Imp Name Generator — Names for Minor Demons and Mischief-Spirits
Generate imp names for the small but dangerous creatures of European demonology — the minor demons, familiar spirits, and mischief-makers of folklore — for dark fantasy, horror, and comedy-dark fiction where not all supernatural menace arrives at full size.
Imps in European Folklore and Demonology
The imp has a precise place in European demonological tradition: it is a minor demon, a small supernatural being of limited power compared to the great forces of infernal hierarchy, but entirely capable of mischief, deception, and corrupting influence. The word "imp" itself comes from the Old English impa or the Old High German impfon, meaning a young shoot or scion — an imp is a cutting of something larger and more powerful, a minor derivative of a greater supernatural force. In medieval and early modern demonology, imps were most commonly associated with witchcraft as "familiar spirits" — small supernatural beings that assisted witches in their magical work in exchange for blood (sometimes a spot on the witch's body). Witch trial records from the 16th and 17th centuries contain hundreds of testimonies about familiars: small animals (cats, toads, mice, birds) or small humanoid creatures who accompanied accused witches and performed tasks on their behalf. This familiar-spirit tradition positions the imp differently from most demons: not as an independent supernatural actor but as a companion-creature attached to a specific human. The imp's power is less its own than it is the power of the relationship — which makes imp characters in fiction fascinating because their story is always, in part, the story of who they belong to and how that relationship works.
Imp Naming: Small Names for Small Devils
Imp names in folklore often reflect their diminutive status through the names themselves: they tend to be shorter, slightly ridiculous, more domestic-sounding than the great demonic names. Witch trial testimony names familiars (many of whom function as imps): Pyewacket, Catch, Grizel, Vinegar Tom, Sack and Sugar, Elimanzer, Peck in the Crown. These names blend the ordinary and the slightly off — names that could almost be animal names or nicknames but carry an undertone of wrongness. This naming quality — almost-normal but subtly off — is the phonological signature of the imp: close enough to ordinary to pass as household pet, strange enough to unsettle. The best imp names are slightly too old, slightly wrong for the era, sound like they could have been used as a term of endearment for something that shouldn't be endeared to. For fantasy fiction and gaming, imp names can draw on this tradition while adding elements that reflect the imp's specific nature and abilities. An imp of fire would have different name qualities than an imp of illusion; an imp attached to a specific summoner might have been named by that summoner in a naming style that reflects the summoner's culture rather than infernal tradition.
Imps in Fantasy Fiction and Gaming
Imps appear across fantasy gaming most prominently in D&D, where Imps are explicitly small devil types from Avernus (the first layer of the Nine Hells), shapechangers who often serve as familiars for evil spellcasters. Their ability to become invisible, their sting that can paralyze, and their devil's sight make them capable scouts and spies despite their small size. In literary fantasy and horror, imps occupy a tonal space between comedy and menace: a creature small enough to sit in a pocket is hard to take fully seriously as a threat, but a creature that can unlock doors, poison food, whisper in dreams, and report everything your character says and does to its master is absolutely threatening despite its size. The best imp fiction exploits this tonal dissonance — the reader laughs at the small ridiculous creature until they suddenly realize what it's been doing all along. Pratchett's many small supernatural creatures (not quite imps but adjacent) demonstrate how this tonal space works in comedy-fantasy: the IMP that lives inside Discworld's iconography box (a magical camera) is a tiny frustrated artist who has to paint whatever he sees, which is both absurd and oddly poignant. This combination of absurdity and genuine feeling is the sweet spot for imp characterization.
Using the Generator for Your Imp Character
When generating imp names, lean into the tradition of names that are almost-right but slightly wrong. Imps should have names that could pass as animal names or nicknames — something a medieval family might call a beloved (if slightly uncanny) house pet — until you look at them too directly and realize none of these elements are quite fitting together correctly. Consider the imp's relationship to their master or patron. An imp who has served the same sorcerer for three hundred years has a very different character than one freshly summoned to an inexperienced warlock's service. The long-serving imp has seen everything and forgotten nothing; the freshly-summoned imp is testing the strength of the binding and forming initial impressions of what this human can be manipulated into. For D&D characters using Imp Familiar (available to Warlocks and fiend-patron casters), the imp's name in the fiction of the game is an opportunity for flavor: a name derived from infernal tradition signals one kind of warlock-imp relationship; a name the warlock gave the imp on the first meeting signals another. An imp who accepts a naming from their summoner is expressing, in that acceptance, something about the terms of the relationship.