Lich Names Guide | Examples and Naming Conventions for 5E

Liches… One of the most common final bosses in a Dungeons & Dragons 5E campaign. Liches are immensely cruel and calculating, only considering their own search for power. Most have decomposed to the point of becoming little more than a skeleton. Adorning themselves with robes or rags, a phylactery either nearby or on the other side of a planet… There’s little doubt that when a lich is in the room, you’ll know what it is. Our Lich Name guide will help you construct a fearsome title for one of the strongest creatures on the planet.

Lich Names 5E Guide

Liches gave up a lot for the pursuit of power. Their bodies were replaced with the curse of undead. They will never feel anything again, other than pure evil and pure power. Pure liches, known as Archliches, do change this. But, for the purpose of this guide, we are going to help you name the Lich enemy, as well as the fearsome archetypes of the lich.

Culture and Naming Conventions

Liches, as mentioned before, gave up everything for power. A Lich has no memories of their past without powerful magical aid; instead, their ability to remember is exclusively for spells, rituals, and incantations. A lich pursues nothing based on emotion. Instead, they look for power at all costs.

A lich can be created out of any creature, theoretically. Even dragons can become liches with enough study or pursuit of knowledge. However, it’s most common amongst powerful Wizards that are of the evil persuasion. 

Once they become a lich, there’s not much else for a lich to do. They are completely ostracized from society, and they want to be. They want to be alone so they may search for more knowledge. This knowledge comes from their own intense research, rather than any other finding. However, liches can also make pacts with additional evil creatures, like demons, for more knowledge. They refuse to return to society to do so; that risks destruction, or at least a headache.

The reason that liches destroy societies is simple; the societies are in the way of knowledge. Liches don’t want to risk any kind of holy vengeance, so they cow villages and cities with undead obstacles. That way, the cities are more focused on the random spurts of undead or ghouls, rather than the lich’s hand.

Liches, therefore, do need some amount of threatening presence. They need fear so they can continue their search of knowledge, without angry mobs hounding their door. Unfortunately, this cocky attitude commonly backfires, when powerful adventurers learn how to fight back.

See Also: Illithid Names Guide

Examples of Lich Names

Liches need fearsome and eldritch names. That allows them to survive for a long time, by making others not wish to mess with them. Liches of any race will accept rather similar naming structures, since liches of all races will be rather similar in personality.

Dracoliches, or dragon liches, may instead decide to pervert their original name. Dragon names are already fierce and powerful, so adding an extra syllable (or altering a syllable) might be more apt. Other variants of Lich keep to the Lich’s naming structure (other than Archliches, who would take more hope-driven names).

Male Lich Names

• Alhoon
• Aumvor
• Black Garius
• Demchungchumrub
• Laroch
• Velsharoon
• Zulkir

Female Lich Names

• Alicia Ambergul
• Jymahna
• Pox
• Synnorha
• Valindra
• Varalla
• Vlaakith

That’s all for liches! Humans tend to be the most common race for a lich, so they’re a good basepoint for a lich’s name.