Sanskrit and Greek supply the largest share of the names in this list while Egyptian, Slavic, Finnish, and Irish make up the rest. I selected 270 of them below with meanings.
List Of Names That Mean Darkness:
For Girls
Kauket
Kauket is Egyptian and is the feminine half of the darkness pair in the Ogdoad of Hermopolis.
Ombretta
Italian Ombretta is a diminutive of ombra, shade.
Achlys
Achlys is the personification of sorrow as well as the keeper of the Death Mist.
Orphne
Greek for darkness of night.
Dhumavati
Dhumavati (”smoky one”) is a widow goddess who rides a crow.
Timira
Sanskrit “darkness”. Ayurvedic medicine uses timira as the term for a clouding of vision.
Dubheasa
Dubheasa has Irish roots and is made of dubh (”dark”) and eas (“waterfall”). It is pronounced as duv-AH-sa.
Tamasi
Tamasi comes from the Sanskrit tamas, the dark that Hindus consider one of the three qualities of matter.
Skia
Skia is Greek for shadow and has origins in skiagraphia, “shadow drawing”.
Tamala
It is a dark-barked Indian tree.
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Fusca
Latin, feminine of fuscus, dusky.
Melanippe
It is composed of the Greek elements melas and hippos so is meaning ”black mare.”
Kalika
“Black one” in Sanskrit and is in the feminine form.
Chhaya
”Shadow” in Sanskrit.
Melantha
Greek roots for dark and flower.
Yamuna
Yamuna is the sister of Yama, the god of death.
Shyamala
Shyamala is an epithet of Parvati, ”dark” or ”blackish”.
Zillah
Hebrew Tsillah, “shade”.
Caligo
Latin, ”murky darkness”.
Corva
Latin, feminine of corvus, raven.
Sauda
Sausa is a good Arabic girl’s name and means black. Sawda bint Zam was a wife of Muhammad.
Sayeh
”Shadow” in Persian. Poet Hushang Ebtehaj wrote as Sayeh.
Scáthach
Pronounced SKAW-hakh, ”shadowy one.” She trained Cú Chulainn on Skye.
Neela
Neela is from the Sanskrit nila, ”dark blue.”
Kajal
“Kohl.”
Yin
Yin is Chinese for the shaded slope that is the dark half of the yin-yang pair.
Nigella
Latin diminutive of niger.
Sable
Sable comes from Slavic via fur trading.
Ebony
“dark, dense hardwood”.
Kali
Kali is the feminine variant of kala, ”black.”
Boys
Kek
Kek is the Egyptian god of primordial darkness and is one quarter of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad.
Melanthios
In Greek, Melanthios is ”dark flower.”
Chernobog
Slavic for black god.
Andhaka
“he who darkens”.
Melampus
“Black-footed.”
Kaliya
The black serpent of the Yamuna.
Melanion
”Black” or ”ink.”
Zalmon
Zalmon is Hebrew for shady or dark.
Karahan
Karahan is composed of the Turkish kara (”black”) and han (”ruler”).
Kalidas
Servant of Kali.
Whiro
Maori god of darkness. Whiro is the first, moonless night of the Maori lunar month.
Crom Dubh
Irish for dark crooked one.
Vritra
”Coverer” or ”obstructor”, a Vedic serpent of drought and darkness.
Asita
Sanskrit “not white” so is symbolizing black by negation.
Dubhán
Dubhán is Irish for ”little dark one.”
Rahu
Rahu is symbolizing the ascension of the Moon.
Ketu
Ketu is a shadow planet with no physical form.
Corvin
It is from the Latin corvus.
Aswad
Arabic for black.
Duff
It has Scottish roots and comes from dubh.
Moro
Moro is Italian and Spanish for a Moor.
Shyam
Sanskrit for dark and is used for Krishna in poetry and songs.
Ahriman
Ahriman (”destructive spirit”) is lord of darkness in Zoroastrian belief.
Afagddu
”Utter darkness,” and a Welsh boy for whom Ceridwen brewed a potion of wisdom.
Shani
Saturn in Indian astrology, son of the sun god and his shadow-wife Chhaya.
Kohl
The powdered antimony used as eyeliner.
Tamas
In Sanskrit Tamas is symbolizing the dark inertia of matter and is also the Hungarian form of Thomas.
Erebus
In Greek mythology, Erebus is the personification of darkness.
Krishna
Dark blue-black, in Sanskrit.
Nero
Nero is Italian for black however the Roman name has origins in the Sabine word for ”strong.”
