Garmr howls before Gnipahellir, and the Edda says the rope will snap. That is the lane this page owns: 76 wolf names, from the word wolf in nineteen languages to the Edda’s deeper wolves, the bookshelf’s documented wolves and the northern country the real animal lives in, every row receipted and every contested gloss flagged.
76 real names, seven lanes, one rule. The wolf words are the plain word in its own languages. The given names mean wolf and were worn by kings, poets and bishops. The Norse lane is this page’s own: wolves, not gods. The fiction lane carries receipts with years. Where a gloss is contested, the row says so instead of smoothing it over.
Grouped by lane. The lane stays on every row.
Wolf names with builds, meanings and lanes
Name
Built from
Meaning
Lane
Copy
The wolf words: the word wolf in nineteen documented languages
Volk
volk (Russian)
wolf
wolf word
Lupo
lupo (Italian)
wolf; the royal cocker spaniel wore it, 2012, documented
wolf word
Loup
loup (French)
wolf
wolf word
Lupus
lupus (Latin)
wolf; the constellation carries it
wolf word
Vlk
vlk (Czech and Slovak)
wolf
wolf word
Vilkas
vilkas (Lithuanian)
wolf
wolf word
Vilks
vilks (Latvian)
wolf
wolf word
Zev
zev (Hebrew)
wolf; a living given name
wolf word
Blaidd
blaidd (Welsh)
wolf
wolf word
Börü
börü (Turkish)
wolf
wolf word
Chono
chono (Mongolian)
wolf
wolf word
Kaskyr
qasqyr (Kazakh)
wolf
wolf word
Gorg
gorg (Persian)
wolf; Gorgān, the old wolf-land, documented geography
wolf word
Susi
susi (Finnish)
wolf; the name the old Finns avoided saying, documented folk custom
wolf word
Vrika
vṛka (Sanskrit)
wolf
wolf word
Waya
waya (Cherokee)
wolf; the Wolf Clan is the Aniwaya
wolf word
Faol
fáel (Old Irish)
wolf, the old root
wolf word
Mac Tíre
mac tíre (Irish), son of the land
the polite Irish stand-in for the wolf
wolf word
Faolchú
fáelchú (Old Irish)
the wolf-hound compound
wolf word
Wolf-names worn by people: given names that mean wolf, kings and poets included
Conan
cú + the diminutive (Irish)
little hound, little wolf
given
Conall
the Irish name of legend
strong as a wolf (gloss contested)
given
Connor
Conchobhar (Irish)
lover of hounds and wolves
given
Faolan
fáel + -án (Irish)
little wolf
given
Bleddyn
blaidd + -yn (Welsh); a king of Gwynedd bore it, d. 1075, documented
wolf
given
Lyall
from Liulfr, the Norse-Scots surname road
wolf
given
Rolf
Hrólfr (Old Norse)
fame-wolf
given
Rudolph
Hruodolf (Germanic)
fame-wolf; the 1939 reindeer wore it down, documented
given
Raoul
Radulf, the French road
counsel-wolf
given
Ralph
Radulf, worn smooth in English
counsel-wolf
given
Æthelwulf
æthel + wulf (Old English)
noble wolf; Alfred the Great’s father, d. 858, documented
given
Cynewulf
cyne + wulf (Old English)
royal wolf; the poet signed his name in runes, documented
given
Beorhtwulf
beorht + wulf (Old English)
bright wolf; a king of Mercia, documented
given
Ulfilas
the Gothic diminutive of ulf
little wolf; the bishop who gave the Goths their alphabet, 4th century, documented
given
Wulfrun
the Old English compound
wolf-rune; the foundress behind Wolverhampton’s name, documented
given
Woolf
the surname spelling of the word
wolf; Virginia and Leonard Woolf wore it, documented
given
The Norse wolves: this page’s own lane: wolves, not gods, Edda receipts attached
Myth and deep history: moon-hounds, the she-wolf’s cave, the dire wolf’s genus
Mánagarmr
the Edda’s moon-hound (Vafþrúðnismál)
the moon-devourer (read as Hati’s other name by some; contested)
myth
Hróðvitnir
Fenrir’s own byname (Grímnismál)
fame-wolf
myth
Lupercal
the cave of the she-wolf
where the twins were suckled, documented
myth
Lupercus
the wolf god of the Lupercalia
the festival god of 15 February, documented
myth
Aenocyon
the dire wolf’s genus, coined 1918, documented
the dreadful dog (Greek coinage)
myth
Documented fiction: the wolves of the bookshelf, receipts attached
White Fang
London, 1906
the wolf-dog hero, documented fiction
fiction
Nymeria
A Game of Thrones, 1996
