How we build our generators

Every generator on Dubname is built the same way, by hand. This page explains the method so you can judge for yourself how much to trust what you find here.

1. Choosing what to build

A generator gets built when there is a real naming problem behind it — a platform with rules people trip over, a genre with conventions worth knowing, or a decision that is hard to reverse. Requests from readers are the most common starting point.

2. Building the word banks

Each generator draws on several hand-assembled word banks — typically an adjective set, a noun set, and one or more sets specific to the subject. The words are chosen rather than scraped: they are picked to fit the register of the thing being named, so a cottagecore handle draws on a pre-industrial, domestic vocabulary while an orc name draws on hard consonants and closed syllables. Words that produce awkward or unfortunate combinations are removed.

3. Writing the patterns

Word banks alone produce mush. Each generator also has a set of pattern templates describing how the words combine — which slots exist, in what order, with which separators. This is what makes the output read like names rather than like word pairs, and it is why each tool sounds different from the others.

4. Generating in your browser

When you press the button, the combination happens locally on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is no queue and there is no limit. The list of ideas printed on each page is produced by the same engine at build time, so what you read is what the tool makes. The optional AI mode is the one exception: it sends only the short description you type to an AI provider, and it is never required.

5. Researching the guidance

The rules and conventions on each page — character limits, allowed characters, rename policies, genre traditions — are researched against the platform's own documentation and the primary sources for each genre, then written up in plain language. Where a rule is known to vary or change, the page says so rather than stating a number with false confidence.

6. Keeping it current

Platform rules change without notice. Pages are revisited as changes come to light, and reader corrections are acted on quickly. If a page here disagrees with what a platform is telling you right now, trust the platform and let us know so it can be fixed.

What we do not do

We do not sell placements in any generator or guide, we do not accept payment to recommend a name, and we do not publish machine-written articles. The advertising that funds the site has no say in what appears on it.