Witch names: 170+ witchy, famous and funny witch names
172 names · Updated · By The Nomezo Editors · Save to Pinterest
Classic witch names come from myth and folklore, like Circe, Hecate and Baba Yaga, while witchy names for real people lean on old meanings, such as Sybil (prophetess), Tabitha (gazelle) and Rhiannon (great queen).
Below are 170+ witch names in ten groups. First come famous witches and sorceresses from myth, legend and classic literature, then real given names with magical meanings for girls and for male witches. After that you will find clearly labeled invented names for dark witches, cozy kitchen witches and green witches, plus funny witch names, witch last names and names for a familiar.
Can't decide? Shuffle 6 random picks
Sage
Wise one, and the herb every kitchen witch keeps
Cast Iron Kate
Cooks and curses in the same skillet
Whiskerwick
A cat whose whiskers twitch before every storm
Hettie Hollyhock
Grows the tallest flowers on the lane
Gloamhollow
A valley where it is always twilight
Cobweb
A tiny spider who decorates the cottage
Find a witch name on this page
Narrow 172 names by section, number of words, length or first letter, or search the notes.
Famous witches from myth and folklore
Witches, sorceresses and wise women from old legends around the world.
- Circe: Greek sorceress of Aeaea who turned Odysseus's crew into pigs
- Medea: Sorceress princess of Colchis who helped Jason win the Golden Fleece
- Hecate: Greek goddess of crossroads, torches and witchcraft
- Baba Yaga: Slavic forest witch who lives in a hut on chicken legs
- Morgan le Fay: Arthurian enchantress, often called King Arthur's half-sister
- Nimue: Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legend, who enchanted Merlin
- La Befana: Kindly Italian witch who brings children gifts on January 5
- Black Annis: Blue-faced hag of Leicestershire legend, said to haunt the Dane Hills
- Mother Shipton: Legendary Yorkshire prophetess said to be born in a Knaresborough cave
- Jenny Greenteeth: River hag of Lancashire tales, told to keep children from the water
- Peg Powler: Green-haired river hag of the River Tees in northern England
- Cailleach: Divine hag of Gaelic myth who rules over winter
- Ceridwen: Welsh enchantress who brewed the cauldron of inspiration
- Yamauba: Mountain hag of Japanese folklore, sometimes kind, sometimes not
- Louhi: Mighty sorceress, Mistress of the North in Finland's Kalevala
- Gullveig: Norse seeress burned three times and reborn each time
- Gróa: Norse seeress whose charm tried to free a whetstone from Thor's head
- Thorbjorg: Seeress known as the Little Völva in the Saga of Erik the Red
- Grimhild: Sorceress queen of the Völsunga saga who brewed a forgetting potion
- Erichtho: Fearsome Thessalian witch in Lucan's Roman epic Pharsalia
- Canidia: Witch who appears in several poems by the Roman poet Horace
- Aradia: Central figure of Charles Leland's 1899 book on Italian witch lore
- Calon Arang: Widow-witch of Girah in Javanese and Balinese legend
Witches in classic stories and plays
Witches from books and plays that readers have loved for a century or more.
- The Weird Sisters: Three prophesying witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth
- Sycorax: Caliban's mother, an unseen witch in Shakespeare's The Tempest
- Wicked Witch of the West: Villain of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- Glinda: Baum's Good Witch of the South in the original Oz book
- Mombi: Old witch from Baum's 1904 sequel The Marvelous Land of Oz
- Duessa: Deceitful witch in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, 1590
- Acrasia: Enchantress of the Bower of Bliss in Spenser's epic poem
- Alcina: Island sorceress in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, later a Handel opera
- Armida: Sorceress of Tasso's 1581 epic Jerusalem Delivered
- Dame Gothel: Enchantress who locks Rapunzel in a tower in later editions of the Grimms' tale
- The Witch of Atlas: Title enchantress of a poem Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in 1820
- The Sea Witch: Trades a mermaid's voice for legs in Andersen's 1837 tale
Witchy names for girls
Real given names with magical, mysterious or old-world meanings.
- Sybil 152 in 2025: Greek for prophetess, after the oracles of the ancient world
- Tabitha 171 in 2025: Aramaic for gazelle; the daughter in TV's Bewitched (1964 to 1972)
- Hepzibah Under 5 in 2025: Hebrew for my delight is in her; Hawthorne's heroine in The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
- Tamsin Under 5 in 2025: Cornish form of Thomasina, meaning twin
Male witch and warlock names
Real given names with old-magic meanings for a male witch, wizard or warlock.