Tezcatlipoca
It combines Nahuatl tezcatl, mirror, and popoca, to smoke.
Apophis
”Giant serpent.”
Names That Mean Death
Girls
Tuonetar
Tuonetar is the Queen of the Underworld in Finnish legends.
Hine-nui-te-pō
”Great woman of night” in Maori. Maui died crawling through her body to win immortality.
Lethe
”Oblivion” or ”forgetting.”
Giltine
Giltiné is a traditional representation of death.
Kebechet
Kebechet assists her father in his role as the god of embalming.
Anput
The feminine of Anubis.
Mictecacihuatl
Nahuatl for ”lady of the dead,” and Mictecacihuatl ruler of Mictlan with her husband. It is pronounced meek-teh-kah-SEE-wahtl.
Kalma
Finnish for the smell of a corpse.
Libitina
Libitina is the Roman goddess of funerals and burial.
Macaria
“Blessed one”; however, it is an euphemism, a way of not saying death out loud.
Melinoe
Melinoë is a bringer of nightmares and madness in Greek myths.
Badb
Badb is Irish for crow.
Nirriti
Nirriti is the Vedic goddess of decay and dissolution.
Ereshkigal
Sumerian for queen of the great earth, and in this case, the great earth is the underworld.
Meretseger
”She who loves silence”, a cobra goddess of Theban tombs.
Yomi
Japanese land of the dead, written with kanji for ”yellow springs.”
Selket
Serqet is the Egyptian scorpion goddess, and means “she who causes the throat to breathe”.
Marzanna
Marzanna is symbolizing the death of nature in winter and its rebirth in spring.
Izanami
Japanese for ”she who invites.” After dying in childbirth, Izanami vowed to kill 1,000 people a day.
Morta
In Roman mythology, Morta was the goddess of death.
Chamunda
Chamunda (”slayer of Chanda and Munda”) is a skeletal goddess of cremation grounds.
Belet-Seri
Akkadian ”lady of the desert”, scribe of the underworld.
Kalaratri
”Black night” in Sanskrit. Kalaratri is the 7th form of Durga worshipped during Navaratri.
Mrtyu
Mṛtyu or Death is personified as the deity Mara.
Oya
“She tore” in Yoruba.
Atropos
Atropos is the third of the Three Fates or Moirai.
Styx
Greek gloom or hatred, the river of oaths.
Nephthys
Nephthys is an Egyptian goddess linked with night/darkness or mourning.
Nenia
Latin for a funeral dirge.
Rán
”Robbery/plunder.”
Banshee
From bean sí, ”woman of the fairy mound.” Her wail warns a family of a coming death.
Morrigan
The Morrígan is connected with war and fate and means “great queen.”
Persephone
Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and her abduction myth symbolizes the cycle of life and death.
Hel
Norse ruler of the dead.
Imentet
”She of the west.”
Ammit
Ammit (”devourer of the dead”) eats every heart heavier than a feather.
Ker
Greek for violent death.
Meng Po
”Old Lady Meng.” Her soup wipes memory from the dead before rebirth.
Boys
Mictlantecuhtli
Mictlāntēcutli is a god of the dead and the king of Mictlan, the ninth and lowest layer of the Aztec underworld
Tuoni
Lord of the Finnish underworld and the husband of Tuonetar.
Wepwawet
Wepwawet was originally a jackal deity of funerary rites.
Ah Puch
Yucatec Maya death god of the lowest level of Xibalba.
Erlik
Siberian shamans negotiated with Erlik for the return of stolen souls. He is the Turkic and Mongolian lord of the underworld.
Dumah
Dumah is an angel who has authority over the wicked dead.
Ankou
The last person to die in a parish each year becomes the Ankou.
Nergal
Nergal is the Mesopotamian god of war and disease.
Surma
Finnish for violent death.
Mot
Mot is the god who swallowed Baal and brought drought.
Arawn
Arawn is the Welsh king of the otherworld realm of Annwn.
Abaddon
Hebrew for destruction.
Donn
Irish for brown or dark, the first ancestor to die.
Orcus
Orcus is the Roman god of the underworld. The word ogre most likely has roots in orcus as well as Tolkien’s orc.
Kala
Kala is Sanskrit for time and black.
Mors
Mors is the personification of death and is equivalent to the Greek Thanatos.
Azrael
Azrael is the canonical angel of death in Islam.
Koschei
Koschei (”bony”) hides his death in a needle, inside an egg, inside a duck.
Samael
Samael has Hebrew origins and is meaning ”venom of God.”
Samedi
”Saturday” in French, from Haiti’s lord of the dead.