Arya’s direwolf, named for the Rhoynar queen, documented fiction
fiction
Grey Wind
A Clash of Kings, 1998
Robb Stark’s direwolf, documented fiction
fiction
Summer
A Game of Thrones, 1996
Bran Stark’s direwolf, documented fiction
fiction
Shaggydog
A Game of Thrones, 1996
Rickon’s direwolf, documented fiction
fiction
Two Socks
Dances with Wolves, 1990
the two-white-socks wolf, documented fiction
fiction
Maugrim
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950; the US edition first called him Fenris Ulf, documented
the White Witch’s wolf captain, documented fiction
fiction
Akela
The Jungle Book, 1894; akelā (Hindi), alone
the Lone Wolf, the pack leader, documented fiction
fiction
Raksha
The Jungle Book, 1894; the book glosses her "the Demon"
the mother wolf (the Sanskrit root says protection; double gloss, flagged)
fiction
Remus
the Rome legend
the suckled twin; Remus Lupin wore it, 1999, documented fiction
fiction
Romulus
the Rome legend
the founder the she-wolf nursed, documented
fiction
Lupin
lupinus (Latin), of the wolf
the teacher of 1999; Arsène Lupin wore it first, 1905, documented fiction
fiction
Kiba
Wolf’s Rain, 2003; kiba (Japanese), fang
the white wolf seeking Paradise, documented fiction
fiction
Larka
David Clement-Davies’ The Sight, documented fiction
the white she-wolf of the valley prophecy
fiction
The northern lane: biomes, rivers, ranges: where the grey wolf lives
Tundra
the treeless biome
the far-north plain
north
Yukon
the territory and river
great river (the Gwich’in root; glosses vary, flagged)
north
Sitka
the Alaskan borough
the Tlingit place name
north
Timber
the timber wolf
the grey wolf’s American byname
north
Granite
the mountain stone
the gray rock lane
north
Klondike
the Yukon river
the 1896 gold-rush word, documented
north
Baikal
the Siberian lake
the world’s deepest lake, documented
north
Ural
the range
the Europe-Asia line, documented
north
Volga
the Russian river
the great watercourse
north
Lena
the Siberian river
the river name (root uncertain, flagged)
north
Altai
the range
gold mountains (the Mongolian root)
north
Tatra
the Carpathian range
the Polish-Slovak highlands; the shepherd dog’s name, documented breed
north
Kobuk
the Alaskan valley
the Inupiat name (gloss not recorded here, flagged)
north
Boreal
boreas (Greek), the north wind
of the north, the forest zone
north
The strength register: outlaw and edge words, the vargr’s old double life
Rebel
the insurgent word
the defiant lane
strength
Rogue
the stray word
the lone one; the Oregon river too
strength
Renegade
the deserter word
the outlaw lane
strength
Outlaw
the lawless word
the vargr’s own old double sense (wolf and outlaw in the Icelandic law, documented)
strength
Sabre
the curved blade
the cutting lane; the sabre-tooth echo
strength
Tracker
the trailing word
the hunting lane
strength
Arrow
the projectile
the straight-fast lane
strength
Czar
Caesar, the Slavic road
the emperor word
strength
The split: this page, the Japanese page, the werewolf
Three registers, three pages, no overlap. The Japanese register lives on japanese wolf names: Ōkami the word itself, Moro the Mononoke clan mother, Holo the harvest wolf, and the Honshū wolf’s documented 1905 end, all rowed there and proseed here. The shape-shifted register lives on werewolf names: the turning, the moon-madness and the stems. This page rows the wolves themselves, Garmr to White Fang, and nothing that turns.
The split: the wolves and the gods
The Norse wolves are not gods, and the split is clean. Fenrir is a wolf the gods fear; Sköll and Hati are sky-running wolves; Geri and Freki are Óðinn’s wolves, bench-mates, not deities. Those five row on the werewolf pages with their Edda receipts; the deeper wolves, Garmr to Hróðvitnir, row above. The gods themselves, Óðinn included, are rowed on the norse god names page. The Rome lane runs the same honest way: the she-wolf is prose and the Lupercal cave is a row, while the pantheon stays on the god pages.
What do the leading wolf names mean?
