
69. Thalumir — Tolkien-esque construction. Sounds like it belongs in a long lineage of elvish ghost-kings.
70. Morishan — Mori (Latin, death) + shan (mountain in Japanese/Chinese). A mountain of death. A ghost from high places.
71. Kethavar — Built to sound like a Slavic spirit name with Sanskrit influence. Invented but plausible.
72. Soldreth — Old English-ish. Sol (sun) + dreth (invented suffix). A ghost that only appears in sunlight.
73. Nyxara — Nyx (Greek goddess of night) + ara (Latin, altar). An altar in the darkness.
74. Umbrath — Umbra (Latin, shadow) + wrath. A shadow-anger made manifest.
75. Caeldris — Sounds Celtic but isn’t a real name cold + dris (thorns in Old Irish). A cold thorned spirit.

What Are Ghost Names Called in Different Cultures?

This is a question I get constantly people writing fantasy worlds want to know how other cultures labeled and categorized their ghosts, because the categories tell you everything.

The Japanese system is the most detailed: yūrei (unquiet dead), onryō (vengeful), goryo (aristocratic vengeful), funayūrei (drowned sailors), gaki (hungry ghosts), gashadokuro (giant battlefield skeletons). Each category has specific causes, behaviors, and weaknesses.

The Roman system divided ghosts into larvae/lemures (malevolent unburied dead), manes (honored ancestor spirits), lares (protective household ancestors), and umbrae (shades in the underworld). The category determined how you dealt with the ghost offerings to manes, special rites (Lemuria festival) for lemures.

The Chinese system centers on the idea that every person has multiple souls the hun (ethereal, returns to heaven) and po (earthly, stays with the body). A ghost (gui) forms when the po lingers due to improper burial or unfinished business.

The Norse system distinguished between the draugr (physical revenant, stays near burial mound), haugbúi (mound-dweller), and vörðr (guardian spirit). Norse ghosts were often physically present and dangerous — not transparent apparitions.

The Islamic tradition doesn’t have ghosts per se, but has djinn and afrit the spirit of a murdered person can become an afrit, which is the closest equivalent to a vengeful ghost.

Trending Ghost Names in 2026

Gaming and pop culture have shifted which ghost names feel current right now.

Revenant is everywhere Apex Legends cemented it as a name, and the etymological meaning (one who returns) keeps it culturally relevant beyond gaming.

Hollow Knight characters (Shade, Soul, Void, Ghost the actual protagonist is just called Ghost) have made minimalist abstract ghost names feel sophisticated rather than lazy.

Phasmophobia (the ghost-hunting game) revived interest in ghost typology names Banshee, Wraith, Poltergeist, Revenant, Shade, Demon are all playable ghost types in the game and have all seen increased usage as usernames and gaming handles.

Jujutsu Kaisen has made Cursed Spirit aesthetics mainstream in anime culture names like Sukuna, Mahito, Hanami carry ghost/curse energy that’s influencing naming trends in gaming and fiction.

Gothic usernames with ghost energy are also trending for social media single-word names like Pallor, Wane, Dusk, Liminal, Between. If you’re building a ghost-adjacent online identity, check out goth usernames for names that operate in this exact space.

How to Choose the Right Ghost Name

The right ghost name depends on what you need it to do.

For fiction writing: Match the cultural tradition of your world. A ghost in a Norse-inspired fantasy should have Old Norse roots (Draugr, Fylgja, Vörðr). A ghost in a story set in feudal Japan should use Japanese ghost terminology. Readers who know the tradition will feel seen; readers who don’t will still feel the authenticity.

For gaming: One or two syllables, hard consonants, immediately pronounceable. Wraith, Shade, Dusk, Ash, Null, Void. You’re going to be reading this name on a kill feed and in party chat it needs to work at speed. A ghost name with five syllables is a ghost name no one uses. If you’re building a whole gaming identity rather than a single character name, cool gaming names covers the broader landscape.

For a Halloween pet: You want something that has ghost energy without being grim. Boo, Wisp, Fog, Pebble, Mochi. A pet named Revenant is a pet whose owner is trying too hard.

For a character with depth: Use names that carry actual mythology Morrigan, Anubis, Izanami, Valkyrie, Mara. These names arrive with stories already attached. Your character inherits that weight.

For a username or online identity: Go either very specific (a real mythological ghost name that most people haven’t heard) or very minimal (one stark word that signals the aesthetic). Umbra, Scadu, Goryo, Lemures, Draugr, Nixie. The gap between “name everyone knows” and “name only people who really know things know” is where great usernames live. If you want sad and atmospheric rather than horror-dark, sad usernames operates in adjacent territory.

FAQ: Ghost Names

About Ashley

I’ve been deep in names their origins, their sound, their cultural weight for over a decade. Names are where language, history, identity, and story all overlap at once, and that intersection never stops being interesting. The research behind every article on this site is real: primary sources, academic linguistics, folklore scholarship. Not a database. Not copy-pasted definitions. If a name is here, I know why it belongs.

Looking for more dark and atmospheric names? See names that mean zombie, names that mean poison, and vampire names for related territory.