Naming guide
What makes a great Targaryen name
House Targaryen, in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO's House of the Dragon, descends from the dragonlords of Old Valyria, and its names are built to sound like it. A handful of patterns explain almost every name on the family tree, and an original fan name that follows them will feel at home next to the canon ones.
The diphthong ae is the signature. It opens a huge share of Targaryen names through prefixes like Ae- (Aegon, Aerys), Rhae- (Rhaenys, Rhaegar), Dae- (Daemon, Daeron), Jae-, Mae-, Bae- and Lae-. The other classic openings are Vis- and Vi- (Visenya, Viserys). Swapping the first consonant while keeping the ae is the core trick.
The letter y stands in for i, in the middle and at the end: Rhaenyra, Aerys, Viserys. Endings follow loose gender lines. Names in -on, -or and -ar lean male; names in -a, -ella, -enya and -aena lean female; and -ys appears on both, since Rhaenys and Daenerys are women while Aerys and Viserys are men. Their dragons get harsher names in the same tongue, heavy on x and r: Balerion, Meraxes, Syrax, Caraxes.
Targaryens recycle a small pool of names across generations, which is why there are enough Aegons to need regnal numbers. Bynames carry the real personality: kings are remembered as the Conqueror, the Unworthy or the Unlikely, and the heir is styled Prince or Princess of Dragonstone. A monarch's full style adds an ordinal ("the First of His Name") and a list of realms and titles.
Surnames depend on legitimacy. Trueborn children are Targaryens. Bastards take their region's bastard name, which in the Crownlands around King's Landing and Dragonstone is Waters; elsewhere it is Snow, Sand, Rivers, Flowers, Hill, Stone, Storm or Pyke. A legitimized bastard can found a new house, as the Blackfyres did, taking their name from a famous sword.
Origin shapes sound. Dothraki names from the Essos grasslands are entirely different, with hard kh, q and jh and men's names often ending in -o, so a Targaryen raised among the Dothraki would keep a Valyrian name and earn a Dothraki byname. Westerosi names entered the family through marriage, which is why names like Duncan and Brynden sit on the tree.
Targaryen name ideas
Male Targaryen names
- Daemarion: the Dae- root stretched with a regal -arion ending
- Rhaegyn: a Rhae- root with a soft -yn close, for a younger prince
- Vaelor: short and martial, two syllables like many dragonriders
- Saeran: an understated name for a scholarly prince
- Aegonar: the most royal root extended into something new
- Rhaezar: a harsher z sound for a hot-tempered rider
- Daemorin: Dae- with -orin, darker and more brooding
Female Targaryen names
- Vaelora: an elegant -ora ending on the Vae- root
- Daemara: the feminine of a Dae- name, regal and sharp
- Laenira: a Lae- root with a flowing -ira finish
- Maelyra: Mae- plus -lyra, musical and soft
- Visena: the Vis- opening with a simple -ena close, for a warrior princess
- Xarenys: an unusual X opening with the classic -nys ending
- Aethera: airy and bright, built on the Ae- root
Epithets, titles and bastard names
- Daemarion the Ashborn: an epithet earned by surviving fire
- Vaelora, Princess of Dragonstone: the heir's title, first in line to the throne
- Rhaegyn Waters: a Crownlands bastard with obvious Targaryen blood
- Laenira the Merciful: a reputation epithet for a gentle queen
- Vaelor the Pale: a physical byname for silver-gold hair and pale eyes
- Saeran Thriceborn: a nickname that hints at a legend about his birth
Valyrian-style dragon names
- Nyraxys: the -ax- and -ys sounds that mark many dragon names
- Vorgathys: heavy and ancient, for an old war dragon
- Vorgellis: a rolling, serpentine name for a sea-green dragon
- Daemoroth: a dark, rumbling name for a wild dragon nobody has tamed
- Aegoroth: a royal root turned monstrous
How to create your own Targaryen name
Use the prefix and ending formula. Choose an opening (Ae-, Dae-, Jae-, Lae-, Mae-, Rhae-, Sae-, Vae-, Vis-) and an ending (-gon, -mon, -ron, -lor or -rys for men; -ra, -na, -lla, -nya or -ena for women), with an optional middle consonant: Lae plus lor makes Laelor, Sae plus nya makes Saenya.
Blend two canon roots. Take the front of one name and the back of another, then check that the result is not already a character: Vis- with -aena gives Visaena, Rhae- with -ron gives Rhaeron.
Respect the sound weight. Keep given names to two or three syllables, put the stress early (RHAE-ron, VAE-lor) and keep English words out of the given name. Save English for bynames like the Pale or the Ashborn.
Add the byname last. Decide the one thing people remember about the character, whether a battle, a dragon, a scandal or a look, and turn it into "the something". It does more characterization than the given name.
Tips for using Targaryen names in your game or story
Fix a pronunciation and stick to it. The adaptations are not consistent: House of the Dragon says Daemon as DAY-mon but Aegon as EE-gon. Write down how your character's name is said so readers or players hear it the same way.
Make the family tree plausible. Targaryens name children after grandparents, uncles and past kings, so siblings might be Vaelora and Vaelor, or a daughter might honor a great-grandmother. Repetition makes a dynasty feel real.
Separate characters who share a root. When two relatives have similar names, give one an epithet or a regnal number so readers never confuse them.
Use surnames to signal status. Targaryen marks legitimacy, Waters marks a Crownlands bastard, and a new house name in the manner of the Blackfyres marks a branch with its own claim, which is a strong engine for conflict in a fan story.