- Aldous 9 in 2025: From a Germanic word meaning old; perfect for a wizened wizard
- Osborn 6 in 2025: Old English for god warrior; its Norse twin Asbjorn means god bear
Dark witch names
Invented names for shadowy, powerful witches. All original to this page.
- Morgessa Blackthorn: A thorny hedge witch with a midnight streak
- Hexandra Nightshade: Brews potions from plants no one else will touch
- Umbra Hollowell: Her first name is Latin for shadow, and she lives in one
- Malvessa Crowbane: Commands every crow in the county
- Seraphel Ashwick: A candle witch whose wicks never burn out
- Vespertine Moorgrave: Casts her spells only at dusk
- Lady Obsidian Thorne: Black-glass mirrors and a sharp tongue
- Grimwen Wormwood: Bitter herb, bitter witch, sweet cat
- Ysmera Duskbane: The witch other witches whisper about
- Mistress Sabelline Gloom: Hosts a very exclusive midnight coven
- Thessaly Nightfall: Named for the Greek region famous for witches
- Cyrena Hexley: Elegant, precise and never misses a full moon
- Belladonna Grieve: As lovely, and as dangerous, as the plant
- Ebonwyn Shade: Sews shadows into the lining of her cloak
- Lilura Voidmere: Scries in a lake so dark it reflects nothing
- Vexaline Cinderhollow: Burned her old spellbook and wrote a darker one
Cozy kitchen witch names
Invented names for warm, homey witches who bake, brew tea and fix everything with soup. Original to this page.
- Auntie Marjoram Kettlewell: Keeps a kettle on for every visitor
- Granny Bramblebrook: Picks blackberries and gossips with the frogs
- Mother Honeysuckle: Sweetens every potion with a spoonful of honey
- Tilly Teacup: Reads tea leaves and bakes excellent scones
- Old Mother Gingerroot: Knows a tea for every kind of bad day
- Dottie Hearthsong: Sings to the bread so it rises properly
- Betty Butterchurn: Churns butter by spell, never by hand
- Pip Lavenderwell: Smells like lavender and fresh laundry
- Hettie Hollyhock: Grows the tallest flowers on the lane
- Nana Nutmeg: Adds a pinch of spice to everything, including spells
- Clover Cinnamonwick: Lucky charms and cinnamon candles
- Aunt Peony Potluck: Brings a bubbling cauldron to every party
- Granny Patchwork: Stitches protective charms into every quilt
- Mistress Buttercup Brewer: Brews sunshine tea in a copper pot
- Winnie Wickwillow: Weaves willow baskets that never spill
- Mother Barleysugar: Sweet-toothed witch with a candy-striped cottage
- Granny Marmalade: Fixes every heartbreak with toast and jam
Green witch names
Invented names for garden, forest and herb witches. Original to this page.
- Hazel Hedgewick: Named for the healing shrub every herbalist keeps
- Thistle Greenbough: Prickly outside, soft-hearted inside
- Fennel Wildroot: Forages before sunrise, every single day
- Moss Underleaf: Quiet as the forest floor
- Yarrow Meadowlark: Knows every healing herb in the meadow
- Sorrel Brookside: Lives where the stream meets the herb garden
- Nettle Hedgerow: Stings first, apologizes with tea
- Tansy Fernhollow: Hides her cottage behind a wall of ferns
- Mugwort Meg: Dream herb in her pillow, big ideas in her head
- Elder Brambleby: Named for a tree steeped in folklore
- Burdock Bell: Sticks to her friends like a burr
- Chamomile Dewdrop: Brews the calmest tea in the forest
- Verbena Willowmere: Old charm herb, modern green thumb
- Acorn Oakhart: Small start, mighty future
- Comfrey Toadflax: Two herbs, one very practical witch
Funny witch names
Pun-filled witch names for Halloween costumes, group chats and covens with a sense of humor.
