Romani Last Name Generator

Why Romani families carry local surnames

The Romani people trace their origins to northern India and reached Europe around a thousand years ago, arriving in the Balkans by the fourteenth century and in western Europe by the fifteenth. The Romani language is related to Hindi and Punjabi, but there is no single set of Romani surnames. As families settled in or moved through different countries, they were recorded by parish priests, clerks and officials, and usually took or were given surnames in the local language.

In some places names were imposed. In the eighteenth century, Habsburg assimilation decrees pressed Roma in Hungary and neighbouring lands to settle, give up their own language and customs, and be registered like other subjects under local names. The result is that Romani surnames are mostly English, Spanish, Hungarian, Czech or German words. What makes them Romani is the families who carry them, not the words themselves, and non-Romani families share every one of these names. The meaning shown with each result reflects the source language.

Romanichal, Gitano, Roma and Sinti surnames

In England and Wales, Romanichal families have carried certain surnames for centuries. Boswell, Lee, Lovell, Loveridge, Heron, Smith and Cooper all appear in records going back to the seventeenth century and earlier. In Spain, Gitano families are closely associated with names such as Montoya, Amaya, Heredia, Cortés, Motos and Salazar, many of which are familiar from flamenco. Each group has its own history, dialect and customs, so the same approach will not suit every character.

In Central Europe, Hungarian-language names like Lakatos (locksmith), Rostás (sieve maker), Kolompár, Sárközi and Oláh are frequent among Roma, and in Slovakia and the Czech Republic names like Horváth, Lakatoš and Kotlár are common. Sinti families in Germany and Manouche families in France include surnames such as Reinhardt, Weiss, Rose, Lagrène and Winterstein. Craft names echo historical trades like metalwork, but a surname says nothing about what a modern person does for a living.

Using the Romani last name generator respectfully

Names for a people matter. Roma is the widely used umbrella term, Romani is the adjective and the name of the language, and many communities use their own names, such as Romanichal, Kale, Gitano, Sinti or Manouche. The word gypsy is an outdated exonym, given by outsiders who wrongly believed the people came from Egypt, and many Romani people find it offensive. Use the name a community uses for itself, and be specific about which community you mean.

A surname alone does not make a character Romani, and it should never stand in for a stereotype. If you are writing a Romani character, research the specific community: its language variety, faith, family structure and history, including the genocide of Roma and Sinti under Nazi Germany. Read work by Romani writers and organisations, and consider a sensitivity reader. Use the generator to find names that fit the country, then save, share or download your list with meanings.