Virus Name Generator

The Virus Name Generator gives you one virus name per click. Set the category to Real and you get the name of an actual human virus, such as Nipah virus, Lassa virus or Human parvovirus B19, from a list of 127. Set it to Fantasy and you get an invented name for fiction, like Crimson Spore, Eldritch Flu or Whispering Pestilence, from a list of 146. Random draws from both. It is meant for novelists, game masters and worldbuilders who need a pathogen with a name, and for anyone curious about how many real viruses they have never heard of.

The three settings

• Random (default): any of the 273 names, real or invented, with no label telling you which it was.
• Real: only the 127 real virus names. These are the formal names virologists use, so you get "Human immunodeficiency virus" rather than "HIV" and "SARS coronavirus 2" rather than "COVID."
• Fantasy: only the invented names. Each is two words, a mood or setting word plus an ailment word: Nebula Mange, Quantum Rot, Solar Miasma, Frostfire Sickness, Chaos Pustule.

Results come one at a time on a plain card. There is no "generate five" option, no description of the virus, and no bacteria, parasites or computer viruses in the list. If you need a pathogen for a sci-fi thriller rather than a fantasy setting, the Fantasy list leans cosmic (Nova Contagion, Starvoid Illness, Temporal Malaise) as often as it leans arcane, so it works for both.

What is in the Real list

The real names are viruses known to infect humans, listed alphabetically from Adeno-associated virus to Zika virus. It includes the famous ones (Ebolavirus, Rabies virus, Measles virus, Dengue virus, Yellow fever virus, Variola virus, the hepatitis A through E viruses, Influenza A, B and C) and a long tail of viruses most people only meet in a textbook: Chandipura, Dugbe, Hantaan, Mokola, Oropouche, Puumala, Sagiyama, Uukuniemi. It also covers the herpesvirus family (Human herpesvirus 1 through 8, Varicella-zoster, Epstein-Barr, Cytomegalovirus) and several polyomaviruses (BK, JC, KI, WU, Merkel cell). Because the list is real, a Real draw is a decent trivia prompt: look the name up and find out what it does and where it was first found.

How real viruses get their names

Most of the real names on the list follow one of four patterns, and knowing them helps if you want an invented name to sound authentic.

• Place of discovery: Ebolavirus (a river in the DRC), Zika virus (a forest in Uganda), Coxsackievirus (a town in New York), Norwalk virus (Ohio), Lassa virus (Nigeria), Hendra and Ross river viruses (Australia), Seoul and Hantaan viruses (Korea).
• The disease it causes: Rabies, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Yellow fever, Dengue, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, Japanese encephalitis virus.
• The people who found it: Epstein-Barr virus, named for Anthony Epstein and Yvonne Barr in 1964.
• Host plus family plus a number: Human papillomavirus 16, Human herpesvirus 6, Rotavirus A, Human enterovirus 68. This is the style the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses prefers, and it is why newer names look drier.

Since 2015 the World Health Organization has asked that new disease names avoid places, people and animals to prevent stigma, which is how "2019 novel coronavirus" became SARS coronavirus 2 rather than a Wuhan virus. If you are naming a fictional outbreak set in the present day, a location-based name would read as slightly old-fashioned; a family-plus-number name would read as current.

Ways people use it

• Naming the plague in a fantasy campaign, then deciding what Abyssal Decay actually does to a character.
• Post-apocalyptic and sci-fi fiction that needs a pathogen with a name the characters can say in dialogue.
• Microbiology students quizzing each other: draw a Real name, state the family, the vector and the disease.
• Board and video game prototypes, where a list of outbreak cards needs 20 distinct names quickly.

For other kinds of ominous names, try the Horror Movie Name Generator or the Random Book Title Generator. Faction and group names live at the Gang Name Generator and Mercenary Company Name Generator, and all name generators are listed on the category page.