- Hex Machina: Solves every plot problem with one spell
- Witchy Washy: Can never decide which potion to brew
- Cauldron Bleu: Cooks every curse to perfection
- Hex Appeal: Charms everyone in the room
- Hexagon Hattie: Six-sided spells, never square
- Sandra Brewlock: After Sandra Bullock, who plays a witch in Practical Magic (1998)
- Spellbecca: Rebecca, but make it magic
- Brew-ella: Coffee witch who runs on espresso
- Cast Iron Kate: Cooks and curses in the same skillet
- Wanda Wiggles: Her wand never stays still
- Grizelda Grumbles: Complains about every single full moon
- Hocus Focus: Concentrates very hard on very simple spells
- Bubbles McCauldron: Every potion she makes fizzes over
- Potion Commotion: Every brew ends in a bubbly mess
- Zoom Broomington: Fastest broom in three counties
- Witch Way: Always lost, never worried
- Cackle Jones: Laughs so loud the bats complain
- Toil McTrouble: Straight out of Macbeth's busiest cauldron scene
- Brew-tiful Bea: Pretty potions, prettier hats
- Sir Cast-a-Lot: Never met a spell he would not try
- Swift Broomstick: Fastest flier in the coven
- Madame Mixup: Turns frogs into princes, usually by accident
Witch last names
Invented surnames for witch characters. Mix and match with any first name on this page.
- Blackcauldron: For a family that has stirred the same pot for centuries
- Wickhollow: Candle makers who live in a hollow tree
- Ravenbrook: A stream where the ravens come to drink
- Moonwhistle: Calls the moon with a silver whistle
- Thornbriar: Prickly, protective and impossible to sneak past
- Nightbloom: A family of night-blooming garden witches
- Hexworth: Respected spell-casters for twelve generations
- Spellwright: Crafts spells the way a wheelwright builds wheels
- Mossgrave: Old, overgrown and quietly powerful
- Gloamhollow: A valley where it is always twilight
- Crowhallow: Their crows are better behaved than most children
- Candlewick: Never without a light in the window
- Fogmantle: Wraps the village in mist when it needs hiding
- Starwhistle: Reads the future in the night sky
- Toadwhistle: Every pond for miles answers their call
- Owlstone: Wise, watchful and up all night
- Hagstone: Named for holed stones once thought to ward off spells
Names for a witch's familiar
A few real familiar names from history and literature, then invented ones for cats, crows and toads.
- Pyewacket: A familiar named in Matthew Hopkins's 1647 pamphlet The Discovery of Witches
- Vinegar Tom: Another familiar from that 1647 pamphlet, pictured as a strange dog
- Grizzel Greedigut: An imp named in Hopkins's 1647 book, sometimes read as two
- Grimalkin: Old word for a gray cat; the First Witch's familiar in Macbeth
- Paddock: Old word for a toad; the Second Witch's familiar in Macbeth
- Hob: English folklore's name for a helpful household spirit
- Inkpot: For a black cat who sits on your spellbook
- Cauldron Kit: A kitten who naps beside the warm pot
- Soot: Black as the chimney and twice as cozy
- Quill: A crow who brings you feathers for writing spells
- Mister Midnight: A tuxedo cat with a top-hat attitude
- Cobweb: A tiny spider who decorates the cottage
- Bramble: A hedgehog familiar, prickly and loyal
- Cinder: For a gray cat who sleeps in the hearth
- Sir Hoots: A wise old owl who supervises every spell
- Toadstool Ted: A garden toad with a big personality
- Whiskerwick: A cat whose whiskers twitch before every storm
How to pick the right name
Decide what kind of witch you are
A dark witch suits sharp, shadowy names like Malvessa Crowbane. A kitchen witch suits warm, homey names like Tilly Teacup. A green witch suits plants and herbs. Pick the style first and the name follows.
Look for a meaning with magic in it
Real names with the right meaning feel instantly witchy: Sybil means prophetess, Bertram means bright raven and Aster means star.
Pair a soft first name with a spiky last name
Contrast makes a name memorable. Try a gentle first name like Prudence or Tamsin with a surname like Thornbriar or Hexworth.
Name the familiar too
Every good witch has a cat, crow or toad. Old familiar names like Grimalkin and Pyewacket add instant folklore to a story or a costume.
Save this list for later
Pin it to a naming board, or tap the heart next to any name to keep it in your favorites on this device.
Witch names: the real history behind the word, the TV witches that moved baby names, and the modern witches you can't borrow
By The Nomezo Editors · Updated October 26, 2026 · How we research names
Witch names have a dark real history: at Salem in 1692, 19 people were hanged as witches and one was pressed to death, and the last of them was only cleared in 2022. They were innocent people, not witches, so their names are listed here as history, never as jokes.
Fiction has moved names too: after Bewitched premiered in 1964, Samantha jumped from 71 US baby girls to 1,961 in a year. The finder above narrows the names by section, number of words or first letter, and the tags show the 2025 US rank of the real given names.