Eurynomos
Eurynomos (”wide ruler”) is a Greek demon who eats corpses to the bone.
Veles
Slavic god of the underworld, linked to Baltic vėlės, spirits of the dead.
Charon
The ferryman.
Namtar
”Fate”, a demon who sends sixty diseases.
Supay
Quechua ”spirit”, lord of the Inca underworld.
Februus
From februum, purification. February has roots in the rites of this Roman underworld god.
Mortimer
Mortimer is a Norman place name from Mortemer in Normandy and is symbolizing ”dead water” or ”still water.”
Yama
Yama is the Hindu god of death and justice and means ”twin.”
Anubis
Anubis is the god of funerary rites.
Osiris
Osiris is the god of fertility, the dead, resurrection, life, and the afterlife.
Thanatos
Greek death, twin of Sleep.
Hades
The unseen one.
Iku
”Death” in Yoruba.
Acheron
River of woe.
Kisin
Maya ”stinking one”, a death god who shakes the earth.
Hun-Came
K’iche’ Maya ”One Death”, a lord of Xibalba.
Names That Mean Night
Girls
Noctiluca
Noctiluca is Latin for night shining as well as an epithet of the moon goddess.
Yoruko
Japanese, yoru (night) with the suffix ko.
Nyctimene
“She who stays up at night.”
Nuit
French for night and also the French spelling used for the Egyptian sky goddess Nut.
Yamika
“Nighttime”.
Shabana
Night in Persian and Urdu.
Gece
Gece is Turkish for night.
Yalda
Syriac for birth and reached in Persian for the longest night of the year.
Nishita
Sanskrit for midnight.
Nata
It is a variation of the Sanskrit nakta, night. In Slavic Nata is a short form of Natalia.
Hespera
Greek for evening.
Layali
Arabic, the plural of layla and means ”nights.”
Nott
Norse Nótt, mother of Day.
Ilta
Finnish for evening.
Nishi
”Night” in Sanskrit.
Shabnam
Shabnam is Persian for dew and the compound is meaning ”night moisture.”
Sandhya
Sanskrit for twilight, the time when day meets night.
Ratri
Ratri is also referred to as Nakt.
Yami
Yami is the twin sister of Yama in Rigveda.
Yamini
Another Sanskrit night word.
Twyla
A form of twilight.
Rajani
In Sanskrit Rajani (रजनी) means “night”.
Gríma
”Mask/night.” In Norse poems, gods call night gríma.
Nocnitsa
From noc, night. Slavic mothers hid a knife in cradles to ward off this hag.
Breksta
Lithuanian goddess of twilight and dreams.
Vesper
Vesper or Noctifer is the Evening Star.
Chandni
Hindi for moonlight.
Amaya
“Night rain” in Japanese.
Nox
Nyx is the personification of the night
Lilith
“Belonging to the night”.
Nisha
Sanskrit night.
Polunochnitsa
From Russian polnoch, midnight.
Kuhu
New moon night in Sanskrit, and a koel’s call in Hindi.
Nyx
Nyx is the Greek equivalent of Nox.
Layla
Arabic for night.
Sayo
”Night” in Japanese, from kanji for small and night.
Hämarik
Estonian for dusk, with a legend that I love: once a year, at midsummer, she kisses Koit, the dawn.
Boys
Nyctelius
”Nocturnal.”
Vakaris
Lithuanian, from vakaras, evening.
Nyctimus
Arcadian, son of Lycaon.
Nycteus
Greek, from nyx.
Gaueko
Gaueko is the spirit of the night who returns anything left outside overnight in worse condition.
Narfi
Narfi is the reason night is older than day in Norse timekeeping.
Shabahang
”Nightingale.”
Shabdiz
Persian for the shade of night.
Shabrang
Persian for night coloured.
Tsukuyomi
”Moon reading.” Day split from night when Amaterasu refused to see him again.
Bugul Noz
Breton for night shepherd.
Pradosh
Sanskrit, dusk.
Nocturnus
Nocturnus is the god of the night invoked in a Plautus comedy.
Astraeus
Titan of dusk.
Iravan
Iravan is a character from the epic Mahabharata.
Nishikar
Maker of the night.
Rajanikanta
”Lord of the night” or “beloved of the night”.
Nisheeth
”Midnight.”
Samir
Companion in evening talk.
Hrímfaxi
Hrímfaxi (”frost mane”) pulls Night in the sky, and foam from his bit becomes dew.
Phobetor
Frightener, a Greek god of nightmares.
Nishikanta
Lord of the night.
