Tavern names: inns, signs and ideas

Tavern names do not work like the names of towns or kingdoms. A realm is a stem and a suffix, but an inn is a picture. For centuries most people could not read, so an alehouse hung a painted board outside: a red lion, a prancing pony, a green dragon. The name was simply the description of that picture. That is why nearly every memorable tavern name is the same shape, an adjective joined to a noun you could actually paint, and why the trick to inventing one is to think of the sign first and the words second.

An adjective, a noun and a sign

The reliable formula is a describing word plus a thing: the Prancing Pony, the Golden Stag, the Drowned Rat, the Black Cauldron. The adjective sets the mood and the noun gives the picture, and because both are concrete the name sticks in a player's head. A second traditional shape pairs two nouns joined by and, the kind of sign that came from two old taverns merging or a guild badge: the Crown and Laurel, the Bell and Shroud, the Hook and Hawser. The last layer is the sign word itself, the Inn or Tavern or Alehouse or Arms that says what sort of house it is, and which you can leave off entirely when the sign name alone is enough.

Pick a kind for the mood

Taverns vary by who drinks in them, and choosing a kind keeps a name coherent. Five moods cover most scenes:

• Cosy. Warm and welcoming, for weary travellers: the Hearth and Hound, the Drowsy Badger.
• Rowdy. Loud and cheerful, all song and ale: the Roaring Boar, the Broken Tankard.
• Dockside. Salt-stained and shady, for sailors and smugglers: the Drowned Rat, the Crooked Anchor.
• Noble. Refined and grand, guarding its reputation: the Golden Stag, the Silver Crown.
• Eerie. Strange and witchy, all candle and shadow: the Black Cauldron, the Whispering Raven.

If you want to hear a stretch of names in any of these moods, the tavern name generator builds them by kind, lets you choose the sign form, and lets you save and refine the ones you like.

The sign word does the rest

Once you have the sign name, the establishment word tells the reader what to expect. An Inn offers beds as well as beer, the place a party rests for the night. A Tavern or Taphouse is for drinking and talking, the place rumours start. An Alehouse or Arms is the plainer common house, often named after a guild or a local lord. Keeping the sign name fixed while swapping the word over the door is a quick way to reuse a good idea: the Golden Stag Inn on the high road, the Golden Stag Tavern in the next town, run by the first landlord's cousin.

Naming a town's worth, not just one

If a town needs several houses rather than one, keep the kinds varied so the dockside dive does not sound like the noble wine house, and avoid leaning on the same noun twice in one settlement. A row of taverns that all feature animals reads as one painter's work, which is charming once and dull by the third. The generator checks each batch against the names you have already seen, so you can keep generating for a busy port or a festival without repeats, and pull three or four that feel like genuinely different establishments.

Using the generator well

Treat it as a sign-painter's workshop. Choose a kind, set the sign form, and generate a batch. Read them aloud and keep the ones a drunk could shout across a room. If the sign is perfect but the word is wrong, use Refine to keep the sign and reroll between Inn, Tavern and Alehouse, or turn off the sign word for the bare name and add your own. For the people you will meet inside, the human and halfling generators name innkeepers and regulars, and for the town it sits in there is the city name generator.

A few pitfalls

• Abstract nouns. A sign has to be paintable. The Golden Stag works; the Golden Ambition does not, because nobody can draw it.
• Mood and sign clashing. A delicate Noble name over a Dockside dive can be a great joke, but only if you mean it. Match the kind to the room unless the mismatch is the point.
• Every name the same beast. If half your taverns are named after a Lion, a Stag and a Boar, vary the nouns so each house feels its own.

For the wider craft of naming, including places and people as well as signs, see the broader guide on how to name a fantasy character, and the city and town naming guide for the settlements your taverns sit in.