The real people behind the word witch
- Salem, 1692 to 1693. More than 200 people were accused and 30 convicted; 19 were hanged (14 women and 5 men), Giles Corey was pressed to death on September 19, 1692, and at least 5 died in jail (Wikipedia).
- Clearing the names. In 1711 the colony reversed the convictions of 22 people. Bridget Bishop, the first to be hanged, on June 10, 1692, was exonerated on October 31, 2001 (Wikipedia), and Elizabeth Johnson Jr. was cleared in 2022, 329 years after her conviction (Wikipedia).
- Before Salem. Alse Young, hanged on May 26, 1647, is the first recorded person executed for witchcraft in the thirteen colonies (Wikipedia).
- England and Scotland. Ten people were hanged after the Pendle trials of 1612, where a girl of about nine gave evidence against her own family (Wikipedia). Scotland tried an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 people under its 1563 Witchcraft Act and executed more than 1,500; its government formally apologized on March 8, 2022 (Wikipedia).
Modern witches: for reference, not reuse
| Witch | From | First appeared |
|---|---|---|
| Sabrina Spellman | Archie Comics | 1962 |
| Samantha, Endora and Tabitha | Bewitched, created by Sol Saks for ABC | 1964 |
| Mildred Hubble | Jill Murphy, The Worst Witch | 1974 |
| Winifred, Mary and Sarah Sanderson | Disney's Hocus Pocus | 1993 |
| Elphaba | Gregory Maguire, Wicked | 1995 |
| Hermione Granger | J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter | 1997 |
These characters belong to their creators: fine for a costume or a cat, but avoid them in a published story or game. Baum's Wicked Witch of the West had no name; Maguire made Elphaba from Baum's initials, L. F. B. (Wikipedia). Witches from myth and classic books, like Circe and the Weird Sisters, are free to use.
TV witches and baby names
- Witchy names in 2025. Hazel was No. 21 for US girls, Luna No. 27, Ivy No. 39 and Willow No. 44, and Rowan reached No. 59 for boys, its best rank ever. Salem was No. 436 for girls, Winifred went to 284 girls and Hermione to 95 (SSA).
| Name | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Samantha | 71 girls in 1963 | 1,961 in 1965, after Bewitched premiered in September 1964 |
| Tabitha | 34 girls in 1965 | 327 in 1966, the year Bewitched's Tabitha arrived |
| Sabrina | No. 95 in 1995 | No. 53 in 1997, after Sabrina the Teenage Witch premiered in September 1996 |
Sources: US Social Security Administration; Wikipedia: Bewitched, Sabrina the Teenage Witch). The timing points to the shows, but the data alone cannot prove the cause.
Witch, warlock and wicked
Sources
- Wikipedia: Salem witch trials
- Wikipedia: Bridget Bishop
- Wikipedia: Elizabeth Johnson Jr.
- Wikipedia: Alse Young
- Wikipedia: Pendle witches
- Wikipedia: Scottish witch trials
- Wikipedia: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
- Wikipedia: Bewitched
- Wikipedia: Witch (word)
- Wikipedia: Warlock
- US Social Security Administration: baby names
Frequently asked questions
What is a good witch name?
Famous choices are Circe, Morgan le Fay, Hecate and Baba Yaga. For an original witch, combine a real name with a magical meaning, like Sybil or Tamsin, with a surname such as Moonwhistle or Thornbriar.
What are some famous witch names?
Circe and Medea from Greek myth, Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend, Baba Yaga from Slavic folklore, the Weird Sisters from Macbeth and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
What is a male witch called?
Male witches are usually just called witches. In Old English, wicca was simply the word for a male witch. Warlock comes from Old English waerloga, meaning oath-breaker, which is why some modern witches avoid it.
What is a witch's familiar?
In English folklore, a familiar is a spirit that helps a witch, often in the form of a cat, toad, dog or bird. Matthew Hopkins's 1647 pamphlet The Discovery of Witches named several, including Pyewacket and Vinegar Tom.
What are some witchy names for girls?
Sybil (prophetess), Tabitha (gazelle), Rhiannon (great queen), Luna (moon), Aster (star) and Marigold (Mary's gold) all have old meanings with a magical feel.
How many people died in the Salem witch trials?
At least 25. Nineteen people were hanged in 1692, Giles Corey was pressed to death, and at least five more died in jail. More than 200 people were accused.
Were the people executed at Salem really witches?
No. They were innocent people caught in a panic. The colony began reversing the convictions in 1711, and Massachusetts cleared the last of them, Elizabeth Johnson Jr., in 2022.
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