Yoru
Japanese for night.
Lail
Nighttime.
Tariq
Tariq is Arabic and means ”one who knocks at night.”
Noctis
”Of the night.”
Sahir
”Wakeful” or ”sleepless.”
Xolotl
Dog, twin, monster or servant. Xolotl is the Aztec evening star.
Khonsu
”Traveller”, an Egyptian moon god.
Names That Mean Dark
Girls
Chernava
Slavic, from the root for black.
Celaeno
Celaeno is Greek for the dark one.
Nilambari
Blue sky, in Sanskrit.
Donella
”Lady” or “dark-haired elfin maiden”.
Darcy
Darcy has Irish roots, with a meaning that I like: ”dark one.”
Itzpapalotl
Nahuatl ”obsidian butterfly”. Her wings are edged with stone knives.
Shahla
Dark blue-grey eyes, in Persian.
Ciarnait
“Little dark one”.
Asikni
Sanskrit for the dark one.
Krishnaveni
Krishnaveni is Sanskrit for dark braid.
Nigrina
Latin, from niger.
Huyen
Vietnamese for ”deep black.”
Esmeray
“Dark moon” in Turkish.
Mavra
Mavra is the feminine form of mavros, ”black.”
Xuan
In Chinese Xuan 玄 means dark and obscure.
Samra
“Dark-skinned” in Arabic.
Merle
French for blackbird and comes from Latin merula.
Jetta
”Jet black.”
Morena
Morena is Spanish for dark haired or dark skinned.
Bruna
Italian and Portuguese for brown.
Kerry
”The dark one.”
Cyane
Cyane (”dark blue”) is a Sicilian nymph who wept herself into a spring.
Delaney
”Dark challenger.”
Lamya
”Dark-lipped,” an old ideal of beauty in Arabic poetry.
Sepia
Greek for cuttlefish, whose ink makes a dark brown pigment.
Maura
Maura comes from the Latin Maurus, a Moor, ”dark complexioned.”
Onyx
Onyx refers to the black gemstone.
Kara
Turkish for black, as in Karadeniz, the Black Sea.
Raven
Old English hræfn.
Melanie
Greek melaina, black.
Ciara
It is the feminine form of the Irish ciar, “little dark one”. Saint Ciara founded a monastery at Kilkeary in Tipperary.
Kráka
Kráka (”crow”) met Ragnar wrapped in a fishing net and her long hair.
Indigo
From Greek indikon, ”Indian dye.”
Uli
Hawaiian for any deep dark color.
Hawra
Eyes of deep black against bright white.
Boys
Siyamak
Persian, from siyah, black.
Siyavash
”Black stallion” in Persian.
Vran
Slavic for raven.
Dubhaltach
“Black-jointed”.
Sanwal
In Punjabi and Urdu, Sanwal means ”dark complexion.”
Asmar
”Brown” or ”tawny.” It is the masculine of samra above.
Adham
Arabic for a deep black.
Dwyer
Dwyer comes from Ó Duibhir, ”descendant of the dark-colored or sallow one”.
Phineas
”The dark skinned one.”
Bran
Welsh and Irish for raven.
Kedar
Hebrew for dark.
Fiachra
”Raven” in Irish.
Dougal
Dougal is from the Gaelic dubhghall, ”dark stranger.”
Dolan
Dark-haired.
Surtr
”Black.” Iceland’s volcanic island Surtsey is after this fire giant.
Karuppasamy
It combines Tamil karuppu, black, and sami, god.
Corbin
Corbin initially started as a nickname for someone with black hair.
Jett
“Jet black”.
Sullivan
“Dark eyes.”
Nigel
Nigel is a Latinisation of Irish Niall.
Donovan
“Dark warrior.”
Ciaran
Irish, the dark one.
Blake
Blake is from blæc (”black”) and blāc (”pale”).
Duncan
”Brown warrior.”
Cole
Cole has roots in the Old English cola, ”coal.”
Maurice
Latin Maurus, a Moor. Saint Maurice is depicted as a Black knight in German art for almost 800 years.
Kuzgun
”Raven” in Turkish.
Dunstan
Dark stone. In legend, Saint Dunstan grabs the Devil by the nose with red-hot tongs.
Bruno
It comes from the Germanic brun, brown. In 1600 Giordano Bruno was burned in Rome.
Douglas
Dark stream.
Dubthach
”Dark,” and a chief poet who stood up to greet Saint Patrick at Tara.
Ixtlilton
”Little black face”, an Aztec god of healing.
Aethiops
Greek ”burnt face”, root of Ethiopia.
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