The heavy hitters, receipts attached. Same data as the master table, cut to the myth, the languages and the bookshelf:
Leading wolf names with clean builds
Name
Built from
Meaning
Volk
volk (Russian)
wolf, said in Russian
Mánagarmr
the moon-hound of Vafþrúðnismál
the moon-devourer (contested read)
Hróðvitnir
Fenrir’s byname (Grímnismál)
fame-wolf
Waya
the Cherokee wolf word
wolf, said in Cherokee
Rudolph
Hruodolf (Germanic)
fame-wolf; the 1939 reindeer wore it down
White Fang
London, 1906
the wolf-dog hero
Waya
waya (Cherokee)
wolf; the Wolf Clan is the Aniwaya
Mac Tíre
son of the land (Irish)
the polite stand-in for the wolf
Æthelwulf
æthel + wulf
noble wolf; Alfred’s father
Akela
akelā (Hindi), alone
the Lone Wolf, 1894
Timber
the timber wolf
the grey wolf’s American byname
Volk
volk (Russian)
wolf
How to pick one
Match the lane to the animal you actually have. A northern breed carries Tundra or Timber honestly. A dog with opinions about the mail carrier earns Outlaw. A rescue with a hard early chapter can carry Larka or White Fang with the receipt read aloud. The sound rules are the same as for any pet: one or two syllables, hard consonants, no rhyme with a command.
The documented record runs from Currumpaw to the Lamar Valley. Lobo, the King of Currumpaw, was the great grey wolf of Ernest Seton’s 1893 account; the hunt broke Seton and made him wildlife writing’s loudest advocate, and the name is rowed with its surname receipt elsewhere on this site. His mate was Blanca, the white one. In 1995 wolves came back to Yellowstone, and the Druid Peak pack’s 21 and 42 became the best-chronicled wolves alive; O-Six of the Lamar Canyon pack carried the story into the 2017 book American Wolf. And at the beginning: Rome’s lupa, the she-wolf of the Lupercal, who nursed the twins and got the bronze but, in the oldest strata of the legend, never a name.
The other surrendered names, honestly linked: the Turkic she-wolf Asena and the Inuit Amarok are rowed on werewolf names; Ylva, the Norse she-wolf word, on the norse name generator; Vuk on vampire names; Farkas, the Hungarian word, on european last names; and Taiga, the biome, on the Japanese male-names page.
Wolf names questions, answered
What is a good name for a wolf or a wolf-like dog?
Four honest lanes, all rowed above. The wolf words say wolf in nineteen real languages, from Volk to Waya. The given-name lane carries names that mean wolf, kings and poets included. The fiction lane receipts the wolves people already know by name. And the northern lane, Tundra to Baikal, names the country the actual animal lives in. For a husky or malamute the lanes cross easily with the dog names base page.
Which Norse wolf chases the moon?
Hati, with Sköll on the sun. The Edda gives the pair their lanes: Hati runs down the moon, Sköll the sun, and at the end both catch their quarry. Fenrir, their father by most readings, is the wolf the gods could only bind, not kill. The five famous wolves are rowed on the werewolf names page, which owns that register; this page rows the deeper cuts, Garmr, Mánagarmr and Hróðvitnir, with Mánagarmr carrying the honest flag that some readings call him Hati’s other name.
Who were Odin’s two wolves?
Geri and Freki, the ravenous and the greedy. They sit at Óðinn’s bench in Valhalla, in Grímnismál’s own account, and the god shares his food with them because wine is food enough for him. The glosses are the documented ones, and their rows sit on the werewolf name generator’s bank. The gods themselves are a different register: they live on the norse god names page, while the wolves live in the shifter register, because wolves are not gods.
What did real famous wolves get called?
The record is real and mostly prose-shaped. Lobo, the King of Currumpaw, was hunted by Ernest Seton in 1893 and wrote wildlife conservation into being; his name now lives rowed on the surname page. Yellowstone’s reintroduced wolves carry numbers, not names: the Druid Peak pack’s 21 and 42, and O-Six of the Lamar Valley, documented in the 2017 book American Wolf. Rome’s she-wolf has no name at all in the early legend, only the later word: lupa.
Where this data comes from.Rows are real words with dictionary glosses, documented given names, documented myth from the Edda and classical sources, or documented fiction with years. Language rows give the word in its own language; contested glosses and identity questions (Mánagarmr, Raksha, Conall) are flagged in-row, never smoothed. Myth receipts follow the standard translations (Grímnismál, Vafþrúðnismál, Gylfaginning). Where every name's receipt comes from →